Teach a Whimsical Lesson

Found on a Walk

Photo by Amy LV

Students - This week I have been thinking about fall...and about ice cream. Yesterday, I started to think about interesting possible ice cream flavors: Cool Moonlight, Song Stuck in My Head, Breakfast for Dinner, Dancing Wildflowers. 

This week I am dogsitting my mom's dog Cinnamon, and yesterday afternoon, I found the above leaf on our walk. I really love the smell of fall leaves in piles and so many things about fall and decided to write an imaginary story poem about going to an ice cream shop and ordering a nonexistent ice cream flavor.

The idea for a lesson at the end of this poem did not come until I actually got to the end of writing it, but writing lesson poems (whether serious or whimsical) is one possible way to begin a poem as well. You may wish to try this. Think of a real or imagined lesson you might teach someone else. Then, build your poem toward it. Let your poem tell the story of learning the lesson, or allow your poem to explain the lesson. You might state your lesson directly at the end as I did...or you might just let your readers figure it out.

Do note how I have indented the ice cream lady's stanzas and kept the speaker's stanzas out to the left margin. This helps a reader know who is speaking. I also have chosen to use italics so that you know when the conversation is happening.

Matt is hosting today's Poetry Friday roundup at Radio, Rhythm, & Rhyme with a bit about his latest book and a poem about family. Please know that all are welcome each Friday as folks share poems, poem books, poetry ideas, and friendship.

Remember: you give yourself a future present when you press a snip of nature into your notebook. This leaf is now living in mine, and one spring, summer, or winter day, I know that I will be very happy to find it!

xo,

Amy

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

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Look Out Your Window & Snag a Line

Past, Present, Future
by Amy LV

Students - Yesterday, while I was driving home from teaching, I saw a beautiful red barn with a neat woodpile and also a yet-to-be stacked pile of wood.  I stopped to take a picture. See it below?

Scene from My Car Window

Photo by Amy LV

Well, I love red barns.  And I love woodpiles.  So this was a dreamy scene for me.  Later I got to thinking about the wood: how it used to be trees and how it will one day be just smoke and ash. Just like all of us - once not here, now here, one day gone. This line floated into my head: "When I see a pile of firewood..." I just followed that line and it led to a whole lot of other lines which ended up as this poem.

Pay attention when you go for drives.  Don't just hold a screen up to your face.  Really look out of the window and see what is there, the real objects and animals and buildings and humans and plants and skies and weather all around you. What do you love and wonder and think about?  Each one of these thoughts could be a wondrous starting-off point for a poem or a story or another piece of writing.

And listen.  Sometimes, if you're paying attention, a whole line will just pop into your head whole.  Snag and follow that line...see where it winds and leads.  Often, your words will surprise even yourself.

Last week here at The Poem Farm, we were lucky enough to hear from Kate Coombs, author of BREATHE AND BE. The publisher of this book, Sounds True, was generous enough to offer a giveaway to a commenter, and the winner is...Frank!  Congratulations!  Please send me a message with your snail mail address, and I will send it along to Kate so that the book can wing its way to you.

In other giveaway news, through next week, Heinemann is still holding a giveaway for 5 copies of my new POEMS ARE TEACHERS at Goodreads.

It's a delight to welcome a new poster over at Sharing Our Notebooks.  Adjunct professor and writer-in-residence for the Indiana Partnership for Young Writers, Julie Patterson shares an inspiring peek into her pages, something to try, and a book giveaway too. Please visit that post, enjoy, and comment!

Happy Poetry Friday, friends!  Visit Linda for this week's Poetry Friday roundup over at her welcoming home, TeacherDance. Join us in feeling gratitude for the beauties of November.

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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.

Old Poem, New Trailer, Giveaway!

Art by Jill Dubin

From BABYBUG October 2017

Students - Yesterday my sister wrote to tell me, "Your poem is on the back page of this month's BABYBUG magazine!"  We give a subscription of BABYBUG to our little nephew, and Heidi and Luke were reading along when all of the sudden they found my old poem.  This was one of my first published poems, in LADYBUG many years ago, and I was happily surprised to learn that the Cricket Media group had reprinted it.

Today's poem is a short and sweet one.  And really, it's simply a procedural or how-to poem.  Notice how each line offers one more step in making a jack o'lantern.  It's both poem and how-to.  Sometimes I enjoy thinking about HOW to do something and then writing about it.  You might choose to write a poem of this sort yourself.  What do you know how to do?  It might be something small such as carving a jack o'lantern or something big such as making a friend.

One thing I do not know how to do is make book trailers.  But fortunately, I know some talented people who do.  I am very thankful to the team of DAS HAUS Productions for producing this trailer which captures the feeling of my poem "Forever" and all of READ! READ! READ!, my new book with talented illustrator Ryan O'Rourke and published by Boyds Mills Press.

Thank you to:
Robbie Snow - Writer Director
Brandon Babbit - Executive Producer
Sawyer Oubre - Director of Photography (and my friend)
Dylan Genis - Gaffer
Jimmie Cummings, B. Reddick Jr., & T. James - Actors

Enjoy....

I am holding an Amazon giveaway for 5 winners, each to win 1 copy of READ! READ! READ!  This giveaway ends on October 18, and if you wish, you can enter it HERE.

Please visit the latest post at my other blog, Sharing Our Notebooks to win a copy of Caroline Starr Rose's latest book!  She's sharing a poem AND a peek inside of her notebooks.

Happy Poetry Friday, friends!  Have a wonderful time celebrating 13 this week and all week long at Live Your Poem with Irene who is hosting this week's Poetry Friday roundup!

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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.

October - Writing When Your Breath Has Been Taken Away

Our Barn on October 20, 2016

Photo by Georgia VanDerwater

Students - Yesterday, driving to our home with my children, my daughter said, "Look at the hill!  It's breathtaking.  Really, my breath is taken away."

The Hill from the Road

Photo by Amy LV

Later, she took the photo atop this post.  This time of year in Western NY always takes my breath away, and today's post is simply a celebration of fall.  And, well, I suppose it's a celebration of repetition too.  Did you notice the rolling repetition in this poem?

Look for beauty.  It's here.  Even on a down day, it's here.

Through tomorrow, if you are a bilingual primary teacher (English/Spanish), you may enter my giveaway on Twitter.  You can see the information below, and primary teachers of bilingual classrooms may retweet to enter.  Teachers - you can find me on Twitter at @amylvpoemfarm.  If you are not on Twitter, please just comment with the bilingual grade you teach, and I will enter you! 

Tricia is hosting today's Poetry Friday party over at The Miss Rumphius Effect. Please know that everyone is always welcome to Poetry Friday: to read, to celebrate, to share.  Happy PF!  xo, a.

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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.

Each Seed - Finding Poem Ideas by Looking Around

 

Money Plant

Photo by Amy LV

Students - Yesterday I wasn't sure what to write about (not an uncommon event).  I thought I might write about walking with my dogs, Cali and Sage.  I thought I might write about how sometimes life surprises you.  Then I looked around, and I saw the stalk of money plant I'd picked a few weeks ago.  Sometimes people call this plant silver dollars.  Its Latin name is Lunaria annua, or yearly moon.  It is also called honesty.  I love it.

Looking at the coins, I got to thinking about how many plants toss seeds around.  I adore blowing dandelions, opening milkweed pods, ripping burdocks apart, and collecting acorns.  'Just picked these up by the mailbox in September. They're brown now.

Handful of Acorns

Photo by Amy LV

When I sat down to write yesterday, I just loved the idea of plants throwing seeds (like snowballs) at each other.  It makes them seem so playful.  But they're like parents too, those plants, saying "Farewell" to their wee ones.

Part of this poem - the first part - is just a description, telling about what is happening.  Then, halfway through it switches to a mask voice, the voice of mother plant bidding adieu.  You can do this in your writing too.  Start by describing something...then, make it talk!

And if you don't have a writing idea right away, just look around.  Write about something you see right in front of your face, something you might usually just walk right by.

"Maple Mother" from 2010 is what I would consider a cousin poem to today's verse.  One of the fun things about writing many many poems is that I find themes that tickle my fancy again and again.  "Money Plant" from 2012 is another cousin in this family.

You can watch me open the money plant seedpods below if you'd like.  I think that they are incredibly beautiful.

If you are a classroom of readers that is interested in some money plant seeds for planting, please just let me know in the comments, and I will be able to mail some money plant seeds to a few classrooms of young writers.

Congratulations to Kristie Miner! You have won the fabulous book and notebook offered as a giveaway by Angela Stockman of the Western New York Writer's Studio over at my other blog, Sharing Our Notebooks!  Please send me your snail mail address so that your gifts can wing their way to you.  And everyone - please know - I welcome you and your students to share your notebooks in that space as well.  The more the merrier!  Any boys or men out there with notebooks to share?  We could use a few more of those.

Tricia is hosting today's Poetry Friday roundup over at The Miss Rumphius Effect.  Please fly on over to her place to discover all of the poetic goodies our friends are offering up today.

Please share a comment below if you wish.

Falling Pears & September Chalking

Today is Chalk-a-bration, a celebration of poetry in chalk rounded up each last-day-of-the-month by Chalk-a-bration founder, teacher and blogger Betsy Hubbard. Stop by Betsy's blog, Teaching Young Writers, to visit other chalk poems and hey - why not chalk your own and share with us!

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

Students -Today's poem is about exactly what our family is doing at exactly this moment in time.  Picking pears.  And apples.  This fall's harvest at The Poem Farm is glorious, and we are gathering all we can from branches and ground.  Yesterday we filled four bags of pears, and today I will chop some up and dry them in our dehydrator for snacks through winter.

You will see that today's poem is short, does not rhyme, and simply stops a moment in a season.  It is a haiku, I suppose, though it does not beat out the 5/7/5 syllables we may first consider when thinking about haiku.  Yesterday, as I watched our children climb this tree and shake the branches, I thought, "It is raining pears!"  I will try to post a video of today's shaking as it is quite amazing to watch so many pears fall at once.  One must get out of the way!

Watching seasons carefully for signs and beauties and surprises is a wonderful way to sneak up on a poem idea. Try it. Look outside.  Walk in a natural place.  What is changing?  What strikes you?  Try writing a few short lines of your observation.  Let it be short.  Include only what matters.

If you would like to read more about haiku and Issa, a well-loved haiku writer, this book with story and translations by Matthew Bollub and illustrations by Kazuko G. Stone, is a great place to go.

Read More at Indie Bound

Our Pear Tree

Photo by Amy LV

My Sweater Pocket

Photo by Amy LV

Happy Chalk-a-bration!  Thank you, Betsy!

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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Gatherer - Collecting Bits of Seasons

One of Many

by Amy LV

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

Note from September 16, 2013 - Over the weekend, I listened to this poem in my head many times and decided that 'September' would sound better in the last line than 'October'.  I made this change in the written text but not in the recording.  Which do you like better?  Why?

Students - I am getting back into my notebook, making a more regular writing schedule. You may be doing this too as school is just starting near where I live.  Some of you have been in school for a month or more, and those of you who live across the world from me in Buffalo, NY...you are not near summer at all!  I do always find this so neat to think about.

Getting back to a writing time feels so good to me, like a change of seasons on my insides. And I'm noticing the change of seasons outside too.  This week I have been home much more than lately, and I keep hearing a certain sound.

CLANG!

That's the sound of an acorn plunking onto our big metal mailbox, and it's the music outside my writing window this week.  On Wednesday morning, waiting with our children at the bus stop, I picked a bowl full of acorns to bring inside.  Just to have.  I will glue their tops back on this weekend.

(At first, part of me felt guilty about gathering so many acorns because I thought I should "leave them for the squirrels and chipmunks."  The reality is that we have almost no squirrels here in the country, and the chipmunks have been scared permanently underground or elsewhere by our five cats.  Remembering this, my worries disappeared.

Here at Mass Audubon you can read some interesting information about oak trees and acorns and how they grow.  You can read about mast years at AccuWeather too.

Teachers and Parents - here at yoga set free is a beautiful post I read about a mast year last year - and what exactly so much abundance can mean to all of us.

This week's Poetry Friday roundup is hosted by Jen over at Teach Mentor Texts.  There you will find many connections, links, poems, poetry thoughts, and wonderful people too...  We all welcome you to join us for poetry fun each and every Poetry Friday throughout the year. See my sidebar - or any participant's sidebar - to learn where to find us each week.

If you have not yet visited Dan Bailey's music notebooks at my notebooks blog, Sharing Our Notebooks, you still have three days to enjoy that peek as well as enter to win a beautiful musical notebook.

Autumn Desk

Photo by Amy LV

Please share a comment below if you wish.

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

Like The Poem Farm on Facebook for more poems, articles, and poemquotes.

Visit Sharing Our Notebooks to peek in all kinds of notebooks.

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Indian Summer - Celebrating Weather

summerintofallintowinter

October 25, 2012

Photo by Amy LV

 

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

Students - Yesterday was the most magnificent day here in Western New York. It was an Indian Summer day, a wondrous day reminding us of summer's joys before we turn to the beauty of winter.  Sitting outside in  one of our family's fold-up chairs, my hand and pen turned to weather, and I knew that this poem would try to save a snip of sun and warmth for chilly days.

This is a free verse poem, a poem with no regular rhyme or meter.  Still, though, when I write free verse poems, I take care with each word.  See if you can find any words with the same beginning sounds near each other.  Then see if you can find any repeated words.  Any rhymes?  My favorite part of this poem is the idea of pretending that Fall is a dancing girl...with two competing partners.  That idea makes me smile, and I like watching the play of it in my mind.

The most important to do when writing poems like this one is to read them over and over.  Aloud.  Hearing how each word tumbles gently or bashes into the next helps me know when to make changes.

Many poems celebrate weather.  Weather is a special kind of mirror for each day, determining what we do and sometimes even how we feel.  Pay attention to weather where you live, maybe even writing notebook entries or drawing sketches of weather observations.  Then, mind and heart full of sun and wind and blowing rain and snow...shine some words onto your page.

For the past two weeks, Nina Crittenden has been Sharing Our Notebooks, and today I am happy to announce that Tara at A Teaching Life has won Nina's generous book and notebook giveaway.  Tara, please send me an e-mail with your snail mail address, and I will pass it along to Nina.  Thank you again, Nina!

Linda over at TeacherDance is hosting today's Poetry Friday extravaganza. Visit Linda's extremely warm and generous blog to read all about what's happening on this Poetry Friday.

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

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Welcome to Doodler Samuel Kent!

by The Lunchbox Doodler, Samuel Kent

 

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

Students - I found Samuel Kent's creative and cheerful website, i.droo.it, through a Tweet (a less than 140 character message on Twitter) from poet Kenn Nesbitt.  I was then and continue to be amazed and touched by Samuel's dedication to draw so many warm doodles for his children's lunchboxes.  One day, I sent him a Tweet asking if he might be willing to draw a doodle for me...and he was!  And he did!  Doesn't this drawing make you smile?

Today's poem is a story poem.  I have always liked the idea of unlikely friends becoming good ones, and Samuel's poem allowed me to play with this idea in a new way. Thank you, Samuel, for this drawing.  You are my new fall friend!

Structure-wise, if you look at the rhyme-scheme of today's poem, you will notice that the rhymes fall in quatrains, alternate lines rhyming.  However, the lines do not fall in sets of four.  At first they did, but later I decided to keep the thoughts of each character together, and I think this works best.

This poem also connects to last week's bird poem, which begins with a description of birds in flight and ends with a wonder about what it is like to fly. If you revisit that post, you can read second grader Meghan's new poem Blue Bird, Blue Bird (just added).  It is so beautiful, and I am sure she would love to hear your comments!

Now we all have a new place to look for writing inspiration.  If the blank paper intimidates you one day, head on over to i.droo.it, scroll through Samuel's doodles, choose one, and write.  I imagine that Samuel would love to read what you write from his drawings.

You can read the story of The Lunchbox Doodles here. And if you have questions for Samuel Kent, The Lunchbox Doodler, there are answers here.

And may you, too, find an unlikely and cheerful fall friend....

Nina Crittenden is my guest at Sharing Our Notebooks this week.  Stop by and see the types of notebooks she uses and how she continues to create.  (You will also have a chance to be entered into Nina's generous drawing of a book and pocket notebook.)

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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