My Poem Writing Year #109 - Glitter

Glitter Play!

Photo by Amy LV

Yesterday, on a long car ride, I got the idea to write about glitter.  This has always been one of my favorite crafty-items, and it is a favorite of many children I know too.  A few hours later, when we arrived at my mother's house, a big jar of magenta glitter called my name from the top of a bookshelf.  Lucky indeed!  (Don't you just love the word 'magenta'?)

Students - sometimes it helps to have the perfect object nearby as you write.  At least I do.  Running fingers through this pile of glitter gave me lots of words and feelings.

"Glitter" is a concrete poem, and the words are supposed to look all sprinkled out like glitter.  I didn't write them this way at first, though.  At first they were perfectly lined up.  But after writing the poem and thinking about how glitter really looks, I tried playing with the white space.  This is one revision question I've learned to always ask..."Might these words lay out well as a concrete poem?"  For me, the concrete-ness, or shape, comes after I write the words, not before.

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