Front Porch View
Photo by Amy LV
Students - Last weekend our family went on our annual trip as part of the Allegheny Nature Pilgrimage. One of the classes I took was a writing class with Karen Lee Lewis of The Blue Plate Studio. This was a thoughtful and inspiring class, and as part of it, Karen read us some beautiful ecopoetry and gave us time to write creatively about birds. I loved hearing others' writing, and during my writing time, I worked on the poem above.
Karen read from and recommended this book, it is now on my to-read list.
Taking a class from a great writing teacher gave me new things to think about and pushed me in new ways. I loved being a student, sitting surrounded by colorful paint chips, wise words on chart paper, and the sounds of pencils working on novels, newspaper articles, poems, memories...all about birds.
Today I leave you with three summer thoughts:
1. Take a summer writing class if you can. Even for one day, even with a friend your age who has one new writing idea to share with you. Let another's writing advice push you.
2. Appreciate something small and daily. Let this small daily thing move you to write. Perhaps think about birds, as I did in my class with Karen.
3. Sit. Make time for sitting and paying attention this summer. There are so many cool activities to join, but leave time for sitting. Space is good for all of us and for our writing too.
Over at Sharing Our Notebooks, I am so happy to host teacher Katie Liseo and her adventurous student notebookers with a very inspiring post and giveaway of Aimee Buckner's NOTEBOOK KNOW-HOW. You have two days left to comment and enter that giveaway, as I am drawing a name on Sunday.
Carol is hosting Poetry Friday roundup over at Beyond Literacy Link. Stop over and enjoy all of this week's poetry offerings...Poetry Friday is for everyone!
Please share a comment below if you wish.
Great poem, and I'd appreciate sitting, too, if I taught all day. I admire teachers very much!
ReplyDeleteWonderful post. :-)
ReplyDeleteI love your Hummie poem today. And how fun to go to a workshop. You have moved to being a mentor rather than being mentored, so I understand that being able to sit and listen and write must've felt so good. I hope you have more of these days this summer.
ReplyDeleteI love the idea of kids taking a writing class from someone their age. How rich would that be - for BOTH of them! #notetoself And your hummingbird poem is lovely. Enjoy!
ReplyDeleteLove your hummingbird poem! I have one who buzzes me if I happen to spend too much time under the tree near his feeder. I just put your three summer thoughts in my writer's notebook and requested The Ecopoetry Anthology from the library. Every post I read send me off in a whirlwind of thinking and doing.
ReplyDeleteHappy summer and birdwatching. Thanks for sharing about your poetry experience.
ReplyDeleteGreat summer advice. I love how your poem captures a mundane moment like sitting on the porch and makes it a sensory and memorable experience.
ReplyDeleteAmy, your lines "I sit waiting-/waiting for poems and waiting for her," speaks volumes to me. Waiting for poems to grace my pace is such a reflective stance. Sometimes words come to me in the most unusual places and of course at those times, there is nothing to record the thoughts. Enjoy your summer months. I will remember to sit and wait for thoughts to circle instead of rushing to find them.
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