Wild Rose Reader

Thursday, April 30, 2009

DRAGON: An Original Acrostic

Well…I couldn’t let the last day of National Poetry Month pass without posting an original poem. Here’s an acrostic I wrote y-e-a-r-s ago.

Dagger-toothed demon

Roars its fiery breath, sets

Aflame a village,

Grips everyone in its claws

Of terror.

Now where is the knight in shining armor?

NOTE: I’ve changed the date of the last drawing for National Poetry Month. I’ve decided to hold the drawing on May 3rd instead of May 1st. Another change: Anyone who leaves a comment at any of my poetry posts dated April 29th-May 2nd will be eligible to win a copy of Wing Nuts: Screwy Haiku, which was written by Paul B. Janeczko and J. Patrick Lewis and illustrated by Tricia Tusa.

ANOTHER NOTE: I’ll be mailing out the winning books next week. If you’ve been named a winner in any of the drawings and haven’t emailed me your address yet, please do so by next Monday. Thanks!

NEWS: Google Faces Antitrust Investigation for Agreement to Digitize Millions of Books Online

From Democracy Now!: Google Faces Antitrust Investigation for Agreement to Digitize Millions of Books Online

Click the link above to view Amy Goodman’s video interview with Brewster Kahle, Founder of the non-profit online library, the Internet Archive. The Internet Archive hosts an online text archive of over one million written works.

From the Democracy Now website: The Justice Department has launched an investigation into whether Google is violating antitrust laws by reaching an agreement with authors and publishers to digitizing millions of printed books and posting the contents online. We speak to Brewster Kahle, founder of the non-profit internet library Archive.org. He’s among critics warning Google could end up with a monopoly of access to information and exclusive license to profit from millions of books.

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

MOON: An Original Acrostic

From Jonathan Turley’s Blog (April 23, 2009): Report: Bill Nye “The Science Guy” Exposed as Godless, Soulless Blasphemer in Texas

There is an interesting account out of Waco, Texas where Bill Nye “The Science Guy” was booed for saying that the Moon does not generate it own light — in contradiction to the Bible. This will likely end any designs of Nye to open a new Bill Nye “The Religion Guy” line of products. The speech reportedly occurred in 2006 but the controversy was rekindled after critics cried foul at the removal of the story from the local newspaper’s online archive.

Nye ran afoul of the faithful by remarking that it is not true that the moon generates its own light as opposed to reflecting light. This contradicted Genesis 1:16, which says quite clearly (if only Nye bothered to read it) that “God made two great lights — the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars.”

You can read the rest here.

I hope I don’t run afoul of this particular group of the faithful with the following acrostic poem!

Mirror

Of the sun, bright

Orb in the evening sky, Earth’s

Nightlight.

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

National Poetry Month--Fourth Week Roundup

The Miss Rumphius Effect Presents Interviews with Children’s Poets
Poetry Makers - Betsy Franco
Poetry Makers - Carole Boston Weatherford
Poetry Makers - Lisa Westberg Peters
Poetry Makers - Laura Purdie Salas
Poetry Makers - Calef Brown
Poetry Makers - Marilyn Nelson
Poetry Makers - Helen Frost
Poetry Makers - Douglas Florian

GottaBook Presents Previously Unpublished Poems by Children’s Poets
Janet Wong - My Green Grandfather
Nikki Giovanni - My Sister and Me
J. Patrick Lewis - The Poet of the World
Julie Larios - No Strings Attached
Joan Bransfield Graham - I am the Poem
Kenn Nesbitt - My Chicken's On The Internet
April Halprin Wayland - How to Read a Poem Aloud

Poetry for Children Presents Children’s Poetry Book Reviews
Earth Day poetry
Poem definitions
Looks like Loose Leashes
Color poetry from Mexico/South Africa
Stampede to School Poetry
Amiri & Odette in Love
Wild Animals from Britain

Liz in Ink Presents A Haiku-a-Day
National Poetry Month -- Haiku 22
National Poetry Month -- Haiku 23
Poetry Friday -- Haiku
National Poetry Month -- Haiku 24
National Poetry Month -- Haiku 25
National Poetry Month -- Haiku 26
National Poetry Month -- Haiku 27

A Wrung Sponge Presents Poetry and Photographs
Poem for Earth Day (A Triolet)
New leaves; spring haiku
Narcissus
afternoon soccer
when it feels like summer
playground duty

Two Original "In-Progress" Acrostic Poems

Well, April is drawing to a close. Unfortunately, I haven’t followed through with many of the things I had planned for National Poetry Month this year at Wild Rose Reader. There have been a few things in my personal life that have focuesd my attention elsewhere. Fortunately, the four very talented poets that I had hoped to interview for my blog this month have been understanding and sympathetic. I will be interviewing these fine ladies in the coming weeks. I also had lots of ideas for poetry posts that I never got around to writing up. In time, I’ll get around to those, too.

ACROSTIC POEMS
For many years, I was not a fan of acrostic poems—finding most of the ones that I had read as too prosaic for my taste. Then, over a decade ago, I began attempting to write acrostics—and got hooked. I’ve written about three dozen acrostics—some of which rhyme. In addition, I have also have a number of acrostics that are still “in progress.” I’m not sure these poems will ever make it to the final draft stage.

Here are two of the “in-progress” acrostics from my unpublished collection that I thought I’d post today.

Cans of people,

Automobiles

Roaring down roads on

Silver-capped wheels

Outpost in a barren land,

A haven for weary travelers

Surrounded by stretches of desert,

Island of green washed by a

Sea of sand

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Write a COLOR POEM
Reminder: Joyce Sidman and I invited you to write and share a color poem. Check out the following Wild Rose Reader posts for further information and writing suggestions.

Red Sings from Treetops: A Book Review & An Invitation

Color Poems