There’s a new poetry challenge up on David Harrison’s blog, from Children’s Poet Laureate J. Patrick Lewis. The game is to write a parody of the seventh quatrain of Longfellow’s “A Psalm of Life:”
Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime,
And, departing, leave behind us
Footprints on the sand of time ;
The instructions include an example from Hemingway, and a couple by the poet laureate himself, and from David Harrison. Theirs have wonderful humor and word play. My attempts aren’t going to make anyone laugh out loud, but I had fun writing them:
Lives of billiard balls remind us
we might take a knock or four;
but steady hands will persevere
and even up the score.
Lives of dinosaurs remind us
We might rule the earth for ages,
‘Til other creatures find our fossils
And write our story on their pages.
Cicadas’ lives remind us,
all things come to those who wait,
Thirteen years beneath the ground—
Three weeks to buzzz and mate.
Lives of ladybugs remind us,
Nature bluffs and it deceives;
we admire scarlet costumes,
while poison seeps from beetles’ knees.
Lives of grocery stores remind us,
buy some pickles; processed cheese;
wonder bread; chips and cheetos;
food with lifetime guarantees.
And that’s probably more time than I should have spent playing with these!
Check out what’s going on for Poetry Friday at Irene Latham’s Live Your Poem… And while your there, read the Progressive Poem’s progress. I’m up next!
Buffy, my favorites are cicadas’ lives and lives of dinosaurs. This sounds like a fun exercise!
What a fun challenge! I loved yours!
Hi, Buffy–Thanks for helping to keep 30w30d going! I love this challenge, and I guess I should visit David’s blog more often. I thought you had more than fun with these! My favorite is the dinosaur’s–the most graceful and pithy.
I love the idea of what lives remind us of. And your cicadas! LOVE!
Thanks Irene, I appreciate it.
These look like fun! You did a great job. 🙂
So fun.
Thanks, Ann–glad you liked them.
Thank you, Tabatha!
These are very clever, Buffy, especially that last one with its lifetime guarantee – HA! I purposely did not go over there yesterday because I know I would have been sucked into the void. Now I have to go look to see what everyone did.
Thanks, Renee. I wanted to add some twinkies, too–but alas they are no more. I predict that if you visit, you won’t be able to resist writing a few yourself.