February 13 & Tap-Tap-Tapping

 

Henry's Valentine Hearts & Scraps

Photo by Amy LV

Students - When I sat to type and reread and revise today's poem, our daughter Georgia came to ask me a question. I said, "Just a minute...I have to finish something." Then she watched (and listened) as I drummed my right hand fingers quickly and quietly on the desk.

When finished, I looked up at Georgia and said, "Yes?"

"What were you doing?" she asked.

"Counting syllables in each line," I said, proceeding to tap again. I showed her how every line in this poem has eight syllables, except for line six, which only has seven syllables.

Yes, poets do count! Try this with a rhyming poem you like. Count and see if there is a pattern to the beats. You may notice a pattern to the rhymes as well. In "February 13," each group of four lines ends with a different rhyme:  -OO,     -ACE, and -ISS

There is still time to make a valentine for your family, friend, or crush! Try a woven heart basket, as in the photo above, or sewn paper hearts like the ones below...or maybe a heart snowflake like the one you see at the bottom of this post.

Gigi's Valentines

Photo by Amy LV

Here's another crush poem!

Happy Valentine's Day to you and yours!

Hope's Heart Snowflake

Photo by Amy LV

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Poem #350 (a Haiku) Welcomes Snowdrops

Our First Snowdrops

Photo by Amy LV

Today I offer my first haiku of 350 poems.  This week we have been simply tickled to see our first red-winged blackbirds, our first snowdrops, our first of everything spring!  Such a newness creeps into one's very marrow, and so this poem called out to me in the shower yesterday morning.

Students - if you are a maker of poems, a maker of stories, a maker of music, or a maker of art, be aware that you can make in your mind even as you do other things.  When you shower, walk to school, knit, ride your bike...you can think about what you are making and let those thoughts simmer in your mind like a fine rich soup.

For a wonderful radio show about haiku, listen to Tom Ashbrook's On Point - Haiku and You.  For an article about writing haiku, visit Teach Poetry K-12.

If you would like to hear a Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale about a snowdrop, visit the Hans Christian Andersen Center, and read The Snowdrop.

Did you know that you can press flowers into pictures?  My husband's Aunt Pat has done this, hammering flowers onto fabric, making beautiful art.  The photo below is not near as lovely as the real thing, but can you believe that these flowers are all made by pounding petals with a hammer?

At Rhythm of the Home, you can read and follow a very clear tutorial about how to do this yourself.

 Pounded Flower Art by Aunt Pat Rybke

Photo by Amy LV

Dale Sondericker, my farmer-teacher inspiration for yesterday's poem, Manure Day, sent me a note last night - 

It will make you happy to know that the first time I heard it (the poem) was when I was in the tractor spreading a load of manure at 5:40 this morning.  My wife went on your blog and read it to me over the phone.

He's right.  That made me happy.

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Poem #341 Remembers What it Used to Be

Henry Sands His Gourd

Photo by Amy LV

Hope Waits for Chickadees

Photo by Amy LV

Today's poem is dedicated to Brittany Bruce's kindergarten students at Calvin Coolidge Elementary School in Binghamton, NY.  I visited their school in February, and the students and I played a little "I used to be" game, remembering which animals we each "used to be."  

Brittany asked if I had a poem in this form, and I didn't exactly.  Our game was inspired by a poem I wrote for POETRY TAG TIME, coming to Kindles next month, but that poem does not have this simple repeating line, "I used to be."  Hence, a new poem!  Students - writing is like that sometimes.  Sometimes you realize that you just need a new poem, and the only way to get it is to make it.

So....here is an "I used to be" poem for Brittany's students.  Perhaps they will share some of their own "I used to be" poems with us one day!  

You can read a tidbit about POETRY TAG TIME at Sylvia Vardell's Poetry for Children, and I will have more about it here very soon.

Today's photos are brought to you from yesterday's 4-H meeting here at our home where we began making birdhouses out of birdhouse gourds.  This is a very pleasing project, and while we're not all finished with the wood burning, these houses are very inviting.  

In the second photo, you can see Hope standing beneath a test-gourd which we turned into a feeder.  If you could see it closely, you would notice that it has been decorated by many different people and with two different test colors of stain.

Hope is very patient.  She had seven chickadees feed from the seed she'd placed on her hat, and one right from her hand.  Did you know that chickadees will eat from your hand?

This spring, we are going to plant these gourds!

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Pass the Money in Poem #321

Round and Round

by Amy LV 

Students - this poem idea came from three places: the $2 bills my children sometimes receive in holiday cards, the woven valentines I made yesterday from old Chinese paper money, and my constant wondering where every dollar and penny have traveled.  For the most part, this is a wonder poem.  Where has all of the money traveled?  Will I ever touch the same dollar again?

This, like "Thank You to Sun" and "One Yawn," is a cycle poem.  Think about a cycle you understand.  Where does it start?  Where does it end?  Would that idea make a good poem?  One of my favorite cycle poems of all is David McCord's "Cocoon," such spare and perfect lines.

I will again participate in SPARK, an online project where artists, musicians, and writers send work to each other to inspire new pieces.  SPARK 11 goes from February 16 - February 25, and I just sent and received my inspiration piece today.  In SPARK 10, I wrote from a lovely photograph of dahlias and sent my artist, Amy Souza, a poem about the Moon.  I also had the opportunity to send a poem to Amanda Brainerd who made a very neat photo collage to go with it.  90 people are participating in this round!  My partner, Nancy, is here at A Rural Journal.

Teachers - this would be a marvelous project to do with a class.  Simply have all students create a piece of art or music or words and then pass it on to a partner as inspiration.  Visual and musical artists create writing from their inspiration pieces, and writers create visual art or music from their inspiration pieces.  Set deadlines and guidelines, just as Amy Souza does, and see what emerges.  What a gallery display this could make in a school!  Please do let me know if you try this as I would love to feature your project and some of the work.

Homeschoolers - the way that SPARK is organized online would make it a perfect project for homeschooling families.  If you are interested in me helping you to set up a similar project, please just say so.

Woven Money Heart

by Amy LV

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Star in Sky...Star in Sea...Poem #319

Window Star by Hope

Photo by Amy LV

Students - this poem came from plain old looking around.  I was sitting in our living room, unsure of what to write about, when my eyes lit on the window star you see above.  Instantly I started thinking about starfish, and right away I wanted to write about them.

This poem is similar to "Skies and Seas," a poem I wrote in back December.  One of the neatest benefits of writing every day is that I am noticing which patterns, topics, and themes keep emerging.

Ed Young's book, I WISH I WERE A BUTTERFLY, has always been a favorite, and surely the theme has sunk into my bones...for here it is in today's poem!

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If you would like to learn how to fold paper window stars, here is a book to help you.

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Free Verse Week - #201 - Preserving Fall

It is Day #2 of Free Verse Week II, continuing through this Friday!

Today my daughters and I stayed home.  Phew!  It has been a busy couple of weeks, and so today we sat in the living room together drinking tea, knitting, reading, and playing with the dollhouse.  We did not take the hike I had imagined when I awoke, the hike which was supposed to send us home laden with leaves for pressing.  And since I did not live the day I imagined, I wrote a poem about that imagined day instead.  Tomorrow we will hike into the poem that rests on my paper tonight.

Students - it's funny the way that writing and living connect.  Sometimes we write things we wish to remember.  Sometimes we write things we wish to do.  This poem is an example of the latter.  What do you wish you had done?  Wish you will do?  Start there.  Wishes are rich.

If you live in a place where fall is singing its own anthem these days, and if you are looking for leaf-ideas, visit Our Big Earth to learn about pressing leaves between wax paper and  Gingerbread Snowflakes to learn about preserving leaves with Mod Podge.  You can find even more information about leaf crafting at Frugal Fine Living.  And if you're still feeling autumnal and artistic, read at Ten Kids and a Dog about how to make a beautiful Indian corn necklace, definitely on my list for this month.

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Poetry Friday & #163 - To Do List

"To Do List" is #16 in my series of Friday poetry poems!

Happy Poetry Friday!  

Today we will explore ways to bring poetry and rocks together.

Poems fill the air around us, and sometimes we get all swirlytwirlybusy and miss them.  Yet small beauties and moments of grace, times when plain-turns-amazing, are as common as rocks.  

Several years ago, my good friend Maria gave me some stones for my garden, homemade bricks actually, on which she had pressed the words, "YOU ARE MY SUNSHINE".  These four blocks live tucked under our Black Eyed Susans now, and I think of Maria whenever I walk by that garden spot.  If you're considering making your holiday gifts this year, I can vouch for the sturdiness and happy-feelings of my word bricks.  Check out Poetry Stones for more information.

On a similar note, I just found a new blog-to-love, downstream activities for kids.  In one post, Mary K. Weinhagen offers a fabulous poem and rock project along with a photo, and now I can't wait to make my own stone poem.  As soon as I do, I promise to post a photo.  And if you try it, please share a photo here and with Mary too.  This is one of the neatest craft and literacy projects I have found in some time.  It combines science, writing, and art... enough to make me quiver! 

It is funny how things come in threes, and so do today's rocks.  This week, Kidlitosphere Central offered up a new edition of Literacy Lava, a free digital Australian magazine of ideas for literacy educators.  On page five of this sixth edition, you can read a lovely short article (accompanied by photos) about how to make story stones for nursery rhymes, stories, or spelling games.  Catherine Oehlman tells how rocks and stones have been used in many cultures for hundreds of years in the telling of stories.  She offers suggestions of how we can do the same.  Why not bring a bit more nature into the classroom and home with words and stones?

Students - today's poem is a list poem, as I'm sure you could tell.  You may have also noticed that each line ends the same way.  It's fun to use repetition in this way, and if you try it, I'd love to read your work.  It will be such a treat to feature student work on a Poetry Friday very soon, and I invite all of you - students and teachers - to send poems or poem thoughts.

For your "To Do List" for today, I recommend a visit to Anastasia's blog, Picture Book of the Day, for the complete Poetry Friday roundup.

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My Poem Writing Year #150 - How To

Tie Dye Pile

Photo by Amy LV

At summer camp, we make tie dye shirts every year.  As a result, we have quite a wardrobe of them.  Some come out a bit muddy, some like a rainbow.  Some are swirly, some star bursts.  Tie dye is a craft with an element of surprise, and that is part of the fun.

If you'd like to eke out some tie dye craft in these last days of summer, check out Dharma Trading for all kinds of textile supplies.  And for some good tips, check out Paula Burch's website, All About Hand Dyeing.

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