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From Poems to Bylines
Are you looking for more credits on your cover letter? Try
submitting some poems. Children’s magazines are filled with poems. Kids love
them; they’re short, to the point and easily read. They’re fun to read out
loud, especially rhyming ones. Children love funny poems or ones that read
like a silly joke and they also like to write them.
I would never claim to be a serious poet and have no training
but still I’ve had a few poems published. You can too! This is a promise.
Selling a poem is a good way to break into the children’s market. Often you
can sell a poem faster than a story or article.
A few helpful tools are a rhyming dictionary, a regular
dictionary, and a thesaurus. They are all available on the Internet. A small
notebook is handy to have to carry around for ideas.
Choose a very basic topic. Use the first thing you think of for
that topic and start at that point. If you decide to write about something in
the kitchen, let’s say a toaster, what’s the first thing that comes to mind;
toast, crumbs, butter, jam or jelly? Many words immediately come to mind
that rhyme with these words.
Poems always need work. There is always one word or line that
will improve it. Often removing a whole verse helps the poem take a new
direction. Some of your poems will be better than others. I challenge you to
write a new poem every day for the next week. In a week’s time your poems will
be better.
Many Types of Poetry
There are two groups of poetry, structured and “free verse.”
Structured poetry can follow one of the traditional poetic forms such as
“limericks” or it can be a rhyming poem with or without meter.
Free verse usually has no rhymes and no set meter. Your lines can be as long
as you want.
Rhyme-and-meter poetry has rhyming lines, and meter or rhythm. Usually the rhymes are at the end of each line, or every other line. Meter usually means that every line or every couplet (a pair of lines) has the same rhythm; the same number of syllables and the same pattern. Meter means the poem has a rhythm. It’s easier to make a poem funny if it has rhyme and meter. Some use three lines in each verse, with the first line and third line rhyming. Keep it Simple
The first poem I sold was about a bookmark, the most mundane of
items. What does a bookmark do for us? Think of everyday items for children
when writing poems.
My Bookmark
I found a pretty bookmark
As sweet as it can be Was in the middle of the park And on the ground you see!
Whenever I am reading
It only wants to show Exactly where I’ve been And where I want to go!
Don’t touch my little bookmark
Or take it from its home For I will only read again The pages that I know Teach Something Within the Poem
Another style of poetry is one that teaches. They are more
complicated and usually longer. I also sold my poem, Phil’s Shadow about
Groundhog’s Day. I did research and included the most significant facts
concerning the holiday within the poem. My research uncovered the facts that
Phil lives on a heated hill, on Gobbler’s Knob, he eats dog food and ice cream
and his house is under a simulated tree stump a the Punxsutawney Library.
Then I included the fact that Phil’s shadow is telling us if winter will go on
for six more weeks. This style of poetry could be done with any holiday or
event. Holiday poems are in great demand in almost all children’s magazine
markets. Two verses from this 20 line poem are as follows.
Phils Shadow
Atop Gobbler’s Knob
At his job Sits old Punxsy Phil On his heated hill!
The Punxsutawney Library is his hometown
Under s simulated tree stump he’s found His diet of dog food and yummy ice cream Makes his life a complete dream! A third style of poetry uses its subject as a metaphor. Here I speak about a computer mouse in an office as though it’s a real mouse. The child will discover the truth in the last stanza.
Our Office Mouse
Our family has a little mouse
That lives upon our desk Inside the office in our house He’s almost like a guest! The following is a sample of one of my poems that rhymes with each line that precedes it. Kids enjoy the sing song rhythm of this type of poem, and enable them to memorize quickly.
The Kitten
My story is written
About a small white kitten Completely smitten With the darkest of mittens
While Grandma was sitting
She started knitting With yarn that was black She found on a rack
The mittens unraveled
Over the house they traveled Up and down the stairs And even around the chairs
So the yarn was rewound
Into a ball so round Put back on the rack To later become a hat!
When I started writing for children I had no plans on ever
writing poems. However, once I started I found it opened a door to another
room of creativity. Please give it a try!
Christine Collier has completed basic and advanced writing courses at the Institute of Children's Literature. Her mysteries about four women writers, The Writer's Club and its sequel, Mystery Is Our Shadow, are available at www.iuniverse.com , www.barnesandnoble.com and www.amazon.com Her first middle grade chapter book, Adventure on Apple Orchard Road, is available at the same places. You may e-mail Christine at ccollier@stny.rr.com |
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