Poetry Friday: #MMPoetry is underway!
Rather than read today’s poem here, I’m kindly requesting that you head over to the #MMPoetry competition hosted by Ed DeCaria at Think, Kid Think! to read it there.
Why? Because the March Madness Poetry (#MMPoetry) competition just got underway this week, and all the participants would love for you to see what’s going on! 64 competitors from around the globe (Yours Truly included) have been given words ranked according to their difficulty and are charged with creating children’s poems using those words.
For instance, my randomly-assigned word was a#14 seed, so it was pretty tough: “verjuice.” (in case you’re a normal person who’s never heard that word before, it refers to the liquid that comes from fermented grapes and apples, from the French, vert jus) My competitor, the lovely and talented Robyn Hood Black, received a word seeded #3: “awry.”
We each had only 36 hours to create a children’s poem using our word. You can read both of our poems HERE and vote for your favourite! You can also search the scoreboard (or click HERE) and see all the other poems written for this tournament and vote on those, as well. Some of the words are ridiculously hard, too – like meretricious, flaccid, and anthropomorphication. Yes, you read that correctly. Some poor souls had to put those words in children’s poems. And they all did a marvelous job, too!
One caveat, though: the polls close at around 9:40pm – that’s tonight, Fri. March 15! After that, the poems will still be available to read, but you won’t be able to vote on them. Whoever wins move on to the Second round!
And once you finish reading those 64 poems…if you still crave even MORE poetry… Jone MacCulloch at Check it Out has even more, as today’s Poetry Friday hostess!
:0)
Today is the kind of day where it could be possible to OD on poetry, but the out of body experience would be worth it.
Let’s find out!
I second that emotion!!! Love the definition you gave for verjuice. Having studied French(a loooong time ago) I was trying to figure it out, but it didn’t quite get there!!!! I wonder what cider is in French….. Congratulations for creating a kid’s poem using that obscure word!
Thanks, Janet! Interestingly, the French word, ‘cidre,’ can be traced to an old, old Hebrew word meaning “strong drink” – go figure!
Tough word you got, Matt! My hat is off to everyone participating in this tournament! I’ll head on over…
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I read, voted, and came away awed by all the fabulous poetry! There were some really tough words (verjuice)! You are a brave soul for throwing your hat into that ring…=)
It was a lot of fun, though – thanks for stopping by & voting, Bridget!
Hi, Matt. I’m still cracking up about some of the words. You and Robyn are in a touch battle. I still think there’s a poem out there about verjuice-drunk deer!
Oh, I’m sure there is…but I’ll let Robyn write that one!
I still can’t believe he gave you verjuice.
And that you did such an amazing job with it.
Thank you, Liz!
Verjuice was one of the words that I had to look up before I could go appreciate the matchup!
A lot of folks have told me that – I thought of including a definition first, but decided against it because i didn’t want to detract from the poem.
I read your poem without decoding verjuice first, and then again after. You led me to your meaning so skillfully, that my old dictionary was unnecessary. Bravo!
Thanks, Tara! I was hoping I got the meaning across.
It was a crazy fun day, wasn’t it?!?
It was, indeed! Wow, you & Lori really duked it out, huh? Sorry about your loss…but a great effort, nonetheless!
I’m showing up too late to vote — my grades are due next Friday and I’m swamped — but these are amazing. Nice job, both of you!
Thanks, Ruth!
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