Poetry Friday November 29, 2019

Poetry Friday is hosted today by Bridget Magee at wee words for wee ones. She's sharing her experiences of trying to host a Thanksgiving dinner in Switzerland where she now lives. Don't miss her turkey poem!

Don't forget to check out the links to other participants sharing poetry today.

I have been contemplating Michelle Barne's Little Ditty challenge since the beginning of the month. I thought playing around with language would be simple. After all, I do it a lot with my grandchildren!

My husband and I are lucky to live with my son, his wife, and Ada, their two year old daughter. When Ada and I are out and about together, we mess around with language. Some of this is about rhyming games I create to help her pronounce words more clearly. Other times it’s for the shear joy of basking in our magical power over words and sounds. Recently while we were traveling in the car she entertained herself by creating her her own rhyme. I heard her sing song chanting roly poly, roly poly, roly poly. Then she shouted from her car seat, "I did it! See Gramma! I did it!" She played with those words while I beamed with pride and listened  intently from my driver's seat. It ended up something like this.

roly poly
roly poly
roly roly poly
roly roly poly
up up up
down down down
roly poly
roly poly
roly roly poly
roly roly poly
round and round

by Ada aged 28 months

It wasn't until later that I realized it was her version of a song she learned in story time at the library. I still think she's brilliant.

Soon after Kate O'Neil's challenge I was walking to my car in the Costco parking lot. The late afternoon light emanated a scene from The Birds. Sky, bushes and trees were thronging with cawing crows. Watching them congregate on their daily migration home in the evenings is an ordinary occurrence here, but I have never been in the middle of it before. Experts estimate that between 13,000 to 20,000 crows converge at the rookery near where I was. The following video gives you a sense of what it's like. 

After gazing starstruck by the spectacle, I crawled into my car and scribbled a collection of words. It still took what seems like forever to come up with this draft.

Crow Magic

it’s a caw caw caw
cawcophony
of crows

it’s a caw caw caw
cawnjure
of corvids

it’s a caw caw caw
cawreening
cawnga line

it’s a swoop loop troop
whooping
home to bed

it's a caw caw caw
cawniferous
cradle

it's a sh sh sh
shnoozing
roost of crows

Happy Thanksgiving to all you American contributors to Poetry Friday!