Friday, January 11, 2013

Poetry Friday -- Careerhymes

Flickr Creative Commons photo by  /Sizemore/

TRAFFIC COP

Drivers think the traffic cop
is totally about the, "STOP!"
Standing hours in twelve below
what I need to do is GO!


© Mary Lee Hahn, 2013



Good think I spent a few minutes browsing my Google Reader feeds yesterday. Blog after blog featured Careerhymes, a new form invented by (who else?) J. Patrick Lewis.

I started reading the HUNDREDS of comments on the original post at David Harrison't blog, and they were all so dang CLEVER that I almost gave up before I even tried. However, this one practically wrote itself on the way to school (seed idea captured with voice memo on my phone), and now I'm hooked! You should try one, too! Here's the form:
"...light verse, in which the name of an occupation appears somewhere in the first line."
Couldn't be easier, could it? So what's holding you back? Write one!!



Renee has today's roundup at No Water River.

17 comments:

  1. Leave it to Pat to keep inventing these wonderful new poetic forms. Enjoyed your poem and the many others I read in the comments at David's blog. So, so clever!

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  2. While I do struggle with poetic forms and structure - kind of like taming the wild undisciplined verse within me, I do appreciate its beauty. And careerhymes do sound awesome. Nice one!

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  3. I hadn't seen 'Traffic Cop' - fun! Those Careerhymes are difficult to pull away from, aren't they??

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  4. Great careerhyme! You captured perfectly what it might feel like for this unfortunate traffic cop on a cold January day.

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  5. Very cute!
    And I love this new form! How fun!

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  6. Hi, Mary Lee. This poem totally cracked me up. Think of the traffic cops on New Years Eve in New York City, rushing for the bathrooms after the stroke of midnight, along with thousands of revelers!

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  7. How fun! And well done. :0) (That's certainly been a party over on David's blog.)

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  8. Just great, Mary Lee. This was fun to see all the many, many kinds that were written. It was almost like a flash mob!

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  9. Ah, the naked truth about traffic copping. Love this one, Mary Lee! I only managed to come up with one un-funny one about teachers, but certainly enjoyed reading all the rest.

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  10. What fun!

    And on a side note, when I first started teaching elementary school (at 42!!) the one thing I wished more people would have warned me about was the...er...self-control teachers have to exercise. I have danced that dance before. :)

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  11. Ha! I was overwhelmed by all the comments on that other post, so I'm very glad I came by here to find your careerhyme!

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  12. This career rhyme easily falls in the clever category. I'm with Steve. Teaching is another career that demands self-control.

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  13. LOVE it! Light verse at its best!

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  14. I saw yours buried in the comments, Mary Lee (206 at last look). Wouldn't they make a fun book, a book that has miraculously written itself in the comments of that blog post.

    Violet N.

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  15. What a fun exercise. Love this Mary Lee!

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  16. I love Poetry Friday. Mary Lee, you are always inspiring us to do more!

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