Month: December 2019

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Challenge from Glenda Funk: write a Skinny Poem in which lines 2-10 use single words, lines 2,6, and 10 repeat, line 1 presents a strong image, and line 11 repeats the words in line 1 in any order the poet chooses.

Waiting
Trembling in a rescue cage, you stood waiting
terrified
starved
matted
betrayed
terrified
neglected
abandoned
abused
terrified
you stood – awaiting rescue
-Kim Johnson
*inspired by true events in the life of a now loved Schnoodle named Boo Radley
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Challenge from Glenda Funk: write an Inspirational Bop poem


Misalignment
the incorrect arrangement
or position
of something or someone
in relation
to someone or something 
else
shift happens
evidence of misalignment
lives in
the invisible realm
where actions
do not
align with desires 
where priorities
compete with values
shift happens
members and churches 
parents and children
husbands and wives
brothers and sisters
friends and colleagues
respect boundaries
shift happens
-Kim Johnson
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Challenge from Glenda Funk:  Write an echo sonnet. (I made my echos hashtags).

None of us have spirited family Christmases with characters like these – I repeat: this is all fictional (required disclaimer). But for our friends who do, here is…..a holiday hashtag echo sonnet with 14 plus one more…….a solution.

Sleighfully Navigating a Spirited Family Christmas 

Self-proclaimed “Mother-of-the-Year” stepsister mommy shaming another?
#Santa-PatternedGiftwrapSmother!

Philandering uncle’s womanizing making you sick?
#ReindeerHoofSwiftCrotchKick!

Cheap-ass brother not bearing a gift?
#SnowmanFacialFeatureShift!

Political hothead brother-in-law TRUMPeting his lies?
#CandyCaneGougeOutEyes!

Know-it-all cousin crowing all he knows?
#Non-AngelicBloodyNose!

Holier-than-thou stepfriend “blessing your heart?”
#ToxicFumeElfBlameFart!

Perfect pink princess sister-in-law going to town?
#PeppermintMochaSpaTubDrown!

Meddling mother-in-law business-poking?
#GoodOldFashionedWreathChoking!

Freeloading stepbrother eating everyone’s lunch?
#Star-TreeTopperThroatPunch!

Gossiping father spewing venom?
#BowCuttingScissorStabbingDenim!

Bragging niece going yackety-yak?
#PoisonedMistletoeGutSmack!

Stumbling drunk nephew landing in laps?
#Eggnog-MoistenedFaceSlaps!

All 17 spoiled grandkids acting high class?
#PricklyHollySpankingAss!

Manipulative aunt controlling the back porch?
#StrategicallyAimedYuleLogTorch!

           The best way through the Christmas fog?
                       #CurlUpUnderTreeWithDog!

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Challenge from Glenda Funk:  Write a Fibonacci Sequence poem (Fib Poem), in which each line is comprised of the total of syllables in the preceding two lines.  
I re-wrote a poem I recently wrote in my Baltimore hotel room while visiting the city for the NCTE Convention.  Here is my Fib poem:

Doodle Doo

A
rooster
is too loud
in the city where
gunshots, fire trucks, sirens, and trains
don’t want to be wakened so early to do their jobs?

The original poem:

In the City

Airplanes are awhoosh in the sky overhead
Demolitionists gong blocks with wrecking balls
Construction crews clang chains and tools
Hotel elevators drone and ding…..all…damned….night….long
People clatter and clamor on the chaotic streets below my window
Trains thunder past on the tracks
Music blares like an unbridled banshee
Buses brake to screeching halts
Traffic trills, engines revving
Horns honk the rumblings of road rage
Fire trucks scream past flashing red flames across my wall
Gunshots pierce the silence
Police sirens wail out like victims
       blue lights pulsing through the veins of city streets
               somewhere between life and death

in the city
where roosters
are against the rules.

-Kim Johnson

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Challenge from Glenda Funk:  Write a Golden Shovel Poem by taking a line from a favorite poem and letting each word of the line be the last word in the lines of the poem you create.

“An Incident in Bethlehem”
From “Incident” by Natasha Trethewey
(Taken From Native Guard, winner of the Pulitzer Prize)
Line: At the cross, trussed like a Christmas tree, a few men gathered

In a lowly stable in Bethlehem, Mary gazes with pride AT
her sweet little baby, sent to save THE
souls of sinners; in the 33-year shadow of the CROSS,
the shepherds and sheep admire Jesus in a TRUSSED
manger, crib legs that would someday stand LIKE
intersecting compass points needling Heaven and Earth, A
lasting symbol of the reason we celebrate CHRISTMAS,
The hope held in these trees – the manger, the cross, the Christmas TREE–
offers both the blessings of this life and the promise of A
more glorious one in heaven, where more than a FEW
will reflect on the Nativity sets we once admired, with wise MEN
and angels, and pray this is where we will all be eternally GATHERED.

– Kim Johnson

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My Current Schnituation
schtep into my life schnituation –
my Schnoodle and Schnauzer schnensations
but before we begin
          with their schn’anigans, friend,
rest assured they’re both schpoiled aberrations
we’d long buried our Dachshund Roxane,
her schneezing schnozzle way out of hand
she left out hearts schattered
     all because sche’mattered
to her perschnickety ticky-toe fans
two new schnugglebugs’ schnares and schnafus
from previous lives needed reschcues
from their lives on the schtreetz
        to the warmth of our scheets
they’re schnupreme broken heart schnuper glu’ers
when schnissors appear they schtart schnarling
and schneering and schlinking a’farling
but my schnips – and their schnaps –
      and a few schnitzel schnacks
‘schurenuff schape up our schweet schqirr’ly darlings
we schnelebrate their schneaky kinship
their schpirited schnooping cahootship
though they’re schnocially schnobs
          and schly schustenance hogs
they’ve schnagged Funny Farm schnitizenship
-Kim Johnson