An Ode to Milkweed
Milkweed growing oh so strong,
welcoming Monarchs with your fragrant song!
Leaves so tasty, green and bright,
filling caterpillars with certain delight!
Life will grow on leaf and stem,
then flutter off to begin again.
Milkweed, milkweed growing strong,
thank you for bringing Monarchs along!
Haiku
Niagara Falls
Spewing, Gushing, Roaring, Wet
Powerful Water
Niagara Falls
Spilling over, water roars
Unstoppable Wet
The backstory to the haiku is that the use of the word “Niagara” demonstrates how sloppy we get in our annunciation and pronunciation of words. I used to ask my writer’s circle students how many syllables the word “Niagara” had. Virtually, none of them would guess correctly – that it has four syllables. It was a good introduction to counting syllables, how some words have more or less syllables than one thinks, and how to use a dictionary to confirm the syllabic count. What other words have you found that are difficult to decipher the syllables due to sloppy errors in our speech?
This post is part of Poetry Friday. Since I can never remember the kind poet who gave me the link to the list of hosts for Poetry Friday, I am posting it here for myself (and, for you, if you’d like to participate, as anyone can). Thank you! Enjoy!
The Apples in My Orchard 
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