TALL TALK: Two Giraffe Poems

I really enjoy writing poems about animals—especially animal mask poems. One thing I always think about is the most prominent characteristic(s) of certain animals before I decide what to say in my poems. So…when I wrote the following two poems about the giraffe, I thought about its height/long neck and proceeded from there.

GIRAFFE

Giraffe is very tall—
but has a voice so small
you never hear him
bark or roar,
sneeze or snore,
screech or howl,
grunt or growl,
caterwaul…
or ever say a word at all.

Perhaps because his head’s so high,
his sounds get lost up in the sky.

TALL TALK (A Mask Poem)

I am taller than tall.

I’m the tallest of all

The mammals that live on the land.

I can nibble the leaves                                                                        

From the tip-tops of trees

I think being tallest is grand.

My head is so high

That it touches the sky.

I can wink at the birds as they go flying by.

I can nuzzle the clouds,

Feel the first drops of rain,

Enjoy the fine view from this lofty domain.

With my head at this height

The whole world is in sight!

I think being tallest is grand.

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BOOK GIVEAWAY REMINDER

As in past years, I’ll be giving away a children’s poetry book at Wild Rose Reader every week during the month of April. If you leave a comment at one of my poetry posts during the last week and final days of National Poetry Month (April 21-30), I’ll enter your name into the drawing for a poetry book. If you leave comments at two posts, I'll enter your name twice...and so on. I’ll announce the winner of my last book giveaway on Wednesday, May 1^st.

My book giveaway for the fourth week and final days of National Poetry Month will be Puddle Wonderful: Poems to Welcome Spring with poems selected by Bobbi Katz and illustrations by Mary 

Morgan. 

NOTE: Puddle Wonderful is a Random House PICTUREBACK®. It was published in 1992 and is now out of print. It includes many wonderful poems about the spring season—including works by Eve Merriam, Bobbi Katz, Elizabeth Coatsworth, Charlotte Zolotow, J. Patrick Lewis, e.e. cummings, Dennis Lee, Lilian Moore, Langston Hughes, Karla Kuskin, and John Updike. It would be a great book to share with a young child and would make an excellent addition to an elementary classroom collection.

 

THINGS TO DO IF YOU ARE A BUS: An Original List Poem

So sorry that I didn’t announce the winner of David Harrison’s book COWBOYS last Sunday. We lost Internet connectivity here Sunday night. Then I left for my daughter’s house where I played fulltime nanny granny for a few days while my daughter and son-in-law went on a three-day vacation. I returned home yesterday afternoon and still had a problem connecting to the Internet. It happens here every now and again. I don't know why.

My husband and I are in the process of selling our house—so my life is a bit hectic at the moment. I spend much of my time when I’m at home emptying bookcases, drawers, and clothes closets—and also throwing away things that I will probably never need or use again. Although I plan to keep most of my children’s books, I have neighbors who have three daughters who LOVE to read so I’ve given them some of my novels /novels in verse for middle and older readers. It’s good to know those books will be read and valued.

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Today, I’m posting another of my “things to do” list poems.

THINGS TO DO IF YOU ARE A BUS

Roll along

on big black feet.

Stop and go

up and down the street.

Open your door.

Let people in.

Take your passengers

for a spin.

When you’re thirsty,

guzzle gas.

At night,

light up

your eyes of glass.

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Book Winner Announcement

I am happy to announce that Bridget R. Wilson is the winner of COWBOYS. Congratulations, Bridget! Email me your address and I’ll send the book to you.

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BOOK GIVEAWAY REMINDER

As in past years, I’ll be giving away a children’s poetry book at Wild Rose Reader every week during the month of April. If you leave a comment at one of my poetry posts during the last week and final days of National Poetry Month (April 21-30), I’ll enter your name into the drawing for a poetry book. If you leave comments at two posts, I'll enter your name twice...and so on. I’ll announce the winner of my last book giveaway on Wednesday, May 1^st.

My book giveaway for the fourth week and final days of National Poetry Month will be Puddle Wonderful: Poems to Welcome Spring with poems selected by Bobbi Katz and illustrations by Mary Morgan.

NOTE: Puddle Wonderful is a Random House PICTUREBACK®. It was published in 1992 and is now out of print. It includes many wonderful poems about the spring season—including works by Eve Merriam, Bobbi Katz, Elizabeth Coatsworth, Charlotte Zolotow, J. Patrick Lewis, e.e. cummings, Dennis Lee, Lilian Moore, Langston Hughes, Karla Kuskin, and John Updike. It would be a great book to share with a young child and would make an excellent addition to an elementary classroom collection.

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Laura Purdie Salas has the Poetry Friday Roundup at Writing the World for Kids.

MUD-LUSCIOUS: Poems for Spring

“Never forget that the subject is as important as your feeling; the mud puddle itself is as important as your pleasure in looking at it or splashing through it.  Never let the mud puddle get lost in the poetry –because, in many ways the mud puddle is the poetry.” –Valerie Worth

e.e. cummings wrote [in Just-]a poem about spring titled in Just-. In the poem, cummings described the season as being “mud-luscious” and “puddle-wonderful.” And aren’t puddles and mud fun to play in when we’re young? I know I loved splashing in puddles and making mud pies when I was a child. I’m sure many of you did, too.

 Click here to read in Just-.

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Today, I ‘m posting some poems in celebration of mud and muddy puddles.

The Muddy Puddle

By Dennis Lee

I am sitting

In the middle
Of a rather Muddy
Puddle,
With my bottom
Full of bubbles
And my rubbers
Full of Mud,

While my jacket

And my sweater
Go on slowly
Getting wetter..

Click here to read the rest of the poem.

Haiku

By Issa

A bush warbler…

Muddy feet wiped
On the plum blossoms

MUD

By Elaine Magliaro

Messy, mushy, mucky

Ucky, oozy, wonderful wet 

Dark chocolate dirt perfect for pie making

DIRTY DOG

(A Triolet)

By Elaine Magliaro

Dirty, dirty, dirty dog!
Didn’t heed your master—NO!
Thought you’d run into the bog.
Dirty, dirty, dirty dog!

(I rant in my mad monologue.)
You frolicked where you shouldn’t go.
Dirty, dirty, dirty dog!
Didn’t heed your master—NO!



MUD by Polly Chase Boyden

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BOOK GIVEAWAY

My book giveaway for the fourth week and final days of National Poetry Month will be Puddle Wonderful: Poems to Welcome Spring with poems selected by Bobbi Katz and illustrations by Mary Morgan. I’ll announce the winner of this book on Wednesday, May 1^st.



NOTE: Puddle Wonderful is a Random House PICTUREBACK®. It was published in 1992 and is now out of print. It includes many wonderful poems about the spring season—including works by Eve Merriam, Bobbi Katz, Elizabeth Coatsworth, Charlotte Zolotow, J. Patrick Lewis, e.e. cummings, Dennis Lee, Lilian Moore, Langston Hughes, Karla Kuskin, and John Updike. It would be a great book to share with a young child and would make an excellent addition to an elementary classroom collection.



Things to Do If You Are a Mountain: An Original List Poem

I’m still recuperating from the nasty respiratory bug I came down with last week. Once again, I decided to dig into my poetry files to find a poem to post today. I chose this “things to do” list poems that I wrote several years ago: 

THINGS TO DO IF YOU ARE A MOUNTAIN

Wear a snow-white cap

and a thick coat of evergreens.

Scratch your stony back with glaciers.

Tower over the tops of other mountains.

Let the sun sparkle on your summit.

Hide drowsing bears

in your deep brown pockets.

At night

poke your head above the clouds

and peek at the stars.

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Book Giveaway Reminder

My book giveaway for the third week of National Poetry Month (April 14-20) will be COWBOYS—with poems by David L. Harrisonand illustrations by Dan Burr. NOTE: I’ll announce the winner of COWBOYS on Sunday, April 21^st.

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Irene Latham has the Poetry Friday Roundup at Live Your Poem…

NESSIE: A Poem about the Loch Ness Monster

I know that the Loch Ness Monster is only a mythical being. Still, when my husband and I traveled through Scotland in 1972, we stayed in Inverness for a few days. We took a road trip down the western coast of the lake. Even when one knows the truth, it’s still fun to imagine that there might be a family of prehistoric creatures that dwell in that long, deep lake.

I wrote the following poem about the Loch Ness monster several years ago for my unpublished collection Docile Fossil.

Nessie

What is living in Loch Ness…

This ancient animal of lore?

A sinuous serpent?

A giant humped creature?

A prehistoric plesiosaur?

Is this fabled monster really

Lurking in the murky lake

Gliding through its chilly waters

Leaving legend in its wake?

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Loch Ness Monster: FactsAbout Nessie

By Benjamin Radford

LiveScience

Though there are dozens, if not hundreds, of lake monsters around the world, one superstar marine denizen outshines them all: Nessie, the beast said to inhabit Scotland's Loch Ness.
Some say it's a myth; others say it's a living dinosaur or even a sea serpent that swam into the lake before it became landlocked. Whether real or fictional, it is what Scotland is best known for around the world (aside from whiskey, bagpipes and kilts).

Some claim that the Loch Ness monster was first reported in A.D. 565, when — according to Catholic legend — St. Columba turned away a giant beast that was threatening a man in the Ness River, which flows into the lake. However tempting it is to suggest that the encounter was a true historical record of the beast's existence, it is only one of many church myths about righteous saints vanquishing Satan in the form of serpents and dragons.

In fact, there are no reports of the beast until less than a century ago. The Loch Ness monster first achieved notoriety in 1933 after a story was published in "The Inverness Courier," a local newspaper, describing not a monstrous head or hump but instead a splashing in the water that was described as appearing to be caused "by two ducks fighting." Some suggested a more monstrous explanation; however it wasn't until the following year that Nessie shot to superstardom with the publication of a famous photograph showing a serpentine head and neck. That image, taken by a London surgeon named Kenneth Wilson, was touted for decades as the best evidence for Nessie — until it was admitted as a hoax decades later.

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Book Giveaway Reminder

My book giveaway for the third week of National Poetry Month (April 14-20) will be COWBOYS—with poems by David L. Harrisonand illustrations by Dan Burr. NOTE: I’ll announce the winner of COWBOYS on Sunday, April 21^st.