Monday, December 19, 2011

Anatomy of a poem--"The boy on the ceiling"

If you know me even moderately well, you know poetry isn't really my "thing."  But, after reading Dr. Seuss and Shel Silverstein and a whole slew of other children's literature to my sons, the desire to rhyme has overcome me.  What can I say?

Dylan, now 3, seems to have mastered potty training.  Which is awesome.  Yesterday (December 18th), he was sitting on the potty and telling me how big his poop was going to be.  It was going to be "THIIIIIIS BIG."  How big?  "So big!"

I posed a question for him: "what if the poop was so big, that it smashed you onto the ceiling?"  He couldn't seem to picture this.  He told me that in order to get to the ceiling, you need a ladder.  "Right, but what if the poop was like a ladder?"  A poop ladder?  "No, just a big pile... with you at the top?"  Still, no luck.  "I'll draw you a picture when you're done."

And I did.  Here it is (it was hastily done):
Since the art, to me, looked Shel-Silverstein'esque, I figured I should probably construct a poem to go with it.  Between potty trips, and our younger son (Parker) playing and grabbing the pen and piece of paper I was working with, I wrote a rough form of the poem.  Here it is:
It's really not much to look at, but it shows some of the process so I decided to include it.  The start point is "Dylan went pee..." but I quickly ran out of room and so the poem winds around its way around the paper until the final lines are at the top above where the poem actually begins.  (Yes, I probably should have grabbed another piece of paper... but children only allow you a few moments of freedom, and you need to roll with it when inspiration strikes.)

I tinkered with the poem a bit more, combined the art and the poem together through the magic of Photoshop, and present it here.  By no means do I present this as a great piece of art (either the poem or the drawing), but it amused me and thought I'd share.  I'd love any critical suggestions for improvement, and any comments in general.

Anyway, here it is:

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