not my poem

In the third grade I fell in love with poetry. Our teacher made us write at least one poem. We got extra credit for a collection. I can tell you I do not remember my collection, but I do remember Randy C*****'s. Mostly because he turned it in for 3rd grade English, the 4th, 5th and finally in our senior year journal collection.

Please enjoy.

There once was a snake 

named Jake.

The snake stepped 

on a rake,

and

that 

was the end

of Jake

the

snake.

Author's Note

enjoy

Reviews

[Richard🖌]

I DID enjoy that, Cherrie,

Your story is as memorable as his poem.
In fact, it brings to mind one of my own from the third grade:

"Ooey Gooey"

Ooey Gooey was a worm,
a might worm was he.
He crawled into my cookie jar,
and now he's part of Me!

A lot of my buddies used it to gross-out the girls … wink*
There are more, but most of the girls thought one was "more" than enough … ha-hahhh!
Thanks for the fond memory and rascally smile.
Bless you with happy wellness and joy, Cherrie ⁓ Richard 🍃

[Cherrie Palmer]

I wonder how many have the love of poetry from that third grade introduction?
I love that you still have that poem a true delight.

[Richard🖌]

LOL, Cherrie!
I doubt that poem inspired very many future poets, but it was the next year (on my ninth birthday) my Aunt Kate taught me the English Sonnet … go figure! 😃

[Fabian G. Franklin]

My little girl makes up songs all the time and sometimes she invents her own words to songs she already knows. Tomorrow is her birthday and she's been singing a song from Frozen with these altered words; "Let it go, let it go, that birthday girl inside!" (laughing) I about spit out my coffee when she walked in singing that this morning. The poem is sweet. It's a child's effort but seemingly without a great expenditure of creativity, since he turned in the same poem, year after year. I play guitar so I have sometimes let my kids invent a line to a tune and I'll make up the next line and so on...it's fun and some of the finished songs have been hilarious. But this isn't the first time I've heard of "Jake the Snake". It seems to be a running theme among quite a few lesser known rhyming poets and there are at least a dozen variations.

[Cherrie Palmer]

Kids are great, when they turn their imagination lose you never know what'll you'll get.

[Jvl narasimharao]

It is good for kids.I enjoy reading it.I will use it in my English class

[Cherrie Palmer]

JLV, I hope your class gets a kick out of this little poem.

[Beccy]

I went to an all girls school and was ever so fortunate that poetry was actually on the agenda; not at the very top, but seen as important enough to feature in a weekly poetry class.

It is something sadly lacking in our education system today; such a shame, the oldest and most traditional art consigned to the back burner.

Great little poem that obviously served Randy well over the years. :))

Beccy.

[Cherrie Palmer]

I am curious to know if after all this time if he remembers it, because the simple humor of a child has never left me.

[Beccy]

He probably does. I still have the first poem I ever wrote. It's in a school English notebook, that my parent's kept along with lots of other school stuff.

[Dave Brown]

a very decent effort
My grandson is being forced to write some poetry for English this year
He hates it so it will be interesting what he turns out

[Cherrie Palmer]

You may have to share his end result.

[Cherrie Palmer]

When I think back to school, grade school is what I remember about so many of the kids I went to school with. This poem is crown jewel.

[Dave Brown]

Yes. it is a beauty

[kentuck14]

Excellent . . . I see though it was a more surrealistic piece seeing most snakes do not 'step' on things.
With a bit of fine tuning this poem (it makes too much sense) could win a big prize . . . even in the postmodern poetry world. I bet you could even win over John Ashberry fans.
T

[emmajoy]

Love to laugh late at night.. usually means sweet dreams, Cherrie. Love this poem, is charming fun and also, obviously very special to you! Memories are precious, yes?! Your few lines tell a story that could and would be enjoyed by littlies and don't doubt adults would find a metaphor or two!

[Cherrie Palmer]

As a kid I never thought of the poem as clever.
But now I see it that it is.
Every year we(my class )waited for him to breake out this silly poem.

[emmajoy]

And why not.. and it still floats a few boats, more than likely!

[DAH]

Cute and approachable.

Poor Jake and the snake, they got the wrong end of the deal,
and they paid dearly for it.

DAH

[Robert Trakofler]

LOL poor Jake he fell by way of a Buster Keaten sketch:) sometimes the simplest expressions are the greatest writes

[Cherrie Palmer]

I love Buster Keaton

[jacob erin-cilberto]

and it is even shaped like the head of a rake...
like William Carlos Williams' "red wheelbarrow" is shaped by stanza to look like a wheelbarrow.

cool...especially for third grade.

[Cherrie Palmer]

Once he turned it in agin in the 4th grade it became a running joke our class loved.
I think it's funny I can remember that and ya know I never thought about how clever it was, until much later.

[jacob erin-cilberto]

the way I feel about how I write...the whole conduit thing...I could probably everything I do as "not my poem"---
I read this again and smiled...appreciate that you shared his poem with us...
I wrote a couple poems in grade school...if i knew then, what I know now...no one would ever have seen them...they were in the school paper...
My face is still red in embarrassment.
j.

[Cherrie Palmer]

I think the the key to reading work we did as a youth is to treat itlike we are reading someone else's work.
Cause in a way we are:)