Writing Our Surroundings

Time for Inside Fires

Photo by Amy LV

Students - The weather is getting much colder here in Western New York where I live, and because we are having new siding put on our house, I needed to bring all of last year's leftover firewood inside. Yes, I could have piled it out under a tarp, but why do so when it will just need to come in soon anyway? And truth be told, it is cozy living among the stacks of wood. I feel like a little mouse in a storybook.

So now, surrounded by wood, I cannot help but think about wood and then trees and then forests and then questions. Today's poem came from all of this - my right-now surroundings. When you sit down to write you might choose to look around and ask, "What am I surrounded by at this very minute?" Some days for me the answer may be as simple as "messes and cat fur," and some days it might be "cookies and candles." Anything nearby or around us can offer us thoughts and questions, and in this way too, I am thinking about what I wish to surround myself with. One cannot choose everything...but one can choose some of our surroundings.

You may have noticed that this poem has a repeating line - all of this firewood. I invite you to play with repeating one line throughout a poem or a story that you write. And too, if you're not sure how to end a piece of writing, this may be because you are wondering something. If so, just end with a question as I have done today. Writing strategies and techniques belong to all of us, and we can all learn from each other. 

Matt is hosting this week's Poetry Friday roundup over at Radio, Rhythm, and Rhyme with all kinds of good publishing news. Each Friday, all are invited to share poems, poem books, poetry ideas, and friendship in this open and welcoming poetry community.

I wish you good and warm and kind surroundings. And I wish you small ways to create these for others too...

xo,

Amy

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Sing Someone Else's Song

Our Blazing Hill

Photo by Amy LV

Some of you may remember my talented friend, musician and English professor Gart Westerhout from his music here last spring. Every once in a while, Gart turns one of my poems into a song, and he did so with this poem. Thank you to Gart who always finds the perfect voice for each of my poems.

Students - Our hill is exquisite this week! I have been drinking in the colors and bottling it up in my mind for the white and windy winter days ahead. Today's poem grew from me imagining a fox wishing to match its fur to autumn leaves...and this wish becoming true. Tossing and turning in bed last night, I got myself up and scribbled this poem in all of its messy glory. 

Scribbly Draft

Photo by Amy LV

Today I offer you a new writing idea. Write a song. It does not need to have a tune; it can be a poem in another's voice that feels songlike. You might choose an animal or a person or an object. Pretend to be this other and write in this other's voice. I did not intend to write a fox song, but the repetition of "I am Fox. I'm fire." made me think that this felt more song than poem. Try some repetition in your own song if that sounds interesting to you.

And go for it. Cross out like crazy. Let your poem lead you!

If you are looking for poems in others' voices, check out master poet Joyce Sidman's SONG OF THE WATER BOATMAN or my first book, FOREST HAS A SONG.

Matt is hosting this week's Poetry Friday roundup today at Radio, Rhythm and Rhyme with a celebration of his latest book. Each Friday, all are invited to share poems, poem books, poetry ideas, and friendship in this open and welcoming poetry community.

Wishing you song...and a friend like my orange Claude, who looks exactly like this now at 7:41 on this Friday morning.

Claude, a Sleepy Muse

Photo by Amy LV

xo,

Amy

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Reflections On...

Tulip Bulbs, Grape Hyacinth Bulbs, Early Snow Glories Bulbs

Photo by Amy LV

Students - This weekend you will find me planting flower bulbs! And so...today's poem is about something that always enchants me: the way that a bulb or seed knows just how and what to become. As seeds grow into flowers and vegetables and fruits and trees...so too do we begin small and become big and new as we grow. But how does this all happen? Well, it is science...but I also find magic in this. 

A box of bulbs (photo above) arrived at my house a few days ago, and I allowed this object to inspire a poem. A poem about a bulb. You may wish to try this sometime. Simply choose an object, an object that interest you for some reason or not. Allow yourself to think about it, to imagine it in the past or future or to question how it works or what it means to you or what it means to somebody else. Reflect. 

When I was a little girl, my family owned this book you see below, and I would often dip into it. I remember one poem especially. In "Apartment House," Gerald Raftery compares an apartment building to "a filing cabinet of human lives." I remember thinking what a perfect metaphor this was (though I likely did not know that word) and read this book often. I encourage you to find a poem book that can become a friend to you, for many years later, the voices of this book still echo in the hallways of my heart. And I think today's title came from the title of this old friend too. What we read stays with us.

Available through Bookshop.org

If you wish to write about objects, consider having everyone in class bring a different, non-electronic object to class in a small brown paper bag. Each person choose a bag, peek inside, and reflect upon that object. Draw it if that helps you think. Then write. Talk about the approaches you take to your writing. We can all learn from each other. If you do try this, please let me know! I would love to hear about it, to read your poems and maybe even see some pictures.

Carol is hosting this week's Poetry Friday roundup today at Beyond Literacy Link with a celebration of summer's end and fall's beginning. Each Friday, all are invited to share poems, poem books, poetry ideas, and friendship in this open and welcoming poetry community.

Writing slows us down. I send you some slow wishes for the weekend ahead, friends.

xo,

Amy

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Listening to Sounds

Spruce Trees

Photo by Amy LV

Students - Each season of the year brings us different feasts for our senses, and today's poem celebrates two preparation moments of fall. At this time of year in Western New York, animals are readying for the long winter ahead, and red squirrels are tossing cones from trees to their small stashes below. These stashes are called middens, and I will take a photo of one up in our woods and will add it here later this weekend. You watch a (very still) video that I took yesterday, listening for spruce cones falling, here on my YouTube channel.

Today's free verse poem has two parts: the squirrel part and the mom part. Each part describes a small scene of preparing food for winter, and each includes a sound. And then the ending speaks of what is to come, tying these two preparers (one four legged, one two legged) together.

Originally I was only going to write about the red squirrel tossing cones, but then I got to thinking how we all ready ourselves for winter in these parts, piling blankets, wearing thick socks, drinking mugs of hot tea, freezing containers of chicken soup. And so, in this way, the red squirrel and the cooking mother are quite alike.

Which sounds do you notice in this season where you live? In what ways do you, your family, and animals near you prepare for changing seasons? Consider making lists of these things, and you may find a writing idea along the way. If you like, try choosing two items from one of your lists and bringing them together as I have in today's two-part poem.

I have been readying for winter all summer long, canning all kinds (strawberry, raspberry, blueberry, blackberry peach, and fig) of jam. This week was fig, and it may be my new favorite. I always say that I feel like a squirrel and even wrote an essay about this for our local NPR station back in 2007. It is titled Once a Squirrel, Always a Squirrel.

I Am a Squirrel Too

Photo by Amy LV

Teacher Friends - Happy New School Year! Please know that Magination Press is giving away 10 copies of my new book, THE SOUND OF KINDNESS. You may enter at GoodReads through Sunday, September 3. This book is also about sounds! 

Ramona is hosting this week's Poetry Friday roundup today at Pleasures from the Page. Each Friday, all are invited to share poems, poem books, poetry ideas, and friendship in this open and welcoming poetry community.

xo,

Amy

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Begin with "If"

A Sky Peek

Photo by Amy LV

Students - This week I spent a lot of time outside because it was very beautiful...and because I was planting hundreds of flower bulbs: in our yard, at a friend's apartment, at my mom's house, and at my father's grave. Digging around under trees, I found myself looking up through them, and so I took that photograph above.

Today's poem starts with the word "If." And while I wrote about something I actually did myself (look up through a tree), I could have written an "If" poem about an imaginary experience, or I could have written about something that might have happened differently such as, "If I never met Winnie..." You might try making a list in your notebook, each line beginning with the word "if." 

If...

If...

If...

See where your list brings you. You may be surprised. I surprised myself today by beginning with this one, small word. 

Also, notice the line breaks in today's poem. Some are longer, and some are shorter. By making shorter lines, I hope that a reader will slow down just a wee bit on the shorter lines, pausing for just a moment. Listen to my recording to see what I mean.

Saturday Update: Such fun! Teacher Mandy Robek and her second grade writers wrote a wonderful community "If" poem and each made illustrations to go with it. You can read it and see their pictures here at Mandy's blog, Enjoy and Embrace Learning.

Jone is hosting this week's Poetry Friday roundup with a joyful celebration of book launches. Please know that all are welcome each Friday as folks share poems, poem books, poetry ideas, and friendship.

I hope that you will discover one new possibility this week...and that perhaps you, too, will be enchanted by a bewitching color.

xo,

Amy

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Something Unexpected

A Handful of Color

Photo by Amy LV

Students - It is good to be back. I have missed you and hope that our time apart has been healthy and good for you and the people you love. Now that it is autumn in Western New York where I live, I will be posting poems and writing ideas here again on Fridays and perhaps on other (unexpected) days.

Today's poem is a true story poem, and it happened this week (not yesterday, but in poems you can change anything you wish). When I went to get the mail, I expected to walk back to my house with a handful of envelopes. Instead, I walked back to my house with a handful of green acorns and this pretty blue feather. I expected one thing and got another.

Has this ever happened to you? You expected one thing and got another thing instead? Maybe you thought a person would act a certain way when you first met them and later realized that the person was actually quite different from what you had imagined. Or maybe a day brought a surprise you never could have thought up - good...or not so good. These things happen to me all of the time, and now that I am thinking about it, I realize that they are strong writing ideas. I'll be paying more attention and jotting such happenings into my notebook. You might wish to try this too.

Today's poem is mostly made up of lines with eight syllables. You may count them out to check, and you'll notice that two lines have only seven syllables. Sometimes when I write, I feel a beat inside and just follow it. I recommend trying to count out syllables, just to start feeling them inside of you. You can count syllables in others' poems for practice.

Another thing you might notice how many parentheses I included in today's poem. Lines with parentheses feel like little whispered asides, as if the writer is telling special extra information to a reader.

And while I did not plan to rhyme any words in this poem, the last two lines felt like they should rhyme after all. They gave themselves to me, all wrapped in a simple rhyme.

Here's my silverboy Tuck, checking out that handful of autumn mail himself!

Tuck and the Mail

Photo by Amy LV

Carol is hosting the Poetry Friday roundup at Beyond LiteracyLink with a summer cento, or poem made from the lines of other poems. Please know that all are welcome each Friday as folks share poems, poem books, poetry ideas, and friendship.

I wish you something good and unexpected this week...and perhaps even a poem to go with it.

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or as part of a group with your teacher and class.

Look Outside, Note the Date

 

Apple Morning

Photo by Amy LV

Students - It is September 3, and here in Western New York, fall is upon us. For me, fall is all about bonfires and sweaters, cool mornings and apples baked and squished into cider. This morning I went out to have a look around, and I smiled at our bowing apple tree. (I am not picking those apples because my nephews are visiting, and I want to let them do it.)

Any day that you are unsure of what to write, try going outside, looking around, and making yourself notice something new. This apple tree was easy to notice, but yesterday I sat in the driveway with our cat Fiona, and within minutes, a hummingbird was zipping all around the Rose of Sharon next to me. We can notice ants, weeds, the way the sun shines on our faces. You might even include the date in your poem. Or, you can write about a date you remember.

The first part of today's poem is true. The second part of this poem is not true. I do this a lot. Start with truth...and then off into make-believe!

And, when in need of more inspiration, I always read. Today I read some pages from this book, and it got my brain chugging along. 

Read Before Writing

Photo by Amy LV

Heidi is hosting today's Poetry Friday roundup at my juicy little universe with a ghazal (and information about ghazals) and a climate action poem (and important information about climate). Please know that all are welcome each Friday as folks share poems, poem books, poetry ideas, and friendship.

xo,

Amy

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

or as part of a group with your teacher and class.

Choose Good Work, Write About It

Planting Snow Glories in November

Photo by Amy LV

Soon-To-Be-Tulips!

Photo by Amy LV

Students - Today's poem is about an action I recently took - planting - and my feelings about it. I have been thinking about the actions that make me most happy, actions including stacking firewood and planting flowers, baking, knitting, and printmaking. Such jobs have nothing to do with screens or noise, and I like it that way. This past month I planted around 600 bulbs in our yard, 400 of them glories-of-the-snow. Each winter I say I will do this...and I never have done so until now. It will be so exciting to see them peep up come spring! I still do have a couple cords of firewood to move to the front porch, but I will wait for a bit of a warmer day.

In this poem, I consider what spring bulbs remind me of (onions, promises) and too, I marvel at their ability to sleep underground and then bloom when spring returns. I wish for my humble poem to celebrate them and too, to celebrate this fulfilling labor. (You would have laughed to see me walk back into our home again and again last weekend, each time calling, "I just planted another 50!")

Grassy Front Yard Last Week

Photo by Amy LV

Snowy Front Yard This Week

Photo by Amy LV

This action of planting - and this poem - have me thinking about what new actions I will take, actions that will make me feel fulfilled and enriched. Drawing is one such action. So is brushing our dogs. I will do more of these things. And what about you? Which actions make you most joyful? Think away from video games and TV shows or movies...which actions bring you delight or make you feel proud of you? You might try writing about one of these actions as a poem - just begin the first line with an action of what your body is doing or with a description of the material you are working with.

Tanita is hosting this week's Poetry Friday roundup at at [fiction, instead of lies] with a Carl Dennis poem about earthworms, a beautiful sonnet about gratitude, and information about the New Year's Poetry Challenge (starting December 15) through the Modesto-Stanislaus Poetry Center. We invite everybody to join in each Friday as we share poems, poem books, poetry ideas, and friendship. Check out my left sidebar to learn where to find this poetry goodness every week.

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milkweed...and monarchs

Milkweed
Photo by Amy LV

I will add an audio recording this evening.

Students - I find milkweed to be one of the most beautiful plants in our yard's fall landscape. When I see a full pod of wishes, I sometimes blow them into air, making wishes for strangers. And I know that these seeds will plant themselves, growing food for monarch caterpillars come spring.

In the above photograph and below video, taken a couple of weeks ago, you can see a milkweed pod in our pasture. Notice how the seeds are holding on. But in just a few more gusts of wind...off they'll go, planting themselves in new dirt homes.

You probably noticed that I had some fun playing with the spacing of the words in this poem. I wanted to mirror the feeling of milkweed wish movement.

And why no capitals? Well, I'm not sure about that. Somehow this poem felt softer to me without capitals and punctuation, I suppose.

If you are interested in learning more about milkweed and how the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service harvests milkweed seeds to plant for monarch butterflies, visit HERE. Among other things, you will see a wonderful photograph of milkweed seeds all tight in the pod...that is the milkweed-stage I always think looks fish-like.

If you'd like to see summer milkweed plants in our front garden and read a poem about monarchs and how we love to see them passing through, HERE you go.

Michelle is hosting this week's Poetry Friday roundup at at Today's Little Ditty with a hearty welcome to the 2017-2018 edition of THE BEST OF TODAY'S LITTLE DITTY! We invite everybody to join in each Friday as we share poems, poem books, poetry ideas, and friendship. Check out my left sidebar to learn where to find this poetry goodness every week.

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.