Borrowed Rhymes

Welcome to Verselove, a place for educators to nurture their writing lives and to advocate for writing poetry in community. We are gathering every day in April to write– no sign-ups, no fees, no commitments. Come and go as you please. All that we ask is that if you write, you respond to others to mirror to them your readerly experiences — beautiful lines, phrases that resonate, ideas stirred. Enjoy. (Learn more here.)

Our Host: Denise Krebs

Denise Krebs lives in Yucca Valley, California, near Joshua Tree National Park, where some park rangers have lost their jobs. She is a retired elementary and TESOL teacher. She remains interested in translanguaging– the idea of students accessing the whole of their linguistic repertoire. One of her favorite things to do is play with her 2.5-year-old grandson. She blogs and resists at Dare to Care. 

Inspiration 

In February, I took a free poetry class through Coursera called “Sharpened Visions: A Poetry Workshop.” A poet and Poetry Friday friend, Tabatha Yeatts, had told me about it, so we took it together and encouraged each other. One of the prompts we both enjoyed was called “Biting Rhymes: Rhyming Can Be Hard, Let Someone Else Do It For You.” We were to borrow the end rhymes from another poem or song, preferably a famous one, and create a new poem. Tabatha took the rhyming words from “The Arrow and the Song” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

GRAFFITI

By Tabatha Yeatts

Spray paint shakes, shoots through the air–
A word from a can freed to go where
It lands on a wall and gives in-sight–
Not every wall catches words in-flight.

Go outside, breathe unplugged air–
What you seek finds you out there.
Start out weak and wrap up strong,
Listen up hard for a skeleton song–

That’s all you need to sprout a mighty oak–
The bones, the seeds, your acorn unbroke.
It’s not like the end is even the end–
The painted-over wall is still your friend.

Process

Find a poem with rhyming or song lyrics you want to use. Extract the rhymes and write them down on the right margin. Fill in your own line for each rhyme. (If you look closely, you’ll see Tabatha changed one of Longfellow’s rhymes, so that is an option, as needed.) 

About her process, Tabatha said, “I realized pretty quickly that I needed to choose a topic that was really different from the original text so I could think new thoughts with those rhymes.” 

Since I’m growing my linguistic repertoire, I added some Spanish to my poem today. You can add words from another language too, if you wish, because the U.S.A. will always be multilingual. 

Denise’s Poem

Mi amiga, my friend,
Gracias por tu ayuda again
My skills are slowly creeping
I think of Spanish while I’m sleeping
You challenge my brain,
Our sweet friendship remains.

I used to study solo alone;
No ripples from the tiny stone.
Your knowledge lights my lamp,
brings me hope. I won’t damp-
en el entusiasmo’s light
Gracias, mi amiga, día y night

________________________________

(Rhyming words for my poem are from verses 1 and 2 of “Sound of Silence” by Simon and Garfunkel.)

Your Turn

Now, scroll to the comment section below to write your own poem. (This is a public space, so you may choose to use only your first name or initials depending on your privacy preferences.) Not ready? That’s okay. Read the poems already posted for more inspiration. Ponder your own throughout the day. Return later. And, if the prompt does not work for you, that is fine. All writing is welcome. Just write something. Oh, and a note about drafting: Since we are writing in short bursts, we all understand (and even welcome) the typos and partial poems that remind us we are human and that writing is always becoming. If you’d like to invite other teachers to write with us, tell them to subscribe. Also, please be sure to respond to at least three writers.