Showing posts with label Giveaways. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Giveaways. Show all posts

Wednesday, April 4, 2012

D is for DRAW - Dictionary Hike

DRAW
Photo by Amy LV



Students - Once again, I was very happy to point to today's word!  (One might think that I was CHOOSING these words - they are so good - but I am not.) When I sat to write this, I first began writing about my own experience of drawing, then I wrote about drawing with a grandmother, and finally I arrived at a cavechild artist.  Prehistoric paintings enchant me, and stories swirl all around them.  And so, I started wondering, "Did cavepeople ever feel nervous about what to write and draw on their walls?"  Sometimes I'm unsure of what to write and draw.  Perhaps they were too.

You may notice two things.  One is that this is a story poem, a fiction story poem much like my poem for letter B.  This one, however, has a little moral at the end: Someday/we will all be gone./But art we make lives on and on. Consider trying this.  After writing your poem, ask, "Does this verse have a moral?  Would it make sense to state the moral directly or to let the readers figure it out for themselves?"   Each of Aesop's fables tells the moral right at the end.

Another thing you may notice is my use of italics.  Many times, I use italics to indicate that someone is talking.  I think that italics look neater in a poem than quotation marks.  So, if you were wondering, "Why those italics?" now you know.

You can see pictures and read more about cave paintings at Wikipedia, in this Google archive of photographs, or at the Bradshaw Foundation.

This week, if you visit Sharing Our Notebooks, you will be able to hear Janet talk all about how she (doesn't) keep notebooks, the way she revisits old ideas, and you (like me) will learn some great revision strategies for your own poems.  You can also leave a comment on that post through Thursday to be entered in a drawing for four of Janet's books, generously donated by Janet!

You can win these books over at Sharing Our Notebooks!

Each day of this project, Lisa V. will write and post a haiku for that day's word at her blog.  You can read all of these over at Lisa's Poem of the Week.  Please join us and share in the comments if you wish!

If you would like to read my poems for letters A, B, and C, just take a look at the upper left hand sidebar!  Tomorrow we hike to the Land of Letter E.

And if you look at the (new!) top tabs, you will see that The Poem Farm is becoming searchable by topic and poetic technique.  Slowly, I am linking to all that is here as I hope this will make this resource more valuable for teachers and young writers. If you have a suggestion for me, please share as I welcome ideas!

Please share a comment below if you wish!
You can like The Poem Farm on Facebook for more poemlove...

Monday, April 2, 2012

B is for Bluegrass - Dictionary Hike

BLUEGRASS
Photo by Amy LV


Students - Today's word - "bluegrass" - gave me a couple of possibilities.  I could have written about bluegrass music, which I like very much.  But I decided to write about the bluegrass plant instead.  Can you believe that I never realized that it even IS a grass?  Golly, there are 250 varieties of bluegrass, we have it in our pasture, and I didn't even KNOW about it because I always just thought of "bluegrass" as music!  Our family loves Cherryholmes, a now-disbanded family band, so maybe this is why!

Opening the dictionary to a random word opens up my writing self.  I am determined to learn from the word offered, to let my poem turn on its gifts.  Today's word whispered, "Smush words together, Amy.  Smush 'em!"  I like the way that blue and grass squish themselves together.  Compound words are so cozy, so I made some of my own here - all with color words.  This is something you can try too - just squeeze those words together if they seem huggy.

Today is Day 2 of the Dictionary Hike!  Should you be interested in following through the alphabet, I am keeping all of this month's dictionary-inspired-alphabet poems in the left-hand sidebar. So far, I have felt quite lucky with my words.

Who else is taking Dictionary Hikes?  Well, Mary Lee and one of her students are dipping into dictionaries.  And Lisa left an ANCIENT haiku in yesterday's comments. (I hope she does this every day and encourage you to check.) Linda is writing daily poems too, and she may also use the dictionary as occasional inspiration.  If you do so, I welcome you to share in the comments!

Don't forget...it's down to the Final Four in Think Kid, Think!'s March Madness poetry tournament.  You can vote, and bring it to two here!

And now...a bit of bluegrass to introduce today's giveaway!


Today, over at my other blog, Sharing Our Notebooks, I am tickled to be hosting Janet Wong as she shares her process and office. Janet has generously offered these four books as a giveaway for today's post readers. If you leave a comment in this post or in today's (April 2) post over at The Poem Farm, you will be automatically entered into a drawing to win. This drawing will close at 11:59pm on Thursday, April 5. Please leave brief contact information in your comment so that I can let you know if you win!


Thank you, Janet, for this fantastic collection which includes: MINN AND JAKE'S ALMOST TERRIBLE SUMMER, THE RAINBOW HAND: POEMS ABOUT MOTHERS AND CHILDREN, ME AND ROLLY MALOO, and APPLE PIE 4TH OF JULY.

Please share a comment below if you wish!
You can like The Poem Farm on Facebook for more poemlove...