Wallow in Wonder Day 16 - Writing

Welcome to Day 16 of Wallow in Wonder!  For my 2016 National Poetry Month project, I will celebrate learning and writing from learning, writing poems from each daily Wonder at Wonderopolis.  As I did with my Dictionary Hike in 2012, I am looking to surprise myself with new inspiration daily.  This year, such inspiration will show up in my inbox each morning.  I will print it and carry each Wonderopolis Wonder around all day...and in the afternoon or evening, I will write and post the poem for the next day.  

I invite anyone who wishes to take this challenge too.  Just read today's wonder over at Wonderopolis, and write a poem inspired by it for tomorrow.  Share it tomorrow at your own site, and if you wish to link in my comments for others to find (or share your poem there), please feel free to do so tomorrow, the day after the Wonder is published at Wonderopolis.  If you would like to share any ways you have used Wallow in Wonder or your own site (safe for children only please), please link to the #WallowInWonder padlet.

My April Poems Thus Far

April 1 - So Suddenly - a poem inspired by Wonder #1659 

April 2 - Thankful Journal - a poem inspired by Wonder #1660

April 3 - The Storm Chaser - a poem inspired by Wonder #779

April 4 - A Jar of Glitter - a poem inspired by Wonder #641

April 5 - To Make Compost - a poem inspired by Wonder #1661

April 6 - Deciding Now - a poem inspired by Wonder #1662

April 7 - Hummingbird's Secret - a poem inspired by Wonder #1663

April 8 - Limits - a poem inspired by Wonder #1664

April 9 - Sundogs - a poem inspired by Wonder #1665

April 10 - Perspective - a poem inspired by Wonder #128

April 11 - At the History Museum - a poem inspired by Wonder #115

April 12 - Seventy-Five Years Ago Today - a poem inspired by Wonder #1666

April 13 - Homer's Poem - a poem inspired by Wonder #1667

April 14 - The Right - a poem inspired by Wonder #1668

April 15 - 5:00 am - a poem inspired by Wonder #1669

And now for Day 16!

Wonder #1670 - from April 15, 2016

Handwritten

by Amy LV

Students - Yesterday's Wonder at Wonderopolis was about inkjet printers and how they make so many different colors.  This made me reflect on how much I love typing quickly at my computer and how much I enjoy sharing my writing easily with you through this blog.  Too, I love revising with a keystroke and having the ability to save so many documents in one small laptop.

However...

Typing and keyboards and computers and the Internet and printed docs do not offer exactly the same feel as a handwritten letter or poem or note.  I wrote about this once before too, in 2010, in a poem titled Mail.  That poem poses a question.

It is fun to write many many poems, to go back through them, and to realize the themes of one's life. You may have noticed, as have I, that there are certain topics that I come back to again and again.  In this way, writing helps me know who I am and who I wish to be.

Today's poem is a sonnet, the third of this National Poetry Month.  April 1 (So Suddenly) and April 9 (Sundogs) also featured English - or Shakespearean - sonnets.  Simple ones.  I like the form.

It's also a poem of comparison.  You might want to try this sometime.  Take two things that are somewhat alike...but not exactly...and write a poem comparing them.

This month I am grateful to host middle school teacher and librarian Stefanie Cole and her students from Ontario, Canada at Sharing Our Notebooks all month long. This is a fantastic post full of notebook inspiration, a video clip, and a great book giveaway from Stefan

Happy Day 16 of National Poetry Month 2016!  

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.

Secrets, Buttons, and a Giveaway!

Remembering

by Amy LV

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

Students - The snow poems are blowing through my mind these days.  It is COLD here in Western New York, and this morning as I carried wood from the woodpile to our hearth inside, I looked at all of the twinkly diamonds in the morning light.  I knew that a snow poem was in my near future.

Sometimes reading poems by other people can help get my poem mind moving, and this morning, I visited Tricia's The Miss Rumphius Effect to fill my heart with poems.  It was a treat to read the different poems using anaphora, a technique I plan to experiment with this weekend.  I recommend that you check out Tricia's site too, as she offes "Poetry Stretches" each Monday with various exercises for poets to try.

This poem is, in a way about the water cycle, and a way about magic.  For although snowflakes were once ocean drops and ocean drops were likely snowflakes, I know that they do not hold these memories.  Again, this blending of true and whimsy is the tightrope I most love to walk.  Also, stories.  Things within things.  Surprise at what lies beyond.  These are areas I love to explore in poetry.  What do you love to explore with your writing?  The only way to find out is to write lots and lots.

Today I am excited to offer a giveaway of a beautiful, thoughtful gift.  Jeannine Atkins, author of BORROWED NAMES and other books, as well as blogger at Views from a Window Seat sent me a package this week including some magnificent buttons and stories for my charm string (see sidebar) and an autographed copy of her inspiring book (you will want to buy it if you do not win it), VIEWS FROM A WINDOW SEAT: THOUGHTS ON WRITING AND LIFE.  As I already own this book, she said that I could offer it to a reader and commenter on this post.  So....please just leave a comment to be considered, and I will draw a name next Thursday evening, to be announced next Poetry Friday.

Book and Buttons from Jeannine Atkins
Photo by Amy LV

Don't miss Lee Ann Spillane's fabulous notebook post over at my other blog, Sharing Our Notebooks...you will be amazed.  This Sunday, I will draw one commenter's name to win a copy of her e-book, READING AMPLIFIED.

Tara is hosting this week's Poetry Friday fun over at A Teaching Life along with her new kitty, Gepetto!  Please visit her place for the buffet of links to everything poetry in the Kidlitosphere this week. And if you'd like to link your own post in, please join us.

Please share a comment below if you wish.

Two Flowers - Compare & Contrast

Rose and Dandelion
by Amy LV

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

Students - Today's poem grew from some scratchings in my notebook. A few months ago, I wrote many of the flower-spoken words you read above, but as I reread them and thought about Monday's post about Thistle and about the YA novel I am currently reading - UGLIES by Scott Westerveld - I realized that I am thinking a lot about freedom vs. captivity lately.  I'm not sure why that is, but when you are writing regularly, you can see patterns in your mind and heart.  That's why I keep a notebook - to know what I think!

When I scribbled the beginnings of this poem in my notebook, I only had the lines from the flowers, but as I continued to work on it, I decided it would be fun to "bookend" it with some thinking and a question, the stanzas in italics. One of my favorite poems is Alley Violinist by Robert Lax, and I especially like how it leaves the reader with a question.

In addition to having different voices, this poem uses a technique we call "personification" which means that the writer gives an object or animal human characteristics.  In this case, I let the flowers think and talk. (It's funny, though, because I think that they actually DO talk and it's not a poetic technique at all!) This poem is also a compare/contrast poem, juxtaposing the lives of two flowers.  

So...here are a few things to think about today:  keep your notebook and save those thought-treasures, consider writing something that compares two different things, listen to objects and animals talking (or pretend you can), and remember that you can end your writing with a question.

This week over at Sharing Our Notebooks, I welcome author Peter Salomon and congratulate him on his forthcoming book, HENRY FRANKS. Please stop by and read about his first notebooks, and enter yourself in the giveaway of his new book - coming out this week!

If you are interested in entering to win a copy of THE POETRY FRIDAY ANTHOLOGY (in which I am happy to have 5 poems!), please stop by Friday's post and leave a comment there.  Thistle will draw a winning name on Thursday night, and I will announce the winner on Poetry Friday!

This week also marks a change in The Poem Farm schedule - I am now back and posting poems and poem greetings each Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Please come back and visit for lessons, poem ideas, book recommendations, and classroom Poetry Peeks.  If you are a classroom teacher or homeschooling parent, I invite you to share your students' poetry or your poem teaching ideas here.  If you are interested, please send me an e-mail to amy at amylv dot com, and I will get right back to you.

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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Water - Writing about Contrasts

Watery World

by Georgia LV

Daily

Photo by Amy LV

Students - Sometimes it is fun to trace back the family tree of a piece of writing - where did it come from? Well, this one came from a few places. One place it came from is a poem that I've read a few times this week, The Place I Want to Get Back To by Mary Oliver. The last few lines read -

If you want to talk about this
  come to visit. I live in the house
    near the corner, which I have named
      Gratitude.

Mary Oliver's poem got me thinking about what I'm grateful for.

Then, I came across the drawing above that my daughter Georgia drew.

I did some reading about informational texts, particularly compare and contrast.

I also remembered this book -

Shop Indie Bookstores

And all of this led to to today's poem!

Try it - find a piece of writing you've done (or write a new one) and then trace it back.  Find its relatives and see where it came from in your attic-mind.

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