We had an old wagon on our lawn that used to be pulled by a horse. It was what they called a buckboard wagon. We had no horse, but that didn't stop us from pushing the wagon and hopping aboard to take a ride down our driveway. I believe we did that when our parents weren't home from work yet, but we had gotten home from school and had a few extra minutes to fill...
We found so many ways to almost get hurt.
Unhitch
Hitch up the wagon we're ready to roll...
hitch up your britches or you'll catch a cold...
hitch this to that so it'll be stronger...
hitch that to this to make it be longer...
Unhitch the wagon, put horses away...
unhitch your britches, it's been a long day...
unhitch the ropes and unhitch the ties...
unhitch the the sun, the moon's on the rise!
Okay, that came out in one fell, unhitched swoop. Ready or not!
It is Monday. And the March Madness 2015 at Ed DeCaria's has begun. I have my word (well, I don't really - I am writing this BEFORE the madness, because I am pretty sure I am not going to be able to think of anything but my word for the tournament poem today, and making sure I post it on time).
Please stop in at ThinkKidThink.com and vote for your favorite brand new kid's poem beginning Tuesday night, March 10, and continuing through noonish on Thursday, March 12. Here's the calendar of events.
Yes, I'm in the tournament - so far! Of course, I'd love to have your vote... but, no, I'm not begging, telling or asking you to vote for me. I am just saying that I think you should read all the poems created by dozens of poets using dozens of words. It's going to be awesome! Then I think you should cast your votes on the ones you thought were best for children 5-15ish. Hey, I don't even know what I'm writing yet. It isn't even today for me. It's five days ago. Remember? I had to schedule this blog post!
Have a great week.
Oh, this is a Slice of Life at Two Writing Teachers - the link is through the orange slice at the top of the page.
And the poem is part of Heidi Mordhorst's month long challenge at My Juicy Little Universe to write poems with words ending in ch. Today's word was "unhitch". I added "hitCH" and "britCHes" for good measure!
*Note: words were changed and I just noticed - sorry! Today was changed to Preach. And tomorrow's "bleach" I have written already, and (YIPES!) that was switched, too. I'll see what I can do, but I may not be able to get back to them to rewrite at this point! I'm probably going to be busy with another word and reading with second graders.
Have a great day all! I'll try to connect with everyone's comments by midnight.
Loved the cleverness of your poem. And I am so impressed with the many challenges you give yourself I'm particularly interested in the March Madness. Gonna hop over there to check it out!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Julieanne, Phew! I THINK I've got my poem for MM done. Hope you get to drop in on the March Madness at Ed DeCarias'! It's going to be exciting! Lots of classrooms involved, too.
DeleteLove your poem and your memory, Donna. It is amazing what we survived as kids, isn't it?
ReplyDeleteI think our childhood may have been just a bit more fun than the childhoods of today. We had a lot more freedoms - and we did survive.
DeleteImpressed with the poem, even more impressed that it was an answer to a challenge. A picture book version of it immediately came to mind, with illustrations a la Julie Vivas.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Chris! That would be fun...Julie's pictures are adorable!
DeleteI love this line: "We found so many ways to almost get hurt." It could be a refrain to write around. Childhood is so much fun! :-)
ReplyDeleteI'll have to jot that line down in my ideas list and give it some thought! Thanks!
DeleteLove this line, Donna: "We found so many ways to almost get hurt." That's what childhood fun is all about! i worry the kids these days don't have this opportunity any more.
ReplyDeleteMy brothers found a few ways to actually GET hurt (nothing major), but they always learned something from those events - and we got good stories as adults for family get-togethers.
DeleteThank you for the great poem. I was reminiscing about the buckboard at my uncle's farm and how my siblings and I were also so good at finding ways to almost (sometimes actually) get hurt.
ReplyDeleteThank you also for the MarchMadnessPoetry link. I just spent 30 minutes perusing their site!
I'm glad you stopped in! Happy you made your way over to March Madness, too. Hope you stop in when the poems are posted. There should be some great stuff to read!
DeleteLove the poem! It's so fun and full of what it means to be a kid. Love the "unhitch the sun, the moons on the rise." Lovely.
ReplyDeleteLove what you've done with this one, Donna. I agree, we did lots of things that maybe could have resulted in serious injuries, but they didn't! I adore "Unhitch the sun, the moon's on the rise"!
ReplyDelete