The following are resources (for upper elementary and middle school classes) that highlight the fact that great minds do not think a like.
Trade Books
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Forewarning
Truth
Self-evident Exactspeak
Illuminating, Vulnerabling, Braving,
There is no grey; there is only gray.
Blaming, justifying, Avoiding
Opaque daggers
Lies
NaPoWriMo.net Day 18 “Today, I challenge you to write a poem that incorporates neologisms. What’s that? Well, it’s a made-up word! Your neologisms could be portmanteaus (basically, a word made from combining two existing words, like “motel” coming from “motor” and “hotel”) or they could be words invented entirely for their sound.”
Let Us Waltz
NaPoWriMo.net – Day 17 – “And now for our (optional) prompt. Today, I challenge you to write a nocturne. In music, a nocturne is a composition meant to be played at night, usually for piano, and with a tender and melancholy sort of sound. Your nocturne should aim to translate this sensibility into poetic form!”
Instead of a nocturne,
I wrote a waltz today.
No foxtrot,
Merengue,
Or mambo.
Can move us
Properly.
Let us waltz.
Hair flowing,
Feet dancing,
Hands holding,
We’re swinging,
Hearts beating—
Let us waltz.
You’re smiling;
I’m grinning.
We’re twirling,
And spinning.
You and me,
Let us waltz.
United Airlines
Budget-changing United Airlines
Has found it’s way into the headlines—
While peanuts are no longer complimentary,
They’re happy to throw in a concussion for free.
NaPoWriMo.net – Day 14 – a clerihew poem
Lipgloss
Brighten
Bee-stung
Bow-shaped lips
With burgundy blush.
Swab some
shiny,
sleek,
slick,
slippery,
shimmery, silicate silk
sideways
To play up
That part that pouts.
Grab a tube of
Glassy glimmer glitter
A tube of twilight tulips
A wand with wintry wine
Or be
Pleasantly Pleased
with plain pink.
NaPoWriMo.net – Day 12 – “Today, I’d like you to write a poem that explicitly incorporates alliteration (the use of repeated consonant sounds) and assonance (the use of repeated vowel sounds). This doesn’t mean necessarily limiting yourself to a few consonants or vowels, although it could. Even relatively restrained alliteration and assonance can help tighten a poem, with the sounds reinforcing the sense.”
A Day Late and a Dolour Short
Sometimes she tries to give it her all.
Others notice this about her, too. I
Can’t compete with her; don’t want to, really.
So, what is it that I honestly want?
Time to trace my toes in the sand. More
Magical moments – more meaningful than
A number, score, rank, grade or anything
Quantitative could claim. Time to be in
Company of colleagues, comrades, peers – the
People who know me best in all the World.
I want to travel to where there is
Culture, flavor, sunshine and music to
Remind me that I can taste, smell, feel,
See, and hear all that has been valued.
New faces, voices, ideas and
Chances to say that I have lived and loved.
NaPoWriMo – Day 4 Prompt
“One of the most popular British works of classical music is Edward Elgar’s “Enigma Variations.” The “enigma” of the title is widely believed to be a hidden melody that is not actually played, but which is tucked somehow into the composition through counterpoint. Today I’d like you to take some inspiration from Elgar and write a poem with a secret – in other words, a poem with a word or idea or line that it isn’t expressing directly.”
K ‘Bye!
K ‘Bye! or If Only I’d Been Prudent
(NaPoWriMo2017 – Day 3)
Breakthrough
Adieu
Untrue
Withdrew
Wishing for a breakthrough? – Adieu! – See?
Knowing you’d been untrue withdrew me.
This is a Tyburn Poem, which is a six-line poem. The first four lines consist of a single, two-syllable word, each rhyming with the previous and subsequent word. Line 5 has nine syllables, with the fifth to eighth syllables using the words from lines 1 and 2. Line 6 has nine syllables too, with the fifth to eighth syllables using lines 3 and 4.
Training
(NaPoWriMo2017 – Day 2)
5 years friendship
12 miles bike path
4 gym shoes, slightly worn
2 caps baseball
3000 milliliters water
Locate 6-mile bike path, and confirm that at least one end has parking. Fill 2 water bottles for each person, set aside. Dress comfortably. Be sure to use baseball caps to protect eyes and face from the sun.
Walk together. Share funny stories. Ponder aloud. Reveal fears and worries. Discuss emotions. All of them. Listen. Provide pep-talks.
Pause
Notice the breeze. See the color of each leave, noting the differences since the last walk. Celebrate the slivers of sunshine that drip through the canopy of trees above. Pay attention to the beauty around you. Declare the metaphor among long walks and important friendships.
Continue walking to the end of the path. Drink more water. Turn around and make 6-mile return hike.
Prompt for 4/2/2017
Today, I’d like you to write a poem inspired by, or in the form of, a recipe! It can be a recipe for something real, like your grandmother’s lemon chiffon cake, or for something imaginary, like a love potion or a spell. NaPoWriMo.com
Later (#NaPoWriMo2017 – Day One)
Two pine trees stand next to each other, like best friends who have walked next to each other for a lifetime — buddies, pals, comrades. I can practically visualize their outstretched hands, in the form of a hammock, reaching to each other in perfect backyard bliss. Immediately, I know that I must go shopping. Several stores later, I find the colorful hammock that promises rest and relaxation. The tropical colors sing Caribbean beaches and mango-flavored moments. This is the one. I buy it, bring it home, and put it in the garage. It is getting dark and there are papers to grade, dishes to wash, and laundry to fold. The afternoon of spring warmth and hope sets with the sun, and the hammock will get hung up the next time I have an hour to spare.
Backyard hammock bliss —
Roped between trees and wishes —
To enjoy “someday.”
“The haibun is a combination of prose and haiku. It was originally developed as a sort of travelogue or character sketch , in which the writer would first describe a place in prose, and then pen a haiku appropriate to the place or scene.” – (This was actually the prompt from 3/31, not the one for 4/1, but that’s okay.) http://www.napowrimo.net/
When I Grow Up, I want to be a Fire Truck
Fire truck
I remember looking through
an old childhood book,
In which I had added
My two cents.
With all of my sense,
And my backward-letter
Penmanship, I had plotted
my plans
on the page.
“When I grow up
I want to be
a firetruck.”
Since then,
I had laughed at
Such silly, sophomoric
Sentiment.
“Look,” I’d say, and point
at my self-prescribed,
Pre-school script.
“I really took it to heart
When they told me I could be
Anything I wanted.
A firetruck?
What could I have
Been thinking?”
But, tonight,
As I listed and lamented
The long list of
Other occupations
I had once considered:
Interior designer,
Psychologist,
Cultural anthropologist,
I realized something. . .
Haven’t I since,
In a sense,
Become all of these things?
Except for the fire truck.
But that, perhaps, is
What I am to become.
I still
Want to be
A fire truck!
You see, of a fire truck,
Nobody has ever said:
“Don’t listen to her,
she’s just overreacting.”
“He’s making all of that noise,
Because he didn’t get his way.”
When fire truck wails and screams,
nobody says:
“She has become angry and bitter.”
“Maybe he wants something to really cry about.”
“She’s probably about to get her period.”
“He’s being irrational and crazy.”
As the fire truck
Declares an emergency,
Nobody dismisses it with:
“I don’t know why she is crying. It was her own fault.”
“There he goes, getting all political again.”
“She has no reason to be upset.
She is just being manipulative.”
“Dude, seriously?
Are you complaining again?”
But, a fire truck is respected,
Heard, heeded, honored.
The fire truck is a warrior,
Shouting out
An alarm call,
A barbaric yawp,
A siren cry to save lives.
The fire truck is
not a second-hand good.
Not a victim,
A fire truck is not
Something to be seen and not heard,
But instead,
Is a voice.
A voice that matters.
A voice that pushes through denial
Saying
“Hey!
There is something wrong here.
I can point it out.
I can lead the way.
Hear me.”
I still
Want to be
A fire truck!
The Read-e-ologist 