Whip Up a Recipe Poem!

Ahhh....

by Amy LV

Students - Today's poem grew from our new snow outside and from a new habit I have of making lists of things that make me happy.  I keep these lists in my notebook. Here's a snip of one from earlier this week.  You can see it has a wintry theme because winter is now here in Western New York.

Happy List

by Amy LV

I have always found lists to be helpful jumping off points for writing poems.  And sometimes the lists turn INTO poems as in the one you read above.  You might wish to try to write a recipe poem sometime too.  It could be about anything: Recipe for Friendship, Recipe for Good Sleep, Recipe for Befriending Cats...who knows? Recipes are almost like magic spells, and poems are almost like magic spells too...

My wish for you this week is that you will find and make time for many small things that make you happy.  This is my own goal these days, to put down my electronics and to make applesauce, fold Froebel stars, and spend more time outside. The busier life gets, the more important I find these things to be.

Teachers - You can find me on Twitter and Instagram at @amylvpoemfarm.  In these places I share more bits and pieces of life, including interesting teaching links and photographs of The Poem Farm.

Over at my other blog, Sharing Our Notebooks, you can find a very cool peek into Julie Patterson's notebooks. Leave a comment...and you just may win a book!

Lisa is hosting today's Poetry Friday roundup over at Steps and Staircases.  Please stop by if you'd like to visit many different blogs, all celebrating poetry.  We meet every week, and we welcome all!

Tea!

Photo by Amy LV

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.

This Picture - Writing What We Do Not See

Country Road

Photo by Amy LV

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

Students - One exercise I have tried in a writing workshop is to "write about a photo that has never been taken, a photo that should have been taken".  This is a great exercise because there are so many meaningful snips in our lives that we do not document with pictures.  As a second part of this exercise, sometimes the leader asks us to write about the story that does not show in the photograph.  Every photograph has things you can see...and things you cannot see.

This morning, driving Henry home from his swim practice, we were tickled to see a parade of ducklings crossing the road with their mom.  I put on my flashing lights, stopped the car, got my camera, and the two of us got out to look.  Wobble, wobble went the ducklings into the tall grass, and my camera was not quick enough to catch it!

Today's driving surprise was an gift, a reminder of the unexpected beauties that wait around every corner.  This photograph and poem, my souvenirs of that moment in time, nudge me to find magic in unlikely places.  I find myself wondering about all of the befores and afters of every moment I have ever lived, the happenings right before and right after I leave a meadow or a room.

Keri is hosting Poetry Friday!  Head on over to Keri Recommends to find out all of what is happening poetry-wise in the Kidlitosphere today.

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!
Visit Sharing Our Notebooks to peek in all kinds of notebooks...

If I were my dog for just one day...

The Dogs of Heart Rock Farm - Cali and Sage in 2012

Photo by Amy LV

 

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

Students - Our family laughs a lot when we watch and play with our two dogs. Cali is almost four, lovely, loving, and a bit serious.  Sage is only one, floppy, and as my Aunt Tom would say, "full of spit and vinegar!" They have a rollicking time together, and we have a blast loving and watching them.

Today's poem grew from a month-old notebook entry.  Usually, my notebook entries skip from idea to idea, thought to thought.  I just gather up as many little bits of braindust that I can find.  Then, later, I comb through them choosing something to stick with for a bit.  For today it was the image of a dog curling a tail around herself, just as Cali and Sage both do.

Notebook Entry Snip from September 11, 2012

 by Amy LV

To begin today's poem, I flipped through my notebook until I found something that struck me. Then, once on the page you see above, I reread those circled words, "I would love to be able to curl up in a tiny ball and wrap my big, fluffy tail around me." I thought about what other things I would do if I were a dog, played with rhymes, and wrote this poemlist.  (Have you ever wondered why dogs roll in dead things?  If I ever become a dog...at last I will know!)

This poem is nothing more than a rhyming list.  You'll notice that many poems that you read are lists, much like this one. Today's poem is also one super-long sentence, and the title is part of it.  If you listened to me read the poem, you may have noticed that I read the title right into the first line...with barely a pause at all.  This is because I used the rhythms in the title as part of the rhyme and meter scheme of the verse.  A  long pause would ruin the sound and song.

Update!  Shortly after this poem was posted, Matt Forrest, from Radio, Rhythm and Rhyme, shared an answer poem.  You can hear him read it here.  What do you think it might be about?

If you are interested in writing some list poems of your own, here is a list of some I have written.  It's fun to brainstorm all kinds of lists and then later come back and ask, "Hmmm...might this work as a poem?"

List Poems to Explore

Word Blanket

Banana Phone

Fiction

Find a Roll of Foil
If
Gum for Free
I Want to Ask My Teacher
Questions
Fish
On Eating an Elephant
Under Your Feet
Last Day of School
Breakfast for Dinner
Don't Tell
How To Be My Favorite Book
Jewels
My Friend
Favorite Words - Poem Unavailable
When I'm Here
A Tail
Daisy
What is a Poem?
Alone
I Count
Read
Similarities
Ready
How To
reasons
Labor Day
I Can
To Do List
I Read
Tea Party Time
Warning
Voracious
The Dictionary Forest
Grocery Stories
nest
Leftovers
King Tutankhamun Dead at 19

25 - 150 Hertz
Poem Eyes
Doors and Windows Glow
Collector
Dee-dee-dee!
Finding the Way
List of List Poems
Thanksgiving II
Changing
Baby Dreams Of...

For more searchable poem lists, check the tabs above!

If you are a notebook keeper, you will not want to miss Kate Messner's post over at Sharing Our Notebooks.  Looking into the notebooks of generous writers can give us ideas for our own writing.

FYI - Right now I am on the schedule to host this Poetry Friday.  But I have traded with Betsy Hubbard.  So if you  keep the calendar in your sidebar, please note that change. Poetry Friday on October 12 at Teaching Young Writers with Betsy Hubbard, and I will host here at The Poem Farm on November 30.

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!

Tonight - A Love Poem to Summer Camp

Bedtime at Camp

by Amy LV

 

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

For the past five years, our family has spent two weeks each summer at Sprucelands horse camp.  Our children are campers, we are hill parents, and Mark and I could not be more grateful for all that director and owner Eileen Thompson has taught us about horses and life.  Summer camp is a magical world, a place where people come together after months or years, and it feels like no time has passed.  At camp, people who might not find each other in "real life" do find each other.  We run into friends' arms and hug, knowing which songs we'll soon sing together, and wondering about which favorite meals, games, and skits we'll take on this year.

Today's poem is a love poem to Sprucelands, and to some of what our family will always carry in our hearts from this second home.  The camp is for sale, and while we all cross our fingers that someone who wants to keep it a camp will step forward, times are uncertain.  Should you have any interest in such a venture, know anyone who might wish to run a camp, or have a friend who would like to fund a nonprofit - please drop me an e-mail to amy at amylv dot com.  This is an enchanting place, and we long to help keep it a camp.

Students - You will see that today's offering is a free verse poem.  When an idea is dear to my heart, sometimes I would rather rely on image than rhyme.  And I know that moments and memories and smells and laughs from Sprucelands will follow all five of us - and so many many more - throughout our lives.

With much love and gratitude to Eileen and all of our Sprucelands friends...

Today I am so happy to welcome author Deb Lund to my other blog, Sharing Our Notebooks where she allows us to peek into her notebooks and meet her inner critic.  Thank you to Deb for her post and for the two books she is giving away!

Teachers, if you teach students about keeping a writer's notebook, I have designed this blog for you.  I will continue to add links and resources throughout this summer, soon cataloging the posts as I have done here at The Poem Farm.

Gather a few poems into your arms and heart today over at A Teaching Life, where Tara hosts today's Poetry Friday roundup.

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!

My Dictionary, A-Z

Welcome to the complete 

April 2012 Dictionary Hike!

During April 2012, I wrote a poem for each letter of the alphabet. How did I find the ideas for these poems? Why, in the dictionary, of course! Below you can see me as a paper doll, sticking out of my children's dictionary.

Photo by Amy LV

Each day, I closed my eyes and opened my dictionary to a new letter, checking beforehand where that day's letter began and ended in the book. I began with A and worked my way to Z. Once the dictionary was open to a page, I would swirl my finger around around, and then I'd let it land.

Photo by Amy LV

Finger on a word, I opened my eyes to see which word I had landed on. And then, each day, I wrote a poem using the word under my finger!

This project was inspired by "The Lanyard" by Billy Collins as well as the 2012 March Madness poetry tournament over at Ed DeCaria's Think Kid, Think!  It was also inspired by something we teachers often say in writing workshops, "Just pick a word and go!"

When you scroll through all 26 poems below, you will be reading a month's worth of work. If you are interested in knowing more about any one of them (how I got the idea, something about the form, an idea for you to try), just click on the magenta heading and you will be sent directly to that day's post.

Under each poem, you will also find a recording of me reading the poem to you. I am hoping that this will feel like one of those museums or zoos where people get to learn and listen with headphones!

At the end of March, I had no idea what I would do here for National Poetry Month. One day in March, I was blogging along and just typed in the idea that I'd do a Dictionary Hike. It was a very spontaneous thought, and I could not have guessed how much I would have learned or enjoyed this journey. It's been wonderful to read the poems and comments from haiku-friend Lisa Vihos and several others, and I tried some new forms and wrote about words I never would have chosen on my own.

The Dictionary Hike taught me that if we want to, we can write from anything. The whole world is inspiring.

Here's the Hike in its entirety, except for D & F, which are currently under consideration for a new collection.
Click the title above each poem to learn more about it.
Click the arrow below each poem to listen to the poem.
Click below for an audio introduction to the Hike.

 

A is for ANCIENT

B is for BLUEGRASS

C is for CASE

 

D is for DRAW

E is for EXPONENT

 

F is for FELT

G is for GROUND

H is for HABIT

I is for INFLATION

 

J is for JAMAICA

K is for KNICKKNACK

L is for LIVELY

 

M is for MACARONI

 

N is for NORTHERN IRELAND

 

O is for OVER

P is for PRESCRIBE

Q is for QUAINT

R is for RESTORE

S is for SILVER

T is for TEEPEE

U is for URGE

 

V is for VULTURE

W is for WOKEN

X is for XENOPHOBIA

 

Y is for YET

Z is for ZAIRE

And that, my friends, was the Dictionary Hike.  

26 poems on all kinds of topics. Now I will sit and drink a glass of water, thinking about all that I read and learned this month.  I will be back next Monday for regular postings.

In the meantime, today I am visiting two different places!

I am very happy to be spending the day at Author Amok with Laura Shovan as a part of her series of 30 Habits of Highly Effective Poets sharing a bit about my revision process.  Author Amok is one of my "poetry haunts," and you can visit Laura there regularly to find poetry, writing advice, teaching ideas, and more.  Thank you, Laura, for having me over to visit!

Today I will be happily visiting Wonderopolis as well!  Today's WONDER is What is a Poetry Slam? and I have written the Try it Out! section.  If you do not know Wonderopolis, this site asks and answers a different questions - from any area - every day, and then answers it in all kinds of ways.  It's perfect for home and classroom too, feeding the curious.

Over at The Poem Farm's sister blog, Sharing Our Notebooks, many poets have visited in April, generously sharing their writer's notebooks and process.  This is a fantastic resource for teachers and writing workshop classrooms, and I invite you to stop by.  You can head on over there and peek right inside the pages of others' notebooks, something that nosy people love to do.  These are the poets who have posted this month:

Janet Wong
Laura Shovan
Rebecca Kai Dotlich
Suz Blackaby
Allan Wolf - The drawing for Allan's ZANE'S TRACE will take place on Monday evening.

Our final notebook-sharer of April 2012 at Sharing Our Notebooks is Heidi Mordhorst.  She takes us through her notebooks and tells us about double-drafting-by-hand.  She has also offered a very generous giveaway of a specially modified version of her beautiful book PUMPKIN BUTTERFLY to a reader.

Today is the first chalking celebration over at Teaching Young Writers, and Betsy welcomes us to come and see who is chalking which poems today.  If you have a moment, a road, and some chalk...consider chalking a poem yourself!   

Here is my offering, an old favorite.

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!

Poem #21 & TV Turnoff #3 - A Roll of Foil

For all time and in all corners of our world, children have played with small bits of things, making their own toys from very simple materials.  Even though we have gadgets and gizmos galore in our modern world and wealthy country, we can still do this:

 

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

This picture book about a young boy in an African village who builds his own toy vehicle out of wire scraps is a good story to recapture a sense of building something out of what may appear to be nothing.

Shop Indie Bookstores

If you are interested in allowing children to live out their complete childhoods, you may wish to read this article by Lenore Skenazy at the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood. 

(Please click on COMMENTS below to share a thought.)