Tuesday, August 19, 2014

This blog has now moved to www.VikramMadan.com

It's official: I am moving this poetry blog over to my main website and blog (having found it increasingly difficult to keep two separate sites updated). All future poetry entries will now occur here:



Thanks for understanding, and see you on my main site www.VikramMadan.com.

Sunday, May 11, 2014

979. Magic Potion

Another poem from this years March Madness @ thinkkidthink.com. 
This time the assigned world was 'quintessential':
------
Magic Potion (or Why I Got An ‘F’ in Math)
By Vikram Madan
“First, take one twitch of witches’ itch, and swirl in swish of pirate’s blade
Then add a dab of dragon scab, and spice with hints of tint of jade
Whip up the scowl of two foul owls, and pep with pinch of poet’s woe
Mix in the roar of ogre’s snore, and boil this all with stub of toe!”
“And when you’re done”, the Gypsy hummed, “you will have made a potent brew -
A quintessential tonic that will fix whatever’s vexing you!”
No time to think! I cooked this drink! And poured it on my test today!
Well, did my test turn out the best?!? No … it grew legs and ran away … :(
-----

980. Train Wreck

Here is a recent 'concrete poem' I did for the March Poetry Madness at the ThinkKidThink.com site. The poem was specifically written to accommodate the assigned word for the tournament 'concurrent'.

-------
Train Wreck
by Vikram Madan
My poem wasn't very tight – a word slipped out and fell
It landed on the line below and ruptured that as well
What opus could withstand the weight of words with such impact?
My rhymes were shaky from the start, but now my structure cracked!
The meter flailed, the rhythm quailed, the syllables played dead
Concurrent with this brouhaha, the verses cursed and fled
More lines caved in…! More words fell through…! The end is nigh, I guess :(
I hope you’ll still make some sense of this train wreck of a mess.
My poem wasn't very tight – a word slipped out and fell
It landed on the line below and ruptured that as well
What opus could withstand the weight of words with such impact?
My rhymes were shaky from the start, but now my structure cracked!
The meter flailed, the rhythm quailed, the syllables played dead
Concurrent with this brouhaha, the verses cursed and fled
More lines caved in…! More words fell through…! The end is nigh, I guess
I hope you’ll still make some sense of this train wreck of a mess.

------

A "concrete poem" is one where the physical structure of the written words give shape to the poem, an idea I took quite literally. However fixing word formats on web pages is very tricky - can you spot the simple trick I used to make sure the words show up in all the right places?


Thursday, March 20, 2014

March Madness Annual Online Poetry Competition

I am in the process of moving this blog to my main website www.VikramMadan.com

To see details about the exciting annual March Madness Poetry competition, click this link:

http://www.vikrammadan.com/1/post/2014/03/the-annual-march-madness-online-poetry-competition.html



Friday, September 20, 2013

Classic Poems: 'The Embarrassing Episode of Little Miss Muffet' by Guy Wetmore Carryl

Yes, the blog has been quiet for a while. (I've been busy promoting my book and getting it in the hands of more readers and reviewers, so that took my attention off the blog for a bit). 

Meanwhile, here's a classic poem by a poet who should really be better known than he is, Guy Wetmore Carryl (1873-1904). This fun poem is excerpted from his 1900 book titled 'Mother Goose For Grown-ups

The Embarrassing Episode of Little Miss Muffet

Little Miss Muffet discovered a tuffet, 
(Which never occurred to the rest of us) 
And, as 'twas a June day, and just about noonday, 
She wanted to eat - like the rest of us: 

Her diet was whey, and I hasten to say 
It is wholesome and people grow fat on it. 
The spot being lonely, the lady not only 
Discovered the tuffet, but sat on it. 

A rivulet gabbled beside her and babbled, 
As rivulets always are thought to do, 
And dragon flies sported around and cavorted, 
As poets say dragon flies ought to do; 

When, glancing aside for a moment, she spied 
A horrible sight that brought fear to her, 
A hideous spider was sitting beside her, 
And most unavoidably near to her! 

Albeit unsightly, this creature politely 
Said: " Madam, I earnestly vow to you, 
I'm penitent that I did not bring my hat. I 
Should otherwise certainly bow to you." 

Though anxious to please, he was so ill at ease 
That he lost all his sense of propriety, 
And grew so inept that he clumsily stepped 
In her plate - which is barred in Society. 

This curious error completed her terror; 
She shuddered, and growing much paler, not 
Only left tuffet, but dealt him a buffet 
Which doubled him up in a sailor knot. 

It should be explained that at this he was pained: 
He cried: "I have vexed you, no doubt of it! 
Your fists's like a truncheon." "You're still in my luncheon," 
Was all that she answered. "Get out of it!" 
 
And the Moral is this: Be it madam or miss 
To whom you have something to say, 
You are only absurd when you get in the curd 
But you're rude when you get in the whey.

- Guy Wetmore Carryl, 1900




Monday, July 8, 2013

'The Bubble Collector' gets a great review from Publisher's Weekly!


The folks over at Publisher's Weekly gave 'The Bubble Collector' a pretty nice review, using adjectives like 'Freewheeling', 'Wisecracking', 'Impish', 'Punchy', Screwball' and 'High-Spirited'. Thanks, Publisher's Weekly!

"School, family, mealtime, animals, and imaginary creatures are among the everyday and outlandish subjects Madan visits in this freewheeling compilation of 100 poems. The poetic styles represented are just as varied, including punchy short rhymes, longer narrative poems, limericks, parodies of well-known poems, and nonsense ditties. The overall tone is more uniform, tending toward the wisecracking and impish ("Franken-Jack and Franken-Jill/ Lurching, lurching up the hill/ Testing out the new physiques/ Doctor Stein has built this week"). Another common denominator is humor (the narrator of "Things I Learned the Hard Way" shares some useful advice: "Don't stuff sausage in dad's shoe/ Don't fix broken eggs with glue/ Don't hide treasures in the waste/ Don't brush teeth with garlic paste"). Madan also plays with words for the sake of the rhyme: "Our mums make us do yoga/ They say it'll help us grow-ga/ We wear our little toga/ And quietly tiptoe-ga." The author's screwball, black-line cartoons work in tandem with the text, in some cases delivering the poems' punch lines. A high-spirited read-aloud. Ages 6–12. " - http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-1-4823-9761-1  

Monday, May 27, 2013

Bubble Collector gets a 6-Star Review!

The Kid-Lit-Reviews blog posted a book review of 'The Bubble Collector' this weekend - and gave it 6-Stars (out of 5)!!! Go-on over and read it here:

http://kid-lit-reviews.com/2013/05/25/review-the-bubble-collector-by-vikram-madan/

Thanks Kid Lit Reviews!!! :)

My main website is up again...

Just a quick note: my main website http://www.VikramMadan.com is finally back up again so if you want to see more of my work (including my latest adventure, art) stop on by there.

(My site went down last year when the web site host I was using went out of business. I finally found a new free host over at weebly.com - and as a software guy, I have to say I'm very impressed with the website creation tools Weebly is providing.  If you need a website, definitely  check them out)(and no, I'm not affiliated with them, I'm just a happy user)
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