Cat's Cradle - Art for Two

Two Artists

by Amy LV

Students - Don't you love spiderwebs?  I know, they make a mess and sometimes we have to clean them up (my husband was vacuuming a bunch of them yesterday), but none of us can deny that they are amazing.  Every once in a while, I find myself pondering the beauty that such a tiny creature can spin.

Today's poem is full of a poetic technique that I am thinking about lately.  It is called alliteration, and you can see it in line four where I use the 'n' sound in two words - 'nimble' and 'neat.'  Alliteration is when a writer repeats the same beginning sound over and over again.  Can you find any other places where I have used alliteration?  Sometimes the alliterative words do not come to me upon a first draft; they come through revision.

You can see the process of writing today's poem below.  I wrote most of it last night as I lay half-asleep on the couch.  Sometimes a sleepy state lets my creative side speak up more loudly.

Draft of "Cat's Cradle"

Later, I brought myself up to bed.  In the middle of the night, I got up for a drink of water, and on my way back to bed...I thought of a good rhythm for the last line.  This is what I wrote into my notebook in the dark of night, hoping I would be able to read it in the morning. Fortunately I could read it!

Always have a notebook by your bedside. I was just given this wonderful new notebook by my wonderful teacher colleagues and friends in the Webster Central School District. Today's poem is the first poem I've written in its new pages!

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