Here’s a poem we love! Have you heard it before?
What’s your favourite poem by Michael Rosen ?
Tuesday Challenge – haiku
It’s Tuesday and you know what that means? It’s time for this week’s Tuesday Challenge. And this is one we know you’ve probably been expecting ever since we announced that there would be a tiny poem challenge every Tuesday …
Write a haiku.
A haiku is a short poem, usually inspired by nature. At school you might have been taught that a haiku is a 3-line poem with 5 syllables in the first line, 7 syllables in the second line and five syllables in the third line. That’s one way to write a haiku. Modern writers of haiku (in English) don’t always worry about the syllable count — they just keep their poem very, very short. Some say that it should be able to be read in a single breath.
A haiku is like a brief snapshot or image. Like a word-photograph. It doesn’t rhyme.
Here’s one I wrote a few days ago:
Weary crickets creak
A light floats in the pond —
August moon rising
If you write a haiku — will you share it with us in the comments below? (Check with a parent or teacher first.) Grownups are also welcome to post a haiku but please note that we are G-rated!
~ Rebecca
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Until the end of August, we’ll have a new poetry challenge every Tuesday.
Read these earlier Poetry Challenges from the 2013 Soup Blog Poetry Festival. (You can still add your poems in the comments at each post if you like!)
- Tuesday Challenge—Limericks
- Tuesday Challenge—A five senses poem
- Tuesday Challenge—A list poem
- Tuesday Challenge—Magnetic poetry
- Tuesday Challenge—A calendar poem
- Tuesday Challenge—A shape poem
- Tuesday Challenge—A spine poem
- Tuesday Challenge—A haiku [you’re here!]
Poetry Challenge & haiku © 2013 Rebecca Newman https://soupblog.wordpress.com
Visiting poet – Duncan Ball
As you can probably guess from the photo above, today we have Duncan Ball visiting. You might have read books from his Selby series or the Emily Eyefinger series — did you know Duncan also has a book of poetry published? It’s called My Sister Has a Big Black Beard. Read on!
When did you first start writing poetry?
When I was twelve.
What sort of poetry do you like writing best of all?
I like writing funny poetry that rhymes, for kids.
What sort of poetry do you like reading best of all?
I like lots of different kinds of poetry for both young people and adults.
Where can we read your poetry?
My good friend and fellow poet Selby (the Talking Dog) writes poetry and I help him with it. But I’ve also written a collection of my funny poems called, My Sister Has a Big Black Beard.
Here are some videos featuring poems from My Sister has a Big Black Beard:
How often do you write?
Almost every day.
Do you prefer to write with a pen and paper or straight onto the computer?
Straight onto a computer although I do keep a notepad on my desk and scribble things down.
What’s your number one tip for budding poets?
Do it and enjoy it!
Duncan’s Poetry Prescription
ARE YOU HAVING A BORING DAY? When I have a boring day I like to read funny poems such as Allan Ahlberg’s ‘The Girl Who Doubled’ from his poetry book The Mighty Slide.
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Find out more about Duncan Ball, his books and poetry — visit his website and his blog. He’s visited before, so be sure to check out this earlier post about Duncan, too.
Interview with Duncan Ball © 2013 Duncan Ball and Rebecca Newman https://soupblog.wordpress.com
Recommended poetry books
We’ve had questions from readers asking where they can find good poetry books. A good place to start is your school library or your local library. (It’s free to join your local library and you can borrow quite a few books at a time.) If a book is out of print, you will often find it at your local library or you can try ordering the book in through a good bookshop.
Here are some poetry books that we love, in no particular order. (And there will be lots more in the poetry section of your library or bookshop!)
The ABC Book of Australian Poetry – a treasury of poems for young people compiled by Libby Hathorn, illustrated by Cassandra Allen.
Big Book of Verse for Aussie Kids compiled by Jim Haynes
By Jingo! By Janeen Brian
A Kick in the Head – an everyday guide to poetic forms, editor: Paul B. Janeczko, illustrated by Chris Raschka
Don’t Put Mustard in the Custard by Michael Rosen, illustrated by Quentin Blake
Roald Dahl’s Revolting Rhymes by Roald Dahl, illustrated by Quentin Blake
Guinea Pig Town and other animal poems by Lorraine Marwood
Honey Sandwich by Elizabeth Honey
100 Australian Poems for children edited by Clare Scott-Mitchell & Kathlyn Griffith, illustrated by Gregory Rogers
Sea Dream: poems from under the waves, compiled by Nikki Siegen-Smith, illustrated by Joel Stewart
Well, that’s a few to get started with, though we love lots of others, too!
Do you have a favourite book of poetry?
The Reading Hour 2013
The Reading Hour is officially 5 to 6pm on 24 August 2013.
Alphabet Soup’s poetry festival continues until the end of August, so we thought we’d pick some poetry books to read together during The Reading Hour. Here are the books we will be reading together tonight:
Have you chosen the books you’ll be reading tonight? Will you read any poetry during Reading Hour? (Say yes! Say yes!)
~ Rebecca, Editor
Visiting poet – Janeen Brian
Today we have Janeen Brian visiting Soup Blog to talk about her poetry and poetry-writing. (Janeen also writes picture books, short stories, nonfiction and novels. She’s a busy writer!)
When did you first start writing poetry?
I can’t remember writing anything much at all as a child, so I’d guess I began writing poetry in my late twenties or early thirties.
What sort of poetry do you like writing best of all?
Both rhyming and free verse. I tend to use rhyme for more of my humorous pieces, but not exclusively. I love the word-manipulation, the struggle and the joy of creating rhyme. Free verse excites me too, but for a different reason. There, I aim to convey something to the reader by way of a new point-of view, a twist at the end, a particular rhythmic pattern, or a feeling. I love selecting the right word. It can take hours, or longer. But when it does — oh, what a feeling!
What sort of poetry do you like reading?
I love reading ballads, humorous, quirky, clever verses, verse novels, free verse and rhyming verse. I prefer reading children’s poetry because that’s the main area in which I write, but I also read adult poetry and have also written in that field.
Where can we find your poetry?
My poetry has been included in the following anthologies:
- 100 Australian Poems for Children
- There was a big fish (limericks)
- Christmas Crackers
- Fractured Fairytales and Ruptured Rhymes
- Four and Twenty Lamingtons
- Petrifying Poems
- Stay Loose Mother Goose
- Off the Planet
- Vile Verse
- Putrid Poems
- Side by Side
- Machino Supremo
(Tadpoles in the Torrens due for release September, 2013. Our Home is Dirt by Sea due for release 2014)
Books of my own poetry:
- By Jingo!
- Silly Galah!
- Nature’s Way A-Z of biodiversity.
(Our Village in the Sky due for release 2014)
Rhyming picture books:
- I’m a dirty dinosaur
- Meet Ned Kelly
- I Spy Mum!
- I Spy Dad!
- The super parp-buster!
- Shirl and the Wollomby Show
- Columbia Sneezes.
Over 150 poems have been published nationally and internationally in the following magazines:
- The School Magazine
- the Victorian Education Magazines
- Spider
- Ladybird
- Ladybug
- Contagious.
Comma Dog © Janeen Brian
There’s a comma
of a dog
lying on the mat.
Dozing belly and
curl of tail
ears no longer
playtime exclamation marks
eyes closed as hyphens
and soft brackets of sighs
snuffling from
that comma of a dog
sleeping
in a circle
of sun.
Published in The School Magazine: Orbit. May 2012
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How often do you write?
I write every day. It might be my diary, my ideas book, some research notes, a page of practice writing, a draft of a poem or story or rewriting earlier drafts of work.
Do you prefer to write with a pen and paper or straight onto the computer?
Note-taking, ideas gathering, early paragraphs or lines of poetry are mostly done by hand with pen and paper (an exercise book), but I gradually take the work onto the computer and work from there on.
What’s your number one tip for budding poets?
Choose a book of poetry. Write out several poems that you like and then work out how the poet has written them. Think and discover. And practise.
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Janeen’s Poetry Prescription corner
IF YOU’RE HAVING A SHAMBLY DAY — read the following poem:
‘Cat Burial’ (from Note on the Door by Lorraine Marwood).
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For even more about Janeen Brian and her books and poetry — visit her website!
Interview with Janeen Brian © 2013 Janeen Brian and Rebecca Newman https://soupblog.wordpress.com
Tuesday Challenge – spine poem
Write a Book Spine Poem!
Here’s how:
Collect a number of books from your bookshelf and stack them in a pile. Read the titles aloud slowly, like a poem. You might want to change the order of a few of the books, or remove or add one or two books.
Here’s a short spine poem I constructed using books from my children’s bookshelves:
I went walking
All the way to WA
Good night, me
If you have your parents’ permission, we’d love to read your spine poems in the comments below — you don’t have to post a photo, just write out the titles like I have above. I promise to try to guess the authors of each book! Grownups are welcome to share poems, too. (Soup Blog is G-rated.)
~ Rebecca
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Until the end of August we’ll have a new poetry challenge every Tuesday.
Read these earlier Poetry Challenges from the 2013 Soup Blog Poetry Festival. (You can still add your poems in the comments at each post if you like!)
- Tuesday Challenge—Limericks
- Tuesday Challenge—A five senses poem
- Tuesday Challenge—A list poem
- Tuesday Challenge—Magnetic poetry
- Tuesday Challenge—A calendar poem
- Tuesday Challenge—A shape poem
- Tuesday Challenge—A spine poem [you’re here!]
Poetry Challenge & spine poem © 2013 Rebecca Newman https://soupblog.wordpress.com
Visiting poet – Marianne Musgrove
Today we welcome Marianne Musgrove to the Soup Blog Poetry Festival. Marianne is an award-winning children’s author and poet, not to mention a descendant of King Henry VIII’s librarian — you could say books are in her blood! A former social worker and one time tomato picker, Marianne finally found her calling as a writer with her first book, The Worry Tree. Her most recent novel, The Beginner’s Guide to Revenge, was short-listed for the 2013 Prime Minister’s Literary Awards for Children’s Fiction. (You can read one of her poems in the interview below. Excellent!)
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When did you first start writing poetry?
When I was nine, I wrote a poem called ‘Parents — boo!’. It was read out at assembly in front of the whole school as well as some invited parents (including my own!).
What sort of poetry do you like writing best of all?
Poems that make you feel something. I was once writing a poem about sadness so I listed off all the empty things I could think of. For example, shoes without feet, hats without heads, churches on weekdays and hollowed out logs. I never used the word ‘sadness’ in the poem but the poem felt sad because of the images…
What sort of poetry do you like to read?
Poems that sound good when you read them out loud; ones where you can roll the words around in your mouth like a lolly.
Where can we read your poetry?
[Here is one of Marianne’s poems!]
Animal Dreams by Marianne Musgrove
Gulls have sea-salty-fish-and-chip dreams
Pigs have trough-snouting-mud-grunting dreams
Worms have dark-digging-composty dreams
Seals have slip-slidey-fish-gulping dreams
Dogs have tongue-and-tail-lick-slurping-thud-thumping-
leg-twitching-paw-padded-stick-catching dreams.
And what about you?
You’re an animal too!
First published in Countdown: The School Magazine, July 2008, No. 6.
And more poetry here:
- Tadpoles in the Torrens (Wakefield Press), a collection of poetry by South Australian children’s poets (to be released August 2013)
- Celebrating: The End-of-the-Year Reciter, Triple D Books
- Alphabet Soup magazine, (issues 12 and 13)
How often do you write?
I tend to write a lot in a big chunk then nothing at all for days. Like bread dough, my ideas take time to rise. So when it looks as if I’m doing nothing, I’m really just waiting for the yeast — the inspiration — to take effect (at least that’s what I tell my family when they catch me drinking hot chocolate and eating muffins in the middle of the afternoon!).
Do you prefer to write with a pen and paper or straight onto the computer?
Pen and paper for poetry, computer for stories. I have quite a collection of notebooks with cool designs as I find it more inspirational when creating ideas.
What’s your number one tip for budding poets?
It’s good to be original so here’s an exercise you might like to try:
Write down a list of colours. Next to each one, note down words you’d typically use to describe that colour. For example, rose red, grass green, sky blue. Now cross out rose, grass and sky etc, and think of all the unusual things you can use to describe that colour. For example, tumeric orange, honeydew melon green, toothpaste white, piano keys cream. Using your new list, try and describe a sunset or your backyard or, even better, something of your own choosing.
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Marianne’s Poetry Prescription
IF YOU’RE HAVING A QUIET, THINKING-ON-THE-INSIDE KIND OF DAY — read the following poem:
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The Secret Place by Canadian poet, Dennis Lee.
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Do you want to learn more about Marianne Musgrove and her books and poetry? Visit her website!
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Interview with Marianne Musgrove © 2013 Marianne Musgrove and Rebecca Newman https://soupblog.wordpress.com
Tuesday Challenge – shape poem
Here we are with this week’s Tuesday Challenge (yay!).
Write a shape poem.
A shape poem (or concrete poem) can either be a poem that fills up a shape or a poem where you shift letters and words around until it resembles a shape. So if you wanted to write a shape poem about a cat, here are two ways you could go about it:
- write your poem and then sketch out a cat shape and fill it with your poem. (You might make some of the words BIGGER and others smaller until the shape is filled with the poem.)
- write your poem, moving the words and lines and spaces until they sort of resemble a cat shape. (You don’t have to sketch a shape.)
Do you know Lewis Carroll’s poem ‘The Mouse’s Tale’? That’s an example of a shape poem.
Here’s a simple one I tried:
On
weekends
I like to sit here
where the shade is deep
to read my books and think
about the week behind, the week
that’s still to come. But sometimes birds
will sing above my head and chatter to their chicks
and then
I like
to sit
and
listen
with
eyes
shut
Shape poems often work better when they are read on the page. If you read them aloud, your audience can’t see the shape along with the words. Shape poems are like art and poetry combined.
As always, we’d love to read your poems … It might be a bit tricky to paste shape poems in the comments but if you email us a scan of your poems, we’ll paste them into the post here! (Don’t forget to ask permission from a parent or teacher first.)
~ Rebecca
Here is the first of the shape poems sent in by you!
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Until the end of August we’ll have a new poetry challenge every Tuesday.
Read these earlier Poetry Challenges from the 2013 Soup Blog Poetry Festival. (You can still add your poems in the comments at each post if you like!)
- Tuesday Challenge—Limericks
- Tuesday Challenge—A five senses poem
- Tuesday Challenge—A list poem
- Tuesday Challenge—Magnetic poetry
- Tuesday Challenge—A calendar poem
- Tuesday Challenge—A shape poem [you’re here!]
Poetry Challenge & shape poem © 2013 Rebecca Newman https://soupblog.wordpress.com
Visiting poet – Steven Herrick
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Happy Friday!
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To make your Friday even happier, today we have Steven Herrick stopping by to talk about writing poetry and verse-novels for children. (He writes for young adults and adults, too.) If you visit his website, you’ll see that he loves soccer and in summer he plays on a soccer team called ‘The Marshmallows’ … It doesn’t look too summery in the photo he sent us above!
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Here he is — performing his poem ‘Lost in the Mist’ (from his book Untangling Spaghetti).
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When did you first start writing poetry?
I wrote my first poem when I was 18. It was called ‘Love is like a gobstopper’. I sent it to magazine and they published it and sent me $5!!!
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What sort of poetry do you like writing best of all?
I like writing narrative poems for children and verse-novels for YA and children.
—
What sort of poetry do you like reading?
All types of poetry.
—
Where can we find your poetry?
In the following poetry books for children:
- The Spangled Drongo (A verse novel)
- Tom Jones Saves The World (A verse novel)
- Do-wrong Ron (A verse novel)
- Naked Bunyip Dancing (A verse novel)
- Untangling Spaghetti (A collection of poems)
- Pookie Aleera is not my boyfriend (A verse novel)
… and seven verse novels for young adults.
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Do you prefer to write with a pen and paper or straight onto the computer?
I used to write with pen and paper, but now it’s nearly always with a computer.
—
Your number one tip for budding poets?
Read lots of poetry. Find what you like and try to understand why you enjoy it.
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Steven’s Poetry Prescription
IF YOU’RE HAVING A FOOD DAY — lots of my poems are about food and family (see my book Untangling Spaghetti).
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