Here’s my attempt:

“Crick”

Out back are bullfrogs and crawdads,
dragonflies and back swimmers, and
even a fat groundhog working
its way through the weeds. It ain’t no
river, but it’s still full of life.

*****

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For this week’s prompt, write hairy poems. The poem can be devoted to hair (or a hairstyle), or it can just work a moustache in here and a mullet in there. I’ll be disappointed if there aren’t any poems about leg hair and bearded ladies.

Here’s my attempt at a hairy poem:

“To Shave and Shave Not”

In only minutes, a head covered in hair
suddenly wasn’t. My head, now much cooler,
won’t overheat, though it’ll burn easier,
and as I run my fingers over where hair
used to be, I realize that I’ve missed a spot.

*****

Follow me on Twitter @robertleebrewer

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• Short Poems
• Funny Poems
• Rhyming Poems

This post links to several kids poems of each type (in fact, the best!) and includes some commentary for why I think each poem type succeeds with children. [Note: While I tried to provide a link for each poem mentioned below, I could not find one for four of the poems. However, I do mention an anthology below that lists these 20 and many more.]

Short Poems for Kids

Why do short poems work so well? They get in and out rather quick. We’re talking about kids here, and they often have little patience for poems that overstay their welcome.

Here are the best short poems for kids:

• Rabbit, by Mary Ann Hoberman
• Dinosaur Diets, by Jane Yolen
• About the Teeth of Sharks, by John Ciardi
• Mommies, by Nikki Giovanni
• First Grade, by William Stafford
• How to Paint a Donkey, by Naomi Shihab Nye
• Valentine, by Donald Hall

Funny Poems for Kids

Kids love to laugh and clown around. Naturally, funny poems play right into this natural instinct for children. What’s funny? Often, the absurd and slightly inappropriate (ahem, read “Gas” below).

Here are the best funny poems for kids:

• The Adventures of Isabel, by Ogden Nash
• The Dentist and the Crocodile, by Roald Dahl
• Mrs. Mitchell’s Underwear, by Dennis Lee
• Gas, by C.K. Williams
• Daddy Fell Into the Pond, by Alfred Noyes

Rhyming Poems for Kids

If your poems for kids aren’t short or completely funny, you still have an “in” with children if you can rhyme. Don’t get me wrong; the poem still has to be engaging, but rhymes can help the musicality of the poem to help kids avoid getting lost in the plot.

Here the best rhyming poems for kids:

• The Quarrel, by Maxine Kumin
• Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening, by Robert Frost
• The Tiger Who Wore White Gloves, or, What You Are You Are, by Gwendolyn Brooks (scroll down a little)
• Every Time I Climb a Tree, by David McCord
• The Lion and the Lily, by Elizabeth Spires
• The Raven, by Edgar Allan Poe
• Casey at the Bat, by Ernest L. Thayer
• The Tyger, by William Blake

You Can Write Poems for Kids

Start by reading these poems that appeal to kids. They’ll give you an idea of the type of content and forms that appeal to children. Then, you can think of stories or subjects that could be covered. Think of what delighted and/or terrified you as a child–that’s the best place to start. Then, write and share with kids, who can’t get enough of good poems and stories.

Quick Nod: I think every poem on my top 20 list originated is included in Poetry Speaks to Children, edited by Elise Paschen. While many of these were favorites before this collection was published, this anthology of poems for kids really knocks the ball out of the park for children’s poetry awesomeness!

*****

Follow me on Twitter @robertleebrewer

*****

Build an Audience for Your Poetry!

While writing poems is reward enough for most poets (including me), it’s common for many poets to want to share that writing with the world (ahem, including me again). The really ambitious poet strives to build an audience around his or her poetry, and there are ways to go about doing that. In fact, there’s a tutorial on how to do this titled How to Build an Audience for Your Poetry, led by Robert Lee Brewer (yes, me). In the tutorial, I cover what a platform is, why it matters to poets in search of an audience, what tools and strategies poets can put into place immediately, and more.

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Here’s my attempt at a dessert poem:

“Strawberry Cheesecake”

Most pictures don’t do the real thing justice,
but there you are–in your airbrushed glory–
smiling straight into the camera (some
lucky photographer who got to say,
“smile,” in person) with your hair suspended
around your face like fire ready to burn
a house down (or something) and my hunger
couldn’t be any more piqued than right now.

*****

Follow me on Twitter @robertleebrewer

*****

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Here’s my attempt:

“The Girl With the Dragonfly Tattoo”

There’s always a girl when it starts.
Though she might not have a tattoo,
she will gladly imprint your heart.
There’s always a girl when it starts,
that butterfly feeling imparts
a strong desire to act cuckoo.
There’s always a girl when it starts,
though a temporary tattoo.

Though she might not have a tattoo,
you still feel somewhat connected
to her as if she’d fall for you.
Though she might not have a tattoo,
you imagine dragonflies flew
across her skin, now protected.
Though just an imagined tattoo,
you still feel very connected.

*****

Connect with me on Twitter @robertleebrewer

*****

Make Good Ideas Great!

It’s one thing to have a good idea, but great ideas are what sells. So how do you turn a simply good idea into a powerfully great idea? The answer can be found in Jack Heffron’s recorded session: Making Good Ideas Great. In his dynamic session, Heffron shows how to evaluate any story idea, find its strengths and weaknesses, and then make it great!

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Before this blog moved to its new WordPress platform, I had a post that collected all the poem types explained on Poetic Asides. With the move, all the URLs changed and some posts apparently disappeared into the ether. So here’s a new post collecting what I can find, and I’ll fill in the gaps as we poem along. Enjoy!

Here’s my list of poetry types and forms:

• Abstract or Sound Poems.
• Acrostic Poems.
• Alphabet Poems.
• Anagrammatic Poems.
• Blitz Poems.
• Bop Poems.
• Cascade Poems.
• Concrete Poems.
• Elegy Poems.
• Epitaph Poems.
• Fibonacci Poems.
• Found Poems.
• Haiku Poems.
• Hay(na)ku Poems.
• Kyrielle Poems.
• Limerick Poems.
• List Poems.
• Lune Poems.
• Monotetra Poems.
• Occasional Poems.
• Ode Poems.
• Palindrome or Mirror Poems.
• Pantoum Poems.
• Paradelle Poems.
• Parody Poems.
• Prose Poems.
• Qasida Poems.
• Quatern Poems.
• Rispetto Poems.
• Rondeau Poems.
• Roundabout Poems.
• Sestina Poems.
• Shadorma Poems.
• Sonnet Poems.
• Tanka Poems.
• Triolet Poems.
• Villanelle Poems.

 *****

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Publish Your Poetry…

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Not sure what a tanka poem is?

As usual, the quality was great. In fact, I’m trying to sneak in more than the usual one example for the Writer’s Digest magazine. We’ll see if the editors let me do that, but I do know the tanka winner will be in there at the very least.

The WD Poetic Form Challenge Tanka Poems Winner Is…

Jane Shlensky for the following tanka.

Street lamps make golden
ghosts on wet streets, fog smoking
pavement, settling on
cherry blossoms on your lawn;
my dark heart aches for morning.

Congratulations, Jane!

Top 10 Entries for the Tanka Form

Of course, Jane’s tanka was first, but here is a list of which tanka rounded out the rest of the top 10.

1. Street lamps make golden, by Jane Shlensky*
2. tonight, by Rosemary Nissen-Wade*
3. The day we kayaked, by Lori Desrosiers*
4. There is no such thing, by flood
5. “summer (l.a.)titudes,” by honoluakane
6. power boat floating, by Linda H.
7. echoes rise and fall, by Tracy Davidson
8. “Sway,” by Mama Zen
9. Little fluff of seed, by Kit Cooley
10. “Clear Direction,” by Kimiko Martinez

Congratulations to everyone in the Top 10! With hundreds of tanka submitted, it truly is something to be recognized in the Top 10. Also, thank you to everyone who shared their tanka. There were so many that resonated. In fact, I had to complete several passes before I even came close to having a “short list,” which was actually still about 50 tanka long.

I hope to see everyone for the next WD Poetic Form Challenge, which should be any day now.

*****

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For this week’s prompt, write a vacuum poem. Seems like every time I finish a big project (or challenge) there’s this vacuum ready to suck me into it. So I have to keep moving, or I’ll find myself staring into nothing for hours at a time. Your poem can be about this type of vacuum, a vacuum cleaner, or a vacuum-sealed container.

Here’s my attempt:

“The Night Is a Shield Filled With Holes”

And I am a troubled messenger carrying these words
in a sack strung round my neck–the stars, the moon,
and all that other jazz. The wandering boy poets and
the girls they possess in fits of line breaks, metaphors.
My message is in a code even I can’t decipher, but
someone has to deliver the news. Someone has to run
the gauntlet and break hearts as if they’re lost lines.
The night, with its hungry predators, depends on it.

*****

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Click here to check out the original guidelines. Not much has changed.

If you just want the basics, here they are:

1. Pick your 5 favorite poems from April’s poeming.
2. Send those poems in the body of one e-mail message with the subject line: My April PAD Submission.
3. Be sure to include your name. You’d be surprised how many don’t each year.
4. Send e-mail to robert.brewer@fwmedia.com.
5. Get back to poeming or revising until I announce my top choices (shooting for the beginning of August).

By the way, we do prompt and poem here on Wednesdays during non-challenge months, and everyone is welcome. So if you’re new to Poetic Asides, feel free to drop in on Wednesdays.

Besides that, just have fun picking out your poems. I can’t wait to read them.

*****

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For today’s prompt, write a fade away poem. I’ll let you decide how to interpret what a fade away poem might cover.

Here’s my attempt:

“A Last Word”

Is what you want to hear
is what you want to hear
is what you want to hear
is what you want to hear
is what you want to hear
is what you want to hear
is what you want to hear
is what you want to hear
is what you want to hear
is what you want to hear
is what you want to hear…

*****

You’ve written the poems, now get them published…

…with the assistance of the 2012 Poet’s Market, edited by Robert Lee Brewer (yes, the Poetic Asides guy).

Click to continue.