Too funny NOT to write about! Go for it. Use this cat and/or the things she steals to create a story or a poem. How funny or mysterious can you be?
http://healthypets.mercola.com/sites/healthypets/archive/2011/02/28/the-kleptomaniac-kitty.aspx
Author and photographer Nina Egert has written a lovely photo biography honoring poet and professor Yone Noguchi, father of the famed architect and sculptor, Isamu Noguchi. As a teen, the elder Noguchi apprenticed under California’s famous poet Joaquin Miller. Miller’s friends included Bret Harte, Samuel Clemens, Ina Coolbrith, Jack London and John Muir.
One of his poems is accompanied by a nearly ethereal photo of “The Cascades” at Joaquin Miller Park in Oakland:
Mystic spring of vapour;
Opiate odour of colour;
Alas –I’m not all of me!
Wanton fragrance, dewy, dim,
Curls out from my drowsy soul;
Wrapping mists about its breast.
I dwell alone . . .
Yone Noguchi lived from 1875 until 1947, coming to San Francisco in 1893.
Not only is this book a wonderful look into this man’s life, history of California, and his poetry, the California photos within its pages are fascinating and many downright breathtaking. What makes the book more amazing is that it is published by a nonprofit group, the Vinapa Foundation, so all the profits go to worthy causes.
The author graciously donates any money from her sales at the CWC meetings to the California Writers Club, Mt. Diablo Branch’s Young Writers Contest. To get your own copy you may attend one of the California Writers Club, Mt. Diablo luncheons on the second Saturday of the month at Zio Fraedo’s in Pleasant Hill.
Another way is to attend Nina Egert’s signing and tea ceremony from 2:30 – 5:00 p.m. at 2465 34th Ave at Hyde in Oakland, CA. This event will benefit the Peralta Hacienda. Visit www.peraltahacienda.org
Wow. In our wildest dreams, we are able to fly. And when you’re stuck in a traffic jam, you wish you and your car could fly above it all. Now one man has designed a car that can fly now.
http://www.eaavideo.org/video.aspx?v=635469588001
Writing Prompts:
1. You are in this flying car. Write a poem or story with you in this vehicle. Use your senses to make us feel like we are actually with you on your adventure.
2. Invent an object to improve our lives. What will it be? Write its description. Create an ad campaign for it. Write a commercial advertising it. How will it change our lives for the better?
3. Take a person from the past and plop him into our world today. Write a story featuring him or her as a major character.
Student Poetry Contest
“If I Could, I Would…”
Train my pets to be superheroes
Save the ocean
Turn my high school into a musical
The Walnut Creek Library Foundation celebrates poetry with our third annual student poetry contest, encouraging young writers to stretch their imaginations and dream big. The contest is open to students at Walnut Creek schools.
The deadline for submissions is March 11, 2011.
- The contest is free and all participants will receive a poetry contestant certificate.
- All entries must be submitted with a contest entry form. Download the brochure and entry form on their website. First, second, third place and honorable mention prizes will be awarded in four categories: K-3, 4-5, 6-8 and 9-12.
- Finalists will be judged by students in the St. Mary’s Master of Fine Arts Program.
- First, second, and third place winners will have the opportunity to read their poems at the Poetry Celebration on April 16 at the library.
New in 2011 – Poetry Workshops
Cheryl Dumesnil, poet and teacher, will offer free poetry workshops to students on Saturday, January 29 at the Walnut Creek Library. Registration opens on January 5, 2011. In order to ensure opportunity for students throughout Walnut Creek to attend, the number of participants per school may be limited.
Grades K-3 10:15 -11:00 AM Grades 4-5 11:15-12:15 PM
Grades 6-8 1:00-2:15 PM Grades 9-12 2:30-3:45 PM
Workshops in the Oak View Room at the Walnut Creek Library, registration is REQUIRED. Please call 925.935.5395 to register.
Poetry Celebration and Reading!
On Saturday, April 16, there will be a reading, celebration and award ceremony at Walnut Creek Library in the Oak View Room at 11:00. We hope you join us to celebrate poetry and our world!
www.WCLibrary.org Download application here
Autumn Welcome
The Contra Costa Times is calling for limericks inspired by the color orange. Limericks involve rhymes. Example:
There once was a (person) from (place).
Who (add things that lead to disgrace).
They (improbable scene)
With their (dirty or clean)
Summing up (better cut to the chase).
Then send your orange-themed limerick to [email protected] by noon Monday, Oct. 25. They’ll choose some for publication in their print newspaper and many others will be online.
A friend of mine just got back from England where she met Prince Charles.
Really.
She and her husband were touring the gardens of Buckingham Palace and there was some show going on. He was in the midst of a crowd, smack dab in front of them, along with Camilla, where they chatted with my friends about mulching and plants and tulips and what-not.
Although I’ve seen a few Hollywood actors on sets and in streets (their names escape me so unfortunately I can’t impress you with name-dropping here) I haven’t been stunned by anyone truly in the upper echelon of famous-ousity.
Oh wait. One name-drop. Sorry. I took my son to see Clinton before he was president so my son could shake his hand. We were in a crowd of twenty so it was lovely indeed. And he was personable and pleasant and of course I handed my camera to someone else to take pictures and never thought to ask for him to take a picture of the three of us . . .
But other than that, my life has been celebrity free.
What about yours? Do you know a hairdresser’s son’s cousin who’s the brother of Lindsay Lohan? Poor girl. Sorry about the unfortunate choice. I was trying to be contemporary and that’s all I could come up with at the moment.
Writing Prompt:
1. Write a personal narrative. You can have dinner with anyone famous in history or the present time. Who would you choose? What do you ask? What happens? (My choice? Dorothy Parker, Abigail Adams, everyone’s choice which is Eleanor Roosevelt and Dr. Seuss for starters . . .)
2. Change your personal narrative into a poem. Choose concrete images and metaphors. Remember a poem isn’t just prose set in stanzas.
3. Zap yourself into Hollywood. Write a short story with you as a character.
This month’s Contra Costa Times would like YOU to write haiku based on the theme “things that come too early.”
Send your haiku –three lines in a 5-7-5 syllable pattern — on the “too early to be borne” theme to [email protected] by noon Sept. 27
This would be a great activity for students! See your poetry in print or online! Start writing NOW!
From the Contra Costa Times: Summer’s almost here and with it, road trips and air travel. So this month, we’re focusing our poetic energies on the joys and woes of travel, from scenic vistas to shoeless schleps through airport security. Send your haiku — three lines in a 5-7-5 syllable pattern –to [email protected] by noon June 28.
Pen a haiku to the pet peeve of your choice. Send it – – three lines in a 5-7-5 syllable pattern, extra points for wit – – to [email protected] by noon May 31.
Congratulations to Orinda Intermediate Sixth Grade Student Rachel Gamson, whose haiku was published in the Contra Costa Times!
This month’s Contra Costa Times Haiku Contest is due on April 26.
“April may bring showers, but May? May brings not just flowers, but Mother’s Day. So this next round of haiku is a salute to Mom. Send your haiku — three lines, 5-7-5 syllable pattern — to [email protected] by noon April 26.
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