Definition #245 Zam

Zam the Toad
habitat: courtesy of Annika and Oliver

Riddle:

What does a frog do when his car breaks down?

He gets “toad!”

created by Annika

Tongue Twister #6 Iddle

Diddle
Piddle
Puddled

Riddle
Wiggled
Waggled

Poppa
Whopper
Stopper

What a
Butter
Batter

Lather
Later
Ladder

6/9/2013

Riddle#37 Play

I read an interview with children’s writer: Doug Snelson, author of The Fable of the Snake named Slim. He mentioned two qualities of play that both children and adults should use: awe and concentration Awe sees the wonder and concentration is the focus. These qualities create vital interaction.

The quote brought to mind my Grandson of 2 years in the bath this past Saturday.
The hair sculpture was play for the adult but what tickled me was the fifteen minutes he spent playing with the baby face cloth pretending it was a shirt, bib, motorcycle jacket, and various other warrior breastplates that went “brooom, brooom broom” down the road.
His total concentration transformed the simple cloth into any number of costumes and characters.
Mumbled scripts included.
The bath is a stage.
The audience smiled with awe and concentration!

Riddle#36 Orange

Orange

Which is the fungus from Halloween?
Which is the fun guy from Easter morn?

Which has the yolk as yellow as corn?
Which has the shape of sweet candy-corn?

Which has the sun’s glow orange and warm?
Which has the ruffles that fan out when born?

These are the riddles all orange and bright
Sunny and funny and scary a sight!

Riddle #34 What goes WHACK in the night?

‘Twas romance on the wild lagoon
With largest catch from far to soon.
Husband shows his wife the place
Where magic lights upon his face.

With largest catch from far to soon
Those fish sure bite before the moon
Raises frogs; makes turtles swoon.

Husband shows his wife the place
Which beckons nightly for his grace
Canoe or kayak, rod in case.

Where magic lights upon his face
And beavers threaten with their “whacks”
How dare you fish in beaver’s place?

Riddle#31 Ancestors

Dreams, it has been said, were the first poems and stories told around the fire in ancient tribal cultures. Jan Hutchinson

We gather, holding baskets
filled with fruit;
seeds and juices
of our loins.

Breasts ready to succor,
feet to serve,
ears to learn
what nurture needs.

Umbilical still grows,
Twists its lullabies;
In and out of sleep
and baths and blankets’ cover.

Riddle#30 “Fat”

The limits of my language are the limits of my mind. All I know is what I have words for.
Ludwig Wittgenstein

Two days ago, my 4 year old grand-daughter tried calling me: “BIG FAT NANA”
HERE are the words I allow:
goddess
rubenesque
mama-jama
large-and-in-charge
opera sized diva
luxurious

In the car on the drive home we wrote this jingle:
Body size not here nor there
Names are bubbles in the air;
Pop them and they disappear!
Skip along with friends held dear.

Wonder how long the campaign to substitute the word will take?

Riddle #29 Rake

The old saying for plain, direct speech is “tell it in words of one syllable.” Robert Pinsky
Try not using any forms of the verb: to be.

I rake
to make
the ground flat.
Reach and pull;
push and pat.
Cold
knee work:
bend and
stretch-take
with my rake.

Riddle#28 The Moon

Now that the moon is out of a job
it slides over the forest-all those
million still violins before they are
carved-and follows those paths only air
ever uses.
William Stafford

Yellow moon:
amber air alert;
cats’ eye
in the sky
misty message from on high.
I bow, submissive.
(shadorma)
(3-5-3-3-7-5-)

Riddle#23 Sacred

Sacred

The bass is sacred
swimming swiftly
like a streak;
free to be
silver-
gills a-sparkle!