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March Madness - Pseudonymous

3/27/2014

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I was given the *delightful* word, "pseudonymous" in the 3rd Round of the March Madness poetry contest currently underway on Ed DeCaria's website, Think Kid Think. I almost cried. Then I got down to business. I stayed up till 6 a.m. and wrote several poems, one of which I thought was quite good about Lemony Snicket (a double dactyl). My crit group, The Poet's Garage, pretty much panned it (although I later found out that Buffy liked it.) Back to square one. 


On Thursday, I was busy with contractors at the house we are getting ready to put on the market. I was sleep-deprived and impatient because I wanted to get back to my computer. Finally, I got back to the house, after stopping at Starbucks for some caffeine and the library for some Dr. Seuss. I needed to refresh my memory since I was now considering writing a double dactyl about Dr. Seuss (double-dactyls on the brain). But, back at the computer, nothing would come together. I gave up in despair and took the dogs to the dog park. When my husband got home, I told him I didn't think I would have a poem for the third round, or at best, a poem that my crit group did not love. I read the Lemony Snicket to him; he didn't like it either. In fact, he said it was boring! :(


But he also said he would make dinner so I could maybe come up with something else. I forced myself to put put the double-dactyls aside and focus on other ideas. I wrote several other poems, but nothing special, then I had a brainstorm. I quickly roughed it out. My husband thought it was hilarious. I expanded, I tightened, I tweaked for several hours and read it to him again. He laughed! Music to my ears, and it is what I posted for the 3rd round of March Madness:



The Amoeba Gang

Albert the amoeba, a microscopic thief
had stolen from the hydra clan and now had come to grief.
The Unicellular Police were hot on Albert’s trail.
His pseudo-feet moved oh-so-slow. Would he be thrown in jail?
He tried to hang with slime molds, but they swam away from him.
The rotifers rejected him; his prospects now looked grim.
But suddenly he had a thought, a bright, pseudonymous plot--
a perfect way to slip and slide from this tight, ominous spot.
He fissioned once. He fissioned twice, and quick as one-two-three,
Al and Hal and Sal and Cal, all said, “It wasn’t me.”




~B.J. Lee  All Rights Reserved  c March 26,2014


I'm glad I persevered because I am truly proud of this poem. My opponent's (Darren Sardelli) poem is also good, though, and at last look, he is beating me in the Public Vote. Voting is open for another 22 hours or so. Please have a look and vote for your favorites. Our own, Buffy Silverman has a poem in Round 3 as well. Here is a direct link to my matchup - March Madness - Pseudonymous vs Insubordinate. Thank you! 
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March Madness - Unpredictable

3/24/2014

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Well, I've made it to Round 2 of the March Madness Poetry Contest happening right now at Ed DeCaria's site Think Kid Think. I have been given the word, 'unpredictable.' At first, I thought it would be easier than the word I had in Round 1, 'fungible,' because I didn't know what 'fungible' meant, whereas I do know what 'unpredictable' means. However, this was not the case. I had more difficulty writing a poem with the word 'unpredictable,' than I did with 'fungible', although in the end, I do like my unpredictable poem as well as my fungible poem. Please take a minute to stop by and vote on this round of March Madness! Thank you! Here's a direct link to the Unpredictable/Flamboyant match up.


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March Madness "Fungibility"

3/20/2014

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I've been on hiatus from my blog because we were moving. We have moved, and I'm in love with our new artsy house, but now we have to fix up our old place to get it on the market. I really don't enjoy the whole real estate thing; it eats up so much time. I'd rather be writing and blogging. What got me to post today is my involvement in March Madness. I was assigned the word, fungible, a word I had never heard of before. I felt like I was back in college, pulling an all-nighter, but it was a good feeling in a way to be so involved in producing one poem in a short period of time. We had 32 hours, but of course some of that had to be spent sleeping (not much, but some). In any case, I've linked to Ed DeCaria's Think Kid Think site below. Ed is the mastermind behind March Madness and I think it gets bigger and better every year. If you haven't checked out the Madness before, it's really a lot of fun to read and vote on the poems!
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Voting for my match has begun. "Strewn" vs. "Fungibile".  Please cast your vote!
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March Madness

3/20/2014

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March Madness is upon us again. It's an exciting poetry contest between children's poets in which poets are given a word and must write a poem using that word within 32 hours.  My word was 'fungible' and my poem, Fungibility,  is up now for vote. Please stop by and cast your vote and may the best man/woman win!
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    Author

    B. J. Lee is a children’s author and poet. Her picture book, There Was an Old Gator Who Swallowed a Moth, is launching with Pelican Publishing on February 15, 2019. She has poems in 25 poetry anthologies published by  Little, Brown, Wordsong, BloomsburyUK, National Geographic, Otter-Barry Books, Pomelo Books, and Chicken Soup for the Soul. She has worked with anthologists Lee Bennett Hopkins, J. Patrick Lewis and Kenn Nesbitt. She has written poems for such children’s magazines as Spider, Highlights and The School Magazine. Follow her on Twitter @bjlee_writer.

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