Yippee! In honor of Poetry Month, Easter, and all things rabbity,
my free-verse picture book, To Rabbittown is now only 99 cents
on iTunes, Kindle, Nook--yippee! (Picture me jumping up and
down like an over-caffeinated kangaroo…)
Download the free Kindle for PC if you don’t have an eReader.
.
And here are links to Poetry Month
in the Kidlitosphere–thanks, Jama!
Eli found Squirrel at the dog park.
Eli loves Squirrel.
Squirrel no longer squeaks.Â
Eli removed Squirrel’s squeaker.
He couldn’t help himself.
Howdy, Campers and welcome to my 2012 Poem-A-Day Challenge! Wowee–I can’t believe it’s here again! This means I’ve been writing a poem a day since I took the challenge in April 2010. Two. Whole. Years. Over six hundred poems.
Ask any writer and I’ll bet 98% of us wonder if we deep-down really ARE writers. Writing a poem a day has given me an amazing gift–I no longer doubt that I’m a writer.
This month, all the poems will be DOG POEMS, because the dog park is my new addiction. So, let’s get on with the dog show–arf, arf!
April 5
DOG BIRTHDAY
A LONG TIME AGO
by April Halprin Wayland
a long time ago
i chewed you out
for chewing my shoe
well.
the other day
you leaped in the backseat
i rolled down the back window
you leaned out, singing, all the way to the dog park
well.
today
you s—t—r—e—t—c—h  out  on  the   rug
like an abused slinky
snoring
while i click clack these keys
well.
well, well, well.
happy birthday, baby dog.
you’ve grown on me.
you’ve grown up.
you’ve grown
all over
me.
lucky, lucky
me.
Poetry Prompt:
Sometimes I don’t want to make sense. I don’t want to capitalize. I don’t want you to understand me, not completely. Fine, fine! Poems are about making rules, breaking rules, howling at the moon, and not necessarily capitalizing the word “I.”
The Poetry Foundation’s page on e.e.cummings says: “No one else,” Randall Jarrell claimed,”has ever made avant-garde, experimental poems so attractive to the general and the special reader.”…Between the ages of eight and twenty-two, he wrote a poem a day, exploring many traditional poetic forms. By the time he was in Harvard in 1916, modern poetry had caught his interest. He began to write avant-garde poems in which conventional punctuation and syntax were ignored in favor of a dynamic use of language. Cummings also experimented with poems as visual objects on the page.
I love his poem, [in Just-]
It’s your turn. Play with word placement, let your words, their sounds and their meanings do the funky chicken on your paper. Write with joy ~
poem © 2012 April Halprin Wayland. All rights reserved2 Responses to “DOG BIRTHDAY”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- Blog entries
- April 30
MAY DAY - April 29
WHAT HAPPENED? - April 28
OUR DOG’S ADOPTION STORY - April 27
THE HANDMADE DOLL FROM THE MUSEUM SHOP…MEETS OUR DOG - April 26
VETERAN DOG TO COCKY PUPPY - April 25
EVENING IN PARIS…IN THE DOG PARK - April 24
ADOLESCENT DOG — alliteration, assonance, and consonance - April 23
I HAVE NO - April 22
ENORMOUSLY TOUCHING REUNION FROM A DOG’S POINT OF VIEW - April 21
DOGSITTER - April 20
FROM A CAT’S POINT OF VIEW… - April 19
FOCUSING ON RHYTHM IN A DOG POEM - April 18
SPRING EVENING AT THE DOG PARK - April 17
WHEN ELI TURNED TWO - April 16
YOUNG DOG DASHING ~ imitating a poem I love - April 15
POOP PATROL - April 14
IN POLLIWOG PARK - April 13
TV COOKING SHOW - April 12
DOGS DON’T GO TO FUNERALS - April 11
SIX WORDS ABOUT THE DOG PARK - April 10
DOG PARK SPRING QUARTET - April 9
GROOMING - April 8
CIRCLING THE DOG PARK - April 7
PASSOVER AT THE DOG PARK - April 6
DOG PARK TREE APOSTROPHE - April 5
DOG BIRTHDAY - April 4
WRITE AN AUTOPILOT POEM - April 3
THIS BABY COMES TO THE DOG PARK TOO OFTEN - April 2
DOG WORD, GIRL WORD - April 1
WHEN I AM A DOG
And lucky, lucky Eli! Happy Birthday, Pup.
Thanks, Robyn ~ Actually, lucky, lucky us that we’re in this rich kidlitosphere galaxy!