Wednesday, July 12, 2006

Poetry Thursday: The Scent of Feet

I think writing a humorous poem is incredibly difficult. I was going to give up the challenge when I thought about how much my students LOVE funny poems. It's the biggest poetry hook. So I read through a book of Shel Silverstein for inspiration (he makes it seem so effortless!) and decided to give it a try.

We've had this odd happening in my classroom of late where kids pull off their shoes and smell them during the day. Multiple kids. Multiple times. I find this odd and have made ridiculous mandates like, "There will be no smelling of feet in class!" It has yet to work. So I'll share this attempt at a funny poem with them instead.

The Scent of Feet

Keep your shoes on your feet!
the teacher would repeat.
At this age your toes
should not be near your nose!

But we love our pheremones
and we cannot help but sniff
to get a little whiff
of the grubby, mossy funk.

We’re taken with the gunk
of old sneaker lumps
jelly shoe crud
some two-day-old sock.

So we know that it is crass
but we cannot help ourselves
from inhaling the perfume
of our toes
in class.

10 Comments:

Blogger Joyce Ellen Davis said...

Moses supposes his toeses are roses.\But Moses supposes erroneously!

hehehe.

10:49 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hah! and Eeeeeew! So that's what the kids are doing these days, huh? ;p

10:56 AM  
Blogger January said...

Yikes! Feet!

I bet you have a lot of fun in your classroom. Very fun poem.

2:55 PM  
Blogger Becca said...

I'm glad you can see the humor in this! Sounds like you're a good teacher - and a good poet!

3:38 PM  
Blogger Ceebie said...

Ugh! Wow, I could actually smell those funky, mossy feet!

This poem is definitely in the realm of the funny...

10:32 PM  
Blogger Tina said...

This stanza is my favorite:

We’re taken with the gunk
of old sneaker lumps
jelly shoe crud
some two-day-old sock.

Your word-usage (woah that sounds pretentious of me) is pure awesome. I could practically smell the feet.

2:06 PM  
Blogger liz elayne lamoreux said...

oh yes! I love this. love it! It has me giggling...
thanks for bringing in some humor this week...

2:50 AM  
Blogger Kathleen said...

jelly shoe crud...
hee!

i can't wait til you get my girls next year.
no.
really.
i can't.

3:12 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

When Charlie was little, he used to love to smell feet - anyone's feet. One time he grabbed the feet of an unsuspecting sunbather floating in the pool - and inhaled deeply! He said that feet smelled like sandwiches.

5:19 PM  
Blogger Kay Cooke said...

This is neat - a poem about feet!
Love it!
It's always good when we can use what is happening in our environment.
This is rather sweet (sweet feet sweat!) and funny!

3:49 AM  

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