Poem #350 (a Haiku) Welcomes Snowdrops

Our First Snowdrops

Photo by Amy LV

Today I offer my first haiku of 350 poems.  This week we have been simply tickled to see our first red-winged blackbirds, our first snowdrops, our first of everything spring!  Such a newness creeps into one's very marrow, and so this poem called out to me in the shower yesterday morning.

Students - if you are a maker of poems, a maker of stories, a maker of music, or a maker of art, be aware that you can make in your mind even as you do other things.  When you shower, walk to school, knit, ride your bike...you can think about what you are making and let those thoughts simmer in your mind like a fine rich soup.

For a wonderful radio show about haiku, listen to Tom Ashbrook's On Point - Haiku and You.  For an article about writing haiku, visit Teach Poetry K-12.

If you would like to hear a Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale about a snowdrop, visit the Hans Christian Andersen Center, and read The Snowdrop.

Did you know that you can press flowers into pictures?  My husband's Aunt Pat has done this, hammering flowers onto fabric, making beautiful art.  The photo below is not near as lovely as the real thing, but can you believe that these flowers are all made by pounding petals with a hammer?

At Rhythm of the Home, you can read and follow a very clear tutorial about how to do this yourself.

 Pounded Flower Art by Aunt Pat Rybke

Photo by Amy LV

Dale Sondericker, my farmer-teacher inspiration for yesterday's poem, Manure Day, sent me a note last night - 

It will make you happy to know that the first time I heard it (the poem) was when I was in the tractor spreading a load of manure at 5:40 this morning.  My wife went on your blog and read it to me over the phone.

He's right.  That made me happy.

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