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Rhyme and Reason
by Lana Krumwiede
To be honest, I'm not sure what wondrous revelations I have to share regarding children's poetry. For starters, I'll share an idea that resulted in two poems accepted for publication in Spider magazine: riddle poems.
A riddle is a question with an unexpected or humorous answer. A poem is, well, a poem is something poetic. So the two put the two together and you have a poetic question with an answer that is humorous or unexpected.
Start by describing an animal, object or a person without naming it. Use whatever poetic devices tickle your muse, but don't name the subject of the poem. Here are a couple examples of how you might do this:
Use metaphors to refer to the subject of the poem. In this poem by Beatrice Janosco, the question is implied and the answer is given in the title. Can you guess what is being described?
In the gray evening
I see a long green serpent
With its tail in the dahlias.
It lies in hoops across the grass
And drink softly at the faucet.
I can hear it swallow.
The title of this poem is "The Garden Hose."
You might also try using first person. The reader doesn't know for sure who or what "I" is. Here's one that I wrote:
I have no voice but I can speak
If you will tell me what to say.
I have no ears but I can hear
If you will tilt your head my way.
When I want to get attention,
I sing my trilling little song.
Although I really ought to mention,
I sometimes get the number wrong.
Who am I?
Did you guess? The answer is a telephone. You probably also guessed that this was NOT one of the poems that Spider accepted. It needs work, I admit. But the two that did get accepted were similar to this.
The appeal of riddle poems is that the reader becomes actively engaged in the poem. Try it sometime and see what you come up with. That's what I love about poetry. You never know what will show up on your paper.
Do you write children's poetry? Would you like to write children's poetry? I'd love to hear from you. Please e-mail me at lanamk@mail.burgoyne.com with any questions or topics that you would like to see addressed in this column.
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