This week finds me recovering from three significant maladies and one minor one. The first three were a shoulder sprain, a black eye and stitches, and covid. They knocked me off my game, my game being exercising seven times a week (swimming, biking, running, and lifting) and doing the things that a retired-teacher-become-a-poet does: laundry, cleaning, and yard work. 

Yesterday I posted the second of a series of kids poems that I am writing in hopes that they become a book at some point. I am a huge fan of Shel Silverstein and Dr. Seuss–Shel Silverstein for his irony and humor and Dr. Seuss for his rhymes. In addition they both have distinctive art that accompanies their poetry. 

As for poetry written for kids, that is certainly what I want to do, kids being adolescents up through ten or eleven, I suppose. But I also want to write kids poetry that adults might want to read, if only to read to kids. 

Having four kids, I know that some books were fun to read to them when they were little, and some books were ok to read. Some books allowed me to be expressive and allow my own personality to fill the space of the reading, creating a connection with my kids that simply reading did not. 

That is what is in my head as I write these types of poems, that when they are read out loud they are fun to read while of course being fun to hear. 

While the kids were growing up I wrote a lot of kids songs, eventually publishing an album on the streaming services–Apple, Spotify, Amazon, (and if there are others, I think it is also there). The album is called “Songs I Shouldn’t Sing and Neither Should You”. I did this through CDBaby.com in 2006 after previously publishing an album of songs I wrote in the late 1980’s and 1990’s, an acoustic guitar only collection called “Fairlee” after the summer camp I started attending in 1987.

And where I met my wife. And where all of our kids grew up from their infant/adolescent years to their teenage years and, in Anna’s case, beyond.

All this to say I’ve been thinking about creating for children for a long time. Those songs range from potty humor (“The Toilet Song”) to clever quick rhymes (“Eggs and Bacon” is the best of this type on the album, I think). They are recorded ok, considering I did this in my office with a mediocre microphone and ok editing skills. 

“Fuss Buss” is my all-time most streamed track on Apple Music. You can hear it here on Apple music and here on Spotify if you are curious. I just checked and am pleased to note that it is the only song titled “Fuss Buss” on Apple Music. I couldn’t find it through a direct search on Spotify, but I can find it searching for my full name Jay Logan Lance.

For today’s blog, I want to look at the lyrics of “Fuss Bus” to start:

I got a gummy in my pocket if you don’t fuss
I got a Big Mac, fries, a chocolate shake,
I got front seat shotgun on the big buss honey if you don’t fuss

Well we headed downtown but the car broke down
So we took the number five southbound
Me and the three little ones gonna have some fun on the big bus

But the littlest one he hurt his thumb
And the middle she sat in gum
And the oldest one his nose was running on the big bus

But the Fuss Fuss Bus
Hey get a load of us
We’re loud and we don’t care
Our daddy still loves us
On the Fuss Bus

All the people there they start to stare
Except the three kids, well, they don’t care,
They just yell a little louder and pull my hair on the big bus 
I got a dollar in my pocket if that’s not enough
I got a ten spot folded in my left shoe
Hey Ben Franklin, he sure could love you, if you don’t fuss.

Well the bus swerves fast and I pass gas
and the little one he loses his breakfast 
on the middle one who starts to sass me on the big bus
and the oldest ones spits his gum in a pretty girl’s hair
who starts to swear and calls me old and fat and dumb and a doofus

The vibe here is pretty clear: a dad willing to take his kids on public transportation needs to be willing to be embarrassed and also willing to bribe his children to behave. 

This story never actually happened though there were many times I was in public with my kids and was more than willing to bribe them. I suppose I have caused them no small bit of trouble adjusting to the consequences for their actions now as adults, but at the time it seemed like a good idea.

The clearest example of this bribing was at my sister-in-law and brother-in-law's wedding when Theodore was two. I kept him happy with an entire box of Scooby Doo gummies as we sat through the service. 

And it worked well, I must say. 

I can’t quite say that these lyrics are a poem for me, but they are lyrical, having rhyme and meter. They don’t stand up well on their own, though, not when I read them out loud. And that, for children’s poetry, is the big test for me–are they enjoyable to say and hear, as well as being age-appropriate in theme and content. 

“Fuss Bus” is a funny song. I personally think the music itself fits the song. I have often discounted my chops as a musician, but I’ve always loved writing the songs and I have grown enough over the years that I think I’m ok. 

When I think of what I want to do with kid’s poetry, though, “Ding-a-Ling, Ding!” more closely fits my goal. I broke the lines down so that the rhythm was easier to hear–lines of three syllables that come quickly without anything to twist your tongue. The rhyming and alliteration are punchy, a bit staccato.

The poem is meant to be spoken. Honestly, just reading it in my head right now I couldn’t hear the beat, the rush. The words describing the ringing of bells, from what I can tell, all have onomatopoeia, at least the ones I chose here.

The bell that is the focus here is the silver bell that so many people have on their bikes that so clearly is a “Ding!” I pictured kids here ringing the bell over and over while they are riding on a trail passing people who are mostly adults.

Now, as for the supposition that adults would show respect and be proud of kids ringing their bells like this, that may be a stretch. 

But maybe not if they know the kid or are related. I think adults have to be in the mood to naturally think kindly of every kid that might pass them while they are walking or riding their bike on a trail. But for the most part, the poem rings true this way (sorry for that. I couldn’t resist). 

Kids poems also need to have clever parts, in my opinion, which is also my overall opinion of literary poems. Clever here means that with a second and third and fourth reading there is more to discover in the poem. 

Emily Dickinson is my favorite poet that wrote in this way. Her poems always sound amazing on the first reading, but on the next several readings there is a burst of realization and understanding that makes the poems more enjoyable.

In some ways it’s like saying to someone, hey, I’m sticking something in here for you to find if you take the time. It’s a way to make a connection with someone, almost like sharing a secret. 

A good example here are the lines 

passing by
by-standers
standing by
while I ride

I actually see where I could have done more here. I had a part at the end with “grandmothers wave good-bye” which would have been a call back to these lines, but it didn’t make the cut. 

I could have written these lines

passing by
by-standers
standing by
waving hi
while I ride

In truth, I can simply add that now. A poem doesn’t have to be the last version of itself, not until the poet says. And the poems that I post here are all drafts in my mind. Sometimes I think they are complete, but I fully reserve the right to change them and/or pull them down from the site if I ever would think they were not done enough, so to speak.

As for that, I submitted three of the poems on poetprojects.com to Edge of Humanity Magazine and just heard back that at least one of them will be included in their poetry monthly that comes out this weekend. 

As I talked about a few blogs ago, I want to get my work out into the poetry world and find a bigger audience. It doesn’t have to be too big. The 53 followers I have right now is just right, for now. I have gotten great feedback and love sharing my work with you. 

Thank you if you made it this far today! Here’s a secret I’ll share with you, in the spirit of Easter Eggs in poems I mentioned above,  from my album “Songs I Shouldn’t Sing and neither should You”. The title of the album’s acronym is “SISSY” (if you skip the non capitalized words). There is a song on the album called “Bully on the Corner” and though I don’t use the word in the song, it is clearly a homage to sissies, as I was often called as a kid. I never minded, especially after I realized that when you own being called something by a bully, if you can, you take the bully’s power away. 

Take that, bullies!