Monday, February 28, 2011

Grabbing Forty Winks

Zzzzz.  Zzzzz.  Zzzzz.  Oh!  Excuse us!  You caught us napping!  We know that we're supposed to be blogging about poetry and bustling around the LMC, but we just had to take advantage of National Public Sleeping Day.  That's right, Poetry Paraders, somebody somewhere declared that on this day it is a-okay to grab forty winks in a public place: at our desks, in the cafeteria, in the frozen food aisle at King's, or at the gazebo by the Chatham train station, for example. When we grab forty winks,  we take a short nap-- usually not in bed-- so it's the perfect idiom to use on National Public Sleeping Day!  Today's first poem, by Jack Prelutsky, celebrates sleeping-- in bed-- and a sincere wish to grab more than forty winks: 

Please Let Me Sleep All Day Today

Please let me sleep all day today,
I need to stay in bed.
I'm hardly even half awake,
I'm sure my eyes are red.

I try and try to open them,
but can't remember how.
You say today is Saturday?
I'm getting up right now. 

When it comes to public sleeping, no creature in the animal kingdom does it better than the sloth, a shy, slow-moving mammal that spends most of its life hanging upside-down from rain forest tree branches. Sloths are nocturnal: they are most active at night, and they sleep-- in public!-- during the day.  Our next poem, written by American poet Theodore Roethke in 1950, uses rhythm, rhyme, and imagery to describe the drowsy, slow-moving public sleeper: 

The Sloth 

In moving-slow he has no Peer.
You ask him something in his ear;
He thinks about it for a Year;

And, then, before he says a Word
There, upside down (unlike a Bird)
He will assume that you have Heard--

A most Ex-as-per-at-ing Lug.
But should you call his manner Smug,
He'll sigh and give his Branch a Hug;

Then off again to Sleep he goes,
Still swaying gently by his Toes,
And you just know he knows he knows. 

Today's final selection, an excerpt from The Nap Taker by Shel Silverstein, imagines what happens when we take a nap and someone wants us to give it back: 

No--I did not take a nap--
The nap--took--me
Off the bed and out the window
Far beyond the sea,
To a land where sleepy heads
Read only comic books
And lock their naps in iron safes
So that they can’t get took....
 


And so, Poetry Paraders, we (yawn) invite you to the LMC on this (yawn) National Public Sleeping day to (yawn) check out books about rain forest animals (591.3) and poetry (811).  If you find us (yawn) snoozing by the SMART board, dozing by the dictionary stand, or nodding off behind the circulation desk, please remember (yawn) to use inside voices in the LMC,  Zzzzz....

Friday, February 25, 2011

A Bag of Tricky Limericks

Open up your bag of tricks! People use this idiom when they are talking about revealing special talents or skills to accomplish a task. Back in the late seventeenth century, a bag of tricks referred to the sack that a traveling magician carried around the countryside. Today, Poetry on Parade opens up a twenty-first century bag of tricks, celebrating Poetry Friday with funny little poems called limericks.  Limericks are five-line verses with special rhyme and rhythm patterns.  When we read or hear a limerick, we notice that the rhyme always follows an A-A-B-B-A pattern--and that the rhythm always sounds like da DUM da da DUM da da DUM. Today's first two poems were created by Edward Lear, a nineteenth-century English writer famous for nonsense verse and clever limericks:

There was an Old Man in a Barge,
Whose Nose was exceedingly large;
     But in fishing by night,
     It supported a light,
Which helped that Old Man in a Barge.

There Was an Old Man with a beard,
Who said, "It is just as I feared!--
     Two Owls and a Hen, 
     Four Larks and a Wren,
Have all built their nests in my beard!

Sometimes, poets find place names to rhyme in their bag of tricks. Edward Lear chooses a European country, and Douglas Florian uses the capital of Idaho (and the tongue-twisted Garden State!) to get the rhythm and rhyme moving in these limericks:

There was an old lady of France,
Who taught little ducklings to dance;
     When she said, "Tick-a-tack!"-- 
     They only said, "Quack!"
Which grieved that old lady of France.

--Edward Lear

There was a young woman from Boise
Whose sneakers were squeaky and noisy.
     She set them to boil
     In sunflower oil,
Then she jogged all the way to New Joisy.

--Douglas Florian

When we're writing limericks, picking a person name to rhyme is another very good trick! Today's next poem, from The Hopeful Trout and Other Limericks by John Ciardi, uses a far-out name to create a limerick that's out of this world:  


 It Came from Outer Space

There once was a Martian named Zed
With antennae all over his head.
     He sent out a lot
     Of di-di-dash-dot
But nobody knows what he said.

Rhyming names and word play, the A-A-B-B-A rhyming pattern, the da DUM da da DUM da da DUM beat: put it all together, and we find clever limericks in our Poetry Friday bag of tricks!  We took a walk through the halls of Lafayette and discovered lots of rhyming possibilities, plenty of limerick rhythm, and some silly stories to tell:

Fourth Grade Food Crisis

The classroom of Mrs. M. Kelly
ate nothing but toast and grape jelly.
     'Til a student named Sam
     said, "We're in quite a jam.
I'm going to buy ham at the deli.

Fifth Grade Getaway

The wonderful students of Yates
vacationed in all fifty states.
     They drove to Nebraska,
     then flew to Alaska,
and wandered Wyoming on skates.

Open up your Poetry Friday bag of tricks, Poetry Paraders, and let's share some limericks!

Thursday, February 24, 2011

Mayhem Poets in the House!

Sink Your Teeth into a Poem

Each February, the American Dental Association sponsors National Children's Dental Health Month to raise awareness about the importance of healthy mouths and happy smiles.  Today, we take the words out of several poets' mouths, celebrating our teeth and giving us something to smile about.  Our first poem is a rhymed list poem that talks about teeth, teeth, and more teeth!

One Tooth, Two Tooth, White Tooth, Looth Tooth 

One tooth. Two teeth.
Baby chew teeth.
Twenty bright teeth.
Pearly white teeth.
Daily use teeth.
Wiggle loose teeth.

Three teeth.  Four teeth.
In grow more teeth.
Grown-up new teeth.
Thirty-two teeth.
Not quite right teeth.

Overbite teeth.
Five teeth.  Six teeth.
Gotta fix teeth.
Seven teeth.  Eight teeth.
Now they-re straight teeth.
Nine teeth.  Ten teeth.

Brush and tend teeth.
Up teeth.  Down teeth.
Smile teeth frown teeth.
Too much cake teeth.
Ouch!  Toothache teeth.
Treat them well or you'll have fake teeth!

-- Allan Wolf

It's true, our mouths hold plenty of perfectly good human teeth, and they all need brushing.  Our next poem imagines how difficult tooth care would be if we were crocodiles... hippos... or great white sharks.  We might bite off more than we can chew:

Brushing
Oh I'm glad I'm not a crocodile,
'Cause brushing my teeth would take a while.
I'd go to bed late and get up early,
Just to keep my teeth all shiny and pearly.

I'm glad I'm not a hippopotamus.
I'd have to use an enormous brush
And tons of toothpaste, in a great pile,
To scrub, scrub, scrub my hippo smile.
I'm glad I'm not a great white shark,
Brushing my teeth, alone in the dark.
I might look in the mirror late at night
And give myself a terrible fright.

-- Carol Diggory Shields

We know what happens when a tooth starts to wiggle and jiggle: it feels funny, we sound a little funny, and it makes a poem that's good for a giggle!

My Tooth Ith Loothe

My tooth ith loothe!  My tooth ith loothe!
I can't go to thcool, that'th my excuthe.
I wath fine latht night when I went to bed,
But today it'th hanging by a thread!

My tooth ith loothe!  My tooth ith loothe!
I'm telling you the honetht truth.
It maketh me want to jump and thout!
My tooth ith loothe.... Oopth! Now it'th out!

--George Ulrich

Our final poem offers one last bite of Children's Dental Health Month advice:

Toothbrush

Someone used my toothbrush.
That isn't very fair.
Someone used my toothbrush.
Dad said we shouldn't share.

Someone used my toothbrush.
They thought I couldn't tell,
But it's soggy, kind of greenish,
And it has a funny smell.

My sister said, "Just use it!"
But I don't think I wanna.
I think she used my toothbrush
To scrub our pet iguana.

-- Carol Diggory Shields

And so, Poetry Paraders, today's lessons are important ones: (1) take good care of your pearly whites during Children's Dental Health Month and throughout the year, (2) brush your teeth after every poem, (3) don't forget to floss, and (4) never share your toothbrush with an iguana.

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

The Dog Ate My Poem

A quick check of our bizarre holiday calendar reveals that today is International Dog Biscuit Appreciation Day.  Who knew?  And who knows why?  Of course, no one appreciates dog biscuits more than dogs. So today, Poetry on Parade is going to the dogs, celebrating our four-legged, furry, faithful, frolicsome, biscuit-appreciating friends!  Our first poem, from Bow Wow Meow Meow: It's Rhyming Cats and Dogs by Douglas Florian, offers a humorous summary of a dog's busy day:  

Dog Log 

Rolled out of bed.
Scratched my head.
Brought the mail.
Wagged my tail.
Fetched a stick.
Learned a trick.
Chased a hare.
Sat in a chair.
Chewed a shoe--
Table, too.
Got in a spat
With a cat.
Buried a bone.
Answered the phone.
Heard a thief.
Gave him grief.
Time to creep
Off to sleep.

Dogs come in all shapes and sizes, and it's important to give them names that suit their distinct personalities.  Our next poems are from Name That Dog!: Puppy Poems from A to Z by Peggy Archer. The book is available at the Library of the Chathams and provides an illustrated poetic alphabet of perfectly appropriate puppy names:

A is for... Aspen
(Labrador Retriever)
Yellow Labs like taxi cabs
and golden marmalade,
butterflies and fireflies
and homemade lemonade.
Yellow hay and sunshine rays
are things she likes to lay in.
And piles of leaves from aspen trees
  are what she likes to play in.

Z is for... Zipper
(Dutch Smoushond)
Racing through the kitchen.
Running 'round the chair.
         Chase the ball
         down the hall.
Zipping everywhere!

Faster than a mustang.
Faster than a train.
         Zip! he's here.
         Zap! he's there.
Zipper is his name!

The LMC has a hot diggity dog good selection of nonfiction books discussing various dog breeds, characteristics and temperaments, proper training, and discipline methods.  Stop by and fetch one: your dog, like the subject of our final poem, may have undiscovered language arts skills: 

My Dog May Be a Genius 

My dog may be a genius,
and in fact, there's little doubt.
He recognizes many words,
unless I spell them out.
If I so much as whisper "walk,"
he hurries off at once
to fetch his leash... it's evident
my dog is not a dunce.

I can't say "food" in front of him,
I spell f-o-o-d,
and he goes wild unless I spell
his t-r-e-a-t.
But recently this tactic 
isn't working out so well.
I think my d-o-g has learned
to s-p-e-l-l.

--Jack Prelutsky

As you celebrate International Dog Biscuit Appreciation Day, here's an idiom worth remembering: you can't teach an old dog new tricks.  But, Poetry Paraders, you may be able to create a new poem about your old cold-nosed, tail-wagging dog!

Thursday, February 17, 2011

A Parade of Presidents

Today, Poetry Paraders, we march into winter break with a celebration of Presidents' Day.  Our first poem, from We the People by Bobbi Katz, imagines the thoughts and feelings of the first president as he took office on a historic day:

Inauguration Day Thoughts
George Washington
New York, New York, April 30, 1789 

What a heavy obligation.
I must not betray the trust 
of this fledgling little nation.
I must start out right.  I must.
The War gave us a common cause.
Now loud voices of dissent
grow sharper than a jaguar's claws
raised to strike in discontent.

I must show by words and actions
how free men resolve their fights.
I must balance all the factions--
calm the zealots for States' rights.
I must set the first example
of what a President should be,
as I walk
        on untrodden ground
with
    no path
                in place
         for
me. 

Our next poem, from Lives: Poems about Famous Americans, uses visual imagery and compares the sixteenth president's youthful wood chopping to the hard work of holding a nation together during the Civil War: 

Abe 

And so,
young Abe
        of the too-short pants
        and too-long legs,
young Abe spitting into his palms.
wrapping his bony fingers around
        the handle of an axe,
sinking the bright blue blade deep 
        into heartwood,
young Abe splitting the rails apart

grew into Abe
        of the sad eyes
        of the face carved deep
        by sorrow,
wrapping his strong hands
        around a nation,
trying to hold the bleeding halves 
together

until they healed.

-- Alice Schertle

Our final poem, from American History Fresh Squeezed by Carol Diggory Shields, describes the presidential origin of a traditional American toy, first manufactured in Brooklyn, New York, in 1902:

Teddy

The President said, "Beware!
I'm out to bag a bear."
His guide said, "Over there!
I see one in his lair."
Said Roosevelt, "I declare,
That's just a baby bear--
Hunting it would be unfair!"
The news spread from here to there
That Teddy had spared a bear,
Which is in your bed upstairs,
In cribs, on sofas, in chairs,
Or almost anywhere
You will find a teddy bear.

The Parade of Presidents marches on, with rhythm and rhyme in the air... and poetry everywhere.
Enjoy your winter break, Poetry Paraders!

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Winter Is for the Birds

... and believe it or not, Poetry Paraders, February is National Wild Bird Feeding Month!  Our first poems, from Today at the Blue Bird Café: A Branchful of Birds by Deborah Ruddell, celebrate two beautiful birds that appear at Chatham backyard feeders during winter months: 

The Cardinal

Stoplights and cherries
and roses and berries,
a ruby, a wagon,
a flame from a dragon;
crimson-vermilion,
a sunset Brazilian,
the tip of his tail,
the cap on his head:
valentineSantaClaustotallyred.

Blue Jay Blues

Blue as a bruise
on a swollen knee,
ruling the world
from a maple tree.

Squawking out orders,
getting his way,
hogging the feeder,
and having his say.

Raising a fuss,
causing a flap,
a flying complainer
in need of a nap.


Our next poems are examples of Haiku, a Japanese form of poetry, often with subjects drawn from nature, consisting of just three short non-rhyming lines:
1st line: 5 syllables
2nd line: 7 syllables
3rd line: 5 syllables
Three poems, from The Cuckoo's Haiku and Other Birding Poems by Michael J. Rosen, use the Haiku form to paint poetry pictures of birds we find in New Jersey:  

Cardinal 
first feeders at dawn
paired like red quotation marks
last feeders at dusk

American Gold Finch
(state bird of New Jersey)
above gold jonquils
feeding finches stacked like coins
April's alchemy


Canada Goose
(Have you ever watched geese land on Loantaka's Kitchell Pond?)
the pond's still airstrip
far-off trumpets grow louder
one splash! two... hushed... glides...

Pull up a chair and keep an eye on the bird feeder, Poetry Paraders.  There's a Haiku waiting outside the window for you!
 
squawking jays arrive--
a flurry of sharp blue wings
stirring powdered snow

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Similes as Bright as Smiling Summer Sunshine

Poetry Paraders know that similes, like smiles and summer sunshine, brighten our days-- and make our poetry more descriptive!  A simile is a figure of speech that links two things using like or as. Similes make comparisons, often pointing out characteristics that two things have in common.  Today's first poem starts with a simile, imagining if sunlight fell like snowflakes and stretching that comparison into a poem: 

Sunflakes

If sunlight fell like snowflakes,
gleaming yellow and so bright,
we could build a sunman,
we could have a sunball fight,
we could watch the sunflakes
drifting in the sky.
We could go sleighing 
in the middle of July
through sundrifts and sunbanks,
we could ride a sunmobile,
and we could touch sunflakes--
I wonder how they'd feel.

--Frank Asch 
 
Similes are handy tools for Poetry Paraders: recognizing them in our reading helps us understand what's going on, and using them in our writing helps us describe the people, places, things, emotions, and actions in the poems we're creating.  Our next poem, from If Pigs Could Fly... and Other Deep Thoughts by Bruce Lansky, shares a list of well-known similes-- a poem full of comparisons that we've heard many times:

Predictable 
Poor as a church mouse.
strong as an ox,
cute as a button,
smart as a fox.
thin as a toothpick,
white as a ghost,
fit as a fiddle,
dumb as a post.
bald as an eagle,
neat as a pin,
proud as a peacock,
ugly as sin.
When people are talking
you know what they'll say
as soon as they start to
use a cliché

A cliché is an expression or phrase which has been overused to the point of losing its original meaning or effect.  We've all heard the phrase as quiet as a mouse: it's a simile that's so well-known and so often-used that it's become a little tired and worn-out: as tired and worn out... as last summer's flip-flops?  Maybe, when we're writing about that quiet cliché mouse, we'll use our imaginations and make a fresh simile:  as quiet as... a winter mouse watching snowflakes falling in a moonlit field.
Sometimes, similes make comparisons pointing out what two things don't have in common.  Our next selection, is loaded with fresh comparisons of unalike things... similes that make us smile:

As comfortable as a hairbrush in bed
As graceful as a hippopotamus on roller skates
As clean as a coal miner's fingernails

As convenient as an unabridged dictionary
As reassuring as a dentist's smile
As exciting as a plateful of cabbage

As pleasant as ice water in your shoe
As welcome as a rainy Saturday
As easy as collecting feathers in a hurricane

--from As: A Surfeit of Similes by Norton Juster (the guy who wrote The Phantom Tollbooth)

So let's soak up those smiling summer sunshine similes, Poetry Paraders.  Adding comparisons using like or as to our writing will make our poetry as clever as zippers... as fresh as a peach! 

And by the way, today is National Gumdrop Day.  Let's celebrate by making a simile: yellow gumdrops are like a handful of sunshine!