Time To Skedaddle Poem

Using Colloquial Phrases and Idioms In Poetry

Idiom:
An expression whose meaning is not predictable from the usual meanings of its words, as in kick the bucket (meaning to die).

Colloquialisms:
A colloquialism is a word, phrase, or other form used in informal language. Such words and phrases develop and become part of the every day language. Strangely most people know exactly what they mean. The word, 'yobbo or yob' was used frequently when I was younger. The word was applied to young men considered to be poorly dressed, bad mannered and uneducated.

Certain phrases and words expressions may develop in a particular language, dialect, or style of speaking. These terms may be used in conversation and writing in a particular country, state or region yet may be unknown to people living beyond that place, who remain unfamiliar with its use. Idioms and colloquialisms are continually being invented, while others fall out of use because they may have connections to a particular point in time and people just stop using them. When I was boy, I frequently heard people saying things like:

I got donged on the noggin.
I just fell head over turkey.
I just came a cropper.

I don't hear these expressions that much anymore. They have fallen out of use, or been replaced by other expressions.

Idioms and colloquialisms always provide fun for a poet. I wrote this poem a couple of days ago. I thoroughly enjoyed using some of those wonderful old expressions. Many of which were the phrases and terms heard so frequently during my childhood.

As I wrote my poem, I felt like I was bumping into old friends.

Sometimes I find myself writing about serious issues.This was a giggle and hoot writing experience. The mood was relaxed and the poetry decidedly lighthearted.

Time To Skedaddle

Don’t be a dingbat

I’ll be back, don’t you worry

Lickety split

All hurry scurry

Heavens to Betsy

Ooh la la

Don’t shilly-shally

It won’t get you far

Holy moly

Okey-doke

Watch me vanish

In a puff of smoke

No time for ratbags

Protect your wicket

Stay alert

That’s the ticket!

Poetry Inspired by Images and Objects

There are many ways pictures and photographs can be conscripted to support the writing of poetry. Allow me to share a few ideas with you: Old photographs are a great source of inspiration. Cynthia Rylant explored this idea with great success in her book 'Something Permanent' where she employed the Depression era photographs of Walker Evans to add a new voice to the starkness to the lives of people experienced under extreme circumstances. I have used this strategy to spark many individual poems. In ' I Bet There's No Broccoli On The Moon,' I used a photo I had taken in 2004 while living in New York to inspire a poem. The poem was based on a story related by a friend who grew up in New York. I regularly combined poetry and pictures in my writer's notebook, drawing on inspiration from the photograph and my personal memories. We can also utilize existing cartoons and illustrations to create ekphrastic poems. I frequently use the illustrations of Jim Pavlidis to co...

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Given the fact that we recently celebrated St Patrick's Day, it seems appropriate that I take this opportunity to continue the Irish focus and recognize one of Ireland's leading literary figures... Seamus Heaney was born in County Derry in Northern Ireland in 1939 and died in 2013. He became a multi award winning poet. His first collection of poems, 'Death of a Naturalist' appeared in 1966 and helped to establish Heaney as one of the major poets of the 20th century. From that first anthology, I have chosen 'Storm On The Island.' This poem tells us about the stoic resistance of people and structures to an incoming storm. The island is not named. Poetic scholars believe this is a poem that can be taken literally, as a monologue on the life and attitude of island people facing a storm, or it can be understood as a metaphor of political struggle on the island of Ireland. Heaney knew both worlds. The poems of this first collection are grounded in the soil...

Peter Dixon -Teabag Poem

Today I'm highlighting the poetry of Peter Dixon. Peter Dixon was not just a poet. He was a performer, educationalist and artist. He grew up in London during WW2, and as a boy his schooling was far from successful. He struggled with spelling and the understanding of word, form and grammar, so he tended to write secretly at home, drawing and writing of things largely ignored by schools. Despite this difficult phase of his life, Peter eventually became a school teacher and then a senior lecturer in education. It often mystified him as to how all of this came to pass. As a teacher, he strived to be unbiased and did not neglect the children who experienced learning challenges. Peter Dixon became a full time children’s writer and educational consultant. His first book was published in 1978. Whilst living in Winchester, Hampshire, with his family, he contributed to over 100 poetry anthologies and had seven collections of his own work published including Grow Your O...

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