It's My Weirdest Giveaway EVER!

Tricia, at The Miss Rumphius Effect is our lovely host for Poetry Friday today, filling us up with mathematical poetry from a lovely group of poets.   Thanks Tricia!

         It's an exciting day for me because I have the pleasure of sharing Catherine Johnson’s newly published poetry book, Wierdo Zoo!   Thus far, you can find it here, on Amazon! The poems are both written and illustrated by Catherine, who blogs at Little Red Riding Hood, eating the cake and writing poems instead!  Even from the title of Catherine's blog, you can tell this is going to be a treat!

            Giveaway:  Catherine has been kind enough to offer a copy of her book to one lucky commenter.  I'll put them all in a hat and draw a name to be announced next week! 

         So here we go into an adventure, of all things, well, weird, when you visit Catherine’s house.  At least that’s where I think she found all these amazing  and marvelous creatures.  And I’m not trying to honeyfuggle Catherine at all (new word just learned) because once you begin to travel through the pages, you will adore the trip!

         The Table of Contents is a good start to our trip where we learn to look for missing zebras, receive advice about picnicking with elephants, and wonder whatever could happen to make a goat float?  There are also titles that intrigue like the Wordy Wildebeest, Giraffes in a Knot and Pigeon Bop.  Let’s get moving!

           There is a wonderful variety of poem stories that tell the strange tales of this Wierdo Zoo, rhymed and unrhymed, short and long.  An early favorite is when I met Mr. and Mrs. Peabody, out for a picnic when thunder rumbles. Oh no, “If only they’d sat just a few feet away/Their beautiful picnic might’ve lasted the day.”   And I discovered the hilarious play on words with an otter and a beaver: “You be the otter.  And I’ll be the otter one.”   If you haven’t met a frogoloctopus yet, you will in this poetry group, poor thing.  He thought he was a frog, and “croaked, Not I, then “he saw his tentacles and had a little cry”. 

         As I amble through the book, I notice lots of silliness, which is what a weirdo zoo is all about of course.

               There is a Tawny Owl, one I think you might want to observe from a distance:

                      Tawny Yawny

                      Scrawny owl

                      Hooty, scooty,

                      Screechy owl

                      Eeky, meeky

                      Seeky owl.

                      Yawny, yarny

                      Barny owl.

And       Giraffes In A Knot, spare, almost haiku, something that begs to be imagined!

         Giraffes in a knot.

         All reaching for the same branch.

         Knot a good idea.

        Lucky for us, Catherine, in her terrific painting, has imagined it for us.  In my travel through this book, I've seen other fantastical animals created in both words and pictures.  What fun to read and chuckle over.

My favorite of all, is the funny and clever 

      Wordy Wildebeest!

A herd of wordy wildebeest

Wrote poems by the fence.

They used their teeth to hold their pens

Not many words made sense.

The Okapi stood listening

As the wildebeest recited

Their poems about adventures

Now the listeners grew excited.

The lions heard a whisper

Of these poems and replied,

“You write so foul, we’re on the prowl

You’d better stay inside.”

The poetry kept flowing out,

So angry lions encroached

Upon the pen of wildebeest

Notepads, and pens were poached.

The lions pinned a notice up,

“No poetry recitals.

Let it be said, you have been warned

Or we’ll be back for vitals.”

                Catherine M. Johnson © All Rights Reserved

Shared with the permission of the author.

       Thanks for coming along on the journey to this Weirdo Zoo!