DMC: "Down the Drain" by Karen Eastlund

DOWN THE DRAIN

A turn of faucet
Splish splosh sploosh

A squeeze of sponge
Suds ooze and foam

A greasy pot or pan falls in
Soon a shiny one atones

An endless task, yet calming
Warm and wet and clean

Splish splosh sploosh it sings
I scrub and hum along, serene.

© 2020 Karen Eastlund. All rights reserved.

TLD reader Margaret Simon has challenged us to write a mindful poem about the present moment. Click HERE for more details and to add your poem to the padlet. While some poems will be shared as daily ditties this month, all contributions will be included in a wrap-up celebration on Friday, May 29th.

DMC: "Passions" by Karen Eastlund

PASSIONS
          ~with a line from "Truth, by Tyrone Bittings"

Put your passions to good use
Ponder them
and pursue them to
fulfillment. Don’t cry
tears of regret. Work! Find a way to
bloom! Then pump fists and shout! 

© 2018 Karen Eastlund. All rights reserved.

"Truth, by Tyrone Bittings" © 2018 Nikki Grimes, from BETWEEN THE LINES.


Click HERE to read this month's interview with Nikki Grimes. She has challenged us to write a golden shovel poem using a line from one of the poems in the post.

Leave your golden shovel on our March 2018 padlet. All contributions will be included in a wrap-up celebration this Friday, March 30th, and one lucky participant will win a copy of her new companion novel to Bronx Masquerade:

DMC: "Look What I Did" by Karen Eastlund

LOOK WHAT I DID

Scribble fits, wiggle blitz
The anguish a sigh emits
Scratch outs and smudges
The pencil point’s lame

Letters sway to and fro
Nothing stands in a row
But look at his face aglow
He just wrote his name

© 2017 Karen Eastlund. All rights reserved.

Pexels

Click HERE to read this month's interview with Carol Hinz, Editorial Director of Millbrook Press and Carolrhoda Books, divisions of Lerner Publishing Group. Her challenge this month is to write a poem that finds beauty in something that is not usually considered beautiful.

Post your poems on our November 2017 padlet. While some contributions will be featured as daily ditties this month, all contributions will be included in a wrap-up celebration this Friday, November 24th. One lucky participant will win a copy of The Sun Played Hide-and-Seek: A Personification Story by Brian P. Cleary, illustrated by Carol Crimmins, and published by Millbrook Press earlier this year.

DMC: "Ode to a Pink Dress" by Karen Eastlund

ODE TO A PINK DRESS

Sweet as cotton candy, you gathered me into a cloud 
     of pink confection
Where sheer and taffeta rustled lavishly
Each seam scented with anticipation
I slid my fingers around your slippery satin sash
My girlish twirls blossomed like peonies

You remember me after all these years?
Like silk stockings in a parade of bobby socks.

© 2017 Karen Eastlund. All rights reserved.


Helen Frost has challenged us to write an ode poem this month, following these instructions:  

Choose an object (a seashell, a hairbrush, a bird nest, a rolling pin). It should not be anything symbolic (such as a doll, a wedding ring, or a flag). Write five lines about the object, using a different sense in each line (sight, sound, touch, taste, smell). Then ask the object a question, listen for its answer, and write the question, the answer, or both.

Click HERE to read her sample poem, "Ode to a River."

Post your poem on our March 2017 padlet. All contributions will be included in a wrap-up celebration this Friday, March 31st, and one lucky participant will win a personalized copy of her latest novel-in-poems from Farrar, Straus, and Giroux/Macmillan:

DMC: "Bus Bummer" by Karen Eastlund

BUS BUMMER

In he stomped, furious, rude
"They put gum in my hair! Why?
Because I read!" Then the tears.

© 2016 Karen Eastlund. All rights reserved.


Jane Yolen has challenged us to write a septercet that features reading or writing this month. What is a septercet?  Click HERE for more details.

Post your poem on our September 2016 padlet. All contributions will be included in a wrap-up celebration on Friday, September 30th, and one lucky participant will win a personalized copy of her fabulous new collection of science poetry:

DMC: "Ditty" by Karen Eastlund

DITTY

Dites-nous
Little ditty
Why your verse
Feels so giddy
Why your tempo
And rhyme
Fill our heads

Though your bloodline’s
Mundane
Perhaps some
Feel disdain
But most find you
On rerun instead

Ecoutez
Little ditty
There’s no need
For pity
We love all your
Whimsy and bounce

When we hear
Your refrain
We don’t cringe
Or complain
We just join you for fun
That’s what counts!

© 2016 Karen Eastlund. All rights reserved.


David L. Harrison has challenged us to write poems inspired by the word "ditty" this month. Click HERE for more details.

Send your poem to TodaysLittleDitty (at) gmail (dot) com, or use the contact form in the sidebar to the right. All contributions will be included in a wrap-up celebration on Friday, February 26th, and one lucky participant will win a copy of his newest collection for children:

For an additional chance to win, write a poem inspired by "leaves" for David's Word of the Month (W.O.M.) challenge HERE.