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| Luncheon of the Boating Party, by Pierre-Auguste Renoir |
“Any healthy man can go without food for two days, but not without poetry.”
~ Charles Baudelaire
~ Charles Baudelaire
What a fabulous spread of poetry we've been enjoying this month at Today's Little Ditty!
I've loved returning to many of our mouthwatering DMC challenges for second and third helpings. Thanks to everyone who contributed poems!
As soul-satisfying as National Poetry Month is, every year I struggle to keep up with all the wonderful offerings... blogs, articles, reading, writing. I appreciate that we all need to make choices about where we spend our time, and the fact that TLD is a preferred hang out spot for many of you means so much to me. Some of you were even
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| "All you can eat ditty snacks—yum!" Photo by James Marvin Phelps |
But before I share this month's poetry smorgasbord, there's one piece of business I need to attend to. At the beginning of this month, I mentioned that I'm putting together a new ditty committee for The Best of Today's Little Ditty, Volume 2. I realized afterwards that it came out as sort of a throw-away remark and deserves more attention.
What's a "ditty committee"?
"Ditty committee" is what I call the group of individuals who help me decide which poems from our roster of challenges should appear in our next TLD anthology. (Actually, to be honest, the committee does most of the deciding. I try to keep out of it as much as possible.)
Volume 2 will include the following 2016 challenges:
- Poems about nothing (Douglas Florian)
- "Ditty"-inspired poems (David L. Harrison)
- Poems about small things (Amy Ludwig VanDerwater)
- Echo poems (Marilyn Singer)
- Persona poems (Laura Shovan)
- Unlikely hero poems (Diana Murray)
- Septercets (Jane Yolen)
- Poems for our mothers (Kenn Nesbitt)
- Poems about places of refuge and solace (Ann Rider)
Are decisions made as a group?
Yes and no. Although committee members share a common set of criteria and guidelines, each person on the committee is assigned 4-5 specific challenges to review. Poems are reviewed individually, not as a group discussion. I am the only one who sees all of the recommendations, consolidates them, and makes final decisions on which poems should appear based on overall results.
What kind of time commitment are we talking about?
The review process takes place during the month of June. Within that time frame, committee members can review challenges at their own pace. Any committee members who complete their assigned challenges and are keen to do more are encouraged to do so!
Interested?
Please contact me via email at TodaysLittleDitty (at) gmail (dot) com.
Now then, who's hungry for some poetry?
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| Photo by Wesley Fryer |
Scroll through the poems below, or for best viewing, click HERE.
Inspired to bring a poetry dish of your own?
Hopefully it won't need much time in the oven! Add it to our April 2017 padlet by this Sunday, April 30th and I'll move it to the presentation table. You may have noticed that quite a few challenges didn't make it into the potluck. Maybe consider one of these?
- Poem video (Sylvia Vardell and Janet Wong)
- Poems to wake Farmer McPeeper (Lori Degman)
- Poems of address (Irene Latham)
- Free verse wordplay (Nikki Grimes)
- Rhyming treehouse poem (Corey Rosen Schwartz)
- Dragon feast couplets (Penny Parker Klostermann)
- Me poems (Lee Bennett Hopkins)
- Un/requited love poems (Marcus Ewert)
- Poems about nothing (Douglas Florian)
- Echo poems (Marilyn Singer)
- Persona poems (Laura Shovan)
- Personified feeling poems (Jeannine Atkins)
Honestly, though, I'm not a picky poetry eater. Any DMC recipe you'd like to try is fine by me!
Links to all the DMC challenges are HERE, and links to all the Spotlight ON interviews, HERE.
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| GIVEAWAY |
Option 1: A set of 8 copies of The Best of Today's Little Ditty: 2014-2015 to use with a classroom or extracurricular group.
Option 2: One copy of The Best of Today's Little Ditty, plus a $20 gift card to purchase a poetry book(s) of your choice.
Option 3: A $25 gift card if you already have all the copies of The Best of TLD you need.
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| Makes a great teacher gift! Available for purchase at Amazon.com. |
Alternatively, you may enter the giveaway by commenting below. Comments must be received by Tuesday, May 2nd. 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, May 5th, when we reveal next month's spotlight interview and ditty challenge.
Good luck!
JoAnn Early Macken is offering spring tidings and this week's Poetry Friday roundup at Teaching Authors.
ohhhhhhhhhhhhh, I would so love to be on the ditty committee. As a Teacher Librarian and Mom I'm afraid I wouldn't be dependable for a time commitment. Perhaps for book #3?
ReplyDeleteSo many forms left unbaked. I'm all over that! I've been having fun playing with different forms this month. It just makes me happy. Thanks so much for the fun and the challenges. I adore them.
I totally understand, Linda! Maybe we'll catch you next time.
DeleteLike Linda, I would love to be on your ditty committee, but I am still plugging away at my WIP and dare not stop for a large chunk of time. I'm surprised at how many challenges I missed! So many fun things to do, so little time!
ReplyDeleteI will come back tomorrow and read the poetry. I'm looking forward to seeing the directions everyone took.
You are always a highlight of my PF experience. Thanks for all the work you put into this. XOXO
Good for you, keeping to your writing commitments, Brenda! All the best with that. And thank you for the kind words, too. xo
DeleteI love all of your challenges, Michelle. I always try to stop by and read the poems, but somehow I don't think I've every joined in the fun. Time is always a factor for me, but I'm going to make it a goal to enter at least one challenge in 2017!
ReplyDeleteThat would be great, Linda. :) You'll always be welcome.
DeleteI feel like that little bird in the picture, gobbling up all the ditties! :)
ReplyDeleteIs that the cutest photo ever, or what?
DeleteI love this quote, “Any healthy man can go without food for two days, but not without poetry.” But maybe we should say woman, though the food part might be difficult, I might collapse in a corner around my poetry. And the painting, I'd like to climb in. I agree with Jane above about the bird, she's precious too.
ReplyDeleteWonderful collection of poems this month Michelle, thanks for your passionate touch with pulling them all together!
What I'd like to know is if chocolate counts as food, because if it does, I'm a goner for sure. ;)
DeleteApril certainly has been "all you can eat and more". I'm amazed at all the wonderful poems on this padlet. The challenges plus the poems create quite an inspiration for more writing! Thanks, Michelle!
ReplyDeleteI agree, Linda! The poetry-writing energy that swarms around this month is something to behold.
DeleteMichelle,
ReplyDeleteYour committee with love the challenge of winnowing the challenge results.
My hand went up at the first announcement post, hoping out loud that the fun work didn't co-incide with summer. But my hand has to now drop down - sorry!
Appreciations a big bundle, for all the challenges that have prompted me to create poems that otherwise would still be in my cranium.
Great photos, too, Michelle. Is the jay a Florida scrub jay. Bright, like a regular blue jay but since I don't see the tuft . . . And on the hongry buffet sign. This reminds me of a sign/place my daughter I discovered along I-95 , in South Caroline, a fine dinging establishment we remember as being named Sit and Chew. (It's been a few years, so it also may be Squat and Eat, or . . . . )
That's okay, Jan. I suspected the timing might be problematic for you. Maybe we'll catch you next time!
DeleteAccording to the photographer, the jay is from Michigan. Funny about the Sit and Chew... or whatever it's called these days! Not sure where that photo was taken, though my best guess is Kansas.
What a delicious smorgasbord of poems!Thank you for collecting and sharing all of them.
ReplyDeleteAnd thank YOU for being a part of it, Kay!
DeleteThose ditties are wonderful. Love the curry circles background. Biggest laugh: Diane Mayr's Letter from the Teacher. Biggest shudder: Jone who shared her shower with spiders! Eek! Biggest punch with fewest words has to go to Tabatha for her Joan of Arc clerihew. Impressive! I loved them all, Michelle. You do good work here.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Brenda! It was great to hear your award winners. :) Your reading glasses ode is also a winner in my book... "Your salty, sharp edges, like me, taste of compromise but never defeat" <— LOVE that.
DeleteMichelle, thank you so much for challenging us all to write. Look what you've inspired!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Liz. :) Hope you find your sock!
DeleteCool collection, Michelle! xo
ReplyDeleteThanks for your cool contributions, Tabatha. It's impossible for me to choose which I like best! xo
DeleteHooray for this wrap-up of challenge poems. So fun to scroll through and be amazed and entertained by the talented wordsmiths!
ReplyDeleteHuzzah! Huzzah!
DeleteI am impressed as always with the wealth of poetry and the talents of so many poets in my world. I'd love to be on the committee for #2. Summer is around the corner, so I'll have more time.
ReplyDeleteGreat, Margaret! I've got you down on the list.
DeleteHas a whole year really gone by already? Thanks for filling it with poetry challenges! (I sent you an email.)
ReplyDeleteI know, right? Thanks for the email, Diane— hope I didn't insult you with my silly joking around.
DeleteMichelle, congratulations on keeping TLD growing strong! I'm happy to once again don my "Ditty Committee" cap, if you need me...so please don't hesitate to contact me. I've been so busy lately I haven't had time to submit this month, but I just may come up with something tomorrow, one never knows!
ReplyDeleteI will never underestimate your hardworking muse, Matt. :)
DeleteOh, what a comprehensive collection! I loved the variety and richness of your smorgasbord. Thank you for the lovely spread!
ReplyDeleteThanks, JoAnn. And thanks for hosting today, too!
DeleteThese are amazing! "Cadet blue sky" - swoon.
ReplyDeleteAgreed! I'm swooning too.
DeleteNot that I'm partial to the water poems or anything:>)
ReplyDeleteOf course not, Laura. :)
DeleteYum! Love the variety of poems, even within each challenge!
ReplyDeleteAnd I love that you've been inspired to try so many new dishes, Rebekah!
DeleteFeeling a bit obnoxious but can.not.stop. :)
DeleteA fun month to wrap things up. So many wonderful poems! I've had a hard time keeping up with all the poetry this month. You've done a wonderful job with the ditties!
ReplyDeleteWhat a magnificent poetry feast! You are a wonder, Michelle, for assembling such a celebratory banquet for National Poetry Month. Thank you for all you do for poetry!
ReplyDeleteEven though I am late to the party it is nice to know that the poetry is still fresh and the offerings are varied. Wish I could help with the next Ditty Anthology, Michelle, but we're moving soon. Luckily I will be only a click away from your blog. =)
ReplyDelete