Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Firsts, Free Verse and Veteran's Day

Donna was having a free verse poetry contest (and no, I didn't win, but do go read the winning entry. It's wonderful.) and I entered three poems, all on firsts. Thought I'd share here. All true stories.


First Lie [or My Father's Thesis]

Paper airplanes
Go sailing in the sky.
Paper boats
Go floating in the sand.
A door opens.
Oh, no.
Daddy’s home.
Quick! Tell a lie.
“I saw my brother making those.”
Punishment for him
But I saved my skin.

*


First Jobs

Babysitting
Pulling weeds
Shoveling snow
Telling fortunes
I don’t mind one bit.
With sound of money
Jingling in my pocket.

*


First Pet

A tiny green grasshopper
with a string on one leg.
We don’t walk;
We hop down the street.

*


Poems are what I write when I transition from nonfiction to fiction. Something about word-play frees me to be more imaginative. However, as I find myself writing mostly nonfiction poems, either little snippets of memory or facts I find fascinating. Many of these poems have been published, become seeds for short stories or even longer works.

Here is one that is even on King County buses. Check out the placard here:

So give poetry a whirl. You don't know where it might lead you. And it's fun and freeing.


A couple of novels in free verse that I have enjoyed:

Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse
One of Those Hideous Books Where the Mother Dies by Sonya Sones

And in honor of Veteran's Day, let me recommend these books I loved that show what honor and love and sacrifice is all about:

Heart of a Shepherd by Rosanne Parry (for MG+)
Bull Rider by Suzanne Morgan Williams (for YA)

*

6 comments:

Write2ignite said...

I sooo enjoyed your free verse, Vijaya! I hope you'll keep writing it and post more. :)

I'm going to post my own free verse tonight on my blog, too. You all inspired me to share! :)

hugs,
Donna

p.s. I stand in salute to all our vets. My Daddy and my dad-in-love both served, as did many of my cousins and other relatives.

Anonymous said...

my favorite is still FIRST PET!

hugs,
Donna

Vijaya said...

Donna, thank YOU, for having the contest and getting us all to share.

About first pet. My mom wouldn't let me have a dog, so what was I to do? Catch a grasshopper, of course. I went through many ...

We too are a military family, Donna, and it makes the day more special.

Angela Ackerman said...

I was too much of a fraidy cat to enter myself, but I love your entries, especially the first one--it made me think about my own brother, lol!

Angela Ackerman said...

I was too much of a fraidy cat to enter myself, but I love your entries, especially the first one--it made me think about my own brother, lol!

Vijaya said...

Thank you Angela. Don't be a scaredy cat ... free your inner poet! The best thing is that you can job these little snippets in 5 minutes chunks ... and if there's anything that sticks with you, you can work on it later. One of my friends writes a poem a day, and it's a no pressure thing, mostly freewriting, but it has started numerous stories.