Day 6 ~ How to Write “If-You-Were” and “If-I-Were Poems” for “30 Poems in 30 Days" #NationalPoetryMonth

These are fun little poems created by the brilliant and prolific kids’ poet, Charles Ghinga, a.k.a “Father Goose.” (He also writes amazing poems for grown-ups at "Bald Ego." His son, Chip, is a fantastic artist and his daughter, Julie, just published her first book. Pretty talented bunch).

I’m going to just refer you to his “lesson” on his GIGGLE POETRY page and let you read how to do these poems there, right from the source. While you’re there – check out other links on his Giggle Poetry (for kids) page. Lots of fun!!

Charles told me that he developed these poems to help kids understand metaphors. Pretty smart. And with that, here’s a refresher course on metaphors:

A “metaphor” is a figure of speech in which a term or phrase is applied to something to which it is not literally applicable in order to draw a comparison. It is not the same as a simile. A simile uses the word like or as in order to make a comparison, whereas metaphors use is or are. So if you say “If I were” or “If you were” and named the thing (noun), it is a metaphor. 

A simile: Your hair is like golden flax. 
A metaphor: Your hair is golden flax.

So, there’s a little grammar lesson for ya’ – sorry, it’s the teacher in me. OK, back to today’s poems.

I’ll give you the link to learn about these poems below. Here's my efforts and finally – some interesting facts about Charles Ghinga!!

 

If I were a shoe

And you were a lace,

We’d always be

In the perfect embrace.

  © 2014 Stephanie Abney & her granddaughter, Miriam Temp 

  

If you were a king

And I were a queen,

We'd live in a castle,

Ya' know what I mean?

        © 2015 Stephanie Abney

OK – you can find out all about “If-You-Were and If-I-Were Poems” at “Giggle Poetry” by clicking HERE

Charles Ghigna - Father Goose® lives in a treehouse in the middle of Alabama. He is the author of more than 100 award-winning books from Random House, Disney, Hyperion, Scholastic, Simon & Schuster, Time Inc., Abrams, Boyds Mills Press, Charlesbridge, Capstone, Orca and other publishers, and more than 5000 poems, many of which appear in textbooks and anthologies, and in newspapers and magazines from The New Yorker and Harper's to Cricket and Highlights. He served as poet-in-residence and chair of creative writing at the Alabama School of Fine Arts, and as a nationally syndicated feature writer for Tribune Media Services. He has spoken at schools, colleges, conferences, libraries, and literary events throughout the U.S. and overseas, and has read his poems at The Library of Congress, The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the American Library in Paris, the American School in Paris, and the International Schools of South America. For more information, please visit his website at www.FatherGoose.com

Enjoy!!

PLEASE REMEMBER ~ any poetry found on this blog, written by me, is my personal property and may not be used without my permission, other than sharing it as an example in a lesson or to read it to someone. The same goes for any poems that are shared in the comments of this blog or elsewhere online as a result of this challenge. They are the creative property of the person who writes them. These poems are their original work and no one may use them without their permission. It is understood that they own the copyright for to them as soon as they post them. Thanks so much!

Also, if you choose to post your poems on your own blog ~ that’s awesome. But PLEASE don’t just copy and paste my daily instructions, but rather post your poem on your blog or you FB wall or wherever AND LINK BACK TO THIS BLOG POST for others to come here to read the instructions. I’ve spent considerable time researching the poetry forms and writing them up to share with you. Thanks for respecting my work, and the work of others, in this case, Charles Ghigna.