Poetry Friday: Alligator Wrestling, An Invitation

Happy Poetry Friday!

The Poetry Postcard Project is nearly done. Look for the grand finale next Friday.

I’ve been wrestling with the next Author Amok blog project. How will we celebrate National Poetry Month, 2013?

You can still order your NPM poster at Poets.Org.

First, enjoy a wrestling poem. Then, I am sending you a National Poetry Month invitation (no toothy reptiles involved).

The super-saturated colors on this postcard inspired me. Not to wrestle with an alligator, but to write some light verse.

Alligator Wrestling

Tourist spots

would have

cold-weather

dwellers think

an alligator’s mouth

pulled wide is green

and juicy pink.

A row of teeth,

thin and white,

to separate thick skin

from what’s inside.

It looks so much

like watermelon rind,

who would not

lean in to take

a little bite?

Laura Shovan

Postcard Information:

Front:

Alligator Wrestling, Tropical Hobbyland, Miami, Fla.

Back:

ALLIGATOR WRESTLING K 9267

Henry Nelson, world’s champion alligator wrestler, gives daily exhibitions of this ancient Seminole sport, at Tropical Hobbyland Indian Village, N.W. 27^th Avenue at 15^th Street, Miami. The pit at Tropical Hobbyland contains fifty alligators, and a dozen crocodiles, yet Henry will go in the water with them entirely unarmed.

APPROVED AAA ATTRACTION

Novelti-Craft Products Co., Olympia Bldg., Miami, Fla.

A “COLOURPICTURE” PUCLICATION, BOSTON 15, MASS., U. S. A.

Now that we've gotten Mr. Toothy out of the way...

Announcing Author Amok’s Fourth Annual

National Poetry Month Project:

WELCOME TO THE TECHNOVERSE

Call me a nerd, a geek, a SF buff. I won’t argue with you.

Author Amok, is it just coincidence that a
classic Star Trek episode is titled "Amok Time?"

Author Amok is boldly going where only the most high tech poets have gone before…to the TechnoVerse and beyond.

I'm looking for 20 intrepid explorers to guest blog in April. 

Do you have a favorite poetry app, writing support program, or website you use for poetic inspiration or interesting vocab? What about a savvy poetry list-serv, or a poetry blog that’s always up on the latest trends? Send me a message at mrspoems@gmail.com.

Uncle Amok wants YOU! to seek out new sites and new rhymifications.

Speaking of tech-savvy poetry, I hope you’ll follow me and many other Poetry Friday regulars during the March Madness Poetry Tournament. Ed DeCaria knows how to work the ‘net – his site Think Kid, Think! is both high-tech and user-friendly.

Poetry Friday is brought to you today by Julie Larios at the Drift Record. Hmm... Julie, your blog's name would make a great title for a Star Trek episode.

Be seeing you… in the TechnoVerse.

Guest Blogging at Maryland Humanties Council

I've added a lot of miles to my odometer this month. My poetry workshops for the Maryland Humanities Council have taken me to schools almost into Delaware and all the way out to Gaithersburg, MD.

You can read one of my previous posts about MDHC's art/poetry program. Hundreds of schools around the state already have the Picturing America curriculum -- 40 images from American art (sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities). I'm among six poets working with school children to respond to these images in poetry.

My first workshop featured a very pink flamingo. I was surprised that the 4th graders felt a sense of freedom in looking at this image.

MDHC asked me to guest blog about the workshop. If you'd like to read more, go to http://www.mdhc.org/blog/?p=27

For everyone following my adventures as a wrestler's mom, I'm still recovering from my early morning (5 AM) trip to southern NJ this Sunday. (Talk about adding to the odometer!)

Our guy took third -- one fall, a loss at 6-1 in the semi-finals, and a fall for the trophy that he nearly left behind.

This is what happens between matches. My guy is to the right with the sweaty head. Yes, they're all looking at a DS.

Poetry Friday: Wrestling The Beast

Two things on my mind these days.

The poet in me is all about teaching ekphrastic poetry for the Maryland Humanities Council. (I did my first -- and the program's first -- workshop yesterday. A photo from my class is up on the MHC home page. So cool!)

As a mom, I’m coping with wrestling season. Holiday shopping will have to wait. Unless you’d like a Vipers Wrestling t-shirt.

Our eleven-year-old son began wrestling in second grade. We signed him up because he needed to do something and it was only $50 for a season of clinic! He fell in love with the sport. You’ll get a sense of why if you check out my article on kids’ contact sports in SI Focus Magazine.

I love using Arnold Adoff’s book “Sports Pages” with 5th grade and older students. The book has a poem for just about every sport kids do. Adoff’s style is sensory and playful.

Here’s the beginning of his wrestling poem:

Wrestling The Beast

This guy is an animal. A pig? Squealing sinus breathing. A bear? Hair on his fat arms. A dog? No, not biting, but his chin digging into my collar Bone. A dragon. Easy. Dragon breath. An anaconda snake. His mistake: Choke hold around my neck.

The poem turns (along with the match) in the last stanza. Check out "Sports Pages" to find out what happens. I'm sure the kid's mom is biting her nails.

DJRobMan is wrestling for a travel team this year. Last weekend was his first competitive tournament. He lost in a single elimination round. It was a major achievement to make it to the end of the match without getting pinned.

As for me, I’ll be recommending “Sports Pages” as an extension for my “Totally Ekphrastic! Picturing America Through Poetry” workshop on Thomas Eakins’ image of an athlete: “John Biglin in a Single Scull.”

Kids love writing about the activities they do, whether it’s riding horses, gymnastics, art classes, or practicing trombone. Eakins’ watercolor is sensory in its own way – I hope it will be a great jumping off point for some active poetry.

I’ll let you know how the lesson goes. Today, I’m off to a much-needed writing retreat with our SCBWI Asst. Regional Adviser, Edie Hemingway & hope to write some poetry of my own.

Speaking of favorite books, this week’s Poetry Friday Round Up is at Mommy’s Favorite Children’s Books.

D.I.Y. Deadlines

I must have been off my rocker.

A few weeks ago, I sent in the first ten pages of my middle grade novel ("Archieology" -- not the novel in verse) for a conference critique. The feedback I've received from a handful of editors and agents has convinced me that the opening chapters are missing something.

I had a great discussion with children's author Mary Quattlebaum, my critiquer. With Mary's feedback and comments from our SCBWI Asst. Regional Adviser, Edie Hemingway, I couldn't wait to revise. Just as soon as I finished my fall poetry residencies and CityLit class.

Then, last weekend, an enthusiastic moment. "Now is the time to revise," I decided. "The novel (which is at Scholastic) is not going to sell without the changes." I made a revision plan. First fifteen pages due in one week. That's today.

Even by the middle of the week, I was trying to reason with myself. "It's still just four pages a day. That's nothing." Ugh! I hate self-imposed guilt.

Now the week is over. No pages. When will I learn that I can't write while I'm teaching? Anyone else out there have the same problem?

Does teaching require the same heart/mind energy we put into our poems and fiction? Or am I just crazy? (Crazy, probably. I also have a paying deadline for Baltimore's Child Magazine this weekend.)

Picture storybook author Debbie Clayman, who heads up my SCBWI critique group, says she wrote more when she was teaching full time. Having a regular schedule forced her to squeeze in a regular time for writing.

I love being a visiting teacher. But I'm looking forward to having writing time & revising that novel. Finding the time is going to be a challenge. Wrestling season just started and "DJ Rob Man" is on the travel team this year. Miss J has basketball.

I'll just have to cart my laptop around and avoid socializing with anyone but the characters of "Archieology." If Archie or his best friend Billy decides to take up wrestling, you'll know where I was squeezing in that writing time.