"Oh Boy!"
by Amy LV
Today's poem came from an exciting part of life 'round these parts...finding wonderful surprises at others' roadsides! Earlier in the week, Hope, Georgia, and Henry found a complete aquarium set-up (including sunken ship and filter) in someone's garbage pile. They asked Mark to stop the car, tucked the tank into our trunk, scrubbed it up with bleach, and gave their fish (one female mosquito fish and one male guppy, both from school projects) a new happy habitat.
Our "New" Aquarium
Photo by Amy LV
On Wednesday, driving away from the children's swim lessons, I passed this chair . It was well-made, cool-looking, and comfy. I asked at the door if it was bedbug-free, and yes, it was. Lucky me! Lucky study-which-always-needed-a-chair!
Our "New" Chair
Photo by Amy LV
Students - helping oneself to another's garbage might be considered embarrassing to some people. I probably would have been embarrassed by it myself many years ago. But now I am proud of saving and recycling in this way. Some of our friends find most all of their firewood and many other fascinating things by roadsides, and I am inspired by their thrift and creativity.
What have you found embarrassing in your life that you might feel good about now? What do you do that others might raise an eyebrow at? Such ideas make for interesting writing. Who knows? You might even write a song about such a thing!
When I began to write this poem, I could not decide whether to write it in the 'I' voice or the 'you' voice. I decided on the latter because I thought it might sound less preachy. Initially I didn't plan on this having words repeating over and over again, but this poem just wanted to work out that way. If I were musical, I would play with making up a tune for it.
Do you know this most-famous book?
When I was a little girl at Our Lady of Sorrows Elementary School, THE GUINNESS BOOK OF WORLD RECORDS only came in a chunky paperback, and we would pass it around, just marveling at all of the surprising and incredible things that people do the world over.
Now, our own poetry-muse, Lee Bennett Hopkins, will have his own entry in THE GUINNESS BOOK, as "the most prolific anthologist of poetry for children!" See the certificate and read a bit more here at Sylvia Vardell's Poetry for Children. Many congratulations, Lee!
Tabatha is rounding up today's pile of poetry treasures at The Opposite of Indifference. Happy Poetry Friday to one and all!
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