A Verse Off of course!
A Verse Off is what happens when two authors who have books to be released within days of each other, realise there is a common link in verse. One has a novel in free verse, and the other a rhyming picture book.
‘We should get together and celebrate,’ says Kat.
‘Great idea! We could get people to write poems on our blogs’, says Sally.
‘What blog?’ says Kat ‘I’ll have to start one!’
‘They could write free verse to my blog,’ says Sally.
‘And rhyme to mine,’ says Kat.
‘Hmmm… What would we call it?’ says Sally.
‘A verse off of course,’ says Kat.
That explanation should make everything as clear as mud (that’s appropriate!) so let’s put it more simply.
May is a dual celebration with the release of Kathryn Apel’s This is the Mud!, a humorous rhyming picture book, and Sally Murphy’s Pearl Verses the World, a free verse novel. Just look at the pretty covers:
To celebrate, we are inviting blog readers to have some fun by responding – in verse – to some prompts. You can choose your style – either free verse (unrhyming) or rhyming verse. This is your chance to prove that your preferred form is the best. So are you versed in rhyme – or free? May is your chance to find out!
Each Sunday in May we’ll post the prompt on both blogs, http://www.sallymurphy.blogspot.com/ and http://katswhiskers-thewritestuff.blogspot.com/ and invite readers to post their verse responses. If you want to respond in free verse, please post your response on Sally’s blog, and if writing in rhyme, you can post at Kathryn’s blog.
The next day – Monday – we’ll post the verses in a new post for all to see.
On Friday, 8th May we will be holding a special Verse Off – because that’s the day This is the Mud! will be launched.
Here are the rules:
1. There is no ‘right’ answer to the prompt. Be creative.
2. Limit your response to twelve lines (so there is room for everyone’s response)
3. You can respond in either free verse or rhymed verse. If you’d like to do both, post each at the appropriate blog.
4. This is your work, so add your name, and a link to your website or blog, if you’d like.
5. Everyone is a winner! But there is no winner.
Over to you. Write your response to this photo (remember twelve lines or less) and, if it is free verse, post it in the comments section below. If you’d like to respond in rhyme, head over to Kathryn’s blog. Don’t forget to add your name – and link, if you have one. And check back tomorrow to see your poem featured.
Sally, didn’t we used to be in a critique group together? Congrats to you – I’m so excited to read your book!!
Here is my entry:
Where you go,
I follow.
For without you,
water is just water
and a branch is just a branch.
But when I’m with you,
we swim in a sea of love
and rest on a path of understanding.
(That silly coded thing in our previous post was because of the ‘and’ sign… Must have confused it. It should just read ‘Fletcher and Kathryn Apel’.)
Turtles totter on the log
step-by-step
two-by-two
Splash!
Seamless
Sewn with invisible stitches
Earth and sky
No entry point and nowhere
To exit
We sit
In a line
Biding our time till
Something opens up
And something else
Will merge….
Exposing our necks,
content to be still
dark marks hung
between mirrors of blue.
Waiting to fully
absorb the heat of
stillness;
nothing more.
But you see double;
see an arrow,
see hope or fear or
victory.
We are just
turtles on a log.
-Andromeda Jazmon
A Wrungs
Hi Sally,
I haven’t forgotten my manners – but have been juggling bits and pieces today. (Fortunately haven’t dropped any!) Thanks so much for letting me visit your blog yesterday – and also share in the fun of this verse off.
Such versatility coming through…
Kat
A reflection
seen by others
is not as we see
on the log
looking up
where am I?
V is for terrapins
Climbing from water into sky
The branch their bridge
Between realities
Sally Odgers (no free versist, as you see!) http://spinningpearls.blogspot.com
‘Hey Charlie,
ever wondered
why they call this place,
Turtle Point?
shells on a branch
above water
sunning
necks craned
mute
turtles gaze
at untapped depths
of blue skies
Turtles are interesting
Underwater swimming
Reptiles with shells
Terrapin a terror for pronouncing
Look cute swimming in clear water
Eating fish and shrimp
Sunning themselves
Here’s my contribution Sally.
Necks bared to watching predators,
bask with apparent ambition
fearless heads point forward anticipate together
reflection
synchronised stillness
seep into slow dive
slide beneath the surface
and disappear
just in time.