Round and Round

Nest after Nest

by Amy LV

Students - earlier this week, walking through our yard, I came across a blown-down, used-up nest. In an eye-blink I was whisked through all of the seasons. A spring of building and growing. A summer of flight. An autumn of goodbye. An approaching winter of quiet. Once again, a small nest reminded me of the cycle of life, and I imagined the same twigs being used more than once by more than one mother bird.

Sitting down to write today's poem, that nest appeared in my mind again. A bit flattened and worn, looking more like a bunch of sticks than a home, this nest whispered to me of all mothers. We build, we create, we love, we say goodbye, we all fly. This happens again and again, in the bird world and in the human world too.

Watch your life carefully this week. Assign yourself the job of noticing tiny beauties. Gather them in your own mind like small twigs and bits of string. And then, later, when you sit to write...they may come back and fly into your heart, flapping the words of poetry.

We do all have favorite topics, and through writing, I am coming to realize that nests are one of my favorite topics. Here are a few nest poems from the past: Recycling, Vacancy, nest. Sometimes you can't know your life topics are until you write a lot of pages. Wading through our own words, we come to know ourselves.

Lately I feel like a twig-gathering little bird, flitting about from place to place to pull together all of the books nominated for the poetry Cybils. I look forward to these chilly evenings (first snow here yesterday), warming my toes with wool, my insides with tea, and my heart with poems.

In case you didn't hear, my book-to-be will be published a bit later than first thought. The new projected publication date of FOREST HAS A SONG, illustrated by Robbin Gourley and published by Clarion, is Spring 2013. Nests in the trees, books on the shelves, two springs away!

Diane is hosting today's Poetry Friday roundup over at Random Noodling. Happy last Poetry Friday of October.

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I Love Choosing & Hooray for P*TAG!

Ballerina Georgia in 2004

Photo by Amy LV

Students - Last week, I was chatting with my sister-in-law about our young niece. They had gone together to see a ballet, and our niece chose her own outfit: red and black plaid dress, red and black plaid tights, Mardi Gras beads wrapped 'round her wrist again and again as bracelets, sparkly shoes, and hair in a side ponytail. I couldn't help thinking, "What a lucky girl to pick her own clothes!"

So, last night when I sat down to write, I remembered this conversation and decided to write about those funcrazy outfits that we choose all by ourselves. I found today's poem idea in a recent telephone conversation, remembering that story that my sister-in-law told me about our niece. Try this technique yourself. Sit quietly and think about the conversations you've had in the past week. What do you remember? Find a conversation that might grow into a poem or a story and just jump in!

This week I also reread the new P*TAG, a new digital poetry anthology for teens. Snuggled up by the heater, I scrolled through poem and photograph after poem and photograph, remembering what it was like to be a teenager. So much of that time came back to me, from conversations with friends to my feelings about boys to my own questions about growing up.

Available through Amazon

Brought to us by Sylvia Vardell and Janet Wong, this collection includes poems by so many well-loved writers for teens: Arnold Adoff, Jaime Adoff, Kathi Appelt, Jeannine Atkins, Jen Bryant, Margarita Engle, Betsy Franco, Helen Frost, Lorie Ann Grover, David L. Harrison, Stephanie Hemphill, Sara Holbrook, Lee Bennett Hopkins, Paul B. Janeczko, Michele Krueger, Julie Larios, JonArno Lawson, J. Patrick Lewis, Kimberly Marcus, Heidi Mordhorst, Naomi Shihab Nye, Michael Salinger, Joyce Sidman, Marilyn Singer, Sonya Sones, Charles Waters, April Halprin Wayland, Steven Withrow, Allan Wolf, Janet Wong, and Tracie Vaughn Zimmer. Sylvia took all of the photographs, and one-by-one, each poet tagged another, just as in POETRY TAG TIME.

P*TAG is available only as a digital download ($2.99!) for your Kindle, iphone, Android, or computer, and it's a great gift for a teen in your life or the teen in yourself. If you haven't taken a peek at this or at POETRY TAG TIME, I highly recommend both as strong collections that may well introduce you to poets you have never read.

For another wonderful e-collection by Janet Wong, check out ONCE UPON A TIGER, poems and artwork about endangered animals.

Janet Wong's poem, published in this fall's issue of the JOURNAL OF CHILDREN'S LITERATURE, expresses the way I feel when I hand my own phone to Hope, Georgia, or Henry for poetry reading in the back seat of our car.

The Line

We've been standing in line
five long minutes.
I'm starving but Mom won't let me
sneak a snack from the cart.
It's hard to stand there waiting, nothing to do, and Mom
knows it (because I know she's starving, too).

Then out of nowhere
she hands me her cell phone
and tells me to read the screen:
"Loud enough so I can hear."
A poem? I can't believe it:
I like the poem. It's funny.
The old lady behind us laughs so hard
she spit-sprays in my ear.
I put my hoodie up.
Mom asks for another.
It's good. I like this one even better,
even if it's not funny.
Even if it doesn't rhyme.
It makes me forget about the line
and makes me remember summer.

Three and a half poems later,
Mom says, "Time to go home."
I look up. The groceries are in their bags.
The checker says: "Wait! Won't you read
the ending, please?"

Janet Wong

Jama Rattigan, hostess extraordinaire, is holding today's Poetry Friday party at Jama's Alphabet Soup. And when Jama has a party, you don't want to miss it! Enjoy the food and festivities...  Happy Poetry Friday!

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Raking - Poems about Seasonal Stuff

Leaves

Photo by Amy LV

Sometimes poems simply grow from what is in the air and weather and all around. And what is all around here in Holland, NY this mid-October week is LEAVES!

Students - this poem is just about something that I have done and see my children do. What is a normal seasonal something that you do? That someone else does? Try describing it in a poem-form. You may have noticed (how could you not?) that I repeated the word "rake" many many times. If you have ever raked leaves, you will know why I did so.

Over at my newest blog, Sharing Our Notebooks, naturalist Mark Baldwin shares how he holds onto images and the natural world through nature journaling. I welcome you to join this new classroom-friendly site as it continues to grow with many voices in the field of writing and art. And if you'd be willing to share it along with a friend, I'd be so grateful too!

Today's Poetry Friday roundup is over at Fomograms with david elzey. Enjoy today's offerings of words and love.

Oh! Please don't forget to nominate poetry books for the Cybils! There is only one day left - nominations close tomorrow, and then we begin reading and making the short list!

Happy lovely fall! (And happy raking...)

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White Fields & Notebooks

Little Notebook

Notebook Entry from March 24, 2010

Lately I've been thinking a lot about writer's notebooks. A month ago, I began a new blog, Sharing Our Notebooks, partly to inspire me to get back into more notebook writing. Well, it's working.

We had a busy week this week with a new batch of foster kitties to "home" and a new manuscript to revise. So, last night I wasn't sure what to to choose to write about. With notebooks on the brain, it didn't take long to think, "I'll just reread one of my old notebooks and find an idea."

That said, I walked to my big old desk with this little old cherry notebook, opened a page, and found the bit of entry you see above. The poem comes almost directly from this entry, "...walking in the white fields with my pen, uncertain of what I will find."

So if you've ever wondered, "Why keep a notebook?" Here's why. You never know what's stuffed in there that you might need later. One day's idle thought is another day's inspiration.  Try it.  Just open your notebook today, flip through, and choose a line that sounds neat.  Then, make something bigger out of it.

The last two lines in this poem come from Natalie Goldberg's WRITING DOWN THE BONES. She writes, "Writers live twice. They go along with their regular life, are as fast as anyone in the grocery store, crossing the street, getting dressed for work in the morning. But there's another part of them that they have been training. The one that lives everything a second time. That sits down and sees their life again and goes over it. Looks at the texture and detail."  This idea of "Writers live twice," is one that rings deeply in me.

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Please note that the nominations for the Cybils (Children's and Young Adult Bloggers' Literary Awards) including poetry books, are open for another week! Please check out the Cybils website if you haven't yet done so and take a peek at the already-nominated poetry books here.  As a judge for this year, I look forward to reading these books and helping to usher some of them to the short list.

Mary Ann is hosting today's Poetry Friday roundup over at Great Kid Books. Thank you, Mary Ann.

Meow!

Penny, Pumpkin, & Juniper
Photo by Henry LV

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