Monday Poetry Stretch - The Moon

I've been stargazing and moon watching with my son as of late. Even though Karla Kuskin invites us to write about a radish, I think these days I prefer the moon. So, your challenge is to write about the moon. Leave me a note about your poem and I'll post the results later this week.

Tuesday is the New Monday (For Poetry Stretching)

It's been nearly two years since we visited climbing rhymes, so I think it's time to try again.

Climbing Rhyme is a form of Burmese poetry containing a repeated sequence of 3 internally-rhymed lines consisting of 4 syllables each. Since Burmese is monosyllabic, this works well, but in English this might be difficult. Instead of 4 syllable lines, let's try writing in lines of 4 words. (If you're feeling brave, go ahead and try four syllables!)

The rhyme scheme for climbing rhyme is internal. That means the position of the rhyming word changes. The rhyme appears in the 4th word of line one, 3rd word of line 2, and 2nd word of line 3. The pattern continues as a new rhyme appears in the 4th word of line 3, the 3rd word of line 4, and the 2nd word of line 5. This continues on, giving a stair-step feel to the poem, hence the name climbing rhyme.

For those of you who need to see this visually, here it is. Each x stands for a word. The letters stand for rhyming words. Just remember the 4-3-2 pattern.
x x x a
x x a x
x a x b
x x b x
x b x c
x x c x
x c x x

What kind of climbing rhyme will you write? Leave me a comment about your poem and I'll post the results here later this week.

Poetry Friday - Neighbors in October

This week I'm sharing a poem I first read in the column American Life in Poetry.

Neighbors in October
by David Baker

All afternoon his tractor pulls a flat wagon
with bales to the barn, then back to the waiting
chopped field. It trails a feather of smoke.
Down the block we bend with the season:

Read the poem in its entirety.

The round up is being hosted by Carol of Carol's Corner. Do stop by and check out all the terrific poetry being shared this week. Happy poetry Friday all!

Best Books in Science - Finalists Announced for 2011 AAAS/Subaru SB&F; Prize

The finalists for the 2011 AAAS/Subaru SB&F Prize for Excellence in Science Books have been announced. This prize "celebrates outstanding science writing and illustration for children and young adults."

Children's Science Picture Book

Bones
written and illustrated by Steve Jenkins

Lizards
written and illustrated by Nic Bishop

The Magic School Bus and the Climate Challenge
written by Joanna Cole and illustrated by Bruce Degen

Why Do Elephants Need the Sun?
written and illustrated by Robert E. Wells.

Middle Grades Science Book

• The Hive Detectives: Chronicle of a Honey Bee Catastrophe, written by Loree Griffin Burns with photographs by Ellen Harasimowicz.
• Kakapo Rescue: Saving the World's Largest Parrot, written by Sy Montgomery with photographs by Nic Bishop.
• The Secret of the Yellow Death: A True Story of Medical Sleuthing, written by Susan Jermain.
• The Story of Snow: The Science of Winter's Wonder, written by Mark Cassino and Jon Nelson and illustrated by Nora Aoyagi.

Young Adult Science Book

• The Case for Pluto: How a Little Planet Made a Big Difference, written by Alan Boyle.
• The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of Elements, written by Sam Kean.
• Every Bone Tells a Story: Hominin Discovery, Deductions, and Debates, written by Jill Rubalcaba and Peter Robertshaw.
• The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, written by Rebecca Skloot.

Hands-On Science Book

• The Book of Potentially Catastrophic Science, written and illustrated by Sean Connolly.
• Insect Detective, written by Steve Voake and illustrated by Charlotte Voake.
• Nature Science Experiments: What's Hopping in a Dust Bunny?, written by Sudipta Bardhan-Quallen and illustrated by Edward Miller.
• You Are the Earth: From Dinosaur Breath to Pizza from Dirt, written by David Suzuki and Kathy Vanderlinden.

There are many terrific titles here, along with a few I haven't seen. The Disappearing Spoon has gone everywhere with me for the last few weeks and I am enjoying it immensely. While waiting for the winners to be announced, I'll be reading through these and making my best guess about the outcome. Won't you join me?

Monday Poetry Stretch - Without Words

Dana Gioia wrote a poem that begins in this fashion.

Words

The world does not need words. It articulates itself
in sunlight, leaves, and shadows. The stones on the path
are no less real for lying uncatalogued and uncounted.
The fluent leaves speak only the dialect of pure being.
The kiss is still fully itself though no words were spoken.

Read the poem in its entirety.

How do objects or events express themselves without words? I'm not thinking of mask poems here but rather of poems that help us hear the thoughts and feelings of things that cannot speak. So, there's your challenge. Leave me a note about your poem and I'll post the results here later this week.

Monday Poetry Stretch - The Shape of Things

My son posed this question over the weekend. "Mom, if you could be any shape, what shape would you be?" While I began pondering my life as a circle or square, I wondered if perhaps a lemniscate or concave polygon might be more appropriate. I'm still thinking about my answer to this question while thinking about shapes in the world around me. Since I'm thinking about shapes, this seemed like a good time to write about them. This is NOT a concrete poem challenge, but rather a challenge to write about a shape and the things you see or the things it makes. However, if you feel the urge to make it concrete, by all means do!

Leave me a note about your poem and I'll post the results here later this week.a

Poetry Friday - The Reader

I've been away for a long, long time. I've missed you and missed the poetry. I've been reading, just not blogs. I've been writing too, just not much poetry. Today I'm sharing a poem I found at the blog How a Poem Happens.

The Reader
by Richard Wilbur

She is going back, these days, to the great stories
That charmed her younger mind. A shaded light
Shines on the nape half-shadowed by her curls,
And a page turns now with a scuffing sound.

Read the poem in it's entirety. (Don't miss the interview here about Wilbur's writing process.)

The round up is being hosted by Elaine at Wild Rose Reader. Do stop by and take in all the wonderful poetry being shared. Before you go, be sure to check out this week's poetry stretch results. Happy poetry Friday!

Poetry Stretch Results - Just Questions

The challenge this week was to write a poem that used only questions. Here are the results.

Officer Morrison's Vampire Poem
by Kate Coombs of BookAunt

Did you come at dusk, flying in bat's body?
Or did you smile your way in the door,
made welcome by the woman whose shining hair
is now stained with rust? Did you speak
charmingly to the party guests, telling tales
of old Romania, perhaps New Amsterdam?
Or did you cut to the chase, going straight
for the jugular, sucking the life from the life
of the party? And what happened
to the others? (All these spilled drinks,
broken glasses and splashes of wine everywhere.)
Are their bodies waiting to fall heavily
out of coat closets? Or did they simply run
and run till they were safe at home
and could pretend they were never here?
That they didn't leave their hostess
to deal with you, to take your hand
and welcome you into her breath,
to the bright red party of her death?

--Kate Coombs, 2010, all rights reserved

Wilbur Asks Charlotte Ten Questions
by Jane Yolen

1. Is interspecies communication
actually possible—or necessary?

2. Is the barn our world
or is the world larger than the barn and yard?

3. Do you really spin silk out of your body
or are you slowly unraveling through time?

4. How did you learn enough human language
to mount a publicity campaign?

5. What’s with the rat anyway?

6. Can food eat food?

7. Is E. B. white? Gray? Pink? Alternatively pigmented?

8. Was he truly a Dear Genius?

9. Did you have to die? Couldn’t you have just rested up for awhile?

10. Where was Pa going with that axe?

©2010 Jane Yolen all rights reserved

Steven Withrow of Crackles of Speech shares a poem entitled Giant Pacific Octopus.

LUNULA
by Diane Mayr of Random Noodling

Who picked this musical name
for the part of the fingernail
that is, in most cases, completely hidden?

How many more extravagant vocables
do we miss by not paying attention
to what is at our fingertips?

© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved

Are You Afraid?
by Amy Ludwig VanDerwater of The Poem Farm

Are you afraid of growing up?
Are you afraid of dying?
Are you afraid to tell the truth?
Are you afraid of lying?
Are you afraid of squeaky mice?
Are you afraid of inky nights?
Are you afraid to give a speech?
Are you afraid of climbing heights?
Are you afraid of dental tools?
Are you afraid of haunted places?
Are you afraid of getting shots?
Are you afraid of tiny spaces?
Are you afraid of circus clowns?
Are you afraid of scaly snakes?
Are you afraid of lightning strikes?
Are you afraid to make mistakes?
Are you afraid to be afraid?
Why do you let your fears invade?

© Amy Ludwig VanDerwater

Julie Larios of The Drift Record shares a poem entitled Jump Rope Rhyme.

Finale?
by Liz

Where does all the music go after it is played?
So present in the moment to forever fade away.
Remembered sounds and feelings held within -
Could this be gone?
Once touched, heard, met, encountered
What becomes of life’s love song?

So, it's been a long time since I've written anything. Here's my contribution.

Ramblings While Revising

Since when is judgment spelled with an e?
Why does realize look so much better with a z?
Why do alphabet books lamely eXplain away the letter x?
Why does an historian sound so strange?
Why are data plural?
I know Latin, so why do I question?
How do letters and words come together in the form of a poem?
Why must they be beaten into submission?
Why can't they play nice and come along quietly?
Why is writing so damn hard?

It's not too late if you still want to play. Leave me a note about your poem and I'll add it to the list.