A New Poetic Form for Poetry Friday...And How To Sucker Punch Your Fear of Writing

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Howdy, Campers!

Happy Poetry Friday--and thanks, Irene Latham, for hosting today's poetry round-up!

Before you read today's post, be sure to check out JoAnn's interview with Donna Gephart last Friday. You'll want to enter for a chance to win an autographed copy of Donna's acclaimed (and funny!) novel, How to Survive Middle School.  The entry deadline is tonight, August 26th at 11 p.m. Central Standard Time.
The topic rumbling around TeachingAuthors lately is, What Are Your Writing Fears and What Do You Do About Them?

Fears? Who me?

Okay.  I do have a fear.  But only one.  And it's a teeny-tiny, gentle, kindly, whispering voice in my brain:  ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND? YOU CAN'T DO THIS!  YOU COULD NEVER IN A MILLION YEARS DO THIS!  YOU ARE A COMPLETELY INCOMPETENT IMBECILE WHO DOESN'T EVEN KNOW HOW TO SPELL THE WORD IMBECILE WITHOUT ASKING GOOGLE "HOW DO YOU SPELL IMBOCILE?"--NEVER MIND WRITE A POEM OR A STORY OR A BLOG POST!                                 

The voices in my head...courtesy MorgueFile.com

After petting the head of this still, small voice and sliding it a warm saucer of milk, what do I do (I mean, after barreling into my closet and shutting the door)?  I get someone to whip me into submission.

Er...what I meant to say is that I respond well to deadlines.  (We've written about deadlines before...)

Because for me, it's simple: the key is to report in to someone.  It works with what and how much I eat and it works with what and when I write. This does NOT mean that I don't feel the fear every single solitary time I have to sit down and write.  I do.  It just means that I SIT DOWN (eventually).  It means that I put, as author Jane Yolen so poetically words it, my BIC--my butt in the chair.

So who do I report to?  My critique group, which meets every other week and keeps me writing fiction, and my fellow author and best friend, who expects my new poem in his email in-box every day before the stroke of midnight.  Gulp.
Yep--every blue ribbon, thunder-storming, curtain-raising, rat-infested, drool-worthy, wrong-side-of-the-tracks, downtown day since April 1, 2010. (Many of these words come from the book, Better Than Great by Arthur Plotnik, which I ran out and bought after it was recommended by fellow blogger Esther Hershenhorn in her recent post.)

And some days it all pays off!  Look what I came up with when I walked through the fear and wrote my poem (and sent it off before midnight) on August 18!

WRITING WORKOUT: WRITING A LINGO
I'm so excited!  I came up with a new form of poetry: a Lingo.
Here's the definition of a Lingo (sorry it's so long and detailed): A Lingo is poem based on the lexicon of a particular field of interest. Period.

It's interesting that fellow blogger Carmela Martino included this graphic in Wednesday's post--I think she must be a psychic...

...just look at the topic of today's Lingo!

I was in a hurry to write a poem last week and said to my husband, "Let me just run upstairs and knock out a poem."  The words "knock out a poem" buzzed in my head as I began to write, and so, after studying several dictionaries of boxing terms, I wrote the following Lingo poem:
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LET ME JUST RUN UPSTAIRS AND KNOCK OUT A POEM, I SAID
by April Halprin Wayland

There's a big purse tonight—a lot at stake,
I bob and weave in the ring,
baiting, provoking it, daring it,
showboating with a bolo punch.

I move in close, looking for the right words,
the right combination,
wanting to knock it out quick
suddenly I'm lost, I'm no-wheres-ville,
I'm on the ropes, trapped,
in a dangerous situation.

I move away, try to take a break
but this thing is after me,
below the belt dirty fighting,
punching, elbowing,
headbutting, hitting my face with uppercuts,
ribs with hooks, forearm in my throat

and I'm just pawing at it, too timid—
it bashes my nose, slices near my eye,
blood streams down,
ref calls for a break,
my corner man cleans me off,
patches me up,
sends me out again.

Oof! A low blow, a rabbit punch, 
I do the peek-a-boo,
gloves high in front of my face,
then feint left
and it opens up so I counter punch,
landing a straight right,
a Sunday punch

and it's down,

down for the count,

it's kissing the canvas

a KO.

Poem's done.
.2011 April Halprin Wayland, all rights reserved

Now it's your turn!  

1) Email a friend and tell her to expect a poem from you before midnight tonight.  

2) Then turn off the fear and get into the play mode.  

3) Think of some galaxy of interest--maybe a world you know nothing about--horse racers, quilters, auto mechanics, saxophone players, or antique bottle collectors.  Then, Google something like, "antique bottle collector glossary" and VIOLA!  (In fact, here's a directory of all sorts of collectibles glossaries.)

4) Look through the glossary and pull out the most interesting words.

5) Lay out all those fabulous words as if someone had just given you a thousand Legos ®.

photo courtesy Emily Neal--who's sorting a windfall of Legos® with happy kids

6) Play with these words!  Discover a poem!  Rewrite it.  

7) Send this rough draft to your email buddy because you promised you would.

7) Let it marinate overnight or over a few days. Read it to your cat.   Polish it.

8) Send your Lingo to http://www.teachingauthors.com/ in our comments section--I'd love to see what world you've wandered into and how your Lingo turned out!

"Yet somehow, we write; and most of the time, we like what we write. The dark place seems less dark when we get there. It was only the journey that was fearful." Susan Shaughnessy

Happy Poetry Friday! Write your own Lingo Poem--and then sing it to your cat!

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Howdy, Campers!

Today's poem and writing prompt/Writing Workout is below.

My fellow bloggers have covered the topic of Digital Learning fabulously (scroll below).

Today, I want to list some of the ways I use these new tools...

~ Every day I use an online thesaurus and rhyming dictionary to write my poetry.

~ I decided which version of Ashoken Farewell I wanted to play at a recent tribute to the journalist Daniel Pearl by watching different versions on YouTube; then Freda Sideroff posted a snippet she'd filmed of me and hammer dulcimer player, Phee Sherline at the tribute concert (what goes around comes around!...)



I learned how to pronounce author Jon Scieszka's name (and lots of other authors and illustrators names) by listening here.(hint: it rhymes with the soda, Fresca)

Raise your hand if you get overwhelmed.  Do you?  Whew!  And I thought I was the only one.  Well, JoAnn is right. I just need to try one new thing. And I'm going to change the adjective: try one small thing.

So...here's my poem, based on an old song. But just one verse, not all of them. That's my one small thing!

(listen to the song on this video first, so you know the tune, then read the new words...)

THE BLOGGER BEARS' POETRY FRIDAY

by April Halprin Wayland

with apologies to Jimmy Kennedy and John W. Bratton 

If you go onto the internet

You're sure of a big surprise.

If you go onto the internet

You'd better go in disguise.

For every bear who hopes to express

Will gather there to write on Wordpress

Today's Fri-day, when every bear posts a poem!

Poem time for blogging bears

The Kidlit blogging bears are having a lovely time today.

Watch them, catch them unawares,

And hear them rhyming on their holiday.

See them tweet their permalink

They love to click in sync

And never have any cares.

At night they share on Mister Linky

now they can go to bed

Because they're tired little blogging bears.

If you go onto the internet

You're sure of a big surprise.

If you go onto the internet

You'd better go in disguise.

For every bear chewing sunflower seeds

Will gather there to read RSS feeds

Today's Fri-day--when every bear posts a poem!

poem (c) 2012 April Halprin Wayland

Writing Workout: Sing a Lingo Poem!
What's a Lingo?  A Lingo is a poem based on the lexicon of a particular field of interest. Period.

1) Pick a song you love to sing (I used my favorite song book for ideas, Rise Up Singing--in folk music circles it's known as The Song Book)

2) Daydream about a profession or hobby that fascinates you.Weaving? Blackjack? Riding horses? Gymnastics?  Plumbing?  I chose blogging.

3) Search for a glossary of words for that profession or hobby.

4) Pick out the most interesting words and put them at the top of your page.  In the poem above, I picked these words:
feeds, link, pingback, internet, blogging, podcast, post, rss, search engine, URL, spam, subscribe, entry, sidebar, tags, ping,permalink, Mister Linky, Poetry Friday, Kidlitosphere, dashboard, Blogger, Wordpress, LiveJournal, blogiversary, reciprocal link, link love, navbar, bookmark, tweet, facebook, draft, schedule

5) Find ways to fit some of these words to the beat of your song. You probably won't use more than a few words, but it's nice to have a big selection.  You can see that I only used a handful of my words.

6) Make liberal use of a rhyming dictionary.

7) Make sure you've installed AdBlock Plus (which is free) or the ads on this site (and most sites!) will drive you crazy (at least they drove me crazy!)

5) Sing your song to your cat.

6) Sing it to a friend.

7) Sing it with your friend!

The end.

Poetry Friday is hosted at Check It Out today.  Thanks, Jone!

...and for heaven's sake, write with joy!

poem and drawing (c) 2012 April Halprin Wayland

Revision! A LINGO poem! Poetry Friday! and a Play Doh exercise!

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Howdy, Campers!  Happy Poetry Friday!

Poetry Friday is hosted by Secrets and Sharing Soda this week. (The direct link to the roundup is here.)

Thank you, Katie!

Our topic this week is REVISION, inspired by The International Reading Association (IRA)'s "Revision Week"--September 5-9, 2011.  Visit the IRA's Engage: Teacher to Teacher Blog this week to read/hear comments about revision from several well-known children's authors, including Cynthia Lord and Kate Messner.

We've written LOTS of posts on revision, because, of course, we're always revising.  ALWAYS.  Also, ALL WAYS.  

Oy.  Sometimes it feels as if an editor is asking me to kill my first born.  Ever feel that way to you?

This is me, off to revise:

Actually, sometimes revising is my favorite part.  I mean, at least I have the bones of the story or poem--now I just have to...have to...have DO something with those bones!

I thought I'd write a LINGO poem on editing and revising.  A Lingo is a brand new poetic form!  It's also fun to write.  See my last post.

The terms in bold are from this glossary of copyediting terms.  I chose the juiciest ones to play with and here's the result:

EDIT, CUT, KILL

by April Halprin Wayland

The guy was a legend.

He grew up rough, an orphan; 

he wore ragged right shoes,

cooked his meals on a boilerplate.

You shoulda seen his face.

I don't wanna justify nutin', but the dingbat had it coming.

When I finally found him in the gutter, 

it was a clean kill—he was dead copy.

They did it Chicago style, 

with a backslash, 

using a dagger.  

Or a bullet.  

Or maybe it was a flush and hang—hard to tell.

I tried to clean up the crime scene,

tried to redline it,

tried to flag someone down.

Finally I made an em dash for the door.

I don't have proof, mind you, 

but it looks like it coulda been 

a serial comma.

For today's WRITING WORKOUT, I'm reprising an exercise on revising which was at the end of a post that ran in August, when you were on vacation. 

You'll need:

• twice as many small cans of Play Doh as you have students
• plastic forks, knives and spoons
• writing materials

1) Let each student choose one can of their favorite color Play Doh...then scatter other cans on everyone's desk so they can share.  Make plastic forks, knives and spoons available, too.
2) Give them five minutes (or more) to make a person, animal or other creature.
3) If there's time, let everyone walk around the class to look at each creation.
4) Now tell each student to move to the next desk and make one radical change in the figure there.
5) Have them return to their desks and let the class walk around again, looking at the changes.
6) Discuss.  How did it feel when someone changed your art?  Do you like what it looks like now?  Which do you like better?

In one of the classes I teach through UCLA Extension Writers Program, most of my adult students are surprised that they like the changed creature best.  One woman admitted that she liked the changes...but also missed her own creation and felt slightly violated.

Yes...that's exactly how I feel when an editor or my critique group wants to edit (gasp!) my work.  Hurt, resentful, violated.  Sometimes, if I sit with the suggestions, I end up liking them.  I can see how it can take a village to create a vision bigger than my own.  Sometimes, though, I reject the changes.

If you'd like to make this more of a writing exercise, you can have your students write a story or poem during the process.  You might decide to have them write as soon as they've made their creature, before it is changed.  If you have time, you can also have them write after the changes--either about the changed creature or about how they feel now that it's different.

So--dive into Play Doh!  Let your room fill with its delicious perfume!

And remember to write with joy!

poem and drawings (c) 2011 April Halprin Wayland, all rights reserved