Poetry, Poetry by Mandy Webster

Poetry Friday: The Cinquain

Cinquian and Cleve
Image by juliejordanscott via Flickr

In my poetry class this semester, we have discussed several different poetry forms, and I even attempted a few different forms myself. I’d like to to approach this week’s Poetry Friday with a discussion of the Cinquain form.

In researching this form, I found that there are a few different acceptable approaches to writing the Cinquain, each with its own benefits and challenges. For my poetry assignment, I researched the various types and wrote three different poems using Cinquain patterns found on the Teacher Webspace website. The following is an explanation of each individual Cinquain pattern, paired with an original poem by myself: Continue reading “Poetry Friday: The Cinquain”

Poetry, Poetry by Mandy Webster

Revisions for Poetry Friday

A Picture of a eBook
Image via Wikipedia

Every good writer, poet or not, knows that good writers spend the majority of their time on revising and editing. Some experts say it’s 20% writing/80% revising, while others go so far as to spend 90% of their work time in revisions. For this week’s Poetry Friday (sponsored by Tabatha Yeatts: The Opposite of Indifference,) I decided to share a revised version of a poem I wrote a few weeks ago for my poetry class.  Continue reading “Revisions for Poetry Friday”

Poetry

Jump City and other favorites for Poetry Friday

Harryette Mullen, photo taken by Gloria Graham...
Image via Wikipedia

Still too busy with NaNoWriMo to do much else, so for this Poetry Friday, I am sharing two final favorites from I Feel a Little Jumpy Around You: A Book of Her Poems & His Poems Collected in Pairs, collected by Naomi Shihab Nye and Paul B Janeczko. I finally finished the entire collection and must now get it back to the library!

The first poem is the title poem from the collection and was written by Harryette Mullen, pictured at right.

Jump City

I feel a little jumpy around you.
Like when I think a house has
roaches, and I watch everything
out the corner of my eye to see
if it crawls away.

By Harryette Mullen

And here’s poem #2 by Paul B Janeczko. It’s about a daughter, but I feel it applies also to sons (of which I have 2.) Continue reading “Jump City and other favorites for Poetry Friday”

Poetry, Poetry by Mandy Webster

The writer’s life on Poetry Friday

William Blake's "The Tyger," publish...
Image via Wikipedia

9:47 a.m.

This is this writer’s life today on this beautiful Poetry Friday:

  • Kids dressed and fed and off to wherever it is they need to be today: Check
  • Morning walk and shower: Check
  • Breakfast and coffee: Check
  • E-mail reviewed and inbox somewhat emptied: Check
  • Facebook caught up on for the moment: Check (BTW, go check out my Facebook Fan Page and like me.)
  • Morning pages written: Check
It’s already almost 10:00. So much yet To-D0:
Poetry, Poetry by Mandy Webster

Poetry Friday: “Rules for the Dance”

Cover of "Rules for the Dance: A Handbook...
Cover via Amazon

This week’s KidLitoSphere’s Poetry Friday Round-up is brought to you by Jama’s Alphabet Soup.

11:37 a.m.

Friday rolls around once more, and once more, I am attempting to participate in KitLitoSphere’s Poetry Round-up. If only I had a poem ready to share this week. But alas, I have yet to look at my homework for my kids and YA poetry class. I did just check out my syllabus, and it looks like I need to read pages 87-99 in Mary Oliver‘s Rules for the Dance: A Handbook for Writing and Reading Metrical Verse. So, I think I’ll talk about this for now instead of trying to pop out an off-the-cuff poem that will likely just fizzle and flop.

In addition to Rules of the Dance, we are also reading Mary Oliver’s A Poetry Handbook. Each week, we must read a selection from one or both of these books, and then write a poem based on the reading. For example, last week I had to write a metered poem (didn’t go so well, in case you’re wondering.) This week’s reading will require even more metrical verse, and this is why I’m not in a hurry to try to pop out my poem for the week. This is going to take some time and thought. Continue reading “Poetry Friday: “Rules for the Dance””

Halloween, Holidays, Poetry by Mandy Webster

Hiding from the Creeps

This semester, I’ve been taking a course on writing poetry for children and young adults. I’ve never really thought of myself as much of a poet, but I thought it would be good to push myself out of my comfort zone and give it a shot.

Ghost

As it turns out, I’ve learned quite a bit about language and words that will probably help me in my other writing. I would recommend at least one poetry class for every aspiring author, poet or non.

And as long as I have to write a poem every week, I thought it might be fun to share my poems with you. So here’s a Halloween poem for you, inspired by my childhood fear of catching a glimpse of my own reflection in the window at night: Continue reading “Hiding from the Creeps”