Limerick Alley: Rebecca Colby

Jinxy Winxy

 
Look familiar?

           We've been here before. 

Limerick Alley.
Under the Halloween-inspired moonlight.



This time, no moaning and groaning about nightmare visits by zombies, crickets, or otherwise... though I make no promises about dinner guests.

That's because Rebecca Colby is here with a few guests of her own.

LaFleureRouge

"What's for dinner?" by Astera-T

HALLOWEEN DINNER
 
Be careful on Halloween night,
or vampires might give you a fright.
They gather in gangs,
with razor-sharp fangs,
just waiting for necks they can bite!

© 2015 Rebecca Colby. All rights reserved.






And Rebecca should know, because she has a fun picture book out this year with illustrator Steven Henry called It's Raining Bats & Frogs (Feiwel and Friends, 2015).

Rest assured, the bats in this story are relatively harmless. Just look at the adorable front cover!

Here's the synopsis from Amazon.com:

A little witch named Delia has been looking forward all year to flying in the annual Witch Parade. When the rumors of rain come true and the other witches start complaining, Delia takes action. Using her best magic, Delia changes the rain to cats and dogs. At first this goes over quite well, but she quickly realizes the animals cause a few issues. She must change the rain again! This time to hats and clogs. And finally, she tries bats and frogs. But each new type of rain brings its own set of problems. How will Delia save the day?

You, too, can save the day by sharing this delightful picture book with all the little trick-or-treaters in your life!  

And speaking of treats... Gayle Krause is interviewing main character Delia Witch (and her author, Rebecca) today at The Storyteller's Scroll.

Many thanks to Rebecca for brewing up some storytelling magic for Limerick Alley!

Rebecca Colby is an award-winning picture book author and poet. Her books include: It’s Raining Bats & Frogs (Feiwel & Friends, 2015), There was a Wee Lassie who Swallowed a Midgie (Floris Picture Kelpies, 2014), and the forthcoming Motor Goose (Feiwel & Friends, 2017).

Before writing for children, Rebecca inspected pantyhose, taught English in Taiwan, worked for a Russian comedian, and traveled the world as a tour director. Learn more about Rebecca and her books (including free teacher's resource guides) at www.rebeccacolbybooks.com.

Have you been thinking about the poem you might write for Marcus Ewert's DMC challenge? I'm looking for a few more to share as daily ditties. Marcus has challenged us to write love poems this month– about relationships that seem unrequited, but which end up being requited after all. Click HERE for more details.  Featured this week were poems by Tabatha Yeatts and Jessica Bigi.

Amy Ludwig VanDerwater has today's Poetry Friday roundup at The Poem Farm.

Limerick Alley: Robert Schechter

Emu in the Snow, by Mark Dumont

G'day, mate. 

Howyagoinallright?

Limerick Alley's gone walkabout, ya see. We're down under today thanks to Bob Schechter. He may not be an Aussie, but he's a decent bloke as peoples go... and fair dinkum when it come to writing limericks. Have a squiz.

A large flightless bird! You may deem you
Know just what it is, so you scream you
Are seeing an ostrich!
But no, that's prepostrich!
Its feet have three toes. It's an emu.

© Robert Schechter. All rights reserved.

Photo by Airwolfhound

Really. An ostrich. We are not amused.

Ostrich Toes, Steph Hillier

Our visit to the Billabong Koala & Wildlife Park, 2008

Built for speed–
ugly as a box of blowflies.

Three toes, ya see... shapely, symmetric-

like, can run the pants off a kangaroo.  

Bugger off, Wallaby, I'm talking to the girlie!

Michelle here. Can we get back Bob, please? Bob's emu limerick is one of 60 (!) that appear in The Omnificent English Dictionary in Limerick Form (OEDILF). Besides limericks, Bob writes poetry for children, light verse for adults, and translations of poems. You can enjoy examples of each on his website. Several of his poems have been published in Highlights for Children, as well as in newspapers, magazines, journals, and anthologies, including the forthcoming National Geographic Book of Nature Poetry edited by J. Patrick Lewis.  His verse and jokes have earned him the title of “Rookie of the Year” and “Loser of the Year” in the Wash­ing­ton Post Style Invi­ta­tional, and he even had a limerick about taxes performed on air during a segment of NPR's Weekend Marketplace.

Having sent me several limericks to choose from, I couldn't resist sharing one more. This one is from a contest where the first two lines are from Edward Lear, but the last three are Bob's own digestive-inspired genius:

There was an Old Person of Chili
Whose conduct was painful and silly;
For dinner she’d dine
On a baked porcupine,
Though it left her esophagus quilly.

© Robert Schechter. All rights reserved.

Beauty! Goodonya, Bob. 
(But the emu one is better.) 
Gotta run– hooroo!

Emu, by Ian Sanderson

Hooroo, Emu! And to you, too, my TLD friends.

It's been such fun sharing Bob Schechter's limericks today– ta, Bob!

For the road, here's one of our Barnes family favorites: "Old Man Emu" by John Williamson.

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There's only one week left to submit a rhyming treehouse ditty for Corey Rosen Schwartz's DMC challenge this month.  Click HERE for all the details. Featured ditties this week included my own, plus three others by Janie Lazo, Linda Baie, and Michelle Kogan.

Mary Lee Hahn is also featuring animals at A Year of Reading.  Join her for today's Poetry Friday roundup.

Limerick Alley: Neal Levin

Uh-oh.

It's Friday the 13th. 

Last time it was Friday the 13th in Limerick Alley....

It was bad.  

Bad. Bad. Baaaad. 

There will be no more running with scissors at Today's Little Ditty!

Today, I expect, will be different.

It's almost Valentine's Day for goodness sake.  How bad could it be?

No silly Friday the 13th superstition is going to interfere with my romantic Valentine's celebration.

Besides, we have limerick master Neal Levin here with us today. He's won the Saturday Evening Post Limerick Laughs contest EIGHT (!) times – 4 times as a first place winner and 4 times as a runner-up. I have full trust in Neal's good taste and limerick-writing ability.

Take it away, Neal....

DINNER WITH THE CANNIBALS
         By Neal Levin

We hope that this doesn't unnerve you,
But really, we'd love to reserve you
A place at our table.
So come, if you're able.
We'd truly be happy to serve you.

"Tastes like chicken."

GAH!

I should've known.


Neal is a Michigan-based writer/illustrator/cartoonist, and a leading cause of giggling in children nationwide, thanks to his generous talent for writing humorous children's poetry. His poems have appeared in several anthologies published by Meadowbrook Press, including Rolling In the Aisles, Dinner With Dracula, I've Been Burping In the Classroom, My Teacher's In Detention, and I Hope I Don't Strike Out, as well as a variety of national magazines and educational publications. Neal has also taught cartooning workshops to tens of thousands of students in the metropolitan Detroit area and creative writing classes at Camp Walden, a summer camp in northern Michigan. By sheer luck, I was honored to have him illustrate my poem "George Nissen, Boy Inventor" in Boys' Quest magazine last year. Visit Neal as his website: NealLevin.com

Thank you for being my guest in Limerick Alley today, Neal!

You are cordially invited to dinner at my house anytime... provided you leave your cannibal friends at home.

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In case you missed last week's interview with David Elliott, he's challenged us to write letter poems this month. This week I featured my love letter to an Australian Magpie, as well as three other poems by Damon Dean, Katie Gast, and Matt Forrest Esenwine.  Keep those letter poems coming!

Cathy Mere is hosting today's Poetry Friday roundup over at Merely Day By Day.

Limerick Alley: Bridget Magee

For better or worse, American influence has changed the way many holidays are celebrated overseas– Christmas, Easter, Halloween... but not Thanksgiving.  No, Thanksgiving is all ours.

November 27th will be like any other Thursday in Limerick, Ireland. But here on Today's Little Ditty, Limerick Alley is serving up this kind of pub grub:

What's more, we've got an American lass with a fine Irish name to plate up some poetry on the side.  I'm speaking of no other than Bridget Magee, of course.

Bridget has wide-ranging talents, as writer, poet, speaker, teacher, mom– but personally, I think of Bridget as a sister in all things ditty.  With her quirky sense of humor, a pun for every occasion, and our shared tendency toward short verse, who better to make an appearance in Limerick Alley.  You can read more of Bridget's work at her blog wee words for wee ones.

While I never dictate what my guests in Limerick Alley or Haiku Garden should write about, I am pleased that Bridget took it upon herself to write something appropriate for the turkey-gobbling season.  For one thing, it gives me a chance to acknowledge the holiday, since next week I'll be busy wrapping up November's Ditty of the Month Club challenge.

There is someone who is not particularly happy about Bridget's choice of subject matter, however. And that would be this handsome fellow:

"Pre-Thanksgiving Dinner" by Ian McKenzie, Flickr Creative Commons

There once was a turkey named Ty 

Who saw the calendar, "Oh my!  

Almost Thanksgiving?  

I want to keep living!  

Oh how I wish I could fly."

© 2014 Bridget Magee. All rights reserved.

"Turkey Chase" by Lars Hammar, Flickr Creative Commons

Run away, Ty! Run away!

Thank you, Bridget, for this fun little ditty.  And to all of you, whatever is on your table this Thanksgiving (or this Thursday, for my friends abroad), I wish you many blessings of the season, and hope that you know how grateful I am for your support of Today's Little Ditty.  In the words of Der Bingle, I've got plenty to be thankful for.

With mashed potatoes and pumpkin pie crowding our thoughts, don't forget that there's just one week left to submit a monster-inspired haiku for Bob Raczka's DMC challenge.  This week I featured my own haiku as well as monsteriffic little ditties by Penny Parker Klostermann, Susannah Buhrman-Deever, and Diane Mayr.

Be sure to check out the poetry spread at Becky Shillington's Tapestry of Words.  Thanks, Becky, for hosting today's Poetry Friday roundup!

Limerick Alley: Liana Mahoney

So happy to welcome Liana Mahoney to Limerick Alley!  Especially since she has some wonderful news that I'll share with you in just a bit. 

The limerick she's brought with her today is based on a true story:

                         I once found a toad (gentle creature!)
                         that was cursed with a sad, sickly feature:
                         his armpits were stowing
                         blood-suckers, and unknowing,
                         that guy was a poor double-leecher.

                         © 2014 Liana Mahoney. All rights reserved.

Photo: Katie Fuller

In case you didn't entirely catch the plot, I'll let Liana fill in the details:

My son found a toad that had a full leech under each of its armpits, and we rescued it. (Used a match to remove the leeches.) We do this sort of thing here all the time: rescue turtles from the road, save caterpillars, relocate salamanders....  We are a nature-loving family who values the idea of looking at nature up close, and that was the basic premise for my picture book FOREST GREEN.

What's that you say?  A new picture book? 

Isn't it a thing of beauty!  Just look at that gorgeous cover by illustrator, Maggie Henry.  Not that I have anything against toads with leeches under their armpits, mind you.  They can be beautiful too... if you look at them the right way.  But I think you'll agree that toads don't have that same lovely, new book smell.

From Amazon.com:

At first glance, the Adirondack forest is lush with green leaves. But look closer and you will see forest green in the wings of luna moths and the songs of the katydids. What else is there to see on a walk through the woods? Splashes of color paint the forest's canvas through the seasons. Take a walk through the pages of this book, where the true colors of the Adirondack woodlands show themselves in beautiful and surprising ways.

Liana's appreciation for the beauty of the forest and all of its creatures is rivaled only by her skills as a patient observer, a poet, and an elementary teacher.  Who better to take all of those observations and bundle them together in a rhyming, circular story for children.

Oh, and did I mention that Liana is patient?  Well, it's worth mentioning again.  Released by North Country Books this past July 30th, FOREST GREEN: A WALK THROUGH THE ADIRONDACK SEASONS was a long time coming.  You can read the whole crazy story about how this book finally came to fruition (after six!! years) on Laura Sassi Tales. 

Congratulations, Liana!  And thank you for bringing your gentle, nature-loving ways to Limerick Alley.

One last reminder before you go hopping about today's Poetry Friday offerings: please send me your poem of address in response to Irene Latham's September DMC challenge. With just one week to go before the end-of-month wrap-up, I'd love to see (and feature) more of your wonderful poems!  (I will be sharing mine this coming Tuesday.)  DEAR WANDERING WILDEBEEST is a truly magical collection of children's poetry.  Wouldn't it be great if you could win yourself a personalized copy?  All participants will be entered into a random drawing at the end of this month. 

Today's Poetry Friday roundup is being hosted by Amy Ludwig VanDerwater at The Poem Farm.

Limerick Alley: Irene Latham

There's no doubt about it, writing can be a beast. 

Award-winning author and poet, Irene Latham, offers some advice to writers on her website:

The thing about writing is there is no end to it. No piece is ever finished. They are all works in progress. Forever.

I am continually astonished by the effort it takes to tame words.  Good writing comes off as spontaneous, yet it rarely is.  

Please help me welcome Irene to Limerick Alley today.

Irene has never been one to duck a challenge,

sit idly by,

or walk away from hard work

in favor of a soak in the pool

or an afternoon catnap.  

Oh no, not while there are poems to be written 
and stories to be told!

These animal photos were all taken on a recent critter tour up north.  From Florida, we drove up to Toronto to visit the black squirrels...

and then stopped by the Philadelphia Zoo on the way back home.

The reason I mention this is because Irene has been celebrating the paperback release of DON'T FEED THE BOY by inviting readers to visit a zoo this summer.  Take a picture of yourself at the zoo (bonus entry for you with a zoo animal) and send it to her via social media:

Twitter
Facebook author page
Instagram
Pinterest



(I took a selfie with a giraffe, but unfortunately his eyes were closed.  So I sent in one of my daughter with some flamingos instead.) 

Everyone who contributes a picture will be entered to win a classroom set (25 copies) of DON'T FEED THE BOY in paperback.  Entries must be received by July 31st; winner to be announced on August 1st.

But what does any of this have to do with limericks, you ask?  Well, I'll let Irene explain:


Why I Write Poetry

Sometimes a poem stirs mystery,
sometimes it reveals history.
I tumble in love,
it's all I think of –
even when the poem tortures me.

© 2014 Irene Latham.  All rights reserved.

One of the things I appreciate most about Irene is that she always writes (and speaks) from the heart. So why do writers write if the act of doing so might bring pain and anguish? Because we love writing, says Irene. 

Remember at its best, writing is a love affair with words. And you might be the only one who sees the beauty in your object of affection. But if you do nothing else, you must Share. That. Beauty.

Another characteristic I appreciate about Irene is that she is good for just about any challenge you throw at her. When Irene sent me her limerick, she recognized that it wasn't perfect, but she was okay with that. She thanked me for the opportunity, then added "...pretty sure I would have never written a limerick otherwise." And that, my friends, is what Today's Little Ditty and our monthly ditty challenges are all about!  

Have you seen this month's ditty challenge from Tamera Will Wissinger?

Coming September 1, 2014

And I'll tell you what is close to perfect: 

Two starred reviews from School Library Journal and Kirkus for Irene's upcoming collection of children's poetry, DEAR WANDERING WILDEBEEST: AND OTHER POEMS FROM THE WATER HOLE!  I'm delighted to be able to feature Irene as my spotlight author for September when DEAR WANDERING WILDEBEEST is released by Millbrook Press.




Thank you, Irene, for visiting Limerick Alley today and sharing a bit of your writerly wisdom.  I look forward to featuring more of your beautiful personality and thought-provoking poetry at summer's end!

Linda at Write Time is taking center stage today with the Poetry Friday roundup.

Limerick Alley: B. J. Lee

Love is for sale at Limerick Alley... 

          Not the kind you find in Joe Malone's pub– heavens, no!  

          This is the kind of love I'm talking about...  ready?

          Are you sure...?

Me 'n' My Teacups Poodles 'n' Partis, all photos in this post used by permission

      BAM!  Cute attack!

You can thank B. J. Lee for that. 

You see, B. J. loves words. 
She has over 60 poems published in anthologies and magazines, and many of you will recall that she was also a semifinalist in the March Madness children's poetry tournament not long ago.  B. J.'s poems from that tournament can be found on her website along with links to her blog, Blue Window, and several published works as well.

B. J. also loves toy poodles. 
She currently has two – Clementine, a 16 year old sweetie with a heart of gold, and Bijoux, a one year old looney tune and a collector of socks, clean or otherwise.  (At least B. J. knows who is responsible for the missing socks at her house!)  JoJo, another member of her furry family who recently passed, was a rescue who had a repertoire of circus tricks.

Chou-Chou

And then there was Chou-Chou.  Chou-Chou was a teacup poodle that B. J. had for many years.  According to B. J., "Chou-Chou, despite her small size, had a truly Machiavellian mind and was always trying to outwit us."  Perhaps this has something to do with the fact that she had a piece of carrot lodged up her nose for nine years, but then again, these facts may be entirely unrelated.






Sometimes B. J. even loves toying with words about toy poodles.
Oh happy day!  This is one of those special times!


          The Teacup Poodle

          Our poodle, a Teacup, a wee pup,
          likes climbing inside of a teacup.
                When drinking our tea
                we check first to see
          so we don't drink our Teacup right up. 

              © 2011 B. J. Lee.  All rights reserved.

 

Thank you, B. J., for sharing the love today!

 I bow down to your limerick greatness.

I'd like to give a shout-out to Marie who allowed me to use these precious photographs.  If you like what you see, have a look at her website, Me 'n' My Teacups Poodles 'n' Partis, where there are oodles more!

Now before I send you on your merry way, I must remind you that Laura Purdie Salas has challenged us to come up with a water-themed cinquain this month, and this is the final week to send me yours!  Come to think of it, I don't think anyone's written one yet about a poodle and a pool noodle... I won't even charge you for the idea! ;)

Click here to take a look at the daily ditties I've featured so far this month.  And don't forget, one lucky participant will win a copy of Laura's latest book, WATER CAN BE... in a random giveaway!  Next Friday will be the end-of-month DMC wrap-up where you will get to see them all–  I do hope yours will be among them.

Our Poetry Friday host today is Violet Nesdoly (whose cinquain, by the way, is featured here).  Why don't you go see what other delights she has on tap in the Poetry Friday roundup?