Owl in the Library

Monday Poetry Stretch: Clerihew

This week's poetry stretch is to write a clerihew. This is a four line poem with an a/a/b/b rhyme scheme that is biographical and humorous. My offering is a holiday poem that will also go a long way toward explaining why my blogging has been so sporadic of late:

The Joy of Handmade Gifts: An Autobiographical Clerihew

'Tis the week before Christmas; I'm frantically knittng.
My skills 'gainst your holiday wishes I'm pitting.
Next year, if for hand knits you happen to thirst,
Better tell me before December first!

Non-fiction Monday: Immersed in Verse

I'm always on the lookout for fun writing guides aimed at middle grade students, so I was thrilled to find Immersed in Verse: An Informative, Slightly Irreverent & Totally Tremendous Guide to Living the Poet's Life by Allan Wolf.This is not a book that takes itself too seriously. Readers are introduced to poetic archetypes like the Angry Poet, the Goth Poet, and the Professor Poet as they try to answer the question "What Kind of Poet Are You?" and encouraged to carry a Bent Book in their back pocket for ideas ("Those of you who carry your notebook in this manner will notice the way in which it bends itself into the perfect curve of your rear end, hence the name bent book.")

Despite the light-hearted tone, this book contains a wealth of information for budding poets, from explanations of poetry devices (similie, metaphor, personification, meter, etc.) to advice on how to find ideas and revise poems.

Wolf also suggests that readers adopt "The Nine Habits of Highly Successful Poets," including the essential Habit #8: Write Every Day. Ways to share your poetry with others are discussed, too.

The book concludes with a list of suggested poems, and poems are also scattered throughout the book. Classics by well-known poets like Langston Hughes and William Carlos Williams share space with light, kid friendly verses.

Another of my favorite idea books for young writers is In Print!: 40 Cool Publishing Projects for Kids by Joe Rhatigan. Sadly, it's out of print, but if you can find a used copy, snap it up. It's a treasure trove of interesting ways for kids to show off their writing. Ideas include a poetry calendar, a charm bracelet, and an umbrella along with instructions for making various books and advice on submitting writing for publication.

Nanowrimo 09

We did it! Team Library won Nanowrimo!

My book: The Naga Project, 50,493 words (and I won Piboidmo, too)

Owlet A's book: Hel's Hammer, 20,070 words

Owlet N's book: Aurcs, 15,016 words (his second Nano win)

Owlet S's book: The Adventures of Super Pillow, 1,251 words

We had to cut Owlet S's word goal because having two people noveling on one computer did not work very well. All in all, though, an extremely successful November.

Tonight, we will be having pie and sparkling apple juice. Toasting the Novels is a beloved Library tradition, dating all the way back to 2008. EDIT: The Owlets unanimously agreed that I should share the pie recipe with you. It's so simple that I almost hate to dignify it with the term "recipe," but all the Owlets adore it.

My Mother's Chocolate Mousse Pie

2 packages (4 oz. each) Baker's German's Sweet Chocolate

1/2 cup milk

1 package (8 oz.) cream cheese, softened

1 tub Cool Whip (8 oz.)

1 Oreo pie crust

Heat all but 3 squares of the chocolate and 1/4 cup of the milk in a microwavable bowl for 1 1/2 to 2 minutes. [Afterward, you can either grate the remaining squares and stir them into the filling or melt them and drizzle over the top - or just throw all the squares into the microwave, if you prefer.] Stir until completely melted.

Beat in cream cheese and the remaining 1/2 cup milk. Then gradually add the Cool Whip and beat until smooth.

Spoon the filling into the crust and freeze until firm. Let stand at room temperature for a half hour before serving.

Monday Poetry Stretch: Hay(na)ku

When they learn that my husband is in the military (he's a Navy engineer), people frequently ask how I can stand deployments. This poem, for the Monday Poetry Stretch, is my reply. It is a series of Hay(na)ku, a three line poem with one word in the first line, two in the second, and three in the third.

Married to the Military

When

You leave

A hole remains.

“When

Will daddy

Be back home?”

The

Children ask.

We count down

 

Months

And days

On calendar squares.

 

Our

Family is

Like the moon

 

Waxing

And waning

Through your seasons

 

It

Has its

Own special rhythm

 

Daddy

Here, daddy

There, daddy home.

 

When

You leave

A hole remains

 

But

Our love

Fills it up.

Why I Love Nano

I love Nanowrimo because I get to have great conversations with the Owlets like this one, between me and Owlet N:

"How's the writing going, Mom?"

"I'm having a tough day. My main character needs to go and raid the rakshasa fortress to get back the magic gem they stole from her, but she refuses to go. She keeps pointing out that she doesn't know any magic, and she's only had two sword lessons, and maybe she's not ready to take on the demon army."

"Yeah, I have days like that, too, where I'm not sure where to go next. In fact, my adventurers just found out about the lich's master plan, and they don't know how to handle it. Have you tried backing up and erasing some stuff, or maybe throwing in a new character?"

It's a unique situation - we aren't interacting as Owl and Owlet. We're on equal ground together as writers, and we can toss ideas back and forth and share our progress as fellow explorers in the trackless wilderness of the mid-novel. It's such fun!

Plus, I have passed the 30,000 word mark!

Monday Poetry Stretch: Childhood Games

I wrote two poems for this week's poetry stretch. The first was inspired by Sherman Alexie's  wonderful "Totem Sonnets," which I discovered in The Spoken Word Revolution. I taught a poetry unit for tenth graders during my Master's program, and one of their favorite assignments was working with the sonnets. I assigned sonnets to small groups, and they had to research each line of the poem and determine the "rhyme scheme" (how the "rhyming" lines, according to sonnet structure, related to one another). Here is Alexie's Totem Sonnet 6:

                    Lenny

                    Edgar Bearchild

                    Holden Caulfield

                    Tess

                    The Misfit

                    Sula

                    Mazie

                    Tayo

                    Cacciato

                    Cecelia Capture

                    Hamlet

                    Jim Loney

                    Daredevil

                    The Incredible Hulk

The long list of childhood games I came up with reminded me of "Totem Sonnets," so I wrote one of my own:

                    Candyland

                    Jacks

                    Chutes & Ladders

                    Marbles

                    Old Maid

                    Hangman

                    Rummy

                    Tic Tac Toe

                    Hopscotch

                    Hide and Seek

                    Chinese Jumprope

                    Freeze Tag

                    Spelling Test

                    Times Tables

The second poem is about my favorite childhood activity, which I guess qualifies as a game.

                    In the beginning, breath.

                    Out of the breath, worlds.

                    I watch a universe take shape,

                    Dancing the music of the spheres.

                    Such possibilities ripple across these tiny worlds,

                    Shimmering with opal reflections.

                    What gardens bloom here? What creatures walk these lands?

                    I could scry forever into these crystal balls.

                    But Shiva dances his fiery dance

                    Even in lands that know only air and water,

                    And I become the destroyer of my own worlds,

                    Bringing oblivion

                    With a pop!

(Yes, I was a bubble blower.)

                   

An Unexpected Weekend

My plan for the weekend: make my Nanowrimo word count for both Saturday and Sunday, finish a draft of the picture book I'm working on so I can email it to my writing group, finish the revised PowerPoint for my Guiding Gifted Readers talk. Maybe squeeze in a trip to the grocery store and a load of laundry.

My actual weekend: The lovely No-longer-an-owlet M needed some immediate parental attention, moral support, and hugs, so we woke up at 4:00 AM on Saturday and drove up to Monterey, where she is currently studying Arabic at the Defense Language Institute. She was on duty Friday night. While she caught a few hours of sleep, we took the Owlets to the incomparable Monterey Bay Aquarium. We saw the Secret Lives of Seahorses exhibit, which included several of these:

Leafy sea dragons, acclaimed by all of the Owlets as the coolest creatures on the planet and tied (with giraffes) for my favorite animal ever. Interesting sea dragon trivia I learned: There are two types of sea dragons, the leafies pictured above and their slightly-less-glamorous cousin the weedy sea dragon. Male sea dragons, like their sea horse relatives, carry the babies. Unlike sea horses, however, they don't have pouches. Instead, during the mating season their tails develop a series of indentations, like pockets, for the eggs to nestle inside.

After the aquarium, we met Non-owlet M for a dinner out, a trip to the local Borders, a homemade brownie hand off, and a nice visit. This morning, we had breakfast and drove back home. I had time for a grocery store run and a pre-dinner nap.

Score for the weekend - Nanowrimo: 493 words. Picture book: 0 words. PowerPoint: still not quite perfect. Owlets: excited and bearing a gift-shop bounty of sea horse books. Non-owlet M: smiling. I am going to count it as a win.

November Is for Writing!

November is shaping up to be a very busy month here in the Library! All three Owlets and I are participating in Nanowrimo. Keyboards are tapping all over the house! My novel, tentatively titled The Naga Project, is a middle grade fantasy.

In addition, I've decided to participate in PiBoIdMo, so I'll be generating a picture book idea every day. I think this is such a fun idea! Plus, it will give me new projects to focus on when I hit the post-Nano blues on December 1.

 

I was so inspired this morning that I even wrote a poem for the Monday Poetry Stretch at The Miss Rumphius Effect. This week's challenge was to write a poem about what isn't there, illuminating the subject through the negative. Here's my effort:

Stepmother

No poisoned apples or magic mirrors
No waiting for night in a woodcutter’s cottage clutching the edge of the forest
No spells, no curses, no magic wands
No potions that twist brothers into birds; no arms growing feathered in the morning sun
No lentils to sort, no floors to scrub, no hunting for strawberries in the snow
No ugly, one-eyed daughter sleeping, selfish, in your upstairs room
No royal huntsmen serving your heart for my dinner

No, I’m not your real mother, flying through the window to shower you with gowns like the sun.

But that doesn’t make me the witch.

I haven't written any poetry since high school (as I'm sure you can tell), but I plan to make the Poetry Stretch a Monday tradition.

I'm also going to be writing at least one picture book during November.