wee words for wee ones: May 2020

Wee-Sources: Poetry Pep Up, Puppies, and More!

This week's Wee-Sources are an eclectic mix
of a poetry wee-source, a submission opportunity, and PUPPIES!

First up, Pep Up!

Poetry Pep Up is a week of online poetry challenges brought to you by Poetry Friday member and poet and educator extraordinaire Kathryn Apel. It is a program for beginning poets, expierenced poets and everyone in between. You can write for yourself or join others on social media with #poetrypepup. It runs for five days beginning Monday 1 June.
To join the fun email your interest to Trudie Leigo:
t(dot)leigo(at)cqu(dot)edu(dot)au or check out Kathryn Apel's website.
I've already signed up and can't wait for the Poetry Pep Up prompt on Monday! Join me!

Next, a Submission Opportunity!

For all you nature loving writers, Tiny Seed Literary Journal is accepting submissions. "Tiny Seed is an online nature-focused literary journal publishing short fiction, poetry, art, and photography by established and emerging writers & artists."
The submission guidelines can be found here.
I'm going to submit, how about you?

Lastly, PUPPIES!

Proud mama.

Look at that face!

One of Joe's colleague's dog had puppies! The breed is Bolonka Zwetna. Yeah, we hadn't heard of it either. Apparently they don't shed and they only get to be about 10 lbs. Aren't they adorable? We thought so too. So much so that we actually thought about getting one...for about 32 seconds! Then we thought about Smidgey:

I don't think this 10+ year old gal has it in her to deal with a new puppy.

And the price! 2200CHF/each! Nope.

We got Smidgey as a puppy for $200 from the Humane Society. (including her crate)

But alas, puppy pictures bring me so much joy. (Almost as much joy as baby pictures.) Plus the pictures are free and Smidgey doesn't get jealous. Win-win!

Here is the handful of cute that I used as the prompt for today's poem:

fuzzy
warm
tiny form

soft
squeaks
how she speaks

puppy
heap
is not cheap

couple
grand
in one hand

Mary Lee from Year of Reading is our Poetry Friday

hostess with the mostest. Join the fun!

Introducing Wee Word Wee-Sources

I am so excited to share a new focus here on Wee Words for Wee Ones:
Wee-Sources!

Every week I will share a Wee Word Wee-Source with you, my dear ~~weaders~~ READers.

The Wee-Source will be:

a poetry (or otherwise) submission opportunity
a writing/teaching event that might interest you
a poetry infused language learning tip or tidbit
a book WEE-view
a writing/poetry prompt
any Wee-source YOU want to share*
Smidgey's Identity Crisis Poetry Series videos:

*email me direct: bridget@bridgetmagee.com

Here is today's Wee-Source:

Call for submissions: 42-Word Stories Anthology

An anthology of 42 categories of 42 selected works of 42-word microfiction stories, and 42 art pieces, one per chapter.

That's potentially 1,764 authors in one book.

Deadline: Until categories are filled.

Release date: TBA

I'm happy to say that I have a story in the Poetic Prose category that has been accepted into this anthology. Click on the link to check out the categories and see if you can write a 42 word story to fit. Take a chance and jump at this opportunity.

And here is today's Wee Words Poem:

one stop shop
for your wee word needs
no mask required
©2020, Bridget Magee. All Rights Reserved.

Hosting all the poetry goodness can be found is
Carol at Beyond LiteracyLink

Full Inbox, Full Heart, Full Pocket

To celebrate today, I am celebrating yesterday!

Thursday, 30 April, 2020 was Poem in your Pocket Day!

But before I empty my pockets, I want to give you an update on my Pandemic Poetry Take Away Ecard Extravaganza. Over 30 Take Away 'order's were placed for FREE ecards and I donated $300 to NoKidHungry.org as a result. Thank you one and all who participated, especially Tabatha at The Opposite of Indifference, for featuring my project on her blog.

It's not too late, if you'd still like to 'order'. The best part of an ecard is that it never spoils, it is likely to make the recipient smile, and it costs you nothing! (I've been known to take special orders...)
If you'd still like to join the fun, just email me: bridget@bridgetmagee.com and I will get your ecard(s) sent off to you lickity-split!

Back to my pocket...and the poem that is there. Actually this poem is from my archives:

A poem in my pocket
is trying to get out -
pushing against my seam,
it wants to shout:

"I'm here,
hear me rhyme,
free me from
this linty grime!"

I take out my poem
and share it with you.
Check your pocket,
maybe you have one too?

©2012, Bridget Magee. All Rights Reserved.

But for this year, I decided to write a Golden Shovel poem
to go in my pocket:

I chose the poem, Pigeon by Nikki Grimes from her 2001 poetry collection A POCKETFUL OF POEMS as the poem I admire. Apropos book to choose from, no?

PIGEON

by Nikki Grimes

Ouch! This word pecks at my pocket

like some wild thing, anxious to go free.

PIGEON

Its speckled sister paces along

the windowsill, staring at me.

Pigeons masquerade

as wildlife. They can’t fool me.

We’re all city folk.

I rearranged the line in bold to be the end words of my new poem. It turned out like this:

At first, I treated staying home like

a vacation. Time to write some

poems or binge watch that wild

show, “Tiger King” on Netflix. The thing

is though, this is a pandemic. I am anxious.

People are dying. I want to

help people, see my family back home, go

to the movies. Will life ever again truly be free?

Today all the Poetry Friday goodness can be

found at Elizabeth Steinglass's blog! Come check it out!