Coaxing Poems 2: Eat the World

 

Hello, Poetry Friends, and welcome to the second of ten little poetry visits starting off the New Year at The Poem Farm. In each of these short videos, I will share a small something about poetry, and you will always be able to find the poem I read below the video. You may find the first visit (January 5, 2024) linked below and you may wish to watch that one first:

Coaxing Poems Visit 1: We Are Libraries

If you wish, enjoy a few seconds of the wood fire that heats our home! Each autumn when I stack pile after pile of firewood, I think about the trees who once offered shade, homes for creatures, and various nuts and seeds. In these trees' second lives, they keep our family snug and warm. (Our kitties especially like warming up on the floor nearby.)

Students - It is fascinating to look around wherever we are, to think about what we see and smell, hear and feel. And we are able to see, smell, hear, and feel more when we are not constantly looking at phones, tablets, and video games. One writing tip is to be sure to eat the real world, friends....not just the digital world. The real world will offer you many ways to learn and be. We are changed by our surroundings, and through making poems and other art bits, we bring new meaning to these surroundings.

From today's visit I hope you will remember that a poem can live in the empty space between you and any image or object. You create something new in that space. It may be a poem, or it may be another piece of writing or music or art. What you make is a bit what you observe...and a lot what you bring to it.

Remember, too, that a poem need not rhyme. It can fall down the page in lines broken up as we choose. A poem might include a bit of repetition (orange hands) and personification (waving leaves like a human's waving hands.)

So, what will you eat from the world before writing this week? You might

• Look around the space you are in now
• Go someplace and look around that space
• Select a book and write from any picture or words you read in it
• Write from an object you are wearing or in your bag
• Find inspiration in a piece of art
• Watch people to unlock ideas
• Find new ways to pay attention

Educator Friends: I would love to hear if you are writing along with me during this series. Please comment below, email me at the contact button above, or tag me on social media if you wish to share.

Tracey is hosting this week's Poetry Friday over at Tangles and Tails with such an interesting timeline about the history of Monopoly tokens ending with a delightful poem for Thimble. Each Friday, all are invited to share poems, poem books, poetry ideas, and friendship in this open and welcoming poetry community.

xo,

Amy

ps - Claude asked me to show you this photo of him all toasty by his favorite fire....

Cozy Claude

Photo by Hope LV

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What Does Your Cat Do At Night?

One Life

Photo by Georgia LV

Students - yes, another sleeping kitty picture!  After I showed today's poem to Mark, he said, "You're not telling that your cat beats up the neighborhood cats at night, are you?"  For the other day, one of our neighbors told us that our cat Mini has mixed it up in the evening with their cat a few times.  Now that we know, we can keep him in after dinner.

This is something I've often wondered: what do cats do at night?  Many times, Sarah or Mini will come home and meow at the door come morning.  Where have they been?  Who have they visited?  Cats have secret night lives, and this wondering and daily happening opened up a world into today's little verse.

Sometimes when you sit down to write, you will not know what you want to write.  That's good.  Let something float to the surface - it will.

If you are a cat lover...or a poem lover...or both...be sure to read Betsy Franco's A CURIOUS COLLECTION OF CATS, full of fun in word and picture!

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Andi is hosting today's Poetry Friday over at a wrung sponge.  Swing on by the sponge for more poetry celebrations!

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Fireflies are On! Fireflies are Off!

Look!

by Amy LV

Students - sometimes a writer is enchanted again and again by the same thing.  And this is how it is with me and fireflies.  Those battery-powered ballerinas send a glow through my heart.  Last evening, looking out of our living room window, I saw the first firefly of summer.  At least it was the first one to me.

Sometimes writers sit and write in honor of an occasion.  This occasion may be something that everyone recognizes, or it may be something just for you.  I'm celebrating a first firefly, a bit of brightness on a black blanket of sky. 

Byrd Baylor writes about personal celebrations in her beautiful book, I'M IN CHARGE OF CELEBRATIONS,  You might know this book if your teacher reads it at your class's writing celebrations.  Nature, words, admiration...what could be better?

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What are you celebrating today?  You may say, "Nothing."  Well, look around, and find something.  Open your eyes.  Listen with the deepest parts of your very soul.  After all, it is much easier to find celebration-moments when we are looking for them.  I promise that you will find something.  And when you do...maybe your own bit of earth will inspire you to write.

Last year this time also brought thoughts of fireflies.  In June 2010, I wrote Fireflies and Hope.  Will I write about fireflies again next year?  What about next week?

Anastasia is hosting today's Poetry Friday roundup over at Picture Book of the Day.  Celebrate with her and the rest of the KidLitosphere as we blink on and off for poems!

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Rhyming Couplets

A Couplet of Cats

Photo by Amy LV

Rhyming Couplets

"Couple" means two.  A "couplet" is a pair of two lines of poetry, joined by meter and often rhyme.

Reading through this year's poems, I realize that I do not write many poems in couplets.  Writing a lot and then looking back has helped me to see patterns, habits, tics, strengths, and weaknesses.  I think I'll try to write some more couplet poems!

 from November 2010

At Harold Underdown's website, The Purple Crayon, you can read Charles Ghigna's great post about rhythm and rhyme which offers information about couplets, quatrains, tercets, and more!

Paul Janeczko's A KICK IN THE HEAD: AN EVERYDAY GUIDE TO POETIC FORMS is a jaunty and colorful book full of examples and definitions of many types of poetic forms.

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Throughout April, I will continue to post poetry lessons and poem examples from this past year of writing one poem each day.  These posts are written especially for classroom teachers and students, homeschooling families, and any other people who enjoy children's poetry.

This Month's Poetry Revisits and Lessons So Far

April 1 -   Poems about Poems

April 2 -   Imagery

April 3 -   Poems about Animals We Know

April 4 -   Line Breaks and White Space

April 5 -   Poems from Everyday Life

April 6 -   Free Verse

April 7 -   Poems from Wonders & Questions

April 8 -   Classroom Poetry Peek & Circular Poems 
April 9 -   Poems about Science
April 10 - Today - Rhyming Couplets 

In case you missed some of this first week of poetry in the kidlitosphere, Elaine Magliaro at Wild Rose Reader has rounded up a list of many posts at several different blogs.

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Everyday Life as Inspiration

Last night, our family went for an amphibian-migration walk.  It was my husband's idea, and at first I did not want to go.  But we all piled into the car and headed off to the marsh to find amphibians.  Armed with flashlights, we sure found them: spring peepers, wood frogs, and bullfrogs too!  (Did you know that April is not only National Poetry Month but also National Frog Month?)

I felt grateful that Mark got us going, and we were amazed at how many things were happening at dusk in the wild.

Today's poem grew from last evening's walk, from walking in puddles and scooping up tiny peepers with our hands.   It was part of my day, and that's where the poem started.

This reminds me of something I heard Georgia Heard say that her teacher Stanley Kunitz once said, "You must live in a way that lets you find poems."  These words have never left me. 

After a year of daily poems and strategy ideas.  I will be revisiting one strategy/technique for each day of April.  Today's thought is: pay attention to line breaks and white space when you read and write poems!

Poems about Everyday Happenings

One of the most interesting parts of writing is that you can think about it all of the time.  Writers get their ideas all day and all night long, not just when they sit at their writing tables.  No one will see your thoughts, but inside you head you can always wonder and ponder. "Hmmm...that's strange."  Or, "I might write about that later."  When you write, you notice things that other people do not.  Artists and scientists do this too.  To create, one must observe.

It is wonderful when we realize that very rich writing comes from the things that happen to us every day, just plain old normal things.  When I started writing, I thought that I had to have fancy ideas and experiences to write about, things like big vacations and birthday parties and injuries.  But as I read more and more, I realized that my favorite books and poems to read are about regular people with regular lives.  People like me.

Here are a few poems from this poetry year which  highlight regular experiences.  You might have done some of these things or had some of these feelings yourself.  After reading, consider going on a "poem treasure hunt" and just walk around looking for poem ideas in your own life.  Just like spring peepers at this time of  year, they may be camouflaged.  It's up to you to find them!

The following poems draw on my own everyday experiences.

Chin Puppets - Poems can tap into our play life.

Soap Hope - Many writers write about pet peeves .

Laundry Hugging - We can write about simple comforts.

In Grandma's Bowl -  Everyday objects hold writing ideas.

Preserving Fall -  Writing captures our memories.

Dirty Secret - - We can write about our secrets.

The Bin -  Poem ideas may grow from regular chores.

After Rain -  Weather is a rich source of daily writing.

For a book which highlights many ordinary happenings, check out Ralph Fletcher's A WRITING KIND OF DAY. 

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The next time you wonder, "What should I write about?"  remember to look around.  You can write about anything you see or think.

Naomi Shihab Nye says this best in her wise poem, "Valentine for Ernest Mann," a poem I have quoted here before.

Maybe if we re-invent whatever our lives give us, 

we find poems.  Check your garage, the odd sock

in your drawer, the person you almost like, but not quite.

And let me know.

This Month's Poetry Revisits and Lessons So Far

April 1 - Poems about Poems

April 2 - Imagery

April 3 - Poems about Animals We Know
April 4 - Line Breaks and White Space
Today -  Poems from Everyday Life

In the beginning of May, I would love to highlight and share student poems which have been inspired by any of this month's posts.  Teachers and homeschooling parents: I welcome your students' work and plan to hold a special book giveaway for poet participants!  

Please send any pieces your students are willing to share, along with a brief bit from the writer about the inspiration/story behind the poem to amy at amylv dot com. 

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