Just Like I Used To Do...

Memories

by Amy LV

Students - lately I have been focusing more on writing regularly in my notebook. It may because of all of the peeks I've been taking into others' notebooks at my new blog, Sharing Our Notebooks. It may because I'm digging into Julia Cameron's book FINDING WATER: THE ART OF PERSEVERANCE. But no matter the reason, I'm so glad to be nestling into fresh pages this fall.

Yesterday I was diddling along in my book, writing about the quiet morning, the colors outside my window, and the steam-patterns rising from my mug of tea. I always allow myself to change directions, switch ideas at any time, let the writing find its path, and that's just what I was doing. At once I was writing about a memory I've told you before.

Years ago, when Mark and I lived in the suburbs, we had some sweet girl-neighbors. One day they came by to swing their dolls in our blue hammock...but they had their dolls hidden in plastic bags so no one would see that they still liked dolls. Well, I still like dolls. And I like my daughters' dolls too, even though none of us play with them so much any more. Dolls, like so many other things, feel alive to me.

So during yesterday's writing time, I imagined one small interaction between a girl (Me? My daughter? My old neighbor girl?) and her doll, a little snatch of pretend-time. In it, I saw me as a little girl and my daughters as grown-ups, my mother as a child, and me as a grandma. We girl-women in my family all used to play dolls, but so suddenly it seems that things change. Just yesterday I was putting plastic ice skates on my Ginny doll. And now...I'm a real mom! Strange.

In Jamie Lee Curtis's book WHEN I WAS LITTLE: A FOUR YEAR OLD'S MEMOIR OF HER YOUTH, the narrator talks about things she "used to do." What did you "used to do"? Try making a list of all of the things you used to do...and all of the things you do now. Choose one thing and write, write, write. Don't think too hard; just follow the line of your pencil.

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Dar Williams illustrates a feeling of change very well for me in her song, one of my favorite songs, "When I Was A Boy."

One way which I feel very privileged to be spending some of my autumnwinter time is as a first round poetry judge for the 2011 CYBILS. The CYBILS are the Children's and Young Adult Bloggers' Literary Awards, and nominations for every category begin tomorrow, October 1 and go through October 15. To learn more about the CYBILS, visit here.

Happy Poetry Friday to all! Sara is hosting today's Poetry Friday roundup over at Read Write Believe.

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Asters - Writing about Beauty

Stopping by Raiber Road
Photo by Amy LV

Driving home from a school on Wednesday, I was struck by the absolute beauty of autumn wildflowers lining country roads. Gold and purple, brown and green...the mosiac of color and changing life made my soul sigh in wonder.

As I neared home, I pulled my car to the side of the road, got out, and took several photos, including the one at the top of this post. I couldn't shake this picture, those purple faces, fireworks, shouting out to the world, "We are here! It is autumn! Rejoice!"

What do you find so beautiful that it stops you from walking, from talking, from riding your bike? If something makes you pause, makes you think, makes you long for more...write.

Was I inspired by a favorite poem here?  I am certain that I was.  X.J. Kennedy's poem "Blow-Up" speaks of a cherry tree losing its blossoms.  It, too, rhymes the words blast and last.  It, too, is about time's fast passage.

In the words of the Lebanese American poet Kahlil Gibran, "Poetry is a deal of joy and pain and wonder, with a dash of the dictionary."

Listen to your heart.

If you have not yet visited my new blog, I invite you to Sharing Our Notebooks, a growing blog peeking into the notebooks of all kinds of people and appropriate for classroom sharing and mini lessons.  This week, writer Luke Reynolds has opened up his pages to us!

Anastasia Suen is hosting today's Poetry Friday roundup over at Picture Book of the Day.

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Hosting Poetry Friday & A Singing Lady

Welcome to today's Poetry Friday buffet...here! I hope you're hungry, as there will be many links to munch on throughout the day.

Plane Tickets

Students - today's poem comes from something that just happened to me...almost. This week, I had the chance to work with some fantastic and warm teachers in Ohio's West Carrollton Schools. Ohio is several hours from home, so this work required some air travel.


On Wednesday evening I flew home through Newark, and while in the airport restroom, I heard a woman singing a lovely and mysterious Spanish song. It was mysterious to me because I do not speak Spanish and because I have never sung in a public restroom. I just stood there, washing my hands, savoring water and words both.


Were there others there? No, we were alone. Was it in a store? No, it was in an airport. So no, the facts of this poem are not exactly accurate. That's why I say that this "almost" happened to me.


The facts are not exact, but the spirit and soul of this moment could not be more true. I was touched by the openness of song in a restroom, of joy in the most mundane moment of daily life. My evening was made more beautiful by this chance encounter, and I know that I will think about this lady again and again.


Remember this - you do not need a perfect memory or the exact facts of an event to recapture the mood and dust left upon your heart.


To leave your link for today, please click on "Mister Linky" below and add a direct link to your Poetry Friday post. Along with your link, please include your name or blog's name followed by the topic of your post in parentheses.


For example: The Poem Farm (Original poem "I Heard a Lady Singing")


I will add posts throughout the day, though I will be out for much of the morning. Please click below to see what's here, and I'll round everything up as soon as I get back home.

Today's Dishes at the Poetry Friday Buffet
Steven Witherow at Crackles of Speech offers up an original poem about Facebook titled "Friendism."


Charles Ghigna at Father Goose leads us into autumn with his original poem "Autumn's Way."


Myra Garces-Bascal at Gathering Books features poet Professor Gemimo Abad.


Julie Larios at The Drift Record, in love with New York City, shares Allen Ginsberg's poem "My Sad Self."


Mary Lee at A Year of Reading brings us David Budbill's "What We Need" and some donuts.


Mandy brings Target's "Haiku-pons" over at Enjoy and Embrace Learning.


Maria Horvath's Daily Poems shares a poem about the ambivalence of love, "I Can't Hold You and I Can't Leave You" by Juana Inez De La Cruz.


Debbie Diller at A Journey in Learning shares Jane Kenyon's "Trouble with Math in a One-Room Country School."


The Stenhouse Blog spotlights a poem by California English Teacher Gayle Hobbs, "Thinking Survived."


Laura Purdie Salas at Writing the World for Kids offers Alice Schertle's "Spider" from Alice's book KEEPERS.


Laura also invites us to join her 15 Words or Less Poems with a "Barred" photograph.


At Random Noodling, Diane Mayr brings "That's the Sum of It" by David Ignatow along with a video of Ignatow reading "I Killed a Fly."


Tabatha Yeatts at The Opposite of Indifference shares "Poor Angus" by Shel Silverstein.


At Kids of the Homefront Army, Diane Mayr has an original poem titled "Mail Call."


Diane also has cat poetry at Kurious Kitty's Kurio Kabinet, including "Pussycat Sits on a Chair" by Edward Newman Horn.


At Kurious K's Kwotes, Diane offers a quote from Picasso about art.


Robin Hood Black shares Rose Fyleman's poem, "The Best Game that Fairies Play."


Over at Author Amok, Laura has a tribute to neglected master, Samuel Menashe.


Dori ushers in fall with Jeanie Tomasko's poem, "Edge of September."


At Jama's Alphabet Soup, Jama feeds us Mary Oliver's "The Poet is Told to Fill Up More Pages."


Sally, at Paper Tigers, shares the book UNDERWATER FARMYARD by Carol Ann Duffy.


At Across the Page, Janet offers James Taylor's song, OUR TOWN along with thoughts about the recent flooding in Owego, NY.


JoAnn Early Macken has an original poem about revision, titled "Revising a Poem" at Teaching Authors.


Greg Pincus shares his original poem, "The Writer's Chant (Butt in Chair)" over at GottaBook.


At Picture Book of the Day, Anastasia Suen brings the book Cats, Cats by author-illustrator Michelle Nelson-Schmidt.


David Elzey offers some minimally invasive poems at Fomograms.


Over at The Small Nouns, Ben shares Walt Whitman's poem, "Miracles."


Elaine Magliaro continues taking us through the year with poetry books over at Wild Rose Reader.


To read Elaine's first post about poetry books through the year, visit Wild Rose Reader here.


At All About the Books, Janet Squires brings AMAZING FACES, edited by Lee Bennett Hopkins.


Pentimento offers us Jane Hirschfield's poem, "French Horn."


At Check it Out, Jone MacCulloch shares "The Words Under the Words" by Naomi Shihab Nye.


TeacherDance jumps into sharing on Poetry Friday for the first time with a poem for the beginning of school, James W. Hall's "Maybe Dats Your Pwoblem Too."


Over at Musings, Joyce Ray has an original 9/11 poem titled "Golden Seams."


Jennie, at Biblio File, offers up a Shel Silverstein poem from WHERE THE SIDEWALK ENDS.


At Twinkling Along, Carlie shares her original poem, "Lost Phone."


At There is No Such Thing as a God-Forsaken Town, Ruth shares "Hurry" by Marie Howe.


Please come back later for dessert!


I would like to invite you over to my new blog, Sharing Our Notebooks. In this space, you can expect regular sneak-peeks into the notebooks of others. (Maybe yours?) Today you can see the scrawls-before-books of Anne Mazer.


Thank you to my daughter Georgia for today's calligraphy!

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Growing - Poems about Time & Change

How Tall are Heidi & Amy?

Photo by Amy LV

A couple of weeks ago I shared a poem called "Mysteries" about my recently-sold childhood home.  During my last visit to our home, I walked around taking photographs of everything I would want to remember, those distinct and touchable-smellable-feelable rooms of childhood.  

A few weeks later, my sister said, "I would love a photo of that wall where Dad used to mark our heights."  I said, "I got it."  For this was an important bit of space for me too.  I remember standing up straight underneath Dad's flat hand at both seven and at sixteen, wondering if I had grown and changed.  Can you see how my dad painted AROUND our heights when he repainted the back hall?  

Students - Writing this poem helped me see one way that time passes in my life - how my body grows and changes.  There are so many ways to notice change and growth.  Our new puppy, Sage, is getting bigger, and we can tell by how heavy she is in our arms.  As a little girl, I listened to our grandfather clock singing and bonging on the quarter hour.  This month, I am marking time by the Concord grapes filling our porch edges, the abundance of cider apples at the market, and the acorns littering our driveway like so much confetti.  How do you know that time is passing?   Try choosing one change in your life and follow it through a poem.  The choices are infinite.

Mom's Clock

Photo by Amy LV

Since I mentioned my wonderful sister today, I would also like to celebrate Kristine O'Connell George's newest book, EMMA DILEMMA, all about two sisters.  As an older sister, this poem rings honest and beautiful and funny and bittersweet, all at the same time.  You can check out the Facebook page for EMMA DILEMMA here and see a photo of Heidi and me here!

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Time does bring new things, and today I would like to welcome you to my very new blog, Sharing Our Notebooks.  In this new space, I will post and share a variety of notebooks for your nosy-peeking-pleasure.  I seek notebooks of all types: student, chef, inventor, writer, jotter, doodler, painter, any and all pages are welcome.  Please consider joining this blog fit for classroom and personal use, highlighting notebooks of children and adults alike!

Today's Poetry Friday post is over at Secrets and Sharing Soda. Head on over there to read some great poems-about-poetry and to enjoy all of the links!

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Announcement: New Blog Debuts Today!

Notebook Stack

Photo by Amy LV

Student & Teacher Friends - Today I would like to invite you to my new blog, Sharing Our Notebooks, a blog for just that.  The first post is a peek into my own notebooks, but after today, you will be able to read bits from all kinds of notebooks...maybe yours!  

Please join if you wish, and come back each Tuesday to learn about all kinds of ways to use a notebook.  My hope for this new blog is that it will give us all ideas and fuel for our writing journeys!

The Poem Farm will continue in this space each Friday, and possibly more.  I look forward to hearing about how you celebrate poetry in your classrooms, and I hope to see you in my new space too - Sharing Our Notebooks.   If you would like to share a page from your notebook - or if you know a notebook keeper of any sort who might wish to do so - please drop me a line at amy at amylv dot com.

Happy beginning to another beautiful year!

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My Blanket Smells - Poems from the Past

Caapoo 2011

Photo by Amy LV

This poem is no longer

available.

It will soon be a book! 

Students - when I was a little girl, I had a blanket named Caapoo.  His name was pronounced CAA-poo, not Caa-POO, and I remember my parents telling me how I once corrected my Great Aunt Kay who mispronounced his name as Caa-POO.  That would not do!  

I loved my blanket and his special smell, and I used to tell him all of my secrets.  Several years ago, I had a poem published in LADYBUG MAGAZINE titled "My Bear" about whispering secrets into a teddy bear's ear.  This poem was really about stuffed bears, dogs, favorite pillows and blankets...anything that a person sleeps with and whispers to and loves.

I wrote today's poem some time ago, when my old blanket-friend was still living in a drawer in my childhood home.  Recently, my dad found Caapoo in a box and gave him back to me.  I don't sleep with a blanket anymore, but it's still good to have him around. 

What special objects do you love?  Do you remember any particular smells that you think will stay with you for your whole life?  Go ahead...write about them.

If you love blankets and stories about blankets, don't miss Bob Graham's picture book, THE RED WOOLEN BLANKET.  Like every other book Bob has written and illustrated, this one is full of heart, goodness, and giggles too!

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Teachers - I am so glad that you stopped by. Please know that I will be posting and sharing poetry and classroom-poem ideas each Friday.  The after-poem words in each post are directed straight to students, so you can trust they will be appropriate and safe for SMART board or center use.  I also welcome you to share any poem ideas or student work...if you look in the sidebar, you will see "CLASSROOM POETRY PEEKS."  These are posts chock-full of stories, photos, and fresh ideas from wonderful teachers, all about sharing poetry in school.

Thinking about things we love has me also thinking about things others have lost in the wake of Hurricane Irene.  If you would like to donate a book to the Wells Memorial Library in Upper Jay, NY or the West Hartford Public Library in West Hartford, Vermont, visit Kate Messner's blog for information on how to do so.  If you are an author or artist who might like to donate a book or artwork, please visit Kate's post here.

Today's Poetry Friday snuggle is over at Tricia's The Miss Rumphius Effect.  And if you didn't know, Tricia posts regular Monday Poetry Stretches where anyone can write and share!  You can see last week's stretch here - Natural Forces.

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