Think About What Is Growing Now

Teapot Full of Flowers

Photo by Amy LV

Students - My birthday was this week, so I picked a teapot full of zinnias and other flowers from my gardens and brought them to my mom. I'd thrifted the teapot a few weeks ago, and it was fun to turn it into a vase. I was excited to give my mom the flowers and also to wait for more zinnias to replace the ones I'd cut. Zinnias are a "cut and come again" flower, meaning that the more you cut the flowers, the more the flowers grow. I love that. You can see more growing already, here outside my writing shed, Gratitude.

Gratitude with MORE Zinnias

Photo by Amy LV

Thinking about the generosity of such flowers, I remembered each time our family has adopted a new pet, the way that each of our hearts grew bigger and more full of love. We didn't need to worry about sharing or not having enough love. Our love was give and give again.

Claude and Winnie

Photo by Amy LV

Today, when I wasn't sure what to write but still felt happy about the birthday flower teapot, I decided to write about zinnias...and in doing so, I realized that writing, too, is write and write again. The more I write, the more easy and comfortable it is to write. The less I write, the more difficult it becomes. When I pay attention and write, connections grow.

So, I am thinking about this. Giving helps us as much as it helps others. When we give, we grow.

Another Scribbly Draft

Photo by Amy LV

What is growing in your life? It may be a plant or a creature or an idea or a feeling. It might be a curiosity or wish or a goal. What do you wish to grow of more in your life? Even though there are many aspects of life that we cannot control at any given time, we can always find meaning and water the things we wish to grow within ourselves. We can be generous to us.

Regarding technical poem stuff, this poem is written in rhyming couplets, two lines at a time, each two rhyming.

This week, Molly is generously hosting the Poetry Friday roundup over at Nix The Comfort Zone with poetry that reminds us of the beautiful pause of summer. Each Friday, all are invited to share poems, poem books, poetry ideas, and friendship in this open and welcoming poetry community.

May you grow as you choose, my friends.

xo,

Amy

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Coaxing Poems 9: Time for Rhyme

Well...hello there Poem Friends! Welcome to the ninth of ten poetry video visits here at The Poem Farm. In each of these short clips, I will share a small something about poetry, and you will always be able to find the poem(s) I read below the video. If you wish, you may watch the earlier videos linked below:

COAXING POEMS VISITS:

Visit 1: We Are Libraries

Visit 2: Eat the World

Visit 3: Make & Break a Pattern

Visit 4: Abacadabra!

Visit 5: Tell Us a Story

Visit 6: Give it Space

Visit 7: Choose a View

Visit 8: Tap it Out

And here is Visit 9: Time for Rhyme:

Students - Today we think about rhyme. Rhyme gives poetry a special sound, and many poets enjoy rhyming to create a mood or a feeling of repetition, song, or comfort for readers. I like to rhyme, and when I do, I like to be sure that my rhymes make sense. I do not want anyone to really notice the rhymes at all, actually. If a rhyme doesn't make sense, fit together, or seem to mean anything, like the one below, a reader might shake their head and think, "Well, that's weird." If I tried to write something for the purpose of weirdness, that's good, but otherwise, such weird head shaking is usually not a good sign.

I like eating sweet cupcakes.

I do not ride bikes in lakes.

In an earthquake, the earth shakes.

Morning Tea

Photo by Amy LV

I do use a few techniques to help me with rhymes:

• Jot the alphabet and make lists of rhyming words from the alphabet (see below).
• Use Rhymezone or a paper rhyming dictionary. Make lists of the sense-making rhymes.
• If I cannot find a strong rhyme for the word I wish to rhyme with, try changing that word to a different word that may have more rhymes. (But don't choose a not-so-good substitute!)
• Read each pair or set of rhymes in my poem to be sure they make sense. I do not want rhymes to draw attention to themselves.
• Ask someone to read my poem aloud and not comment. Listen and see if it needs changes.
• Ask someone to read my poem to see "Am I forcing the rhyme?" 

Below you can see where I have jotted the alphabet and made lists of rhyming words from it. You may also notice that the poem below is written in quatrains (four line stanzas) but that I chose to change to couplets (two line stanzas) when I typed it up. Line breaks (remember Coaxing Poems Visit 6: Give it Space) matter.

When you make your own poems, you will make many decisions and ask yourself many questions. One of these questions may be, "Do I wish to rhyme...or not?" And only you know the answer.

Thank you for joining me for Visit 9 of Coaxing Poems. May your days ahead be full of fine rhyme...

xo,

Amy

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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.

Navy Uniform - Poem #8 for April 2014 Poetry Project

LIVE!

Learn about this, my April 2014 Poetry Project, HERE!

Navy Jacket - Found by Georgia LV

Photo by Amy LV

Students - Last Saturday, my daughter Georgia and our friend Karla went to a thrift store in downtown Buffalo, NY.  It was one I had never been in before, and Georgia found the Navy uniform from today's verse. Last night that uniform talked to me, and this poem tells what it had wanted to say for a long time.

From the drafts and times below, you can see that I spent about thirty minutes in my notebook again and then shifted to typing.  It is quite interesting for me to look at these draft pages, to see where the crossouts land and the good lines stay.

This poem is a mask poem, or a poem in which the writer writes in the voice OF something else. Those of you know my work know that this is something I love to play with, imagining that I actually AM something else.

If you are interested in writing rhyming poetry, I strongly recommend getting yourself a good rhyming dictionary and/or using RhymeZone.  Both book and online source will give you so many words that your choices will feel unlimited.  Do remember that rhyme is only good if the meaning is strong and clear.

You may see that even though I use both dictionary and online source, in the drafts above, I still  love making lists of possible rhymes. The exercise of writing out the alphabet and going through each letter is tedious but so interesting.

Please don't miss the wonderful post over at my other blog!  Seventeen year old writer, Alex McCarron, shares her journals, index cards, and process over at Sharing Our Notebooks.  Thank you, Alex!

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Jammies - Poem #2 for April 2014 Poetry Project

LIVE!

Learn about this, my April 2014 Project, HERE!

Space Jammies

Photo by Amy LV

Students - Today's poem took me about seventy minutes to write, not including the revisions made in typing.  (You can see a couple of notes about those changes in the first image below.) Some of you may be wondering if I ever draft poems on the computer.  Well, it does happen sometimes, but mostly I draft longhand.  I like the feel of a black felt tip moving across creamy paper.  I like the sound of it and the fluidity of moving my hand all around a notebook, drawing arrows and scribbling when it feels right.  I even like the sound of a turning page.  I like being able to see the footprints of my own thinking, even if I don't like a particular poem.  It's, well, my brain on paper, warts and all.

As with yesterday, I once again began with another's poem to inspire rhyme and meter.  This time I began with Ben King's "The Pessimist" from THE OXFORD BOOK OF POETRY FOR CHILDREN (1963) by Edward Blishen, illustrated by Brian Wildsmith.

But surprise!  I did not stay with the meter at all.  But you know what?  Having "The Pessimist" close gave me the confidence to begin. For me, beginning is the hardest part.  What if I don't come up with something?  What if the poem is terrible?  Sometimes having a friend poem nearby to hold my hand makes everything feel safer.

Draft #2 Page #1

Photo by Amy LV

Draft #2 Page #2

Photo by Amy LV

Draft #2 Page #3

Photo by Amy LV

What do you notice about these drafts?  Is there anything you see that you might wish to try?

The end of this poem mattered most to me and it took the longest time to write.  You can see evidence of this on the left hand side of both Page #2 and Page #3 of today's drafts.  Endings are important, and I always think long and hard about them.  This one almost had a circular ending, but then...it didn't.

Today I am happy to share a winter celebration poem from Dublin, Ohio!  Well chosen words can help us remember memories, favorite days and beautiful scenes.  Here on the dawn of spring, I  thank fourth grade teacher Stacey Hoover and writer Elliot C. for sharing "Ice" with us.

Ice

Slipping, sliding, gliding

skating, glowing in the night.

Freezing, melting, cracking up.

What a beautiful sight!

Elliot C.

I am very grateful to Anastasia Suen and Shirley Duke for their fabulously rich article in LIBRARY SPARKS about how to use my book, FOREST HAS A SONG, as a STEM resource.  

Teachers - Please know that I continue to share one favorite poem (not by me) at The Poem Farm Facebook page for each day of 2014.  I also post many interesting links to daily events and news throughout National Poetry Month at that page and on my Twitter page.  Don't forget to visit Jama's Alphabet Soup for a list of many things happening this month!

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I Understand - a Villanelle

Chester

Photo by Honour V.

'

 

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

Students - I have set myself a Poetry New Year's Resolution!  I'll be writing a poem every day of this year, and I will share some of them here.  This will give me an opportunity to explore many different forms and deepen my skill as a writer.  Sometimes we all get into ruts, and I do that with sound.  I like and often write in certain meters, so experimenting with new ones will help me grow.

Do you have a New Year's Resolution for writing?  It's not too late!

Today's poem is a villanelle, a form you may remember from V is for Vulture of my Dictionary Hike last April.  This is quite a complicated form, 19 lines with 5 tercets and 1 quatrain.  You'll notice that there are two repeating lines, and they repeat in a very particular order.  There are only 2 ending rhymes, and those, too, are in special places.  You can see exactly how this whole form works at poets.org or at the Poetry and Prose Writers' Blog.  There are many other places to look as well, but these two helped me yesterday.

Villanelles do not have a particular meter, but I chose to write in imabic pentameter (daDUM daDUM daDUM daDUM daDUM).  Next time I'll try something different, but since I wrote a sonnet on Monday, I was in the groove of that meter!

Below you can see the beginning drafting work of today's villanelle.  I followed the advice I read and began with a theme - becoming different animals and understanding all creatures, a theme I return to often.  Then I wrote out the form to help me, like a skeleton.

When I awoke this morning, after this post had been up for 5 hours, I read today's offering at The Writer's Almanac, also about the connection of creatures.  Today's poem at The Writer's Almanac is "The Fish" by Billy Collins.

I took these process photos at a ski lodge while writing during my children's ski club afternoon.  You can see how I left blanks for needed lines and how I wrote dots and letters to help me know which lines and rhymes were needed where.

Notebook and Paper with Villanelle Draft

Photo by Amy LV

Computer Villanelle Draft

Photo by Amy LV

If you would like to read lots and lots of villanelles (I just might), here is a whole book about them.

Available through Amazon

Thank you to Matt Forrest Esenwine over at Radio, Rhythm, and Rhyme for hosting today's Poetry Friday roundup, the first of this new beautiful year.  Be sure to stop by and celebrate 2013 with poems!

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To find a poem by topic, click here. To find a poem by technique, click here.

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Q is for QUAINT

Q is for QUAINT
Photo by Amy LV

My MACMILLAN DICTIONARY FOR CHILDREN defines quaint this way: Pleasant or attractive in an old-fashioned or amusing way: the narrow streets of a quaint old village.  

This is a great-sounding word, and it may even be quaint, for we do not hear it so much in everyday speech.  But I was happy to where my finger landed for today's poem as I love the sound and meaning of this word.

Students - This is a definition poem, or a poem that defines the word it is titled by.  You will notice that in my poem, each stanza offers a bit more of a definition through example, the final two lines bringing it all to a close with an opinion.  See how each stanza begins with the word QUAINT and then elaborates a wee bit more?  I enjoyed writing this very much, thinking about the different images that would best help a reader picture my word.

If you want to try this, you might just open your dictionary like I did and see what word you get.  Or you might think about a word that holds lots of meaning for you or a word you think is confusing or even a word with multiple meanings.  Then you can play with defining it through word, image, and opinion.  I would be very interested in reading any such poems should you give it a try!

Remember...it might get messy.  (See part of my draft below.)  Messy is good when it comes to writing!

Draft of QUAINT

by Amy LV

In case you are new to The Poem Farm, this month I am walking, letter-by-letter, through the dictionary, (closed-eyed) pointing to a letter each day, and writing from it. You can read poems A-Q by checking the sidebar, and you visit Lisa Vihos and read her accompanying daily haiku at Lisa's Poem of the Week. You can also follow Christophe's haiku with each daily word in the comments for that post.

If you have not yet taken a peek into Laura Shovan's notebook to see the evolution of her poem, April, please go and read her post at my other blog, Sharing Our Notebooks.  There is a giveaway on that post for her beautiful chapbook, MOUNTAIN, LOG, SALT, AND STONE.  Names will be drawn tomorrow!

Today, in another post, I am hosting the 2012 Kidlitosphere Progressive Poem. It's just like a dinner, but everyone contributes a line instead of a dish. Our 2012 poem is a grownup poem, but the idea of this project would be lots of fun to try with students. I spent hours working on my line!

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Riddle Poems and Radio Lab

Messy Draft

by Amy LV

 

Students- Can you guess the topic of the above poem?  There are a few hints, and I'd be interested in hearing if you can figure it out...and if so, at which line you said to yourself, "I've got it!"

Riddle poems are games.  The writer has the answer, and the reader must try to find this answer through the written clues.  If you choose to write a riddle poem, one of the challenges is to include just-right clues - not too easy, not too hard.

To write a riddle poem, first think of something, anything!  Now write a few one-line descriptions of it.  Piece these together, rhyme if you wish, fiddle away with words and sounds, and then you will have a riddle poem.

Once your riddle poem is complete (be OK with crossouts), test it out on someone else to see if they can figure it out.  That's what I did with today's poem, and my husband Mark did figure out the answer.  He also helped me realize that all throughout this verse, "they" would be a better word choice than "it."  Thank you, Mark!

Below you can read my poem for Round 3 of Ed DeCaria's March Madness poetry tournament at Think Kid, Think! My assignment in Round 3 was to include the word BOILING. After much pacing and worrying and scribbling, this verse spilled out.

If you are wondering where the idea of rescuing a lobster from a grocery story came from, it came from one of my favorite npr radio programs, Radio Lab.  In this short (about 14 minutes) clip, you can hear the story of The Luckiest Lobster, the very lobster who inspired my funny little poem.

As of yesterday, there are eight of us left in the March Madness at Think Kid, Think!, and we just received our words last night.  Away we go...voting begins tomorrow (Tuesday) morning!

If you write a riddle poem, or if your class writes some riddle poems...please do let me know.  I would be thrilled to feature them next month - National Poetry Month!

Did you ever wonder how and why popcorn pops?  You can find out at Wonderopolis!  (I make popcorn in a pot on the stove, so we really do hear those pings!)

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You can like The Poem Farm on Facebook for more poemlove...

Poetry Friday, Books, Socks, & #303

So Many Lives

Photo by Amy LV

This is poem #4 in my series of poems about books and reading and words.  My weekly ritual of writing about the same topic on a special day has been nourishing and a good stretch too.

Today's second poem is #5 in sock week, a challenge inspired by fifth grade teacher Jamie Palmer's class's project in Webster, NY. For each day of this week, several of Jamie's students are writing a new poem every day and posting them on their kidblogs.  Each has chosen one subject and continues to explore that subject on the seven days of this challenge.  With topics ranging from balloons to dogs to the ocean and lacrosse, they are creating all kinds of individual poetry collections.

I, too, am in on this project along with homeschoolers Nathaniel and Jessica from New Hampshire.  Nathaniel is writing about hermit crabs, and Jessica is writing about fireworks.  Poetry Friday is a perfect day to hop over to Family School and compliment them on their growing collection of poems.

 Draft of "Secret"

by Amy LV

Students - I wrote this poem because my daughters often wear mismatched socks.  I enjoy seeing their checked and striped feet sticking out from the ends of their pants, and it makes me happy to know that they feel free from having to look like everyone else.  Yesterday as I wrote, I imagined a girl who felt trapped by having to look popular and perfect, expensive and cool.  I imagined that this girl might rebel in a small way by wearing crazy combinations of socks.  For even when we feel trapped, we can find ways to preserve ourselves.

Did you notice that these two poems have quite a similar rhythm?

This week's Poetry Friday roundup is over at Elaine's Wild Rose Reader.  If you linger there, you will be treated to all sorts of poems, book recommendations, and poem-thoughts from Elaine.

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