Day 27 ~ “Terse Verse” for “30 Poems in 30 Days” #NationalPoetryMonth

Last year I introduced “Terse Verse” for the first time. Everyone had SO much fun with it that I think we should do it again!! It will put a smile on your face!! It takes a bit of figuring things out at first, but once you get the hang of it – it’s hard to stop creating them!!

Let’s have some fun!! A “Terse Verse” is usually funny. It’s actually a riddle with a two-word rhyming answer; basically a synonym . . . The tricky part is that the two words in the answer must also have the same number of syllables.

Here are a few examples from the web:

What do you call a rabbit’s seat?

TERSE VERSE (answer): “Hare’s Chair.”

What do you call a quizzing friend?

“Study Buddy”

What makes a dark room bright?

“Night Light”

What do you call a pig in an earthquake?

“Shaken Bacon”

I think the "Rhyme Zone" tool will come in handy for this – it might be easier to approach this poetry form backward by finding a double rhyming two-word phrase with equal syllables and then create a question or riddle for it.

Here’s the Rhyme Zone tool link: http://www.rhymezone.com/

Crazy, right? Here are a few I came up with:

What do you call a miserable cat?

“Crabby Tabby”

What do you call a cucumber that can’t make up its mind?

“Fickle Pickle”

What do you call an angry garbanzo?

“Mean Bean”

What do you call polite frozen water?

“Nice Ice”

What do you call a joke-telling rabbit?

“Funny Bunny”

Please remember – any poetry found on this blog, written by me, is my personal property and may not be used without my permission. The same goes for any poems that are shared in the comments section of this blog. They are the property of the person who shares them. These poems are their original work and no one may use them in any form without their express permission. It is understood that they own the copyright to it. Thanks!! 

And 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 and LINK BACK TO THIS BLOG POST for others to read the instructions. Thanks for respecting my work.

Day 9 ~ How to Write a “Kids' Poetry & Fractured Nursery Rhymes” for “30 Poems in 30 Days” #NationalPoetryMonth

Are we having fun yet? Isn’t that what kids always want to know? I think poetry with and for kids is TONZ’ of fun. As a mom, grandmother and former teacher I think poetry really resonates with children. They come up with the most amazing poetry. So, for today, Saturday when your kids are hanging around – I’m going to give you some resources about where to find kids’ poetry, help with teaching it or just encouraging your own child to write it and also give you some links to places that can help you write poetry for kids. When all of that is done… we will create a poem from one of the many styles that kids love.

So, if you think you want to know any of the above – continue reading… if you just want the poem form for today … scroll on down to get it. Either way, enjoy!!

OK, first, poems for kids. There are so many writers out there that specialize in writing poems for kids. Just do a search and see for yourself so I’m only going to highlight two or three.

First off, is Charles Ghigna ~ often referred to as “Father Goose” because his poetry for kids is so prolific and so much fun. He is the author of more than 100 award-winning books for Random House, Disney, Scholastic, Simon & Schuster, and other publishers, and more than 5,000 poems appearing in textbooks, anthologies, newspapers and magazines. Pretty amazing! Plus, he’s a really nice guy. Check out his website: Father Goose: Children's Author & Poet

Charles Ghigna also offers a very helpful blog - especially for our 30 poems in 30 days: How to Write a Poem: Tips on Tapping into the Magic of Your Muse

Another fun kids’ author, Katie Davis, shares "Five Tips on Writing a Poem" from her guest poetry poster, Jane Yolen!

Here’s a site you’ll want to bookmark: "Poetry 4 Kids" known as Kenn Nesbitt’s Poetry Playground. You’ll find all kinds of help there; lots of links and lots of fun.

You can do a search to find more links!!

FRACTURED NURSERY RHYMES ~

In order to do this one, chose a familiar nursery rhyme, notice the rhyming pattern and start changing a few words in order to make it funny. So, don't laugh but here's my sample:

ORIGINAL NURSERY RHYME:

Pussycat, pussycat, where have you been?

I've been to London to visit the Queen.

Pussycat, pussycat, what did you there?

I frightened a little mouse under her chair.

MY FRACTURED ONE:

Pussycat, pussycat, where have you been?

Well, if you must know, I’m dating the hen

Pussycat, pussycat, what did you there?

We danced 'til her feathers flew everywhere.

You can check out Kenn’s site for some good advice on this. He suggests for “Row, Row, Row Your Boat” – How about “Ride, Ride, Ride Your Bike,” or “Pet, Pet, Pet Your Cat?” Here’s the link to his ideas: How to writea fractured nursery rhyme

He gives these 3 basic steps:

1). Pick a poem or song here: LIST OF NURSERY RHYMES 

2). Find the words that rhyme

3). Choose new rhyming words to make a new poem or song

Here’s my next attempt:

ORIGINAL NURSERY RHYME:

Jack, be nimble,

Jack, be quick,

Jack, jump over

The candlestick.

MY FRACTURED ONE:

Jack, be helpful,

Jack, be kind,

Jack, if you’re not,

I’ll spank your behind.

Oh dear – let’s hope you all do better than I.  Have fun!!!

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. 

Day 8 ~ 2016 “Book Spine” Poetry!!! for 30 poems in 30 days #NationalPoetryMonth

Today is the day!!! BOOK SPINE POETRY ~ If you have been following along you know that I mentioned we would be doing this super fun poetry form today, Friday! So, this is an intriguing way to “create” or, actually, “find” a poem by arranging and rearranging a stack of books horizontally that show the title on the book spine into something clever that might be a “poem.” Just like creating any poetry, you get to decide if it will happy or sad, serious of funny or whatever.

Simply start perusing the titles on your bookshelves and pull out some that have possibilities and start stacking them up to see what you might discover.

Here’s a very quick and rather silly one I pulled together out of some kids’ books:

“One Windy Day”                        

“Samantha Learns a Lesson”

“20,000 Leagues Under the Sea”

“Nine True Dolphin Stories”

“All about . . . Dinosaurs”

Here's a link from the “School Library Journal” where you can browse through several years of photos of book spine poetry for some inspiration if you need ideas:

 “Spine Book Gallery”

If you take photos of your “Book Spine Poems” (and I think you should), try to line up the titles when you stack them up – we are only interested in the titles for this poetry form. Feel free to share the titles in the comments section, but even more fun than that is to snap a photo of your “found” poetry creation and post it on social media ~ be sure to link back to this blog post so others can join in. So fun!!!

Here are some of mine from last year – I wanted to get the instructions up right away, because it does take some time to choose your book titles. After I create some new ones, I’ll come back and either just add them in or exchange them for these. Cheers!! Enjoy!!

My Book Spine Poetry is not particularly profound; well, maybe one or two give “food for thought.” But it was pretty fun putting them together.

Now, since you won’t be able to include a photo in the comments section, here is what I suggest – just write up the poem by writing a title per line in the order that you stacked them up. If you are willing and able to share a few (or a BUNCH) on FB, then do that too and say so in your comments so those who are your FB friends can find it. I also suggest that if you have your own blog, you can post them there and then link back to this post in case your readers/followers have any questions. Cheers!!

So, whatcha’ got?

Ok, in no particular order, here are mine from last year:

 

Grandfather Remembers

Confessions of an Unbalanced Woman

Coming Clean

Just the Way I Am

The Go-Getter

Landlord

Never Can Say Good-bye

Behind the Scenes

Elias of Elderberry

Persuaded

Davy Crockett and the King of the River

Winter is Not Forever

Excuse Me

There’s an Owl in the Shower

You Can Get Over It

Once Upon a Summer

Never Give Up!

The Fun Never Ends

Toxic Relief

You Can Do It!

Greater Than Us All

The Lilies of the Field

God Doesn’t Write With a Pen

Flight to Heaven

The Final Summit

Giant Steps

A Man, A Can, A Plan

Feeding a Giant

Big in Japan

Raw Power

My Dear Sisters

Become Who You Were Born to Be

Unstoppable

Great Shall Be Your Joy

One Windy Day

Curious George Flies a Kite

Oh, the Places You’ll Go!

Long Ride Home

Please remember – any poetry found on this blog, written by me, is my personal property and may not be used without my permission. The same goes for any poems that are shared in the comments section of this blog. They are the property of the person who shares them. These poems are their original work and no one may use them in any form without their express permission. It is understood that they own the copyright to it. Thanks!! 

And 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 and LINK BACK TO THIS BLOG POST for others to read the instructions. Thanks for respecting my work.

Day 10 - 2015 How to write a Clerihew Poem

"30 poems in 30 days" #NationalPoetryMonth

A clerihew is a RHYMING poem that is four lines long.

 

The Clerihew poem takes its name from its creator, Edmund Clerihew Bentley, 20^th century humorist and novelist.

 

It's fun little poem about a PERSON, generally someone famous OR you can make it about someone you care about. Often whimsical, it's meant to be funny (not rude-funny, but cute-funny). 

Here are the basic instructions:

 

1. It is four lines long.

 

2. Rhyming pattern of A-A-B-B (The ending words of the first and second lines rhyme with each other, and the ending words of the third and fourth lines rhyme with each other)

3. The FIRST line names a person - it can only have their name or, it needs to end with their name because the second line ends with something that rhymes with their name.

 

4. A clerihew should be funny. 

 

Here's mine:

 

 

You may very well know Jim Abney,  

He’s every bit as sweet as Bambi,

He likes to wrestle, laugh and leap,

But by afternoon, he falls asleep!

               © 2015 Stephanie Abney

 

 

 

 

 

Please remember – any poetry found on this blog, written by me, is my personal property and may not be used without my permission. The same goes for any poems that are shared in the comments section of this blog. They are the property of the person who shares them. These poems are their original work and no one may use them in any form without their express permission. It is understood that they own the copyright to it. Thanks!! 

And 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 and LINK BACK TO THIS BLOG POST for others to read the instructions. Thanks for respecting my work