Skip to main content

Poetry Friday: Story Cubes Poem "I Gave a Wave"

 Hi everyone!

After a whirlwind trip to the SCBWI Winter Conference, where I was inspired by our keynote speaker, Joseph Coelho, Children's Poet Laureate for the UK, I'm back home and diving deep into poetry again with this week's Story Cubes poem. 

This poem is part of my ongoing challenge to myself to write to a prompt generated by Story Cubes. I'm trying to reflect the order of the images on the cubes in the poem itself, and I'm challenging myself to write quickly: 20 minutes or less for each poem.

three dice with pictures on them on a wooden table. The pictures are a hand, waves, and a stick-figure person walking.

This week's prompts left me feeling stymied for a while, but I let the images simmer for a while as I was cooking dinner and soon this poem emerged.

    I Gave a Wave

I waved to the waves
And the waves waved back
Then I waved goodbye
But I’ll be back!


© 2024, Elisabeth Norton

What about you? What would you do with these as inspiration? I'd love to hear about it in the comments!

Our generous host for Poetry Friday this week is Tabatha Yeatts over at The Opposite of Indifference. Hop on over to her blog for more poetic inspiration!




Comments

  1. TabathaFebruary 23, 2024 at 11:03 PM

    That's a great poem to memorize, complete with hand gestures :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Alan j WrightFebruary 24, 2024 at 4:24 AM

    I liked your process Elisabeth where you let your thoughts simmer. Such rehearsal is invaluable. It should never be waved away...
    Such ruminations give birth to inspired ideas. They just need our considered thoughts and a little faith. The poem is result of your investment.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Linda MitchellFebruary 24, 2024 at 12:56 PM

    oooooh, I love things like this. I also love metaphor dice. I'm jealous of your SCBWI conference. I hope it was productive for you---digging back into poetry sure is a good sign.
    A hand, a hand, a hand
    a wave, a wave, a wave
    a man, a man, a man
    is all I see today.

    This little ditty might be sparked by Janice Scully's post that I just read. LOL.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Marcie Flinchum AtkinsFebruary 24, 2024 at 2:31 PM

    Fun poem! I was also at NYC SCBWI. Love Joseph Coehlo! I wrote about him this week too!

    ReplyDelete
  5. jamaFebruary 24, 2024 at 6:01 PM

    Great job!! Thanks for the smile today (waving to you). :D

    ReplyDelete
  6. Buffy SilvermanFebruary 24, 2024 at 6:14 PM

    I love the idea of a timer for a prompt--and yours is charming!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Linda BFebruary 25, 2024 at 1:31 AM

    Now I'm waving to you, Elisabeth for showing us those story cubes again, and now you "wave" your poetry wand and create a poem! It's a nice ending to our Friday's poems! Happy Sunday!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Michelle KoganFebruary 25, 2024 at 2:42 AM

    Fun poem Elizabeth and thanks for introducing me to story cubes, I might have to pick some up…
    Hello rolling waves
    which way will you roll?
    I might have to
    quickly roll on my way,
    perhaps I'll see you
    on another day…

    ReplyDelete
  9. laurasalasFebruary 25, 2024 at 4:57 PM

    How fun! I love your story poem. I recently sold a board book ms with a theme of nature knowing us as much as we know it. Your poem resonated with that for me!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Mary LeeFebruary 25, 2024 at 5:59 PM

    I've got to HAND it to you --
    You're as faithful as the TIDES.
    And even though you're feeling BLUE
    You WALK with me side by side.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Susan ThomsenFebruary 26, 2024 at 1:14 AM

    Oh, that's fun. The wordplay gave me a chuckle. I'll have to see if a poem of my own rises to the surface, so to speak.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Carol VarsalonaFebruary 26, 2024 at 12:01 PM

    Elizabeth, your poem simmered slowly evolved while cooking. That's a good time to ruminate. Your poem brings me back to my forever love, the ocean. Thanks for sharing.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Bridget MageeFebruary 28, 2024 at 10:23 AM

    A fun way to play with words, Elisabeth. Your poem turned out *swell*. :)

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Thank you for your comments! Comment moderation is active. Your comments will be posted after they have been reviewed. Thank you for your patience!

Popular posts from this blog

Poetry Friday: Story Cubes Poems "Plot Problems"

 Welcome to Poetry Friday! Our host this week is Mary Lee. She's shared a wonderful poem of her own, one by Sandra Cisneros, a video and more in her post. You can find all that poetic goodness and links to the other participating poets over here on her blog. My Story Cubes poetry prompt this week had me a little stumped at first. In addition to trying to write fast, I'm also challenging myself to keep the order of the dice in my poem. So if the cauldron comes first, I'm trying to make it first thing I mention. Either I like multi-dimensional chess, or I like making things challenging for myself. Or maybe both! Here are this week's prompts: And here is my poem. Plot Problems First I drew a cauldron Bubbling full of poisoned brew. Then I drew a hungry hero Now I don’t know what to do. hmmm . . . .  I know how to fix this! Draw one big foot, then two. Run fast, my big foot hero! Go find some barbecue. © 2025, Elisabeth Norton, all rights reserved What about you? Have you ...
19 comments
Read more

Poetry Friday: The Party is Here!

 Welcome everyone to Poetry Friday! If you're new to Poetry Friday, you can read more about it here . I've been chasing deadlines all week, but poetry always provides a welcome pause in the busiest of schedules. Perhaps because of the kind of writing I've been doing (which is not related to poetry at all) it was a bit hard to get started on a poem this week. I looked at a few of the poetic forms I've bookmarked over the past months, but in the end, turned to one of my favorite forms, the acrostic .  Thanks for joining the Poetry Friday party today! Add your link to the party below. You are invited to the Inlinkz link party! Click here to enter
24 comments
Read more

Poetry Friday: Welcome to the Party!

There is so much happening in our world right now, it can be hard to take it all in. In these times, more than ever, I am grateful for poetry.  Sometimes I write it.  Sometimes I have no words of my own, so I read and reflect on the poetic words of others.  Either way, poetry helps me process my thoughts and feelings about the world and my experiences in it. My poetic offering today is a poem I wrote earlier this spring, on a rare day when my husband had to go to the office for an in-person meeting and I took our usual lunchtime walk alone.  I am a creature of habit, but on that day I challenged myself to break routine and change direction, and this poem was the result. Today I go against the grain, turn left  Instead of right, Let the path take me away from home Instead of towards it. Today I go against the grain, go up the slope I usually walk down. Climbing uses different muscles Than descent. Today I go with the grain, walk downstream Instead of up, Walk wit...
23 comments
Read more