Friday, March 8, 2019

Write to Someone & a Peek!



Singing Chickadee
by Ava


I will record this poem as soon as my voice returns!

Students - This week I was tickled to find the tweet from Kindergarten Teacher Christie Wyman along with a charming singing chickadee drawn by Ava. Seeing her art inspired me to make something too. I wrote a poem to go with this art, especially for one person, Ava.  Many times, a writer will write to one person, but a reader might not know this unless the writer tells.

I began writing this poem with the word If....  If is a magical word, really, as a writer can follow it with anything at all.  I chose to write about sharing songs with the world, just as Artist Ava shared a song drawing that brought joy to my day.

You may notice that this poem repeats just one rhyme...with the oo sound.  In my notebook, I made a list of words rhyming with you to help me choose words that would make sense in my poem.  This is a technique I often use.

Word List
Photo by Amy LV

Chickadees are dear to our family. Years ago, I purchased the Dylan Metrano's beautiful chickadee piece from our book EVERY DAY BIRDS.  Unbeknownst to me, my husband Mark was planning to purchase it at the same time!

Original Papercut Chickadee from our EVERY DAY BIRDS
by Dylan Metrano

Here is our Georgia a couple of years ago, holding a stunned chickadee who flew into our window.  She has done animal rehabilitation work for many years, and she knew that this little one just needed a bit of rest before returning to the air.

Georgia and Chickadee
Photo by Amy LV

Sometimes the smallest birds, the smallest words, the smallest of gestures can be big indeed.

One hundred thousand welcomes to the Newfane Library Poets!  Last year, Director of Children's Programming, Cassy Clarcq, shared these wonderful poems with me, and at long last I am grateful and excited to be sharing them here.  Please enjoy the joy and variety in this selection of poems from last year's Newfane Library Poetry Celebration!


Please Click to Enlarge

I feel very lucky to host teacher and writer Brett Vogelsinger over at Sharing Our Notebooks this month.  Please drop by my other online space to read his post about notebook poetry drafting...and to be entered into a cool notebook giveaway as well.

Catherine is hosting today's Poetry Friday roundup over at Reading to the Core with a celebration of International Women's Day! I will be celebrating this day by celebrating my wonderful mother's birthday this evening. Tonight we will share Chinese food, the carrot cake I just made from my great friend Sallye's recipe, and as always, this poem. Please know that the Poetry Friday community shares poems and poemlove each week, and everyone is invited to visit, comment, and post.  And if you have a blog, we welcome you to link right in with us.

Please share a comment below if you wish.

8 comments:

  1. Every Day Birds inspired our art project which then inspired a new poem from you. What a lovely cycle of giving and receiving, Amy. Thank you! xx Christie @ https://wonderingandwondering.wordpress.com/

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  2. What a lovely post in every way!

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  3. Amy, your poem is lovely. One of my favorite things to do is to sit on my porch and listen to the birds chatter and sing. Lately, it's been snow geese, but I'm looking forward to the chickadees and robins.

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  4. What a lovely post! There's such a spirit of generosity and gratitude within it and within your poem...A reminder to send joy out into the world and to "send an extra song/in case a stranger needs one too." Beautiful!

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  5. Love your own 'chickadee' song sent back, Amy, & the offerings from the library. How great that they do that! Happy Weekend!

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  6. I love the circle of inspiration between you and Christie's student(s), Amy! And what an amazing collection of poems from Newfane Library. Hope your mother had a wonderful birthday celebration!

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  7. I just came from Tabatha's mother's arch paintings. So many notable women to celebrate, and yet our mothers often top them all, whoever they are!

    Again I am in awe of your ability to use simple wrods to send messages of great power into the tenderest hearts.

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