Poetry Friday: A Frozen Parody for Poets

Hello, Writerly Friends.

Are you a fan of Frozen, or are you ready to Let It Go?

This is how one classroom teacher
coped (or didn't) with Frozen-crazy students. 

I just received the second round of editorial notes for my middle grade novel in verse. Thanks to all of you who have been following the looooong journey that THE LAST FIFTH GRADE OF EMERSON ELEMENTARY has taken to publication. I promise ... this is connected to the movie Frozen.

But first...

Happy Host Day
to talented super-poet
Irene Latham!
All of the Poetry Friday links
are up Irene's blog,
Live Your Poem.

With suggestions from my editor, I wrote a lot of new material for my novel this fall. I tend to overwrite when I'm drafting. Testing out new poems helps me feel my way through the characters and plot. Then I put the draft aside for awhile and see which poems have staying power. Some will need revision. Others will be cut.

Before I head back into the revision cave -- my deadline's not In Summer, after all -- I'd like to share one of the new poems for Poetry Friday. This parody of "Do You Want to Build a Snowman" won't make it into the published novel, but I think your writing students will like it. Especially when they're feeling frustrated.

I Don’t Want to Write a Sonnet

I don’t want to write a sonnet.

Sometimes I’ve got nothing to say.

I can never think of words that rhyme.

It takes too much time

writing every day.

Counting syllables is awkward,

too much like math,

It makes me want to cry.

I don’t want to write a sonnet.

Does it have to be a sonnet?

Tell me why.

I don’t want to write a sonnet,

a limerick, or triolet.

A writing break sounds really great.

Why don’t we pick a date?

How about today?

It gets a little tiring

sticking to rhyme schemes

when my thoughts would rather fly.

You say I have it in me

and it’s only fourteen lines.

You say this is a sloppy draft

and I’ll have time to craft

when we all revise.

We only have ten minutes

of writing time.

What am I going to do?

I don’t want to write a sonnet.

Here is a great cover of the original song from Frozen.

Why cut this piece? Not because I have a Frozen Heart. I think I wrote it for myself, rather than for one of my characters. The speaker feels a little too generic for THE LAST FIFTH GRADE, which is told in the 18 voices of one fifth grade class. I had a great time writing this parody, though. I was totally venting some revision frustration.

Speaking of writing, February is coming up. That means the annual Author Amok Poetry Project is almost here. Thanks so much for all of you who suggested sounds we can use for writing prompts. When I need a break from novel revisions, I'm going to get our list of 28 sounds together. For the First Time in Forever, I can't wait to start writing!

And remember, it doesn't have to be a sonnet.

Poetry Friday: Word Nerd (Kill Your Darlings 1)

Hello, Writerly Friends. It's Poetry Friday! This week's host is Doraine at Dori Reads.

I may be a poet, but I am also a Star-Trek-loving, coulda-been-an-entomologist, show-tune-singing NERD. (Here's one of my nerdiest posts EVER. Nerds like to back up statements with evidence, such as past nerdy blog posts.)

Earlier this week, middle grade author Elissa Brent Weissman (NERD CAMP) guest blogged about geeking out at the Baltimore Book Festival. And we had two very nerdy giveaways: one hand-knitted Pi bookmark (knitting is one of my super powers), and one NERD CAMP t-shirt. The winners are: Veronica (bookmark) and Barb (tee). I'll send you an email, ladies! Meanwhile, check out Elissa's awesome post.

Squee! Elissa is working on NERD CAMP 2.0.

As you know, fellow book nerds, I have been working on a middle grade novel-in-verse for five years. Five. The book has grown from a collection of poems in the voices of a fifth grade class, to a full length novel. And my children have grown from elementary schoolers into full-fledged teens.

The title of my book has had many iterations. Early on, the title referred to classic American novel-in-verse, Spoon River Anthology. Now it's called THE LAST FIFTH GRADE OF EMERSON ELEMENTARY.

Along the way, a few members of Miss Hill's fifth grade class have bitten the dust. Because "kill your darlings" is a real and necessary evil of revision.



A note from Snowball, the Queen-loving bird: Please visit our web site http://www.birdloversonly.org to purchase Snowball DVDs, shirts, and other items. Bird Lovers Only Rescue Service, Inc. is currently in need of donations in order to build a bird habitat. The sales of all DVDs, shirts, etc go towards funding this project.

Now that the book is finished (I mean it this time), I am going to spend several posts on poems and characters who I had to whack.

Yes, the revision process transforms me from uber-nerdy mom into a character hit-woman. Here, I must share the blame...uh, credit...with many friends and critique groups who have given me feedback during the five very long years of working on this project.

My notebook and binder from years 1-3 of working on
THE LAST FIFTH GRADE. Good thing Staples
sells binders in "ginormous." (Officially a word since 2007)

My notes include Miss Hill's seating chart
for my fictional classroom.

One of the first to go was my spelling bee champion, a word nerd named Sheldon Brooks (or Sheldon Burgos, depending on which draft). You can see poor Shelly "X'd" on the bottom left of the seating chart, above.

Shelly would have chortled at the song "Magic Foot."



Weren't we talking about drama geeks last Poetry Friday? I think I'm detecting a theme here at Author Amok.

Shelly was one of the original 30 characters, back when the book was a collection of voice poems. (It's now down to a manageable 21. Miss Hill is breathing a sigh of relief.)

In this sonnet, Shelly's obsession with interesting words ends up biting him in the butt.

SHELDON “Shelly” BROOKS

Champion, champignon (French for mushroom),

victor, velocity, linchpin, legume:

spelling’s my forte. Each word, I adore.

I won the spelling bee in Baltimore.

Darjeeling, revealing, compote, consommé,

I study words for two hours every day.

Simile, sassafras, plaice, pappillon

(that is a canine whose ear hairs are long.)

Lauding my prowess with letters and terms

I got to scan our yearbook and confirm

typos were absent, each name was unspoiled.

I verified, scrutinized, tested and toiled.

Now we are jubilant--yearbooks are here!

Then Ashlie looks at me with a smug sneer.

She points to my photo. The joke is on me.

I misspelled my name. Now I’m known as “Smelly.”

The documentary Spellbound was part of the inspiration for Shelly's character and this poem. The film is a fascinating look at national spelling bees.

Are you a word nerd? I love getting daily word etymologies from A.Word.A.Day This week's theme is fossil words, like "petard."

Have a fabulous weekend. Be heroically brave if you have to kill any of your darlings, writerly friends. Your book will thank you for it.

Poetry Postcard 31

Remember my abandoned sonnet (Poetry Postcard 22)? Like a gun flashed on page one of a mystery novel, it had to show up again before the end of the 44 Postcard Project.

It was Groundhog Day, February 2. Baltimore poet Rosalind Heid had just sent me the perfect postcard for the occasion.

But occasional poems? Ugh. Aren’t they the job of poets laureate in countries like Great Britain, where they are required to write poems about coronations and royal births?

E. A. Poe says occasional poems give him nightmares.

I had to put my snark and occasional snobbery aside and give the groundhog some thought. How does he feel about Groundhog Day? What does he think of all the fuss? Does he even like his personified name, Phil?

Children's author Pamela Curtis Swallow explores
these questions in GROUNDHOG GETS A SAY.

I began thinking about other animals that the media hypes because of their purported ability to prognosticate things like the weather, sports scores, and political elections.

This time I was able to complete the sonnet. The poem has a rhyme scheme, but it is not Shakespearean, Spenserian, or Italian. It’s not written in strict iambic pentameter, but there are about ten beats per line. You'll find an explanation of the three standard sonnet forms here.

Today, some say, a poem only needs fourteen lines to be considered a sonnet. See the last paragraph of Poets.org's sonnet article for more on the modern sonnet form.

Groundhog

Phil squats on the doormat of his burrow
and people gather, peering at his shadow.
It is a burden, forecasting the weather.

No one understands that problem better

than Paul, who foretold sports scores and elections

from his aquatic tank. His predilection
for mussels painted with the would-be winner’s
flag or face, for Paul, was merely dinner.

Even the names−Phil, Paul, Oscar the cat
who pads a nursing home, feet halting at
the beds of patients just before they die−

are humanized, as if Phil could say why
his shadow followed him outside today
and why these humans will not go away.

Laura Shovan

Call it serendipity, but after I posted this poem on Facebook, I heard from Linda Baie of Teacher Dance. Her son-in-law was editor on a documentary about Paul the Octopus. Here is a trailer for "The Life and Times of Paul the Psychic Octopus" from YouTube.

Cat lovers, here is an article about Oscar the cat.

Oscar was also the subject of  a book.

Postcard Info:

"Punxsutawney, Pa. a community of 10,000, where, every February 2 the Groundhog appears and forecasts the weather for the succeeding six weeks. A shadow means six more weeks of winter. No sunshine, and hence no shadow, means spring is just around the corner."

MWM Color-Litho “Bursheen” Finished, Made Only By WM Co., Aurora, Mo. 194,218

On 2/2/13, Punxsutawney Phil predicted an early spring. East-coasters who experienced last week's record blizzard may disagree.

50 State Tour: Wisconsin, Part II

We're visiting with Wisconsin Poet Laureate, Marilyn L. Taylor.

Marilyn, how has the region you live in affected your poetry?

Well, to put it very frankly, I'm not sure that it has. I simply can't claim that there is a distinctive Wisconsin "voice" or a typically Wisconsin supply of subject matter for poetry -- although I suppose there are a certain number of poets in this state who have indeed written about cheese and cows and the Green Bay Packers.

But for those of us who take our poetry very seriously and who publish both here and elsewhere, I would say that "regionalism" is a secondary element in our work.

Speaking for myself, I'd much rather write a poem about, say, the unpredictability of human nature than one about bucolic rural Wisconsin scenery. It's more a matter of the individual poet's motivations, I think -- and less a matter of where that poet lives.

Does Wisconsin have a poet-in-the-schools program?

Although many communities and organizations in Wisconsin support programs that bring poets to their schools, I am not aware of a state-wide Poet-in-the-Schools Program.

 Thanks for joining us on the 50 State Tour, Marilyn. You're a great ambassador for poetry!

Here is Marilyn L. Taylor's sonnet, "Reading the Obituaries." If you work in schools, you've thought about the issue Marilyn raises in the poem -- the death of once-popular names.

Reading the Obituaries

by  Marilyn L. Taylor

Now the Barbaras have begun to die,
trailing their older sisters to the grave,
the Helens, Margies, Nans -- who said goodbye
just days ago, it seems, taking their leave
a step or two behind the hooded girls
who bloomed and withered with the century --
the Dorotheas, Eleanors and Pearls
now swaying on the edge of memory.
Soon, soon, the scythe will sweep for Jeanne
and Angela, Patricia and Diane --
pause and return for Karen and Christine
while Susan spends a sleepless night again.
     Ah, Debra, how can you be growing old?
     Jennifer, Michelle, your hands are cold.

 Posted with permission of the author.

What a chilling final line. My gratitude to Marilyn L. Taylor for sharing such powerful sonnet with us.

California, here we come! You're up next on the 50 State Tour of poets laureate.

A Sonnet for Poetry Friday

What If This Road Sheenagh Pugh What if this road, that has held no surprises these many years, decided not to go home after all; what if it could turn left or right with no more ado than a kite-tail? What if its tarry skin were like a long, supple bolt of cloth, that is shaken and rolled out, and takes a new shape from the contours beneath? And if it chose to lay itself down in a new way; around a blind corner, across hills you must climb without knowing what's on the other side; The rest of the poem, with biographical info on the poet and an analysis is here. Scroll down the page (enjoy a few more sonnets on the way) for "What if This Road's" conclusion. I just finished reading Inkdeath, the last entry in Cornelia Funke's Inkworld trilogy. This poem opens Chapter 80. Like Funke's books, the sonnet is a self-aware look at story and its power in our lives. Inkheart, the movie, came out a few weeks ago. The two minute trailer was enough to let me know I must avoid this film! They changed the storyline of the first book (a twister out of The Wizard of Oz?! Gimmicky! Ugh!) more than I could bear. The first book was my favorite. Probably because it's the only one that takes place in our world and I was left to imagine the Inkworld for myself. Check back later for a post about Maryland Arts Day and my adventures as a lobbyist. Also in Shovan news, it's DJRobMan's 12th birthday today. Friday the 13th may be his lucky day, but I'll always remember it as the day my child became an official 'tween. You'll find all the Poetry Friday links at Big A Little A. Have a great Valentine's weekend everyone.