Poetry Friday

It is Poetry Friday!  And there is so much goodness going around in the poetry world!  Bear with me (oh, I just got that... a pun... you'll see later)  Read more for a suh-we-e-e-et challenge for you!

Our hostess today with all the link-ups to poetry is Michelle H. Barnes at Today's Little Ditty.  Visit her to find lots of poetic goodness.  On Wednesday, Michelle posted my Golden Shovel poem in response to Nikki Grimes' challenge.  You can read it here if you've a mind to...

Thursday evening the polls closed and I found out that I'd won my bout! Today Round 2 in the Madness Poetry Tournament, held by Ed DeCaria begins at noon with the second assigned word, and a new authlete "opponent".    I'm going on to the next round in a bout with J.J. Close - a formidable opponent.  We get our word in shifts sometime after noon on Friday, so I may not be making the round of poetry links until after Sunday.  We'll have 36 hours from the issuing of the word to write a poem.
Voting for these bouts in the second round starts at staggered times on Sunday as poems are revealed, and close at staggered times on Tuesday. Link to calendar

*UPDATE* The Round 2 voting is now open until sometime Tuesday, March 13.  My first round word was "imbroglio" - this round is "untenable"!  Lots of challenging words and fun kid poems in this round!
 
It is not too late:  If you have a classroom or are a homeschooler - register your students as a class, have them read, talk about the poems, and then decide how they'll vote!!  You will feel extra ready for April's poetry month.  They may want to set up a classroom challenge on their own with a word of the day to write to???  Or not.  And of course, any adult can go there to vote.  You will need to register with an email address before being able to vote.  All poems are geared to PreK through grade 12 - but most are aimed at about the 8-13ish age range.

https://madnesspoetry.com/matchups

Laura Shovan's birthday month is over for this year.  I got a poem a day in for the week before, during and after this year, my first year doing this.

I have a picture and a poem today to offer, and a request for a poem.  Because March 7 was the last day of the challenge... and most people were wiped out by then... my pastel image of a teddy bear, had only three ekphrastic poems written to it.  Thank you Linda Baie and Diane Mayr for your beautiful poems that I will be sharing with the artist.

This bear was won by my daughter when she was little, when she guessed the closest on the number of jellybeans in a jar at a Hallmark card shop.  He is a large bear, and when when she got older and wanted to put him in a yard sale, I snatched him up and took him to school.  He became Solar Bear, and we dressed him in either clothes from Lost and Found, or in the students' winter outdoor clothes so he could have his picture taken for our weather report posted on our school web page.  He did that for a number of years.  On day our art teacher, Jackie (McKeon) Johnson, took him down to the art room and did his portrait!   And that is what you see here.

Now I'm retired, and he sits in a chair in the bedroom, still dressed in a school t-shirt and "Lost and Found" pants (who could lose their pants??) so he doesn't get lonesome.

I'm wondering if anyone out there would like to give a go at writing an ekphrastic poem using the acrylic of our bear.  I'd love to be able to have more poems to share with Jackie.  She's such a talented artist and art teacher!  If his sweet face gives you some poetic words, either write them in the comments, or in the Padlet below!

Now here's some sweetness to add to the pot!  Remember those jellybeans way at the top of the page?  I'll give you a second to go check again....

Yes, those.  On the last day of March, I will draw a name from the "jar" of poets who submitted a poem for Jackie's pastel of Solar Bear, and that poet will win a jar of jellybeans, just like this!   Yum!  Gluten, dairy, fat and gloom free!

Woo-hoo again!  Looking forward to seeing what sweetness ensues!

Jackie's Website is here.

Here's my poem (I'm not putting my name in the jar):

The Luckiest Bear

 In the Hallmark card store
 Beside the jellybean jar
 He sat in the window
 Staring sad and far
 He was waiting patiently
 For someone who would know
 The number of the jelly beans
 And with them home he’d go
 To a home where he could lounge
 On a soft, warm bed
 And find a cushy pillow spot
 To rest his polar head.
 Then there came a little girl
 Who marched into the store
 And she wrote down a number
 Then went back out the door.
 The next day she returned
 And squeezed him oh, so tight
 For she was the lucky guesser
 And got the number right!
 She carried him out to the car
 Buckled him in carefully
 For he was an extra large bear
 Almost as big as she.
 When they got to the house
 He was placed upon a chair
 Where he thought to himself
 I am the luckiest bear!
 But she’d better not forget
 To tuck me into bed
 And read me a bedtime story,
 Give me a big hug instead
 Of leaving me right here
 In this chair for the night -
 And she didn't forget
 Any day of her life
 At least until when
 She had turned ten
 And he was then
 On the chair again.

by Donna JT Smith 3/6/18

Click on the square with an arrow up in the right corner to make the Padlet large enough to work on.  Then click the + in the bottom corner to add a poem.  I made each entry so that you can like them and comment, too.