Picture Books and Poetry

I’m having fun learning about poetry and exploring writing poetry this summer as I work on my writing exercise for Red Sings From Treetops.

This past year, I finished reading THE COMPLETE IDIOT’S GUIDE TO WRITING POETRY.

I especially enjoyed the section that teaches about imagery and how to write it.

I wanted to just start writing some sample poems as the book suggests.

But I was drawing a blank.

So I started reading children’s poetry by Jack Prelusky. And I put on a children’s CD of Robert Louis Stevenson’s poems set to music.

Then I tried my hand on a poem after reading Prelusky’s hilarious poem, “My Neighbor’s Dog is Purple.” It’s all about his neighbor’s dog, but ends with the explanation that before his neighbor painted his pet purple, it was actually an alligator. So here’s my poem:

MY UNCLE OWNS AN AARDVARK
My uncle owns an aardvark.
My aunt has a kangaroo.
My cousins have three elephants
and even a zebra, too.

They have a cage for the aardvark.
Their zebra stays in the shed.
The kangaroo leaps all over their yard,
but the elephants sleep in their bed!

They let me play with the aardvark
and ride the elephants, too.
But when I go to their house,
I feel like I’m at the zoo.

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