Friday, June 8, 2012

ROOSTER: An Original Animal Mask Poem



I’ve mentioned many times on this blog how much I enjoy writing animal mask poems. I have quite a collection of them. A couple of years ago at the suggestion of two friends and writing advisers (Grace Lin and Janet Wong), I culled the poems about smaller animals that children might observe in their backyards or close to home--earthworms, frogs, spiders, butterflies, etc.--for a collection that I call Backyard Voices. I also began writing more poems about little creatures that most children are familiar with for the collection. 

In addition, I took the poems about bigger and/or boastful animals (grizzly bear, blue whale, lion, toucan) and put them in a separate collection tentatively titled Loud and Proud. As I was reading through my Loud and Proud manuscript this morning, I found a poem about a rooster I had forgotten that I had written. (I love finding forgotten poems!) Here it is:


ROOSTER

Cock-a-doodle-doodle-do!
The sun is rising. You should too.
Wake up! Wake up, sleepyhead.
Get your body out of bed.

Cock-a-doodle-doodle-do!
I bring the morning news to you.
It’s the dawn of a brand new day.
That’s something to crow about, I’d say!

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The super blogger Jama Rattigan has the Poetry Friday Roundup at Alphabet Soup today.

6 comments:

jama said...

Love your animal mask poems, and both collections sound fabulous (great titles for them, too).

Cock-a-doodle-wow!

Renee LaTulippe said...

What great concepts for a poetry collection. And "Rooster" is such a delightful rise-and-shine poem - thanks for sharing it!

Ruth said...

Sounds like my neighborhood, which is full of roosters!

Linda B said...

I love them all, Elaine. What a gift you have for taking just the essence of the thing for the mask. This is great!

Mary Lee said...

Love it! I have this thing for roosters, since my last name means rooster in German!!!

Janet Wong said...

"Rise and shine poems": the world definitely needs MANY more of these! Wouldn't it be great if there was a "wake up poem clock" that read a "wake up poem" to you instead of buzzing?