Slice of Life Story Challenge March 15 - A Load of Piffle!

As I drove home this afternoon caught in the freeway crawl and stutter, I had ample time to listen to the radio. I was hoping for some light relief. The announcer asked people to call in and talk about things that had fallen out of use, or gradually faded from view. I immediately had a connection to a conversation I had with some teachers the day before. We were discussing vocabulary development and the challenge that idiomatic language often presents for English language learners. 

As we talked, the conversation turned to the fluid nature of language. Words come and go. Words fall out of use. Words that featured strongly during one’s childhood, may rarely be heard in latter years. For me, I think of words like, skedaddle, bonza, piffle and scallywag.  
Each generation develops its own preferred word set it seems. –

And so in an attempt to pay homage to at least one of those old words and prolong its use, I have written the following homage to that great little word-  piffle…

A Load of Piffle


I heard the man who lives in the apartment next door

Say to his wife

That’s a load of piffle

And I wondered to myself

Why did he take a load of piffle into his apartment?

How did he get that all that piffle upstairs?

Did he carry it up the stairs in a bucket?

Did he carry it on his back?

Or did he put the piffle in his pocket

And plod up the stairs

And now that he’s got that piffle upstairs

What will he do with it?

And what does a pile of piffle look like anyway?

I have to say that piffle is particularly puzzling

 

 

Comments

  1. Melanie Meehan15 March 2013 at 21:50

    Love your homage to piffle! I might have to use this word today for something. But what does a pile of piffle look like? Love it!

    ReplyDelete
  2. elsie16 March 2013 at 00:01

    It is interesting to watch language evolve. I'm always interested to learn what are the new words that are added to the dictionary each year. It is sad to see the demise of such great words (scallywag. skedaddle, etc.)
    You have done piffle proud. The final line's alliteration is perfect.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Kat16 March 2013 at 04:53

    Love this! It's so interesting when you work with kids to see firsthand how different words evolve. This is the kind of thing my mom would love--I will have to pass this link on to her!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Christy Rush-Levine16 March 2013 at 15:46

    My 8th graders just came to class asking if I knew the phrase "I am going to hit you with a wet noodle." Language is so fun and your piffle poem is the perfect celebration of that. A playful springboard... and this poem in the form of a list of questions reminds me of a "Snapshot Writing" form that Sara Holbrook shared today at the Illinois Reading Council Conference--Question Poems.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular With Other Visitors

Writing Opposite Poems

Image
 O pp o s ite  P oem s In his book, ' How To Write Poetry,'  Paul Janeczko presents the idea of opposite poems. Paul suggests they could also be referred to as antonym poems. This is wordplay and it's fun to try. Here are some examples Paul provides to help us see very clearly how these short little poems work. I think the opposite of chair Is sitting down with nothing there What is the opposite of kind? A goat that butts you from behind Paul Janeczko You will  notice the poems are written in rhyming couplets. They can be extended so long as you remember to write in couplets. Paul shows us how this is done. What is the opposite of new? Stale gum that's hard to chew A hot-dog roll as hard as rock Or a soiled and smelly forgotten sock You might notice that some of Paul's opposite Poems begin with a question. The remainder of the poem answer the question posed. Opposite poems are a challenge, but it is a challenge worth trying. Not every thing has a
Read more

Writing About Reading - Reading Reflection Journals:

Image
UPDATED February 2022 Writing in response to literature can be a great way for students to organize their thoughts, explore what they think, and generate ideas. One of the strengths of writing in journals is that it allows students to capture all of those great ideas that generally float off into the air during the discussion.  Journal writing can also become drudgery if students are asked to write too often, given little choice or inspiration in what to write, or if they simply don't have anything to say. While some students eagerly share their impressions about selections they have read in class discussions, others are less comfortable and keep their thoughts to themselves. In an effort to encourage all students to think more about what they read and confidently share their observations and opinions, some teachers are turning to the reading reflection journal and are gaining insights they never anticipated.  The Value of Reflection Journals   Journals assist teachers to gain i
Read more

Learning How to 'Zoom In' When Writing

Image
It is important for young writers to understand that not all parts of a story are equal. There are parts through which a writer moves quickly, and important parts where the writer slows down and lingers a while. This is where the writer might intensify the action or reveal the character’s reactions in greater detail. Young writers need to know that this is a deliberate strategy on the part of the author. The author consciously zooms in. The writer uses a magnifying glass to view a part of the story more closely; to focus on a moment and to slow down time. When an important part of the story is enlarged upon, it   is a signal to the reader, that this part of the story is important. The strategy of ‘zooming in’ goes by many names: ‘exploding a moment’ ‘magnifying a moment’, ‘hotspot’ ‘snapshot’, ‘adding detail’ or ‘slowing the action.’  What ever the name, the idea is the same. The author writes in a way that expands a significant part of the story with the intention of drawing t
Read more

Answering Questions Posed by Young POETS

Image
UPDATED, May 2020 As a frequent visitor to schools I have the great pleasure of working with groups of young, enthusiastic poets and their teachers. When I arrive in a classroom, young poets are often pre-loaded with questions, and most keen to have them answered.  I try to answer as many as I can, but we frequently run out of time, and the poetry caravan moves on to the next classroom. So I am here to answer some of those questions -right here, right now. So here goes: When you were little did you love writing? The short answer is yes. I have always enjoyed words and language. I can't recall a time when I wasn't doing some kind of writing. When did you write your first poetry book? I have had poems published over the years, but it wasn't until 2014 that I had an entire book of poems (an anthology) published. When I looked back through all my notebooks I realized I had hundreds of poems from which to choose. So, 'Searching For Hen's Teeth-Poetry From The
Read more

Slice Of Life Story-The Trials Of A Left Handed Writer

Image
Amazingly I learnt to write using my left hand. An achievement against the prevailing beliefs of the day. My very first teacher saw it as her mission in life to ‘fix’ the poor, wretched little boy suffering from what she clearly diagnosed as left handed disease. She must have thought, 'This child must be re formatted! If he remains left handed he will be forever condemned to writing in a scrawl that no one will be able to read. Ugly hand, ugly hand.' ...They tried to say it couldn't be done, it mustn't be done. They took the pencil out of my left hand and placed it in my right hand. It felt unnatural. It felt weird. It was not right. More to the point it was not left. I was not about to conform. At least they didn't try tying my hand behind my back. Watch me I said. I may be an oddball, left handed scribbler but I am a determined oddball. I mean how boring would the world be if everyone wrote with their right hand? So I dug my toes in –and my hands to
Read more