Tuesday 17 August 2021

Tuesday poem - 10 Lines

I recently attended a really fun poetry workshop run by poet Ella Frears and the Poetry Takeaway Van. We were given some creative exercises to do which included writing a ten-line poem with ten rules.

1. must have an explosion
2. must have a half-rhyme
3. must have a proper noun
4. must have an animal
5. must have a nonsense word
6. must have a colour
7. must reference the animal, nervous
8. must have a word repeated three times that begins with the letter of your first name
9. must have an exclamation
10. must finish with three adjectives

At first, I panicked - I've never done anything like this before but I gave it a go and this is what I came up with.


Boom ba da boom ba da boom bing bing!
All the words are fighting over everything
They've decided to leave the English language
And dive down into the ocean to meet the starfish
But they get entangled in a splodgy mess
In shades of inky blackness as they sink
The starfish are scared, they can't punctuate
But they're curious of shapes, curious of sounds, curious at all the moving parts
Ye Gads! What is that?
It's a fishing net made of children's tears, hopes and fears as they fish for wonderful, witty, wacky words.


So there you have it - starfish and words under the sea. Can't tell I have kids, can you? Ha ha! Why not have a go yourself and see what you come up with. I'd love to see your poems.

Claire Buss is a multi-genre author and poet, completely addicted to cake. Find out more about her books on her website clairebuss.co.uk. Join the discussion in her Facebook group Buss's Book Stop. Never miss out on future posts by following me.

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