Contributions for August close soon. Publish a blog post with your poem before 30th August if you wish to be included in the round-up for August:
Write a Heart Poem:
This might be a poem with lines written in the shape of a heart, or a poem about love, getting to the heart of a problem, about folks wearing their hearts on their sleeves, or someone showing a lot of heart in competitions.
Post on your blog on or before 30th August 2018 to be included in the link-backs.
The prompt is merely a suggestion and any topic is welcome.
Here is Amanda’s contribution for August:
When You Leave
My heart does dream of only you,
it has no time or rudder.
Until your touch is felt again,
that longing makes me shudder.
Your trust you gave implicitly
I will not lie or tease,
for in between life’s dark and light,
It ‘s you I long to please.
Hosts Blogger and writer from New Zealand, Ineke from scrapydo2.wordpress.com and Blogger, Amanda from Something to Ponder About, are jointly hosting the A and I Poetry Challenge. Amanda’s challenge is in English and Ineke’s is in Afrikaans, (with translations in English).
The challenge is open to everyone, from complete beginners to advanced writers or aspiring poets. The challenge will run from March to October 2018.
You can write in either language but please post a link back or comment at both WordPress blogs to indicate your interest and include the tag A and I Poetry Challenge.
Beginner poet, hobbyist or Advanced writer – we hope you will join in with us.
You know, these days when my Mum says:“We’re on a day out!”
Well, the places we visit are past boring. We go to parks or KMart to get some new clothes for Mum. It’s not like other kids. They go to water parks or hangdog. They are very fortunate.
Today was different.
Once again Mum said:”We’re going on a day out!”
“More like a boring day again,” I mumbled.
We jumped into Mum’s car and off we went. “Where are we going?”
“Surprise, surprise,” Mum answered with a grin on her face.
I crossed my arms over my chest and gave my sad face.
“Don’t feel sad about it,” Mum said seeing my face in the mirror.
“You’ll know where we are as soon as we get there.” She smiled from ear to ear.
I wasn’t sad about that, though. The last time Mum said it was a ‘surprise’ we went to Grandmother to play scrabble.
Soon we reached the town. I expected Mum to stop at the local playground. We didn’t!
I was shocked. “Why aren’t we going to the park, Mum? We usually go there on a bor… I mean a day out?”
“Well, that’s the point. We go there too often. I decided we should go somewhere else for a change.” came Mums explanation. “We are going to the -” POP interrupted Mum. She went white as a ghost.
“Oh dear,” she whispered. The car stopped with a jolt. Mum jumped out and looked at the tires.”Oh my, oh my” Mum kept on saying.
I opened the car door and joined Mum. A popped tyre means only one thing.
The most boring day of my life, history. Mum gave a big sigh again: “Sorry Frank, I was going to take you to ‘hangdog’.”
I looked like a codfish. We were heading for ‘hangdog’! Now the chances of having a fun day out, crushed.
“I better call the tyre fitters or whatever they are called.” I could hardly hear my Mum’s words. That’s how our day started, with our car being towed to be fixed.
I sighed. This was going to be so dull.
Then, a MIRACLE!
“Mum, Mum, can I please go to the Water Park across the road?”
“Sure,” Mum said, not paying any attention.
“YIPPY!” I screamed as I ran towards the Water Park.
It was the best day out after all.
The stolen toy
I am a toy. I do not have a proper name; I’m just called Toy. At the moment I’m a stolen toy. I’m in Luna’s little sisters’ bedroom.
I am so lucky not being her toy. The craziest thing happened while I was there.
She came through the door muttering something:”Luna is a big fat…. Mumble.” I could not hear clearly. She sat on her bed, heaved a big sigh. That’s when I got terrified. She grabbed Big Brown Teddy by the neck and threw him into the wall. I heard him whimpering as he crumpled to the floor like a paper being scrunched. Next, she kicked Fairy who sat on the ground into the warm heater. Fairy howled loud and long.
Her eyes flashed with fury. She stamped on her tiger and sat on her lion. Screaming.
Luckily Luna came in.
“You stole her again!”Luna growled. She grabbed me and took me back to her room.
Pepper woke up at 3 am bright and ready for a new adventure. She gave herself a good clean and darted out the cat flap.
She ran through the bush out on the neighbour’s driveway. Practices some stalking the chickens. She won’t hurt them!
After this fun, she spent so time running around smelling everything.
Suddenly Pepper stopped. She smelled something dangerous. Some warm breath brushed against her face. Pepper took off in a flash. A bark echoed behind her. “A dog! I’ve got to run faster!” She kept on running. The dog gave up, and Pepper headed home.
“Where am I?” she could see nothing familiar. She knew that she ran straight. “Think Pepper!” she told herself. “I just need to run in the opposite direction.”She sped for home. After running for a long time, she passed a well-known tree. She smelled a familiar smell. She heard biscuits being poured into her bowl. Pepper followed the scent and the sound and padded down the driveway. She looked up and saw her home.
Hurriedly she ran inside. A welcome smile and beaming face looked at her.
That was an unforgettable adventure.
Pepper enjoyed the rest of the day resting and cuddled up in her owner’s arms.
Second Story
AROUND THE WORLD
Hi, I’m a colourful leaf. I live in Willow Woods. Very boring just hanging here unless the wind blows. It has been my dream to travel around the world.
One day a storm was brewing overhead. My hopes got up:
Maybe my luck is in today!
The storm could go on for days, and I could travel around the world! Jippie yey.
Now, wait for the moment! I got prepared for the journey by packing a lot of nutrients and a protective dirt suit so that I won’t get ripped apart.
The wind began to pick up speed. I whisked around. After some hours I was out of the country.
I flew over the sea. The sea was more beautiful than I imagined. My first stop was Italy. Finally, my dream came true.
It is the final week of the Monthly Poetry Challenge for June.
Write a poem based on your own theme or the prompt given below, and post using the tag A and I Poetry Challenge. You have until Friday to be included in this months round up of entries.
The prompt is outlined below but perhaps you have another theme to present?
Leave a comment here so that Ineke and I can easily find your poem for this month.
I usually take Trompie for a quick walk before I leave home at about ten past seven.
With all the bad weather I did not take him for these early walks. I am in the lucky position now to have a fenced garden. I let him out at half past six, but he kept on telling me he wanted to go out.
I know why he wants to go out. He loves to sniff out cat poop to eat.
I put Trompie on his lead. I told him I am already late, he better hurry up.
The road in front of my house is a double drive with an isle in the middle grown with grass.
We crossed the road and walked past the farm where there are about fifty sheep and four cows. It smelled like the farm. Trompie kept on trying to push through the fence. He wasn’t in a hurry at all.
I forced him to keep on walking. We crossed the road just after passing the roundabout.
We were back on the side where my house is. When we came around the bend,
EXCITEMENT:
On the middle part were two huge, white, fat pigs looking at us.
Trompie looked at them, and they looked back.
Trompie and I slowly moved nearer
You know what these two pigs did?
At first, they stared at us.
We stared back in amazement.
They turned around in a flash, squealing and off they went, back home.
You are invited to join in. See instructions below.
Poetry Writing Tips
Honour the miraculousness of the ordinary. What we very badly need to remember is that the things right under our noses are extraordinary, fascinating, irreplaceable, profound and just kind of marvellous.
Look at the things in the foreground and relish stuff that can lose its glow by being familiar. In fact, re-estranging ourselves to familiar things seems to be a very important part of what poetry can do. [Source: From http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-29538180:]
“The first step in any poem is coming up with something to write about. Don’t feel that you have to choose profound or “poetic” material. It’s easiest to write a good poem about something you know well, that you have experienced first-hand, or that you have nearby so that you can observe it carefully. This is because what makes the poem profound and interesting will be the hidden details or qualities you discover, or what the subject reminds you of, your unique perspective. With poems, as with other things (or so I hear), it’s not the size that matters, it’s what you do with it.In the beginning, you don’t have to worry about “style,” about writing in a “beautiful” or a “poetic” way. In fact, if you start to think about “being poetic,” it can distract you from what you’re actually writing about and hurt your poem.”
Add the tag A and I Poetry Challenge to your post.
As ping backs sometimes don’t work, please also leave a comment at my blog, scrapydo2.wordpress.com and Amanda’s blog, Something to Ponder About, with the link URL to YOUR blog post on the challenge post for that month. N.B. If you do this, others can find their way to your challenge post and create a supportive community too.
Include the Poetry Challenge badge in your post, if you so wish. (optional)
That is it!
Oh, and have fun writing!! Any questions? Just ask.
Amanda and I will post link backs to the blogs who have joined in with the challenge in the poetry challenge post in the following month so that you can all find each other’s blog posts and build a new poet’s community!!
here is a fun challenge. I hope you will all try it. I’ve never written any poetry myself. I think it is going to be a lot of fun.
A dear blog-friend suggested that we do it together. Read how Amanda explains everything.
I am also going to do this in Afrikaans. So liewe Afrikaanse Ouens laat ons bietjie plesierig wees en digterlik raak.
Writing poetry is something everyone can do, because you can’t really ever get it wrong.
Poetry is just your own thoughts down on paper, so how can that be wrong?
Poetry writing can be a great way to express deep-seated emotions in a constructive way, helping us to process their inner meanings and significance. Then again, your poetry might just be a little bit of fun. Rhyming poetry is an example of this.
I have my reasons for running this challenge. The first poetry challenge I ever joined was hosted by Andrea Heiberg, a teacher friend in Denmark and her colleague in America and involved an Adult and Child poetry writing challenge which you can still find here.
There were around six groups participating, from all over the world. It was a lot of fun to see what each couple came up, with each week, as well as how they improved throughout the course of the challenge. It was definitely a learning experience for all.
Sadly, Andrea Heiberg passed away last year from Cancer and I know that she would have been absolutely thrilled to see me instigating a new Poetry challenge. So, first and foremost, this poetry challenge honours her as a writer. Secondly, because it is fun to write and it builds a community. I hope it will inspire you to join in.
When will the Challenge start?
The Poetry challenge is open to everyone, from complete beginners to advanced writers, and will run from March to October in 2018.
You can write in any language, it certainly doesn’t have to be in English.
Ineke will post the challenge in Afrikaans on her blog, so if that language suits you better, visit her here. See instructions on joining below.
How the Poetry Challenge Works
On the first week of each month, Ineke and I will publish a challenge post which asks you to write a poem based on the prompt supplied, or your own idea. We will include links to helpful sites and tips for poetry writing. There will be a poetry prompt for each month that the challenge runs.
Remember, you do not have to use this prompt, at all. The prompt is only there if you feel you want a topic to work from, or you find it hard to come up with an initial idea.
Ineke and I have created the above logo for the Poetry Challenge and you are very welcome to paste this onto your blog post or sidebar, so that others can also find out about the challenge, if you so wish.
Join the Challenge!
The challenge will commence in March and run for six months.
One post and one prompt per month.
Join in for one or all months, as you like.
Instructions :–
Sign up by leaving a comment here so we know you are interested in participating.
Ineke and I will post a poetry prompt and writing tips and links, around 1st day of each month. You might need to follow our blogs so that the posts show up in your WP reader.
Using the monthly Poetry prompt supplied, or your own idea, write a post with a poem, either fun or serious.,
So that we can see when you post for the poetry challenge, don’t forget to include a link or pingback to scrapydo2.wordpress.com and Amanda’s blog, Something to Ponder About and the tag A and I Poetry Challenge.
Include the Poetry Challenge badge in your post, if you so wish. (optional)
Leave a comment at Ineke’s blog, scrapydo2.wordpress.com and Amanda’s blog, Something to Ponder About, with a link to your blog post on the Poetry challenge post for that month. If you do this, others can find their way to your challenge post and join in the community too.
That is it!
Oh and have fun writing!!
N.B. Ineke and I will post link backs to the blogs who have joined in with the challenge in the poetry challenge post in the following month, so that you can all find each other’s blog posts and build a new poet’s community!!
Here is an initial link that you might find useful if you are looking for rhyming words.
A language arts reference tool and comprehensive search engine for words. Includes the functions of a rhyming dictionary, thesaurus, and spelling checker, as well as …
We’ll begin with a box, and the plural is boxes,
But the plural of ox becomes oxen, not oxes.
One fowl is a goose, but two are called geese,
Yet the plural of moose should never be meese.
You may find a lone mouse or a nest full of mice,
Yet the plural of house is houses, not hice.
If the plural of man is always called men,
Why shouldn’t the plural of pan be called pen?
If I speak of my foot and show you my feet,
And I give you a boot, would a pair be called beet?
If one is a tooth and a whole set are teeth,
Why shouldn’t the plural of booth be called beeth?
Then one may be that, and three would be those,
Yet hat in the plural would never be hose,
And the plural of cat is cats, not cose.
We speak of a brother and also of brethren,
But though we say mother, we never say methren.
Then the masculine pronouns are he, his and him,
But imagine the feminine: she, shis and shim!
Let’s face it – English is a crazy language.
There is no egg in eggplant nor ham in hamburger;
Neither apple nor pine in pineapple.
English muffins weren’t invented in England.
We take English for granted, but if we explore its paradoxes,
We find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square,
And a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig.
And why is it that writers write, but fingers don’t fing,
Grocers don’t groce and hammers don’t ham?
Doesn’t it seem crazy that you can make amends but not one amend?
If you have a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of all but one of them,
What do you call it?
If teachers taught, why didn’t preachers praught?
If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat?
Sometimes I think all the folks who grew up speakingEnglish
Should be committed to an asylum for the verbally insane.
In what other language do people recite at a play and play at a recital?
We ship by truck but send cargo by ship…
We have noses that run and feet that smell.
We park in a driveway and drive in a parkway.
And how can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same,
While a wise man and a wise guy are opposites?
You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language
In which your house can burn up as it burns down,
In which you fill in a form by filling it out,
And in which an alarm goes off by going on.
I am nearly ready to print my book. It is going to be about my time still in the Netherlands. We immigrated to South Africa in the beginning of 1952. My sixth birthday happened on the ship. I remember a few snippets from my early time in the Netherlands.
I went back in 1974 to revisit my birthplace. What an adventure to see everything through the eyes of a grown up.
I would appreciate it if you could give me advise and comment on the two cover pages.
Our fold up beds had curtains at the front. When we were in bed we could close the curtains and played that we were in a tent.
=====++++=====
Words: bedroom, holiday, teasing, excitement, post
I used the word bedroom for my Friday It’s Write Easy at our library.
A bedroom is an important room in a home. When I taught at a rural school near Potgietersrus, the children had to draw their homes. The children came from far off rural places. Their homes usually had only one big room. The whole family did everything there. There was no bedroom at all.
I am very privileged that I could share a bedroom with my sisters. First with my older sister and later with my younger sister. I had my bedroom when both my sisters were not living with my parents anymore. The room was a so called “rondawel” meaning a round room with a thatched roof. No ceiling, only wooden beams with the grass on top! This was a bad place to sleep because I had hay fever for Africa due to the dust and grass.
In the Netherlands
My big sister and I shared a bedroom. It was so small and narrow. There were two beds, which were folded up against the walls during the daytime. At night when both were down, you could hardly open the door. The last night, before our departure, we were so excited and could not sleep. My sister and I were playing in bed, in the dark room, when suddenly my bed’s two legs gave way. I crashed on the floor, bedding and all. My parents couldn’t enter the room because the bed was in the way. We were not robust enough to pick up the bed. Finally, my father pushed the bed up against the wall from the outside of the room.
We were told:“Now, stop your play and go to sleep! Tomorrow you have to get up early for our departure to Rotterdam harbour and then off to South Africa.”
On the ship
My parents and younger sister used one cabin while my big sister and I were next doors in a small cabin. It was as big as a cupboard, hardly any space to turn around. There were only two bunk beds. My older sister slept on the top while I used the bottom one. I had to first slide out on my back before I could stand up. We could look out of the porthole and see the sea. Lucky for us the weather was good during our trip. When we had to enter Cape Town harbour a storm broke loose. We could not enter the harbour and had to sail out to the deep sea again. The waves were so huge they came up to the porthole and covered it completely at times. Very scary. We had to stay in our cabin during the storm.
As grown-up:
When I left home, after teaching from home for four years, I slept in my own bedroom in the school hostel. We were four lady teachers, each in separate bedrooms and sharing a bathroom. We were on duty twenty four hours a day just like parents look after their children.
The next move was into my own flat. It had only one bedroom. The bedroom was on the walkway side of the building. My flat was the second last one on the top floor. Near the stairs going down to the garages and parked cars. Very noisy at times especially during weekends. I changed my bedroom to the sitting-room and the sitting-room into the bedroom. I loved to watch people’s faces when I invited them into my bedroom. One day the Reverend, deacon and elderly came to visit and see how I was. They could not believe that they had to go into my bedroom. We had a good laugh and years later we were still joking about me inviting them into my bedroom.
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