Monday Poetry Stretch - Things To Do

In honor of Elaine Magliaro, who has a new book coming out on February 7th, I thought it might be fun to write "Things To Do" poems.

Elaine wrote a terrific post way back in 2010 describing how she got started writing things to do poems. Inspired by the poems of Bobbi Katz, Elaine took to writing list poems in this format with her second graders. The post, The Super Duper "Things to Do" Poems Post, includes example poems written by/with her students, as well as links to original poems Elaine wrote in this form.

Elaine's book, Things to Do, is filled with poem that describe "things to do" if you are dawn, a bird, honeybee, an acorn, the sky, and more.

Here's an excerpt from a poem that didn't make it into this collection.

Things To Do If You Are a Castle

Stand on a stony cliff
overlooking the sea.
Wear a thick wall of armor.
Sprout tall turrets.
Be a haven.
Drop your drawbridge
for damsels in distress.

Read the poem in its entirety.

I hope you'll join me in writing a "Things To Do" poem this week. Please share a link to your poem or the poem itself in the comments.

This Week's Poetry Stretch - Zeno

I'm teaching Monday and Tuesday evenings this semester, and I'm a bit overwhelmed. It was on my run this morning that I realized I hadn't posted a stretch yet. My apologies for sharing this so far into the week. I've picked a short, challenging form for us.

The Zeno is a poetic form that was invented by J. Patrick Lewis. Here's Pat's explanation of the form.

I've invented what I had called a “hailstone," after the mathematical "hailstone sequence." It has nothing to do with Mary O'Neill's Hailstones and Halibut Bones, but it would no doubt instantly be confused with it. Hence, "hailstone" is problematic. So I call the form a "zeno," so named for Zeno, the philosopher of paradoxes, especially the dichotomy paradox, according to which getting anywhere involves first getting half way there and then again halfway there, and so on ad infinitum. I'm dividing each line in half of the previous one. Here's my description of a zeno:

A 10-line verse form with a repeating syllable count of 8,4,2,1,4,2,1,4,2,1.
The rhyme scheme is abcdefdghd.

Here are two examples.

Sea Song
A song streaming a thousand miles
may sound like a
fairy
tale,
but it’s only
love’s bulk-
mail
coming out of
the blue...
whale. 

Why Wolves Howl
Gray wolves do not howl at the moon.
Across a vast
timber
zone,
they oboe in
mono-
tone,
Fur-face, I am
all a-
lone.

Poems ©J. Patrick Lewis. All rights reserved.

I hope you'll join me in writing a zeno this week. Please share a link to your poem or the poem itself in the comments.

Poetry Friday - Pied Beauty

I need this today ...

Pied Beauty
by Gerard Manley Hopkins

Glory be to God for dappled things –
   For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow;
      For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim;
Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls; finches’ wings;
   Landscape plotted and pieced – fold, fallow, and plough;
      And áll trádes, their gear and tackle and trim.

Read the poem in its entirety. (You can listen to it too!)

I do hope you'll take some time to check out all the wonderful poetic things being shared and collected today by Violet Nesdoly. Happy poetry Friday friends!

Monday Poetry Stretch - Décima

The following description comes from my April 2015 interview with Margarita Engle.

The décima is a rhymed, metered poem that most commonly has ten eight-syllable lines in a rhyme pattern abba aa abba.

Here's an example.

BIRD PEOPLE
by Margarita Engle

In a time when people were stars
in deep, hidden caves of the sea,
a fisherman ventured so far
that a hole in the cave set him free.

He burst from the cave up to sky
and reached the bold shimmer of light.
No longer a man who could cry,
he was silent until darkest night.

Then the song that flew from his heart
was the sweetest song ever heard,
a melody about the start
of life as a winged, singing bird!

Poem ©Margarita Engle, 2015. All rights reserved.

In this poem, Margarita used twelve lines with a rhyme pattern abab  cdcd  efef. As she said, "Changing a décima is perfectly acceptable!  When they’re used as the lyrics of rumba songs, they are often improvised."

You can learn more about the décima at NBCLatino.

I hope you'll join me this week in writing a décima. Please share a link to your poem or the poem itself in the comments.

Poetry Sisters Write Somonka

And so, another year of writing poetry with my fabulous sisters begins! I can't tell you how excited I am that we are continuing to write together. We've mapped out our plan for the year and at Liz's choosing, we are beginning with the somonka and the theme of love.

The somonka is a Japanese form that consists of two tanka written in tandem. Tanka is a form of Japanese poetry that has been practiced for more than 1000 years. Tanka are composed of 31 syllables in a 5/7/5/7/7 format. Most tanka focus on nature, seasons, the discussion of strong emotions, or a single event of some significance. In a somonka, the first tanka is usually a declaration of love, with the second a response to that declaration. 

This is the point where I confess that I don't like love poems. I don't like to read them and don't often write them. In fact, the first love poem I ever wrote was just last month during our ekphrastic writing challenge. The image took me unexpectedly in the love direction, and so I went with it. Sitting down this time to write a love poem was a difficult challenge. I'm not sure I've followed the guidelines exactly, but I've got a poem or two I'm happy to share.


I'm a lucky boy
snuggled in my favorite chair,
so warm, belly full.
Could there be a better life
for me, than to be so loved?

He's easy to love,
all lean lines and handsome face,
a classic beauty.
It's easy to ignore his
flaws. Who doesn't love a dog?

 

How do I love thee you?
With poetry (not Browning),
with words unspoken,
with lasagna, chocolate cake,
in numerous mundane ways.

I married for food.
She captured my heart through my
stomach. Heaven knows
there are other reasons, but
I'm too full to think. That's love.

Poems ©Tricia Stohr-Hunt, 2017. All rights reserved.

You can read the poems written by my poetry sisters at the links below. 

• Tanita Davis
• Kelly Fineman
• Sara Lewis Holmes
• Laura Purdie Salas
• Liz Garton Scanlon

I do hope you'll take some time to check out all the wonderful poetic things being shared and collected today by Linda at Teacher Dance. Happy poetry Friday friends!

Monday Poetry Stretch - Things to Do

In honor of Elaine Magliaro, who has a new book coming out on February 7th, I thought it might be fun to write "Things To Do" poems.

Elaine wrote a terrific post way back in 2010 describing how she got started writing things to do poems. Inspired by the poems of Bobbi Katz, Elaine took to writing list poems in this format with her second graders. The post, The Super Duper "Things to Do" Poems Post, includes example poems written by/with her students, as well as links to original poems Elaine wrote in this form.

Elaine's book, Things to Do, is filled with poem that describe "things to do" if you are dawn, a bird, honeybee, an acorn, the sky, and more.

Here's an excerpt from a poem that didn't make it into this collection.

Things To Do If You Are a Castle

Stand on a stony cliff
overlooking the sea.
Wear a thick wall of armor.
Sprout tall turrets.
Be a haven.
Drop your drawbridge
for damsels in distress.

Read the poem in its entirety.

I hope you'll join me in writing a "Things To Do" poem this week. Please share a link to your poem or the poem itself in the comments.

Monday Poetry Stretch - Ya Du

Ya Du is a Burmese poetic form that uses climbing-rhyme. Each poem contains anywhere from 1-3 stanzas (but no more than 3). Each stanza contains 5 lines. The climbing rhymes occur in syllables four, three, and two of both the first three lines and the last three lines of a stanza. The first four lines have 4 syllables each, and the last one can have 5, 7, 9, or 11 syllables. The last two lines have an end-word rhyme. 

Here's an example of what the climbing rhyme pattern looks like.

x x x a

x x a x

x a x b

x x b c

x b x x x x c

Since ya du means "the seasons," the poem should contain a reference to the seasons.

I hope you'll join me this week in writing a ya du. Please share a link to your poem or the poem itself in the comments.

Cybils Finalists!

I'm so thrilled to have served as a Cybils first round judge in the poetry category this fall. I'm very excited to share the list we are sending forward to the round 2 judges.

Booked

by Kwame Alexander

To Stay Alive: Mary Ann Graves and the Tragic Journey of the Donner Party

by Skila Brown

Guess Who, Haiku

by Deanna Caswell

When Green Becomes Tomatoes: Poems for All Seasons

by Julie Fogliano

Garvey’s Choice

by Nikki Grimes

Fresh Delicious

by Irene Latham

The Last Fifth Grade of Emerson Elementary

by Laura Shovan

You can view all the Cybils finalists here. Happy New Year and happy reading.