Poetry Box May tips and challenges – all the leaves are falling

my long shadow in the soft beach light

 

This month I thought it would be fun to write Autumn poems. We all write Autumn poems but we all experience Autumn differently. We start to eat different things, wear different things and we start to do different things.

I don’t think there is any topic in the WORLD that is all USED up.

Let’s share something about autumn in a poem.

 

Surprise me!

 

We have just explored how poems can sound good (check April 1sT) so use your ears as you write.

 

You might pick one Autumn thing to explore.

You might explore lots of little Autumn things.

Do you have an Autumn story?

Have you seen something amazing in Autumn?

Or tasted?

 

HOT TIP Good detail will make your poem hook the reader.

Try three different endings. Which is your favourite?

 

P  l  A    y       w       t

i       h               how you set your poem out. Try different ways.

Sometimes words on the page just flow. Sometimes they make a picture. What do you like?

 

 

HOT HOT HOT TIP: START by collecting lots of words to do with Autumn things. (Tip: hunt for lots of Autumn nouns and verbs before you try hunting for adjectives)

 

SEND your poem to paulajoygreen@gmail.com

DEADLINE Friday May 27th

Include your name, age, year and name of school. You can include your teacher’s email if you like.

P l e a s e    p u t   ‘Autumn poem’ in the subject line of your email.

I will pick some favourites to post on the blog and have a book for at least one reader and maybe even a book for a class.

I will post on Tuesday May 31st.

 

Poetry Bonanza Monday: Some tips, a challenge and poems about t h i n g s

I really love reading and writing poems about things.

Sometimes poets write poems that sing the praises of things.

They are sometimes called odes.

 

You might find a poem called Ode to a Couch

or Ode to a Toaster    or Ode to my Shoes.

 

This week the challenge is to write an ode to      a    t h i n g.

 

Here are some tips on writing an ode:

Go on the hunt for real detail (words) that makes the thing come alive in the poem.

Show what it looks like, what it does, where it is. You don’t have to do all of it!

Show what is special about it. Funny? Sad? Strange? Fascinating?

Maybe you might show a bit of its history.

Who loves to use it?

 

In the past there were rules about the form but nowadays the ode can take any shape you like. You can use verses or not use verses. You can use long lines or short lines or a mix.

It doesn’t have to rhyme.

There will be clues as to what the poet thinks of the thing.

 

DEADLINE for your Ode-Poem Challenge: Wednesday April 1st

Send to paulajoygreen@gmail.com. Include your name, year, age and name of school. You can include your teacher’s name and email.

PLEASE say it’s for the Ode-Poem challenge. Put in the subject line of the email please.

I will post my favourites and have a book  for a poet  (Year 1 to Year 8).

 

 

 

 

 

Poetry Bonanza Monday: Playing with line … some tips and a challenge

There was some stormy weather across New Zealand at the weekend! Wow! Sadly we had lots of wind but not enough rain to fill our water tanks.

 

l   i   n   e   s      i  n     p   o   e   m   s

 

This week I am going to give some tips on LINES in poems. Lines are what makes a poem a poem!

You can really play with how write a line. Here are some tips:

 

1. Play with how many words you put on a line. You might even try a pattern 2 1 4 3 2 2

The cat

meowed

and scratched and clawed

at the curtains

that blew

in the wind.

 

( I cheated and made the last line 3 — it’s your pattern so you are just after the best line for your poem!)

 

2. Try having long lines or short lines or a mix of lengths.

 

 

3. Try writing a line that RUNS OVER onto the next line like a tennis ball

The cat meowed at the blue

ball and the blue ball meowed back.

 

The cat meowed at

the blue ball and

the blue ball

meowed back!

 

 

4. Try writing a line that STOPS at the end of the line

 

 

The cat meowed.

The blue ball meowed.

It started to rain.

 

5. Play with the word you put on the end of the line. It can be plain or sparkly!

 

6. Listen to the rhythm of the line. You can change it with the words you use.

 

 

A Line Challenge:

Write two poems about the stormy weather at the weekend and in each poem use lines in a DIFFERENT ways. You could even write the same poem twice but change the second way you use the lines. That would be fun.

 

DEADLINE for your Line-Poem Challenge: Wednesday March 18th

Send to paulajoygreen@gmail.com. Include your name, year, age and name of school. You can include your teacher’s name and email.

IMPORTANT! PLEASE say it’s for the Line-Poem challenge. Put in the subject line of the email please.

I will post my favourites and have a book prize for a poet (Year 0 to Year 8).

 

 

 

Poem Bonanza Monday: S O U N D two challenges and some tips

March is here and our garden is sizzling with sound.

I can hear the tui cadawlingphewphewbrrbrrrwitwit and the cicadas long legs rubbing kzkzkzkzkzkzkzkzkzkzkzkzkzkzkzkzkz

One tui sounds just like our dog Molly and I think Molly is already up! It tricks me every morning!

For me, sound is one of the most delightful and important things about a poem.

I love reading poems that S O U N D good. This doesn’t mean a poem about sound but a poem that sounds good when you read it aloud (although it  might be about sounds).

 

 

Some sound tips:

Here are some tips to help make a poem sound good:

1. pick a topic and try collecting words first and then playing with how you put them together (like jamming!)

2. play with how many words you put on a line, keep  the same number or have different numbers. Make a pattern of how many words on each line. Listen. What sounds best?

3. do a test poem with no more than ten words. Listen to it

4. test out different words on the end of the line

5. try hiding rhyme in your poem

6. try finding words that nearly rhyme but don’t quite (stop it, bucket, Antarctica, shark)

7. find words that pop on the line because they sound so good

8. use long words and short words or just words with one syllable. Listen to the difference

9. read your poem out loud and listen to the line that sounds good

10. find a poem by someone else that sounds good. Listen to what it does

 

A poetry challenge:

1. Read my tips on making a poem sound good.

2. Pick a few to play with.

3. Write a poem.

4. Use no more than 20 words (or a few more is okay).

 

 

A second poem challenge:

Find a poem by a New Zealand poet that sounds good. Share it with me and I will see if I can get permission to post it on Poetry Box. Tell me which parts sound good. I will choose up to three and have a book prize for those children or classes that find me a good one. Deadline is same as below.

 

I will post my favourites and have a book prize for one young poet (Year 1 to 8).

Deadline: Wednesday March 11th

Send to paulajoygreen@gmail.com. Include your name, age, year and name of school. You can include your name of teacher and their email address if you like.

Poetry Box 2015

Welcome back to Poetry Box.

After a very busy year, I had a  lovely summer doing lots of reading (mostly novels!), swimming, walking and gardening. Doing different things gave me lots of energy ready to start the new year.

Three special things turned up in my mail boxes to surprise and delight me!

Daniel and Gemma sent me a hand-painted poetry stone. Thank you!

An Arrowtown poetry fan sent me a handmade decoration to go on my Christmas tree. Send me an email so I can write back! Thank you!

And I found out Poetry Box won the 2014 Poetry category of The Public Blogger Awards which is based in Los Angeles. My blog was selected from a shortlist of 7 blogs from all round the world. I was very touched to be picked. I danced a wee dance in my study! Wow! Thank you!

 

This year I am going to be busy writing new books but I will still have some time to run this blog and my adult blog, Poetry Shelf.

 

This year I aim to:

+ Post Poetry Bonanza Mondays: Post something every Monday morning — some tips, a challenge, interviews, book reviews.

+ Post things in between to surprise you now and then.

+ Post Poem Fridays: Post some of my favourite poems from the challenges on Fridays.

+ Plan a Fourth Fabulous Poetry Competition for Term Two and tell you about it then.

 

I will answer your letters but I will be busy writing every day until lunch time so I won’t be looking at my emails until after that.

 

A welcome back challenge – Write a summer poem:

I love poems about the seasons. Summer is almost over! I love summer so I want you to write a summer poem.

Tips:

1. Real detail will make your poem pop!

2. Collect lots of summer words and things before you start. Can you collect more than 30?

(food, places, weather, the sky, things you do, things you wear, things you see and hear, what is in the garden and much much more!)

3. Think about how you will write your poem on the page.

(list poem, shape or picture poem, haiku, couplets, short, long, fat, skinny)

 

DEADLINE for your Summer-Poem Challenge: Wednesday March 4th

Send to paulajoygreen@gmail.com. Include your name, year, age and name of school. You can include your teacher’s name and email. PLEASE say it’s for the Summer-Poem challenge.

I will post my favourites and have a book prize for a poet (Year 0 to Year 8).

 

 

Here are some photos from my summer holidays:

 

 

 

 

 

#4 Tips for My Place poems

You could write a poem that tells a little story about something that happened where you live.

Remember to use your ears to check the sound of each line.

 

Test out some good beginnings and good endings.

You don’t have to tell as much as you do in a story story or use as many words.

 

DEADLINE for your My Place Challenge: August 28th

Send to paulajoygreen@gmail.com. Include your name, year, age and name of school. You can include your teacher’s name and email. PLEASE say it’s for the My Place challenge.

Tell me the city or town you live in so I know for my tour.

some starting points for story poems that are IMAGINATIVE

 

Here are some starting points (ideas) for a story poem where you use your imagination:

 

1. What might happen if you went back in time? Where would you go? What would happen to you?

2. Write about what happens when you find a magic bottle.

3. Write a poem as if you are a character from a book you like.

4. Write a poem as if you can fly.

5. Write a poem as if you are a Hero Dog.

6. Write a poem as if you had three magic wishes.

7. Write a poem about a made-up animal.

8. Write a poem about a dog, a mouse and an elephant (or any three animals you like). What happens?

9. Write a poem as if you have a Super Power.

10. Make up your own poem about a porridge pot that never stops bubbling over in your kitchen.

11. Make up a poem about the worst day of your life (use your imagination).

12. Write a poem about the best day of your life (use your imagination).

13. Retell a myth or legend as a poem but use no more than 20 words.

 

DEADLINE for your Story-Poem Challenge: Wednesday June 4th

Send to paulajoygreen@gmail.com. Include your name, year, age and name of school. You can include your teacher’s name and email. PLEASE say it’s for the Story-Poem challenge.

I will post my favourites and have a book prize for some poets.

 

Some tips for writing poems that tell a story

 

Here are some tips for writing story poems:

1. You don’t have to use lots of words and sentences like you do when you write a story.

2. Your first line is like the beginning (it can have one word or go to the end of the line!).

3. Your last line is like the end of the story. Will it surprise you, make you laugh, be a puzzle, or just tells us what happens at the end of the story? (it can have one word or go to the end of the line).

4. Will you find some words that shine on the line?

5. Before you start your poem, go on the hunt for good verbs (doing words). They will help you tell your story in a poem.

6.  Will you tell everything or let the reader guess some bits?

7.  Will you hide clues?

8. Real detail might help your story come alive.

9. The rhythm you choose will give your story movement.

10.  Sometimes rhyme can help a story move. Sometimes it sounds clunky.

12. Does your story poem have a mood? If it does, write the word in a circle. Don’t use that word in your poem. Give clues.

 

 

 

 

stop still for a moment and look

This month we are using our EYES as a tool when we write poems.

As a poet I like to stop still in the world and look. I collect things with my poetry net and save them for a poem. DETAIL can make a poem come alive.

You can use lots of detail (like a rich Christmas cake) or just a few details that shine out. Both can WORK!

 

Find a place to stop still and LOOK for five minutes.

You could LOOK out the window (if you are in Christchurch what a storm you will l see! I will give you all virtual hug if you are cold and without power!)

You could go outside and sit somewhere and LOOK.

Go into your garden and sit on the grass and LOOK at the sky.

You could go into a room in your house and LOOK. Or your classroom.

When you go on an outing (to the zoo, the beach, a park, a mountain, a river,  the city, the library, the shops or anywhere else) STOP still for a few minutes and LOOK.

Then THEN then THEN then THEN then THEN Then THEN then THEN then THEN then THEN

Write down all the BIG things things you can SEE

Write down all the LITTLE things things you can SEE

Hunt for words that tell me what the BIG things LOOK like

Hunt for words that tell me what the LITTLE things LOOK like

Use your EYES to find lots of DETAIL

 

Now try writing a poem but use only 15 words or so. You will have to choose carefully.

Now try writing another poem and use as many words you like. If I read the poem, I will be able to LOOK at what you see.

  

 

You can send these in for the eye-poem challenge.

DEADLINE for your Eye-Poem Challenge: Thursday March 27th

Send to paulajoygreen@gmail.com. Include your name, year, age and name of school. You can include your teacher’s name and email. PLEASE say it’s for the eye-poem challenge.

I will post my favourites and have a book prize for one poet.  

 

 

 

making poems sound good

Poems can be a bit like making music. Sometimes when I read my poems out loud at schools and festivals I start to wriggle and jiggle like I am doing a dance because the words are making music inside me.

Some of my favourite poems and poets in the world are good at making me jiggle and dance inside when I read them! (Margaret Mahy, Bill Manhire, Jenny Bornholdt, Caleb Brown, Shel Silverstein)

Here are some tips to help make a poem sound good:

1. pick a topic and try collecting words first and then playing with how you put them together (like jamming!)

2. play with how many words you put on a line — mix it up — keep them the same

3. write a poem using no more than 12 words to start with

4. test out different words on the end of the line

5. try hiding rhyme in your poem

6. try finding words that nearly rhyme but don’t quite (stop it, bucket, Antarctica, shark)

7. read your poem out loud and listen to the line that sounds good

 

tomorrow I will post two challenges for you