What Didn’t Make the Cut in One Minute ‘Till Bedtime [Poetry Friday, Part 1]

Happy Poetry Friday–eerrr.…Thursday. Welcome, everyone! (Wondering what Poetry Friday is? Click here.)

This week is a Poetry Friday two-fer. Somehow, whenever there’s an outside thing I’m participating in for Poetry Friday, it’s always the first Friday of the month. So, that means I’m juggling two poems this week! Here’s the first one, and the other post will go live tonight.

Poem 1:
What Didn’t Make the Cut for Kenn Nesbitt’s Anthology

It is always exciting to get an invitation to submit work for an anthology–but it’s also a little bit stressful. You’re (OK, I’m–maybe nobody else feels this way) trying to read the anthologist’s mind. What is the perfect fit for this book? What will seem just right and yet be unexpected? What will make the anthologist say, “Yes! This is exactly what I’ve been waiting for!”

When Kenn contacted me about submitting work for this fun project, I combed through my poems–a couple hundred of them, I think. I narrowed it down to 17 possibilities and took them to my writing group (thank goodness for writing groups!). Based on their feedback, I narrowed it down to 6. I sent those 6 to Kenn, and my note said, in part: “It contains six possibilities–if we’re only supposed to submit one, just take a look at the first page.” That’s because I put them in order, 1 to 6, of how likely I thought they were to fit what he needed. I’m sure glad I included more than 1!

You can probably guess what’s coming here. He chose poem #6, “We’re Bats!” Hehe. I wonder if Poem 17 was REALLY the perfect fit for the anthology! But we won’t go there.

Anyway, I thought I’d share here Poem #1, the one I felt was most likely to fit.

Don’t Stare!

Please pretend you don’t notice
his tiny doll hands.

Don’t stare at the lumbering
way that he stands.

He’s new to our school
and unbearably shy,
and we don’t want to make the
tyrannosaur cry!

–Laura Purdie Salas, all rights reserved

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To enjoy more poems that didn’t make the One Minute Till Bedtime cut, visit a roundup at Jackie Hosking’s blog, which has the text of many other poems submitted but not accepted into OMTB, plus links to other Poetry Friday regulars who are sharing their poems on their own blogs, like I am here. Thanks, Jackie–this was a fun idea! And thank you, Kenn, for including my poem in this lovely, multi-starred anthology!

For more poetry fun on FRIDAY, go visit the Poetry Friday Roundup with Bridget at Wee Words for Wee Ones.

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