Wednesday, April 9, 2014

Bicycle - Poem #9 for April 2014 Poetry Project

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Learn about this, my April 2014 Poetry Project, HERE!


Bicycle at The City Mission
Photo by Amy LV


Students - Today's poem took a bit of time to write, and I kept circling around it like dog trying to settle into a bed.  I was home writing steadily, but it was slow.  You can see my beginnings here, not much that remained in the poem at all.

Bicycle - Draft Page Spread #1
Photo by Amy LV

Then, below, you can see where things got going.  The idea of a bicycle dreaming appealed to me.  I had to go back, though, to see if any of the other thrift store objects dreamed.  Nope.  Just the boy in his old fuzzy footie jammies.  So I decided to allow the bike to dream.

This is something I am finding myself paying close attention to this month - not just each poem on its own, but each poem in concert with the others.  I do not want to use the same words or the same rhyme schemes over and over.  Today's poem almost ended with "new" - but then yesterday's poem about the Navy uniform used "new."  So I wrote another and another ending.

Bicycle - Draft Page Spread #2
Photo by Amy LV

Yesterday I videotaped some of my writing process.  I am not sure there is much to learn from this, but I found the exercise both intimidating and interesting.  It was a little scary to write on camera, and I stopped the video every few minutes so that the clips would not be too long.  I did not keep this up throughout the whole writing session, but I did capture the sense (and the sound) of almost four minutes of being inside my writing head.  

If you choose to watch this clip, you will see me writing the left side of the page you just read above.



Below, these last pages are simply working on the ending.  Once again, this takes me a while.

Bicycle - Draft Page Spread #3
Photo by Amy LV

And guess who helped me write again?

Cali!

Cali Under My Desk
Photo by Amy LV

Please don't miss the wonderful post over at my other blog!  Seventeen year old writer, Alex McCarron, shares her journals, index cards, and process over at Sharing Our Notebooks.  Thank you, Alex. 

Please share a comment below if you wish.

8 comments:

  1. This is beautiful, Amy--one of my favorites of yours so far:>) And I love the way you share your process. I fall victim to using the same meters/rhyme schemes repeatedly, and I have to shake myself out of that on a regular basis!

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  2. You drew me in immediately with the idea of the bicycle closing its eyes.

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  3. You are a brave girl writing on video! I loved the idea of this bicycle looking for another boy to live again. Nice one!

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  4. I just read a picture book about shoes wishing for a new person to run and jump in them-connected to the need for shoes in some parts of the world, & the travel these shoes had done. Your bicycle poem reminded me that we can that imagine especially children's things miss "the children". You showed that emotion beautifully, Amy.

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  5. Amy, there's something heart warming about the image of the bicycle dreaming of the child who used to be his friend while hoping for a new child. I can't wait to share this one with my students.

    Delightful!
    Cathy

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  6. Very charming. A dreaming bicycle is a great idea. Thanks for sharing.

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  7. Amy,
    Great imagination. Through a bicycle's eyes.

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  8. Amy,
    Good luck with your thrift store poetry. I hope it finds a good home.

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