Friday, November 11, 2011

Poetry Friday & Daylight Saving Bank


Stonehenge Sunrise
by Georgia LV


Are you used to the time change yet? Over here we're still adjusting our body clocks to the clocks in the world. And my car is still an hour ahead!

Students - today's poem comes to you from the Manuscript Bus Station. Some time ago, I wrote a poetry collection titled IMAGINARY NEIGHBORHOOD, and it's a rustle of poems about places that don't really exist except for in my mind. No, there's not a real "Daylight Saving Bank" or a real "Snowflake Designer's Studio," but in the IMAGINARY NEIGHBORHOOD...there is.

What's the Manuscript Bus Station? Well, it's not a poem. But it's a place where manuscripts wait for someone to pick them up and take them home. Writers spend lots of time visiting the Manuscript Bus Station, checking to see if they got a ride with a publisher.

This poem came from my crazy head and my constant confusion with Daylight Savings Time. The Daylight Savings Bank is a made up place, one I think would be neat to visit in real life. What place do you wish to invent? Go for it! Your imaginary place can come to life in your notebook! Thinking about different times in the year is another way that I find writing ideas.

Today is Veterans Day. Last year, I posted To You on Veterans Day, and today I am especially thinking about those who have served and continue to serve our country. Last Friday, my mother shared this family scrapbook with me - full of letters from my grandpa Norman H. Dreyer to my grandmother, Florence E.C. Dreyer, during WWII. I will be writing about these soon, but today I will be rereading the letters and thinking about my grandparents between 1943 - 1945.

Dreyer Family Letters
Photo by Amy LV

It was such a delight to talk with teachers at last week at Literacy for All about writing history poems in social studies class. This week I've been mulling over many of their comments and stories, and I am excited to continue this conversation at NCTE in a couple of weeks.

Today I look forward to talking with parents at the NYS PTA Convention about "Encouraging and Strengthening Young Writers at Home." If anyone would like the handouts from that session, please just send me an e-mail to amy@amylv.com, and I will be happy to send them on their way to you.

April Halprin Wayland is hosting today's Poetry Friday buffet over at Teaching Authors. Thank you, April!

(Please click on POST A COMMENT below to share a thought.)

13 comments:

  1. I wish I could go get some extra time at the Daylight Savings Bank!

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  2. Amy, what an imaginative theme for a collection! LOVE IT! (written by a gal who knows that Manuscript Bus Station all too well :)

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  3. Love the poem and the idea of creating those kinds of poems. But I also look forward to your sharing about the letters. I have letters too and wonder what to do with them. Perhaps a special scrapbook?

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  4. I love your imagination, Amy!!

    My son told me the other day that it's really "Daylight Saving" instead of "Daylight Savings" and ever since then I've been wondering, "really?" but I haven't looked it up.

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  5. Oh my gosh...I just checked, and he's right! I love that! Now to maybe revise. Please thank your son, and thank YOU! It's so funny how we can say the same words for years, never knowing that they are somehow mixed up or misused. A.

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  6. That scrapbook is such a gift! What a wonderful record you have. I went looking for my grandfather's "in uniform" photo today. He enlisted underage to serve in WWI. These things are treasures.

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  7. Great Poetry Friday post (and, of course, it would work for any day at all)! Congrats on your forthcoming book. Very exciting, and it sounds wonderful.

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  8. Once again your poetry leaves me with a smile. YES! Still having a hard time adjusting to the time change. Here in Indiana, we've only been changing our clocks for a couple of years!
    Ruth

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  9. If only that hour we put in the bank would earn interest. I wouldn't mind so much if I could get back MORE thank I put in!!!

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  10. Hi Amy,
    Whew, you have been a busy girl! I too am driving around with a clock that is off by an hour. I would love to attend your presentations, but since I cannot, I will email you for the handouts. Many thanks!
    ~Theresa

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  11. This poem is PERFECT! Happy Lose-an-hour-of-sleep--I mean, Spring Daylight Savings--time!

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  12. I wish I could too get some extra time on this soecial Day on March 10th wishing you all the best on this special day.

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  13. I wonder if there is a savings bank building with solar panels on the roof. That could be called the "Daylight Savings Bank". I Like your poem.

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