Happy National Poetry Month 2023! Curious about what I’m doing? Want to play along? Read more here.
[Heads-up: If you’re visiting regularly, please know that the bold, blue text is what I’m writing fresh each day. The black text is the same each day:>) ]
There’s something about dogs that just draws them to the smelliest, grossest stuff around to roll in. I remember when we were dogsitting Suzy (sweetest dog ever), we took her and the kids to a park and lake. Suzy found a dead fish to make friends with. Eeeeuwww. We learned how to use the self-grooming stations at PetSmart on the way home that day! This also makes me smile and think of a picture of Jackie (Captain Jack Sparrow), our late beagle. My husband, Randy, is holding Jack, who is absolutely coated in mud from racing back and forth along the fence in spring, carving a trench in the dirt.
When I saw the word “escape,” I thought of a dog getting off its leash or out of its place and getting into stinky mischief. I mean, who could resist the words “rotten” and “disgust”? So that sent me chasing my poem.
There are way too many fabulous picture books about dogs for me to list, but the classic by Mark Teague, Dear Mrs. LaRue: Letters from Obedience School, is one of my all-time favorites! And I want to read Push-Pull Morning: Dog-Powered Poems About Matter and Energy, by Lisa Westberg Peters. Do you have a favorite dog picture book?
What words will we be digging through today? Oh my gosh, it’s our final set of word tiles! Make it count, friends!
And here’s the card that we might pull our topic from:
So some possible topics are:
- spine
- appendix
- index
- page
- book
Will you join in? Would love to see what you come up with!
- Intro to what I’m doing this National Poetry Month
- ALL the Digging for Poems drafts I’ve written this month
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- What is National Poetry Month?
- My previous National Poetry Month projects:
14 Responses
This month in your challenge, wishing I’d had more time to do it! Thanks for all the fun and work to create it for us readers, Laura. A recent favorite dog book, beautiful, though sad, is The Longest Letsgoboy by Derick Wilder & Catia Chien. Year ago, when there were no leash laws, our dear Dalmatian would ‘hunt’ the alleys for, yes, like all dogs, garbage. She’d eat it, roll in it, just as you wrote. Wonderful dog but “ew”! Here’s my poem, also about dogs! Happy Saturday! (I used the title combining two words into a computer command.
control-shift
play today
friend pleasure
always a giggle
you will love my dog
am howl – ing
Oh, dear, Linda. Gross… I’ve seen this book mentioned (maybe on your blog?), and thought it looked beautiful but too sad for the moment in. Just the cover and title make my throat clsoe up a bit. But it does look heart-filled. I’m putting it on my tbr shelf and will look for it. Thanks for this poem, Linda. I love the way you end it. Dogs are so great for living in the moment…
Hahahaha! I’ve known dogs with a nose for discarded diapers. OHHHHHHHH NOOOOOOOO! It’s just so awful to have to clean up. All the while, the dog is happy-happy. I love your April project and how it’s giving you wonderful ideas. Someday, I hope to have an April reserved JUST for poetry.
Eeeeuuuuwwww. I’ll take the fishy dog, thank you very much. Oh, doesn’t an April JUST for poetry. Doesn’t that sound amazing?
Laura, I love your dog being a dog poem. “her rottening pleasure” is a great phrase!
Linda, your poem is so sweet. Love the warm doggy feelings in it!
Here’s my attempt. I appreciated all the positive words, so I tried to write about a shift in attitude.
Shift
Step smartly
Spur strongly
Push love
Plant heart
Today
You will ache
yet sing
Oh, lovely, Denise! This is such an urgent anthem, but loving, too. I really feel this one. That ache makes it feel not cliche‑y, and deeply true.
Coming in late after a busy day! Love the dog poems… rottening pleasure!! Always a giggle!
Oops… anonymous is Diane ( hit submit by accident)
To continue, Denise and I had a similar thought to go with the word Shift.
Shift
Hostile
Disgusting, rotten
Push to heart ache
Friendly
Pleasing, rosy
Spur to love
Thanks, Diane–I’m sometimes accidentally anonymous, too :>) What a lovely shift this is. It feels a bit like the heart of a diamante poem. Thanks for playing.
I love the change in the middle of your poem with “push to heart ache”
The many dichotomies lent themselves to self-improvement as well as our lovable four-legged messes.
Shift
disgust shift love
hostile step play
howl spur giggle
rotten peel rose
ache push strong
dig plant pleasure
crunch correct create
Thank you for playing, Juliana! I love the structure of this and the tumbling feel of these three-word lines.
Juliana, I love the sound of “crunch correct create”, especially that it ends with create.
The three word lines work so well, especially with action in the middle of each one.