Showing posts with label Free Verse. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Free Verse. Show all posts

Friday, September 11, 2026

Give a Suggestion to Your Readers

A New Friend
Drawing by Amy LV 
 

Students - I have been away for two months, and it is so good to be here again. If you are starting back to school, welcome back! I wish you a year of new friends and new ideas. Writing is a way to make both.

Last night I woke up when it was still dark and imagined making friends with a word - right away, I knew the word was Cinnamon. Was it because I love this word? Was it because my mom's dog's name is Cinnamon? I will never know for sure. But no matter how this word and idea popped into my mind, I am grateful they did.

Today's poem gives a suggestion to the reader - invite a word to be your friend. It is a bit of advice and a bit of whimsy. And it is also a bit of an idea of how to start a poem. If you're looking to write something new, you might consider giving your readers a smidge of advice. This may be true, practical, real life advice...or it may be playful, imaginary, wee-bit-silly advice. Or it may be a mix of both. You are the writer, so you will decide.

One more writing thought. Please know that I never use AI in any way in my writing. I do not use it to find ideas, to draft, to revise. I do not use AI in my writing at all. The reason for this is that I write for the journey and to grow my thinking and mind more than for any end product. We humans can find all kinds of things - tables, chairs, poems, songs, art ideas, stories, and on and on - inside of our very own human minds. 

If you decide to invite a word to become your friend and write a poem about it, I would very much like to read it. 

Linda is hosting today's Poetry Friday roundup over at TeacherDance with a wise poem of remembrance for this day in history. Each Poetry Friday, all are invited to share poems, poem books, poetry ideas, and friendship in this open and welcoming poetry community. 

May you wrap yourself in good, warm, simple words...

xo,

a. 

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Thursday, April 16, 2026

listen - day 16

   

As I strive to become a better listener and to connect more with my sense of hearing, National Poetry Month 2026 finds me writing daily, handwritten, index card poems inspired by sounds and listening.. I have begun a new notebook to collect the sounds I notice throughout the month, and I will reflect on them in short poems. My ears - and my heart - are open wide. 
 
I invite you to join me in this project, on any of my projects from the past 16 years, or on a project of your very own. To do so, simply write a poem each day of April in any way you wish. Share or don't share, as you wish. Your poems are your poems. Your projects are your projects. And if you wish learn a bit more about writing poetry, I welcome you to the short lessons in the tab above: COAXING POEMS VIDEOS - 2024.
 
National Poetry Month 2026 Poems 
Here is poem 16 - 
 



Students - Lately, a lot of people have been using the Merlin app, an app that will identify all of the birds singing or calling around you at any given time. As with so much technology, something about this seems magical, so much information instantly in our hands, at the quick press of a button. It's great in many ways. In other ways, I wonder if we lose something. Sometimes I am aok with not identifying something, not knowing, just lying back in the mystery. I know that mystery might not be enjoyable for everyone and that it's not even a mystery at all - just something I personally don't know - but all the same, I'm sometimes very good with not knowing something.

Today's poem is in three wee stanzas. The first simply makes an observation. The second offers a thought about the observation. The third offers an opposing thought about that same observation. I find it interesting to look at a poem after writing it, to name what happens in the different parts. Sometimes I plan it out ahead of time; usually it plans itself out, and I learn what happened after it's complete. As writers, we can read our and others' writing to see how it fits together, then we can consciously and subconsciously use what we learn in our new writing.

To learn about many of the wonderful National Poetry Month projects happening online this April, visit the generous Jama Rattigan at Jama's Alphabet Soup. 
 
Can you hear a bird calling or singing right now? If you want to learn its name, see if you can figure it out or use a tool. If you don't want to know it's name, that's good too. 
 
xo,
a. 

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Sunday, April 12, 2026

listen - day 12

  

As I strive to become a better listener and to connect more with my sense of hearing, National Poetry Month 2026 finds me writing daily, handwritten, index card poems inspired by sounds and listening.. I have begun a new notebook to collect the sounds I notice throughout the month, and I will reflect on them in short poems. My ears - and my heart - are open wide. 
 
I invite you to join me in this project, on any of my projects from the past 16 years, or on a project of your very own. To do so, simply write a poem each day of April in any way you wish. Share or don't share, as you wish. Your poems are your poems. Your projects are your projects. And if you wish learn a bit more about writing poetry, I welcome you to the short lessons in the tab above: COAXING POEMS VIDEOS - 2024.
 
National Poetry Month 2026 Poems 
 
Here is poem 12 - 

 


Students - Here in Western New York, our spring fluctuates between very warm days and very cold days. I do my best to find the good in all of it, and one of my favorite winter moments from childhood when heat blew from a register under the kitchen sink to now when we split our heat between a wood stove and heater in our living room (the heat floates upstairs through holes in the ceilings) is warming my feet by the heat.
 
Writing this poem, I most enjoyed making the heater hum and breathe...just as people hum and breathe. In poetry-land, we call this personification, the giving of human qualities to non-human things.
 
You might wish to try playing around with personification. Choose an object or an animal, and make a list of some of the actions it does using non-human language. Then try to change some of those words, stretching them to make them actions that people do. If you like one or more of your personification bits, write a poem around it. Practice this personification imagining in your life, and soon it will creep into your writing (see what I did there?) without you even noticing.
 
Example:
 
Vacuum cleans...........Vacuum dances............Vacuum gobbles 
 
To learn about many of the wonderful National Poetry Month projects happening online this April, visit the generous Jama Rattigan at Jama's Alphabet Soup. 
 
Here's to finding cozy moments in ever season and to seeking the humanity in all people, animals, and objects too.
 
xo,
a. 

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Friday, January 16, 2026

Ask a Photograph

Geo. R. Ludwig 
Detroit and Broadway, Buffalo, NY
Photo from Amy LV's Collection



Students - Today's poem grew from meandering. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines the verb meander this way - "to follow a winding or intricate course." The course I followed began with just writing in my notebook, letting one idea lead to the next. At some point, I remembered the old photograph you see above and went to find it. When I did, I remembered that it was taken in January, did the quick math (2026-1896), and realized that it was taken 130 years ago! This is old. I took a photo of the photo and zoomed in on my great grandfather's face.

George Richard Ludwig, 1896
Photo from Amy LV's Collection

Ah! If only I could bring him back to life. If only I could ask him some questions, learn about his dry goods store, now long-gone, learn about my grandfather George C., learn about this time in my family, in Buffalo, in America. But I cannot. Still, though, I can study the faces in the photo. And I can imagine. I can imagine what he might say to me. From this photo, in which he stands proudly in front of his growing shop, I believe he says to build. And while I will not build with bricks, I commit to build with words. For him.

This week, if you are uncertain where to begin with your writing, consider meandering. Just write and see where your pencil leads you. Or begin with a photo. Ask someone in the photo a question...in your mind or on paper. Listen to what this person tells you. See, the advice you receive from a photograph-person may also be advice from your deepest self. 

Remember that your poem need not rhyme or follow a special pattern. Your poem wants to be you, a reflection of you, a photograph of what you feel and believe and think right now. 

AI cannot know what you feel and believe and think. Feelings and beliefs and thoughts are slow and come from within. Meander. Take the long way.

Thank you to dear Tabatha of The Opposite of Indifference who set up such a delicious December poem swap. I was matched with darling Robyn-who-I-wish-I-could-see-every-day. She generously gifted me with magical earrings and an ornament based on one of my ghost poems as well as a poem that, well, I would be honored to hear as a ghost at my own funeral. You can read the poem and see what I sent to Robyn at her blog, Life on the Deckle Edge. Thank you, friends!

Jan is hosting today's Poetry Friday roundup over at bookseedstudio with a song and some thoughts about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Each Friday, all are invited to share poems, poem books, poetry ideas, and friendship in this open and welcoming poetry community.

And while it's a bit late, Happy New Year! I have been thinking about you and wishing you all of the goodnessess that can come in time. Each of you is strong and full of light, and I wish you discovery and hope in the days and months that lay before you.

xo,
Amy
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Friday, September 12, 2025

Make Friends With Your Notebook

A Clearing
Photo by Amy LV


Students - Last night I woke up a few times with a writing idea I had planned to work on this morning. I began that work, but somehow felt it was not the right poem for this day. So I flipped through my notebook and found this draft from April.

April Notebook Draft
Photo by Amy LV

It felt more important to write about magic today, so I decided to type up the above draft to see what would happen. I played around a lot with the sound and read aloud as I worked. And I am happy I did so! 

My tip for today is to make friends with your notebook. Just stuff stuff in there: ideas, wonderings, unusual thoughts, bits and snips of poems, cards, photos, sketches, leaves, ticket stubs, stickers, recipes...anything! See, it is not easy for a writer to do all of the things in one day: think of an idea, draft it, play with the sound and structure, and edit. That's a lot to do! So a notebook can be a trusty friend who holds onto your ideas until you may (or may not) wish to turn then into drafts. I used to keep a whole blog about notebook keeping - Sharing Our Notebooks - and I am considering getting back to this as a central practice in my teaching. Our writing in notebooks helps us know what interests and charms us.

You may have noticed that today's poem does not carry a lot of rhyme. Rather, I focused on the sound, playing with short lines, each one almost contained and holding a bit of rhythm. Reading aloud as I write is one of my most important revision tools. If you don't do this now, I recommend giving it a try. Write a bit...read it aloud...revise what sounds off...keep going.

So consider it - write in a notebook just to see what you get. Revisit the writings in a few weeks to see if one of the bits may wish to grow into a story or a poem or an essay or a letter or something else. Our brains and hearts do a lot of work that we don't even know about, and a notebook can help us hang onto that thinking and love.

This week, Rose is hosting the Poetry Friday roundup over at Imagine the Possibilities with a bit about her "Snippets" log and a poem about imaginings. Each Friday, all are invited to share poems, poem books, poetry ideas, and friendship in this open and welcoming poetry community.

I send you magic and belief in magic...

xo,

Amy

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Saturday, April 19, 2025

HELLO MY NAME IS - Day 19

Happy National Poetry Month!

(Feel free to search for poems in the sidebar or watch videos in the tab above.)


Hello, Poetry Friends! This month I am sharing poems written in the voice of Little Red Riding Hood, and I invite you to join me in writing in the voice of someone else too. You might choose a fairy tale character or a book character or a person from history or anyone else real or imagined. These are your poems, so you make the decisions. Each April day, I will share my poem and a little bit about writing poetry. Mostly, we’ll just be writing in short lines with good words and not worrying about rhyming. Meaning first. Our focus this month will be adopting the perspective of another…for 30 days. I invite you to join me in this project! To do so, simply:

1. Choose a character from fiction or history or somewhere else in the world of space and time, and commit to writing a daily poem in this person's voice for the 30 days of April 2025. You might even choose an animal.

2. Write a new poem for each day of April. Feel free to print and find inspiration from this idea sheet that I will be writing from all month long.


Teachers, if you wish to share any HELLO MY NAME IS... subjects or poems, please email them to me at the contact button above. I would love to read what your students write and learn from how they approach their own projects.

LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD'S POEMS SO FAR

Students - Last night I woke around 3:30am and wondered about what Lou's favorite book might be. I love Charlotte's Web, and perhaps this is why it came to mind for Lou. As I kept thinking I realized that she has a different reason to like this book. A spider and a pig are unlikely friends just as a girl and a wolf who ate her grandmother are unlikely friends. In books, we see ourselves and through books, we come to understand the world in different ways. If we love a certain book, it is good and right to read it again and again.

If you are wondering why the last two lines  of this free verse poem are so short, it is because short lines cause a reader to slow down. White space in a poem does that, and there is a lot of white space at the ends of these two lines.

In case you were wondering, I did reread the description of Zuckerman's barn to find the exact words milk pails and grain sacks.

Thank you for joining me on this twentieth day of HELLO MY NAME IS...

To learn about more National Poetry Month projects and all kinds of April goodness, visit Jama's Alphabet Soup where Jama has generously gathered this coming month's Kidlitosphere poetry happenings. And if you are interested in learning about or writing from any of my previous 14 National Poetry Month projects, you can find them here. Happy National Poetry Month!

xo,

Amy

Please share a comment below if you wish.
Know that your comment will only appear after I approve it.
If you are under 13 years old, please only comment 
with a parent or as part of a group with your teacher.

Friday, April 18, 2025

HELLO MY NAME IS - Day 18

Happy National Poetry Month!

(Feel free to search for poems in the sidebar or watch videos in the tab above.)


Hello, Poetry Friends! This month I am sharing poems written in the voice of Little Red Riding Hood, and I invite you to join me in writing in the voice of someone else too. You might choose a fairy tale character or a book character or a person from history or anyone else real or imagined. These are your poems, so you make the decisions. Each April day, I will share my poem and a little bit about writing poetry. Mostly, we’ll just be writing in short lines with good words and not worrying about rhyming. Meaning first. Our focus this month will be adopting the perspective of another…for 30 days. I invite you to join me in this project! To do so, simply:

1. Choose a character from fiction or history or somewhere else in the world of space and time, and commit to writing a daily poem in this person's voice for the 30 days of April 2025. You might even choose an animal.

2. Write a new poem for each day of April. Feel free to print and find inspiration from this idea sheet that I will be writing from all month long.


Teachers, if you wish to share any HELLO MY NAME IS... subjects or poems, please email them to me at the contact button above. I would love to read what your students write and learn from how they approach their own projects.

LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD'S POEMS SO FAR

Students - Writing the poems of the last two days, I knew that today's poem would be about delivering pie to the fairy tale forest neighbors. And today, I just wrote by watching, watching Nan and Lou pack their baskets and go. I did not think as much as usual about every single word, didn' t try to rhyme, didn't fuss with meter. This poem just wanted to live today, just as it is. Perhaps I will return to it later, move the words around, strengthen a verb, change a syllable count...perhaps not. But for today, everyone gets pie.

Thank you for joining me on this eighteenth day of HELLO MY NAME IS...

Thank you also to Jone for hosting this week's Poetry Friday roundup over at Jone Rush MacCulloch with an interview with Shirley Thacker. Each Friday, all are invited to share poems, poem books, poetry ideas, and friendship in this open and welcoming poetry community.

To learn about more National Poetry Month projects and all kinds of April goodness, visit Jama's Alphabet Soup where Jama has generously gathered this coming month's Kidlitosphere poetry happenings. And if you are interested in learning about or writing from any of my previous 14 National Poetry Month projects, you can find them here. Happy National Poetry Month!

xo,

Amy

Please share a comment below if you wish.
Know that your comment will only appear after I approve it.
If you are under 13 years old, please only comment 
with a parent or as part of a group with your teacher.

Wednesday, April 9, 2025

HELLO MY NAME IS - Day 9

 Happy National Poetry Month!

(Feel free to search for poems in the sidebar or watch videos in the tab above.)


Hello, Poetry Friends! This month I am sharing poems written in the voice of Little Red Riding Hood, and I invite you to join me in writing in the voice of someone else too. You might choose a fairy tale character or a book character or a person from history or anyone else real or imagined. These are your poems, so you make the decisions. Each April day, I will share my poem and a little bit about writing poetry. Mostly, we’ll just be writing in short lines with good words and not worrying about rhyming. Meaning first. Our focus this month will be adopting the perspective of another…for 30 days. I invite you to join me in this project! To do so, simply:

1. Choose a character from fiction or history or somewhere else in the world of space and time, and commit to writing a daily poem in this person's voice for the 30 days of April 2025. You might even choose an animal.

2. Write a new poem for each day of April. Feel free to print and find inspiration from this idea sheet that I will be writing from all month long.


Teachers, if you wish to share any HELLO MY NAME IS... subjects or poems, please email them to me at the contact button above. I would love to read what your students write and learn from how they approach their own projects.

LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD'S POEMS SO FAR

Students - Today's poem brings us back to Poem 1 in this series, "First Poem," in which Lou describes herself as (more a hiker, mushroom seeker). It felt like a good day for LRRH to go mushroom seeking (Hunting? Seeking? Which word to choose?) with her Nan, to write a poem showcasing this hobby these two share.

Today's is a free verse poem with no real rhyme or meter. The poem part relies on line breaks and white space. Because Lou and Nan are walking through deep forest, the line breaks moving along and indenting from left to write mirror their footsteps and their gathering. The white space creates pauses and slows down reading, quiets the poem down.

One thing you might choose to notice is that I name specific mushrooms: morels, lions mane, hen of the woods. When a person has a hobby, that persons know the specific words around that hobby, so of course Lou and Nan know and use actual specific mushroom names. When you reread your own writing, both poems and stories and nonfiction and opinion too, reread and revise to make any nouns more specific if you can. This will create more vivid and clear pictures in the minds of your readers.

Thank you for joining me on this ninth day of HELLO MY NAME IS...

To learn about more National Poetry Month projects and all kinds of April goodness, visit Jama's Alphabet Soup where Jama has generously gathered this coming month's Kidlitosphere poetry happenings. And if you are interested in learning about or writing from any of my previous 14 National Poetry Month projects, you can find them here. Happy National Poetry Month!

xo,

Amy

Please share a comment below if you wish.
Know that your comment will only appear after I approve it.
If you are under 13 years old, please only comment 
with a parent or as part of a group with your teacher.

Sunday, April 6, 2025

HELLO MY NAME IS - Day 6

    Happy National Poetry Month!

(Feel free to search for poems in the sidebar or watch videos in the tab above.)


Hello, Poetry Friends! This month I am sharing poems written in the voice of Little Red Riding Hood, and I invite you to join me in writing in the voice of someone else too. You might choose a fairy tale character or a book character or a person from history or anyone else real or imagined. These are your poems, so you make the decisions. Each April day, I will share my poem and a little bit about writing poetry. Mostly, we’ll just be writing in short lines with good words and not worrying about rhyming. Meaning first. Our focus this month will be adopting the perspective of another…for 30 days. I invite you to join me in this project! To do so, simply:

1. Choose a character from fiction or history or somewhere else in the world of space and time, and commit to writing a daily poem in this person's voice for the 30 days of April 2025. You might even choose an animal.

2. Write a new poem for each day of April. Feel free to print and find inspiration from this idea sheet that I will be writing from all month long.


Teachers, if you wish to share any HELLO MY NAME IS... subjects or poems, please email them to me at the contact button above. I would love to read what your students write and learn from how they approach their own projects.

LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD'S POEMS SO FAR

And now for today!


Students - Today's poem is simply a description poem of now, of something Lou is doing in the moment. It is written in the present tense, as if she is describing the scene around her, its colors and smells and sounds. In a way, it is a small moment poem and a list poem, and I like imagining this peaceful scene of LRRH surrounded by some of her favorite things.

If you are writing in the voice of another this month, or writing in your own voice, consider trying this. Write in the now. Where are you? What do you see, hear, smell, feel, taste in the air? Make a list and turn the list into a poem. Turn it into a different poem. Which do you prefer? If you like, combine them!

Notice - today's poem does not rhyme or follow a special meter/beat, but it does end with a short line. This is one way to bring a poem to a close. The short line feels like a punctuation mark indicating - This poem is over now.

Yesterday was such a fun Family Day at the Burchfield Penney Art Center. Several authors read to children, and the museum staff and volunteers made crafts with the children. For my book, WITH MY HANDS, POEMS ABOUT MAKING THINGS, children had the opportunity to make sock puppets or fingerprint pictures! Thank you to everyone at the Burchfield Penney for putting together such a wonderful day for families and authors too.

Sock Puppet Materials
Photo by Amy LV

Fingerprint Picture Materials
Photo by Amy LV

Thank you for joining me on this sixth day of HELLO MY NAME IS...

To learn about more National Poetry Month projects and all kinds of April goodness, visit Jama's Alphabet Soup where Jama has generously gathered this coming month's Kidlitosphere poetry happenings. And if you are interested in learning about or writing from any of my previous 14 National Poetry Month projects, you can find them here. Happy National Poetry Month!

xo,

Amy

Please share a comment below if you wish.
Know that your comment will only appear after I approve it.
If you are under 13 years old, please only comment 
with a parent or as part of a group with your teacher.

Friday, April 4, 2025

HELLO MY NAME IS - Day 4

  Happy National Poetry Month!

(Feel free to search for poems in the sidebar or watch videos in the tab above.)


Hello, Poetry Friends! This month I am sharing poems written in the voice of Little Red Riding Hood, and I invite you to join me in writing in the voice of someone else too. You might choose a fairy tale character or a book character or a person from history or anyone else real or imagined. These are your poems, so you make the decisions. Each April day, I will share my poem and a little bit about writing poetry. Mostly, we’ll just be writing in short lines with good words and not worrying about rhyming. Meaning first. Our focus this month will be adopting the perspective of another…for 30 days. I invite you to join me in this project! To do so, simply:

1. Choose a character from fiction or history or somewhere else in the world of space and time, and commit to writing a daily poem in this person's voice for the 30 days of April 2025. You might even choose an animal.

2. Write a new poem for each day of April. Feel free to print and find inspiration from this idea sheet that I will be writing from all month long.


Teachers, if you wish to share any HELLO MY NAME IS... subjects or poems, please email them to me at the contact button above. I would love to read what your students write and learn from how they approach their own projects.

LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD'S POEMS SO FAR

And now for today!


Students - In today's poem, Lou (LRRH) reveals something new about herself - she has a dog! It is the wolf! Surprise! The poem is a free verse poem written in a conversational voice, and there is one poem-writing technique that I want you to notice. 

The last line - Nobody can. 

I placed this line all alone because it is an important line. Lou wants us to know that we can't be accurate when we try to judge people from one story. It is her message.

Leaving a lot of white space around a word or a line in a poem alerts readers to slow down their reading. If you wish to highlight importance in your poem, leave some white space around the important part.

Thank you for joining me for Day 4 of HELLO MY NAME IS...

Thank you to Matt for hosting this week's Poetry Friday roundup over at Radio, Rhythm, and Rhyme with a celebration of his new book, A UNIVERSE OF RAINBOWS: MULTICOLORED POEMS FOR A MULTICOLORED WORLD. Each Friday, all are invited to share poems, poem books, poetry ideas, and friendship in this open and welcoming poetry community.

To learn about more National Poetry Month projects and all kinds of April goodness, visit Jama's Alphabet Soup where Jama has generously gathered this coming month's Kidlitosphere poetry happenings. Thank you, Jama, for designing my logo for this month! And if you are interested in learning about or writing from any of my previous 14 National Poetry Month projects, you can find them here. Happy National Poetry Month!

xo,

Amy

Please share a comment below if you wish.
Know that your comment will only appear after I approve it.
If you are under 13 years old, please only comment 
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