Poetry Friday: Lightness & Hope

My husband and I have taken to sitting for half an hour in the room off of our kitchen in the morning while I have my tea. We catch up on news, share opinions, and sometimes outline the plan for the day. Today, we briefly touched on the depressing nature of the news and social media. My husband is not on social media. He understands there are a few benefits to having an account but for him, they do not outweigh the negative consequences to postings. I, also, feel the need to occasionally shut down my accounts and take a breather.

Most times this is because the atmosphere has become politically charged and I find myself weighing the pros and cons of a post – with most times it becoming a damned if I do or damned if I don’t situation.  In those moments, I deactivate my accounts for short periods of time – up to a few weeks.

Understandably, it is hard to listen to the news today with its 24/7 cycle, breathless anchors who seem to sensationalize even everyday occurrences like a cat walking across a street.  I long for the days of Walter Cronkite and impartial journalism, where facts were presented and the editorializing was left to the person watching at home. My husband and I take the news in small doses, keeping it at bay when we need to while still staying informed.  Still, I find myself turning on the national news each night looking for some sign of hope, tolerance, kindness, and peace.

It is hard not to let all the negativism seep into my writing.  I do not want it to be there on a regular basis. So, today – Poetry Friday – I purposely looked for something I could share that was of a lighter nature.  I found something in my poetry folder from my Writer’s Circle days.

These are limericks I wrote when I was modeling this style of writing to my third-grade students.  If you are not familiar with limericks, they are usually funny poems that have five lines. Traditionally, the first, second, and fifth lines rhyme, each having 8-9 syllables. The third and fourth lines also rhyme and have 5-6 syllables each. There are patterns to the rhymes.

When I went camping in Ohio,

I fell down into a deep blue bayou!

Loudly, I yelled and yelled,

to tell that I felled.

No camping again in Ohio! 

 

 

There once was a third-grade class,

who laughed and laughed with sass!

Ms. Thompson, their teacher,

hid under the gym bleacher.

There she could not hear them as a mass.

 

 

The third-grade students had fun with this type of writing. If you’d like to give it a try at home, the dictionary splits words into syllabi and there is an online syllable checker as well.

 

Today is Poetry Friday. This week’s round-up is hosted by Reflections on the Teche. Thank you for hosting! I find it funny that I chose the word bayou to use in this poem, publish it today, and it is in the tag line of our host this week. Bayou is not a common word and now, today, I’ve seen it twice! Enjoy!