June 24, 2010
I am SO tired of hearing half conversations EVERYWHERE I go. Thus, I wrote about it... CLICK TO ENLARGEJune 19, 2010
Contest at my fanpage on Facebook
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1016679907#!/pages/The-Works-of-Justin-Matott/213624096290?ref=mf
There is a contest just announced on my Facebook fan page. Please forward this to EVERYONE you know. It is a bit of a scavenger hunt! Have fun! Thanks, J. M.
RAP IT UP!
Sometimes poetry comes "rapped" in a package with a good disguise. Often when I visit schools I hear the kiddoes saying things like, "I don't like poems!" "Poetry is boring!" and other such things.
I have them do an exercise: Take your favorite song and write out the lyrics. Or tell us several lines from a song you like. Suddenly as they begin to recite the lyrics from a song it becomes apparent that they are rhyming and basically speaking a poem... Ah, the light goes on.
Most music is nothing more than rhyming lines or quadrants set to a beat. Then the assignment is to write a song rather than a poem and the stigma disappears...
June 15, 2010
June 14, 2010
June 12, 2010
A SAD POEM FROM THE UPCOMING BOOK NITWITTLES
PLEASE CLICK ON POEM TO ENLARGE
I THINK IT IS IMPORTANT WHEN DISCUSSING STORIES AND POETRY THAT A YOUNGSTER UNDERSTANDS THAT A WRITER IS SIMPLY HUMAN AND DEALS WITH THE EMOTIONAL ASPECTS OF BEING ONE IN THE WAY WE KNOW BEST... WRITING IT OUT.
MOSTLY MY POEMS ARE SILLY, FUNNY OR WRITTEN TO CAUSE THOUGHT AND/OR DISCUSSION. THIS POEM IS DIFFERENT THAN ANY I HAVE WRITTEN BEFORE. THIS POEM WAS EXTREMELY DIFFICULT FOR ME TO WRITE BECAUSE IT WAS A PURGING OF DEEP, DEEP SORROW AND LOVE LOST. THIS POEM WAS WRITTEN ABOUT OUR BELOVED FAMILY DOG WHO RECENTLY LEFT OUR HOME TO GO TO DOG HEAVEN, BUT WRITING IT BROUGHT BACK MY BEST FRIEND FROM CHILDHOOD AND SOMEHOW SO MANY YEARS LATER ALLOWED ME TO SAY GOODBYE TO A PORTION OF THE SORROW THAT I HELD ON TO BECAUSE IT WAS JUST TOO HARD TO DEAL WITH IT ALL WHEN I LOST HIM AND HAS BEEN LODGED IN MY HEART FOR ALL THESE YEARS.
THE NIGHT I WROTE THE FIRST DRAFT OF THIS POEM I HAD A VERY VIVID DREAM ABOUT FRISKY, MY BEAGLE/HUSKY MIX WHO FILLED MUCH OF THE FIRST TWO DECADES OF MY LIFE WITH FRIENDSHIP AND HAPPINESS AND THEN THE ULTIMATE SORROW. IN THE DREAM HE FINALLY DID WHAT I TRIED TO GET HIM TO DO WHEN I WAS A BOY. HE SPOKE. HE SAID GOODBYE TO ME TOO. I WAS ALL AT ONCE UPON AWAKENING VERY HAPPY AND VERY, VERY SAD, KIND OF LIKE A HARD RAINSTORM WHERE THE SUN IS STILL BEAMING DOWN THROUGH THE DARK CLOUDS.
PERHAPS IT IS BECAUSE WHERE THE RED FERN GROWS IS MY ALL TIME FAVORITE BOOK THAT I FEEL THE DEEP LOSS OF MY CANINE FRIENDS.
IF YOU ARE A DOG LOVER YOU WILL APPRECIATE THIS POEM AND HOPEFULLY EVEN IF YOU ARE NOT.
I THINK IT IS IMPORTANT WHEN DISCUSSING STORIES AND POETRY THAT A YOUNGSTER UNDERSTANDS THAT A WRITER IS SIMPLY HUMAN AND DEALS WITH THE EMOTIONAL ASPECTS OF BEING ONE IN THE WAY WE KNOW BEST... WRITING IT OUT.
MOSTLY MY POEMS ARE SILLY, FUNNY OR WRITTEN TO CAUSE THOUGHT AND/OR DISCUSSION. THIS POEM IS DIFFERENT THAN ANY I HAVE WRITTEN BEFORE. THIS POEM WAS EXTREMELY DIFFICULT FOR ME TO WRITE BECAUSE IT WAS A PURGING OF DEEP, DEEP SORROW AND LOVE LOST. THIS POEM WAS WRITTEN ABOUT OUR BELOVED FAMILY DOG WHO RECENTLY LEFT OUR HOME TO GO TO DOG HEAVEN, BUT WRITING IT BROUGHT BACK MY BEST FRIEND FROM CHILDHOOD AND SOMEHOW SO MANY YEARS LATER ALLOWED ME TO SAY GOODBYE TO A PORTION OF THE SORROW THAT I HELD ON TO BECAUSE IT WAS JUST TOO HARD TO DEAL WITH IT ALL WHEN I LOST HIM AND HAS BEEN LODGED IN MY HEART FOR ALL THESE YEARS.
THE NIGHT I WROTE THE FIRST DRAFT OF THIS POEM I HAD A VERY VIVID DREAM ABOUT FRISKY, MY BEAGLE/HUSKY MIX WHO FILLED MUCH OF THE FIRST TWO DECADES OF MY LIFE WITH FRIENDSHIP AND HAPPINESS AND THEN THE ULTIMATE SORROW. IN THE DREAM HE FINALLY DID WHAT I TRIED TO GET HIM TO DO WHEN I WAS A BOY. HE SPOKE. HE SAID GOODBYE TO ME TOO. I WAS ALL AT ONCE UPON AWAKENING VERY HAPPY AND VERY, VERY SAD, KIND OF LIKE A HARD RAINSTORM WHERE THE SUN IS STILL BEAMING DOWN THROUGH THE DARK CLOUDS.
PERHAPS IT IS BECAUSE WHERE THE RED FERN GROWS IS MY ALL TIME FAVORITE BOOK THAT I FEEL THE DEEP LOSS OF MY CANINE FRIENDS.
IF YOU ARE A DOG LOVER YOU WILL APPRECIATE THIS POEM AND HOPEFULLY EVEN IF YOU ARE NOT.
June 10, 2010
June 9, 2010
The Day I got my Super Powers!
I remember the day I got my super powers. I was riding the school bus
home when I found a record album. More of the Monkeys. The bus driver told me I could keep it, I think he said, "finders keepers...".
I went home and put it on my turntable. The song Stepping Stone came on and somehow imported power into my little soul and body.
Suddenly the refrain was meant for the bully at school who wouldn't
let me swing on the big swings at recess. I made a cape with a big star (I could make great stars, snowflakes and hearts at the time. The star seemed most "super powered", just to absorb power from. I was smart enough not to wear it to school (or the matching pair of tighty-whities I had cut a star for too).
On the radio came on Bad Bad Leroy Brown. Suddenly I had a powerful anger for the bully, a cape and a resolve to change my destiny at school. I even had curled fists and it was involuntary. I could feel the super powers surging through me. I imagined the words POW, ZAP, BOOM coming to life in the air in cartoon lettering like they did on one of my favorite television shows (Batman & Robin).
I set off for school and all the way on the school bus, I just knew I wasn't going to be a chicken that day on the playground. I wasn't going to be pushed around. I was going to swing for all I was worth until I was flying through the air in my super power way for all to see.
The bully was home sick. I think it was the best day of elementary school! But, I had mustered up all of my courage for that day and somehow my super powers seemed trickle down and dissipate, replaced with that ache in the gut fear feeling.
The next day I went to school fully armed with salted nut roll, which was a bribe that worked to keep her from punching me. So, I didn't swing that day or many days. I hovered over closer to the teeter totters where the teachers gathered to talk.
But years later I showed her. I got a little less geeky (at least she thought so) and turned her down for the Sadie Hawkins dance, I thought to leave a salted nut roll in front of her locker to remind her of a super hero from a time past...
Do you have a bullying story you would like to share? I am on an anti-bullying crusade in my school visits and will be using my own and other funny, interesting, scary bullying stories to demonstrate through storytelling how to combat the problem... and maybe even soften a few bully's hearts toward their intended victims!
home when I found a record album. More of the Monkeys. The bus driver told me I could keep it, I think he said, "finders keepers...".
I went home and put it on my turntable. The song Stepping Stone came on and somehow imported power into my little soul and body.
Suddenly the refrain was meant for the bully at school who wouldn't
let me swing on the big swings at recess. I made a cape with a big star (I could make great stars, snowflakes and hearts at the time. The star seemed most "super powered", just to absorb power from. I was smart enough not to wear it to school (or the matching pair of tighty-whities I had cut a star for too).
On the radio came on Bad Bad Leroy Brown. Suddenly I had a powerful anger for the bully, a cape and a resolve to change my destiny at school. I even had curled fists and it was involuntary. I could feel the super powers surging through me. I imagined the words POW, ZAP, BOOM coming to life in the air in cartoon lettering like they did on one of my favorite television shows (Batman & Robin).
I set off for school and all the way on the school bus, I just knew I wasn't going to be a chicken that day on the playground. I wasn't going to be pushed around. I was going to swing for all I was worth until I was flying through the air in my super power way for all to see.
The bully was home sick. I think it was the best day of elementary school! But, I had mustered up all of my courage for that day and somehow my super powers seemed trickle down and dissipate, replaced with that ache in the gut fear feeling.
The next day I went to school fully armed with salted nut roll, which was a bribe that worked to keep her from punching me. So, I didn't swing that day or many days. I hovered over closer to the teeter totters where the teachers gathered to talk.
But years later I showed her. I got a little less geeky (at least she thought so) and turned her down for the Sadie Hawkins dance, I thought to leave a salted nut roll in front of her locker to remind her of a super hero from a time past...
Do you have a bullying story you would like to share? I am on an anti-bullying crusade in my school visits and will be using my own and other funny, interesting, scary bullying stories to demonstrate through storytelling how to combat the problem... and maybe even soften a few bully's hearts toward their intended victims!
June 8, 2010
Poem from upcoming Nitwittles - SHADOWS
I WILL BE POSTING MY POETRY RANDOMLY OVER THE SUMMER TO INTRODUCE THE NEXT INSTALLMENT, TITLED 'NITWITTLES' WHICH IS BEING RECORDED, EBOOKED AND PUBLISHED. CLICK ON IMAGE TO ACTUALLY READ THE POEM. TECHNICALLY DEFICIENT AUTHOR AT WORK!
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