Sunday 29 April 2007
Sunday 22 April 2007
Silly Season Poems
The Truth About Drink Driving
I read this in the paper,
And it really made me think;
That a quarter of all road accidents
Can be blamed... directly... on drink.
Now statistics, they tell you,
will never lie,But be wary of how they're used;
You need your wits about you,
It's easy to get confused.
If a quarter of accidents are had by drunks,
Then sober people have all the rest;
That's 75% if I'm not mistaken,...
(My maths never were the best).
But I'm not entirely stupid,
And I plan to stay alive;
So I'm gonna start driving drunk,
I'm three times more likely to survive.
Copyright; Ian Mackay - May 1995
I read this in the paper,
And it really made me think;
That a quarter of all road accidents
Can be blamed... directly... on drink.
Now statistics, they tell you,
will never lie,But be wary of how they're used;
You need your wits about you,
It's easy to get confused.
If a quarter of accidents are had by drunks,
Then sober people have all the rest;
That's 75% if I'm not mistaken,...
(My maths never were the best).
But I'm not entirely stupid,
And I plan to stay alive;
So I'm gonna start driving drunk,
I'm three times more likely to survive.
Copyright; Ian Mackay - May 1995
Poetry for the very young
I Taught My Cat to Clean My Room
I taught my cat to clean my room,
to use a bucket, brush and broom,
to dust my books and picture frames,
and pick up all my toys and games.
He puts my pants and shirts away,
and makes my bed, and I should say
it seems to me it's only fair
he puts away my underwear.
In fact, I think he's got it made.
I'm not too happy with our trade.
He may pick up my shoes and socks,
but I clean out his litterbox.
--Kenn Nesbitt
I taught my cat to clean my room,
to use a bucket, brush and broom,
to dust my books and picture frames,
and pick up all my toys and games.
He puts my pants and shirts away,
and makes my bed, and I should say
it seems to me it's only fair
he puts away my underwear.
In fact, I think he's got it made.
I'm not too happy with our trade.
He may pick up my shoes and socks,
but I clean out his litterbox.
--Kenn Nesbitt
Tuesday 17 April 2007
Poem for Angharad
Card From Spain...........To Mr Thomas - Angharad’s Headteacher
Dear Mr Thomas, I’m ever so glad
You gave me the chance to be off with my dad.
If I hadn’t come
He’d have been ever so mad,
And I......
And I ..... would have been downcast & sad.
So here’s to you a card from Spain.
As you know
The rain falls [ mainly ] on the plain.
And this is the promise, kept in the main....
A card,
Good wishes,
and I will retain. [ I mean “return” but it didn’t rhyme !!!! ]
Thanks... with a bit of help from my dad, who describes himself on his passport as a potential poet.
Now Translate that into Welsh.
Dear Mr Thomas, I’m ever so glad
You gave me the chance to be off with my dad.
If I hadn’t come
He’d have been ever so mad,
And I......
And I ..... would have been downcast & sad.
So here’s to you a card from Spain.
As you know
The rain falls [ mainly ] on the plain.
And this is the promise, kept in the main....
A card,
Good wishes,
and I will retain. [ I mean “return” but it didn’t rhyme !!!! ]
Thanks... with a bit of help from my dad, who describes himself on his passport as a potential poet.
Now Translate that into Welsh.
Sunday 15 April 2007
Saturday 14 April 2007
Monday 9 April 2007
Want to Write a novel in a month??????
What is NaNoWriMo?
National Novel Writing Month is a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to novel writing. Participants begin writing November 1. The goal is to write a 175-page (50,000-word) novel by midnight, November 30.
Valuing enthusiasm and perseverance over painstaking craft, NaNoWriMo is a novel-writing program for everyone who has thought fleetingly about writing a novel but has been scared away by the time and effort involved.
Because of the limited writing window, the ONLY thing that matters in NaNoWriMo is output. It's all about quantity, not quality. The kamikaze approach forces you to lower your expectations, take risks, and write on the fly.
Make no mistake: You will be writing a lot of crap. And that's a good thing. By forcing yourself to write so intensely, you are giving yourself permission to make mistakes. To forgo the endless tweaking and editing and just create. To build without tearing down.
As you spend November writing, you can draw comfort from the fact that, all around the world, other National Novel Writing Month participants are going through the same joys and sorrows of producing the Great Frantic Novel. Wrimos meet throughout the month to offer encouragement, commiseration, and -- when the thing is done -- the kind of raucous celebrations that tend to frighten animals and small children.
In 2006, we had over 79,000 participants. Nearly 13,000 of them crossed the 50k finish line by the midnight deadline, entering into the annals of NaNoWriMo superstardom forever. They started the month as auto mechanics, out-of-work actors, and middle school English teachers. They walked away novelists.
So, to recap:
What: Writing one 50,000-word novel from scratch in a month's time.
Who: You! We can't do this unless we have some other people trying it as well. Let's write laughably awful yet lengthy prose together.
Why: The reasons are endless! To actively participate in one of our era's most enchanting art forms! To write without having to obsess over quality. To be able to make obscure references to passages from our novels at parties. To be able to mock real novelists who dawdle on and on, taking far longer than 30 days to produce their work.
When: Sign-ups begin October 1, 2007. Writing begins November 1. To be added to the official list of winners, you must reach the 50,000-word mark by November 30 at midnight. Once your novel has been verified by our web-based team of robotic word counters, the partying begins.
Still confused? Just visit the How NaNoWriMo Works page!
National Novel Writing Month is a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to novel writing. Participants begin writing November 1. The goal is to write a 175-page (50,000-word) novel by midnight, November 30.
Valuing enthusiasm and perseverance over painstaking craft, NaNoWriMo is a novel-writing program for everyone who has thought fleetingly about writing a novel but has been scared away by the time and effort involved.
Because of the limited writing window, the ONLY thing that matters in NaNoWriMo is output. It's all about quantity, not quality. The kamikaze approach forces you to lower your expectations, take risks, and write on the fly.
Make no mistake: You will be writing a lot of crap. And that's a good thing. By forcing yourself to write so intensely, you are giving yourself permission to make mistakes. To forgo the endless tweaking and editing and just create. To build without tearing down.
As you spend November writing, you can draw comfort from the fact that, all around the world, other National Novel Writing Month participants are going through the same joys and sorrows of producing the Great Frantic Novel. Wrimos meet throughout the month to offer encouragement, commiseration, and -- when the thing is done -- the kind of raucous celebrations that tend to frighten animals and small children.
In 2006, we had over 79,000 participants. Nearly 13,000 of them crossed the 50k finish line by the midnight deadline, entering into the annals of NaNoWriMo superstardom forever. They started the month as auto mechanics, out-of-work actors, and middle school English teachers. They walked away novelists.
So, to recap:
What: Writing one 50,000-word novel from scratch in a month's time.
Who: You! We can't do this unless we have some other people trying it as well. Let's write laughably awful yet lengthy prose together.
Why: The reasons are endless! To actively participate in one of our era's most enchanting art forms! To write without having to obsess over quality. To be able to make obscure references to passages from our novels at parties. To be able to mock real novelists who dawdle on and on, taking far longer than 30 days to produce their work.
When: Sign-ups begin October 1, 2007. Writing begins November 1. To be added to the official list of winners, you must reach the 50,000-word mark by November 30 at midnight. Once your novel has been verified by our web-based team of robotic word counters, the partying begins.
Still confused? Just visit the How NaNoWriMo Works page!
Some Poetic Devices
Alliteration - The repetition of initial consonant sounds.
Assonance - The repetition of vowel sounds.
Imagery - Words or phrases that appeal to any sense or any combination of senses.
Metaphor - A comparison between two objects with the intent of giving clearer meaning to one of them. Often forms of the "to be" verb are used, such as "is" or "was", to make the comparison.
Meter - The recurrence of a pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables.
Onomatopoeia - The use of words which imitate sound.
Personification - A figure of speech which endows animals, ideas, or inanimate objects with human traits or abilities.
Point-of-view - The author's point-of-view concentrates on the vantage point of the speaker, or "teller", of the story or poem.
1st person: the speaker is a character in the story or poem and tells it from his/her perspective (uses "I")
3rd person limited: the speaker is not part of the story, but tells about the other characters but limits information about what one character sees and feels.
3rd person omniscient: the speaker is not part of the story, but is able to "know" and describe what all characters are thinking.
Repetition - the repeating of words, phrases, lines, or stanzas.
Rhyme - The similarity of ending sounds existing between two words.
Rhyme scheme - The sequence in which the rhyme occurs. The first end sound is represented as the letter "a", the second is "b", etc.
Simile - A comparison between two objects using a specific word or comparison such as "like", "as", or "than".
Stanza - a grouping of two or more lines of a poem in terms of length, metrical form, or rhyme scheme.
Assonance - The repetition of vowel sounds.
Imagery - Words or phrases that appeal to any sense or any combination of senses.
Metaphor - A comparison between two objects with the intent of giving clearer meaning to one of them. Often forms of the "to be" verb are used, such as "is" or "was", to make the comparison.
Meter - The recurrence of a pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables.
Onomatopoeia - The use of words which imitate sound.
Personification - A figure of speech which endows animals, ideas, or inanimate objects with human traits or abilities.
Point-of-view - The author's point-of-view concentrates on the vantage point of the speaker, or "teller", of the story or poem.
1st person: the speaker is a character in the story or poem and tells it from his/her perspective (uses "I")
3rd person limited: the speaker is not part of the story, but tells about the other characters but limits information about what one character sees and feels.
3rd person omniscient: the speaker is not part of the story, but is able to "know" and describe what all characters are thinking.
Repetition - the repeating of words, phrases, lines, or stanzas.
Rhyme - The similarity of ending sounds existing between two words.
Rhyme scheme - The sequence in which the rhyme occurs. The first end sound is represented as the letter "a", the second is "b", etc.
Simile - A comparison between two objects using a specific word or comparison such as "like", "as", or "than".
Stanza - a grouping of two or more lines of a poem in terms of length, metrical form, or rhyme scheme.
Saturday 7 April 2007
Thursday 5 April 2007
Wednesday 4 April 2007
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)