Friday, April 11, 2014

Suitcase - Poem #11 for April 2014 Poetry Project


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


Suitcase
Photo by Amy LV


Students - Today my writing squeeezed into a small amount of time at the end of the day.  It was a busy and lovely day, and at the end of it...I was ready to sleep!  But no, it is Poetry Month, so write I did.  Instead of turning to my paper notebook last night, though, I thought in my head for a bit and then played with LiveTyping as you can see below.  I am sharing two of the "enlivenings" - the two I thought would be the most interesting to watch.

Can you see how I wrote the last line of the poem before the rest of it. I just liked that idea of the suitcase loving visiting Grandma more than visiting any other place in the world.  And so I just kept working and working the lines. 

Suitcase  Every time they open me I wonder wher
You can see below how I decided that the poem should be in the past tense. When a writer decides on the tense of a poem, it's usually a good thing to keep that tense the same all of the way through.  I started with present tense but switched to past tense when I realized that this suitcase was not living with the same family anymore.

Suitcase  Every time they opened me I wondered
You might want to try LiveTyping yourself.  It's free and easy and lets you look back at your own process in an interesting way.  While I usually do not write on the computer, I do sometimes, and I like looking back at this.

Yesterday I was lucky enough to have author and librarian Vida Zuljevic sharing a Poetry Peek at The Poem Farm!  Please stop by there to read all about the many wonderful ways she celebrates poetry with students.  You will be delighted by her students' poems, and I know that they would love to read your comments too.

The winners of last Saturday's book giveaway are:
FOREST HAS A SONG - Bridget Wilson
THE POETRY FRIDAY ANTHOLOGY FOR SCIENCE - Leigh Ann Eck

Winners - please send me an e-mail to amy at amylv dot com with your address, and I will mail your books sometime this month!  Stay tuned for the exact same giveaway tomorrow and every Saturday of April 2014.

Blog birthday girl Michelle is hosting today's Poetry Friday party over at Today's Little Ditty! Enjoy the festivities during this second beautiful week of National Poetry Month!

Please share a comment below if you wish.

10 comments:

  1. Oh my, that 'live typing' is very interesting, Amy! I will try it! And this is a poem after my heart, of course, that the visit to Grandma's is the best! I went to an estate sale a few weeks ago, and they had some old suitcases, some just like I used to have-brought back memories of where we traveled with those. I'm enjoying your poems this month from the thrift store very much!

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  2. My four year old granddaughter and two year old grandson are coming to spend the night next weekend. I can't wait to share your poem with them! You gave me an idea for a future gift for them! :)

    I haven't heard of Live Typing, but I'm going to try it this weekend. Thanks for the tip!

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  3. LiveTyping is so cool! What an eyeopener it would be for me to use... then again, I'm not sure I WANT to be reminded of just how compulsive I am about wordsmithing everything I write. lol. I AM looking forward to visiting Grandma's house this summer, though.

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  4. There's no place like grandma's! Loved seeing the live typing and may give it a go!

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  5. Amy,
    I did not know of LiveTyping. Great tool! Fun to watch too. I am enjoying this month's project very much.

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  6. Look at you with your fancy technology. I must play with Live Typing, too. I am really enjoying your poetry month poems and hearing about your writing process.

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  7. Another wonderful poem for your Thrift Store series. I love it. Thanks for sharing it.

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  8. That LiveTyping was ALL KINDS of fun!! Gotta try it! It would be fun to videotape me trying to get a poem to come in my paper notebook, then speed up the video and watch all the crossings-out become a poem!

    Love the suitcase's voice!

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  9. I have never seen LiveTyping before. SO awesome! All of your April posts have been delightful. I'm sharing a few on Facebook.
    Thank you!

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  10. Hi Amy, the poem made me smile, as I am sure it would also make a lot of grandmothers smile with pleasure. That livetyping tool is awesome. I will have to check that one out! Amazing.

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