Fungus [15 words or less]

Wake up your poetry brains with 15 Words or Less (guidelines here)!

15WOLs

Here’s a picture I took during my nature-poetry-writing workshop in Bemidji, MN, earlier this summer.?This image makes me think of:

1)?cauliflower
2)?Alice in Wonderland
3) s’mores!

And here’s my?first draft:

When I Eat S’mores, I Taste…?

smoky ghost stories,
crisp Superior winds,
crunchy, damp tennis shoes,

fiery orange life preservers…

perfection

–Laura Purdie Salas, all rights reserved

Now it’s your turn! Have fun and stick to 15 WORDS OR LESS!??(Title doesn’t count toward word count:>)?

P.S. I’m in my FINAL week of summer school this week–going around school to school to admire all the students’ CAN BE… books! On the downside, I will not be home to respond to your poems. I will read them, but I won’t have time to comment on them. I’m sorry about that.

 

94 Responses

  1. S’mores taste like damp tennis shoes—don’t know about that. Certainly is original, Laura.

    FUNGUS

    He showed me
    the growth
    on his hickory tree.
    It smelled like
    oyster mushrooms
    to me.

    1. Joy, thanks! I had to use Google to look up oyster mushrooms.
      Never heard of them before. Now I have learned something today.

  2. S’mores taste like damp tennis shoes—don’t know about that. Certainly is original, Laura.

    FUNGUS

    He showed me
    the growth
    on his hickory tree.
    It smelled like
    oyster mushrooms
    to me.

    1. Joy, thanks! I had to use Google to look up oyster mushrooms.
      Never heard of them before. Now I have learned something today.

  3. Tree Fungus

    Bleeding broadleaf crust
    shaggy scalycap
    yellow brain
    artists conk
    turkeytail–
    colorful
    clinging
    inevitable death.

    Diane Mayr, all rights reserved

    1. Diane, I’m not sure my reply was posted to your post, but it’s on the site somewhere.

    2. Well, that was an uplifting poem with death at the end…inevitable! HA!
      Do love those names — especially Shaggy Scalycap!

  4. Tree Fungus

    Bleeding broadleaf crust
    shaggy scalycap
    yellow brain
    artists conk
    turkeytail–
    colorful
    clinging
    inevitable death.

    Diane Mayr, all rights reserved

    1. Diane, I’m not sure my reply was posted to your post, but it’s on the site somewhere.

    2. Well, that was an uplifting poem with death at the end…inevitable! HA!
      Do love those names — especially Shaggy Scalycap!

  5. Hay mom
    Are Oak tree
    Is blowing bubbles
    Dear trees don’t
    Blow bubbles
    Our does I
    Shared my bubble gum
    With our Oak
    It blue a bubble so big
    I gout stuck inside
    Now I’flying up up up
    POP!!!

    By Jessica Bigi sorry it’s so long

    1. Sounds like a picture book story you have here. Could be one to work on.
      Creative idea.

    2. After you have written one so long, try crossing out and rearranging until it tells you the same story only shorter. The challenge is the 15 words. It is really fun to try to get down to the basics of the poem and leave out all the extraneous stuff. I hope you don’t mind, but I tried to do that with yours — again, because of the challenge of it!

      Shared my bubble gum
      Now our Oak is
      Blowing bubbles
      I got stuck inside -
      POP!!!

  6. Hay mom
    Are Oak tree
    Is blowing bubbles
    Dear trees don’t
    Blow bubbles
    Our does I
    Shared my bubble gum
    With our Oak
    It blue a bubble so big
    I gout stuck inside
    Now I’flying up up up
    POP!!!

    By Jessica Bigi sorry it’s so long

    1. Sounds like a picture book story you have here. Could be one to work on.
      Creative idea.

    2. After you have written one so long, try crossing out and rearranging until it tells you the same story only shorter. The challenge is the 15 words. It is really fun to try to get down to the basics of the poem and leave out all the extraneous stuff. I hope you don’t mind, but I tried to do that with yours — again, because of the challenge of it!

      Shared my bubble gum
      Now our Oak is
      Blowing bubbles
      I got stuck inside -
      POP!!!

  7. CATERPILLAR

    Your lumpy, bumpy
    beige body veils
    the grand wonder
    of your wings.

    Andria W. Rosenbaum/all rights reserved

    1. Andria, excellent interpretation. I love how you “veiled” the lumpy, bumpy.

    2. I love this description of either a moth or butterfly.
      Probably a moth, they are more “lumpy, bumpy”.
      Good idea.

  8. CATERPILLAR

    Your lumpy, bumpy
    beige body veils
    the grand wonder
    of your wings.

    Andria W. Rosenbaum/all rights reserved

    1. Andria, excellent interpretation. I love how you “veiled” the lumpy, bumpy.

    2. I love this description of either a moth or butterfly.
      Probably a moth, they are more “lumpy, bumpy”.
      Good idea.

  9. It’s a Miracle

    Who would have thought
    that it could be done,
    a marshmallow roasted
    without being burned.

    1. Martha, good idea.
      Somehow that s’more does not appeal to me, though. 🙂

    2. Now that’s a rarity for me. I actually love them aflame, blackened and blown out before I eat them. Maybe I’m just not patient.

      1. There’s nothing more exciting than a flaming marshmallow and anticipating it cooling enough to pop it into my mouth. Never ate them any other way. That’s why “it’s a miracle.” 😉 I can see the puppy on its back. Good call.

      2. Matt Forrest showed us how to make S’mores with the marshmallows dipped in Grand Marnie liquor before roasting. Now that was some kind of yummy. We did this at the fireplace outside Barn one evening at a Highlight’s Children’s Poetry Workshop taught by David L. Harrison. The poets have a rep of being a roudy, loud, fun bunch. If you’ve never attended one of the Highlight’s Workshops, it needs to go on your bucket list.

  10. It’s a Miracle

    Who would have thought
    that it could be done,
    a marshmallow roasted
    without being burned.

    1. Martha, good idea.
      Somehow that s’more does not appeal to me, though. 🙂

    2. Now that’s a rarity for me. I actually love them aflame, blackened and blown out before I eat them. Maybe I’m just not patient.

      1. There’s nothing more exciting than a flaming marshmallow and anticipating it cooling enough to pop it into my mouth. Never ate them any other way. That’s why “it’s a miracle.” 😉 I can see the puppy on its back. Good call.

      2. Matt Forrest showed us how to make S’mores with the marshmallows dipped in Grand Marnie liquor before roasting. Now that was some kind of yummy. We did this at the fireplace outside Barn one evening at a Highlight’s Children’s Poetry Workshop taught by David L. Harrison. The poets have a rep of being a roudy, loud, fun bunch. If you’ve never attended one of the Highlight’s Workshops, it needs to go on your bucket list.

  11. First day at the swimming pool,
    wishing modesty was still “cool.”

    1. Laugh out loud for sure! What a vision, forever etched in my brain. Love it!

    2. Hey, I love how you thought of those bare body parts.
      It does sort of look like swimming trunks slipping down.
      Ha!

  12. First day at the swimming pool,
    wishing modesty was still “cool.”

    1. Laugh out loud for sure! What a vision, forever etched in my brain. Love it!

    2. Hey, I love how you thought of those bare body parts.
      It does sort of look like swimming trunks slipping down.
      Ha!

  13. This one was hard for me, but then I thought of how awful old piles of snow look after partially melting.

    We made a snowman,
    so stupendous,
    but the sun came out,
    and he looks
    horrendous!

      1. Thank, Martha. I just can’t quit writing in rhyme. It’s too much fun.

  14. This one was hard for me, but then I thought of how awful old piles of snow look after partially melting.

    We made a snowman,
    so stupendous,
    but the sun came out,
    and he looks
    horrendous!

      1. Thank, Martha. I just can’t quit writing in rhyme. It’s too much fun.

  15. I immediately saw a little puppy rolling around, head to the side, paws up and a little tail hanging down.

    Paws in air
    Not a care
    Little puppy
    Belly-up he
    Missed the clover
    Rolling over

  16. I immediately saw a little puppy rolling around, head to the side, paws up and a little tail hanging down.

    Paws in air
    Not a care
    Little puppy
    Belly-up he
    Missed the clover
    Rolling over

  17. Unseen Travelers

    In the dark
    and damp
    and cool
    of the grass,
    beneath the mushrooms
    fairies pass.

    ~~Barbara J. Turner

  18. Unseen Travelers

    In the dark
    and damp
    and cool
    of the grass,
    beneath the mushrooms
    fairies pass.

    ~~Barbara J. Turner

  19. Early Hike

    My brain is mush,
    but there’s no coffee.
    Might just rest here
    by this tree…

  20. Early Hike

    My brain is mush,
    but there’s no coffee.
    Might just rest here
    by this tree…

  21. The photo looks kind of like a cross between a mushroom and a misshapen flapjack, so here’s what sprang to mind for me:

    Mushroom Confession:
    Ever since I was a single cell,
    I’ve wanted to be a pancake.

  22. The photo looks kind of like a cross between a mushroom and a misshapen flapjack, so here’s what sprang to mind for me:

    Mushroom Confession:
    Ever since I was a single cell,
    I’ve wanted to be a pancake.

  23. It kind of looks like a dog to me.

    FIDO?S NATURE WALK
    Fido splays himself
    Over large woody debris
    Ready for a nap.

    © Charles Waters 2014 all rights reserved.

  24. It kind of looks like a dog to me.

    FIDO?S NATURE WALK
    Fido splays himself
    Over large woody debris
    Ready for a nap.

    © Charles Waters 2014 all rights reserved.

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