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Sally Murphy, Australian author

Poetry Friday: What a Wonderful World

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It’s Poetry Friday and I want to share a beautiful video and my poetic response to it, as a kind of poetry prompt.

Here’s the video, featuring David Attenborough AND awesome images AND one of my favourite songs:

As an aside, this clip was shown at the CBCA Conference in Sydney as a means of demonstrating what nonfiction books are up against – a point which I thought was a good one, but given that it straightway made me a) want to write and b) find out more about some of the things I saw, I think a good audio-visual resource is a way into books and writing.

Anyway, while it was playing I knew I wanted to respond, but I also knew that I wanted to listen to the rest of the very interesting panel discussion. So I quickly scribbled the words What A Wonderful World on my notebook. Then I looked at what I’d done – I’d written one word per line down the page. Was this the start of a poem?

Some time later (and after the session was over) this is what I came up with:

What trees! What flowers!

A mountain, a sea

Wonderful whales, wonderful wilds

World upon world upon world.

 (Poem copyright S. Murphy 2016)

Short but sweet, but it led me to wonder if this was something I could do with other song titles, especially ones which have been set to video footage.

So here’s a prompt for you.

Either watch the above video, and then write the words What A Wonderful World down your page – and see where it takes you (it’s like an acrostic but with a word rather than a single letter beginning each ling). OR find a song that you like, take its title and do the same. I’d love to see what you come up with!

Have a great week. The Poetry Friday roundup  is at The Drift Record.

Poetry Friday: Cherry Tomato

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I’ve been busy writing about poetry for my doctoral studies, which means (a little ironically) I have missed the last two Poetry Fridays. So I was determined to post something today but couldn’t settle on a topic. So, I decided to scroll through my photos and choose one to write an impromptu poem.

The first photo that caught my eye was this one:

Tomato 2015

I took it early last year. It’s the first, perfect, cherry tomato from last year’s crop. I was so proud of that one tomato that I photographed it and shared here on my blog, and on Facebook and Twitter too.  But afterwards I ate it which is, after all, what one should do with a tomato. I remember very clearly that it was delicious – and left me wanting more, which of course I had to wait for, because the others weren’t ripe yet.

How to capture that in a poem? Here’s my effort.

Cherry Tomato

You looked

too perfect to eat

So instead I took a photo

shared you with the world.

through social media

collected likes

and comments.

 

Later though

I succumbed

to your wiles

and ate you in a single

sweet, tangy mouthful.

 

I don’t remember who commented

or how many likes you garnered

but I do remember

that delicious bite

that I couldn’t share

with anyone.

(Poem copyright Sally Murphy 2016).

 

Haven’t written a poem lately? Here’s a challenge: scroll through the photos in your social media account, or on your phone – then see if you can capture that moment in a few lines of poetry.

Have a great Poetry Friday. The roundup today is at Buffy’s Blog.

Guest Blogger: Lorraine Marwood

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I am delighted today to have another guest blogger dropping by to help celebrate all things poetry in honour of the release of Pearl Verses the World.

Lorraine Marwood is a fellow Australian children’s author and poet – and also an excellent verse novelist. Enjoy her post – an exercise in poetry writing. Welcome Lorraine.

Patterning a poem

This is often a great technique to both read poems from other poets and also to provide a way into a new poem of your own.

Here is one of my poems:

Drop Tail Lizard

Drop tail lizard
on the grey leaves
and grey bark
garden mulch,
swimming like a sardine
like a tadpole
silver pin with a jeweled eye.
Tells me the day is warmer,
summer that much closer

until that white cat running
running with a small under belly and back legs
of lizard humming
from its hunter’s throat.

Drop
it
cat.

© Lorraine Marwood

Idea for writing a poem
Using a poem as a format or starting point for writing a class poem or an individual poem is a great idea.

‘Drop tail Lizard’ is just such a starting point.

A poem is often a simple observation of life, a detailed observation. A poet looks and mulls and captures such a detail in a word picture.So grab a word camera and observe.

Look outside.
Watch a car, a neighbour, a tree, a bird, the clouds, the way the dog chases a squeaky toy.

Now you have your subject matter – here’s a simple format.

Line 1 Name the object of the poem- use my poem as a template

Line 2 and 3 Bring in location or setting ‘ on the grey leaves/grey bark/garden mulch’

Line 4 and 5 action that the object is doing

Line 6 and 7 Tells us something about the world around me

Line 8 and 9 now for the conflict- what happens to upset this slice of life?

Line 10 and 11- make the last words of resolution have more impact by sitting one word on one line, like stepping stones.

(c) Lorraine Marwood

Thanks for dropping in, Lorraine. If you would like to learn more about Lorraine, you can visit her online here or here. And keep dropping back each day in May as I continue to celebrate all things poetry and the release of Pearl Verses the World.

Welcome to the Big Verse-Off

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The celebrations to celebrate the release of Pearl verses the World continue, and today I am delighted to be visiting Tips for Young Writers, where I’m being interviewed by Dee White. Dee has also written a wonderful review of the book.

It would be great to see you there.
But, before you head off – drumroll please. Today is the first day of the much-trumpeted Verse -Off. Read on as all is finally revealed.
When verse versus verse – what do you get?

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.

Got it? Great. Then here goes with prompt number one.

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.

Go on – have a go. you know you want to. And thank you for celebrating the birth of our two books with us.

Another Useful Site

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Pemberthy decided to write a haiku this morning, and I helped him find some information about the form to include his blog.

The search led me to a site which has a listing of over 500 poetic forms. You can see the list here. Each poetic term is a clickable link which leads you to an explanation of the form and, in many cases, further links to examples of the form. It’s fun to experiment with different poetic forms. It can also be great for discipline.

Writing a haiku requires you to bare everything down to just 17 syllables. Abbreviated haiku, I’ve just discovered, have even less – just nine syllables. Other forms need very specific rhyme or rhythm patterns.

Even if you don’t think you’re a poet, why not have a go? You could start with something relatively simple (and fun) such as a limerick, or might want to challenge yourself with any of the other 500 forms. Pemberthy and I will certainly be exploring further.

Let me know how you get on.