I AM WRITING A POEM ABOUT... a Rabbit.

Hello and happy Poetry Friday! Be sure to visit Carol at Beyond Literacy Link for Roundup.

How 'bout those ALA book awards earlier this week?! I was pleased to see a few poetry titles -- and poets! -- recognized, including  FREEDOM IN CONGO SQUARE illustrated by R. Gregory Christie, written by Carole Boston Weatherford (Little Bee Books)

and FREEDOM OVER ME: ELEVEN SLAVES, THEIR LIVES AND DREAMS BROUGHT TO LIFE by Ashley Bryan (Atheneum Books for Young Readers)

Nikki Grimes & me at Poetry Camp!

and how lovely to see Nikki Grimes recognized with the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award?! Also Naomi Shihab Nye for the May Hill Arbuthnot Lecture Award. Yay yay yay!

I've got a book to share with you, but, first, in case you missed it, here are a couple of poetry posts:

HERE WE GO: A Poetry Friday Power Book by Sylvia Vardell & Janet Wong -- for Multicultural Children's Book Day (today!) #ReadYourWorld

UNBOUND: a novel in verse by Ann E. Burg

CATCHING A STORYFISH by Janice N. Harrington

Recently my friend and mentor Lee Bennett Hopkins encouraged me to read everything by Myra Cohn Livingston... so I've been working on that! I started at No Water River, where he and Renee La Tulippe have created the wonderful NCTE video series. And then I found a few books in my library.

The first one I want to share is a writing-prompt book, filled with prompts and Myra's students' responses. It's called I AM WRITING A POEM ABOUT...A Game of Poetry. It just shows you that wonderful work can come of challenges/assignments! And makes me wish again I could have attended one of Myra's classes. The good news is, because of this book, in some small way, we can ALL attend one of her classes. Enjoy!

Prompt: one word: rabbit

Poem About Rabbit
by Alice Schertle

I am writing a poem
     about

     rabbit.

A pink-eyed poem
     that watches
               from the

edges
of the page,
     that nibbles
                at the

corners
of my  mind.

A quiet poem

The kind
    with long-eared lines that
listen
     to where the words fall.

A poem
coming close
     enough to touch,
standing
     still

to watch
me write a poem
     about

        rabbit.
------------------------

Prompt: three words: ring, drum, blanket

A Ring Needs
by Ann Whitford Paul

A ring needs a finger,
a blanket, a bed.
A window needs curtains,
and butter needs bread.
A king needs a crown
and so does his queen.
A drum needs a drumstick;
A movie, a screen.
A clock needs two hands.
A door needs a knob.
And how would the corn
grow without any cob?
A cupcake needs frosting.
The shore needs a sea.
These words need a reader.
The reader is me.

Oh, Brother!
by Janet S. Wong

The little squirt,
begging for boiled eggs and toast,
circles me like a wrestler in the ring,
bouncing on my bed,
bouncing,
bouncing,
bouncing,
bouncing,
and when I try to hide my head,
he dives under the blanket,
to drum my stomach
until it surrenders
a growl.
----------------------
Prompt: six words: hole, friend, candle, ocean, snake, bucket or scarecrow

Celebration by the Sea
by Joan Bransfield Graham

My friend
and I scoop out
a hole in the sand, a
bucket to capture our own small
ocean.

We build
a castle cake.
Water snakes through its halls.
Mud turrets rise and on top -- one
candle.
-----------------
Aren't those wonderful?! Anyone want to join me in writing a poem on any of these prompts? If so, please do share! Happy writing!