Imagine a Conversation

Sumacs

Photo by Amy LV

Sunset

Photo by Georgia VanDerwater

Students - Today's poem idea popped into my head sometime over the past few days, probably because the sumacs are so stunningly orange and red and because Halloween is on my mind. Somehow the idea of two orange nature friends dressing up as each other just made me smile.

It is playful to invent conversations between people, animals, or objects, and when we do this, we explore new and different writing territories. Consider taking a walk outside. Which two outside beings or objects might you imagine talking with each other? What might they say? Try making a little list and see where it brings you.

Remember, you do not always have to keep your mind on a leash. It is important to let your mind run in the field of ideas or at the idea park...with all of those other ideas.

Below is one of my first published poems, many years ago in LADYBUG magazine, and again several years later in BABYBUG. I will never stop feeling thankful for seeing the many different ways that talented illustrators bring my small words to life.

It was again a joy and an honor to visit Wyckoff, NJ this week, to work with wise and kind teachers and to think about writing together. Thank you, Wyckoff friends, for teaching me as always and for the good laughs. See you in January!

Carol is hosting this week's Poetry Friday roundup at The Apples in My Orchard with a celebration of bats for this International Bat Week. Each Friday, all are invited to share poems, poem books, poetry ideas, and friendship in this open and welcoming poetry community.

Tonight I hope to carve a pumpkin beside a bonfire. I wish cozy to you and yours...

xo,

Amy

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Imagine the Words

Martha

Ann 

Sall

Aug. 2, 1933

Mar. 12, 1937

Gone to be

another angel

Radford Cemetery, Radford, VA

Photo by Amy LV

Wm. Harless

Mabry

Mar. 6, 1936

May 30, 1939

Gone to be

an angel

Radford Cemetery, Radford, VA

Photo by Amy LV

And here you can listen to the talented musician and English professor, my friend Gart Westerhout. He has turned this short poem into a lovely and haunting song. I am always grateful and moved when another artist interprets my poems and helps me understand them even more.

Students - I am a taphophile, a person who is interested in graves and cemeteries, and right now I am taking a fabulous class about reading gravestones as well as reading A TOMB WITH A VIEW: THE STORIES & GLORIES OF GRAVEYARDS by Peter Ross. Ross writes, "If the imagination is a muscle, graveyards are a gym. I'd look at the names and wonder. Did John Barnes, Hairdrresser, who died aged sixty-seven in January 1891, ever, in his youth, take comb and scissors to Ebenezer Gentleman, who died at Christmas 1868 and whose crooked stone lies just a step or two away?"

Available through Bookshop.org

This week I took a trip to visit our daughter Hope. Among many other things, she and I walked through the West View Cemetery in Radford, VA where I took the photographs of gravestones and wondered about young Martha Ann and William who each died at three years old, both over 80 years ago. In their grief, Martha Ann and William's families had gravestones made, and each family chose a dove, the symbol of ressurrection, innocence, and peace.

Invisible conversations and history swirls all around us. For today's short poem, I simply imagined what these parents might say when talking with a stonecutter. While writing, I was reminded of one poem my Great Aunt Tom copied into one of her notebooks. That poem is in the voice of a parent asking God to brush their daughter's hair a certain way. (When I find this notebook, I will add it here.) This poem is one line from a conversation I imagine between grieving parents and a stonecutter. The title defines the conversation, lets the reader know who is speaking to whom.

Look closely at the words below the dates on each gravestone above. I am wondering something else. Do you think that Martha Ann's parents added the words Gone to be another angel after reading William's stone Gone to be an angel? This part of the carving on Martha Ann's stone does not match the rest of her stone but does match the font on William's stone. Could Martha Ann's parents have seen William's grave and said, "Let's add such angelic words to our daughter's stone." It could be so. Or not. We will never know.

Beneath every gravestone is a story. And most person-made items we see and hold stand on stories too. While we may not know these stories, we can imagine them and write from our imaginings. Walk around in a familiar or unfamiliar place and ask yourself some questions:

What may have happened here?

How was this made?

What conversation might have happened around this object?

What feelings are held in this thing?

Are there hidden words somewhere here?

What DON'T I see or know about this object?

Is there something invisible happening here?

What could the history be?

Write the answers to your questions down. Perhaps one of them will grow into a story or a poem or an essay. Perhaps you will learn something new from something old. If you wish, let your poem be just one snip of conversation as mine is here. 

Cemeteries are not scary to me. They are, as many say, like libraries...full of stories and lives gone by.

Jama is hosting this week's Poetry Friday roundup today at Jama's Alphabet Soup with poems by Scottish poet Helena Nelson. Each Friday, all are invited to share poems, poem books, poetry ideas, and friendship in this open and welcoming poetry community.

This week, my hope for you is that something invisible will show itself to you.

xo,

Amy

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If you are under 13 years old, please only comment 

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Someone Said Someone Said

Yesterday's Raspberries on Their Bushes

Photo by Amy LV

Students - I am now reading a novel by Beth Duke titled TAPESTRY. These are the opening lines: "Gossip is the most valuable currency in a small town. It's the reason the elderly widow waits in her front yard for the mail carrier. It's why the hardware store clerk quits stocking a shelf and rushes to see his neighbor near the nuts and bolts bin. It causes three women to maneuver themselves around a shampoo bowl and listen while they await their turns at the hair salon."

People talk. We tell each other stories about our histories and our lives. We talk about other people's histories and their lives. We tell the stories we hear and the stories we read about. We like to talk, and we like to listen. This talking and listening is more than gossip - it is stories in our mouths, words in our ears, stories and words that change us.

I have heard about my grandma telling my mom about raspberries smelling like perfume many times, so eventually this thought would end up in a small piece of writing. That piece of writing is here today!

Which words do you remember that someone said?

Which words do you remember that someone said someone said?

Consider making a place in your notebook - or your saving-section-of-your-brain to keep words which feel like good jumping off points for writing. Often a tiny seed grows a huge surprise of an idea.

What was said? What do you think about those words now?

Molly is hosting today's Poetry Friday roundup over at Nix the Comfort Zone with an original poem titled "Summer, Ten Times." If you visit her place today, you will likely want to try out one of your own "Ten Times" poems, and it will be neat to see what you come up with. Remember: all are welcome each Friday as folks share poems, poem books, poetry ideas, and friendship. 

xo,

Amy

Yesterday's Raspberries in My Pot

Photo by Amy LV

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Ask Your Cat, Ask Your Art, Ask.

Peace Dove

by Amy LV

Students - This year I made some peace cards by carving and printing my own rubber stamp.  Today I decided to write about this stamp, but I was not sure where to begin.

I remembered talking with a wise boy who said,  "I'm not a cat whisperer or anything, but once when I didn't know what to write, I asked my cat.  And then I knew."

So I decided to ask the dove of my stamp what it wanted to say. And then I knew.

I was also helped by this quote from Picasso, about his famous Dove painting. Picasso's father had taught him to paint doves, and addressing the 1950 Peace Congress, Picasso said, "I stand for life against death; I stand for peace against war."

May we listen to our doves, our hearts, our cats, and our inner voices as these will point toward kindness.  And they will give us writing ideas too!

Stamp and Cards

by Amy LV

At Sharing Our Notebooks, my other online home,  I am tickled to welcome third grade teacher Dina Bolan and her third grade writers from Alexander Hamilton Elementary School in Glen Rock, New Jersey.  Take a peek at their nonfiction notebook entries, and leave a comment to be entered into a drawing for a snazzy new notebook selected by me! 

Jan is hosting today's Poetry Friday roundup at Bookseedstudio. Her post honors the memory and vision of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, and you will be grateful to find the resources she shares. Please visit! 

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If you are under 13 years old, please comment only with a parent 

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