We continued the poetry vein at this session. For those brave enough to try haiku a couple of weeks before, I put another worksheet together and for those not quite ready, we looked at Nonsense Rhymes. I provided copies of one I had published in an anthology last year and brought the book in so everyone could see it if they wanted to. It seemed to inspire quite a few to give it a go. I think the fact there are no real hard and fast rules to nonsense rhymes is what really grabbed their attention. Anything goes really - you can have pretend characters mixing with people you know in real life and put everyone - and anything - in crazy situations straight from the imagination! Lots of rhyming words, some repetition - all these things help build nonsense poems. Even those members beavering away at haiku ended up joining in and it was plain to see they just did not want the session to end.
Sophia came up with a good idea (she quite often does) whereby she suggested you write a list of rhyming words at the end of each line - and then build the rest of the poem around that. So something like:
light
bite
jelly
smelly
could potentially lead to a verse like this:
in the light
elephants bite
mouldy cheese jelly
that's ever so smelly
(and I promise, I have not rehearsed that!). It certainly worked for her and she soon had others trying it out so all credit to her for inspiring her peers!
The assignment set was to write a nonsense poem or rhyme about ourselves - particularly our names and I have a hunch that I will get quite a few responses so I very much look forward to reading anything they hand in.
Finally I have spoken to the library staff about the launch of my new book and they have said they will be delighted for it to take place there, so I will get back to everyone once the date has been firmed up. All very exciting!
The next session is on February 7th so see you all there.
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