SPARK 34: Seek Out a Challenge...With a Deadline!

Spent Magnolia Pistils

by Jonathan Ottke

Click to Enlarge

Response to Jonathan Ottke's Photograph

Students - Early this month, I participated in SPARK: ART FROM WRITING, WRITING FROM ART, Amy Souza's wonderful community of people sharing work to inspire more work.  Since 2010, on a regular basis, Amy opens up an invitation.  Anyone who wishes may sign up to work with a partner.  Amy assigns the partners and then each pair trades a piece of art or music with a piece of writing.  The partners each have ten days to create a new piece of work based on the other's inspiration piece.   I was paired with artist Jonathan Ottke, and we each sent each other a piece and we each created a new reponse piece, he from my poem Bottles, me from his photograph, Spent Magnolia Pistils.

I feel fortunate to have received Jonathan Ottke's lovely photograph, Spent Magnolia Pistils, above, as my inspiration piece. I love the stillness and the fragile feeling I have inside when I look at this image. It makes me think about beauty and about death and goodbye.  Studying Jonathan's photo and thinking my own thoughts inspired me to write my response poem And so it is.

Here is what Jonathan wrote to me about taking photographs:  With photography - you capture a photo - you usually don't create it unless its a still life in a studio.  I was interested in photographing the magnolias in a new way and went to Capitol Hill where they have a nice line of trees and found, and captured this.  The poem is apropos, because my uncle is dying and has only weeks to live, it was very touching for me.

I gave Jonathan a two-year-old poem, Bottles, as his inspiration piece. But of course I had to revise and tweak the poem before I sent it to him.  Much time had passed since I had read it, and I knew it could be stronger. Here is the older draft, at The Poem Farm in June 2015.  And below is the revised version.

Memories 

by Jonathan Ottke

Inspired by Amy LV's Poem

(Click to Enlarge)

I asked Jonathan to tell me about how he arrived at his response art piece, inspired by my poem.  He said, I usually see the general outlines of a work in my mind once I've worked out he idea.  For this one, I thought of a modified version of the letters of the alphabet.  Where instead of letters each one represented a memory.  Once I had the squares, all that was left was filling each one with swirls and lines of my imagination and memories.

He was also generous to share the intermediate step for the Bottles response:

Intermediate Art Step

by Jonathan Ottke

Click to Enlarge

I find Jonathan's piece whimsical and fascinating.  I just keep studying it, and each time I see new pictures and imagine new imaginings.

Working with someone else, sharing work to find new ideas and to strive toward a deadline is a grand way to push ourselves as makers.  I am grateful to Amy Souza of SPARK for pairing me with Jonathan and for making this space for so many of us to work together.

You might consider trying this.  Find another maker...promise to trade a piece of written, visual, or musical art. Choose a number of days to each make new response pieces inspired by the ones you are given.  And see what happens!  Often what happens...will be a SPARK!

Lucky me this week to be visiting Irene Latham's Live Your Poem!  She invited me to visit to share a bit behind the scenes of READ! READ! READ!, and I couldn't be happier.  Boyds Mills Press (donating books) and I (signing and shipping books) are holding a giveaway for this forthcoming (Tuesday!) book, joyfully illustrated by Ryan O'Rourke.

Poems About Reading

This giveaway runs through September 20 (Wednesday!), and there will be five winners of one signed book each.  You may enter HERE.

Michelle is hosting today's Poetry Friday roundup over at Today's Little Ditty. She is sharing words of Peace and an invitation to share on the Peace Padlet that Margarita Engle and I have put together, and too, she is sharing an invitation to write peace poems. Teachers - please take a peek at the Padlet, and add to it if you are willing.  And please know....Poetry Friday is for everyone.  We welcome you every single week!

Please share a comment below if you wish.

If you are under 13 years old, please comment only with a parent 

or as part of a group with your teacher and class.

Wherever You Are & Spark 18!

Click the arrow to hear me read this poem to you.

Students - Today's poem was my inspiration piece for Amy Souza as part of our collaboration for Spark 18.  I sent her the poem, and then she had 10 days to respond artistically to the words.  Look below!

Untitled

acrylic, pen, and collage on board and paper, played around with digitally

by Amy Souza

Isn't this a cool painting? I like to think that the poem holds a kernel of forgiveness, and the joyful colors in Amy's painting offer this same feeling.

Today's poem is written in quatrains, meaning there are four lines in each stanza.  Often I will write a poem in one big block, and only afterward realize that it should be broken up into quatrains.  You can do that in your writing too. Just get the words down, and then afterward...fly above the poem and see what shape it wishes to be!

Here is our Georgia, a long time ago, feeding one of abandoned kittens we found along our road.  Yes, this really did happen to us and so today's poem really is to a stranger who abandoned kittens... 

Georgia Feeding Kittens Many Years Ago

by Amy LV

You can see the inspiration artwork that Amy sent to me and read my poem response in Friday's post. 

Please share a comment below if you wish.

To find a poem by topic, click here. To find a poem by technique, click here.

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Quilt Map & Spark 18!

Untitled

acrylic, some pencil, and collage on board. 8" x 8"

by Amy Souza

 

Click the arrow to hear me read this poem to you.

Students - Once again, I have had the fun of participating in SPARK, brainchild of Amy Souza.  In this round, Spark 18, I happened to be paired up (again, yay!) with artist Amy Souza herself.  Ten days ago, she sent me a digital file with the above painting, and it was my job to write a poem (it could have been anything) inspired by her piece.  Now, on day 10, I am allowed to share it!   Many other Spark participants (82 this round) are also sharing their collaborations and will be posting the to the Spark website throughout the week.

Spark is a refreshing and invigorating community event here on the Internet, because it presses a writer or an artist to go in a new direction than he or she might have otherwise.  When I first looked at this painting, I fell in love with the colors...then I found a chameleon.  Later, I saw a quilt.  Then, one morning the rhyme patches/matches took hold in my head and Amy's image combined with my wordplay brought "Quilt Map" to life.

Here are the words I chose very carefully for this poem:  stitches, swatches, matching, patches, snuggle, batches, stacks, watch, sew, grow, map, flannel, patterns, lap, wore, tore, seas, snatches, quilted, land.  Do you notice anything special about any of them?  

Oh, how I adore shopping at the word store...where everything is free!

This poem is written in quatrains, except for the last stanza which I wanted to stretch out a little bit.  If you listen to me reading it, you will hear how the last two lines have a bit more of a pause in there...because those lines are the most important part.

This time of year always makes me think of making things: cookies, decorations, dinners for many, gifts! What do you like to make?  Have you ever written about something you made?  Have you ever made a poem as a gift?  Trust me - people like it.

You can see that her very vibrant work made me think of a quilt!

You can see all of my past SPARK collaborations here, and on Monday in this space, look for Amy Souza's artwork inspired by my poem, "Wherever You Are -."

If you have not yet visited Sharing Our Notebooks to read about Mary Lee Hahn's notebooks, she's still there with a a wonderful post and a giveaway too.

Robyn is hosting today's Poetry Friday roundup over at Read, Write, Howl!  Stop on by her place to learn the poetry news in the Kidlitosphere today.  You can also visit Robyn at her very cool etsy shop, artsyletters.

Please share a comment below if you wish.

To find a poem by topic, click here. To find a poem by technique, click here.

Like The Poem Farm on Facebook for more poems, articles, and poemquotes!

Flames are Horses - Metaphors

Heat

by Diane Mayr

 

Click the arrow to hear me read this poem to you.

Students - Here you can see another partnership between Diane Mayr and me. I regularly participate in Amy Souza's SPARK, a regular way for artists, musicians, and writers to share work and inspire each other.  This is a poem that I wrote quite a while ago, and I have come back to it again and again...making changes here and there.  Diane's art above was inspired by today's poem, and I think that the way she layered words and images over each other is just hauntingly lovely.

Sometimes we all look at objects or places and think, "This looks just like...."  or "This makes me think of...."    or "This is a...."  When we compare two things in such a way, we are thinking metaphorically, allowing one thing to become something else in our minds.  In today's poem, you can see that the flames really do become horses: galloping, cantering, riding night, leaving hoof prints.  That is so because in this poem, I wanted to hold one comparison in my hand (flames are horses) and carry it all of the way through every stanza.

You might wish to try this sometime. Stare around the room you sit in right now, or out of your bus window, or into the night sky.  Does something make you think about something else?  Is the connection strong enough that you might weave a whole poem around it?  Your class might like to try this together first.  If you do, please let me know!

Our other pairing (with Diane's photograph inspiring my poem) is posted here at SPARK, and I also posted it last Poetry Friday. I thank Diane for our collaboration and look forward to SPARK 18!

Today is National Punctuation Day!  Here are a few poems from the archives to help you celebrate: Inky Flyers, Emily Apostrophe, and Nolan the Colon.

This week over at my other blog, Sharing Our Notebooks, Barry Lane shares his notebooks and offers a generous giveaway of two of his books about writing and a CD.  A winner will be drawn on Sunday, September 30...the beginning of Banned Books Week!

Please share a comment below if you wish.

To find a poem by topic, click here. To find a poem by technique, click here.

Like The Poem Farm on Facebook for more poems, articles, and poemquotes!

Taking Stock & SPARK 17

Murphy Fix

by Diane Mayr

 

Click the arrow to hear me read this poem to you.

Students - This is the second time this week that I've written from a photograph.  On Wednesday, I wrote from that wonderful barn roof near my home, and now this!  Today's poem was inspired by Poetry Friday writer and artist Diane Mayr's photograph above, MURPHY'S FIX, and both are a part of SPARK 17, a project I take part in regularly, a project generously hosted by Amy Souza here.  Anyone is welcome to participate.  Simply read and learn about it, and you can sign up for SPARK 18 with a chance to swap your own writing, music, or art with someone else.

I lived with Diane's photo in my head for a few days before I decided what poem to write.  The colors and variety of candies just got to me, and every once in a while I would see them in my head.  

Should the poem be about candy wrappers stuffed in my car pockets and coat pockets and on this very desk?  No. Should the poem be about how I can chew a whole pack of gum in less than an hour and not even feel badly about it?  No. The poem should be about Halloween night, every Halloween night....when my sister Heidi and I would spread our candy out and trade and laugh and eat the hours away.

You may be wondering why this poem is about a boy and a girl when my personal memory is about two girls.  Well...I wanted to make the poem about a brother and a sister...and so I did.  I have nephews and a son and love including both genders in poems when I can.

Today's poem is partly a list poem.  You can see that there are places that are simply lists of candy names.  I am quite sure that I did this because this week I just kept reading Kenn Nesbitt's book I'VE SEEN MY KITCHEN SINK, and I giggled at the list of foods in his poem, My Special Diet. I also thought about Jack Prelutsky's Bleezer's Ice Cream and Shel Silverstein's Sarah Sylvia Cynthia Stout, both poems with food-filled lists.  It's quite fun to make a list of rhyming foods, and it's not too difficult.  Try it sometime, even just in your notebook.  Real foods OR make-believe foods.

When I asked Diane Mayr about the photograph above, she replied, "It's just candy for a funeral lunch.  In honor of the departed mother of a dear friend.  (Cross my heart and hope to die, it's the truth.)  I just took a photo of the candy before it was put into a bowl.  I cropped and manipulated the photo a little." 

Don't you think it's the most vibrant and wild candy picture?  I loved writing from it.

It's not Halloween today. I know! But a writer can write and an artist can create about any thing at any time.  Yes!

Teachers - You might wish to try a modified SPARK project in your own class, or with a class across the hall!  If you do, please let me know.  I'd love to feature it here.

Congratulations to all of the 2012 Cybils judges, especially the ones for poetry. You can see a complete list here (full of many names you know and love)...and follow their tweets and updates as the books come rolling in.  Please send your nominations between October 1 - October 15.

This week over at my other blog, Sharing Our Notebooks, I am so happy to welcome Barry Lane.  Teachers - Barry has offered a generous giveaway of two of his books about writing and a CD, and the drawing will take place on September 30.  

This week, I have finally linked all of the wonderful Poetry Peeks from this blog into one index.  If you are looking for some inspiration, student mentor poems, or ideas for ways to bring more poetry into your classroom, don't miss this new index.  You will permanently find it in the tabs up top.

I had to smile when I saw Renee's Poetry Friday roundup today over at No Water River.  She's hosting us with candy.  Quinkidink!  Head on over to enjoy all of the goodies she has spread before us.

Addition:  This afternoon I received a special poem from a second grader, and it warranted its own Poetry Friday post.  Click here to read it!

Please share a comment below if you wish.

To find a poem by topic, click here. To find a poem by technique, click here.

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Spark 15 & The Water Tower

Landscape

Mixed Media on Canvas

by Paula B. Lantz

Students - once again, it's been a delight to take part in SPARK...SPARK 15!  This time I was lucky enough to be paired up with artist Paula B. Lantz, and she gave me permission to choose any of her work from the Touchstone Gallery to spark my writing.  I so enjoyed browsing through her work, and when I saw the painting above, I knew it was the one!

Writing from art stretches a whole new part of one's mind, and I highly recommend it as an exercise.  You might find a shoe box and collect postcards from art museums or gather quirky pictures that somehow speak to you...  Then, if ever you think, "I have no ideas," you can simply pluck a picture and see where it takes you.  I have learned this from SPARK.

In writing today's poem, I worked to focus especially on color, to use color words all along the way.  Last year, a teacher friend shared some of his students' written stories with me.  Michael's story detailed a memory he had of a girl throwing up on his bus.  What struck me was his use of color: face purple like a grape, white like snow...  When I wrote this poem, I tried to write like Michael.  Try that sometime; write with color words.

Many thanks to Amy Souza for again putting together a wonderful opportunity for artists, musicians, and teachers to collaborate in this way.  This is my fourth time participating, and each time is nourishing and exciting!  All are welcome to participate, and I encourage you to check out the website and the pieces.  Too, Amy Souza, teacher Jamie Palmer, and I still plan to get a small SPARK KIDS going this spring.  More details to follow.

I will share Paula's response to my poem tomorrow, Saturday! 

In other writing news, this week I have a column about ears and holes in the "My View" column of THE BUFFALO NEWS.

Thank you to Ruth Ayres of Ruth Ayres Writes and Two Writing Teachers for her generous sharing of both notebooks and writing process this week over at Sharing Our Notebooks, a resource for teaching students all about notebook keeping and for the nosy among us to peek into others' notebooks.

Jone is hosting today's Poetry Friday over at Check It Out.  Check it out!

'Like' The Poem Farm Facebook Page for regular updates of all things poetry!

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London Dreaming, Umbrella Path, & SPARK 14

,

London Dreaming

(oil on canvas , "40 x 30")

by Alixandra Martin

Students - sometimes I find that my writing is best when I am inspired by someone else's idea. This may sound funny since I often write about the many different ways that I try to find topics on my own. But there is something neat about writing from someone else's work, writing to deadline, writing about something that first grew in someone else's mind. That's the work of SPARK, connecting writers, artists, and musicians...allowing each to inspire the other.

This is the third time that I've participated in SPARK, founded by Amy Souza and described below in her own words -

Open to writers, musicians, and visual artists of all kinds, SPARK is a participatory creativity event that takes place four times each year.

During each 10-day project round, participants create a new piece of work using someone else's art, writing, or music as inspiration. All resulting work is then displayed online, alongside the piece that inspired it.

For this round, I connected with artist Alix Martin, my talented friend who painted all of the images you see on my website and blogs. Honestly, I was a little bit nervous to write from "London Dreaming" because Alix is my friend, and I wanted her to feel that my words met her image well. So day after day in the 10 days of SPARK, I went back to my notebook -- writing the poem, writing the poem again, circling the poem, stalking the poem. I even used a prose writing exercise from Ursula K. Le Guin's book, STEERING THE CRAFT, to help me with the sounds in "Umbrella Path."

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Exercise from p. 26 - BEING GORGEOUS - Write a paragraph to a page (150 - 300 words) of narrative that's meant to be read aloud.  Use onomatopoeia, alliteration, repetition, rhythmic effects, made-up words or names, dialect -- any kind of sound-effect you like -- but NOT rhyme or meter.Doing this exercise gave me some snips and snaps that helped to build the foundation for my finished poem

I feel very lucky to have written from Alix's work in this round, and early next week I will post the inspiration poem I sent to Alix along the artwork she created in response.

It is exciting to write from someone else's art and to wonder what an artist will do with your words. These are the pieces I've written for previous SPARK rounds along with the images.

SPARK 15 will take place in February, and this time there will hopefully be an experimental Kids' SPARK too. SPARK founder Amy Souza, Webster teacher Jamie Palmer, and I are putting our heads together about how we will do this, so please stay posted for details at SPARK and here as well.

This week was marvelous in more ways than one. Last Friday, I had the good fortune to hear Naomi Shihab Nye speak at Kleinhans Music Hall. Her great soul and words have stayed with me all week. When she read "Kindness," I looked at my friend Nancy. It's one of our favorite poems ever. And when Naomi closed with "Gate 4-A," I felt forever new. Should you ever have the chance to hear Naomi speak (she will be back in the Buffalo area this spring) -- go. You will be renewed.

Robyn Hood Black is hosting today's Poetry Friday roundup over at Read, Write, Howl. Thank you, Robyn, for weaving such a lovely post for us today!

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