Riddle Poems and Radio Lab

Messy Draft

by Amy LV

 

Students- Can you guess the topic of the above poem?  There are a few hints, and I'd be interested in hearing if you can figure it out...and if so, at which line you said to yourself, "I've got it!"

Riddle poems are games.  The writer has the answer, and the reader must try to find this answer through the written clues.  If you choose to write a riddle poem, one of the challenges is to include just-right clues - not too easy, not too hard.

To write a riddle poem, first think of something, anything!  Now write a few one-line descriptions of it.  Piece these together, rhyme if you wish, fiddle away with words and sounds, and then you will have a riddle poem.

Once your riddle poem is complete (be OK with crossouts), test it out on someone else to see if they can figure it out.  That's what I did with today's poem, and my husband Mark did figure out the answer.  He also helped me realize that all throughout this verse, "they" would be a better word choice than "it."  Thank you, Mark!

Below you can read my poem for Round 3 of Ed DeCaria's March Madness poetry tournament at Think Kid, Think! My assignment in Round 3 was to include the word BOILING. After much pacing and worrying and scribbling, this verse spilled out.

If you are wondering where the idea of rescuing a lobster from a grocery story came from, it came from one of my favorite npr radio programs, Radio Lab.  In this short (about 14 minutes) clip, you can hear the story of The Luckiest Lobster, the very lobster who inspired my funny little poem.

As of yesterday, there are eight of us left in the March Madness at Think Kid, Think!, and we just received our words last night.  Away we go...voting begins tomorrow (Tuesday) morning!

If you write a riddle poem, or if your class writes some riddle poems...please do let me know.  I would be thrilled to feature them next month - National Poetry Month!

Did you ever wonder how and why popcorn pops?  You can find out at Wonderopolis!  (I make popcorn in a pot on the stove, so we really do hear those pings!)

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Chickens & Found Poems

Hope, Georgia, & Chickens in 2010

Photo by Elizabeth Pellette

Students - This is a found poem. This means that I did not come up with these words on my own, but rather, I found them, tossed a few, and formed them in a poem shape.  Poets.org calls a found poem "the literary equivalent of a collage," and I think that's a perfect way to describe this form.  You can read more about found poems at Poets.org.

Here is the passage from which I rearranged the poem, "Chicken."  It's from page 29 in YOUR CHICKENS, by Gail Damerow.  You can see that I kept almost all of the words, only losing a few that felt like fillers for a poem.

The expressions "playing chicken" and "don't be such a chicken" come from peck-order squabbles.  When two evenly matched birds try to decide which one is higher in rank, they may face each other and remain motionless for several minutes.  The one who turns away first loses.

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Speaking of found poems, my found poem "Artist's Advice" will appear in Georgia Heard's new book of found poems, THE ARROW FINDS ITS MARK. I can't wait to see it.

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And now...MADNESS! It's the first-ever-Ed DeCaria-hosted MARCH MADNESS for poetry! Yep, a poetry tournament. We began as 64 poets at the beginning of this week. And soon, we'll be down to 32. Then...16. We will split and split until there is only one poet standing. How will this be determined? By readers and voters! Head on over to Ed's blog, Think Kid, Think! and check it out. You can see the bracket, the rules, the poets, and the live scoreboard. Lots of fun! Many thanks to Ed for taking on this huge project and bringing us all together in such a playful way.

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