1/3 Through! - Favorite Words - #122

Words from Pink Notebook

Amy LV

Students - Writers love words, sleep with words, eat words for a midnight snack.  In most every notebook I keep, I collect a list of favorite words on the last page.  You can see one of these word pages above.  Words are free, democratic, and plentiful; you never know when you'll find just the right one.  For this poem, I mined some of my favorite word lists for words with the same syllables and meters.  It's interesting how many of these are foods and animals as well as how many have double consonants.  What are some of your favorite words?  Keep an ear out!

When our daughter Hope was a toddler, we would play rhyming games with her.  One morning at breakfast, she burst out with one of the most funny-charming sentences I have ever heard.  A giant grin spread across her face like a sunrise as she proclaimed, "I know two rhyming words...Cinderella...mozzarella!"  Now, eight-and-a-half years later, that rhyme still bobbles around in my head and makes me smile over and over again.  Today it has found its way into this list poem.  Funny how the mind works.

Here are two fabulous word-celebrating books, one chapter book and one picture book.  SERENDIPITY is out of print, but it's worth keeping an eye out for a used copy.  You never know...

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Today marks four months of daily poems here at The Poem Farm.  That's 1/3 of the way through the year.  If you are a regular reader, I would greatly appreciate you following my blog (click FOLLOW over on the right or LIKE on facebook) as I try to show publishers that there is interest in my work.  Right now I have a possible bite on the Mother's Day poem...as a board book.  Fingers are crossed on both hands!

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PF & If I Were an Octopus - #121

Octopoet

by Amy LV

This Poem Now Appears in WRITE! WRITE! WRITE!

This poem is #10 in my series of Poetry Friday poems about poetry.  While it's less serious than many of the others, it was certainly a giggle to write.

 

Irene is hosting today's Poetry Friday roundup over at Live. Love. Explore!  Be sure to visit her blog to find out about poetry happenings in the blogosphere today - and don't miss her book giveaway...

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My Friend - My Poem Writing Year #120

Mark

Photo by Elizabeth Pellette

In one of his online newsletters, Eric Carle explains why he writes about small animals in so many of his books.  When I was a small boy, my father would take me on walks across meadows and through woods.  We would lift a stone or peel back the bark of a tree and show me the living things that scurried about.  He'd tell me about the life cycles of this or that small creature and then he would carefully put the little creature back into its home.  I think in my books I honor my father by writing about small living things.

Similarly, today's poem is in honor of my husband Mark, who has taught our family and so many others (see yesterday's blog post from Sprucelands Summer Camp) about nature.  Happy 15th anniversary, honey!

Jane Yolen's delightful and fun-to-read book, MY FATHER KNOWS THE NAMES OF THINGS, celebrates her late husband, a man who knew names of everything and shared this love and knowledge with his family.

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Students - writing is a way to honor someone you love.  Words last, and words help us figure out what we think about our lives.  You might want to try this sometime.  Think of a person you would like to hold up with your words.  And then write.  Just like these three examples, you don't even have to name the person in your piece.  (It can be a secret!)

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Drawing - MyPoWriYe #119

Oak Leaf

by Amy LV

The more I write and teach writing, the more I come to believe in the power of all arts to help us see and become.  Yesterday, working with kindergarten teachers in the Iroquois Central School District, teachers shared ways they have taught children about drawing and expressing themselves through pictures.  If you teach primary grades, these two books will help you with this tremendously.

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 Katie Wood Ray's newest book, IN PICTURES AND IN WORDS, teaches us and our students how to explore illustrations to better understand writing craft.  Through a study of picture books, we learn how artists and writers use different points of view, pull in closely, create scenes, and much more.  Katie walks us through several possible picture-lessons and includes much student work and many literature recommendations.

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This book, TALKING, DRAWING, WRITING, by Martha Horn and Mary Ellen Giacobbe teaches us how we can work with our students to create a community around storytelling, drawing, and writing.  Based on a study of kindergarteners and how they learn to write through talking, drawing, and then writing, Martha and Mary Ellen share stories, lessons, and specific suggestions for working with young writers.

Students - Drawing is so much like writing.  When you sit with a pad and pencil and study your cat...just trying to get that fur on the page, as fluffy as it is in real life, you are observing like a writer.  When you cock your head to get a good angle on the plant you are sketching, you are watching like a writer.  When you write a poem about your cat, you are an artist.  Artists are writers of images, and writers are artists in words.

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Teachers and other grown ups - Hannah Hinchman's LIFE IN HAND: CREATING THE ILLUMINATED JOURNAL, is one for you adults who wish to see more, slow down, and perhaps begin drawing in your own notebook.  When I read this book many years ago, I drew the Oak leaf above in its accompanying journal.  It's true what they say, sometimes to really see something...
we need to draw it.

Today I posted a quote on The Poem Farm's facebook page:

"You are kind to painters...
and I tell you the more I think,
the more I feel that there is nothing
more truly artistic than to love people."

- Vincent VanGogh to his brother

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My Poem Writing Year #118 - Writing

Menu

by Hope LV (years ago)

This poem is dedicated to all writing workshop teachers.  Both this week and next, I will have the opportunity to work with the dedicated teachers of the Iroquois Central School District.  These teachers are taking off with writing workshops in their classrooms this fall, and I admire their grass roots desire to learn about teaching writing and to take it on.

In the early 1990s, I had the good fortune to study under Lucy Calkins at the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project at Teachers College, Columbia University.  At that time, the office was full of staff developers and teachers including: Randy Bomer, Katherine Bomer, Katie Wood Ray, Carl Anderson, Isoke Nia, Sharon Hill, Karen Caine, Kathy Collins, Kate Montgomery, Pam Allyn, and many more.  I still learn from these teachers today.

Those years of pouring coffee, making copies, listening carefully, and eventually working in classrooms changed my life: writing life, teaching life, mothering life.  I learned that we can do what we believe we can do and what others believe we are capable of.

Believe!

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My Poem Writing Year - #117 - Tar Bubbles

Tar Bubbles in Eden, NY

Photo by Amy LV

It's a small thing, sitting on the curb and popping tar bubbles just for the joy of sound and the soft feel of warm black on your fingertips.  As a young girl, I would sit by our mailbox and play with the bubbles of tar for leisurely stretches of time.  Now my children do this, and I still smile with the car windows open when I drive through warm tar on a hot summer day.  SNAP!  SNAP!  SNAP!  It's great.

Students - what things do you do, little things, things that don't earn you a ribbon or a championship, things that don't accomplish anything spectacular...what do you do for plain old enjoyment?  These are good possible writing topics, what you do when you simply spend time with yourself, loving the world in little ways.

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Names Matter - MyPoWriYe #116

Back in earlier summer, we cooked some dandelions, and I wrote a bit about eating weeds.  Well here they are again, popping up like....oh, never mind!  Seriously, though, I think the idea for this poem came from a conversation with a friend about weeds taking over her garden.  This year our yard has many weeds, more than non-weeds.  This year, I only weed The Poem Farm!  Sometimes I feel sorry for weeds...they need friends too.

Students - Structure-wise, you may have noticed that this poem goes back and forth as a conversation between the person and the flower-weed.  It's a lot of fun to write like this, imagining what two animals or objects or people would say to each other and building a poem right from this imagined talk.

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MyPoWriYe #115 - Failed Flea Circus

Oops!

by Amy LV

Well, our dog Cali has fleas.  She did, anyway.  After an herbal treatment which did not work but smelled like potpourri, she has now had a vet treatment which we hope is working.  Hence, the idea for this short poem.

Fleas and ticks will suck your blood and may carry terrible diseases too.  So I don't recommend the old fashioned flea circus.  Try a caterpillar circus instead.

Students - Again, I stress the importance here of making something out of your annoyances.  The other day I wrote about getting stuck with the last sliver of soap, and now this.  Material...it's all material.

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Poetry Friday & MyPoWriYe #114 - Poem

Happy Poetry Friday!  This poem is #9 in a Poetry Friday series of poems about poems and #114 in my quest to write and post a children's poem each day for one year.

As many of you know, the market is difficult for poetry right now.  Today's poem is simply a response to this harsh environment, a reminder to poems that we love them.

Today's Poetry Friday is hosted by Breanne at Language, Literacy, Love.  Please head over there for the complete weekly roundup of poems and poetry-joy...just waiting for readers like you.

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I Believe - MyPoWriYe #113

Notebook Page - Pod of Pentapi

by Hope, Georgia, & Amy LV

Some words are just plain fun, and 'octopus' is one of those words.  Today I began writing a different word-fun poem, and somehow this one just showed up on the page.  'Must be those pentapi in my bloodstream pushing their way to the surface.  After writing today, my daughters and I sat by the side of our town pool and drew all of these silly pentapus pictures.

Students - The neat part about writing this poem was substituting a different prefix for 'octo'.  Now I want to try listing all kinds of words with prefixes and suffixes and play a little mix-up game.  Give it a whirl, and if you write anything interesting that you would like to share, please send it to me at amy at amylv dot com, and I would love to feature it in an upcoming blog post.

What animals swim in YOUR blood?

Tomorrow is Poetry Friday!

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My Poem Writing Year #112 - Jewels

Treasure

Photo by Amy LV 

This is a poem for my friend Rachel in Oregon, the best rock hound and rock teacher ever!  Whenever I find neat rocks outdoors or go to a rock show, I think of her.   Rachel has been sharing a "poem-of-the-letter" with her cousin, including a poem in each letter she sends.  These come from her students, and some are even writing poetry this summer "to share with Miss S's cousin".  The power of publishing is strong indeed!

 Rachel's Rock Coffee Table

Photo by Rachel Sudul

When I was a young girl, I used to think about rocks a lot.  In fact, I wondered what they talked about when I wasn't sitting by the creek's edge, listening.  Rocks are full of stories, some which we can discover through study and some which will always remain mysteries.

Students - This poem is what Georgia Heard (author of AWAKENING THE HEART and many other fabulous books) might call an "observation poem", or poem where the poet looks at something closely and allows a poem to grow from this looking and noticing.  In a way, this is what scientists do too, look and study and wonder and admire.

Here are two rock books to love.  These are not poetry books full of all different poems, but each is a gorgeous poem-turned-book.  If you have a favorite rock book, would you please share its title in the comments?

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My Poem Writing Year #111 - Song

Empty Nest

Photo by Mark LV 

This is not a poem about something that happened at our home today, but something that happens every day...to an animal and a child somewhere in the world.  Children care about small animals and say goodbye to them in kind ways.  Our side yard (the side near the cornfield), is partly a graveyard for little animals: wild birds, chickens, mice, voles...  

One of my favorite scenes in children's literature is when the wonderful artist-alcoholic Mick, in Gary Paulsen's THE MONUMENT, knows he will find find a small animal grave in some bushes.  No one tells him it is there, but as an artist, he knows.  Of course it would be there.

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Students - Today I knew that I wanted to write a quieter poem; I was just feeling quiet inside.  And when you write, this is something to think about.  Ask yourself, "What is my mood?"  We are each filled with rooms and rooms of life and thought, and as writers, we can explore them all.  Half of our work is to listen carefully to what we are feeling as well as what we are thinking.

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My Poem Writing Year - Soap Hope - #110

This is a pet peeve poem!  Whenever I find only a sliver of soap in the shower, part of me loves its thinness, and part of me longs for a fresh new bar.  What is better than a new bar of IVORY with the words still etched deep?

Students - what drives you crazy?  Keep on the lookout for those tiny daily things that make you say, "Oh darn!" and then write.

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My Poem Writing Year #109 - Glitter

Glitter Play!

Photo by Amy LV

Yesterday, on a long car ride, I got the idea to write about glitter.  This has always been one of my favorite crafty-items, and it is a favorite of many children I know too.  A few hours later, when we arrived at my mother's house, a big jar of magenta glitter called my name from the top of a bookshelf.  Lucky indeed!  (Don't you just love the word 'magenta'?)

Students - sometimes it helps to have the perfect object nearby as you write.  At least I do.  Running fingers through this pile of glitter gave me lots of words and feelings.

"Glitter" is a concrete poem, and the words are supposed to look all sprinkled out like glitter.  I didn't write them this way at first, though.  At first they were perfectly lined up.  But after writing the poem and thinking about how glitter really looks, I tried playing with the white space.  This is one revision question I've learned to always ask..."Might these words lay out well as a concrete poem?"  For me, the concrete-ness, or shape, comes after I write the words, not before.

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My Poem Writing Year #108 - Two Clocks

Students - Do you ever just stare at a thing and let your mind wander?  I do this with clocks sometimes.  And if you stare at clocks (or anything) long enough, you come to notice some differences in the way they look, sound, and make you feel.  

This wasn't planned, but looking the poem now, I realize that it contrasts two different things.  The first stanza is about one clock, the second about another, and the third stanza brings both together.  This is something I might try again, finding two like-yet-unlike things and writing a three stanza contrast poem about them.

For anyone who followed "Free Verse Week", you'll laugh to know that I was scared to write in rhyme again!

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Poetry Friday & #107 - Flying My Poem

This poem is #8 in a Poetry Friday series of poems about poems.  It is also the last free verse poem in a week of free verse.  This was an interesting experiment, pushing myself beyond my usual walls of rhyme and meter, and I will be cycling back to more free verse, continuing to try and strengthen "my bad eye".

Students - I often mention where poem ideas come from.  This story is rather surprising.  A couple of days ago, I got sleepy in the middle of the afternoon and took a nap.  When I awoke, the image of a road-bumping poem-kite filled my mind immediately, and I quickly jotted down a few notes.  A rested brain makes connections that a too-busy brain might miss, so this is today's idea-finding advice: take a nap with your mind wide open!

This week's free verse poems were very much inspired by two books I have been reading: Heidi Mordhorst's nature-rich PUMPKIN BUTTERFLY and Jeannine Atkins' hauntingly historical BORROWED NAMES.  In each of these books, I find myself wrapped in story and place and voice and then rereading to savor delicious imagery and words wrapped in wonder.  These are books to stand back from and look up to.  They're also books to cuddle up with!

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Today's Poetry Friday is hosted by Heidi Mordhorst herself, over at my juicy little universe.  Head on over there for the complete roundup of poetry fun.

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PS - Does anyone know someone in Montana who might be interested in coming by The Poem Farm?  It's the last state to visit!

Poem #106 - Just an Expression

Thank you again to Tricia at The Miss Rumphius Effect for her weekly poetry stretch.  This week's challenge encourages us to write about sayings.  You can read the poems as they're posted here at her blog.

While we're on the topic of idioms, sayings, and expressions, I am excited to share a new book with you which includes a whole chapter on this very topic.  Ralph Fletcher, writer of picture books, novels, poetry, and writing books for students and teachers, has done it again.  His latest book, PYROTECHNICS ON THE PAGE: PLAYFUL CRAFT THAT SPARKS WRITING, celebrates and encourages joyful romping through and exploration of language.  

Ralph's book (from Stenhouse) includes chapters on word play, craft lessons highlighting specifics of language, and a resource section chock-full * of definitions, book recommendations, useful lists, and texts for teaching.  I recommend it as a great summer read - not only to expand our own understandings of language but also to help us imagine communities of fascination and joy around letters, words, sentences, and the way they mix into meaning.

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Tomorrow is Poetry Friday and the final day of "Free Verse Week" here at The Poem Farm.

* "Originally a person or thing stuffed to the point of choking was choke-full. In modern speech this expression has become chock-full, or in less formal American English, chuck-full."  (from Paul Brians' book, COMMON ERRORS IN ENGLISH USAGE)

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Poem #105 - How To Be My Favorite Book

Hope Reads in a Boat

Photo by Amy LV 

This is the fifth poem in a week-long series of free verse poems, and the idea came from a couple of places.  Our children are voracious readers, and so I always note the types of books they like and recommend to each other, us, and their friends.  I wonder about why my children reread certain books and easily let go of others.

After writing this poem, I realized that another writing influence has been joyfully sitting on my shoulder.  Elaine Magliaro, writer Wild Rose Reader blog, has been sharing poems from her "Things to Do" poems collection.  Last week she shared "Things to Do if You are the Ocean", and I think its loveliness crept into my mind.  Thank you, Elaine!

It has been exciting to wake each day for the past 105 days, not knowing what each day's poem will be about, and it is wonderful to finally trust that something (maybe not something excellent, but something) will come.  In his essay, "Listening to Writing", from THE ESSENTIAL DONALD MURRAY, edited by Thomas Newkirk and Lisa C. Miller, Donald Murray writes about the element of surprise in writing.  "We should push ourselves - and our students - to write what they do not expect to say, for the excitement of writing is the surprise of hearing what you did not expect to hear."

I highly recommend this book as well as any others by Donald Murray if you are interested in your own writing and/or teaching writing to others.

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Students - so much of writing is listening to your inner voice (or many voices) whispering what matters to you, what you want to say, the story and mystery you need to tell.  Writing is a journey and discovery-ride inside of ourselves.

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Free Verse Week - #104 - Over Sixty Percent

Carl Sandburg's poem, "Arithmetic", always make me smile, and having read it a few times this week, I am wondering that's why I asked questions in this poem.

I also received and read Toby Speed's delightful WATER VOICES in the mail a couple of days ago, and her poetic riddles continue to slosh in my mind.

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If you are interested in water facts, check out the US Geological Survey's Water Science for Schools, and you will find a lot of interesting information.

I wrote much of today's poem wearing swim goggles as an inspiration to write about water.  Sometimes it  helps to have a little prop around, just an object to look at and think about as one writes.  Perhaps later in the year I will have a "costume week" during which I wear costumes to get the writing going!

Students - what might you place on your desk or near you as you write today?  You might consider a little talisman or charm for good feelings.  Or maybe you will select an object to write about, keeping it right next to you or in your desk where you can touch it from time to time.

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