Here are the mask poems I posted previously at Wild Rose Reader. I thought I’d include them all in one post in response to this week’s Poetry Stretch—Mask Poems at The Miss Rumphius Effect.
LOOK AT US NOW!
by Elaine Magliaro
The day we hatched from jellied eggs…
We looked like fish.
We had no legs.
We breathed through gills.
We had no lungs.
We didn’t have long sticky tongues.
We didn’t look like frogs…for sure.
But then we started to mature.
And day by day we changed and grew.
To tails and gills we bid adieu.
Now we have lungs and four fine limbs…
And we can croak
and jump
AND
swim!
THOUGHTS OF THE WOLF AS HE DESCENDS THE THIRD LITTLE PIG’S CHIMNEY
by Elaine Magliaro
This Pig’s outwitted me before.
No, I won’t knock upon his door,
Won’t threaten him, won’t huff and puff.
I’m finished with that macho stuff.
WELL…down the chimney here I go.
I’ll get that little pig. Ho, ho!
Can’t wait to taste his tender meat,
His juicy snout, his porky feet.
I’ll serve him up with grated cheese,
Potatoes, parsley, parsnips, peas.
Yeh! That’s my kind of swiney grub.
Uh-oh!
Splish-splash!
Bubble!GLUB!
I guess I’m in hot water now.
Goodbye, cruel world.
I’m piggy chow!
GRIZZLY BEAR
by Elaine Magliaro
I’m grizzly bear. I’m fierce and fat…
And dangerous. Remember that!
My teeth are sharp as sabers.
My curvy claws can cut like saws,
And when I prowl the woods I growl
And frighten all my neighbors.
I rule this land. These woods are mine!
I ain’t NOBODY’S valentine!
Don’t think that you can be my friend…
My dinner?
Yum!
GULP!
The End
JUST A SCENTIMENTAL GUY
by Elaine Magliaro
I’m black and white.
My tail’s all fluff.
I never growl.I don’t act tough.
I wander into yards at night.
I’m really harmless…
I don’t bite
Or snarl
Or scratch
Or kick
Or pounce.
I just dispense scents by the ounce.
That’s how I frighten foes away—
I lift my bushy tail and SPRAY!
I do not need long fangs or claws,
Bulging muscles,
Mighty jaws.
My malodorous defense,
I think,
Makes a lot of SCENTS!
So if you see me take my pose
To ward off predatory foes…
Just stand back and hold your nose!
BLUE WHALE’S BOAST
by Elaine Magliaro
I’m the biggest whale
in the big blue sea.
I’m blubbery big
as a whale should be.
I’m bigger than
an elephant
three rhinos,
a giraffe.
I’m bigger than
ten walruses
twos hippos
and a half.
There’s nothing
in the world
that’s bigger than me…
except, of course,
for the big blue sea!
SNAKE SOLILOQUY
by Elaine Magliaro
I’m a slippery slitherer
silent and sleek
sliding and slinking
through grasses
I sneak...
weaving and winding
legless and low
I slip slyly hidden
wherever I go.
Wending and bending
by stalk, stem, and stone
like a ribbon of muscle
and skin without bone
tongue catching the scent
of a soft, furry prey.
Smells like it’s field mouse
for dinner today!
FOR SALE: FAIRY TALE ARTIFACT
by Elaine Magliaro
My magic mirror is for sale.
It’s such an awful tattletale!
It told me things about my foe
I’d really rather never know.
I MUST be fairest in the land…
Not second best! You understand?
I want to be the most divine.
My reputation’s on the line!
The seven dwarfs are little cretins!
They should be in the dungeon, beaten.
They foiled my plans to kill the lass.
So…now I’ll sell my looking glass
And spend the cash on wrinkle cream,
A nose job, and a health regime,
Two weekends at a beauty spa.
Then I’ll look like a movie star.
I’ll be the fairest in the land!
And Snow White? She can go pound sand!
LETTER FROM THE QUEEN OF BEASTS
by Elaine Magliaro
Dear Lion,
I’m tired of doing the hunting, the preying
While your only job is to watch the cubs playing.
I’m tired of stalking the zebras and gnus
While you lie around on the grassland and snooze.
I’m tired of running, and pouncing, and killing.
I want a career that is much more fulfilling.
I’m tired, so tired. I’m spent to the core.
While I’m hard at work, you just eat, sleep, and snore.
I fetch all the food. You grow stronger…I thinner.
For the next seven days you can catch your own dinner!
I’m going away for a well-needed rest.
I’ll be seeing you soon.
All my love,
Lioness
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By: Elaine Magliaro,
on 3/4/2008
Blog: Wild Rose Reader (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
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By: Elaine Magliaro,
on 2/29/2008
Blog: Wild Rose Reader (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Elaine's original poems, nonfiction picture books, mask poems, Poetry Friday, children's poetry, Elaine's original poems, nonfiction picture books, Add a tag
I read Tricia’s post Leap into the Year of the Frog at The Miss Rumphius Effect and found out about the efforts of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums to call people’s attention to the fact that many amphibian species are threatened with extinction. For your information, I have included an excerpt from AZA’s website:“Frogs are going extinct. So are toads, salamanders, newts, and the intriguingly unusual caecilians. In fact, the World Conservation Union (IUCN) estimates that at least one-third of known amphibian species are threatened with extinction. While the major culprit has historically been habitat loss and degradation, many of the declines and extinctions previously referred to as "enigmatic" are now being attributed to the rapidly dispersing infectious disease chytridiomycosis, which is caused by the fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd). Bd is causing population and species extinctions at an alarming rate. Can you imagine if we were about to lose one-third of the world's mammals?”
Here is a mask poem I wrote about frogs, which I am dedicating to The Year of the Frog.
LOOK AT US NOW!
by Elaine Magliaro
The day we hatched from jellied eggs…
We looked like fish.
We had no legs.
We breathed through gills.
We had no lungs.
We didn’t have long sticky tongues.
We didn’t look like frogs…for sure.
But then we started to mature.
And day by day we changed and grew.
To tails and gills we bid adieu.
Now we have lungs and four fine limbs…
And we can croak
and jump
AND
And here’s an excerpt from one of my favorite “point of view” poems. The entire poem is posted on the Poetry Now! page at Joyce Sidman’s website.
From A Frog in a Well Explains the World
by Alice Schertle
The world is round
and deep
and cool.
The bottom of the world’s
a pool
with just enough room
for a frog alone.
You can read the rest of the poem here.
POETRY BOOKS
A Toad by the Road: A Year in the Life of These Amazing Amphibians
Written by Joanne Ryder
Illustrated by Maggie Kneen
Henry Holt
To read my review of this poetry collection, click here.
Lizards, Frogs, and Polliwogs
Written & illustrated by Douglas Florian
Harcourt
I enjoy all of Douglas Florian’s collections of animal poems. Lizards, Frogs, and Polliwogs is one of my favorites. The rhythmic, rhyming, lighthearted amphibian and reptile poems in this book are full of clever wordplay and are lots of fun to read aloud. This book is sure to be a hit with children and adults alike. The collection includes poems about polliwogs, spring peepers, a glass frog, the newt, the wood frog, the red-eyed tree frog, a bullfrog, and poison-dart frogs.
Here’s an excerpt from The Wood Frog, a poem about a hibernating amphibian:
My temperature is ten degrees.
I froze my nose, my toes,my knees.
But I don’t care, I feel at ease,
For I am full of antifreeze.
Marsh Music
Written by Marianne Berkes
Ilustrated By Robert Noreika
Millbrook
As night arrives, a marsh comes alive with music. A bullfrog maestro raises a baton and starts to conduct a chorus of different species of frogs as they begin singing:
The rain has stopped.
Night is coming.
The pond awakes with
Quiet humming.
Maestro frog hops to the mound
As night begins to fill with sound.
Peepers peep pe-ep, peep, peep.
They have had a good day’s sleep!
Chorus frogs are hard to see.
Hear them chirping do re mi.
Other frogs and toads join in, including green frogs and American toads and wood frogs and pig frogs. Two leopard frogs pirouette and leap through the air as they dance ballet on lily pads. Even stars “are twinkling to the tune/As they dance around the moon."
Then dawn arrives, the maestro puts down his baton, and the frogs go to sleep. The marsh is quiet…but not for long…because another marsh melody is heard—that of a bird!
The back matter of the book includes a Glossary of Musical Terms with definitions for certain words used in the text—including adagio, moderato, percussion, and woodwinds. It also includes two pages with information about “The Cast” of amphibian performers named in the book: “Maestro” Bullfrog, Spring Peepers, Chorus Frogs, American Toads, Green Frogs, Narrow-mouthed Toads, Wood Frogs, Pig Frogs, Green Tree Frogs, Leopard Frogs, Barking Tree Frogs.
INFORMATIONAL BOOKS WRITTEN IN VERSE
How to Hide a Meadow Frog & Other Amphibians
Written & illustrated by Ruth Heller
Grosset & Dunlap
Here’s how the book begins:
The
GRAY
TREEFROG
is
quite
a
clown.
It leaps about,
then
settles
down.
With suction cups
upon its toes,
it clings to things.
Then off it goes.
Depending
on the
temperature,
the
dampness,
or
the light…
it’s sometimes gray
or
green or brown and sometimes pearly white.
The book goes on to inform readers, briefly, about other “camouflaged’ amphibians: the meadow frog, arum frog, the horn frog, cat-eyed tree frog, green toad, and salamander.
Frogs Sing Songs
Written by Yvonne Winer
Illustrated by Tony Oliver
Charlesbridge
I can’t find my copy of Frogs Sing Songs at the moment—so here is a review of the book from Booklist:
From Booklist - April 30, 2003
“This lyrical companion to Winer's Birds Build Nests (2001) makes a strong environmental statement about saving frogs, from Africa to the Artic. On each double-page spread, one of Winer's short, simple poems appears under a spot illustration of a frog. Opposite is a full-page, vivid, realistic watercolor illustration of that particular species in its natural habitat. Each of the poems begins with the refrain, "Frogs sing their songs," then the following four lines reveal beautiful details about that frog and the sounds it makes. The book closes with a two-page frog identification guide for each of the 15 species shown in the book, complete with physical descriptions of specific sounds, from an oxlike bellow to a baby rattle. Words and pictures celebrate the varied coloring and sounds and the amazing adaptability of frogs around the world; and children will celebrate the creatures, too.”
Be sure to check out Tricia’s post Leaping Into Books About Frogs (And Other Amphibians) for more book recommendations.
At Blue Rose Girls, I have a great poem by Sherman Alexie entitled Powwow at the End of the World.
Kelly Fineman has the Poetry Friday Roundup.
By: Elaine Magliaro,
on 2/15/2008
Blog: Wild Rose Reader (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
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Sparks from our campfire—
glowing stars feeding
the hungry night
Campfire sparks wafting
into air…lightning bugs
dancing in the dark
Snowflakes fluttering
from wintry skies…flocks
of white butterflies
Snowflakes…
stars of lace whirling
around in white galaxies
Earthbound astronaut…
goose splashes down on
moon’s reflection
Crescent moon…
silver canoe drifting through
a sea of stars
Cloud boats float across
the pond, ferrying ducks
to the other side
Crows perched on telephone lines…
commas punctuating
a paper white sky
Here is a link to Poetry Stretch Results-Metaphor Poems at The Miss Rumphius Effect.
This is the poem I wrote for This Week’s Photo. The picture brought to mind the surface of Jupiter’s moon Europa. When I looked at a close-up of the photo, the lines/ridges reminded me of yarn. So I wrote the following metaphor poem snippet.
Europa
Net of golden yarn
Cast off by Jupiter
To snare a mighty moon—
Check out my earlier post Book Bunch: Looking at Langston Hughes. It includes a review of Tony Medina's poetry book Love to Langston and links to several poems written by Hughes.
By: Elaine Magliaro,
on 1/25/2008
Blog: Wild Rose Reader (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
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Although I grew up on a main street in a city, there were acres of open land across the street from my house. There were hills where my friends and I sledded and ponds where we skated in winter. The property was owned by a large corporation. The company never put up “No Trespassing” signs. A half century has passed since that time and children and parents are still allowed on the property today.
I loved sledding outside in winter until my face and hands and feet had nearly turned to ice. I loved whooshing down the hillsides—the cold wind in my face as the sled runners cut through the snow. This poem is about sledding and childhood and imagination.
I’m sorry I can’t type the end of the poem on Blogger the way it’s supposed to be. That’s okay. I think you’ll get the point that the final lines should be read more slowly as the sled reaches the bottom of the hill.
SPACEMAN
Whooshing down the hillside fast
Trees and people blurring past
Runners carving out the snow
Like an astronaut I go
Blasting into outer space
Rocketing at record pace
Through the stratosphere I fly
I’m commander of the sky
Won’t return to Earth until . . .
I reach
By: Elaine Magliaro,
on 1/18/2008
Blog: Wild Rose Reader (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
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I decided to do a little literary exercise this week. I thought I’d try writing a modified cento using book titles as suggested by Tricia in her Monday Poetry Stretch at The Miss Rumphius Effect. I’ve written two centos using the titles of children’s poetry books that I have in my personal collection.
Read Tricia’s Book Title Cento and Laura Purdie Salas’s cento, Why I’m Crazy. Laura also used the titles of poetry books.
HAIKU CENTO
by Elaine Magliaro
Hear the Joyful Noise…
Our Fine Feathered Friends
Are Whistling the Morning In!
POETRY BOOKS
1. Joyful Noise by Paul Fleischman
2. Fine Feathered Friends by Jane Yolen
3. Whistling the Morning In by Lillian Morrison
INVITATION: A Cento
by Elaine Magliaro
Hey, You!
Come with Me
Down Rhythm Road.
Dance with Me
To the Street Music
Under a Lemonade Sun…
Past Sam’s Place
Past The Ice Cream Store
Past the Worlds I Know
To Where the Sidewalk Ends.
We’ll go Tap Dancing on the Roof
And Knee-Deep in Blazing Snow.
Hey, You!
Come with Me
Out in the Dark and Daylight.
Dance with Me.
I’ve been Waiting to Waltz
In the Middle of the Trees
Under the Sunday Tree
Through Shades of Green
Through The Singing Green
Into the Night Garden.
Hey, You!
Come with Me.
Listen to your Inner Chimes
To Voices on the Wind
To Sweet Dreams of the Wild.
Dance with Me
Where Everything Glistens and Everything Sings
Where The Night Rainbow shimmers in the air.
Hey, You!
Come with Me
To the Moon and Back.
Dance with Me
To The Sound of Poetry
‘Til All the Stars Have Fallen.
The Sky Is Not So Far Away.
Come with Me!
POETRY BOOKS
1. Hey, You! selected by Paul Janeczko
2. Come with Me by Naomi Shihab Nye
3. Rhythm Road selected by Lillian Morrison
4. Dance with Me by Barbara Juster Esbensen
5. Street Music by Arnold Adoff
6. Lemonade Sun by Rebecca Kai Dotlich
7. Sam’s Place by Lilian Moore
8. The Ice Cream Store by Dennis Lee
9. Worlds I Know by Myra Cohn Livingston
10. Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein
11. Tap Dancing on the Roof by Linda Sue Park
12. And Knee-Deep in Blazing Snow by James Hayford (Chosen by X. J. & Dorothy Kennedy)
13. Hey, You! selected by Paul Janeczko
14. Come with Me by Naomi Shihab Nye
15. Out in the Dark and Daylight by Aileen Fisher
16. Dance with Me by Barbara Juster Esbensen
17. Waiting to Waltz by Cynthia Rylant
18. In the Middle of the Trees by Karla Kuskin
19. Under the Sunday Tree by Eloise Greenfield
20. Through Shades of Green compiled by Anne Harvey
21. The Singing Green by Eve Merriam
22. Night Garden by Janet Wong
23. Hey, You! selected by Paul Janeczko
24. Come with Me by Naomi Shihab Nye
25. Inner Chimes selected by Bobbye Goldstein
26. Voices on the Wind selected by david Booth
27. Sweet Dreams of the Wild by Rebecca kai Dotlich
28. Dance with Me by Barbara Juster Esbensen
29. Everything Glistens and Everything Sings by Charlotte Zolotow
30. Night Rainbow by Barbara Juster Esbensen
31. Hey, You! selected by Paul Janeczko
32. Come with Me by Naomi Shihab Nye
33. To the Moon and Back compiled by Nancy Larrick
34. Dance with Me by Barbara Juster Esbensen
35. The Sound of Poetry compiled by Mary C. Austin and Queenie B. Mills
36. ‘Til All the Stars Have Fallen selected by David Booth
37. The Sky Is Not So Far Away by Margaret Hillert
38. Come with Me by Naomi Shihab Nye
Becky has the Poetry Friday Roundup at Farm School this week.
By: Elaine Magliaro,
on 1/10/2008
Blog: Wild Rose Reader (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
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I was looking through my files for some old poems about winter to post for Poetry Friday. Here are four poems, including a haiku and an acrostic.
Poems by Elaine Magliaro
The meadow pond lies silent, still…
Sealed in tight by winter’s chill.
A downy quilt of fallen snow
Hides a cold, dark world below.
I wonder all the winter through”
“What do fish and turtles do?”
Bedtime in Winter
Dark comes early.
Night is long.
Mommy sings
A bedtime song.
I am snuggled
Down and deep
Beneath soft covers.
While I sleep,
I have my teddy bear
To hold.
He keeps me warm
When nights are cold.
With frosty feet
little mouse prints a message
in the snow: Hello!
Ferns of ice
Rooted
On windowpanes, their
Silver fronds growing in the frigid night
Then melting in the morning light.
The Poetry Friday Roundup is at The Book Mine Set this week.
By: Elaine Magliaro,
on 1/7/2008
Blog: Wild Rose Reader (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
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I am becoming a blog sluggard. I just haven't had the time--or the inclination--to post four or five times a week lately. I have a list with so many "things to do" on it that I just can't decide which thing to do first.
Grace Lin came to my house yesterday. She read through some of my poems--and ordered me to send out a certain manuscript today! I worked on my letter to the publisher this morning. I've promised myself that I WILL put that poetry collection, entitled Things to Do, in the mail this week. In addition, I began working again yesterday on another poetry book suggested by Grace and Janet Wong last fall. I really appreciate all their advice. I owe them both a debt of gratitude.
I have my work cut out for me this week. I also have to prepare a flier for the March event of the PAS North Shore Council of Massachusetts, order books written and illustrated by our March speaker, finish writing a book review that I was supposed to submit in early December, update my children's literature course syllabus, put away all the Christmas decorations...and on and on and on. I still haven't thrown away all the stuff I collected during my thirty-four years of teaching. I promised my husband I would do that last year. Now I must attend to it in early 2008. I retired in June of 2004. I think I've had plenty of time to clean house. Don't you?
I had plans to blog quite a bit right after the holidays--but I have to attend to the things that MUST be done by week's end. I doubt I'll get outside much in the next few days.
I decided to look through some of my old poems so I could post an original for you today. Here's a haiku for you:
my roof, clicks its icy heels
on my windowpane
By: Elaine Magliaro,
on 12/28/2007
Blog: Wild Rose Reader (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
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WINTER BALLET
by Elaine Magliaro
It’s white snow,
Bright snow,
Soft-as-feathers light snow…
Tiny ballerinas there
Pirouetting through the air
With their sparkly crystal shoes
In their winter dance debuts.
The Poetry Friday Roundup is at Check It Out this week.
By: Elaine Magliaro,
on 12/21/2007
Blog: Wild Rose Reader (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
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I wrote the following poem for Tricia’s Monday Poetry Stretch—What Words?. The “stretch”—or challenge—is to write a poem that contains all of the following eight words: snow, frozen, wind, evening, woods, lake, village, farmhouse.
I’m not sure my poem is finished. I don’t have a title for it yet. Maybe you’d like to suggest one for me???
near quiet woods,
snow settles on a frozen lake.
Burrowed in the mud below,
frogs dream the winter away.
Their larders full,
sleepy squirrels curl up
against the cold.
No wind stirs in the trees
this chill evening.
Everything is still.
In the distance,
a solitary farmhouse stands,
a weathered monument
to the past.
Here, in his lonely lair,
an old man
wraps himself in the silence
and his memories
and hibernates from the world.
Click here to find links to Poetry Stretch Results—What Words? at The Miss Rumphius Effect.
By: Elaine Magliaro,
on 12/14/2007
Blog: Wild Rose Reader (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
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I wrote the following poem for Tricia’s Monday Poetry Stretch—Something Seasonal.
Candy Cane
by Elaine Magliaro
Wrapped in a cellophane of sound:
a striped stick of sweetness,
red as Rudolph’s nose,
white as Santa’s beard.
Crinkle open your peppermint present.
Let your tongue celebrate
the wintry taste of Christmas.
Click here to find links to Poetry Stretch Results—Seasonal Offerings at The Miss Rumphius Effect.
By: Elaine Magliaro,
on 11/6/2007
Blog: Wild Rose Reader (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
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A Little Background
My delegation arrived in Beijing on October 24, 1994. We were met at the airport by a tall, handsome young man named Lee Jian-Xin (Mr. Lee). He was to be our national guide. (We also had local guides in the cities we visited.) Mr. Lee was really knowledgeable and had a wonderful sense of humor. We were all smitten!
There I was traveling around Beijing, Nanjing, Suzhou, and Shanghai with Mr. Lee and other teachers, librarians, and professors. We visited schools and universities and children's book publishers. We had roundtable discussions with teachers and professors and authors and illustrators about children’s literature! It was like a dream come true for me! I had the time of my life on that trip.
Mr. Lee told us that the Chinese call autumn the golden season. That inspired me to write a poem, which I dedicated to Mr. Lee before we left on our return trip to the United States.
Today I dedicate my poem to Tricia.
by Elaine Magliaro
When autumn comes
The cricket strums
A wishful song—
The echo of a summer gone,
Warm memories to
Dream upon.
This is a picture of a piece of Chinese folk art I bought when I was in Shanghai.
Happy Blogday to you, Tricia!!!
By: Elaine Magliaro,
on 10/31/2007
Blog: Wild Rose Reader (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
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this is actually written from a lioness to a lion...but what the heck, had to go with picture... Sounds like things work the same no matter which specie is involved..:) xxoo
LETTER FROM THE QUEEN OF BEASTS
by Elaine Magliaro
Dear Lion,
I’m tired of doing the hunting, the preying
While your only job is to watch the cubs playing.
I’m tired of stalking the zebras and gnus
While you lie around on the grassland and snooze.
I’m tired of running, and pouncing, and killing.
I want a career that is much more fulfilling.
I’m tired, so tired. I’m spent to the core.
While I’m hard at work, you just eat, sleep, and snore.
I fetch all the food. You grow stronger…I thinner.
For the next seven days you can catch your own dinner!
I’m going away for a well-needed rest.
I’ll be seeing you soon.
All my love,
Lioness
Sure, I should have known that people might copy and paste one of my original poems that I had posted at my blog…but I had hoped, being raised as I was, that people would be more courteous and request permission to use one of my poems before posting it elsewhere. My email is available to anyone who reads my blog. The least a blogger should do is to include a link to the post at my blog where he/she found my poem.
I think what really bothers me is that this blogger changed my poem. SHE may think the poem still works—but I don’t think it does! Her change ruins the rhythm at the end—and the near-rhyme is lost.
REQUEST FROM WILD ROSE READER:
REGARDING THE USE OF MY ORIGINAL POEMS
If you would like to post one of my poems at your blog, please do the following:
Is that asking too much? Let me know what you think.
By: Elaine Magliaro,
on 10/19/2007
Blog: Wild Rose Reader (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
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This posthumous collection contains fifteen poems that were published in some of Moore’s earlier poetry books, including Spooky Rhymes and Riddles and See My Lovely Poison Ivy. Beware, Take Care includes poems about ghosts, dragons, monsters, and other spooky subjects. The book is intended for younger children.
Click here to read the review I wrote of Beware, Take Care last fall at Blue Rose Girls.
One of my favorite poems in this book is Lost and Found.
LOST AND FOUND
by Lilian Moore
LOST:
A Wizard’s loving pet.
Rather longish.
Somewhat scaly.
May be hungry or
Upset.
Please feed daily.
P.S. reward.
FOUND:
A dragon
Breathing fire,
Flails his scaly
Tail
In ire.
Would eat twenty LARGE meals
Daily.
If we let him.
PLEASE
come and get him.
P.S. No reward necessary.
SKELETON BONES & GOBLIN GROANS
Poems for Halloween
Written by Amy E. Sklansky
Illustrated by Karen Dismukes
Henry Holt, 2004
This collection, which has lighthearted poems about Halloween candy, jack o’ lanterns, a skeleton’s bones, Cyclops, zipping bats, and a haunted house that’s for sale, is a good book of poems to share with preschoolers and children in the early elementary grades as the end of this month approaches. The beaded canvas illustrations are bright and colorful and set a festive tone in celebrating a holiday that usually sends shivers of delight through children.
Most of the poems in Skelton Bones & Goblin Groans rhyme. Some do not—including the haikus Mummy and Grave. One of the most engaging poems in the book is House for Sale!
House for Sale!
by Amy E. Sklansky
Two fireplaces. Eat-in-kitchen.
Atmosphere you’ll find bewitchin’.
Lots of bedrooms. Space galore.
Slightly creaky hardwood floors.
Walk-in closets you can fill.
Stunning view atop a hill.
Asking price is very good.
In a lovely neighborhood.
All in all, just what you wanted.
(BY THE WAY, THIS HOUSE IS HAUNTED.)
If you read that poem to children, you know they will be able to provide the final word in the last line.
Do check out this page at Amy Sklansky website. There you will see a two-page spread from Goblin Groans & Skeleton Bones. It includes the full text of two poems: After Trick-or-Treating and Jack O’ Lantern.
I’ll end this Poetry Friday post with a witch poem I wrote many years ago.
THERE WAS A WITCH
A Poem by Elaine Magliaro
Her supersonic broom through space.
At six o'clock last Friday night
She blasted off at speed of light.
She whizzed past Mercury and Mars...
Then headed off toward distant stars.
Across the galaxy she sped,
A black peaked helmet on her head.
An interstellar traveler, she
Explored the Milky Way with glee.
She chased swift comets here and there.
She watched bright supernovae flare.
She zipped through clouds of cosmic dust…
A witch bewitched by wanderlust.
There was a witch, I’m sad to say,
Flew near a big black hole one day.
It sucked her in just like a bean.
You won’t see HER on Halloween!
Kelly Fineman has the Poetry Friday Roundup this week.
By: Elaine Magliaro,
on 10/12/2007
Blog: Wild Rose Reader (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
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It seemed autumn had arrived here a few of weeks ago...but summer kept returning now and again for a visit. Few of the leaves have turned in my area of Massachusetts. Nonetheless, I have two poems about autumn leaves for you today: one written by Robert Frost and an original poem I wrote many many years ago for a collection of seasonal poems entitled Tasting the Sun.
Gathering Leaves
by Robert Frost
Spades take up leaves
No better than spoons,
And bags full of leaves
Are light as balloons.
I make a great noise
Of rustling all day
Like rabbit and deer
Running away.
But the mountains I raise
Elude my embrace,
Flowing over my arms
And into my face.
You can read the rest of the poem here.
AUTUMN CELEBRATION
by Elaine Magliaro
In October, colored leaves
Fall from oak and maple trees…
Bright confetti shaken down
From their boughs. All over town
Trees are celebrating fall,
Decorating every wall,
Sidewalk, yard, and flowerbed
With pumpkin-orange, gold, and red.
We stand out in the falling leaves
And catch confetti on our sleeves,
In our hands and in our hair.
We party till the trees are bare.
Here's a link to two more autumn poems I posted a couple of weeks ago.
Today's Poetry Friday Roundup is at Two Writing Teachers.
By: Elaine Magliaro,
on 10/3/2007
Blog: Wild Rose Reader (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
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Placki (platskees as we pronounced our Polish term for potato pancakes) are a really tasty comfort food. They make great eating on a chilly autumn or winter evening. The last time I made them for a Super Bowl party the whole platter was polished off in a matter of minutes.
I like to serve potato pancakes with sour cream…and sometimes with my homemade plum sauce. When my husband and I decide to splurge and indulge ourselves, I serve the pancakes with crème fraiche and Osetra caviar…and bottle of champagne.
Here’s a poem for Eisha and Jone until I think I can write up my recipe to be a bit more precise.
A Potato Pancake Poem
(For Eisha and Jone)
Before me on my plate
six thin, savory circles
crisped in oil
edged with brown lace
sprinkled with salty crystals
served with mounds
of silky sour cream.
I crunch through
amber crust
sink my teeth into
a pancake’s soft center…
the essence of potato
flavored with memories
of childhood.
By: Elaine Magliaro,
on 9/28/2007
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I love autumn in New England. I love the crisp, cooler days, the colorful foliage, and the smell of apple-scented air. I used to enjoy taking my young daughter to a local orchard in October. We’d visit with the pigs and sheep, select a pumpkin or two to carve for Halloween, watch apples being pressed into cider, and eat delicious warm apple cider donuts. Yum!When I was little, I enjoyed collecting shiny-shelled chestnuts…and the sound they made bonking on the ground as they fell from the chestnut tree across the street from my grandparents’ house. We kids used to rake up piles of fallen leaves, jump in them, and iron some of the most brightly colored ones between sheets of wax paper. Our parents--or my grandparents--would set piles of autumn leaves afire and we kids would watch as the smoke floated up into the air and drifted off like a wispy gray cloud. One thing I miss most about the season now is the smell of autumn leaves burning. It’s such an evocative scent.
Although summer return to New England earlier this week for a last hurrah, I’m ready for fall…and the memory of autumn fires. So here is a classic by Robert Louis Stevenson for this Poetry Friday on the cusp of October.
AUTUMN FIRES
by Robert Louis Stevenson
In the other gardens
Here is a poem I wrote for A Home for the Seasons, collection about childhood days I spent at the home of my maternal grandparents, Michael Kozicki and Anna Chalupka Kozicka. Michael and Anna came to America from Poland in the early 20th century. They met in Boston, got married, and lived in Peabody, Massachusetts for all of their married lives. (Dzidzi is what we called my grandfather.)AUTUMN FIRE
by Elaine Drabik Magliaro
Two tall maple trees grow
in front of my grandparents’ house.
In late October
they shed their golden crowns.
When the fallen leaves
curl up like little brown bear cubs,
we rake them into a pile
at the side of the street.
As dusk arrives
Dzidzi sets our harvest afire
with a single match.
We sit on wooden crates
at the sidewalk’s edge,
watch the brittle leaves
blossom into golden flames,
smell autumn’s pungent breath.
From the pyre summer rises,
a small gray ghost,
and drifts away
into the darkening sky.
The Poetry Friday Roundup is at AmoxCalli this week.
By: Elaine Magliaro,
on 9/14/2007
Blog: Wild Rose Reader (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
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THINGS TO DO IF YOU WANT TO BE A SNOWFLAKE
(For Robert Mercer)
by Elaine Magliaro
Fashion yourself:
a bit of lace,
crystalline,
spun in space
of silken ice,
silvery,
fine—
YOU
C R E A T E
your
own
design.
I want to send a million thanks to all the artists who created snowflakes for Robert's Snow 2007. Thanks also to those artists who made Robert's Snow 2004 and 2005 such great successes. We couldn't have raised money for cancer research without your help.
By: Elaine Magliaro,
on 9/13/2007
Blog: Wild Rose Reader (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
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Here are my best efforts.
Root Canal Acrostic
Root it
Out!
Out...out with
The abscess!
Cancel the nerves!
Away with the pulp!
Nevermore do I want to feel this pain
Again!
Let me chew in peace!
Root Canal Cinquain
Abscess?
Oh no! Forsooth!
I've a pain in my tooth.
My dental doc must remove the
Pulp. GULP!
By: Elaine Magliaro,
on 8/31/2007
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by Elaine Magliaro
What’s in my backpack?
Hmm…let’s see:
a tunafish sandwich,
raspberry tea,
an apple for the teacher…
and one for me,
a pair of scissors,
a stick of glue,
washable crayons…
and markers, too—
three sharp pencils
my Winnie Pooh
a bright red folder,
a paper pad,
a calculator to help me add…
and
a little love note from my dad!
By: Elaine Magliaro,
on 8/28/2007
Blog: Wild Rose Reader (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
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I think the lunes I've posted here need a bit more tweaking. I usually write dozens of drafts of a poem before I feel satisfied that it's as good as I can make it. I used to share different drafts of some of my poems with my students to show them that a writer rarely gets a poem perfect the first time around. I know the fact that I wrote poetry helped to make me a much better writing teacher.
Not Yet Ready for Prime Time Lunes by Elaine Magliaro
Rays of sun poking
Long golden
Fingers through the clouds
SUMMER NIGHT SOUNDS
Mosquito’s whining
Through the night
Drowns out cricket’s song.
END OF SUMMER
August has grown old
September
Waits at the threshold
SEPTEMBER QUARTET
Summer still sizzles
Soon it will
Fizzle into fall
Summer's sharp edges
Smoothed to silk
By autumn’s cool hand
Where will butterflies
Go now that
Summer has left town?
September sings as
School bells ring
Vacation’s over
ELEMENTARY ART CLASS
Bright yellow crescent
Pasted to
A royal blue night
By: Elaine Magliaro,
on 8/25/2007
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Inspired by one of Tricia’s Monday Poetry Stretches at The Miss Rumphius Effect, I wrote a cento about writing and posted it last Monday. Tricia also included a link to an explanation of a “found” poem in her post about the cento. I decided, with the help of Kelly Herold’s extensive blogroll at Big A, little a, to write a found poem about reading using the names of blogs. Unfortunately, I couldn’t incorporate the names of some of my favorite blogs into my poem. To be sure, the poem isn’t terribly poetic—but it is what it is! And here it is:
Untitled Found Blog Poem about Reading
by Elaine Magliaro
Develop A Fondness for Reading
Become a person who Lives to Read
Get a book, book, book
From Charlotte’s Library
Find A Chair, A Fireplace A Tea Cozy
Not far From the Windowsill
Settle down and drift away by Sun and Candlelight
Through the Magic of Books
Slip Into the Wardrobe
With Miss Erin
It’s Worth the Trip
Go Barefoot!
In a World of Words
Quiet Words, Words, Words
Rustling in The Shady Glade
Wild Words, Words, Words
Shaken & Stirred
Delicious Words, Words, Words
Sweet as Oowey, Goowey Marshamallows
Savory as Chicken Spaghetti
Relish a Readable Feast
Inhale and bite into a juicy Bookburger
On Mitali’s Fire Escape
Step onto the Reading Carousel
For some grand Adventures in Daily Living
Be someone who Lives to Read
So Many Books
Just One More Book
Haven’t you heard? It’s All About the Book!!!
Click here to read Poetic Form: Found Poem at Poets.org.
By: Elaine Magliaro,
on 8/20/2007
Blog: Wild Rose Reader (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
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I was inspired to write the following poem by Tricia of The Miss Rumphius Effect. Every Monday she challenges blog readers to attempt writing a specific form of poem. Last week it was the cento. Here is my cento about students doing creative writing in school. I used just one punctuation mark because I was trying to capture the essence of someone writing a rough draft when the words come fast and furious and the writer doesn't stop to think about spelling or punctuation and just wants to get his/her thoughts down on paper as quickly as possible...before they slip away
(For an explanation of what a cento is click here.)
Lying in wait, set to pounce on the page (1)
While vowels open wide as waves in the noon-blue sea (2)
We sit and write (3)
I go to the land of words (4)
Snatch new words out of nowhere (5)
Invent words (6)
Grouping words into sentences (7)
The bright words and the dark words (8)
You know how the words slip out and you can’t believe it? (9)
Blur of words too fast too low (10)
So fast you can hardly keep up with them (11)
No more grammar (12)
I don’t know what will happen (13)
About what rhymes with what and how (14)
It is the duty of the student (15)
To sometimes split infinitives (16)
From The Joy of Writing by Wislawa Szymborska (1)
From Inside a Poem by Eve Merriam (2)
From Difference by Aileen Fisher (3)
From I Go to the Land by Eloise Greenfield (4)
From You Have to Write by Janet Wong (5)
From Letter to a Young Poet by Michael Dugan (6)
From Winged Words by Joyce Sidman (7)
From Metaphor by Eve Merriam (8)
From Fashion Sense by Joyce Sidman (9)
From Wind by Ralph Fletcher (10)
From Spring Is by Bobbi Katz (11)
From Free Writing by Kristine O’Connell George (12)
From Story by Eloise Greenfield (13)
From Just Not a Very Good Pantoum for Mom by Ron Koertge (14)
From Duty of the Student by Edward Anthony (15)
From Propper English by Alan F. G. Lewis (16)
By: Elaine Magliaro,
on 8/3/2007
Blog: Wild Rose Reader (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
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Team Daisy is named in honor of my friend Daisy Locke. Daisy is a cancer survivor...and a very brave girl indeed! As I wrote at Blue Rose Girls last November: Daisy has shown the adults in her life what courage is all about.
DAISY LOCKE
I have two poems for Daisy today. One is To the Daisy, which was written by William Wordsworth, and one is an original poem I wrote. The word daisy is really a poem in itself: day's eye. I kept that in mind as I penned my poem.
For Daisy
by Elaine Magliaro
Daisies
burst from their stem tops
like exploding suns
lighting green fields
with their bright-eyed wonder.
To the Daisy
by William Wordsworth
With little here to do or seeOf things that in the great world be,
Sweet Daisy! oft I talk to thee
For thou art worthy,
Thou unassuming commonplace
Of Nature, with that homely face,
And yet with something of a grace
Which love makes for thee!
Oft on the dappled turf at ease
I sit and play with similes,
Loose types of things through all degrees,
Thoughts of thy raising;
And many a fond and idle name
I give to thee, for praise or blame
As is the humour of the game
While I am gazing.
You can read the rest of the poem here.
By: Elaine Magliaro,
on 7/13/2007
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Remember when you were little and had to go to bed in the summer while the bigger kids were still outside playing? Remember lying in bed listening to their shouts and laughter? Remember wishing that you were old enough to stay outside and play...after the street lights came on? With these memories in mind, I give you a classic poem by Stevenson and an original poem I wrote many years ago.
Bed in Summer
by Robert Louis Stevenson
In winter I get up at night
And dress by yellow candle-light.
In summer, quite the other way,
I have to go to bed by day.
I have to go to bed and see
The birds still hopping on the tree,
Or hear the grown-up people's feet
Still going past me in the street.
And does it not seem hard to you,
When all the sky is clear and blue,
And I should like so much to play,
To have to go to bed by day?
Here's my poem about Bed in Summer:
Bed in Summer
by Elaine Magliaro
Dark drifts in when I'm in bed.
Dreams whisper to my sleepy head.
Ice cubes clink into a glass.
Our sprinkler whirs and wets the grass.
Shouts of children still at play
Spark the night...then fade away.
Mosquitoes drone, crickets cheep.
Wrapped in summer sounds I'll sleep.
I wrote that poem from memory because my computer with all my poetry manuscripts crashed the other day...and I'm too lazy to look through my files of hard copies right now.
By: Elaine Magliaro,
on 7/4/2007
Blog: Wild Rose Reader (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
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I wasn't planning on posting today--but I just remembered that I have a poem about fireworks that I wrote for a collection of acrostic poems entitled What's in a Word?--a collection that is unlikely to ever be published. Here is the poem:
In the night:
Roses, carnations…chrysanthemums, too,
Emerald green, red,
White, and blue. Silvery fountains spill
Out of the sky.
Rockets of gold sizzle and sigh.
Kaleidoscope colors cascading in space,
Showering glitter all over the place.
View Next 25 Posts
Wowee, wow, wow!
Elaine, these are fabuloso! I love how many of your animals are eating or getting eaten:>)
My favorites are the snake, esp.
like a ribbon of muscle
and skin without bone
Love the ending of the whale one, all the sound play in the skunk one, the lioness' attitude and the queen's remedy.
Sheesh, these are great! I think the snake is my favorite overall, but there are so many terrific ones. Thanks for sharing them ALL.
Laura,
Thanks! I'm so glad you like these poems. I actually have a whole collection of animal mask poems--which I've never submitted to a publisher. I posted most of the poems here last April for National Poetry Month.
Elaine,
These poems are so great. They made me laugh most especially Thoughts of a Wolf..., and in For Sale: Fairy Tale Artifact the last two lines: I’ll be the fairest in the land!
And Snow White? She can go pound sand!
In your Snake Sililoquy I loved all the ssssssss sounds. I find 's' sounds soothing...
Great poems,
Marianne
Marianne,
Thanks so much for stopping by and commenting on my poems. I love writing mask poems. When I was teaching elementary school, my students often wrote mask poems and poems of address. Their poems were wonderful. Sometimes their writing inspired my own.
Lioness! I love the way you state your case.
And whale---I love how you revel in your proper size.
See, Elaine, now you've got me talking to your poems. :)
WOW. Elaine, I adore that snake poem, especially since a.) it's ALWAYS field mouse for dinner for my snake, and b.)all those lovely sssssounds. The skunk one gave me a good laugh, too, as did the lioness! I don't know if you just write poetry for fun sometimes, but I think these should be published too.
Sara,
Thanks for commenting. I dug that lion poem out of an old folder last April and worked on it so I could post it for National Poety Month.
Tadmack,
Thanks! The snake poem is one I wrote many years ago. I kept reworking it last April to include lots of words with "s" sounds and to get the rhythm right. I like to hear which of my poems people like best.
These are really wonderful! My favorite is the snake one too - you really sound like a snake.
SUBMIT them as a collection to a publisher girl!!
These are great! I love them!
every one was better than the last... i feel you should create some kind of a children's collection with the majority of them.. they are dynamite!!!!!