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Poetics

Glennis Hobbs

Fun Poetry

ee cummings once said "The most wasted of all days is one without laughter." The Quotations Page.

One way to bring some laughter into your day is to try writing some fun poetry.

If you like playing with words and can’t think of anything to write, magnetic poetry is a fun place to start.

Magnetic poetry kits come with words printed on small squares of durable paper or magnetic squares. These squares can be arranged to form poems. You can stick them on a whiteboard, your wall or even the fridge. One good book to start with is The Magnetic Poetry Book of Poetry by Dave Kapell and Sally Steenland. (New York, Workman Publishing).

There are several good online sites as well. Check out Jim's Java Magnetic Poetry Kit or A Writer's Choice Magnetic Poetry Page

These sites are both interactive, but require Java. Imagine a cyber bulletin board with words pasted on it and all you have to do is click and drag to write the poetry. Alix’s Magnetic Poetry Page tells how to make a magnetic poetry kit. There is even an anthology at Online Anthology where you can read or submit magnetic poetry. You’ll find poems on friends, love, nature, pets, everyday life, spiritual, existential, absurd, and other topics.

Another fun thing to try is sausage poems. These poems are formed by using a string of words with matching endings and beginnings. It is better to use either letters or sounds for the word boundary matches in order avoid confusion. Examples of these may be found at the at Leslie Opp-Beckman’s PIZZAZ creative writing site.

SAMPLE SAUSAGE POEMS -- WITH MATCHING LETTERS Good dogs shouldn't tell lies. Twenty yellow waterlillies skunked Donald Duck's snake. SAMPLE SAUSAGE POEM -- WITH MATCHING SOUNDS Dad drives Zara and Della around Dallas. Lovely Exquisite Otto Eric's sister Nicholas' Loni Infinite joy Heavenly Angelic New-born daughter Now And forever Herrmanns' delight

A good web site to check out is Acrostic Poems for Children (Teachers and other Poets).

Limericks are fun way to introduce yourself to rhyming poetry. Glossary of Poetic Terms defines it as "a light or humorous verse form of five chiefly anapestic verses, of which lines one, two and five are of three feet and lines three and four are of two feet, with a rhyme scheme of aabba." The rhyming is catchy and the form easily lends itself to satire and humour.

There was a young lady of Niger Who smiled as she rode on a tiger. They returned from the ride With the lady inside And the smile on the face of the tiger. -- Anonymous

With my online gardening group, Gardentown.com, writing fun poetry is a tradition that we follow every week. Many of us write humourous (and serious) poetry about friends, gardens, seasons and events in our life. Because we post them on Fridays, the poems are called “Friday Follies.” This is one written by Judi Zimmer:

Oh, lovely April: The blooms you bless With sun's first soft rays And rain's caress. But now I ponder, With thoughtfulness, Why is it spoiled by The IRS? Copyright © 2000 Judi Zimmer

One really fun poem to try is a tone poem or a group poem. I was first introduced to this by author Charles Wilkins. This poem is written and performed as a group. First, the facilitator chooses a topic. Every participant then suggests about five possible lines. The group votes on the lines to be included in the poem and the order in which these lines appear. After the poem is written comes the performance. Each participant is assigned their lines to be read. Each reader is stationed in a different place around the room and takes a turn at reading the lines of the poem. Different placing enables different tones of voices, hence the name tone poem.This type of collaboration is more complicated in cyberspace.

However, the poets of the T. S. Eliot group and later Word Weavers are always ready for a challenge. In January, 1999, iniated by Tom Spencer, we decided to hold a festival of children’s writing. As part of our festival we had a group poetry challenge. Each participant in the challenge contributed ideas for what could be found under a child’s bed.

These were the suggestions: A dinosaur egg rocking and ready to crack; A silver-blue kite impatient to fly; A secret book of wishes; A dirty pair of socks. A stone age man stealing my homework at night; A bag of skittles I'm hiding from my greedy brother; An old dog Chew; A bunch of marbles in a sack; The missing piece to the railroad track; Winged shoes to travel theworld; Notes from friends; Pet rat hiding from cat; A whiny black cat with a white pirate patch; A ball of string; and An emergency flashlight.

Each participant then wrote their own poem describing the world under the bed. These are two that were submitted:

THE WORLD UNDER THE BED Oh gosh, oh golly what's a guy to do? I'm in trouble 'cause I've lost my old dog Chew. I'm sure I saw him under my bed. My mom went looking, or so she said. She found a dirty pair of socks, Then touched my white pet rat who was hiding from our whiny black cat with the pirate patch; Screaming loudly she said: "GET OUT THE SHOVEL! CLEAN UNDER YOUR BED!" My homework's missing and Teacher is mad. If I give more excuses she'll think I'm bad. I did my homework by emergency flashlight, but a stone age man stole it last night along with the skittles I'm hiding from my greedy brother. I tried to explain, but teacher yelled "I'M PHONING YOUR MOTHER" There's a private kingdom under my bed, a dinosaur egg rocking, ready to crack, winged shoes to travel the world, and the missing piece to the railroad track. A book of secret wishes, notes from friends a bunch of marbles in a sac, If I stop to play I'll be on the rack. The dragon escaped with the rat and the cat There's nothing left under my bed. I feel so alone, My heart's filled with dread. My room's passed inspection from my mom and my dad who said "NOW DON'T TELL US CLEANING YOUR ROOM WASN'T SO BAD." I found a silver-blue kite impatient to fly a ball of string to tie on its tail. I'm going to the park to watch it sail. When I come home, I'll have lots of space. The world under my bed is a wonderful place. Copyright © G. Hobbs 1999

CLEAN YOUR ROOM My mother said, to clean my room. Here’s the Dustpan, here’s the broom. Mother said, “I’ll not show you how, But, you will clean your room, I mean, right now. Clean your room or you can’t go out. There is no need, for you to pout.” Her hands on her hips, that look in her eye, I knew, it wouldn’t do, for me to cry. I worked and stuffed and put away. I never even stopped to play. The floor was clean, the dresser clean, I even washed the TV screen I ran to the kitchen as proud as can be. I told mom, “I’m finished, now come and see.” With her hands on her hip, a glint in her eye. She said, “That was fast, I wonder why.” She walked in the room. sat on the bed “You did a good job,” is what she first said. Then she looked at me puzzled and said, "What in the world is this lump in your bed?" She reached under the bed and pulled out a shoe. She said, "does this wing-tipped shoe belong to you" She reached in again saying "This will not do. I have just found an old dog chew, I don’t suppose it belongs to you?" I have found a dinosaur egg that is ready to crack, Maybe a Stone Age man is coming back, Will he steal your homework you did for school? Should I feed him these skittles, you hide from your brother? Sometimes I wonder why I am a mother. An emergency flashlight rolled into her hand, My pet rat was running as fast as he can. A whiny black cat gave her a scratch When she picked up his Pittsburgh Pirate patch. She found my secret book of wishes, Now I'll have to do the dishes. A ball of string and dirty socks, Notes from my friends in a raggedy box, The missing pieces to my old train track, A bunch of marbles in a sack, I said "Thank You mom You found the stuff, I didn't see. There's my silver blue kite Just impatient to fly. I promise, I really will try. I'll put everything away After I go out to play." Copyright ©Tom Spencer 1999

These are not the only poetry challenges we have done on the poetry board. Other challenges have taken the form of words (such as drilligate, tellurian), themes, most recently the Ides of March.

Another way to have fun with poetry is to read, read, read. The best way to have fun with poetry is to write, write, write.