Three Spotted Deer

Oh dear,

what do I see?

Three spotted deer,

One, two three.

They will munch

bark from the tree.

Those three spotted deer

walking by me.

    There is a homophone/homonym in this poem.  Can you find the two words that sound the same but are written differently and have different meanings?  Yes, dear and deer.
    I do like writing counting poems because they lend themselves to being read by two voices.  I guess I could make the last line "One, two three" to repeat the counting.  Which do you think would be better?
    When I young we jumped rope to the chant:
When I went to sea,sea, sea
Oh what did I see, see,see?


   Sea and see are another homophone/homonym.  Can you think of others?  Knowing homonyms is very useful in writing poetry.  Can you write a poem today that uses either counting or homophones/homonyms?   Oh, this could be fun.
I've already thought about hare/hair, and bare/bare.  (Red/read and two/too are homonyms/homophones also.) Write on!

A brown donkey

in the field today

eats the grass

and munches the hay.

If he's ignored

he will bray.

Listen and you'll hear

him say,

hee-haw, hee-haw.

     This picture is another one I took on my recent trip to North Carolina.  Can you draw a picture, take a photo of your own or find a picture in a magazine to write a poem to go with it?  Have fun.

Cinco de Mayo

Today is the day

the fifth of May

when we can celebrate

the Battle of La Puebla

where 400 Mexican soldiers

defeated the 800 French.

It is a day

for family parties,

for a fiesta with food,

for music and dancing,

and for breaking

the pinata

and eating candy.

Happy Cinco de Mayo.

   What are you doing today?  Can you write a poem about your plans for the weekend.  Remember to try to use all  your senses.

More Fruit

Please

eat 

all the

ripe fruit,

soon.

Oranges are juicy.

Oranges are sweet.

Remove the peel

before you eat.


     I'm still going crazy over fruit.  I'm thinking mangoes, pineapples, papaya, cantaloupe,  watermelon, and bananas.  What is your favorite fruit?  I wonder if you help the fruit to your ear, what story would you hear?  Can you find a poem to write somewhere in all this good fruit?  Happy Friday.

Fruit Salad

Please understand,

eating fruit, I like

a lot.  I find it

cheers me and makes me

happy and healthy.

A peach is a furry fruit

I bite in soft and sweet.

Tasty and yummy

it's a fruit I like to eat.


     Can you identify where I've used alliteration in these poems? 
     What is your favorite fruit?  Do you eat fruit at lunch?  Can you write your own poem today about a piece of fruit?  If you had a bunch of grapes what do you think one grape would say to another?  Sounds like a riddle poem doesn't it?

Q: What did one grape say to another?

A: Welcome to our bunch

     stick around my purple brother

    and we'll have you for lunch. 

   Oh, I think that is bad.  Definitely needs some work.  Anyway, have fun writing.
Happy May.

Losers

From my point of view

a person only loses

if they stop taking the next

leap of faith.

    Do you know that riddle about where is the place you'll find your glasses?  The answer is the last place that you look for them.  Once you find your glasses, they are no longer lost.  Lots of things in life are like that.  As long as you keep working toward your goal, eventually you will reach that goal.  I love writing acrostic poems.  I always love where the words take me.  Here is your challenge for today--find a dictionary.  Open the book at a random page and close your eyes.  Point your finger and put it down on the page.  What word did your finger pick?  Read the definition for your word.  Can you write an acrostic poem for your word?  Have fun.  I do love May. It is a special month for me.

Sweet Dreams

     I ride a painted pony

the one who has blue eyes

we gallop in the star light

across the midnight skies.

We're chasing falling stars

to capture and to keep

then dust them over children

in their beds to help them sleep.

So if you wake with star dust

twinkling in your eyes

say thanks to the blue eyed pony

who gallops across the skies.

     What helps you sleep at night?  Do you have a favorite blanket or stuffed animal?  Do you sleep with a teddy bear?  Have you heard stories about the sandman who carries his bag of sand around to sleeping boys and girls and 

tosses sand in their closed eyes to help them sleep?  That is what this poem is about-- catching falling stars and putting the star dust in children's eyes to give them good dreams.  It is all make-believe, but isn't that part of the fun?

     Today can you write your own poem about sleeping, dreaming or going to bed? Oh, I think today is a great day to think about having big dreams.  Happy May Day.