Students - Happy March to you...the month that is said to "come in like a lion and out like a lamb." This March roared in with a new Candlewick Press book filled with poems selected by Irene Latham and Charles Waters and illustrated by Olivia Sua, and I feel lucky to have today's poem included in the collection. The book is titled IF I COULD CHOOSE A BEST DAY: POEMS OF POSSIBILITY, and on Monday many of us read our poems in a happy Zoom room with The Writing Barn. It was a treat to see Ms. Corgill's students and Mrs. Harvey's students there too!
I chose to write "Finch, Robin, Jay" about one small thing I believe a person can do to make their life better - learn the name of just one bird. Many of the poems are like this, about things a person can actually do...but some are more fanciful, using the IF to imagine more unusual or even impossible-in-real-life happenings such as Sylvia Liu's "If You Catch a Magic Fish." Beginning a poem with the word IF can take a writer anywhere.
The most famous IF poem I know is titled "If," and it is by Rudyard Kipling. It is also a list poem, and you can read it here at The Poetry Foundation.
I write about finding poems ideas by wondering WHAT IF in my book POEMS ARE TEACHERS: HOW STUDYING POETRY STRENGTHENS WRITING IN ALL GENRES, a book filled with poems by adults, young people, filled with lessons and ideas. We all spend time in our minds wondering What would happen if....? and today or this week, perhaps you will choose to follow your own IFs in your writing. (It's also a great way to plan your dreams and future.)
Thank you to Margaret for hosting this week'sPoetry Friday roundup over at Reflections on the Teche with an original and clever poem in the form of a weather forecast. Each Friday, all are invited to share poems, poem books, poetry ideas, and friendship in this open and welcoming poetry community.
May your week be filled with possibility, my friends!
xo,
Amy
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Students - Today I have a definition for you, a definition of the word awe from GREATER GOOD MAGAZINE.
Awe is the feeling we get in the presence of something vast that challenges our understanding of the world, like looking up at millions of stars in the night sky or marveling at the birth of a child.When people feel awe, they may use other words to describe the experience, such as wonder, amazement, surprise, or transcendence.
Many people experience a feeling of wonder, surprise, amazement...awe...when they spend time in nature. Earlier this week, I listened to an episode of the podcast Hidden Brain, all about the science of awe. If you have never listened to a podcast, the ones I enjoy are like educational television programs (I have never had a TV as an adult) without the pictures - I listen on my phone. I listen while cooking or driving, cleaning or walking on my dad's old treadmill. Anyway, this one about awe got me thinking about times when I have experienced such a sense of wonder. And yes, I too am often in nature when I have awe fills me from toe to nose.
This week, I also shared the below photo of our chickens' eggs on social media, and my friend Linda asked if I would save blue and green shells for her so that she can turn them into watercolor paints. Of course I said, "Yes."
Splendor from the Hen House
Photo by Amy LV
The combination of these two experiences - a podcast and a friend's request - mixed in with my interest in birds and finding natural treasures, brought today's poem into the world.
Only at first, it had shorter lines.
Experimenting with Line Breaks
Photo by Amy LV
The other week, my friend Heidi of my juicy little universe complimented the longer lines of one of my poems. As I admire her writing, this has me thinking about how I might play around more with the lengths of poem lines. And so, while the first draft of this poem had shorter lines...it shifted to longer lines. Thank you, Heidi!
Here are a couple of things you might try out this week:
1. Go outside. Let something fill you with wonder or surprise. Feel awe. Write.
2. Experiment with your own line breaks, drafting the same words in a different way by simply changing where you go to a new line. Read your poem out loud each way and see which works best for you. I think that the longer lines work best in today's poem because fewer breaks make the poem feel more like a whispered conversation with a friend, somehow more casual and real.
Tanita is hosting this week's Poetry Friday roundup at {fiction, instead of lies} with a mighty cactus poem and painting along with some inspiring (and much needed by me) words about writing and goals. Please know that all are welcome each Friday as folks share poems, poem books, poetry ideas, and friendship.
Look around, my friends. It is a beautiful world out there.
xo,
Amy
Please share a comment below if you wish.
Know that your comment will only appear after I approve it.
If you are under 13 years old, please only comment
with a parent or as part of a group with your teacher.
Hello again, my dear friends. I have been away for a long time, and I am grateful to return. I know that this community of generous writers and sharers has been here all along, making the world kinder and wiser through words, and it feels good to be back. I rejoin today with a poem about finding things and feelings.
Robin Eggs
Photo by Mark VanDerwater
Students - As is often the case, when I began to write today's poem, I did not know what I would write about. I waited. (The ideas do come, you know. They sneak up on you.) When I look back, however, I understand that this poem grew from gathered images I have held without realizing. Earlier this spring, my friend Christian told me stories about the robin family living in her garage. Later this spring, I found half of a robin egg at a park. Earlier this week, my husband shared the above photo with me, taken outside of his parents' garage.
Summer is fantastic for finding, and you can always write a poem about something you find. If you would like to write a poem similar to this one, just write two stanzas: the first stanza describing what you found and the second stanza telling your feelings and emotions around it.
Margaret is hosting today's Poetry Friday roundup over at Reflections on the Teche with an original list poem titled "Eight Reasons to Take a Walk on a Sunday Morning." All are welcome each Friday as folks share poems, poem books, poetry ideas, and friendship.
Students - We have lots of snow here in Western New York today! So far, about twelve inches have fallen, and there is lots more to come. On snowy days like this, I like to look out the windows at the birds, so happy to eat the seeds that Mark has put out for them. Today I could not help but notice the little line of juncos and chickadees and cardinals fluttering in to patiently wait on that dead sunflower stalk you see in the pictures above. (Blue jays don't wait...they just hop right in there!)
You may have noticed that each of the two longer stanzas of this poem describes a the same location in a different season - the sunflower and feeder in fall and also in winter. This is really a two-part poem...and that last line? Well, that's a just a fun surprise.
You might try this too. Think of a place in two ways - before and after an event, in two different seasons, or even as seen by two different people or animals. Then, write one stanza from the one time or viewpoint and one from the other time or viewpoint. And if you wish to throw in a surprise, well, you're the poet.
SUNDAY JANUARY 27, 2019 UPDATE: Yesterday, Mark decided to bring our old Christmas tree out for the birds...so now there are perches for all! Here you see a chickadee atop the tree (just like an angel!) and a blue jay flying in from atop the sunflower stalk.
Perches for All
Photo by Amy LV
Tara is hosting today's Poetry Friday roundup at Going to Walden, with a poem by Linda Pastan. Please know that the Poetry Friday community shares poems and poemlove each Friday, and everyone is invited to visit, comment, and post. And if you have a blog, we welcome you to link right in with us.
Students - My husband Mark was watching some blue jays nesting in our barn earlier this summer, and when the babies fledged and the nest was abandoned, he took it down and looked inside. There was one baby who did not live long at all, perhaps just long enough to hatch.
Baby Blue Jay Skeleton
Photo by Amy LV
Not every creature is given a long life, and in today's poem, I simply wanted to speak to that little one, about all of the things I am sorry it never got to experience. The blueness of blue jays is a special blue indeed, and their might in flight is beautiful to witness. Today's poem created a pause in my day, an acknowledgement of a very short, very tiny life.
Bits of life strike us humans. And poetry is a way to hold a feeling or a question in our hands, to look at it and to take our time. I am glad to have stopped my day to think a bit about this small bird and am grateful for the time to honor its life with a few words.
You will notice that today's poem is simply a list, each line beginning with "You never..." I did not want to talk about my feeling (sadness) but instead, hoped that this simple repetition would make it clear.
And yes, this poem does have a long title. I am not sure why. I just like it that way...
Christie is hosting this week's Poetry Friday roundup at Wondering and Wandering with a celebration of birds and her love for birds. Each week we gather together, sharing poems, books, and poetry ideas all at one blog. All are always welcome to visit, comment, and post.
Students - Each morning that I walk around our back pasture, a mama bluebird darts from this house you see above. She does not want me to know about or to disturb her babies. Earlier in the season, she would fly as close to my head as possible, trying to frighten me away. I wish she knew that I will never harm her or her children.
Today's poem is simply about a daily moment in my life during this season. It is important for me to go outside and to do things - to experience the small majesties of the seasons and to pay close attention to what I see and think. Sometimes children ask about why I do not have a television or video games, and my best answer is because I know how short life is, I know how addictive such things are, and I wish to save any little brain and heart and soul space for the people and animals and things that mean the most to me.
Writing about bluebirds today made me think about a poem from my new book, WITH MY HANDS: POEMS ABOUT MAKING THINGS (Clarion, 2018). If you are looking for something interesting to do this summer, make something with your own hands. You are capable of so much.
Teachers - If you are interested in resources for sharing this book, Erika Thulin Dawes from School Library Journal has written an extensive and beautiful post full of resources HERE.
From WITH MY HANDS
Click to Enlarge
Today is the final Poetry Peek for the 2017 - 2018, school year, and I feel fortunate to welcome Stephanie Jeppson's fifth grade poets from Crossroads Elementary School in Riverbank, California. These students created this presentation all on their own, and I am grateful to them for publishing it here! Welcome!
Click the Box to Enlarge
These students' poetry, books, and presentation inspire me to think about all kinds of poems and too, about the magic that happens when we work together. Thank you very much to Teacher Stephanie Jeppson and to these poets and makers for joining us today as we lean into a summer filled with words and love.
Last week I welcomed Teacher Dana Kofitsas and her third graders with their collection of lovely, thoughtful poems. If you did not see these, please do so HERE. A joy!
Karen is hosting this week's Poetry Friday roundup at Karen Edmisten with two beautiful poem offerings. Each week many of us gather together, sharing poems, books, and poetry ideas all at one blog. All are always welcome to visit, comment, and post, and you can always find the host of the week in the left sidebar here or at any participating blog.
And now, I say goodbye for a bit as The Poem Farm will be on vacation this summer - vacation at home.
I plan to paint these bluebird houses built by the hands of a young 4-Her named Dylan.
I plan to spend good writing time in my new/old little camper named Betsy.
And I plan to pick berries, feed hummingbirds, make jam, knit, move plants around, and to organize many of the poems here at The Poem Farm. I will not be sharing new poems, but hopefully I will have things in a bit more of an organized fashion by the time I return on Friday, August 31.
Students - Did you know that a poem can be very short? This short poem is simply an image (winterberry branch) and my personification of that image (calling birds for breakfast). It's a haiku.
The Poetry Foundation explains haiku - "A Japanese verse form most often composed, in English versions, of three unrhymed lines of five, seven, and five syllables. A haiku often features an image, or a pair of images, meant to depict the essence of a specific moment in time." This branch right outside of my front porch here at The Poem Farm is full of berries now...but likely not for long once the birds find it. So this IS a specific moment. Here I fell in love with bright red against white snow and brown barn and branches....
If you are on a school break this coming week, or even if not, keep your eyes open for images specific to the season where you live. Find a moment, a specific moment when the season seems to define itself to you. Write or draw or take a picture.
Right now, as I type to you....about 20 goldfinches are enjoying the feeder outside my window. Another moment! Our world is very beautiful, and we can often find this beauty in small and surprising bits.
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!
Buffy is hosting today's Poetry Friday roundup over at Buffy's Blog. She's offering up a fun personal holiday poem and a current political poem by our Young People's Poet Laureate Margarita Engle. Please stop by if you'd like to visit many different blogs, all celebrating poetry. We meet weekly, and everyone is invited!
Welcome to my National Poetry Month project for 2017! Students - Each day of April 2017, I will close my eyes, and I will reach into my box of 64 Crayola crayons.
Aerial View of Crayola Box
Photo by Georgia LV
Each day I will choose a crayon (without looking), pulling this crayon out of the box. This daily selected crayon will in some way inspire the poem for the next day. Each day of this month, I will choose a new crayon, thinking and writing about one color every day for a total of 30 poems inspired by colors.
I welcome any classrooms of poets who wish to share class poems (class poems only please) related to each day's color (the one I choose or your own). Please post your class poem or photograph of any class crayon poem goodness to our Writing the Rainbow Padlet HERE. (If you have never posted on a Padlet, it is very easy. Just double click on the red background, and a box will appear. Write in this box, and upload any poemcrayon sharings you wish.)
Here is a list of this month's Writing the Rainbow Poems so far:
Students - Back in 1994, when I lived in New York City, I would regularly visit Morningside Park. In the spring of that year I saw a bird sitting on a nest. Regularly I would sit on a bench and, from a distance, watch this bird keeping her eggs warm. It really did feel like a little secret in a very big city.
Do you have a memory of something small in a big world, something small that you will never forget? Perhaps you might have a small memory that connects with a color you've chosen for today or with anything at all. Memories stay with us, and when we write these memories down, we keep them closer to our hearts. This wee bird is a memory from over twenty years ago...and she was still fluttering in my soul. How grateful I am that she took flight today. And had I not sat down to write...she never would have done so.
If you are Writing the Rainbow with me, you might choose to connect the color you choose today to a memory...or not. Colors can take us anywhere. And if you'd like to join in with your own poem at our Writing the Rainbow Padlet, please do!
Don't miss the links to all kinds of Poetry Month goodness up there in my upper left sidebar. Happy eighth day of National Poetry Month.
Tomorrow evening I will host the #nctechat on Twitter. Please join us at that hashtag at 8pm EST to talk about the "Art and Joy of Poetry."
Students - Today's poem came from my own wonders about migrating birds (How do they KNOW?) and from the birds we see in our yard each winter. Today I share a questioning nature poem - from Chickadee's point of view - in honor of our special guest, a poet I admire so deeply.
It is my absolute honor to welcome Jeannine Atkins, author of, among other books, BORROWED NAMES, LITTLE WOMAN IN BLUE, VIEWS FROM A WINDOW SEAT, and her latest...gorgeous...FINDING WONDERS. Stay tuned for her forthcoming STONE MIRRORS (later this month) but today, please enjoy Jeannine's words about FINDING WONDERS, a book that has received stars from both Booklist and The Bulletin of the Center of Children's Books, a book that has been named a Book that Makes a Difference by The Horn Book, a book that has made me cry and cheer out loud.
I asked Jeannine, "Do you feel that you BECOME these girls when you write about them?"
She answered, Yes, there is some sense of channeling, of reading enough and getting the details till I feel like I have a special key.
Welcome, Jeannine! Please tell us about this latest book.
Finding Wonders is about three girls who were born in earlier centuries and whose lives focused on the close looking needed in science. Poems often begin with close looking, too. I want to see past words, which sometimes seem in the way, to what’s in front of my eyes.
Honoring the Plants and tools Maria Merian Worked with
after Sailing from Europe to South America in 1699
Photo by Jeannine Atkins
Maria Sibylla Merian grew up helping her stepfather in his studio and learning to paint. She loved the colors of butterflies, moths, and flowers, but she was even more fascinated to watch how a small animal changed, from a caterpillar or silkworm to a chrysalis or cocoon, then to a butterfly or moth. Maria Merian’s paintings had to be still, but sometimes she painted all the stages of a life in one picture.
To write some poems, I also wanted to show these small creatures in motion. I watched videos of silkworms spinning sticky silk around themselves, and weeks later, breaking open the cocoon. I wrote metaphors comparing the spinning to dancing and twirling a spoon around a cake to frost it.
Can you watch an action, such as a caterpillar crawling up grass or a spider making a web? Try comparing the motion to something from your own life.
Writing about Mary Anning, the first person to make a living selling fossils, meant I had to imagine her life, back before there was a word for “dinosaur.” In my mind’s eye, I saw Mary walking down the beach, picking up what she called curiosities. These stones with an impression of plants or animals are what we call fossils. I wrote about the questions these stones might have raised in her mind.
Trilobites and Ammonites
Such as those Mary Anning Collected
Photo by Jeannine Atkins
Choose a scientist from the past to write a poem about. What do you know now that she or he wouldn’t know then? Can you write a poem as a conversation between you and this scientist, speaking about something now known that wasn’t known long ago?
Thank you so much to Jeannine for joining us here this week...and we are even luckier still because Jeannine is offering a giveaway of one signed copy of her book to a commenter on this post. The winner will be posted in this same space next Friday, January 13, so please leave your comment by Thursday evening, January 12.
Students - Today I was thinking about Emily Dickinson's poem, the one you just read. It is a poem that stays inside of one's heart, a poem you can pull out and hold when you need it.
Today I also wanted to write something, and when I did not know what to write, the words of Emily whispered into my ear. Her words helped to write my own.
Handstitched Birds by Stitch Buffalo Artisans
Photo by Shelby Deck
When you read my poem, you will notice that many of the words are the same words that Emily used, but I have used them in different places and ways. You will also notice that the rhyme scheme and meter of my poem matches Emily's. Her poem helped me write today, in more ways than I feel able to explain.
The other week, I wrote about poems having friends, and I hope that the poem I wrote today, below, might be a good friend for Emily's words. The more poems we know, the more poems will come to our minds when we need them. And every once in a while, a poem we love may inspire us to write a new poem in its honor, to be its pal.
Writing can help us make sense of the world, and it can help us do good, each in our small way. Today I am happy to share that just like last year, I will be offering free shipping on the gorgeous handstitched birds you see above, birds made by refugee artisan women of Stitch Buffalo, living in Buffalo, NY.
Artisans of Stitch Buffalo
Photo by Shelby Deck
And this year, I have something new and lovely to share. Just for us, and just announced today, these artisans have begun making writers notebooks with pen pouches, small notebook covers designed to hold 5" x 8" Moleskine-style notebooks. Each includes a notebook and pen.
Sewn and Handstitched Notebooks by Stitch Buffalo Artisans
Photo by Shelby Deck
In the words of activists Dawne Hoeg and Shelby Deck --
The vision for Stitch Buffalo was conceived with an impulse to unite the communal craft of textile arts with Buffalo’s growing refugee population. Our goals were to: educate individuals in contemporary textile design methods, nourish and honor global textile traditions, provide cross-cultural interaction, providing a supportive social network, stimulate literacy skills, improve financial opportunities, create a community of women supporting women.
Over the two and a half years, Stitch Buffalo has grown from one Congolese woman to more than than 50 women from all over the world who come on a weekly basis for skill training and creative support in the vast and beautiful field of textile art and design. Along the way, non-refugee participants have enriched the class as well, further deepening the experience for everyone involved.
Each item sold creates financial and artistic opportunity in the life of the woman who made it and a truly unique connection for the person who purchases it.
If you would like to learn more about Stitch Buffalo, enjoy the clip below.
The cost of each embroidered hanging feathered friend is $20, and the cost of each writers notebook with pen holder is $25. I will pay your shipping for an order of any two items or more. You will receive a surprise color and for each item you purchase, and 70% of the money will go directly to the refugee woman who stitched the piece, the remainder going to materials. Each stitched piece will be tagged with the artisan's name and home country.
If you are interested in ordering two of any Stitch Buffalo pieces, either birds or notebooks, The Poem Farm will pay shipping to send your order to your home (or a friend's home) in the continental US. Please just drop me an e-mail to me, and I personally will mail your birds or notebooks! All orders (and checks) must be received by December 15. I am also happy to hand carry birds and notebooks to NCTE in Atlanta later this month.
To order birds and notebooks, please:
Send an e-mail by December 15 to me at amy@amylv.com with STITCH in the subject line.
Include what you wish to order. (Colors will be a surprise!)
Include your address.
Wait for an e-mail with information about mailing your check.
If you wish to make a donation of stitchery materials, gorgeous buttons, glass beads, or money to Stitch Buffalo, please let me know, and I will connect you with them.
You can learn more about our refugee population in Buffalo, NY HERE. The family story of one Stitch Buffalo artisan is highlighted in this BUFFALO NEWS series from Fall 2016.
Thank you for being here for each other, for me, and for our good, beautiful world.
Love,
Amy
xo
This month I am grateful to have artist Tim Needles visiting my other blog, Sharing Our Notebooks. I've admired his work on Twitter for a while, and it's a treat to peek into his fabulous notebooks and to learn about his faith in process. Don't miss. (And there's a book giveaway for a commenter too!)
It is now Friday, and I would like to invite everyone over to this week's Poetry Friday roundup over at Jama's Alphabet Soup. All are always welcome in this warm community of folks who love poems and people.
