Photo: Laura Purdie Salas
Wake up your poetry brains with 15 Words or Less (guidelines here)!
The lion in the MGM lobby at NCTE in Vegas was in a boxing ring to promote some upcoming big boxing match. It was an arresting image, this gold lion in a velvet-roped cage. Here’s hwat it makes me think of:
1) Have I gone through the looking glass?
2) The crunching, tinkling, shattering noise that walking in fallen leaves would make if they were all stained glass.
3) The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.
And here’s my poem first draft:
Savanna
Velvet grasses ride the breeze.
I wait like stone
for lesser beasts
to venture
near.–Laura Purdie Salas, all rights reserved
What do you think of when you look at this picture? Take any quick idea and jot down a 15 Words or Less poem. It doesn’t have to rhyme or describe this picture. It’s just about whatever you think of when you look at it.
I should be back here on Monday, January 7! I hope you’ve had wonderful holidays, and I’ll see you soon.
MADUSA SENT MUFASA
On a gold plated snooze
If you take her on
You better not lose.
(C) Charles Waters 2013 all rights reserved.
Hehe–I was just reading the “Medusa” poem from MONSTEROLOGIST at an inservice the other day. And guess which poem I shared from POETRY FRIDAY ANTHOLOGY?
Oooh, I love “velvet grasses”!
I’m a huge Narnia fan, so this is what I thought of….
ASLAN
All my life
I’ve opened doors,
wishing-hoping-praying
I’d find you
on the other side.
This could be the beginning of a really thoughtful longer poem, Janelle–good luck with it!
Julie
Thank you, Julie!
Good Day!
What a treat having waited for the poems and comments to build for 2 days!
My contribution:
Query
“Well … let’s see…
They’ve got the stool,
the tamer.
Where’s the fiery golden hoop?”
Jeanne Poland
Great question at the end!
Goldilocks
golden lion,
in the ring—
regal and
transfixing—
do you like
your gilded lair?
I like all the “L” sounds in this, and the fun title.
Thanks, Janelle!
Nerve
What courage could
a kid convey?
A coward lion
in a play,
Dramatically,
Midsummer Day?
-Pamela Ross
I really like this. (I’m also a W of Oz fan.)
Thanks, Janelle. I played The Cowardly Lion in a summer camp play. I was perfect for the role. I had zero courage. I’m still trying to get some. I’ve been off to see the wizard for 40 years and counting… :>
Great! I was trying to come up with a Wizard of Oz poem and couldn’t get there! Nice job!
Thanks, Penny!
It’s amazing where our minds go. I looked. I saw. I heard the little kid in me singing “If I Only Had the Noive.”
-Pamela
Laura: I love your poem so much this week. It has a different feel and tone for me. The meter meshes so well with the words. It as if the lion wants to pounce out of the ring of your rhythm. Keep going.
Laura,
I enjoyed your poem and admired your form. Here’s mine.
Golden morning, Savanah grasses wave
with a quiet breeze.
The silence breaks–
a lion
ROARS.
I like the third line best!
Silence Is Golden
I want to roar but I sit alone
A lion without his gramophone.
Penny Klostermann
This is fun, Penny. Well done.
Oh cute, how different from mine lol
Fun poem!
Regal mane
carved in gold,
dark eyes peer
through crackling grass,
a wound spring,
waiting.
I like this, especially the image of the lion as a wound spring, just waiting!
I am already
The prize you desire
Punch me and you punish yourself
He *does* look like he’s in a boxing ring. I especially like the first two lines.
Thanks Janelle
Thin bars contain
the golden mane.
He sits and stares.
The crowd bewares.
Great rhyming poem!
This one made me smile. Fun rhymes!
Sitting still,
Watching forever,
Immortal lion
Dipped in gold.
I love this but I would lose the words still and forever to pack even more punch. Immortal shows forever.
I love those last two lines.
Frozen
in this pose,
how I long
to scratch
my nose.
I enjoyed your funny rhyme.
Good one!
Cute!
LOL, that’s great!
Lion
Golden disdain
from his claws
to his mane.
Doesn’t need
to explain.
–Kate Coombs (Book Aunt)
I love “golden disdain.”
Another wonderful rhyming poem.
Oh, I love the rhymes!
Library Lion
King of all
that’s known
he sits
determined
to fight for
survival–
qui legit regit.
I love “King of all that’s known.”
I’m sure he’ll win.
Love this Diane. I don’t know the words in Latin but they feel right in this poem. Strong and determined. {} Can you tell me what they translate into? Guessing…”What is legitimate is right?”
-Pamela, who should know this but my 5000 years of espanol are not helping me here xoxo
Pamela, it means “He who reads, rules!” I found it the other day in an old book and I love it! I googled it to find its meaning, and after I did, I found all sorts of uses for it. The poem is a personal comment on the role of libraries (and librarians) in the near future. We might have to change, but we prevail. And we will still read.
That is a perfect quote and I believe you were born to discover it and use it: a picture book with that frame? A non- fiction mss? It is true and the – most- golden of rules. (())
Where is my response to you? I sent one from my iPhone. Home now and do not see it here on regular computer screen. Shucks. Did you see it? Who am I? Where am I?
A response to my response to your response? Nope, didn’t see it.
Oy vey. I see now the first “lost” response posted. Now that I re-read it, I wish it had stayed lost.
You asked for an explanation–nothing wrong with that!
I love this. Hooray for libraries!
Teensy tail twitches
Impatience takes over
He pounces! CRACK!!!
Leaves left scattered
I love your poem, Ms. Salas! Gives hunting almost a whimsical feeling. Good picture!
I love the action–the teensy tail twitches, the pounce, and then the leaves.
Same here!
I particularly like Cracker. Great poem.