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| "Floraison de mots (3)" by Louise Leclerc |
“Take a step, breathe in the world, give it out again in story, poem, song, art.”
– Jane Yolen
At the beginning of this month, Jane Yolen challenged us to write a septercet that featured reading or writing. A septercet is a poetry form she invented that has lines of seven syllables organized into three-line stanzas. It may be rhymed or not, with any number of stanzas.
The response to Jane's challenge was tremendous, with the added perk of seeing so many new participants! With more than 50 poems collected, it pains me that I couldn't feature more of them. It also took me a while to figure out how to organize such a large group, but eventually I wrangled them into four categories:
Words, words, words...
Adventures in Reading
The Writer's Life, and
Reading the World Around Us.
Tea's nearly ready, so please stay as long as you like to enjoy the entire collection.
To those who met the challenge,
tapping on seven fingers
over and over again,
and to Jane Yolen, poet,
storyteller and teacher—
here's my septercet of thanks.
Scroll through the poems below, or for best viewing, CLICK HERE.
Inspired to write a septercet of your own?
Post it on our September 2016 padlet by the end of today (September 30th) and I will add it to the wrap-up presentation.
Alternatively, you may enter the giveaway by commenting below. Comments must be received no later than Tuesday, October 4th. If you contribute a poem and comment below, you will receive two entries in total.
The winner will be determined by Random.org and announced next Friday, October 7th, when we reveal our new Spotlight ON interview and ditty challenge.
The winners of last week's giveaway for You Just Wait: A Poetry Friday Power Book by Sylvia Vardell and Janet Wong (Pomelo Books, 2016) are:
David Jacobson, Diane Mayr, BJ Lee,
Damon Dean, and Ann Magee.
Congratulations to all of you!
Please send your address to TodaysLittleDitty (at) gmail (dot) com.
Thanks to Karen Edmisten for hosting this week's plump and juicy Poetry Friday roundup.
Wow, Michelle! Another amazing month of poetry inspired by you and by Jane. I couldn't stop at just one, so I've posted another septercet on my blog today.
ReplyDeleteCan't wait to read it, Liz!
DeleteSeptercetting foolishness
ReplyDeleteHas an air of coolishness
With its sevens rulishness!
~~~~~~~~
What a huge pile of wonderful poems!!!!
HOORAY! Love this, Donna!
DeleteWhat a wonderful
ReplyDeletebonanza of fun
with Septercet and Yolen!
There is my Thank You Ditty!
Your ditties are always welcome here, Brenda!
DeleteIt's a treasure that so many wrote to Jane's challenge. I imagine septercets will stay in our lives for a long while. Thanks, Michelle-a beautiful collection this month.
ReplyDeleteI imagine you're right, Linda! I don't think septercets are going away anytime soon.
DeleteReaction in Septercet
ReplyDeleteWow! What a spectacular
collection of septercets!
Jane Yolen must be smiling.
Thanks to you, Michelle for Ditty of the Month. It's one of my favorite blogs!
You've got me smiling, too, Penny! I also love your fun, witchy septercet. I think she deserves to be illustrated next month by Landon!
DeleteThanks, Michelle. I revised an old poem that needed something. And that's exactly what Landon and I are doing for Oct. I've already sent it to him :-)
DeleteWhat a fabulous response to Jane's challenge! Thanks for doing these special spotlights each month, Michelle. :)
ReplyDeleteIf anyone would know what a labor of love it is, Jama, that would be you.
DeleteMichelle, as the Ditty Queen, you and Jane Yolen have pushed many into a new level of challenge. The variety of the septercets is marvelous. Creative expressions are bouncing all over your Padlet page. Hopefully, you have created a new way of communicating (by counting syllables-fingers help). Thank you for your continued efforts to create different ways for us to hone our craft.
ReplyDeleteThanks also for all YOU do, Carol! You're truly a wonder of a poetry advocate!
DeleteMichelle and Jane this mount challenge was a wonderful learning experience for me I Love this form of a new found poem to me everyone poems are wonderful I have read them all many times through out this mount and enjoyed them each time I did wonderful job every one again Thanks so much for this wonderful challenge
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you're enjoying this new form, Jessica!
DeleteWonderful!! It's so exciting to be challenged to grow as a writer and creator. Thanks so much for sharing all of these!!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Jane. It's fun for me to show off what everyone has done!
DeleteAnother DMC wrapped up, and what a response! Some really nice poems here...and I can't believe I somehow missed that the septercets were supposed to be about reading or writing!
ReplyDeleteI missed that too, Matt!
DeleteI'm not complaining! Great septercets from both of you. :)
DeleteSpectacular collection!
ReplyDeleteSpanking septercetting romp,
rallying seven syllables . . .
Loved the jaunt Michelle and Jane!
Ha! A spanking septercetting romp, indeed!
DeleteWhat a dazzling bunch of people I am seen with today. And Michelle, I agree with Penny. This is on my top two list of favorite blogs. :-) I learn something every single time I come here.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Robyn. :)
DeleteFrom Jane Yolen:
ReplyDeleteTo see my small invention,
My paper bird taking wing,
Made a lovely dawn chorus.
Thanks, all,
Jane
I can't get the padlet to work this week, but I have seen septercets around the ridges during the month, and they've been lovely. I had to giggle at your 'tapping on seven fingers'.
ReplyDeleteI don't like the sound of that! ...the padlet, I mean, not the giggling. I like giggling. :) I just emailed you, Kat. Hoping I can help with whatever difficulties you were having.
DeleteThis was a fun challenge month. Thanks for doing it.
ReplyDeleteThey're all fun as far as I'm concerned! :)
DeleteAnother great challenge success! And I love your padlet. You probably do too, as I can imagine it saves you a lot of work.
ReplyDeleteThe padlet has it's quirks (don't we all?), but even as I discover all its bugs and features, I definitely AM grateful for the time it's saving me!
DeleteWas this the most responses you've ever had to a challenge? It looked like it was right up there anyway! I enjoyed the variety within the topics.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure it was a new record in terms of the number of participants. I'm guessing it might have pipped the record for number of poems too, but not by as many. One day I'll go back and count.
DeleteGlad I was able to help out with your fourth category title! What a fun challenge and a huge diversity of poems! Leave it to Jane to inspire us to be so prolific in our writing!
ReplyDeleteNot sure what I would have done without you, Mary Lee. :)
DeleteI'm so pleased to have won a copy of You Just Wait: A Poetry Friday Power Book! Many thanks!
ReplyDeleteI like the way you collected the poems into four categories. I think your decision to turn to the padlet was a good one!
The padlet's not perfect, but the benefits certainly seem to be outweighing the drawbacks!
DeleteMichelle, I'm so in love with the way you contribute to the world of poetry in this blog. Thank you again and again for the hours spent on a blog that likely started out as a much smaller project. I so enjoyed seeing the various septercets. The padlet idea is brilliant! I got ideas and found myself saying wow to so many different takes on the same idea. Bravo to you!
ReplyDeleteHow sweet you are, Linda! Thank you. xo I was just looking back at some 2013 posts this morning and thinking how far TLD has come!
DeleteAfter being absent due to lots of tight deadlines, your blog reminds me of why writing is so much fun for me and a source of creativity and not just stress. I hope to hang out more often here. I have a septercet to submit:
ReplyDeleteMy life is composed of lists
written on scraps of paper
reminders of what to do.
On my to-do list today
I crossed off only one thing--
Write septercet and submit.
Pat yourself on the back, Danielle. Fun is a good thing. :)
DeleteSo happy I was able to get one up on the board...and it was wonderful to read all of the entries. Thanks to Jane for spurring us on...and to you, Michelle...you are the best of hosts. ;)
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you were, too, Vivian! I love that the Universe speaks to you in your garden. How comforting that must be.
Delete