Here's To Poets & National Poetry Month!

It’s May 3, so National Poetry Month 2013 is over, but what a month! In a minute I’ll give a recap of my month, but first, here is an tercet epigram to Poetry Month and the poets who made it happen!

Epigram to Poets & National Poetry Month 

April Showers: Poetry, Crazy 

May Flowers: Arising, Daze-y

Poet Wowers: All Amaze Me

© 2013 Tamera Will Wissinger

Thank you, Poets, and Academy of American Poets, for celebrating poetry month!

Here is a recap of how I spent a good part of my April:

April 1 The Writer's Whimsy: April Fools Poetry  

April 5 The Writer's Whimsy: What is an Epigram? 

April 7 Greg Pincus 30 Poets/#30 Days: My Limerick: The Judge of Fudge! 

April 12 The Writer's Whimsy: Parody: Mockingbird of Poetry 

April 17 Society of Young Inklings: Ink Splat Feature

April 18 Gabrielle Prendergast's Verse Novels: Why Write A Novel In Verse 

April 18 Vero Beach Book Center: I read with first grade students for Poem In Your Pocket Day!

April 19 The Writer's Whimsy: Talking Poems  

April 19 Gone Fishing with The Environmental Learning Center at Vero Beach Book Center. Here's a link to an article by Suzanne Fox about it in Vero Beach 32963 (The book and I are on page 25) 

April 22 E. Kristin Anderson's Blog: The Influence of Musicals on Gone Fishing 

April 22 The Lucky 13s Blog: Poetry's Influence on Middle Grade Novelists (Compiled by me.) 

April 26 My first school visits with Gone Fishing!

April 26 The Writer's Whimsy: Poetry Trick: The Limerick! 

April 27 Caroline Star Rose's Line by Line feature: Why Poetry Matters 

April 27 The Book Stall, Winnetka, IL: I held a young poet's workshop!

April 30 Twitter: my final National Poetry Month tweet (if you don't count the one I’ll tweet today!): Good news! Even though #NationalPoetryMonth is almost over, poetry doesn’t expire! http://www.tamerawillwissinger.com/the-writers-whimsy/ … Thank you @POETSorg 

That's all there is - daze-y, indeed!

Here are today’s announcements:

Elizabeth Steinglass is hosting Poetry Friday at Growing Wild

Verse Day #18 is being celebrated at Stacked Books 

05.03.2013

Good News: GONE FISHING is listed with CBC!

This week the Children's Book Council included GONE FISHING on its seasonal Love To Read list! Click the logo for the link:

 

05.02.13

POETRY TRICK: The Limerick

For the final week of my National Poetry Month/Poetry Friday essays on poetic forms, I’m talking about limericks.

LIMERICKS 

Limericks are fascinating to me; they are a lot of fun to read and can be confounding to write. Nobody knows for sure where or how the limerick originated, but when I was writing The Poet's Tackle Box portion of Gone Fishing, I came across an interesting detail about this form from Burges Johnson in The New Rhyming Dictionary and Poet’s Handbook, 2nd ed. (New York: Quill/HarperResource, 2001), 37. According to Johnson, the limerick may have had an exciting start: One legend suggests that between battles, fifteenth-century Irish soldiers would recite poems about their comrades and then everyone would sing, “When we get back to Limerick town ‘twill be a glorious morning.” 

The limerick is a brief, humorous poem with five total lines (a cinquain stanza) that follows the anapest rhythm of two unstressed syllables followed by one stressed syllable. The first, second and fifth lines have three sets of anapests and rhyme with each other. (Anapestic trimeters.) Lines three and four have two sets of anapests and rhyme with each other. (Anapestic dimeters.) On April 7 I shared a limerick called “The Judge of Fudge” with Greg Pincus for his 30 poets/30 Days. 

This week, in following my month-long inspiration from Samuel Taylor Coleridge, I’ve written a poem that defines the poetic form. Here is my limerick of a limerick:

The Limerick: Poetry’s Trick

Is the limerick poetry’s trick?

With three anapest lines - each a stick,

Then two lines stubby short,

It's a puzzle to sort!

Let’s escape from this limerick – QUICK! 

© 2013 Tamera Will Wissinger

TRY WRITING A LIMERICK

The limerick looks simple but it’s kind of a tricky form because it has such a specific rhythm and rhyme pattern. Here are a few tips for writing a limerick:

• Choose a humorous topic, something that you can joke about. 

• Jot down strong rhyming words that have to do with your topic. The rhyme scheme is A A B B A 

• Pay attention to the rhythm of the words you choose. The basic rhythm pattern goes like this:

         da da DUM, da da DUM, da da DUM

         da da DUM, da da DUM, da da DUM

         da da DUM, da da DUM

         da da DUM, da da DUM

         da da DUM, da da DUM, da da DUM 

(Here are a couple of variations to the first, second, or fifth line: DA da DUM, da da DUM, da da DUM, or da DUM, da da DUM, da da DUM. It’s okay to vary as long as the reader can pick up the anapestic rhythm in the first line.)

• Narrow down to the most descriptive words, and the best rhyming words. Work with the words to find intriguing ways to say what you want to say, but that fit the rhyme and rhythm pattern.

• In a way, when you're writing a limerick you’re telling a joke, so think of the last line as the “punch line.” Make sure the final line wraps up everything, is funny, references the rest of the poem, and that the rhythm and rhyme work – easy, right?

For another limerick example, check out Next Time from my book GONE FISHING: A Novel In Verse.

Enjoy writing limericks!

Thank you for joining me for this National Poetry Month series on poetic forms!

~~~~~~

Here are a few announcements:

Today, children's author and fifth-grade teacher Marcie Atkins is revealing the mentor text lesson plan she developed for Gone Fishing

E Kristin Anderson featured my essay on the influence Les Miserables had on my verse novel at Write All the Words

Laura Salas is hosting Poetry Friday at Writing the World for Kids

Verse Day #17 is at Clear Eyes, Full Shelves

TALKING POEMS: POEMS OF ADDRESS & APOSTROPHE

This is part three of my four-part National Poetry Month/Poetry Friday essay on poetic forms

A poem of address is a poetic form that allows the poet to “speak” to a subject. Most of the time the subject doesn't talk back because it’s a person who isn’t with the poet, or because the person is no longer living, or because the subject can’t talk back because it is an animal, a place, or a thing so this type of poem is usually in the form of a monologue. When the poet addresses a subject that can’t respond it’s called apostrophe.

On April Fools’ Day I posted an epigram by Samuel Taylor Coleridge along with a response that is a poem of address and uses apostrophe since Samuel is no longer living. Click here if you’d like to see those poems. April Fools' Poetry 

This week I have once again been inspired by Samuel to write a poem that defines the poetic form. Here is my letter to the Poem of Address:

Dear Poem of Address,

I wish we could be good friends.

I wish you could tell me if

You like to sky dive, bake muffins, dig ditches, tell jokes.

But you’re as loud as a stone

Hiding deep underground

Leaving me

On my own

To

Monologue,

Solo.

Thank you for nothing.

Sincerely,

The Poet Who Has to Go It Alone

© 2013 Tamera Will Wissinger

TRY WRITING A POEM OF ADDRESS 

This is a fun poetry form to try because the main rule is that the poet speaks to someone or something. It doesn’t have to rhyme, so it can take many different shapes. It can be funny and in a way, it legitimizes talking to yourself!

Here are a few tips for writing a poem of address that uses apostrophe:

• Choose a subject that is interesting to you. It could be as simple as your favorite pair of shoes or the stop light that always turns red just as you drive up, or as complex as your relationship with a friend or a conversation with someone in history that you wish you could meet. If you select an inanimate object or a plant or animal, you’ll automatically be using apostrophe in your poem of address, since those things can’t talk back.

• Jot down several appealing (or revolting) ideas that have to do with your subject.

• Form your plan. One way to start is by asking a question of this subject and imagining answers. As in: “Old dishwasher…why quit on me today? Did you run out of steam?” or “Hello little yellow plant. Did I forget to water you again?”

• Work in first and second person – use “I” and “you” just as you would when you are having a conversation, only keep the conversation one-sided. It can also be like writing a letter to someone.

• This poem does not need to rhyme or have stanzas. Choose the most descriptive and interesting words to show your feelings! 

For other examples of poems of address, check out A Fishy Spell and Lucy’s Song from my book GONE FISHING: A Novel In Verse.

Have a fun time writing poems of address and using apostrophe!

I hope to see you next Friday – the final week in my series – when I talk about limericks! 

~~~~~~

Here are a few announcements:

Irene Latham is hosting Poetry Friday at LIVE YOUR POEM

Naomi Kinsman is featuring me this month at INK SPLAT

For Verse Day #16 at versenovels.com, I tried to answer the question: Why Write A Story In Verse

Parody: Mockingbird of Poetry!

This is part two of my four-part National Poetry Month/Poetry Friday essay on poetic forms.

PARODY POEMS:

A parody poem, also know as a “take off” poem or an “homage poem,” is a poetic form that can take many shapes. The one thing that parody poems have in common is that they are written in the style of a well-known poem that someone else wrote. The trick with a parody poem is to start out with enough of the poem’s original words and/or rhythm and rhyme patterns so that it’s recognizable. The poet’s job is to then change most of the words to create an original poem that parodies, or pays honor, to the original poem.

Last week I wrote an epigram that ended up also being a parody poem based on one that Samuel Taylor Coleridge wrote long ago. Click here if you would like to take a look: Epigrams with Samuel Taylor Coleridge

This week I decided to follow in the esteemed footsteps of Samuel Taylor Coleridge once again by writing a poem that defines the form. Here is my parody poem that I based on a well-known nursery rhyme and song:

PARROT! PARROT! PARODY: MOCKINGBIRD OF POETRY

Parrot! Parrot! Parody:

Mockingbird of poetry.

Paying honor, filled with wit.

Imitation: just a bit.

Parrot! Parrot! Parody:

Mockingbird of poetry.

© 2013 Tamera Will Wissinger

Based on what you just read, can you guess which famous nursery rhyme I’m parodying? If you guessed Twinkle Twinkle Little Star – you’re right!

Let’s see if this fits the definitions in the poem:

Parrot! Parrot!: 

I’m familiar with the rhyme and rhythm in Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, and I kept that in mind as I wrote. I think that the rhyme in this matches up and the rhythm stresses all fall in the right places. Because this is a nursery rhyme, I also sang it to make sure that it sounded okay – give it a try. It works, right?

Paying honor: 

I started the poem with two words in the same way as the original so that when someone familiar with Twinkle Twinkle Little Star reads my parody poem, they will (I hope) instantly know the rhyme and rhythm patterns of the new poem, even though they may be seeing it for the first time. That’s part of the fun of a parody poem – to surprise people with a new take on something that’s been around for a while.

Filled with wit:

Well, this is the most subjective aspect, but I’d like to think that the phrase “mockingbird of poetry” is kind of witty! And I hope the poem works well as a whole to define parody poetry.

Imitation: just a bit:

I tried to follow the form of the poem and repeated the first two words: Parrot! Parrot! in place of Twinkle, twinkle. And I also repeated the first couplet as the third couplet, just the way the original was written. Other than that, the words are my own. Someone might argue that I didn’t imitate enough…what do you think?

TRY WRITING A PARODY POEM

Here are ideas to get started writing a parody poem: 

• Pay honor: This is the first step: Think of famous or well-known poems in history, or nursery rhymes or even lullabies. Choose one and think of an alternate subject.

• Parrot! Parrot!: Based on your subject, find words that might fit the rhythm of the poem. If you’re parodying a poem that is set to music, sing some of it to see if the words match up.

• Use wit: This is where you can use your imagination to add in wacky phrases or amusing descriptions. Going “over the top” is part of the fun of parody poems.

• Imitate just a bit: Carefully choose which few words you want to use to show that you’re writing a parody poem. For the rest of the poem, make sure that your rhythm matches the rhythm of the original poem, and that the rhymes fall in the same places, even if they are different rhymes.

For another example of a parody poem based on a famous poem, check out The Night Before Fishing in my book GONE FISHING: A Novel In Verse. (Oh, and it's also a concrete poem - a whole other essay for some other day.) Have a spooftacular time writing parody poems!

I hope to see you next week when I talk about poems of address and apostrophe! 

~~~~~~

Here are a few announcements:

Did you know that Rumpelstiltskin was a poet? It’s true; RUMP: THE TRUE STORY OF RUMPELSTILTSKIN by Liesl Shurtliff which released last Tuesday, portrays Rumpelstiltskin as a poet. Today I’m featuring Liesl in an interview where she shares one of the poems from RUMP. And through April 21 there’s a giveaway. The Lucky 13s 

I discovered another poet among recently debuted MG characters. Her name is Ratchet and she writes poetry in THIS JOURNAL BELONGS TO RATCHET by Nancy J. Cavanaugh. To see a poem from Ratchet’s journal, check out my interview with Nancy at Smack Dab Blog.

Poetry Friday is being hosted by Diane Mayr at Random Noodling.

For Verse Day #15, Stephanie Parent is featuring several new and old historical fiction verse novels on her blog: Stephanie Parent Blog 

04.12.2013