Notes from the Slushpile

Saturday, 6 October 2012

No To No Rhyme

To live in a world where there is no rhyme
Would seem to me to be a crime
And surely children need this skill
To prevent them all becoming ill
From: sums and science, laws and rules
Boredom, bedtime, some of school.
To have no rhyme would be a curse,
That's why we have the funEverse!

Rhymes From The funEverse

By Maureen lynas

Say hi to more funEverse poets

I'm so lucky to be working with these people. They're funny, they're talented, and they care deeply about kids and want to make them laugh.

And where else would I have discussions on whether it's appropriate to have a character trapped in a sumo wrestler's bum crack! (That was not one of my poems!)

Introducing:

Rebecca Colby

I blame Dr. Seuss for my love of rhyme. When I was six years old, I checked ‘The Lorax’ out of the library and became lost in its magical, sing-song rhyme. I loved it! Not wanting to give it back, I promptly hid it under my bed, hoping my mother wouldn’t find it. She didn’t. Not for months anyway, by which time she must have paid for it several times over in library fines.

I also blame Robert Frost, although the story there isn’t half as interesting. He wrote poems I could relate to—poems that brought the rural environment of my childhood in New Hampshire to life in verse.

It has taken me years to learn how to rhyme well—and some might argue that I still haven’t achieved that ability. One of my attempts follows:

ON RHYMING

I love to write in rhyming text,

although sometimes I get perplexed

when my iambic metered lines

all end in slant, imperfect rhymes.

And counting syllables to excess

can cause unnecessary stress,

so sometimes I don’t worry about rhyme or meter at all and I just go with the flow!

©Rebecca Colby 2012

Lesley Moss

Why poetry? Why not?

I like playing with words. I had early publication success with a poem
about a cat and a rat, and would like to repeat the experience.

For me, a poem is words condensed, like a tin of milk. Distilled, like rose water. Intense as vanilla extract .. you see where I’m going with

this ..

EATING MY WORDS
Pick summer words from the Poet Tree,
some for you and some for me,
ripe and juicy, shrivelled and thin,
cut right through to the essence within.
Words with vinegar, words with butter,
words to make a cold heart flutter,
pickled, dried or baked in pies -
each word explodes with fresh surprise.
Words to whet the appetite,
words with zest and words with bite.
Pick summer words from the Poet Tree:
store for winter’s memory.

©Lesley Moss 2012

Alex Craggs

Why do I write in verse?

Words can be bland

They need to stand

Stand out

Take a chance

Run about

Run free

Be fast

Or slow

But dance

Hang loose

Choose to shake words

Make words

rattle and roll them

Let them have fun

Try it

Take one

Give it time

Find another

Bang!

Rhyme

©Alex Craggs 2012

I am so lucky to be working with these talented people... and there's more

Tomorrow I introduce

Georgina Kirk

And

Mo O'Hara

Thursday, 4 October 2012

It's National Poetry Day!

By Maureen Lynas

I had this really great idea,
That I would blog in verse on here.

To celebrate this special day,

With similes I'd have my say.

And metaphors, they would abound.

I'd entertain you with the sound,

Of rhythm, metre, and some rhyme

But then I thought,

That will take time.

So,

I'm not.

Instead I'm going to celebrate NationalPoetry Day by announcing a brand new poetry group that's about to jump out of hiding and onto the web.

The poets are a bunch of people who love to read and write funny poetry for children. We began as a BI SCBWI ecritique group but we're branching out soon and launching our very own website called

funEverse

We'll be setting ourselves poetry challenges and inviting schools to join in with the silliness. A guest school will be appearing on the blog every other month where our poems will be featured side by side with the children's. So please do take a look at our first blog in November. And if you would like to be a guest school then let me know.

The funEversers are:

Alex Craggs, Georgina Kirk, Kathryn Evans, Laura Louise Stewart, Lesley Moss, Maureen Lynas, Meagan Munroe, Mo O’Hara and Rebecca Colby.

It may seem a bit barmy to focus on verse when it is supposed to be difficult to publish it but over the next few days we're going to introduce ourselves and explain why we do what we do. Enjoy.

First up

Maureen Lynas

(That would be me)

Basically, I can't not do it. I have tried to stop, I've been advised to stop, I've even advised others to stop (shame on me) but I seem to be addicted to rhyme. Addicted to rhyme but allergic to poetry. I don't want to examine the human condition (at the moment), or let all my feelings out (at the moment), and the thought of reading Sylvia Plath makes me reach desperately for poems like Albert and the Lion and Matilda

Verse slips into my stories too. I have a dad living in the attic in one book, he's gone mad and can only speak in verse:
'Must stay static. In the attic.'

And a frog who introduces himself with:

'I swing through the trees with the greatest of ease,

For I am the prince with four legs and four knees.

My skin is a rainbow, my eyes ruby red,

And I am named Bob, and my father is Fred.

I find funny poems irresistible to write but I love to get kids squirming too. The children's poem below was written in response to an illustration by Sam Zuppardi who actually looks exactly like his picture below.