Kelly Bennett's Blog, page 67

Poetry Challenge #33-Yes, You May!

It’s May! It’s May! Flowers are blooming, birds are chirping, grass is growing, trees are branching out—and so are we! Hooray! Hooray!

Ring around the May Pole

Taking a cue from the musical Camelot’s Lusty Month of May song, in which merrymakers prance about singing “It’s May! It’s May! The month of Yes, You May!” we’re giving ourselves permission to break a few rules.

   Poetry Challenge #33 “Yes, You May!”

With “Yes, You May” as the title, write a poem giving someone (or something)—maybe your...

Poetry Challenge #32-Pick A Number . . .

Feeling lucky?

Poetry Challenge #32 Pick a Number . . . Do you have a favorite number? Cindy's is 5; mine is 8. You can pick your own number for this challenge or use a deck of cards or a pair of dice to come up with a random one. Same with the letter. Pick your own or draw a letter from a word game. Have fun! 1) Pick a number between 1 and 10.
2) Pick a letter.
3) Write a poem using that many syllables (or that many words) on each line.
4) Use as many words as possible beginning with your letter....

Poetry Challenge #31-Hello Earth! It’s Me _____________

Back when I was a kid . . . (when we walked 7 miles uphill to school...phoneless) Arbor Day was the “Earth” celebration. Come April 10th, paper-cup seedlings in hand we’d tromp outside to thank our planet by planting our baby trees or a collective tree (each student took a turn scooping in dirt)—or a flower. I should know, I wrote am entire--125 word--book about Arbor Day!

Get Your Copy Here!

Since 1970, when Earth Day, a bigger, more expansive world-wide environmental “Movement” came into...

Poetry Challenge #30-Loopty-Loop

Heck it's Friday the 13th! 13th Day of poetry month! Let's be brave! Daring! Loopty even. Come on!

Poetry Challenge #30Loop Poem Round and round and round we go! In a loop poem, the last word of a line becomes the first word of the next line and so on until the last word of the poem which should be the first word of the poem. Here’s an example Cindy made up:

Read a book,
book a plane,
plane a board,
board a train,
train a dog,
dog-ear a page,
page my doctor,
doctor the soup,
soup up the horse,
horse ar...

Poetry Challenge #29 The Name Game

Have you ever played The Name Game? It’s a jingle really. And was a popular 1964 song by Shirley Ellis, a rhyming game that creates variations on a person's name.

Shirley Shirley Bo-Berly Banana-fana fo-ferly Listen to the song:  The Name Game!

In the spirit of The Name Game, here we go:

Poetry Challenge #29 Name-Name Bo-Bame Game    Start with your name, ala The Name Game.  How? Repeat your name twice, stick a "bo" in the mix, finish by changing the first letter of your name with a B. Like this: Kell...

Poetry Challenge #28-UP For A Balliol?

What's Say We Try Something New Tonight! 

(I'm game if you're game . . . )

Poetry Challenge # 28Let's Try A Balliol* The balliol is a four-line poem that has two pairs of rhyming couplets (a couplet is two lines). Each line contains four beats (which you can get by writing eight syllables). Balliols are usually funny and about a person. The first couplet includes the person’s name. The second talks about what they do or who they are. Here’s an example Cindy came up with: Inventor Thomas Edison
had...

Poetry Challenge #27-Here Comes the Sun!

Yesterday, today or tomorrow—depending on where you live—is the March (vernal) equinox. So?

So, the day will be divided into two equal parts: 12 hours night and, for the first time since last year at 12:15 pm EST, *12 hours of sunshine! (Equinox literally means “equal night.”)

So, It’s Springtime!

What’s more, the amount of sunlight each way will incrementally increase until the first day of Summer!

Technically speaking, the vernal equinox marks the moment the Sun crosses the celestial equato...

Poetry Challenge #26-Take Away!

I'm a wordy bird! Are you?

Quite often we use too many words to get our point across. We’re going to do some math today and take away 25% of the words used in a poem. But don’t worry…it will be simple. Just do one step at a time!

Poetry Challenge #26 Take Away! Pick one of your poems. Count the words in the poem. Divide that number by 4 (round up if it’s not even). Take away (delete!) that many words. Reread your poem aloud. How does it sound?

Abracadabra! A poem becomes sharper, stronger, mor...

Poetry Challenge #25-Double Dog Dare You Not To . . .E!

How Dare You Dare Me . . .

When it comes to “don’t dos” I’m like a bull in a ring and that’s the red flag. It’s almost impossible for me to resist doing what I’m told not to do.

And yes, that does make me a lousy at word games like Password and Taboo.  

As hard as it is for me (and maybe you) to resist using a word or phrase on purpose, it’s fun to try. As having fun with words is the purpose of these 7-Minute Challenges, for this prompt I double dog dare you to put on your logologist’s hat...

7-Minute Poetry Challenge #24-Ballad of ?

Sometimes it’s fun to write a poem on a topic; sometimes it’s fun to try to use a form. I often use a form when I feel like my poem is wandering around or getting wordy. Forms force you to pay attention to the number of syllables you use or to a rhyme scheme.*

A fairly easy form is the ballad. Here’s an example by Cindy Faughnan:

The red-winged blackbird sports a white
bar dully on his wing.
His epaulet is not so bright;
he’s not begun to sing.

A yellow bar will soon appear
and then a bright red...