Weekly Challenge Round-up
A review of National Poetry Month and sharing readers' poems!
National Poetry Month is wrapping up, and we’ve reached the end of this year’s Weekly Poetry Challenge. Throughout the month we challenged our readers (and ourselves) to read, discuss, and write a few different kinds of poems. We hope you have enjoyed following along and maybe trying your hand at writing poetry this month, whether you shared it with us or not!
Some readers did share their poems, and we are excited to share some of those (and some of our own from the challenge) with you here.
We started with haiku, a classic and deceptively simple poetic form traditionally about nature:
Tender green shoots push through soil still chilled from winter springtime is sprouting! by Rebecca J. Gomez
Jumping on concrete rope swings up and over me sidewalk music beat
Here’s a link to another haiku that Martina S. shared on Instagram.
On week two we talked about the ode, a poem that praises or celebrates a person, place, thing, or idea. Here are some from a seventh grade class, who wrote odes to Earth:
Oh Earth, How I adore you. Your luscious leaves, your scrumptious fruit Make me want to Run, dance, and even hoot! I love it when you Heat me up and cool me down With just a touch. Your deep blue ocean Your bright pointy mountain tips Make me happy from my fingers To my hips. Z.J.
An Ode to Earth Oh Earth, you are mine Glorious with your oceans divine, The roar of your waters Untamed as you shine. Oh Earth, you are mine Your continents bind Every peak, rock, and pine. Oh Earth, you are mine Your wind making me sneeze Your trees rustling in the breeze. Oh Earth, you are mine Your sun heating the world For a lifetime. A.L.
To Our Mother Nature Your grassy rocky features radiate Color and life through the land Making birds and winds and oceans sound grand. The entrancing scents (but sometimes bad) Spread life through every grain of sand. Your rushing rivers are like springs of growth Making sure the land stays fresh. The trees are hands grasping the land And sheltering it with tender care. The Earth is our home that we all share. L.M.
Oh my dearest Earth, How I love your naturey tones Those greens, yellows, blues, Reds, oranges, and purples. With all those colors You’re just like a rainbow. You produce the most beautiful materials. Oh my Earth, you are by far The biggest warehouse of materials. Oh my Earth, my amazing guardian I love you to infinity. C.P.
The following week we explored riddle poems, which are basically puzzles in poetic form! Here are some examples:
Who am I?
On winged flight, I hunt at night
or in the evening’s failing light.
I keep a nest among the trees
in cozy nooks or cavities.
My hooting call is hard to miss,
so if you seek me, remember this:
I’m easier to hear than see,
but with luck you might catch a glimpse of me.
by Rebecca J. Gomez
I love this riddle poem that Martina S. shared on instagram.
For our last challenge of the month, we decided to make it poet’s choice, and challenged our readers to write any kind of poem they wanted!
I decided to write a limerick:
There Once Was a Man with a Fish
There once was a man with a fish
who said, “If I had what I wish
this fish would be fried
with chips on the side
and NOT flopping ‘round on my dish!”
by Rebecca J. Gomez
And don’t miss this free verse poem from Samantha Coté: Trimming the rosebush again
Thank you so much to everyone who followed along and who shared their poems. We hope you’ll join us again next April for another Weekly Poetry Challenge. But don’t forget that poetry is for reading, discussing, and writing all year long!
If you’re up for another challenge, our annual Summer Challenge kicks off in June! Last year we went on a Reading Road Trip. This year’s theme is Wild Summer. As in wild animals! We hope you’ll consider joining the fun. Look for more information in our next newsletter on May 7, and be sure to follow us on Instagram.