For the last four weeks, fellow children’s author Kathryn Apel and myself have joined forces to challenge visitors to our blogs to respond in verse to a photo prompt. Kathryn was celebrating the release of her rhyming picture book This is the Mud,
so we asked readers to respond in rhyme on Kathryn’s blog and in free verse here on mine. Now that the verse off is over, we thought we might recap on the pictures and the poems which made this month so special.
In week one we asked visitors to respond to this beautiful turtle picture, taken by Kathryn’s husband Felix.
From Dee White:
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.
An Acrostic from Fletcher Apel:
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.
From Kathryn Apel:
necks craned
mute
turtles gaze
at untapped depths
of blue skies
Branyon Apel wrote:
shells on a branch
above water
sunning
Janeen Brian contributed:
‘Hey Charlie,
ever wondered
why they call this place,
Turtle Point?
Sally Odgers wrote:
T is for terrapins
Climbing from water into sky
The branch their bridge
Between realities
Finn (no link or second name) said:
on the log
looking up
where am I?
Felix Apel (rounding out the whole family’s contribution) said:
A reflection
seen by others
is not as we see
Andromeda Jazmon, from A Wrung Sponge, contributed:
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.
J.R. Poulter‘s response:
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….
And Fletcher and Kathryn Apel combined for this one:
Turtles totter on the log
step-by-step
two-by-two
Splash!
Lisa Schroeder, an old critique buddy of mine (hi Lisa) contributed:
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.
On May 8 we held a special verse off to mark the launch day of This is the Mud, which of course cried out for a beautiful cow photo.
Jackie popped in and submitted this one:
Puppy says…
How now
Brown cow
Cow says…
Moo
And Kathryn Apel (my co-conspirator) says:
Warm
shades of
brown contrast
with crisp
black and
white on
rich green
canvas
And her gorgeous son Branyon Apel says:
Dog stands on calf
other calf sniffs
friends.
In week two of the verse off, I changed the pace a little with a picture of some yummy treats.
The wonderful Kathryn Apel said:
Mum,
Can I please
have a lollypop?
The one right
at the top.
It’s for
you!
Trudie Trewin’s offering:
Look Mum
A lollypop tree!
Do you think
If I pick a leaf
And plant it deep
Where it’s warm and sunny
We might grow
Our very own
Lollypop tree?
Please?
J.R. Poulter wrote:
The colours swirl
Like entrapped rainbows.
Release them – you choose
And Mabel said:
Lolly popsicals
branching
like
a tree
of sweetness.
I see
my mother’s face
where two together
make a heart
of love
In week three Kathryn shared another beautiful nature picture, which elicited some lovely responses:
Sally Odgers contributed:
Imagination coupled
with a careless finger-doodle
brings a chance of forces meeting
as dragons in the sand
Kathryn Apel (my partner in crime, who also took the photo) wrote:
sand sculptures
litter the beach
like jellyfish
cast ashore
in high
tide
Janeen Brian’s response was:
nothing indefinite
about tunnel hole
only the grain dribblings
sand scribblings
creating an address
and Mabel wrote:
‘Is this a doodle
I see before me?’
‘Nay, Hamlet, nay.
Tis but a Collywoggle
Calling its young
to a picnic
on the beach.’
Life is A Poem contributed:
Split jewels
seaweed pearls
flaunting undersea treasure
waiting for the tide
to reclasp
into necklaces
that buoy and glint.
And Claire chimed in with:
crabform beads
expelled
onto sea-smooth sand
tunnel refuse
unburied treasure
Finally, in week four we asked readers to respond to a picture taken in Eucla on my trip across the Nullarbor Plain last year.
Felix Apel said…
Whaling about,
I’m feeling blue –
Don’t ruffle my feathers,
Life’s a beach!
J.R.Poulter/J.R.McRae said…
I don’t know what to make of this
A whale away beached in the outback.
Are they thinking of ship’s of the sands,
‘Cause,
Well, I always thought
that meant camels?
And emus
Well, they’re on our coat of arms
Aren’t they?
Do we have to export
EVERYTHING Aussie!?!
Kathryn Apel said…
grey swirls
as whale
fluke crests
the rolling waves
of green
leafy shrubs
all at sea
upon dry
sand
Janeen Brian said…
Were you the sole survivor?
Seeking refuge from ocean plunderers
did you scale the red-bloodied cliffs of the Bight
and reach
the Nullarbor Plain . . .?
Belka said…
Cutting costs mean
cheaper exports
lower fuel bills
and fewer wages
to pay.
A country
that shall be nameless
requested emus
to lessen the carbon imprint
so we sent them
from Eucla
via a whale.
http://belka37.blogspot.com
Sally Murphy said…
One cold wet day
in Eucla
I wrote a postcard home
“Having a wail of a time”
At home
they thought I’d made
a spelling error.
But I, after two days driving in the rain,
was disconsolate
And the whale?
Though unexpected,
it did – almost – bring
a smile to my face.
Wow! So many wonderful contributions. If you would like to see the rhyming responses to the same pics, pop over to Kathryn’s blog. Thanks so much to everyone who visited and shared poems during May. We hope you have enjoyed the Verse Off as much as we did.
Thanks Sally! Great to see the full array of talent. What a great month it was!
Kat
Hi Sally and Kat
Ta muchly for organising this – a bit like the illustrator’s Friday challenge!