NPM: Two Cat Poems: Post #6

 

Recently, my daughter had to put her cat Rudy to sleep. It was a sad day for our whole family. Rudy was a sweet, gentle, friendly cat. We miss him. After Rudy passed, I began thinking about my cat Abby. We had to put her to sleep around this time of year in 2012. Abby was a character--and my good buddy. She snuggled beside on the couch when I read The Boston Globe and drank my morning coffee. She often followed me around the house. She sat on a chair beside me when I worked at my computer. She slept with me at night. I still miss her.

After Abby died, I posted two cat poems on this blog. One is a FIB that I wrote in her honor after her death. The other is a mask poem that she inspired. I'm sharing them again today:

A FIB about Abby

 

Cat

Soft

Furry

Purry friend

Cuddler on the couch

My comforter curled beside me

 

I'm Cat

I'm cat.

Come pat

my head.

I'll purr.

Please stroke

my thick

and silky fur.

I'm clean,

serene.

I lick.

I preen.

I'm naught...

haughty.

I a queen.

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I'm happy to tell you that my daughter brought home two male kittens last week. They're brothers--and they're adorable. Max is gray and white and looks like Abby. Harry is the spitting image of Rudy when he was a kitten.

 

BOOK GIVEAWAY

I'll be giving away a copy of GREAT MORNING: Poems for School Leaders to Read Aloud by Sylvia Vardell and Janet Wong. Janet autographed the book for me. It's a poetry book every teacher and school librarian should have.

To be entered into the drawing for the book, all you have to do is to comment on any of my Wild Rose Reader posts that I publish from April 8th through April 13th. I'll announce the winner on Sunday, April 14th.

Two Zebra Poems

I LOVE writing animal mask poems! I enjoy imagining what animals might say if they could speak to us. Here are two poems in which zebras tell us something about themselves:

 

ZEBRA 1

I love my snazzy black and white hide.

I wear it with a lot of pride.

My bold stripes help distinguish me

from other zebras that you see.

I'm truly unique--one of a kind.

We're not all the same!

Keep that in mind.

NOTE: No two zebras have the exact same pattern of stripes on their bodies. They are said to be as

different as human fingerprints.

 

ZEBRA 2

I'm black

            and white.

I'm dark

            and light

like night

            and day.

I may look like a horse

            but I never say NEIGH!

 

Which mask poem do you like better?

 

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Christy has the Poetry Friday Roundup at Wondering and Wandering.

 

Two Original Beetle Poems

Today, I have two beetle poems for you. The first is a haiku; the second is a mask poem.

Beetle on a rose

in shining armor…ready

to battle sharp thorns

 

 

My love is this beautiful red, red rose.

Of all the blossoms, it’s the one I chose.

It has silky petals, leaves of emerald green.

It’s the yummiest flower that I’ve ever seen.

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Tricia has the Poetry Friday Roundup at The Miss Rumphius Effect.

Monarch Mask Poem

(Picture by Kenneth Dwain Harrelson)

One sunny day

I laid a wee egg

beneath a broad leaf.

It was a gem,

pearly and white--

a seed of new life,

a small bit of me

that I'll never see

grow wings and take flight.

 

Some time ago, I began writing a collection of mask poems tentatively titled Butterfly Days. The poems are told in the voices of a Monarch butterfly, butterfly egg, and larva--as well as a milkweed plant. I put the manuscript on the shelf and haven't worked on it for many months. The poem above is the fourth one in the collection at the present time.

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Karen Edmisten has the Poetry Friday Roundup this week.

 

TWO COW POEMS: Variations on a Theme

One writing exercise that I enjoy doing is writing about a particular subject in different kinds of poems. Here are two poems that I wrote about cows. The second is a mask poem. You'll see that the poems have some things in common:

 

THINGS TO DO IF YOU ARE COWS

Graze on a hillside meadow

dotted with dandelion suns.
Breathe in the sweet smell of clover
and freshly mown hay.
Flick flies away with your tasseled tail.
Feel summer days pass by
like silk over silver.
Moo and chew
and chew and moo.
Relax…
enjoy
your grand green view.

COWS

Up here on the hillside,

We graze and we laze.
We laze and we graze
On warm sunny days.
We chew and we moo.
We moo and we chew
And ruminate on
This grand green view.

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Don't forget! I'm giving away signed copies of my book THINGS TO DO during April. All you have to do to qualify to have your named entered into next Sunday's drawing is to comment on one of the blogs that I posted during this third week of National Poetry Month (April 22-28). 

SOLE SONG: A Mask Poem about a Pair of Shoes

Here is a mask poem that I wrote back in 2010 for one of Tricia's (Miss Rumphius) poetry stretches.

 

Tricia wrote:

Shoes make great subjects for writing. Pick a shoe, any shoe, and it will tell you a story. It may want to tell you about a special event--a wedding, a prom, a soccer game. It may want to tell you about how it hid from the other shoe? It may want to tell you about a previous owner. If a shoe has traveled many miles, it will have many stories.

So, that's the challenge for today. Write a poem about shoes, or an event where the shoes figure prominently, or a pair you wanted by couldn't have, or .... there's just so much to choose from!

Sole Song

We’re the well-worn soles of shoes
reading all the sidewalk news.
As we go along our way
we broadcast headlines of the day:
intermittent
dots of rain
wad of bubblegum
bright stain
of cherry popsicle
that bled
its sticky sweetness
cool and red
concrete cracked
by root of tree
telltale clue
of injured knee
ghost of ant
whose remnants lie
flattened from a passerby
OH NO!
PEW!
Our bugaboo!
We just stepped in doggy do!

 

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Don't forget! I'm giving away signed copies of my book THINGS TO DO during April. All you have to do to qualify to have your named entered into next Sunday's drawing is to comment on one of the blogs that I posted during this third week of National Poetry Month (April 22-28). 

ROOSTER and CHICK: Two Mask Poems



I seem to "default" to the mask poem whenever I begin writing a poetry collection. On Wednesday, I posted four mask poems about spring peepers from an unpublished seasonal collection titled VOICES ALL AROUND ME.

The following two mask poems are the first two verses from another unpublished collection titled FARM TALK, which contains poems written in the voices of farm animals, a few wild animals, and a farmer and his wife. Most of the poems are written in pairs--for example, a mare and her foal, cows and a bull, mother duck and her ducklings, rooster and chick.  

ROOSTER

Cock-a-doodle-doodle-do!

The sun is rising. You should too.

It’s time to wake and shake off night…

To welcome in the morning light.

It’s the dawn of a brand new day.

That’s something to crow about, I’d say!

CHICK

Listen!

Dad’s calling up the sun.

Wake up! Wake up, everyone!

Night is over. Day’s begun.

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My other postings from earlier this week:

Wild Rose Reader Looks Back: A Belated80th Birthday Post for Lee Bennett Hopkins

THREE NIGHT POEMS FOR CHILDREN

Four Mask Poems about Spring Peepers

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Don't forget! I'm giving away signed copies of my book THINGS TO DO during April. All you have to do to qualify to have your named entered into next Sunday's drawing is to comment on one of the blogs that I posted during this third week of National Poetry Month (April 15-21). 

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Tabatha has the Poetry Friday Roundup at The Opposite of Indifference.

Four Mask Poems about Spring Peepers

I enjoy writing mask poems. It's especially fun taking on the personality of an animal that I have learned about and speaking in its voice.

 

One of my favorite books of animal mask poems is Marilyn Singer's TURTLE IN JULY, which was beautifully illustrated by Jerry Pinkney. In this book, Singer speaks in a different animal's voice each month--a deer in January, a barn owl in February, a bear in March, etc. She also speaks in the voice of a bullhead fish in each of the four seasons.



 

TURTLE IN JULY and Karla Kuskin's ANY ME I WANT TO BE are the two books that got me hooked on writing mask poems. Unfortunately, ANY ME I WANT TO BE is out of print. You might be able to find a used copy online.  I think TURTLE IN JULY is still  available in library binding. I highly recommend both books!

Last year, I worked on a collection of mask poems told in the voices of familiar animals and plants that takes readers through the cycle of a year. I wrote four poems about spring peepers--one for each season.

Listen to spring peepers at this link:

https://youtu.be/KdYH-cFANfQ

SPRING PEEPER IN SPRING

Awakened from my winter sleep

And ready to mate—I peep and peep
At night to woo a lady fair.
My heartfelt singing fills spring air.

Above this vernal pool I wait

And eagerly anticipate

That special someone who will be 

The perfect froggy gal for me!

 

SPRING PEEPERS IN SUMMER

The day we hatched from jellied eggs…

We looked like fish. We had no legs.

We breathed through gills. We had no lungs.

We didn’t have long sticky tongues.

We didn’t look like frogs…for sure.

But then we started to mature.

And day by day we changed and grew.

To tails and gills we bid adieu.

Now we have lungs and four fine limbs…

And we can croak

and jump

AND swim!

 

SPRING PEEPER IN FALL

Summer was fun—so full of flies,

Beetles, ants, and sunny skies,

Cricket song…warm, lazy nights,

Dew in the grass and other delights.

But…

Now it is time to find a space

Under a log—a snuggly place

Where I can hibernate till spring

When I will reawake and sing.

 

SPRING PEEPER IN WINTER

Quiet please.

Do not disturb.

Don’t jog this log

While I’m asleep.

I need to get a good long rest.

In spring, I must be at my best!

 ***************

 

 

Don't forget! I'm giving away signed copies of my book THINGS TO DO during April. All you have to do to qualify to have your named entered into next Sunday's drawing is to comment on one of the blogs that I posted during this third week of National Poetry Month (April 15-21). 

 

 

RIDDLE RHYMES

I have mentioned many times at Wild Rose Reader that I love writing mask poems! I enjoy taking on the "personality" of an animal...or plant...or inanimate object and expressing my thoughts in a "voice" other than my own.

The riddle rhyme is a type of mask poem in which the writer provides clues to the reader about who/what is speaking in the poem. I used to read riddle rhymes aloud to my students. They had fun trying to guess/deduce who was talking in the poems.

Last year, I began working on a collection of riddle rhymes--but never wrote more than a half dozen rhymes. Here is one of the riddle rhymes that I finished:

I’m a sucker for crumbs that fall on the floor.

I gobble them up and go looking for more—
Dead house flies and dog hair and sand from shore.
Your dust and your dirt are foods I adore!
I’m a ravenous, cavernous, hungry machine—
I’m a great greedy beast who keeps your house clean.

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Unfortunately, the books of riddle rhymes that I used in my classroom are now out of print: Myra Cohn Livingston's My Head Is Red and Other Riddle Rhymes and J. Patrick Lewis's Riddle-Icious and Riddle-Lightful.  Fortunately, there are mask poems that can serve as examples of riddle rhymes. Some good ones can be found in Paul Janeczko's book Dirty Laundry Pile: Poems in Different Voices (HarperCollins, 2001.)

You have to remember not to tell children the titles of the poems before reading the rhymes to them.

Here are excerpts from a few of my favorites:

BROOM

by Tony Johnston

I am the trusted consort

of floors, accomplice
of water and swash,
confidant of corners
where skulks shifty, fugitive
trash...

THE VACUUM CLEANER'S REVENGE

by Patricia Hubbell

I munch. I crunch.

I zoom. I roar.

I clatter-clack

Across the floor.

I swallow twigs.

I slurp dead bugs.

I suck cat hair

From the rugs...

THE WHALE

by Douglas Florian

Big as a street--

with fins not feet--
I'm full of blubber,
with skin like rubber.

You can also find some fine mask poems that could be read as riddle rhymes in Douglas Florian's book Insectlopedia:

·         The Dragonfly

·         The Inchworm

·         The Praying Mantis

·         The Black Widow Spider

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ANNOUNCEMENT

Writing Workshop for Kids

Chappaqua Library, Chappaqua, New York

Saturday, May 6th at 2:00 pm

I'll be at the Chappaqua Library in Chappaqua, New York, on Saturday, May 6th. I will be leading a writing workshop for children in Grades 1-3. I'll be talking about "things to do" and mask poems. Cati Chien, the illustrator of THINGS TO DO, will join me for a Q & A session and a book signing following the workshop, which begins at 2:00 pm.

http://www.chappaqualibrary.org/images/Kids/2017-May-June-Formatted.pdf

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JoAnn has the Poetry Friday Roundup at Teachings Authors.



POETRY FRIDAY: Sun and Moon Poems

In early May, I sent out a collection of mask poems to a publisher. The collection takes the reader through the day on a farm. Most of the poems are written in pairs (mare and foal, father sheep and lamb, cows and bull, mother duck and ducklings). A couple of weeks ago, I received a rejection via email. The editors, however, gave me hope that they would like to see more of my work. They wrote: Lovely language, especially our favorite, Mother Duck. Does not fit our needs right now. Please keep us in mind for future projects. 

I have a trusted poet friend who did a critique on the manuscript for me. After speaking with her, I have decided to do some revisions. I have already cut the first and last poems as I feel they are unnecessary…and add little to the collection.

I decided to post those two poems for Poetry Friday this week.

SUN

I’ll arise and brighten the sky.

I’ll bid the night and dark goodbye.

I’ll shine

shine

shine…

and light the way

for arrival of a brand new day.

MOON

Now that the sun has left the sky.

It’s time for ME to shine on high…

To spread my gentle pearly light

For all the creatures of the night.

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Penny has the Poetry Friday Roundup at Penny and Her Jots.

DANDELIONS: A Mask Poem

 

I LOVE writing mask poems! It's fun pretending to be an animal, a plant, an element of nature, an inanimate object and speaking in a voice other than your own. I enjoy imaging what it might be like to be the sun or the moon, a lion or a grizzly bear, snow or the rain,  an evergreen tree in winter or a maple tree in autumn.

Years ago, I wrote a collection of animal mask poems (Voices All around Me)--which is still unpublished. Months ago, I decided to include some of those poems in a new seasonal collection of animal and plants that children often see/hear in their own environment--including spring peepers, honeybees, apple blossoms, ladybugs, a garden snake, earthworms, a mole, a maple tree, wild geese, snowshoe hare, a spruce tree, and a hibernating woodchuck.

The collection has received one rejection to date. I think I may try another publisher one day.

I thought I'd share Dandelions, one of the poems from that collection, this morning:

DANDELIONS

We go where WE want. We do as WE please.

We live without limits or boundaries.

Uplifting breezes carry our seeds

Hither and yon. YOU call us weeds!

We don’t grow in gardens. We live wild and free.

We’re independent. That’s how it should be.

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Mary Lee has the Poetry Friday Roundup over at A Year of Reading.