DMC: "Dictionary" by Jessica Bigi

In September 2016, Jane Yolen challenged us to write a poem that features reading or writing in the form of a septercet. It's a form she invented that has three-line stanzas (as many as you like), each line with seven syllables.


DICTIONARY

Rocket-shouter of Knowledge
Alphabet laces looping
Reading-coasters of learning

© 2017 Jessica Bigi. All rights reserved.


The DMC challenge for National Poetry Month is to contribute to our Ditty Potluck. Follow the guidelines for any one of the last 28 challenges, choosing from the following recipes:

Click HERE for an alphabetical list of all the DMC challenges.

Click HERE for an alphabetical list of all the Spotlight interviews.

Post your poem on our April 2017 padlet and be sure to indicate which challenge you are responding to.  All contributions will be included in a wrap-up celebration on Friday, April 28th, and one lucky participant, chosen randomly, will select from the following:

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.

DMC: "Twins" by George Heidenrich

For obvious reasons, Sylvia Vardell and Janet Wong's challenge to create a poem video was not well-suited for the pages of The Best of Today's Little Ditty: 2014-2015. Despite being such a unique and interesting challenge, the combination of summer vacations and technical difficulties meant that it also didn't get a huge response. My dad was one of the few folks who did respond, overcoming many technological obstacles in order to do so. Three years later, I'm still not sure if he succeeded because of relentless determination or because of his love for me, but I'm proud and grateful nonetheless. In honor of his (80th!) birthday today, I'd like to share "TWINS" as our first daily ditty in April. I wonder if anyone else might contribute a poem video to our potluck this month?

 

TWINS

The sleeping dreamers and the dreaming sleepers
pass through the same portal into the gray twilight.
One is excited, the other, not.
Whether they find their destiny depends
not on their diligence, but upon their imagination.
Destiny is what you make of it: to one, a pleasure,
the other, a nightmare.
Attitudes matter.

© 2012 George Heidenrich. All rights reserved.

The DMC challenge for National Poetry Month is to contribute to our Ditty Potluck. Follow the guidelines for any one of the last 28 challenges, choosing from the following recipes:

Click HERE for an alphabetical list of all the DMC challenges.

Click HERE for an alphabetical list of all the Spotlight interviews.

Post your poem on our April 2017 padlet and be sure to indicate which challenge you are responding to.  All contributions will be included in a wrap-up celebration on Friday, April 28th, and one lucky participant, chosen randomly, will select from the following:

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.

Spotlight on Today's Little Ditty + DMC Challenge

THE DITTY OF THE MONTH CLUB

Whaaat? No spotlight interview?

Nope, not this month. But there's still plenty to celebrate around here, so don't go anywhere. (I'll have a DMC challenge for you in just a bit.)


Not only is it National Poetry Month, but on Monday . . .

Evan Long

Today's Little Ditty turns four years old!

Available for purchase at Amazon.com

Sooooo... it occurred to me that I never had a proper launch party for The Best of Today's Little Ditty: 2014-2015.


Yes, the book was released five months ago.


Yes, it's time to start thinking about the next volume. (Drop me a line if you want to be on my new Ditty Committee.)


Fine. Maybe I'm just in the mood for cupcakes. Do you have a problem with that?

Andy Li

I'll need quite a few. More than 150 poets have contributed to 28 DMC challenges over the past three years, plus classrooms, plus blog readers who haven't submitted poems yet (but hopefully will one day). You're all invited.

Pardon me for a moment while I crunch some numbers . . .

Holy ditty, Batman! More than 850 poems have been contributed so far!

Now excuse me while I conduct some cupcake research— dark chocolate with toasted coconut, mmmmm....  What's your favorite flavor?  It's on me.


Speaking of flavors . . .

I've noticed there are basically two flavors of DMC challenges:

1. There's the "here's a word or subject—go!" challenge, like David Harrison's "ditty" challenge or Amy Ludwig VanDerwater's "small as a chickadee" challenge.

2. There's the "try this (new) poetry form" challenge, like Joyce Sidman's deeper wisdom poems or Margarita Engle's tanka challenge.

Occasionally we get a challenge that combines the two, like Laura Purdie Salas's water-inspired cinquains or Bob Raczka's monster-inspired haiku. Or who could forget Penny Parker Klostermann's "dragon's feast" challenge (a progressive poem comprised of couplets)? What a wild ride that was! That one might need a category all to itself.


Which kind of challenge do you like best?

It's a little hard to gauge which challenge was most popular since TLD's readership has grown over time, but in terms of numbers of contributors and numbers of poems, Jane's Yolen's septercet challenge comes out on top with 46 participants and 54 poems. Other buzzworthy challenges include Nikki Grimes's free verse/wordplay challenge, Douglas Florian's poems about nothing, J. Patrick Lewis's zeno challenge, and last month's ode poem challenge from Helen Frost.

Ready for this month's DMC challenge?

Here it is: 

Write a poem following the guidelines of any one of the past 28 challenges.

That's right, we're celebrating National Poetry Month and TLD's birthday with a Ditty Potluck!

The table is set. YOU decide what dittilicious delicacy you'd like to share with the rest of us, choosing from the following recipes:

Sebastian Dooris

Click HERE for an alphabetical list of all the DMC challenges.

Click HERE for an alphabetical list of all the Spotlight interviews.


Please note: When you post your poem on the April 2017 padlet, be sure to indicate which challenge you're responding to.

This month I'll be sharing daily ditties from the padlet, of course, but I'll also be featuring a few from The Best of TLD: 2014-2015, and touching base with a couple of Spotlight authors from 2014-2015 to see what they're up to lately.



You didn't think I'd forget some kind of extra incentive, did you?

Of course not.


At the end of the month, one participant (chosen randomly) will get their just desserts:

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.

Ready? It's BYOD time! 

(Bring Your Own Ditty)

From "Eating Poetry" by Mark Strand, Academy of American Poets

HOW TO PARTICIPATE:

Post your poem on our April 2017 padlet. (Be sure to mention which challenge you are responding to.) Stop by any time during the month to add your work or to check out what others are contributing.

By posting on the padlet, you are granting me permission to share your poem on Today's Little Ditty.  Some poems will be featured as daily ditties, though authors may not be given advanced notice. Subscribe to the blog if you'd like to keep tabs. You can do that in the sidebar to the right where it says "Follow TLD by Email." As always, all of the poems will be included in a wrap-up celebration on the last Friday of the month—April 28th for our current challenge.

TEACHERS, it's great when students get involved! Ditty of the Month Club challenges are wonderful opportunities to learn about working poets and authors while having fun with poetry prompts. Thank you for spreading the word! For children under 13, please read my COPPA compliance statement in the sidebar to the right.

FIRST-TIMERS (those who have never contributed to a ditty challenge before), in addition to posting your work on the padlet, please send your name and email address to TodaysLittleDitty (at) gmail (dot) com. That way I'll be able to contact you for possible inclusion in future Best of Today's Little Ditty anthologies.

BLOGGERS, thank you for publishing your poems on your own blogs– I love that!  Please let me know about it, so I can share your post! Also remember to include your poem (or a direct link to your post) on the padlet in order to be included in the wrap-up celebration and end-of-month giveaway.

Clare K

Now have a cupcake. They're going fast.

Many thanks to everyone who contributed an ode poem to last month's ditty challenge! (Tabatha Yeatt's "Ode to a Tablecloth" came in fairly late in the day, but is definitely worth going back to the wrap-up presentation to have a read.) Without doubt, it was an exercise that reaped marvelous results!

Random.org has determined that a personalized copy of When My Sister Started Kissing by Helen Frost will go to:

BRIDGET MAGEE

Congratulations, Bridget!

Irene Latham is awash with poetry this month. Her poem-a-day project ARTSPEAK! Portraits reveals the voice within 30 different artistic works. In addition, she organizes the annual Kidlitophere Progressive Poem. (Day 4 was posted here earlier this week.) Join Irene for Day 7, along with this week's Poetry Friday roundup, at Live Your Poem.

If you're looking for other creative ways to celebrate National Poetry Month, Jama Rattigan is your go-to for NPM festivites at Alphabet Soup.

Day 4 of the 2017 Kidlitosphere Progressive Poem

One of my favorite National Poetry Month activities is Irene Latham's annual Progressive Poem.  It's exciting, spontaneous, fun, and because it's a community writing experience, it takes on a life of its own. From April 1-30, a poem travels from blog to blog, each host adding a new line daily. The results are always richly layered, with a piece of every poet who takes part and the collected anticipation of everyone who has been following its journey.

This is the fourth year I've participated in the Progressive Poem. (You can read previous years' poems HERE.) I've contributed lines at the end and in the middle, so it's a treat to be near the beginning where I can help set the poem's direction. That said, it didn't occur to me when I signed up for Day 4 that I would need to make an important decision. It's my choice whether or not to establish a traditional pattern of rhyming quatrains. Our goal this year is a children's poem and many children's poems do take on that structure, but personally, I prefer when the progressive poem does not. Not all participating poets are comfortable with rhyme so why take on the extra constraint? Besides, judging by these first three lines, we don't need it.

I'm fidget, friction, ragged edges— 
I sprout stories that frazzle-dazzle,
stories of castles, of fires that crackle

Making use of alliteration, assonance, consonance and slant rhyme, this poem has plenty of interest and kid-appeal already! Of course things might change later on, but for now, why box ourselves in unnecessarily? Plus, I think the lack of a predictable rhyme scheme reflects the agitation of our speaker.

My objectives for line 4 were to keep up the playful language, continue channeling the speaker's restless energy into imagination, and reinforce the story themes introduced in line 3.

I'm fidget, friction, ragged edges—
I sprout stories that frazzle-dazzle,
stories of castles, of fires that crackle,
with dragonwords that smoke and sizzle.

Visit Diane Mayr tomorrow to see where she takes the poem next!


April

1 Heidi at my juicy little universe
2 Tabatha at The Opposite of Indifference
3 Doraine at Dori Reads
4 Michelle at Today's Little Ditty
5 Diane at Random Noodling
6 Kat at Kat's Whiskers
7 Irene at Live Your Poem
8 Mary Lee at A Year of Reading
9 Linda at TeacherDance
10 Penny at blog-a- penny-and- her-jots
11 Ramona at Pleasures from the Page
12 Janet F. at Live Your Poem
13 Margaret at Reflections on the Teche
14 Jan at Bookseedstudio
15 Brenda at Friendly Fairy Tales
16 Joy at Poetry for Kids Joy
17 Tricia at The Miss Rumphius Effect
18 Buffy at Buffy's Blog
19 Pat at Writer on a Horse
20 BJ at Blue Window
21 Donna at Mainely Write
22 Jone at Jone Ruch MacCulloch
23 Ruth at There's No Such Thing as a Godforsaken Town
24 Amy at The Poem Farm
25 Robyn at Life on the Deckle Edge
26 Renee at No Water River
27 Matt at Radio, Rhythm and Rhyme
28 Michelle at Michelle Kogan
29 Charles at Poetry Time
30 Laura Purdie Salas at Writing the World for Kids

If you're looking for other creative ways to celebrate National Poetry Month, Jama Rattigan is your go-to for NPM festivites at Alphabet Soup.

Today is the final day to leave a comment for your chance to win Helen Frost's new verse novel, When My Sister Started Kissing (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2017). Click here to do so, then come back this Friday to see if you've won!

March DMC Wrap-Up + Giveaway

"Parigi - Ode" by alfonsobussolin

There is something about you that makes me pick up my pen and write.

                            – Avijeet Das

At the beginning of this month, Helen Frost challenged us to write her version of an ode poem:

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.

The poet in me loves all the excitement surrounding challenges like this one.

"Ode to Joy" by Robert Couse-Baker

A new form for the poetry toolbox? Yes, please!  It's incredible how much freedom can be found within strictly-defined structure. In the case of this month's challenge, while I imagined there would be a wide variety of thoughtful and heartfelt poems in response, I never imagined how a form like this one could accommodate humor, rhyme, or even merge with another poetry form (the acrostic). Many thanks for the lesson in creative calisthenics!

The administrator in me, however, finds new form challenges to be challenging in another way.

"Ode to an Air Conditioner" by Brian Donovan

It's difficult enough deciding which poems get featured (I always wish I could share more), but when I also must consider if a poem has satisfied all the criteria of a new form, that makes my job even harder. Are the rules being met, bent, or broken? Not all poets stick to the rules of a challenge, and that's as it should be! You should always feel free to modify a DMC challenge to suit your muse.


But is it fair to feature poems that stretch the rules when there are others on the padlet that do not? Sometimes I do share these "deviant" poems as daily ditties; more often, I don't. My main objective is to feature poems that show a way into the challenge for others who may be struggling, though I also strive to feature a variety of poets, fresh perspectives, and differing styles. Sometimes I even try to link the poems in a given week by theme or show some kind of progression from day to day... even if I'm the only one who notices. I realize that I tend to overthink stuff like this, but if you have thoughts, I'm curious to hear them. Feel free to email or leave a comment.

"Ode to Light" by Alex Mertzanis

In the meantime, please know how grateful I am to everyone who contributed an ode to this month's challenge, and most especially to Helen Frost for giving us a new form to ponder.



Scroll through the poems below. Or, for best viewing, click HERE.

Inspired to write your own ode poem?

Add it to our March 2017 padlet by the end of today (Friday, March 31st) to be included in the wrap-up presentation.

Participants in this month's challenge will automatically be entered to win a personalized copy of WHEN MY SISTER STARTED KISSING by Helen Frost (Farrar, Straus and Giroux/Macmillan, 2017) One entry per participant, not per poem.

Alternatively, you may enter the giveaway by commenting below. Comments must be received by Tuesday, April 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, April 7th, when we reveal next month's ditty challenge.

Good luck!

The Poem Farm is having a birthday! On the eve of National Poetry Month, let's join Amy Ludwig VanDerwater in raising our pens and glasses in celebration.  Happy Poetry Friday!

DMC: "Ode to a Broken Umbrella" by Irene Latham

  © 2017 Irene Latham. 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 tomorrow, 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: "Ode to a Seashell" by Janie Lazo

ODE TO A SEASHELL

I see you hiding there—a  shimmer in the waves beneath my feet
I wriggle my fingers deep into the wet sand and feel the whole of you
Deep ridges—smooth curves—A spiral of mystery waiting 
     to be discovered
I lift you to my ear and hear the rushing song of the sea that lives
     within you
I breathe in your briny goodness taste the salt spray on my lips
I wonder—Who will call you home?
Toss me back and we shall see.

© 2017 Janie Lazo. 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: