Linda Kulp Trout

Thursday, July 8, 2010

POETRY FRIDAY: My Poetry Month So Far...

This week I did a lot of playing with poetry exercises and forms. I didn’t put much time into revising because my goal was just to have fun and get some rough drafts down.

One exercise I tried came from Charles Ghigna’s Father Goose blog. The idea is to write metaphors for a poem. This would be an excellent activity for introducing the concept of metaphor to students. You can check out the details of the exercise here.

I wrote four little "poems" comparing a poem to all sorts of things such as a skateboard, a comet, and a kitten. I wrote this one after looking at a picture of my grand-daughter, Evie.

A poem is a baby
Smiling up at you
Full of surprise and wonder
Discovering something new

Another picture of Evie inspired this little poem.


Swimsuit Edition

Those models in that magazine
They think they’re pretty cute—
But they haven’t seen me yet
In my brand new bathing suit

I also worked on some tanka.

Left Out


Boys shooting baskets
laughter bounces through the air
I sit on the porch
watching them and wondering

Why won't they ask me to play?


Waiting

Maggie’s father left
in the middle of the night
without a good-bye—
It’s been over a year now
she still waits for his return.


No letter, no calls
she believes he once loved her—
Did he change his mind
wanting his freedom instead
of a daughter who still waits.


A special thank you to Amy (The Poem Farm), her encouraging words were much appreciated this week!

Carol's Corner is our host for Poetry Friday this week.

8 comments:

  1. Linda,

    Love the pictures! Those cheeks! That bathing beauty shot is priceless!!!!!

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  2. Evie is adorable. Have fun writing poems this month. Enjoyed the ones you posted today :).

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  3. Elaine, I couldn't resist posting that one. She has so many cute outfits.

    Jama, thanks for stopping by. I'm getting some rough drafts down but not sure if they'll amount to anything. : )

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  4. Linda,
    Evie is so lucky to have sweet poems inspired by her! Are you planning to give them to her one day? I love the idea of poem as baby and completely agree that the beauty of each lies in a freshness and sense of wonder.
    You are inspiring me to try some non-rhyming poems, Linda. Thank you.
    Happy week ahead!
    A.
    A.

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  5. Evie is so cute! What an inspiration for you. I love that first poem especially, "full of surprise and wonder".

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  6. Hi, Linda. Love that baby bikini! Tanka is a recent favorite form of mine. Thanks for sharing yours.

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  7. Awww, she is adorable! Your poems are great--love that first poem the most. Just getting stuff down is wonderful. Revision can come later. It can be intimidating sharing early drafts, but it's good for people to see them, I think. Yay, Linda!

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  8. Amy, Andi, Laura, Laura S., Toby- Thank you for your kind words of support. You're so right, Laura, it is scary sharing early drafts, but I have to keep myself accountable. I don't know if I'll come back to any of these, but I'm trying to get over the fear of putting myself out there. I'm so grateful for all of you and your encouragement.
    Hugs,
    Linda

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