Poetry Friday

This is my first time doing Poetry Friday, so be gentle with me. ;)

What is Poetry Friday? It is a weekly meme in which lovers and advocates of children's poetry share their own kids' poems, poems by major kids' poets, interviews, videos, and more. Here is a link to the hosting schedule: http://www.kidlitosphere.org/poetry-friday/

Poetry Goddess Renée LaTulippe of No Water River is hosting this week's Poetry Friday and I'm participating. The reason why is because Renée developed a class called The Lyrical Language Lab: Punching Up Prose with Poetry and I was one of the lucky ones who was invited to be a beta tester!

While I've never trained as a poet, learning what little I know from high school English classes, I have sold a number of poems to Babybug and Ladybug magazines, so I know I don't completely stink. But by taking Renée's class, I can now pinpoint where I do stink, and can stop myself from stepping in any other stinky things.

We learned the basics (stress, rhyme, meter), the different forms of poetry, as well poetic prose, and how to write all those things. This is an interactive class with a Facebook forum where students can share their work and ask for help. Renée is attentive and kind, and, most importantly, vastly knowledgable. She answers all questions without making you feel like a fool for asking.

Taking this class was like putting on glasses for the first time (when I didn't realize I was "near-sighted"), and seeing everything sharply and clearly. No longer will I read a poem or any prose passage and not understand why it sings or sounds jarring. With the help of this class, you, too, will be able to truly appreciate (and yet be able to dissect) anything you read in regard to the way it sounds.

Having taught a small unit on poetry in my kids' homeschool language arts co-op, I can say with certainty that the experience would have been several times more meaningful if I had had Renée's course to guide me or had it for the kids to do on their own. So, in addition to highly recommending the course to writers, especially picture book writers, I also recommend it to homeschoolers.

To find out more about, and to sign up for, the course, click on this link: The Lyrical Language Lab: Punching Up Prose with Poetry.

Even more exciting, Renée is holding a GIVEAWAY so that one lucky person can take her course for free!!! To be entered in the drawing, head to her post for Poetry Friday.

My poem for Poetry Friday is something known as a Double Dactyl, which is a special type of light verse having a very specific form. I was inspired by a recent trip to China to write this:

The First and the Great

Uppity snubbity,
Emperor Qingshi was
Crazy ambitious in
Sending a call,

Getting all peasants to
Put down their plows and to
Put all their efforts in
Building a Wall.

The Great Wall of China, built by the First Emperor of China, Qingshi Huangdi

And so that you get your money's worth, I'm sharing a second poem. This is a Haiku that I wrote back in high school (circa 1979) when I fell hopelessly in love with astronomy and wanted to be an astrophysicist more than anything else.

Prominence (click on the title to see the scientific definition)

A flare of the sun
reaches out to pat the stars
reassuringly.

Now, head over to Renee's blog, enter the giveaway, and check out other poems on this blog hop!

"I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be." ~ Douglas Adams

China, part 3: Xi'an

Oddly enough, the place we spent the least time in (only 4 days) was the one that yielded the most photos. This was partly due to Xi'an being where Qingshihuangdi's Mausoleum is. You might know it better as the site of the Terra Cotta Soldiers.

Before we arrived at the archaeological site, we were taken to a modern day manufacturing plant of terra cotta soldier knock-offs. The tour guide we hired for the day would be remiss if she didn't subject us to the shopping opportunities that are rampant in China.

Son2 being a good sport and posing for a cheesy photo:

The coal oven that they fire the figures in, supposedly the same technique used nearly 2000 years ago:

Different sized replicas you can purchase:

Moving on to the 2,000 year old site...
Inside Pit 1…it looked to be the size of a football field:

A panoramic photo:

Partially buried statues in Pit 1:

Pit 2:

Pit 3…still mostly un-excavated:

The statues used to have brightly colored paints, which faded shortly after they were uncovered.

Some nice specimens on exhibit:

Because it was one of the places we had really wanted to see, we took far too many photos to share here, so we'll move on.

There is a place called Wanda Mall fairly close to our hotel in Xi'an. It houses the world's tallest escalator. I am not kidding you. Here's a view of us near the bottom of it:

There is a large Muslim population in Xi'an and one of their food specialties is apparently lamb feet:

Another specialty in Xi'an is something called "Biang Biang mien (noodles)." This is a sign that has the Chinese words (read it left to right). The "biang" part is fabricated. There is no such word traditionally in Chinese. It combines a number of other words, such as "long" and "horse."

One of many statues of heroes:

I really like this photo because it juxtaposes a run down building with a pretty vase of flowers right outside the window…a stark contrast that exemplifies much of what we saw in China.

One of our favorite memories of the China trip was this little hole-in-the-wall joint that only had five things on the menu. You can see the cook/owner in this photo.

When I say "hole-in-the-wall," I am not kidding. The left side had 4 tables for diners, and the right side was what you saw in the previous photo, where the owner cooks the food. The sign above the place is not a sign for the eatery (it'd be a gross exaggeration to call it a restaurant), but for some sort of social service place that existed there previously.

This place served the most delicious cold spicy noodles:

and this amazingly delicious thing that was like a ground lamb "McMuffin." It was so good, the kids must have eaten about 2.5 each.

While the place was a little filthy, we didn't get sick from eating there.

The guys thought this urban chicken was pretty hilarious. As hubby said, it was one street-wise fowl.

But all weird things must come to an end, and we are off to Hong Kong after this! But, first, one final photo of that longest escalator we've ever seen:

Have you ever been on an escalator this tall before?

"I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be." ~ Douglas Adams