Warm Memory & GIFT TAG

Paper Snowflake

Photo by Amy LV

Students - Lately I have been thinking lots about snow.  It started a few weeks ago when I had to choose a photograph to write from for GIFT TAG. This new e-book required each poet to choose an inspiration-photograph, and I chose a picture of snow falling around a small home. I needed to write a poem about a gift...and as a Buffalo girl, I think snow is a gift! My poem in GIFT TAG, "Snow Gifts," got me thinking about what's in store for us over the next five months.

Then, this Tuesday at school, a teacher friend told me a story. Sue teaches third grade, and a few days ago she looked out her classroom window to see snow swirling everywhere. And then she did just what the teacher in "Warm Memory" did. Sue put on her coat and led her students outside into a circle to "catch November snowflakes!" She and her class ate snowflakes together, holding their arms out, watching crystals land on their coats, cherishing this once-a-year first snowfall surprise.

At that moment I knew that I wanted to write Sue's story. And in doing so, her story became my story too. So many people do kind and beautiful things each day, and if we watch and listen carefully, our story-banks grow. Now, every time I see a first snow...I will imagine those third graders in their hushed circle, tongues in the sky and hearts full of fun.  Teachers like Sue are a gift.

E-book GIFT TAG comes to us from Janet Wong and Sylvia Vardell, and it is filled with poems by 28 different poets, each inspired by a different photograph.  My poem, "Snow Gifts," nestles among poems about goldfish, a bicycle, perfume, a kitty, and many other goodies.

This e-poetry collection is third in a series of e-poetry anthologies put together by Janet and Sylvia, each only $2.99 through Amazon. You can read or gift POETRY TAG TIME, p*tag, or GIFT TAG on a phone, iPad, or computer, and the poems are easy to project in a classroom too. I like reading the different poems as well as the connections made by the poets, and one of my favorite things is the way each e-book links to the different poets' websites. So, for a few dollars, a reader opens up a whole new world of writers. For you early bargain shoppers, GIFT TAG will be available for $1.99 through Monday.

Last weekend found me at NCTE, in love with session after session of poetry goodness. If you would like to hear some snips of the wonderful poem sessions, visit Sylvia Vardell's Poetry for Children blog where she has graciously posted poem video clips from the convention.

Thank you to Heidi Mordhorst for hosting today's Poetry Friday roundup over at my juicy little universe. I am so thankful for my Poetry Friday friends...

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Thanksgiving

Wednesday Sky

Photo by Amy LV

The other day, Georgia looked out the window and exclaimed, "The sky looks like cotton candy!" And it did. Each day is full of such marvels, and this week I vow to behold more wonders in my life. Big ones, small ones, all.

Today I am grateful for a new word learned this week - murmuration.  You may already have found out what this means, but if not, visit  Wired Science to see something astoundingly lovely in the sky.

I know a local teacher who has her students write regularly about something they are grateful for.  Wise indeed.

Students - look around. Be grateful. Write about it.

I'm thankful to have met so many new friends through the beauty of words.  Happy Thanksgiving to you all.

Thank you today to Tabatha is hosting today's Poetry Friday over at The Opposite of Indifference. Stop on by!

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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!

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History into Poetry: Luigi Del Bianco

Partway Knitted Tote Bag

Photo by Amy LV

Driving last Friday, I listened to a story from npr's Story Corps series. The story was about Luigi Del Bianco, the man who carved many of the details in Lincoln's Mount Rushmore face. His daughter, Gloria, shared her memories of her father with nephew Lou, and I was struck by this quote,

"And when I was little, my father wanted to carve me, but being the rambunctious, impatient child that I was, I wouldn't sit for him...And my mother would say, 'Please go sit for your father -- he won't keep you long, just a little bit.'"

I drove along the quiet roads of Alexander, NY thinking about this talented father wishing to immortalize his little girl. And I wanted to write about it. (You will notice the direct quote from Gloria in this poem.)

Students - At the top of this post, you may have wondered about why there is a photo of my current knitting project. Well, it's  going to be a tote bag, and it's knitted from scraps of yarn that I've had around the house. No need to go to the store for the yarn; it is old yarn. In the knitting world, we call this a stash.

So too, can we use "old yarn" for our poems. This world is full. Full of stories. The world is a stash! Every person you meet is a story-container. And so is every social studies book, each folded photograph, piece of clothing, or worn out tool. In any object or memory or person live unlimited possible-poems. We just have to go in there and get them! Faces from stone. Bags from old yarn. Poems from scraps of the past. We are makers, we humans.

Try this today. Open up your social studies book. Or an old one. Or any picture book that talks about the past. Remember something about the past that a family member once said. And open it up into poetry.

Teachers - in her book, PRACTICAL POETRY, Sara Holbrook discusses many ways to thread poetry through all of the disciplines. And with the new Common Core Standards, poetry is a beautiful way to incorporate writing in history, science, art, and math.

Available through Heinemann

This Monday at Literacy for All and later this month at the NCTE annual convention, I will speak about writing poems from and about history. With Karen Caine and Barry Lane (wait...my name doesn't rhyme!), I will share some ideas and resources for ways to weave poetry and history study. If you would like the handouts from these soon-to-be sessions, please just send me an e-mail to amy@amylv.com, and I will be happy to share them along.

If you're looking for a book just for you (or your YA students), I cannot recommend highly enough Allan Wolf's THE WATCH THAT ENDS THE NIGHT. This verse novel takes on 24 voices, from Captain to undertaker, refugee to Colonel. It is beautiful. It is haunting. It is on your to-be-read list.

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For more information about Luigi Del Bianco, visit the Mount Rushmore site or listen to his children talking about him in this YouTube video.

And to read more about using poetry with social studies, don't miss Sylvia Vardell's recent post at Poetry for Children - Notable Poetry in Social Studies or this one about poems of war and peace.

Laura Purdie Salas is hosting today's Poetry Friday at her sharp new WordPress blog, Writing the World for Kids. Thank you, Laura!

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