Bad Poetry Friday Returns (with the Best of Bad--Betsy Bird) just in time for National Poetry Month!

We're baaaaaaaaaack and we're baaaaaaaaaad !

That's Betsy Bird of Fuse # 8 with her rhyming hat on!

And bad bad Betsy Bird will be joining us--daring YOU to write a worse poem than her poem. Betsy has even promised to dive into her high school journals for bad inspiration!

Oh sure, there are much loftier blogs celebrating National Poetry Month with stanzas of worthwhile poems. This isn't one of them.

Bad poets need a place to gather and have fun, too, right? So please join us for Bad Poetry Friday!

The Rhymes, They Are A Changing
(sung to the tune of Bob Dylan’s Times They Are A Changing)
Come gather ‘round Bad Poets wherever you roam
And admit that the oddities in publishing have grown
No need to like blogging—you’ve found your new home
If your bad poem to you is worth saving…
We’d better start laughing, or we’ll feel all alone
For the rhymes, they are a changing…

Yes indeedy folks.
It's time once again for
Bad Poetry Friday right here on the Imaginary Blog.
Here’s how to play…

Just make up really bad rhymes poking good-natured fun at the craziness of the children’s book world. Then send in your bad rhyme (any day of the week) to BadPoetryFriday@gmail.com (no attachments, please)

Everyone’s invited--writers, editors, marketing folks, librarians, agents, reviewers, booksellers, and readers—cast your meter to the wind and send us your BAD POETRY please.

I’ll post the best (or the worst) every Friday.
Let me know if you want to be credited or anon.

8 short lines max
6 or 4 lines even better.
2 lines might be best of all.
We’re going for short here, folks--
Because if it’s gonna be bad, it better be brief!

Come creative people, please heed the call
Send us BAD POETRY, or no poetry at all…

Forecast: Bad Poems with a Chance of Laughter.

Oh, and we're cooking up some really bad poetry prizes, too. Wouldn't you love to win The Mal-de-cott?

Send your bad poems soon to see if you can beat Betsy Bird at bad.
And come back Friday to see who wins.

For a few of our previous bad poets, take a look here at Jim Averbeck, here at Marsha Morrow, here at M.T. Anderson, and here at 7 Imps' Jules and Eisha! We're sure you could do worse. That's the spirit!

Of course if you want to read some good poetry this month, go here, here, or here!

And if you are artistically inclined, I'd love to have a nifty Bad Poetry Friday logo. Any volunteers?

© 2009 by Lynn E. Hazen of Lynn E. Hazen's Imaginary Blog. All rights reserved.

The Juggernauts are on a Roll! And They're Just in Time for Bad Poetry Friday!

Yikes, imaginary readers, look out...

Jules & Eisha at Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast promised me weeks ago that they'd send me a "wretched poem" for the Imaginary Blog's Bad Poetry Friday contest--a poem in two voices no less.

They've been poetry-building back and forth for weeks now.

How bad is it? Come back bright and early Friday morning to see. It'll bloggle your mind so have your coffee mugs ready....

In the meantime, I bet I wasn't the only one running to the dictionary to find the meaning of Juggernaut. So perhaps one picture from Project Gutenberg and a definition from Wikipedia will come in handy?

"The Car of Juggernaut, as depicted in the 1851 Illustrated London Reading Book"


"The word is derived from the Sanskrit Jagannātha[1] (meaning "Lord of the universe") which is one of the many names of Krishna from the ancient Vedic scriptures of India...A juggernaut is a term used to describe a force regarded as unstoppable, that will crush all in its path..."

Find out more at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juggernaut...

And if you squint your eyes at the picture above I am sure you'll see Jules & Eisha. And why are we talking about Juggernauts? See Jules' Pyramidy Thingy and her explanation that follows on June 28's Tale of 3 Blogs below.

Bad Poetry Friday? Here's how to play.

Forecast: The Rhymes They Are a Changing

Bad Poetry Friday

The Rhymes, They Are A Changing
(sung to the tune of Bob Dylan’s Times They Are A Changing)

Come gather ‘round Bad Poets wherever you roam
And admit that the oddities in publishing have grown
No need to like blogging—you’ve found your new home
If your bad poem to you is worth saving…
We’d better start laughing, or we’ll feel all alone
For the rhymes, they are a changing…

Yes indeedy folks.
Evil Twins, Lynn Hazen & Ellen Yeomans, are hosting
Bad Poetry Friday right here on the Imaginary Blog.
Here’s how to play…

Just make up really bad rhymes poking good-natured fun at the frequent craziness of the children’s book world. Then send in your bad rhyme (any day of the week) in the body of your message (no attachments, please) to BadPoetryFriday@gmail.com.

Everyone’s invited--writers, editors, marketing folks, librarians, agents, reviewers, booksellers, and readers—cast your meter to the wind and send us your BAD POETRY please.

We’ll post the best (or the worst) depending on our mood every Friday.
Let us know if you want to be credited or anon.

8 short lines max
6 or 4 lines even better.
2 lines might be best of all.
We’re going for short here, folks--
Because if it’s gonna be bad, it better be brief!

This week’s winner:

Sorry Harry
No Newbery

Sent in by Jim Averbeck, author of IN A BLUE ROOM .


Thanks Jim.
Here’s what we like about your poem:
It’s short.
It reflects on the children’s book world in just 4 little words.
It’s timely, especially with the all the awards just announced at the ALA.

Okay folks, Jim’s poem is so good, it’s not quite bad enough.

In fact, after hearing:

Sorry Harry
No Newbery

Our Poetry Police state,
“That’s funny and not bad.
However we expect worse poetry than this.
Let’s force more rhymes
Let’s mess with the meter
Let’s lower the bar from now on.”

You heard it folks,
So come back next week to the Imaginary Blog because every Friday--
The Rhymes, They Are a Changing….

Come creative people, please heed the call
Send us BAD POETRY, or no poetry at all…

Forecast: Bad Poems with a Chance of Laughter