A Poem Can Be Short

Two Tulips in May

Photo by Amy LV

Students - Yes, this IS a short poem.  

The weather here in Western New York has at last turned to spring, so I have been enjoying watching the new life everywhere.  The other afternoon, as I got out of my car at home, I was struck by these two tulips.  Don't they look like they are yawning?  When I spotted them, this was my first thought.  I took a picture because I knew these yawns would not last long.

Of course, this sight and observation caused me to wonder, Why would tulips yawn?  I figured it might be because they are so beautiful...but then I imagined other words for beautiful, at last landing on stunning. 

Two lines only, but you find a question, a possible answer, some personfication, and a wee bit o' play with sound.

Watch your world.  Look at things and imagine them as other things.  Attach unlikely verbs to objects.  Play.  And know that your poems may be short.  Your poems need not rhyme.

This week I was lucky enough to write with the second graders of Dodge Elementary in Williamsville, NY, to talk writing with the Pre-K through seventh graders at DeSales Catholic School in Lockport, NY, and to Skype with three thoughtful classes of third graders in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.  Thank you, schools and teachers, for welcoming me!

Liz is hosting today's Poetry Friday roundup at Elizabeth Steinglass.  Visit her place to celebrate her forthcoming, fun, energetic book --  SOCCERVERSE: POEMS ABOUT SOCCER, illustrated by Edson Iké, and to read an early poem draft from this book as well as an abecedarian soccer poem. Of course, Liz has links to all poetry happenings around the Kidlitosphere this week...we do this each Friday, and all are welcome.  Congratulations, Liz!

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.

Beauty in the Grocery Store

Little Hyacinth

by Amy LV

Students - Yesterday was my mom's birthday.  And the one thing she said she wanted as a gift was a white hyacinth.  I brought her two little ones and of course thought about this beautiful old favorite poem.

If of thy mortal goods thou art bereft
And from thy slender store
Two loaves alone to thee are left,
Sell one, and with the dole,
Buy hyacinths to feed thy soul.

~ Saadi (1184-?1283), Persian Poet

We need bread, yes.  And we need beauty too.

As I paid for my mom's small flowers, still in bud, the cashier and I talked about the delightful fragrance of hyacinths, how one plant can fill a whole living room with its springy scent. She told me that she could not figure out why there does not exist a hyacinth perfume, "I have a rose perfume, and a lavender perfume...."  I agreed, but just now looked online and see that hyacinth perfumes do exist!  If I could find her again, I would tell her this. If you have never smelled a hyacinth, do make this your spring goal! They are magical.

So today is a celebration of a plant and it is a celebration of something humble.  What plant do you care for?  What small item makes your heart sing right now?

Too, you will notice that today's poem is titled after a place name...and the poem is about something that happened at this place.  If you do not know where to begin, perhaps try with "At the..." or "In the..." and see what journey your words take...

Some of you may know that my lullaby picture book with illustrator Aaron DeWitt - DREAMING OF YOU came out this week!  I posted about it and am hosting a giveaway on Twitter through March 13, and you can learn more (and see the trailer if you wish) at my release day post HERE.

Sweet Dreams!

And in last fall's book news, I am excited to share a new podcast that just went up at Heinemann!  It's between Valerie Bang-Jensen and Mark Lubkowitz, authors of one of my favorite new books, TALKING BOOKS, SHARING SCIENCE...and me!  We had a blast discussing the connections between poetry and science, and I learned so much from their book and from our conversation.

Our Podcast Connects Our New Books!

Michelle is hosting today's Poetry Friday roundup at Today's Little Ditty with a fog poem and a whole collection of poetry teaching tips from a whole lot of folks. Each week, we gather our posts together at one blog, so if you visit Renée this week...you will be introduced to many new poets and blogs and books.  

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.

Happy Wild Blogiversary to My Friend Irene!

Wild Dried Poppy (Maraca) Pods for Irene

Photo by Amy LV

Welcome to today's celebration!  I offer my poem from SHARING THE SEASONS, edited by Lee Bennett Hopkins and illustrated by David Diaz.

Click to Enlarge this Image

Click to Enlarge this Image

Students - Today is a special day!  My friend, poet and author Irene Latham, is celebrating the 10th anniversary of her blog!  Here in the world of blogging, people call that a blogiversary.  Isn't that a funny thing about writing...how we can make up our own words?

blog + anniversary = blogiversary

Well, when a good friend is celebrating, she will often invite friends to join her, and this is what Irene has done today.  Over at her blog, Live Your Poem, you can find all kinds of posts celebrating the world WILD, Irene's favorite one little word for this year.  I suggest visiting her place today, checking out her poems, and wishing her a Happy blogiversary!  

Remember this...when you wish to celebrate something, you can do so with writing. You can celebrate your own milestones with writing, and you can celebrate others with your writing too.  Words are gifts.

Something true about poetry is also true in my poem above.  Poetry sometimes seems sweet and calm...but often, there is much wildness underneath.  A writer must be willing to explore wild places within her or himself to find the poems and stories and ideas that he or she is meant to write.  Irene is one writer I admire, one who could not be kinder or more genuine...and one who is truly willing to explore the wild questions and glories she finds out and inside of her.

To celebrate today, I offer a copy of SHARING THE SEASONS, by Lee Bennett Hopkins and illustrated by David Diaz, the book in which you can find the poem above, to a commenter on this post.  Please comment by this Friday, November 13, to be entered into this drawing.

Thank you, Irene, for being an inspirer.  Happy 10th blogiversary to you, my friend!  

Available at Your Local Bookshop

Please share a comment below if you wish.

writing about humble things

Bookmark

by Amy LV

Students - A couple of weeks ago, our family went once again on the Allegany Nature Pilgrimage, a beautiful weekend of learning at Allegany State Park in Salamanca, NY.  During this weekend, I took a class about drawing from nature, a class that built on the art strategies taught in Zentangles.  It was entrancing and wonderful to get lost in drawing the same few flowers over and over again, a reminder of how any object we study closely can become fascinating and even beautiful.

You may have noticed that I did not capitalize any letters in this poem, and you may be wondering why.  The reason is because this poem is about humble flowers, small unfancy flowers.  I wanted my alphabet to match that feel.

You can learn more about buttercups here at Eat the Weeds and more about veronica here at Turf Files.

Look around today for small, maybe unnoticed, humble beauties and surprises. See if you can find one to write about.  Elevate the little!

Today I couldn't be more tickled to be visiting Sylvia Vardell's blog, Poetry for Children, as part of her "Poet to Poet" series.  I had the opportunity to ask Lee Wardlaw about her fun new book, WON TON AND CHOPSTICK, and she was so generous in her teachings about process.  I learned a lot from Lee in this interview, and I look forward to sharing her words with young writers.  Thank you, Lee, and Sylvia, for the chance to take part in this great series.  Meow!

Sylvia Vardell of Poetry for Children 

Photo by Russell Vardell

Lee Vardell, Two of Lee's Books, & Amy LV
Lee's Photo from her Website

Please know that all are welcome to participate in the Summer Edition of Sharing Our Notebooks.  If you visit my other blog, you'll find 70 generous posts full of ideas for notebook-writing, and I welcome yours too! 

Jama is hosting today's Poetry Friday roundup over at her delicious blog, Jama's Alphabet Soup.  Today she offers a beautiful book and poem, congratulations to two new wondrous Poet Laureates, and blueberries!

Please share a comment below if you wish.

Flower - Poems of Address

The Angeliques Have Arrived!

Photo by Amy LV

This poem

is trying

to be

a book.

xo, Amy

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

Students - The picture you see at the top of this post is actually a picture of tulip bulbs, not seeds.  I have always thought that bulbs are amazing, and this particular type of bulb is one of my favorites - Angelique Tulips. Years ago, Susan Mendel, the wonderful school principal where I was a fifth grade teacher, had these tulips in her yard.  I've thought about her tulips for 15 years...and last spring I ordered some for our home here in Western New York.  They just arrived last week, and so I'll be getting some dirt under the ol' fingernails this week. Spring will be so exciting!  When the Angeliques come up, I'll show you how pretty they are.

Today's poem is a poem of address, in which I speak directly TO the flower.  When you write a poem, you might ask yourself if it would be a good idea to try out this technique. Instead of talking ABOUT a cat or AS a cat, you might speak directly TO the cat.  This gives the reader a neat scenario to imagine!

Over at my other blog, Sharing Our Notebooks, Kimberly Kuntz has opened her prayer journals for us to learn about this important way she writes through her life.  

This week, from September 22 - September 28,  is Banned Books Week!  It is important that we stand up for books, all books, even ones that express ideas and viewpoints with which we disagree.  Last year I wrote this poem, Are You There, God? in honor or Banned Books Week.

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.

Follow me on Twitter or Pinterest!

Early This Morning - City Free Verse

Sidewalk Garden - Upper East Side of NYC

Photo by Amy LV

(I will add audio to this poem when I return home!)

Students - I am still in New York City, and there are so many beautiful and exciting things to see and think about.  I am once again reminded of the time I lived here, one part of the kaleidoscope of people living so many different and interesting lives.  

The picture of roses for sale on the streets of New York City is one of my favorite images, and each time I visit New York and pass these sidewalk gardens, my gaze lingers longer. We all have favorite images, and one of the grand things about writing is that it allows us to revisit those scenes and places and pictures again and again...in different ways.  Here is a roses-in-NYC-poem I wrote back in 2010.

This is a free verse poem, and the last part was the most difficult part for me to write.  I fell asleep trying to think of that line, took a shower trying to think of that line, stared out of the window trying to think of that line.  I am still not sure it will stay, but for now...it will do.

One of Several Pages of Draft

Photo by Amy LV

Cathy Mere is allowing us to peek inside of her (paper and digital!) notebooks at my other blog, Sharing Our Notebooks. If you are an upper grade teacher or notebook keeper, you will be interested in her journey, and I welcome you to stop by, read, enjoy, and enter Cathy's giveaway of some neat notebooking apps.

Tara, along with William Blake and wisdom, is hosting today's Poetry Friday joy over at A Teaching Life.  Please visit there to join all of us who love Poetry Friday, learning about new poetry places to visit, and perhaps sharing your own.

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.

Follow me on Twitter or Pinterest!

Two Flowers - Compare & Contrast

Rose and Dandelion
by Amy LV

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

Students - Today's poem grew from some scratchings in my notebook. A few months ago, I wrote many of the flower-spoken words you read above, but as I reread them and thought about Monday's post about Thistle and about the YA novel I am currently reading - UGLIES by Scott Westerveld - I realized that I am thinking a lot about freedom vs. captivity lately.  I'm not sure why that is, but when you are writing regularly, you can see patterns in your mind and heart.  That's why I keep a notebook - to know what I think!

When I scribbled the beginnings of this poem in my notebook, I only had the lines from the flowers, but as I continued to work on it, I decided it would be fun to "bookend" it with some thinking and a question, the stanzas in italics. One of my favorite poems is Alley Violinist by Robert Lax, and I especially like how it leaves the reader with a question.

In addition to having different voices, this poem uses a technique we call "personification" which means that the writer gives an object or animal human characteristics.  In this case, I let the flowers think and talk. (It's funny, though, because I think that they actually DO talk and it's not a poetic technique at all!) This poem is also a compare/contrast poem, juxtaposing the lives of two flowers.  

So...here are a few things to think about today:  keep your notebook and save those thought-treasures, consider writing something that compares two different things, listen to objects and animals talking (or pretend you can), and remember that you can end your writing with a question.

This week over at Sharing Our Notebooks, I welcome author Peter Salomon and congratulate him on his forthcoming book, HENRY FRANKS. Please stop by and read about his first notebooks, and enter yourself in the giveaway of his new book - coming out this week!

If you are interested in entering to win a copy of THE POETRY FRIDAY ANTHOLOGY (in which I am happy to have 5 poems!), please stop by Friday's post and leave a comment there.  Thistle will draw a winning name on Thursday night, and I will announce the winner on Poetry Friday!

This week also marks a change in The Poem Farm schedule - I am now back and posting poems and poem greetings each Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Please come back and visit for lessons, poem ideas, book recommendations, and classroom Poetry Peeks.  If you are a classroom teacher or homeschooling parent, I invite you to share your students' poetry or your poem teaching ideas here.  If you are interested, please send me an e-mail to amy at amylv dot com, and I will get right back to you.

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!

Tulips are Waiting for Spring - Poem #272

Very Patient Tulip Bulbs

Photo by Amy LV

We have these two bags of bulbs hanging in our basement, bulbs I purchased in the fall and never planted.  It looks as if our area will have a thaw this week, so maybe we will get them into the ground after all!  These tulips all purples and blues, so if they make it, the show should be quite dramatic.  You can see their little hints of green peeking out already!

Students - I have always been amazed by spring flowers and how they know when to burst into blossom.  It's almost as if each consults a tiny calendar and wears an itty-bitty wristwatch.  Today's poem grew from my amazement at nature and also these bulbs I hope to plant.  Too, I love John Travers Moore's poem, "Springburst," a poem about a flower in the shape of a flower, meant to be read from the bottom, just like a flower grows.

One thing I have always wanted to do is force bulbs indoors.  Each Christmas, I say that I will give ready-to-bloom-flowers as Christmas gifts, but I have yet to do this.  Maybe next year!  If you are interested in trying this yourself, The Garden Helper offers some good tips.

(Please click on COMMENTS below to share a thought.)