#WaterPoemProject: Day 13, Joy McCullough

#WaterPoemProject: Day 12, Debbie Levy #WaterPoemProject: Day14, Linda Baie

#WaterPoemProject: Day 13, Joy McCullough

It’s Day 13 of our #WaterPoemProject — 30 days of water-themed poetry prompts from your favorite children’s authors.

If you’re looking for National Poetry Month writing prompts, we’ve got you covered. Start with Day 1 and you’ll have poetry prompts from now through the end of April.

New to this project? Please read the Introduction and FAQ. Or you can watch this video of me describing how to participate. It’s on the YouTube channel Authors Everywhere.

Sharing our writing prompt for Day 13 is middle grade author and YA verse novelist Joy McCullough. (Side story — Joy was my PitchWars coach when I was revising The Last Fifth Grade of Emerson Elementary. We have been friends ever since!)

Joy’s poetry prompt is: What Are Water Bears?

Do you know what a water bear is? Maybe you picture something like this:

But did you know this microscopic water creature is called a water bear? (It’s more officially called a tardigrade.)

Sometimes the same word can have very different meanings. Your task is to write a poem using a word with very different meanings, but to include both of the word’s meanings in your poem. So you might write a poem about water bears, and include both polar bears and tardigrades. What makes them different? Do they have anything in common?

Here are some more words with different meanings. You can use one of them, or think up one of your own!

cool

dove

yard

tear

bark

nail

bolt

season

draft

harbor

racket

***

Okay, poets! Draft a poem using a word that has two very different meanings by the end of the day tomorrow, Saturday, April 4, 2020.

If you’re doing the #WaterPoemProject with a group, be sure to share or post your rough draft, read other people’s poems, and cheer for their efforts. Or leave your poem here, in the comments.

Joy McCullough is the author of books for kids and teens. Her YA novel-in-verse, Blood Water Paint, won the Washington State Book Award and was long-listed for the National Book Award. Her middle grade novel A Field Guide to Getting Lost comes out on April 14th! Visit Joy’s website.