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In honor of Poetry Month, Easter, Passover,
and all things rabbity, my free-verse picture book,
To Rabbittown, originally published by Scholastic,

is 99 cents on iTunes, Kindle, Nook–yippee!

Download the free Kindle for PC 
if you don’t have an eReader.
.

for more children’s poetry links go to
this delicious blog:
Jama’s Alphabet Soup

Wait...what do you mean it needs some editing?????

No, I disagree...I really think the words, "severed head" work in this poem.

Yeah, well, thanks for your suggestions. Let me think about them; NO.

I do believe I'm entitled to a nap after an exhausting session ripping my poem apart..

This is Eli. Pronounced eeee-lye.

Hi there!  Welcome to RuffDrafts.com–I’m glad you’re here!

My original poems, posted each day of National Poetry Month 2013, are imperfect. Messy.  This is your chance to sneak a peek behind the scenes—before a poem is polished and published! (For my poems in 2010, 2011 & 2012, click on the Poetry link in the menu above.)

My friend Bruce Balan and I critique each other’s poems every day…so you’ll see Bruce’s comments on some of the poems.

Thanks for following so well.  I’m tempted to take you to the dog park and let you romp off-leash… Ready?  Let’s begin!

 

April 22

BLACK / WHITE


BLACK / WHITE ~ rough draft

My friend said he saw
four pure black cows
in an ebony field
on a moonless night.

No lights.

This came to mind
watching albino dogs called
Dogue de Bordeaux
as they rolled in the snow.

So white.

===============
After talking with my friend who was snowed-in back east, I met a brilliantly white Akita at the dog park.

It made me think of my favorite page in Bruce’s picture book, Cows Going Past –of black cows on a black field in the dead of night.

I had to look up dog names that fell into the right rhythm, of course…and then make sure that kind of dog came in white.

A fun exercise!

Bruce says, “Neat poem. I like what went on in your head. It’s a little hard to read out loud. Works better to read silently, I think. Possibly because of the difficult dog name. Had no idea that dog existed!”


Dog park in the dark…

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poem © 2013 April Halprin Wayland. All rights reserved

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