My Poem

My poem sits
like a monkey in a tree.
It won't come down 
and play with me.

Instead he sits there
chattering all day.
I want him to here
so we can play.

   I'm sorry my post is so late today.  Every time I've been at my computer an interruption has happened.  It is nice to be needed by so many people, but when I was finally ready to write about the colors of spring, my poetry brain was turned off and all I could think of was monkeys playing in the trees.  When I visited Thailand and the rain forest in Peru there were wild monkeys outside my window.  I finally gave up struggling with what I wanted to write about today and just went with those ornery monkeys.  What do you do on days when you have so many interruptions that it is hard to get your work done?  What can you write about that?  Have fun playing with your own ornery monkeys today.

Some days, you just can't take yourself seriously.  Have fun.

An egret sits
in the mango tree.
Preening his feathers
so patiently.
He knows
what the world
may not see,
it is very nice
in Hawai'i.

  What is your most favorite place in the world?  Your town?  Your school, your bed, the ice cream store, the moon, the beach, at the movies?  What makes it special for you?  Think about using your senses to describe your favorite place.  Can you craft a poem from your description?  Maybe you'd like to try writing it as a riddle poem.  Have fun writing.

Beside the noble art of getting things done, there is the nobler art of leaving things undone.  Lin Yutang

As March slowly
slips away,
m-u-d-l-i-c-i-o-u-s 
children come 
to play.

And April knocks
upon the door,
her bonnet tied
against wind's roar.

Spring is here
in one quick bound,
shoots push up
through the ground. 

  March is almost over.  Say good bye to March.  April is almost here.  Say hello to April.  In the Hawaiian islands we have one word for both hello and good bye--Aloha.  I think that is partly because no one ever really leaves.  Part of them always stays with us. We have the memories of our times together.  Or, as my teacher points out, you are breathing the same air as Christopher Columbus, Shakespeare or George Washington. So, for your poetry challenge today, can you write a poem about someone or something that is coming or going?  Have fun writing. 


Just write anything and put it out there with reckless abandon.  Elizabeth Gilbert, Big Magic.

The Cow

The cow in the meadow
calls to the moon.
I think she is looking for love.
The cow in the meadow
croons and croons,
to the full moon above.
How the cow in the meadow
has made a mistake!
Her cooing and mooing
keeps me awake.
Her noise is something
I can not take.
Now that cow in the meadow
soon will be steak.


   I was up early working today.  Can you guess what woke me up?  I don't need an alarm clock, Nature gets me up.  Can you write a poem about what gets you up?  Can you draw a picture to go with your poem? I'm looking forward to drawing a cow to go with this poem.  Have fun writing and sketching.

There is so much good in the worst of us,
and so much bad in the best of us,
that it hardly becomes any of us
to talk about the rest of us. --Edward Wallace Hoch, 1849-1925.

MY STOMACH

My stomach is grumbling.
My stomach is rumbling.
Oh dear! What have I found?

My stomach is gurgling.
My stomach is burbling.
It's making a terrible sound. 

My stomach is
on a roll,
making noises
I can't control.

For these noises,
I am not proud.
Please forgive me
for being loud.

  I'm sitting at my computer wondering what I'll write a poem about today and my stomach starts making churning noises from the glass of water I just drank.   WOW!  I remember in fourth grade sitting at my desk and my stomach made noises I couldn't control.  It was so embarrassing. I was sure my classmates would tease me about my loud stomach until I heard someone else's stomach growling too.  That person with the loud stomach became my best friend, and my classmates and I would sit quietly just before lunch to see who had the loudest stomach.  It turned out our teacher had a loud grumbly stomach too. Has this sort of thing happened to you?  Take a moment to sit and quietly listen.  What do you hear?  Can you write a poem about that today?  Have fun writing.

Sometimes I hear blood rushing through my ears.  Sometimes it is only my stomach gurgling.

SPRINGTIME

Bring on the colors
the colors of spring
that let us delight,
that let us all sing.

Bring on the shades
and the colorful hues.
Bring on the bird songs
spreading their news.

Bring on the trees,
the flowers, the light.
Bring on the paints
that give us delight.

Bring on the red,
the green, yellow,and blue.
Bring on springtime
with everything new.

Bring on new growth
that brings energy.
Come springtime, come
for you and for me.

   Whoever spoke the phrase, March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb, wasn't speaking about this year. Yesterday my friends in Colorado had a HUGE snow storm.  My friends on the East Coast were battling cold winds and even here in Hawaii we had thunder, lightning, and flooding.  I guess that is why I felt moved to write my poem inviting spring to hurry up and get here.  Hopefully, by the end of the month, we'll see lamb like weather.  What animal would you use to describe your weather?  Can you find a good metaphor for your weather and write your own poem today?  Have fun writing.  Is you weather like bees buzzing?  Like a turtle hiding in its shell?  Like a dog growling or a cat with a humped back?  Like a giraffe with a long neck that the storm has to get through before it reaches the point where it can do some good? (That one was a stretch.  Sorry for the bad pun.) Anyway, you get the idea.

   Today is Poetry Friday and Heidi Mordhorst is hosting the roundup on her blog My Juicy Little Universe,



Spring is just around the corner. Tie on your Easter hat.

A "ME" DAY

Today is a me day,
just like a snow day.
It is a free day,
a take things slow day.
I'm taking a bath,
won't give emails a look.
I'm doing my nails
and reading my book.

   I have a friend who is under the weather today.  He's taking a me day.  What do you like to do when you take a me day--a day just for you?  Every so often we all need to take a day when we let obligations slide and we just do nothing but what we want to.  Can you write a poem about your kind of me day?  Have fun writing.

I am a poet: I am always hungry. Theodore Roethke