Showing posts with label childhood games. Show all posts
Showing posts with label childhood games. Show all posts

Saturday, March 3, 2012

A Bit of Luck to 'Go'



A Bit of Luck to ‘Go’

Board game
we like to play?
Its name

Is ‘Go.’
It’s challenging
and so

my friends
compete.  Who wins?
Depends.

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Notes: As I mentioned yesterday, I planned on using the marvelous vintage photograph prompt (above) from Sepia Saturday to write a poem. The form is 'Musette' and you can find out more about it at Shadow Poetry.

Friday, March 2, 2012

Poesie

Image courtesy of weirdwebsites

A Pocket Full of Posies

We hold each others’ hands and sing,
“O ring around the rosie...swing!”
We love to play this silly game.
I wonder where it got its name.

Was plague the meaning of the thing?
We hold each others’ hands and sing.
A pocket full of posies will
(at least to us) mean nothing ill.

So, ashes…and we all fall down
in sailor suit or dainty gown.
We hold each others’ hands and swing:
we’re healthy as we’re chorusing

a ditty that’s been passed on from
a middle-age compendium.
That is the thought to which we’ll cling.
We hold each others’ hands and sing. 

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Notes:  The form is Quatern.  Sepia Saturday provided a prompt this week of 'games' along with a vintage snapshot of some lovely Korean ladies playing a game called 'Go.'  The original archival picture was really cool, and if I have time over the weekend, I will try to write a poem for that too.  But at first blush, I had the idea in my head of old-fashioned little kids playing 'Ring-A-Round the Rosie,' and when I found the above tinted photograph, my poem really began to take shape.

Although the children's nursery rhyme 'Ring-A-Round the Rosie' is believed to be (by some) about the bubonic plague in Europe from the mid 1300s, according to Snopes, it really isn't so.  I'm kind of glad, since I'd rather it be innocent...although it's fun when you find nursery rhymes of old that were used to convey other, secret meanings.  Kind of like a game, huh?

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Getting your green on...

At first, I wasn't sure where I was going to go with today's post.  After all, there are so many weird holidays to mention:

The Ides of March, True Confessions Day, Buzzard's Day, Everything You Think Is Wrong Day, American Legion founded 1919, Escalator patented 1892, Andrew Jackson born 1767, Brutus Day, World Consumer Rights Day, Dumbstruck Day, Admission Day (Maine, USA), Constitution Day (Belarus), Companies That Care Day, National Pasta Days (15th & 16th) and Absolutely Incredible Kid Day.

You see what I mean.

I decided to just go with the prompts.  Magpie Tales featured another glorious photograph by Tess Kincaid, Carry On Tuesday employed the quote, "I could be a millionaire if I had the money," and Cloaked Monk's March Challenge (in honor of Absolutely Incredibly Kid Day) wanted writers to ponder 'childhood.'

So...let's go green!


‘Green’ Home Improvements I

Decorating News:
Yes, green is the new purple.
Get your shamrock on!

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‘Green’ Home Improvements II

If I had the funds
I’d redecorate with green…
… color of money.

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And speaking of getting your green on…

Dirt brown and grass green
are the colors of outdoors
and most kids’ play clothes.

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Monday, March 7, 2011

Picture Perfect

When you pair illustrations, artwork, graphics or photos with words, the results can be extraordinarily vivid and exciting.  Monday's Child provides picture prompts every Monday, with gentle childhood themes.  Today's prompt is an illustration by fellow blogger lissa.  The poem I wrote for this is in the form Sonnetina Tre.

Since the theme today for the March Challenge is 'nature' (in honor of Luther Burbank, who was born today in 1849) I decided to use one of my own original photographs to illustrate my poem.  The photo was taken at a recent local garden and flower show, and the poetic form is Ya Du.

Bedtime Story by lissa

Go To Sleep, Katie

Sitting in bed with my most bestest book,
bunny ears on…let the magic begin.
This is the moment I love.  Take a look…
“Go to sleep, Katie!”  “Hey Mom, in a min.”

I’m up to the chapter right near the close,
and what happens next?  A conjurer’s trick!
I know how this ends, but - fun to suppose…
“Go to sleep, Katie!”  “Hey Mom, in a tic.”

I’m finally finished.  Gosh, that was fun!
“Go to sleep, Katie!”  “Okay Mom.  I’m done.”

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Branch with Blue Flowers

Petals of blue…
déjà vu. I
sense you, but why?
Is it I see
something I know is part of me?

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Monday, January 17, 2011

Ice Cowboys and the Last Snowman

Artist unknown.
Here is another sweet piece of antique artwork, as posted by Monday's Child. It is meant to be the inspirational springboard for interested writers to pen a piece of children's poetry or prose.  The artist of this illustration is unknown (at least for the present) but he or she did a nice job of rendering small kids as they played a wintery game.

I wrote the following poem using a sestet form called the Wordsworth Sestet. 



In Search of the Last Snowman

The neighborhood kids crept over the hill,
silently seeking out the last snowman -
a quite cool chap, who’s been seen by no man
 ‘cept for ice cowboys who don’t mind the chill.
Then suddenly - “Look, tribe!  Look up ahead!
I think that I see him.  Stay mum until…
I give the signal,” the chieftain boy said.

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