Imagine the Words

Martha

Ann 

Sall

Aug. 2, 1933

Mar. 12, 1937

Gone to be

another angel

Radford Cemetery, Radford, VA

Photo by Amy LV

Wm. Harless

Mabry

Mar. 6, 1936

May 30, 1939

Gone to be

an angel

Radford Cemetery, Radford, VA

Photo by Amy LV

Students - I am a taphophile, a person who is interested in graves and cemeteries, and right now I am taking a fabulous class about reading gravestones as well as reading A TOMB WITH A VIEW: THE STORIES & GLORIES OF GRAVEYARDS by Peter Ross. Ross writes, "If the imagination is a muscle, graveyards are a gym. I'd look at the names and wonder. Did John Barnes, Hairdrresser, who died aged sixty-seven in January 1891, ever, in his youth, take comb and scissors to Ebenezer Gentleman, who died at Christmas 1868 and whose crooked stone lies just a step or two away?"

Available through Bookshop.org

This week I took a trip to visit our daughter Hope. Among many other things, she and I walked through the West View Cemetery in Radford, VA where I took the photographs of gravestones and wondered about young Martha Ann and William who each died at three years old, both over 80 years ago. In their grief, Martha Ann and William's families had gravestones made, and each family chose a dove, the symbol of ressurrection, innocence, and peace.

Invisible conversations and history swirls all around us. For today's short poem, I simply imagined what these parents might say when talking with a stonecutter. While writing, I was reminded of one poem my Great Aunt Tom copied into one of her notebooks. That poem is in the voice of a parent asking God to brush their daughter's hair a certain way. (When I find this notebook, I will add it here.) This poem is one line from a conversation I imagine between grieving parents and a stonecutter. The title defines the conversation, lets the reader know who is speaking to whom.

Look closely at the words below the dates on each gravestone above. I am wondering something else. Do you think that Martha Ann's parents added the words Gone to be another angel after reading William's stone Gone to be an angel? This part of the carving on Martha Ann's stone does not match the rest of her stone but does match the font on William's stone. Could Martha Ann's parents have seen William's grave and said, "Let's add such angelic words to our daughter's stone." It could be so. Or not. We will never know.

Beneath every gravestone is a story. And most person-made items we see and hold stand on stories too. While we may not know these stories, we can imagine them and write from our imaginings. Walk around in a familiar or unfamiliar place and ask yourself some questions:

What may have happened here?

How was this made?

What conversation might have happened around this object?

What feelings are held in this thing?

Are there hidden words somewhere here?

What DON'T I see or know about this object?

Is there something invisible happening here?

What could the history be?

Write the answers to your questions down. Perhaps one of them will grow into a story or a poem or an essay. Perhaps you will learn something new from something old. If you wish, let your poem be just one snip of conversation as mine is here. 

Cemeteries are not scary to me. They are, as many say, like libraries...full of stories and lives gone by.

Jama is hosting this week's Poetry Friday roundup today at Jama's Alphabet Soup with poems by Scottish poet Helena Nelson. Each Friday, all are invited to share poems, poem books, poetry ideas, and friendship in this open and welcoming poetry community.

This week, my hope for you is that something invisible will show itself to you.

xo,

Amy

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Reflections On...

Tulip Bulbs, Grape Hyacinth Bulbs, Early Snow Glories Bulbs

Photo by Amy LV

Students - This weekend you will find me planting flower bulbs! And so...today's poem is about something that always enchants me: the way that a bulb or seed knows just how and what to become. As seeds grow into flowers and vegetables and fruits and trees...so too do we begin small and become big and new as we grow. But how does this all happen? Well, it is science...but I also find magic in this. 

A box of bulbs (photo above) arrived at my house a few days ago, and I allowed this object to inspire a poem. A poem about a bulb. You may wish to try this sometime. Simply choose an object, an object that interest you for some reason or not. Allow yourself to think about it, to imagine it in the past or future or to question how it works or what it means to you or what it means to somebody else. Reflect. 

When I was a little girl, my family owned this book you see below, and I would often dip into it. I remember one poem especially. In "Apartment House," Gerald Raftery compares an apartment building to "a filing cabinet of human lives." I remember thinking what a perfect metaphor this was (though I likely did not know that word) and read this book often. I encourage you to find a poem book that can become a friend to you, for many years later, the voices of this book still echo in the hallways of my heart. And I think today's title came from the title of this old friend too. What we read stays with us.

Available through Bookshop.org

If you wish to write about objects, consider having everyone in class bring a different, non-electronic object to class in a small brown paper bag. Each person choose a bag, peek inside, and reflect upon that object. Draw it if that helps you think. Then write. Talk about the approaches you take to your writing. We can all learn from each other. If you do try this, please let me know! I would love to hear about it, to read your poems and maybe even see some pictures.

Carol is hosting this week's Poetry Friday roundup today at Beyond Literacy Link with a celebration of summer's end and fall's beginning. Each Friday, all are invited to share poems, poem books, poetry ideas, and friendship in this open and welcoming poetry community.

Writing slows us down. I send you some slow wishes for the weekend ahead, friends.

xo,

Amy

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Wishes & Fires & Sharing

Tabletop Fire for Writing Time

Photo by Amy LV

Students - It is a coincidence that last week's poem begins with "You asked..." and this week's begins with "You ask..." Perhaps I am thinking a lot about wishes these days? I invite you to do the same.

This poem grew from my love of fall, my love of staring at fires, and my love of seeing how one thing (wood) changes to another (flame, ask, smoke, heat). 

It also grew from the meter of a different poem, "Faults" by Sara Teasdale. It begins:

They came to tell your faults to me,

They named them over one by one;

Read the rest of the (six line) poem HERE.

Each line of Teasdale's poem has 8 syllables, and the rhyme scheme is ABBCAC, which means that line 1 (A) rhymes with the line 5, line 2 (B rhyme) rhymes with line 3. And line 4 (C) rhymes with line 6. I began with keeping her strict meter but then veered off toward the end...on purpose. While I am able to continue such a tight rhyme, I wanted a little of a drifty imagining feeling, just dreaming of those old oaks.

Go ahead and borrow something from another writer this week. Maybe borrow from me who borrowed from Sara and write a six line poem with 8 syllables in all or most lines. Or maybe read something by a different writer and borrow a way to repeat or a way to find a topic or a way to end your poem. Remember, borrowing is not stealing. I never copy others' poems and call them my own. But I DO notice their writing techniques and borrow those. This is one way to learn to write.

If you would like to enjoy a fire with me...here you go. I wrote by its light.

Rose is hosting this week's Poetry Friday roundup today at Imagine the Possibilities with a neat reverso about fall. This is a form that, to be honest, scares me a little bit, and I admire what she has done with it! Each Friday, all are invited to share poems, poem books, poetry ideas, and friendship in this open and welcoming poetry community.

Warm and cozy, toasty and crackly wishes to you, my friends....

xo,

Amy

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Give Some (Writing?) Advice

Hello friends! I am the grateful host of this Poetry Friday. Please scroll to the bottom of this post to visit all of the different people sharing poems and poemlove and fellowship today.

A Few Stones

Photo by Amy LV

In many places, it is the start of a new school year, and as I believe that writing poetry is a fabulous way to begin a new year and a beautiful way to get to know people, this poem is for all of you new poem writers.

Students - If you are in a place that is just starting school, happy new school year! If you have been in school for a while, happy day just the same! Today I am thinking about beginnings and doing new things, including making new kinds of writing. Each time I take too much time off or place too much distance between me and writing, it feels new again. This is good...and also difficult. For me, it is often trickier to start something new than it is to keep going with something already on the move. So writing regularly can be one helpful secret for writers. Then, the approaching-the-page feeling is simply I'm back! rather than What do I do again?

Today's little poem compares writing to a different activity I love - collecting stones. Truth be told, I also love collecting shells, buttons, pinecones, sea glass, yarn, flowers, old handkerchiefs, and of course words. I do believe that writing a poem is a lot like collecting little treasures and making patterns with them. And while I sometimes get nervous about writing or feel like there is a bag of tricks I do not know, the truth is that writing is collecting and arranging, standing back and rearranging. Writing is making time for the glory of words in all of their shapes and sizes. Writing is a way to figure out what we think and to think about what what we wish to figure out. It is not a mystery, and each of us can do it. But we need to eat. We need to rest. We need to not always be on the go-go-go. Pausing is part of writing. Allow yourself to look out the window, to look down at the pavement and to see the flat stone that is looking up at you. Eat.

What will you write this week? Perhaps you, too, will write a poem with a tip or a thought about writing as I did here. Maybe you, too, will think of an interesting "Did you ever...? question to begin a poem. Such an open-ended start could take you into the world of real or into the world of pretend. You may even choose to write a poem with a You Asked... title. Sometimes beginning with any old title gets a writer going, and you one always change a title later once the draft is on its way. Maybe you will compare one thing to a different thing as I have compared picking up and arranging stones to picking up and arranging words. We all learn from each other. If I could read your writing right now, I would learn from you.

Bloggers - I invite you to add your posts for Poetry Friday below. And if you're new to Poetry Friday, just click the blue button, and you will be able to visit other blogs and add your own if you wish!

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I leave you with good thoughts about trying new things and sticking with habits that help you be your favorite you.

xo,

Amy

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Listening to Sounds

Spruce Trees

Photo by Amy LV

Students - Each season of the year brings us different feasts for our senses, and today's poem celebrates two preparation moments of fall. At this time of year in Western New York, animals are readying for the long winter ahead, and red squirrels are tossing cones from trees to their small stashes below. These stashes are called middens, and I will take a photo of one up in our woods and will add it here later this weekend. You watch a (very still) video that I took yesterday, listening for spruce cones falling, here on my YouTube channel.

Today's free verse poem has two parts: the squirrel part and the mom part. Each part describes a small scene of preparing food for winter, and each includes a sound. And then the ending speaks of what is to come, tying these two preparers (one four legged, one two legged) together.

Originally I was only going to write about the red squirrel tossing cones, but then I got to thinking how we all ready ourselves for winter in these parts, piling blankets, wearing thick socks, drinking mugs of hot tea, freezing containers of chicken soup. And so, in this way, the red squirrel and the cooking mother are quite alike.

Which sounds do you notice in this season where you live? In what ways do you, your family, and animals near you prepare for changing seasons? Consider making lists of these things, and you may find a writing idea along the way. If you like, try choosing two items from one of your lists and bringing them together as I have in today's two-part poem.

I have been readying for winter all summer long, canning all kinds (strawberry, raspberry, blueberry, blackberry peach, and fig) of jam. This week was fig, and it may be my new favorite. I always say that I feel like a squirrel and even wrote an essay about this for our local NPR station back in 2007. It is titled Once a Squirrel, Always a Squirrel.

I Am a Squirrel Too

Photo by Amy LV

Teacher Friends - Happy New School Year! Please know that Magination Press is giving away 10 copies of my new book, THE SOUND OF KINDNESS. You may enter at GoodReads through Sunday, September 3. This book is also about sounds! 

Ramona is hosting this week's Poetry Friday roundup today at Pleasures from the Page. Each Friday, all are invited to share poems, poem books, poetry ideas, and friendship in this open and welcoming poetry community.

xo,

Amy

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If you are under 13 years old, please only comment 

with a parent or as part of a group with your teacher.

Delight & Wonder & Story

Laundry Tree

by Amy LV

Students - Last week I took a long drive, and while passing through a small town, I came across the tree you see above. Honestly, I have not been able to stop thinking about it! There is something delightful in the unexpected, and I did not expect to see an oak tree wearing a rainbow of shirts. I turned my car around, stopped in front of the house, and took the photo. As I drove away, I could see the woman in my rearview mirror, touching the shirts to see if they were dry.

There are many ways to approach a poem when you have a wee idea. With this one, I decided to stand back and keep myself out of the poem. I read something this week about poems that do not use the words I or me and began there.

You might notice a bit of repetition here. First, I repeat the words the woman and the tree over and over here. This was not necessary. I certainly could have given the woman a name or referred to the tree as Oak or it. I didn't do these things because I love the idea of the woman being mysterious and nameless and any woman and the tree too...somehow by not naming them, it feels to me that they could be any one of us.

And did you wonder why that last line is so short? I played with other, longer lines that kept more with the rest of the poem's rhythm, but in the end, I wanted the end to leave the reader with a short statement of truth. The tree knows. By not including as many words in this last line, I hope to create a pause - a slowing down - in the reading.

This week I encourage you to try this. Look for something delightful or unexpected. (These things are everywhere...we just have to look.) Then, wonder about this thing you saw or otherwise sensed. Make up a story about it. Write all of this down, and see where it leads you.

Thank you to The Bookworm and to everyone who made my little book release party for THE SOUND OF KINDNESS so cozy and perfect. I am grateful. Please watch for some giveaways throughout this year of books, speech bubble sticky notes, and special napkins. Kindness parties all around!

Book Release Party for THE SOUND OF KINDNESS

August 15, 2023

Photos by Mark LV and Gretchen Oubre

Linda is hosting this week's Poetry Friday roundup today at TeacherDance with a magical poem about growing up...and play. Each Friday, all are invited to share poems, poem books, poetry ideas, and friendship in this open and welcoming poetry community.

May you find delight and stories in places you least expect!

xo,

Amy

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If you are under 13 years old, please only comment 

with a parent or as part of a group with your teacher.

I Never Told Anyone This

Brain Boat

by Amy LV

Students - Today's little poem is about something I actually do. And something I have never told anyone else about. Isn't it interesting how we each have a completely personal inner life that no one can enter? For me, the transition from awake to sleep is mysterious and interesting, and sometimes I do imagine floating my brain on a little boat...to give it a break from my thoughts. You are the first people I have shared this with.

So, there's a writing idea. Three actually. You might wish to:

1. Write a poem about something you have never told someone. You are welcome to change the details of course.

2. Write a poem that gives advice as this one does. Your advice may be about anything!

3. Write a poem about something that goes through your head when you are falling asleep or when you wake up in the night or morning.

Remember, it helps a lot to read your poem out loud to yourself as you write it. When I am not sure what to write next, I read what I already have aloud...and the next words appear in my mind.

And...news! On Tuesday, I am excited to share that my new book, THE SOUND OF KINDNESS, beautifully illustrated by Teresa Martinez and published by Magination Press, will be out in the world. I will be having a little party at The Bookworm bookstore in East Aurora, NY, and you can see details about this in my sidebar.

Learn More About This Book Here

(a few pages, educator guide, read aloud video)

Tabatha is hosting this week's Poetry Friday roundup today at The Opposite of Indifference with an assortment of treats including a poem by Geoffrey Brock. Each Friday, all are invited to share poems, poem books, poetry ideas, and friendship in this open and welcoming poetry community.

I wish your brain a glorious journey...by day or night! It is your very own brain, and I wish it well.

xo,

Amy

Please share a comment below if you wish.

Know that your comment will only appear after I approve it.

If you are under 13 years old, please only comment 

with a parent or as part of a group with your teacher.