B is for Bluegrass - Dictionary Hike

BLUEGRASS

Photo by Amy LV

Students - Today's word - "bluegrass" - gave me a couple of possibilities.  I could have written about bluegrass music, which I like very much.  But I decided to write about the bluegrass plant instead.  Can you believe that I never realized that it even IS a grass?  Golly, there are 250 varieties of bluegrass, we have it in our pasture, and I didn't even KNOW about it because I always just thought of "bluegrass" as music!  Our family loves Cherryholmes, a now-disbanded family band, so maybe this is why!

Opening the dictionary to a random word opens up my writing self.  I am determined to learn from the word offered, to let my poem turn on its gifts.  Today's word whispered, "Smush words together, Amy.  Smush 'em!"  I like the way that blue and grass squish themselves together.  Compound words are so cozy, so I made some of my own here - all with color words.  This is something you can try too - just squeeze those words together if they seem huggy.

Today is Day 2 of the Dictionary Hike!  Should you be interested in following through the alphabet, I am keeping all of this month's dictionary-inspired-alphabet poems in the left-hand sidebar. So far, I have felt quite lucky with my words.

Who else is taking Dictionary Hikes?  Well, Mary Lee and one of her students are dipping into dictionaries.  And Lisa left an ANCIENT haiku in yesterday's comments. (I hope she does this every day and encourage you to check.) Linda is writing daily poems too, and she may also use the dictionary as occasional inspiration.  If you do so, I welcome you to share in the comments!

Don't forget...it's down to the Final Four in Think Kid, Think!'s March Madness poetry tournament.  You can vote, and bring it to two here!

And now...a bit of bluegrass to introduce today's giveaway!

Today, over at my other blog, Sharing Our Notebooks, I am tickled to be hosting Janet Wong as she shares her process and office. Janet has generously offered these four books as a giveaway for today's post readers. If you leave a comment in this post or in today's (April 2) post over at The Poem Farm, you will be automatically entered into a drawing to win. This drawing will close at 11:59pm on Thursday, April 5. Please leave brief contact information in your comment so that I can let you know if you win!

Thank you, Janet, for this fantastic collection which includes: MINN AND JAKE'S ALMOST TERRIBLE SUMMER, THE RAINBOW HAND: POEMS ABOUT MOTHERS AND CHILDREN, ME AND ROLLY MALOO, and APPLE PIE 4TH OF JULY.

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