Me, a Tree
Photo by Amy LV
Click the arrow to hear me read this poem to you.
Students - Have you ever stretched out on the grass underneath a tree? I did so yesterday afternoon, and looking up, took this photograph. All evening and maybe even asleep, I thought about this picture. And then, this morning...I suddenly imagined turning INTO a tree. At first, I thought that would be grand to be a tree, but upon writing...I realized that it would be scary too. How strange to not be able to move!
One of my early ideas was to write a poem where the tree and I changed places. But once that little black pen took off, it decided not to write about the tree being a person, just about me being a tree. This is something important for us to remember; we do not always know where our pens will go, and sometimes we must follow happily, discovering!
Some of my favorite poems are those which take an imaginary journey. It can take my mind a while to free itself up enough to travel into unreal places, but when it does...I am always grateful.
You may notice that the last line of this poem also holds the title. Many times, I title a poem after writing it, just letting the title jump out and choose itself.
(Those of you who know my work will notice that favorite rhyme again -
bird and
word!)
Teachers - For those of you who keep writers notebooks with your class, you will want to check out the
new index that I just put up of all of the Sharing Our Notebooks posts so far. This index will continue to grow as the blog grows, and I invite you and your students to post here if you love your notebooks and have something you would like to share. (Please stay tuned as I continue to describe each post in the index.)
If you teach in a writing workshop district, you might be interested to know that I have just found some video clips of me teaching demonstration lessons in classrooms in Hilton, NY. Feel free to check them out
here and to use them for your own staff development if you wish. I will continue to add more as I preview them!
Also, don't forget that you can win a Poetry Friday mini-grant including a copy of THE POETRY FRIDAY ANTHOLOGY as well as a Poetry Friday start-up kit -
see here for details with Sylvia Vardell and Janet Wong.
Diane is hosting today's Poetry Friday roundup over at
Random Noodling. Visit there to see what everyone is sharing today in the Kidlitosphere...it's a poetry party, and all are invited!
Please share a comment below if you wish.
To find a poem by topic, click
here. To find a poem by technique, click
here.
