Just in case you were wondering after the debut of Friday’s 40 Photo Challenge last week, Pensieve’s Poetic License is alive and well. F40PC is a weekly carnival designed to inspire you to write "40 words or less"–prose, poetry, whatevah–in response to a photo prompt; PPL is a monthly poetry 
challenge where you’re instructed to follow a form and theme directive.
This month’s poetic form is something I’ve never written before but it sounds simple and fun: clerihew. My friend Peculiar introduced this form, and since it was new to me, I thought it might be to you as well. In a nutshell, it’s a short, humorous biographical verse; four lines with an AABB rhyme scheme.
Poetry4kids.com explains the how-to’s in four easy steps:
- They are four lines long.
- The first and second lines rhyme with each other, and the third and fourth lines rhyme with each other.
- The first line names a person, and the second line ends with something that rhymes with the name of the person.
- A clerihew should be funny.
As far as theme, let’s go with May celebrations–OF COURSE you know about Cinco de Mayo, Mother’s Day and Memorial Day, but did you also know May celebrates Asparagus Month, National Bar-B-Que Month, National Hamburger Month and National Mental Health Month?
I can hardly wait to see how you write a poem that weaves together a "person" and one of those!
Write them any time this week, and THURSDAY be sure to link your poem to Mr. Linky where you can find all the Poetic License participants.
ASPARAGUS month? Seriously? Oh boy… I did just have some last night – maybe I’ll get inspired;)
Now I really will bow out of this one, but I will enjoy reading everyone else’s!
Yeah BBQ month we started yesterday! Looking forward to reading the poems but I don;t think I;ll take part. I’ll save my creativity for Fridays, I only have so much!
Oh, that sounds like fun! In fact, the Hamburger month thing inspired me – hamburgers are my hubby’s favorite food. Here’s one for you right off the top of my head:
I’d like you to meet my husband, named James.
His favorite food is a burger, cooked over flames.
Don’t cook it in a skillet or microwave oven,
But grill it and burn it and he’ll be in heaven.
Ok, oven and heaven don’t EXACTLY rhyme, but it was close!
Happy Hamburger Month! 🙂
Oh my…where to go with this…boy oh boy, this oughta be a fun one!
I’ll do this for you, honey, but it’s quite obvious how long it’s been since I wrote any poetry.
I got your package today (and blogged it, of course). THANK YOU!! 🙂
YOU ALREADY KNOW, I’M ALLLLL OVER THIS GIRL!! I love clerihews!! My girls love clerihews. My 15year old boy just said to me, “Mom, who else besides you knows what a clerihew is?” I said, “It doesn’t matter. Some people are about to learn, plus, the girls do.” He says, “Mom, what are you turning the girls into?” What are you teaching them in homeschool?” I listed some not-so-popular forms of poetry, and he just shook his head. “Mom, I’m glad you don’t homeschool me anymore. You’re going to kill the girls.” When he says that, I know I’m doing something right. Maybe I should bring him back home again this next year…hmmm….
Kelly, crazy, huh? Is there a “Pass the Torch” month??
Chris, I bet if you wrote one, it’d be a goodie :).
A, hehe, C.H.I.C.K.E.N. 😉
Amber, N I C E! That ought to help people get started!!
Karina, a million directions, yes?
Dawn, that was QUICK! You ought to use this in a poetry unit for your kids!
Peculiar, weeell, since YOU gave ME the idea, I bet you’ve got a whole stockpile of these things just waiting to be published!
🙂
What? I’ve not inspired you to do an acrostic poem yet? 😉 I remember reading this article on PFK, and have been wanting to really try. We’ll see what comes out of my keyboard…or brain. 😀