The following post was originally published waaaay back in Spring 2013 – eight years ago! I was recently sorting through some of my earlier children’s poetry and came across this, and thought it might be fun to share again. Please remember, the blog tour for my new picture book that I co-authored with Charles Ghigna (aka, Father Goose®), ONCE UPON ANOTHER TIME (Beaming Books) continues to roll on at the following blogs:
“ONCE UPON ANOTHER TIME” BLOG TOUR:
2/25: Ellen Leventhal: https://www.ellenleventhal.com/#blog
3/1: Maria Marshall: https://www.mariacmarshall.com/blog
3/2: Matt Forrest Esenwine: https://mattforrest.wordpress.com
3/3: Bookseed Studio: https://bookseedstudio.wordpress.com/
3/4: Celebrate Picture Books: https://celebratepicturebooks.com/
3/5: Maria Marshall #PPBF (Perfect Picture Book Friday): https://www.mariacmarshall.com/blog
3/5: KidLit411 – Charles Ghigna interview: http://www.kidlit411.com/
3/5: Mrs. Knott’s Book Nook: http://mrsknottsbooknook.blogspot.com/
3/9: Erin Dealey https://www.erindealey.com/blog/
3/10: Melissa Stoller: https://www.melissastoller.com/blog
3/16: Kellee Moye at Unleashing Readers: http://www.unleashingreaders.com/
5/5: Andrew Hackett: https://www.andrewhacket.com/blog
~ ~ GIVEAWAY!! ~ ~
Would you like a personally-signed copy of ONCE UPON ANOTHER TIME? I have TWO copies I’ll give away, with two ways to enter: check out my #BookBirthday post for all the details!
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Have you ever had one of those times where you think you’re being totally original, only to discover your ‘uniqueness’ has all been done before?
Yeah…this is one of those times.
The Gnus of New London!
During a critique group meeting in 2010, a fellow member had written a short rhyming PB manuscript about a fly and a gnat. It was a cute story, and the word ‘gnat’ got stuck in my head. After a week or so of mulling ideas over, I wrote the first draft of this poem. I revised it, revised it, and revised it some more. And the day before I planned to bring it to the critique group, I discovered…
Shel Silverstein had written a poem with a nearly identical title.
>sigh<
Now, I don’t think I’d ever seen his poem before (of course, anything’s possible, with my memory being what it is) so my heart sank, knowing a title like this would be a tough sell. I read Shel’s poem, which you can find HERE, and was relieved that is really wasn’t similar to mine at all – but still, titles are important things, and I’d be mortified to think that someone might read my poem and get the impression I was trying to rip him off.
I never want someone to read my material and think I’m trying to ‘be’ someone else. Not only do I want to be my own person as a writer and poet, but I take pains to try not to write similarly to anyone else, for that very reason. So, having said this…I present to you:
The Gnat & The Gnu
Gnat said, “Hey there, what’s up, Gnu?”
Gnu said, “not much— how ‘bout you?”
Gnat sighed, “Nothing, kinda blue.”
Gnu asked, “Something I can do?”
Gnat said, “No, just wish I knew
why I’m small – not big, like you.
I have no horns, and no fur, too;
no one wants me at the zoo.
Nothing special, nothing new,
just a gnat without a clue
how to feel and what to do.
Oh, I wish I was a Gnu.”
Gnu thought hard, then said, “It’s true
I’m large, but all I do is chew;
never sprouted wings and flew,
never bathed in morning dew,
just grazed on grass and grew and grew.
Things I do are pretty few,
but I’m glad that I’m a Gnu –
so I’ll be me, and you be you.”
Satisfied, Gnat bid ‘adieu,’
happy he was not a Gnu;
And as he flew away, the Gnu
watched longingly
and Gnu…felt blue.
– © 2010, Matt Forrest Esenwine
For more poetry, head over to My Juicy Little Universe, where Heidi Mordhorst is hosting the Poetry Friday roundup with a birthday celebration featuring poetry, lights, and a surprise birthday dinner!
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I continue adding to my “Wit & Wordplay” videos ! These videos were created for parents and educators (along with their kids) to learn how to write poetry, appreciate it, and have fun with it. From alliteration and iambs to free verse and spine poetry, I’m pretty sure there’s something in these videos you’ll find surprising! You can view them all on my YouTube channel, and if you have young kids looking for something to keep busy with, I also have several downloadable activity sheets at my website.
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You can purchase personally-signed copies of Flashlight Night, (Boyds Mills Press, 2017), Don’t Ask a Dinosaur (Pow! Kids Books, 2018), and nearly EVERY book or anthology I’ve been part of!
Click any of the following covers to order!
Just click the cover of whichever book you want and send the good folks at MainStreet BookEnds in Warner, NH a note requesting the signature and to whom I should make it out to. (alternatively, you can log onto my website and do the same thing) They’ll contact me, I’ll stop by and sign it, and then they’ll ship it! (Plus, you’ll be supporting your local bookseller – and won’t that make you feel good?)
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Thank you to everyone for your support!
FLASHLIGHT NIGHT:
- NY Public Library’s “100 Best Book for Kids 2017” AND “Staff Pick!”
- KIRKUS Starred review!
- Kansas NEA Reading Circle Recommended Books!
- “Best Reads of 2017,” Unleashing Readers
- Finalist, 2019 New Hampshire Literary Awards
- Positive reviews from Horn Book, School Library Connection, School Library Connection, Booklist, Publisher’s Weekly, and Shelf-Awareness!
DON’T ASK A DINOSAUR:
- “Rollicking rhyme!” – Booklist
- “A wild romp!” – Parenting NH Magazine
- “Cute…intriguing…4 out of 5 stars” – Tulsa Book Review
- “Rhythmic…funny and informative” – Unleashing Readers
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Radio, Rhythm & Rhyme 
Hey – I like yours better. Adorable! And such fun to read. But I know the feeling you are describing. Many years ago, I submitted a manuscript only to realize that one of the poems was very similar to an Eve Merriam poem. Had I read the Eve Merriam poem? Was it collective subconscious? I did not know and still don’t. I. Was. Mortified. Retracted the poem from the manuscript and have been looking over my shoulder ever since. This is a very cool poem. I want Gnu to feel better now. Happy PF!
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Thanks, Amy! I’m sure that people like us, who write extensively, eventually will all write something like that – it’s the rule of numbers, isn’t it? The same idea repeated…it’s bound to happen. But I’m glad I’m not alone!
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Remember this from T.S. Elliot?
One of the surest tests [of the superiority or inferiority of a poet] is the way in which a poet borrows. Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal; bad poets deface what they take, and good poets make it into something better, or at least something different. The good poet welds his theft into a whole of feeling which is unique, utterly different than that from which it is torn; the bad poet throws it into something which has no cohesion. A good poet will usually borrow from authors remote in time, or alien in language, or diverse in interest.
I agree with Amy. I like yours better. I wonder what Shel would say?
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Well, all I can say is that I appreciate both of your comments…the fact that you like mine better blows me away! And thanks for sharing that quote, Doraine; I remember reading that many years ago, and it’s true!
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Fabulous quote!
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Don’t feel blue. It’s a great poem. And great minds think alike.
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That is absolutely fantastic and I think I have read Shel’s and yes yours is better. Is the title exactly the same then? You’ve got to get this published. The theme behind it is so common in plauygrounds too, so many can relate to this scenario. Someone needs cheering up but in the process the cheerer who wasn’t particularly down before starts to ponder things.
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I guess ‘the grass is always greener’ feeling applies to gnats and gnus – who knew? Fun poem and interesting back story. =)
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Clever and fun. I too prefer it to the Silverstein one. It sure is easier to read!
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The writing process is so interesting. We are all influenced by what we read and hear, and especialy what we admire in others’ writing. I think this is especially true in poetry, where we work within such a tight framework and economy of words. This is why I don’t write poetry – i read so much of it that I fear I will be derivative – worse…so bravo for venturing bravely into poetry, Matt – and I do hope there will be an eventual verse wherein the Gnu finds solace!
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Thank you all! And Catherine, believe me…I’d LOVE to get it published. (I’d love to get ANYTHING published!)
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I honestly don’t think anyone could accuse you of ripping off Shel Silverstein– most especially Shel Silverstein himself. If anything, I imagine he’d compliment your take on this gnat and gnu odd couple! Well done I say.
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Thanks, Michelle…I hope he’d be ok with it. Like I said, I had no idea he’d even written anything like it!
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Here’s my dirty secret: I’m not a huge Shel fan. I enjoy reading his work, but I seldom think “I wish I’d written that” — which to me is the sign that I REALLY like something.
So…I wish I had written “The Gnat and the Gnu.” This is adorable on the surface and really touching underneath. Just lovely. And so fun to say aloud! Bravo, Matt.
(BTW, I just found out that Shel also wrote a poem called “Opening Night,” the same title of my poem in the PFAMS. At first I was mortified, but then…oh, well. I don’t think he had a monopoly on writing poems about stage fright. My poem is mine!)
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Well, you know what…it’s funny you should mention that about Shel. I do like a lot of his stuff, but there’s quite a bit I could take or leave. I’m one of the pro-“Giving Tree” crowd, and some of his poems like “The Little Boy and the Old man” are timeless…but I never felt like I was influenced by him that much. I don’t even recall reading much of his work when I was a kid – I’ve read more of his books as an adult!
Thank you, also, for your comments about my poem…I’m very glad you liked it!
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I like it, Matt. Don’t recall the SS poem, so it mustn’t have been THAT great!
I’ve had similar post-writing discoveries. But it’s the vision/clarity/execution of the idea that makes the poem, not the idea itself.
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Thanks, Ed. I know you’re particular with your positive comments, so I genuinely appreciate it. I can’t even begin to compare mine to his – I don’t dare compare anything I wrote to anything written by folks like him! I do know I got the idea for this poem from my critique group member’s ‘Gnat’ poem, and then by thinking about the word ‘Gnu,’ which was the only other word spelled similarly. S hel’s never even entered my mind!
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I think there’s still another quote, but this one is similar, Matt: “There are no new ideas. There are only new ways of making them felt.” – Audre Lorde I, like so many above, like yours better too. It has a touch of the heart that I personally love, as in “I’m large, but all I do is chew;
never sprouted wings and flew,
never bathed in morning dew,”. If gnus can be so empathetic, there is hope for all of us! Great poem!
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Hi Matt, as I was reading your poem, I am reminded of Gary Gnu, the muppet, I think. So cute. I think rather than being mortified by the similarity, think of it this way: You and Shel Silverstein are kindreds! You are of like minds. How lovely is that. Great poem! 🙂
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Matt, loved this poem! Think it would be a really fun one to share with a class at the beginning of the school year, when kids are just getting to know each other and becoming a community of learners. A message, but not preachy! Thanks! I think lots of us who write have had the experience of thinking we have written something original and then finding something either with a similar title, or a similar line or ??? I’ve done that more than once, and then wondered if the poem was just wandering around in my conscience or ???? And I think mortified is a perfect word to describe those times!
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Thank you all; I’m glad I’m not alone in my feelings!
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Yours is totally original and says so much more than Shel’s.
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Oh, I appreciate that, Mary Lee – thanks so much!
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I am very familiar with that feeling, too. Everything HAS already been said, but fortunately we are all different, just like the gnat and the gnu. I love your poem.
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Glad you liked it, Ruth!
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Thanks for sharing your poem and the story/unknown connections behind it! If we write enough, this kind of thing is going to happen. (There was a discussion not too long ago among some of the leading haiku poets – similar topic! No one would intentionally copy another’s poem, and yet it’s funny how similar words/themes do crop up. Maybe Jungian, as some have suggested!) Anyway, I enjoyed the “gnu” poem and enjoyed all these comments, and Doraine’s quote.
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I think your poem is very clever! Thank you for sharing your story as well. It is comforting in an odd way to hear how universal your experience seems to be, and to read everyone’s kind comments. Gives me courage.
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Thanks, Robyn & Jill! Like I said, it’s a numbers game – if one writes enough, one is bound to find subject material repeated; the trick is to not repeat the work itself!
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Nice poem, Matt!
Your poem reminds me of a poem Ed DeCaria has written, called… Gnats! Hah! 😛 But it’s a totally different idea: http://www.thinkkidthink.com/gnats/
It seems that “gnat” is a catchy word indeed.
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Oh, that’s right, I’d forgotten about that! Thanks for sharing, Gloson. I remember when I first read Ed’s poem it reminded me of mine, which I’d written about a year before. What is it with the letters G and N??
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I have gno idea.
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Ha!
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I love the wordplay of your gnat and gun. I think that fear of accidentally copying, or of being seen to copy, even when you know you didn’t is one all creators have sometime. I have bene known to panic when I compose a line I think is just perfect – and start googling to see if I’ve actually remembered it rather than created it myself. But anyway, your gnu is definitely gnu 🙂 And made me smile.
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Thank you, Sally. I remember when I first wrote Flashlight night, I have titled it “Flashlight”… and as soon as I did a Google search for picture books with similar titles, I discovered that a book called “Flashlight” we’re just been published a year before! My heart sunk. But then I took a look at it more closely and realized that book had nothing to do with my book. So I retitled it “Flashlight Night” and all was well.
That is, until Elizabeth Hasselbeck decided to become a children’s writer and copied the title of my book! (sigh…)
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Hey, Matt–almost as fun as reading your gnat and gnu poem again is reading all the comments and thinking about those who have come and gone and how long we’ve all been together! Roll on, friend, and never worry about looking too much like anyone else–your work speaks for itself and you can let it be loud now!
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Thank you so much, Heidi – I, too, was looking over some of those past comment and was amazed at how far we’ve all come! Have a great birthday weekend!
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Whether an old post or ‘gnu’, I love your poem & the back & forth of wondering if who one is is enough, and like Heidi, it was nice to read from all those who have been here & have moved to other sharing, I guess. Sometimes I worry about sub-conscious copying, too, googling my lines to see if anything comes up! Thanks, Matt.
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Thank you, Linda! I guess we all have that fear that we are copying someone even when we are being completely original, Ha!
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More than one person is bound to write about gnats and gnus. But I can see how you’d be disheartened at least at first. Your poem is different, about a charming friendship.
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Thanks, Janice – I felt that the soberness of the ending would be tempered by the unusual and difficult rhyme scheme I set up, so it was sort of a challenge for myself to see if I could pull it off. I don’t think I did half bad.
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Oh, I really like this one. I love how the gnu encourages the gnat, and it’s so realistic that the gnu is left blue! Ruth, thereisnosuchthingasagodforsakentown.blogspot.com
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Thanks so much, Ruth! Although there are a few small things I might change, I’m still pretty happy with it.
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Oh boy, have I had that experience, in more ways than one. Title or form or whatever. Eep. Glad your poem is different! And I love how you work so much dialog into a metered poem in a way that feels completely natural! Super hard to do–love it!
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Thank you so much, Laura! I admit, it wasn’t easy…but it was a lot of fun putting together.
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What a fun poem!
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Thanks, Kay!
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That’s a sweet poem Matt, and poor Gnu now feels a bit blue. And it’s a gnat and gnu of a totally different color than Shel Silverstein’s. Thanks for sharing his too, I’ve many of his books. Hope the blog tour is bringing many new readers to your new book with Charles!
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