Today’s Poetry Friday is hosted by Irene Latham at Live Your Poem. Thank you, Irene, for hosting. Be sure to stop by and see her post dedicated to a poet I admire, Nikki Grimes. I was awed by her novel in verse, Ordinary Hazards, which I wrote about previously, here. So I will refer readers to that. I look forward to today’s celebration of her and her prolific and marvelous work.
This week I stretched my poetry muscles using prompts from Kat Apel’s Poetry Pep Up. I thought I would share my few small pieces. I enjoyed reading the work of others’ last week. If you are not familiar with Poetry Pep Up, you can find excellent instructions for each of Kathryn’s prompts on the link above.
I warmed up with the Zentangle, but decided to keep that to myself.
Writing an EPIGRAM was next. An epigram imparts wisdom, is supposed to be witty with a “twist in the tail”, is written as a couplet, quatrain or one-liner, and it sometimes rhymes.
I love Kat’s example by Oscar Wilde. “I can resist anything but temptation.”
So here is an epigram:
Chicken or eggs-
whichever comes first.
© Janice Scully (draft)
The tetractys was fun. This is a five line syllabic poem of 1, 2, 3, 4 and then 10 syllables.
Words
have moods.
Some of them
choose solitude,
but is seems most gather in sentences.
© Janice Scully (draft)
The next prompt was an ekphrastic poem. Kat had several great photos but I’ll use one I found on my phone of our newest family member, Marshmallow.
All I’ve ever known is people.
They feed me
play with me
and love me
Still, a cat must
be vigilant
so that’s why I’m
viewing askance
the one in the tan pants.
Next: GOLDEN SHOVEL . The first and only golden shovel I wrote was from a prompt by Nikki Grimes from an interview on Michelle Heinrich Barnes’ blog . If you are not familiar, you’ll find description of this form on the link above. Here’s my golden shovel from a poem by Christopher Marlowe:
WHERE IS OUR RELATIONSHIP GOING?
(A Golden Shovel poem inspired by a line from Christopher Marlowe’s Elizabethan poem, THE PASSIONATE SHEPHERD TO HIS LOVE: “Come live with me and be my love”)
So I said, “Come!
Bring your cat! We will all live
together. Yes, with
your little hedgehog, too! Trust me.
your painted turtle and
hamster will feel at home, we’ll be
a family, and you will be my
only love.
© Janice Scully (draft)
Enjoy Poetry Friday and thank you, Irene, for hosting Poetry Friday and celebrating Nikki Grimes!
What a wonderful collection! I love your responses to all the prompts and how you fold a little bit of giggle into each one. Classic poetry often escapes me. But your golden shovel makes it real in a new way. My celebration of Nikki Grimes is very similar to yours. Here’s a line from one of my poems, “poetry begets poetry.”
Congrats on Marshmallow. What a beauty.
Thank you, Linda. Yes poetry does beget poetry. I totally agree.
Janice, thank you for sharing these wonderful responses to Kat’s Pep Up! I love thinking about words in solitude, and words congregating in sentences… more, please! What a beauty Marshmallow is… welcome to your newest family member and thank you for joining our celebration of Nikki Grimes!
Thank you, Irene. I actually didn’t realize this week was a celebration of Nikki till the last minute. How embarrassing! I so admire her.
You’ve added a sly sense of humor in all your poems, Janice. I love the image of all those animals gathering, “Trust me”!
Thank you, Linda. Kat’s prompts were fun. Hope all is well in Colorado.
These original poems are a fine pep up, Janice (I am keen on the statement (draft) after your name; I should do that too) So wonderful that Kat offers the prompts & that one connected you to Nikki Grimes via Christopher Marlowe & that famous line.
Everything about this post is a joy.
Hope Marshmallow accepts the one in tan pants:)
Thank you, Jan! I think Marshmallow is just being cautious.
It looks like you had great fun with these prompts–they were certainly fun to read. TONIGHT’S MENU especially made me laugh. Thanks for sharing them.
Janice, good for you. You completed all five days of Kat’s challenge and even gave a nod to Nikki with the Golden Shovel poem. I am missing day 2 of #PoetryPepUp and for some reason had a difficult time with that one. I really enjoyed your poems, especially the tetractys.
Thanks Carol! Hope you are well. Doesn’t look like we’re going to have much freedom for a while. So prompts are welcome.
These are fabulous, Janice. I’m so glad you played along – and shared. They all delight – but I have to say, that golden shovel is my fave. I adore it! What a wonderful collection to share home with. Yes! Bring them all.
Wonderful collection Janice. And, I agree with Kat, what a fun-romping golden shovel you built in “WHERE IS OUR RELATIONSHIP GOING? It’d be fun to illustrate too, thanks!
What a great collection! Your epigram made me snort!
Janice, what an awesome round-up of poems. You are clever and wry and sweet in turns. Or sometimes all at once!
Thank you for reading them, Laura.
So much fun!