Haiku

This is our last week celebrating National Poetry Month. And no celebration of poetry is complete without haiku.

Haiku is a form of poetry originating in Japan. A haiku has 17 syllables, broken down like this:

First line: 5 syllables
Second line: 7 syllables
Third line: 5 syllables

Traditionally, haiku is about the natural world.

The most famous Japanese haiku poet, Matsuo Basho, lived from 1644 to 1694. Haiku actually dates from the 9th century, so you can see that it has been around for a very long time! 

When Basho's haiku is translated into English, it doesn't usually follow the traditional number of syllables. 

flower of the harvest moon?
it only looks that way
a cotton field

Here's a traditional haiku by Rachel, a student from Wisconsin.

An orca whale jumps
Sending a cry in the air,
Splashing water high.

You can also add artwork to your haiku. Try writing your own, and have fun experimenting. 
Happy haiku-ing! 

An Earth Day Ode

Today is Earth Day. And we're still celebrating National Poetry Month. So naturally it's a good day to write a poem about....the Earth! 

Earth is a BIG subject, so let's write about one small part of nature. 

I love to write odes. An ode is a poem that celebrates a person, animal, object...or anything. 

To write an Earth Day Ode, first think about your subject. A porcupine, pine cone, or polar star? A cactus, canyon, or caterpillar? 

Choose your favorite animal, your favorite place in nature, or go outside and find a leaf, rock, or stick you'd like to put into an ode.

Odes don't have to rhyme. Often they're addressed directly ("you") to the subject. They can follow any form.

Here's my Earth Day Ode to ice.

Ice

You cover our poles

South and north 

Keeping Earth cooled down.

Frozen bubbles of water.

Silver, white, gray, black.

Your frost and rime and crystals are

Brittle and beautiful as diamonds.

We don't thank you enough

So I'm thanking you now.

Your fields stretch out

Like a frozen blanket

Protecting us. 

Telephone Poems

We're still celebrating National Poetry Month! 

These days we all seem to be attached to our phones. So it seems fitting that we combine telephones with poetry....and write a Telephone Poem.

No, this isn't an ode to our phones (as much as we love our smart phones, dumb phones, or whatever kind of phones we have).

A Telephone Poem uses your phone number as a start-off point to write a poem. 

Write your phone number down the left-hand side of a page or screen. 

Now write a poem in which each line contains as many words as the number opposite it. The number zero can be no words--an empty line--or it can be a "wild card" to fill any way you want. 

I'll make up a phone number (with no area code, so we can't call it): 545-8604. I'm going to use the zero as a "wild card," a line with as many words as I want. 

Extreme Tide

5   Yesterday the extreme low tide
4   Exposed the sea stars 
5   Clinging to the ferry dock. 
8   A little boy told me he'd touched one. 
6   "How did it feel?" I asked. 
0   "Weird. But fun." 
4   Just like the tide. 

Writing with a particular form, like a set number of lines, can free up our imagination. That doesn't seem logical, but that's how it works. 

Your phone is ringing. It wants its own poem! 

Nonsensical Poems

Yellow Pencils is continuing our celebration of poetry this month.

There's something about spring that makes me think about...nonsense! It must be the wonderful smells in the air, and the extra kick we have in our steps. Or maybe it's the dogs running around in hats. 

Nonsense poems are silly and fun, like Edward Lear's "The Quangle Wangle's Hat." It begins: 

On the top of the Crumpetty Tree
The Quangle Wangle sat,
But his face you could not see,
On account of his Beaver Hat.
For his Hat was a hundred and two feet wide,
With ribbons and bibbons on every side,
And bells, and buttons, and loops, and lace,
So that nobody could ever see the face
Of the Quangle Wangle Quee.

Try not reading that poem out loud. You just have to, it's so fun, with made-up words like "crumpetty" and "Quangle Wangle." (And what if the Quangle Wangle was a dog?)

Lewis Carroll wrote the ultimate nonsense poem, "Jabberwocky." Here are the first two stanzas:

'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves
And the mome raths outgrabe.

"Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jujub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!"

Try writing your own poem with nonsense words. You can use either Edward Lear's or Lewis Carroll's poems as a model. 

Read a poem just for fun or to inspire your writing. Writing is made up of words, and poets have the most fun of all experimenting with them. 

Animal Poems

April is National Poetry Month! All month long, we'll be celebrating poetry here at Yellow Pencils. 

I love animals, and let's face it, some animals look silly, act silly, or have a silly name. Like the three-toed sloth. Or the kiwi. Or the ocelot. 

Write a poem about a "silly" animal, your favorite animal, or any animal you think is really cool. Be silly or serious, use rhyme or not, and make up words. Think about your animal, and what makes it special to you. 

Here's my silly poem, The Ocelot

The Ocelot

I like the ocelot.
A lot.
I likes its spots
like polka dots. 
More often than not
this cat is hot
the tawny, yellow ocelot. 

Here's a silly poem by John Gardner.

The Cockatoo

The Cockatoo is widely known
For talking on the telephone
And also (wretched, thoughtless bird)
For hanging up without a word.


And a serious one by Langston Hughes.


The Snail

Little snail,
Dreaming you go,
Weather and rose
Is all you know.

Weather and rose
Is all you see,
Drinking the dewdrop's 
Mystery.

What is your animal poem?