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ACROSS THE GREAT DIVIDE: ACROSTICS
A Poetry Form for Beginning Poets
By Lynne Remick

Whether you're young or old, learning to write poetry can be as easy as learning your ABCs. Really! If you don't believe me, try writing an acrostic, a simple, but fun and challenging form of poetry. And if you feel you're not ready to rhyme, don't worry. Acrostic poems don't rhyme!

Acrostic poems can be made from favorite words or phrases, but most commonly, from names. You will form your acrostic poem by writing the letters of your name (or word) vertically in the margin of a page. Each letter of the word would be capitalized, like this:

EXAMPLE:

C
A
T

Each line of this type of poem must work to describe or tell a story about the name/word used. For example, the first word/line of my cat acrostic poem should begin with the letter "C." I think about cats and their special qualities and on a piece of paper, scribble down words like cat nip, cozy, cat nap, clever, cunning, crazy, cuddly. I decide to use the phrase "clever and cuddly."

EXAMPLE:

Clever and cunning

Next, I try to imagine another quality of cats that uses an "A." I come up with words and phrases like always napping, always prowling, aware of rats, adorable, and more, and scratch them all down. I try to choose a word or phrase that will follow my first line in a way that will make sense to the reader. I decide upon:

EXAMPLE:

Always prowling

Finally, working with the letter "T," I try to come up with a word or phrase that describes cats and yet sums up what I am trying to say about cats. I try "the rat catcher," "the king of the pillows," and knowing how my cat sleeps all day, "the night watchman of our house." Because "the night watchman of our house" seems to suit my cat best, I choose it as the last line. My completed poem, reads, as follows:

CAT WATCH
(c) Lynne Remick, 2002

Clever and cunning
Always prowling
The night watchman of our house.

Voila! An acrostic poem! Now, you try one. Write an acrostic poem with your name, your favorite animal, your favorite food, your favorite sport and your favorite season. Once you've completed these, try out some more names or ideas of your own choosing.

Once you've mastered this form with names and words, you may want to try writing one with a phrase. For a phrase acrostic, you would write each word of the phrase vertically, and separately on the margin of each page, like this:

All
That
Glitters
Is
Not
Gold

While this variation will prove even more challenging, you'll have tons of fun as the phrase evolves into something you can call your own!

Remember, like everything else (for example, riding your bike), writing poetry takes practice. Sometimes it takes a while to get a poem just right. Take your time and work with the poem-if you stick with it, your efforts will pay off.

Feel free to send your Acrostic creations, with written permission to publish it, to Rainy Day Corner. A selection of them will be featured in next month's issue.

© 2002 Lynne Remick
Lynne Remick resides in New York with her beloved son Kevin, a darling Schipperke named Dante and Sahara-a feral cat, along with a spoiled Hedgehog named Willow and her three babies, Winken, Blinken and Nod. In the midst of this zoo, Lynne studies children's literature, reviews children's books and writes stories and poems for children.

Writing An Author Bio That Will Knock The Editor’s Socks Off!
By Dorothy Thompson

Never been published? Here are some suggestions on how to write that author bio that is sure to achieve success!

You have just finished your masterpiece and are about to send it off to that magical world, The Land Of The Publishing Industry. You have done your homework and
have edited it with a fine-tooth comb. Now what?

Your manuscript cannot stand-alone; you must prepare an author bio to knock the editor’s socks off. Along with an impressive cover letter and query, your manuscript must include an author bio. As an already established author, you have probably saved your bio in a file updating it as you go. As an unpublished author, it is hard to know the exact way to go about doing this. I will show you the tricks of the trade to send off an impressive bio even if you have never been published before.

ALWAYS WRITE IN THIRD PERSON

To begin your bio, always remember to write in the third person. Many professional authors, I for one, know that this is the correct way to write your bio. This makes it more presentable to the publisher. It also allows your readers to distance themselves and
not be intimidated.

YOUR OPENING SENTENCE

This is where you sell yourself to the editor. Your opening line is your introduction, the first thing the editor notices. This line can make you or break you. I start out by stating, “Dorothy Thompson is a freelancer, online journal editor, e-book author”. State your name and who you are. Never mention your personal life, just your professional titles. If you write, “Hi! I’m Jane Doe and a housewife from Minneapolis”; you are already looked upon as an unprofessional. No editor wants to hear this. They simply do not care.

No credentials? No problem. There are ways for even a first-time writer to wing it. Let’s say you have written a poem about your dog that perhaps saved a drowning boys life. First of all, you are already a freelancer because you are sending this article to a
publisher. Second, you are a poet because this is a poem. Now, you can say, “Jane Doe is a freelance writer and poet.” Sounds better, doesn’t it?

JOIN WRITING A CRITIQUE GROUPS

Are you a member of a writing group, online or otherwise? If not, join today! This is very important for a first-time writer with no bylines. An editor will take notice if you are a member of a writing or critique group as this tells them you have an interest in perfecting your craft. There are several places online to find a writing group. One
good place to look is Yahoo!. Go to Yahoo Groups at http://www.groups.yahoo.com and look for Entertainment & Arts. Look under books, then Writing. Peruse the groups, as there are literally over a thousand groups listed here. Join as many as you want. Be
careful on the amount of groups you sign up for, for it will take up much of your email space.

WRITING ORGANIZATIONS

Another plus in an editor’s eyes is your affiliation with writer’s organizations. Where to find them? One way is to go to one of your writer’s groups and ask. Many writers in these groups are already associated with several organizations and they can give you
advice on which ones to join. Another way to find out is to put “writer organizations” in search. I went to Yahoo and put writer organizations in search and this is what I found. At the time of this writing, Yahoo included 23 categories and 298 websites for writer
organizations. They included:

7 Writers Guild of America (http://www.wga.org)
7 Society of Children’s Book Writers And Illustrators
(http://www.scbwi.org)
7 Writers Center (http://www.writer.org)
7 National Writers Union (http://www.nwu.org)
7 American Society of Journalists and Authors
(http://www.asja.org/index9.php)
7 Romance Writers of America (http://www.rwasd.com)

Most have yearly fees so be prepared for that. This should not defray you. One particular writer organization I know is so well respected by editors and publishers that that one byline is all you need for an instant passport to publication.

An unpublished author has to always remember that you are your own product. You have got to sell yourself. By following the above suggestions, I can guarantee you will come up with an author bio that will knock the editor's socks off and up your chances of becoming a published author.

© Dorothy Thompson 2001

March Poetry Column: Learnin' Limericks
By Lynne Remick, Rainy Day Corner's Poetry Muse

This March, in the spirit of St. Patrick's Day--when everyone is Irish, why not try your hand at a limerick or two. You don't have to be Irish, and it doesn't matter if you're green.

Over 150 years ago, Edward Lear made the Limerick poetry form popular. Writing limericks was so much fun for the writer and reader that people are still writing them and reading them today.

The goal of limerick is to tell a complete funny story in (1) one scene of (5) five lines. Limericks are short, but generally not-so-nice, which means they sometimes poke fun at the subject. For example, a limerick may be about a man named Ned, with a big head, would couldn't get out of bed. Not very nice to hear, if you're Ned. So don't write one about someone you know, but make up a person, okay?

I'm going to write a limerick about a "Poetaster," pronounced (POH-it-ass-turr), which means "a writer of bad poetry." You must understand the pronunciation of this word for the limerick to work, so if you need assistance, ask your parents to help you sound it out.

Limericks are nonsense poems which have a rhyme scheme of aabba. This means that the first, second and fifth lines rhyme, and the third and fourth lines rhyme, as follows:

Poetic Disaster

There once was a young poetaster (a)
who called Dr. Seuss his dear master (a)
but while writing his verse (b)
he went from bad to worse (b)
'til his poem was a verbal disaster. (a)

As you can see, poetaster (Line 1), master (Line 2) and disaster (Line 5) all rhyme, as does verse (Line 3) and worse (Line 4).

There are two other tricks to writing Limericks. One, you must try to choose lines of poetry with the same syllables. A syllable is each beat of a word. For example, both Po-et-ic and Dis-as-ter are three syllables long. You can count syllables by tapping your finger to each beat of a word as you say it and counting taps. Below, I have used a hyphen to show where words are broken into syllables. Again, if syllable counting seems hard, let a parent show you how to do this.

Here's another copy of the Poetic Disaster limerick, with the syllables in words of more than one syllable long marked by hyphens, and with the syllable count in parentheses at the end.

Poetic Disaster

There once was a young po-et-as-ter (a) (9)
who called Doc-tor Seuss his dear mas-ter (a) (9)
but while writ-ing his verse (b) (6)
he went from bad to worse (b) (6)
'til his poem was a ver-bal dis-as-ter. (a) (10)

Quite often, you will find imperfect limericks, where the last line has an extra syllable, as above. This is perfectly acceptable when writing limericks for fun, as we are here. In limerick competitions, however, the rules may be somewhat stricter. When you're ready for limerick contests, be sure and read the rules carefully.

Here's another limerick with rhyme scheme and syllables noted:

Francey Pants

Last year when we tra-veled to France (a) (8)
We watched a French man do a dance (a) (8)
On that fine day he bowed (b) (6)
To ap-plause from the crowd (b) (6)
And split a huge seam in his pants! (a) (8)

The second trick to writing Limericks is to have consistent rhythm. Rhythm is a pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables. There is a traditional rhythm to Limericks, which you must try to adhere to, with "da" being an unstressed syllable, and "DUM" being a stressed syllable:

Last year ] when we tra- ] veled to France (a) (8)
da DUM ] da da DUM ] da da DUM
We watched] a French man ] do a dance (a) (8)
da DUM ] da da DUM ] da da DUM
da da DUM ] da da DUM ]
On that fine ] day he bowed (b) (6)
da da DUM ] da da DUM
To ap-plause ] from the crowd (b) (6)
da da DUM ] da da DUM
And split ] a huge seam ] in his pants! (a) (8)
da DUM] da da DUM ] da da DUM

If you have trouble with the rhythm part of limericks, get a book of limericks from your local bookstore or library to read. Here are a few suggestions of limerick books for a young audience:

A Book of Nonsense by Edward Lear
A Carousel of Limericks by Harvey N. Roehl
Animalimericks by Raymond Driver
Boo!: Halloween Poems and Limericks by Patricia Hubbell
Daffy Down Dillies: Silly Limericks by Edward Lear
Issac Asimov's Limericks for Children by Issac Asimov
Loony Limericks by Frank Jacob
Lots of Limericks ed. by Myra Cohn Livingston
Of Pelicans and Pussycats: Poems and Limericks by Edward Lear
Poetry for Young Readers by Edward Lear
The Book of Pigericks by Arnold Lobel
The Hopeful Trout and Other Limericks by John Ciardi
Uncle Switch: Loony Limericks by X. J. Kennedy

Once you read a few limericks, your ear will begin to pick up the rhythms and these poems will get easier and easier to write. So keep at it, and have fun!

Once you read a few limericks, your ear will begin to pick up the rhythms and these poems will get easier and easier to write. So keep at it, and have fun!

© 2002 Lynne Remick
Lynne Remick resides in New York with her beloved son Kevin, a darling Schipperke named Dante and Sahara-a feral cat, along with a spoiled Hedgehog named Willow and her three babies, Winken, Blinken and Nod. In the midst of this zoo, Lynne studies children's literature, reviews children's books and writes stories and poems for children.

APPLES IN APRIL: A POEM A DAY
By Lynne Remick, Rainy Day Corner's Poetry Muse

Everyone knows the old saying “an apple a day keeps the doctor away.” Poems are like apples, they’re good for you--really! There’s no better time to start eating up poems than April 1st, the first day of National Poetry Month. Even if you think you don’t like poetry, just take one bite and see how it goes. You can learn to like poetry, one day at a time. Who knows, you may just develop a taste for these treats!

When beginning to write poetry, try to remember that it’s most important to get the things you want to say on paper. Once you’ve done that, you can build the images and arrange them in a way that suits you. Your poems can be rhymed or free verse (unrhymed), big or small, short or tall. Once you get the hang of putting your thoughts on paper and are satisfied with your efforts, you can try writing poetry in fun and challenging poetic forms. See the below web-links to learn more about poetic forms for beginning poets:

An Apple a Day http://members.aol.com/Apples2nd/index.html
Forms of Poetry for Children http://falcon.jmu.edu/~ramseyil/poeform.htm
Poetry for Kids - by Kenn Nesbitt-http://www.nesbitt.com/poetry/
RhymeZone rhyming dictionary and thesaurus http://www.rhymezone.com/

One good way to learn to write poetry is to read poetry. The more you read, the better you will understand it. Here’s a list to help you get started in reading and/or writing poetry. There’s one readning/writing starter for each day of April.
April 1 – Read “The Frog Wore Red Suspenders” by Jack Prelutsky or write a poem about a frog or other amphibian.

Example:

The Frog of Few Words
© 2002 Lynne Remick
I saw a frog the other day
I asked him “What’s your name?”
He croaked twice and looked at me
And quickly hopped away.

April 2 – Read “Love that Dog” by Sharon Creech or “Little Dog Poems” by Kristen O’Connell George or write a poem about a dog.
April 3 – Read “The Cat in the Hat” or “The Cat in the Hat Comes Back” by Dr. Seuss or write a poem about a cat who wears a piece of human clothing.
April 4 – Read “Carver: A Life in Poems” by Marilyn Nelson, or write a poem about someone that you admire.
April 5 -- Read “Where the Sidewalk Ends: The Poems and Drawings of Shel Silversten,” by Shel Silverstein, or write a poem about where the sidewalk begins.
April 6 -- Read “When Moon Fell Down” by Linda Smith or write a poem about catching the moon.
April 7 -- Read “Horton Hatches An Egg” by Dr. Seuss or write a poem about an “elephant bird.”
April 8 – Read “Lunch Money and Other Poems About School” by Carol Diggory Shields or write a poem about what lunch money can buy.
April 9 – Read “I’m As Quick As A Cricket” by Audrey Wood or write a poem about what it would feel like to be a cricket.
April 10 – Read “A World of Wonders: Geographic Travels in Verse and Rhyme” by J. Patrick Lewis or write a poem about a fascinating place you have been.
April 11—Read “Lizards, Frogs and Polliwogs: Poems and Paintings” by Douglas Florian and/or write a poem about your favorite insect or reptile.
April 12 – Read “The Sweet and Sour Animal Book” by Langston Hughes and/or write a book about the animal you think is sweet, or sour.
April 13 --- Read “Animal Crackers: A Delectable Collection of Picture, Poems and Lullabies for the Very Young” edited by Jane Dyer and/or write a poem about eating animal crackers.
April 14 --- Read “The Missing Piece Meets The Big O” by Shel Silverstein and/or write a poem about an object you once lost.
April 15 – (Titanic)
April 16 – Read “Dirt” by Jo McDougall and/or write a poem about dirt.
April 17 – Read “And to Think I Saw It on Mulberry Street” and/or write a poem about something you once saw on your street.
April 18 -- Read “Marvellous Math: A Book of Poems” edited by Lee Bennett Hopkins and/or write a poem about whether or not you like math and why?
April 19 – Read “A Poke in the I: A Collection of Concrete Poems” by Paul Janeckzo and/or write a poem where the words are arranged to look like a shape.
April 20 – Read “How to Write Poetry” by Paul Janeckzo and/or write a poem about writing a poem.
April 21 – Read “Rumble in the Jungle” by Giles Andreae and/or write a poem about your favorite jungle animal.
April 22 -- Read “Madeleine” by Ludwig Bemelmans and/or write a poem about a little girl who lives in an orphanage.
April 23 – Read “Jabberwocky” by Lewis Carroll and/or write a poem that uses nonsense words that you made up yourself.
April 24 – Read “The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes,” by Iona Archibald Opie and/or write your own nursery rhyme.
April 25 – Read “Awful Ogre’s Awful Day: Poems” by Jack Prelutsky and/or write a poem about a giant creature.
April 26 – Read “I Love You: A Rebus Poem” by Jean Marzollo and/or write a poem about something that you love.
April 27 – Read “Song of the North” by Frank Asch and/or write a poem about an Arctic animal.
April 28 – Read “The Remarkable Farkle McBride” by John Lithgow and/or write a poem about your favorite musical instrument.
April 29 – Read “Dirty Laundry Pile: Poem in Different Voices,” by Paul Janeckzo.
April 30 – Read “I Like Being Me: Poems for Children, About Feeling Special, Appreciating Others and Getting Along” by Judy Lalli.

NOTE TO PARENTS: This list includes several types of poems geared for a variety of age groups. As with any book given to a child to read, parents should review the book and ascertain whether it is of interest and appropriate for the particular child. You may consult your local children’s librarian and/or children’s bookseller for alternative selections.

© 2002 Lynne Remick
Lynne Remick resides in New York with her beloved son Kevin, a darling Schipperke named Dante and Sahara-a feral cat, along with a spoiled Hedgehog named Willow and her three babies, Winken, Blinken and Nod. In the midst of this zoo, Lynne studies children's literature, reviews children's books and writes stories and poems for children.

A GARDEN OF POEMS
An Exercise in Writing Poetry
(c) 2002 Lynne Remick

Poems are like plants. In fact, very much like plants! All you need is a seed, earth, water, sun, and you can grow your very own.

STEP ONE: THE SEED
If you caught our poetry column last month, you'll have received lots of seeds (ideas) from which to start poems. If not, you can start with a fresh seed. A seed is often a subject (a person, place, thing or action). For this exercise, begin with the subject of rain. What does it make you think of? Let's work with "rain." Rain makes things grow-thinks like flowers, grass, puddles and poems. Write down your own ideas or choose one of those mentioned to work with.

For example:
Let's work with "poems."

STEP TWO: PLANT IN FERTILE EARTH
Once you have an idea "seed" in hand, you need to drop it into the earth, or in this case, your mind. The mind, with its imagination, provides a fertile place for ideas to grow. Push your subject down deep into your mind. Think.

I'm thinking of poems and how they are like seeds, how with earth, water and sun, they will grow.

STEP THREE: ADD WATER
With your idea "seed" planted firmly in your mind, you must nourish it by giving it "water." In this case, water would be perspiration, or work. Tend to your poem by introducing effort, ink and paper to the process of growth. Spend time focusing on your poem and write down all the words that come to mind:

For example:
Plant; Rain; Poem; Shower; Brain; Words; Earth; Phrases; Grow; Sunshine; Sprinkle,

STEP FOUR: SHOWER WITH SUNSHINE
Like living things, poems need heat to make them grow. It's not enough to just plop them in the earth and saturate them with water. You must give them your warm touch so that they may rise from the earth. Like seeds, ideas need time to germinate, which means "to sprout or grow." You can do this by mixing and matching your words to create phrases and images.

For example:
An Idea is like a seed.
The mind is like earth.
Ideas, like seeds, need earth, water and sun.
Finished ideas are like big, beautiful flowers.

STEP FIVE: BLOOM WHERE YOU ARE PLANTED
Spend some time each day working with your words and phrases and turning them into thoughts and sentences. Look at what you wrote down. Trim, add, cut, fertilize, mix and match until your poem begins to grow. Put your thoughts and sentences in an order that will make sense. Remember to be patient, as it takes time for all beautiful things to grow. Here's an example of the poem I grew:

It's not hard to plant a poem
You must give it a try,
Growing poems is easy,
So practice, don't be shy.

Put your idea in the ground
And sprinkle it with rain
Add some words and phrases
And use your fertile brain.

Shower it with sunshine
Give it love and care.
When you look real closely,
A blossom will be there.

Then before you know it,
You'll have a flowered poem,
A poem that you grew yourself
With things you have at home!

STEP SIX: PICK YOUR POEMS
Perhaps this poem isn't ready, but it's a good start. Even the very best poems were once little seedlings that grew over time until they were ripe enough to be picked. So think of yourself as a gardener and grow your poems. Whether it takes a day or a week or a month for your poems to bloom, someday, you'll have a full garden.

Happy gardening!

Lynne Remick resides in New York with her beloved son Kevin, a darling Schipperke named Dante and Sahara-a feral cat, along with a spoiled Hedgehog named Willow and her three babies, Winken, Blinken and Nod. In the midst of this zoo, Lynne studies children's literature, reviews children's books and writes stories and poems for children.