Wednesday Writing Prompt: Boing! Bang! Boom! By Rochelle Melander

My 9^th grade English teacher taught me to listen to and love the sound of words. She loved the way these words rolled off her tongue: “garage” and “gasoline.” Her favorite words conjured up memories of Saturday mornings at the gas station with my grandfather. I loved the free Sugar Daddy caramel pops they gave to kids but wasn’t fond of the smells. So I found other words I liked: calliope, kaleidoscope, and calligraphy.

As I began exploring words and their sounds, I fell in love with onomatopoeia—words that imitate the sound or action they represent. Clap. Cuckoo. Crackle. On Saturday morning, to celebrate Dr. Seuss’s 109^th birthday, I had the joy of teaching a writing workshop about onomatopoeia poetry to young people at the Milwaukee Public Library.

Midway through the morning, a teenaged girl brought her six-year-old sister to the class. When I invited her to write, she said, “No thanks, I’ll just sit here and watch.” After I’d read several poems from Bobbi Katz’s wonderful book A Rumpus of Rhymes, I noticed the teenager grabbing paper and a pencil. I tried to ignore her, but I had to ask: “Are you going to write a poem?”

“It sounds like fun,” she answered.

I agree!

Try this:

+Spend a day listening to sounds and writing down the words you would use to convey them. Does your bacon sizzle when you cook breakfast? What sound does your car make when you start it? Does your cat meow or growl or something entirely different?

+If you get stuck or need more inspiration, find a site that plays animal sounds and listen to them. (You can hear a northern cardinal call at the Old Farmer’s Almanac or tune into a whole host of owl sounds at The Owl Pages. Write down the words the sounds inspire.

+If you need MORE words, just search for “onomatopoeia words” online. You’ll find lists of words. Write down the ones you like.

+Write a poem about a normal but noisy daily practice using onomatopoeia words.

If you need more inspiration, take a look at the poems written by the young people at the library:

Pop pop pop.

Can you hear

that pop corn

pop the salty

taste on my

crazy silly tongue?

—Milena Whitlow

Buzz, buzz, buzz. The buzzing

bee flies through the sky I don’t know why

he went flying through the sky. It’s winter.

I wouldn’t dare to fly in this air.

—Ilijah Taylor-Jordan

As the Wind scurried and rustles out with a booming loud voice yelled, “Lion come out!” With a yawn and a scratch and an angry moan, the Lion said, “Come now, wind won’t leave me alone. I have a tight schedule of sleeping and snore. Then when I’m done, I’ll have feasting galore.” The Wind was so angry he blew up a storm which surprisingly to the Lion was really quite warm. Whoosh! Bing! Zap! Kapow! Oh the old Lion was really up now. With an open of eyes and a raise of the brow, the poor Lion was in for it now. The Wind’s body was lanky yet stiff then the wind blew Lion off a mountain. Now what happened to the lion? So poor oh so sad that Lion was no more.

—Awesome Herring

Rattle

Swish, Whack

Scratch, Swoosh, Thump

Froosh, Swizzle, Sputter, Plunk

Snake

—Livy Maillet

Rattle Rattle Tic Toc the shoes tapped.

Sizz, sizz the snake went.

Whizz, whizz the wind went.

Thump squash the window said.

—Tamarra Torres