Papa: Writing from Struggle

Blurry

Photo by Amy LV

Students - Occasionally when people get older, they develop serious memory and reasoning problems. You may have heard of Alzheimers Disease, a severe condition affecting memory and reasoning. Today's poem is about how even when an older person may develop dementia (an overarching term which includes Alzheimers), this person is still the same person. If you love someone who has developed such problems, one thing to do is to remember what they once loved and knew and talked about. Talk about these things. You can ask questions about times from long ago, and your loved one may even remember the faraway past better than yesterday. If your loved one does not remember, do not worry. Just show your love.

My poem today is written in three quatrains with the even lines repeating. It is a simple structure, and I hope to share a simple message: We can still love those we love, even when they change, even when they struggle. This is when people need our love most.

Watch for struggle in your days. You might choose to write about it. We all struggle in different ways at different times, and finding words for such moments and years can help us...and others too.

Sally is hosting this week's Poetry Friday roundup at SALLYMURPHY.COM.AU with a book announcement, a poem, and information about her offering for #authorsforfireys. We invite everybody to join in each Friday as we share poems, poem books, poetry ideas, and friendship. Check out my left sidebar to learn where to find this poetry goodness each week of the year.

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.

Stealing and Sharing - Passing it On

 Our Joke

by Amy LV

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

Students - Sometimes I plan to end a poem one way, but the poem decides to end itself another way. Writing today's verse, I planned to end with just a lonely waiting nose, no Grandpa.  The poem was going to have a sad ending.  But then the ending changed.  Partly because of difficulty with rhyme and partly because of the circle of families, I decided to bring this Grandpa tradition into the new generation.

If you are wondering whether today's poem is true for my own life, it is not. Both of my grandfathers died before I was two years old, and as my parents are both only children I do not have aunts or uncles or therefore, cousins.  So today's poemfacts are true for me, but the feeling of missing someone and wanting to keep that someone alive is very true.

This is a poem written in quatrains, and it has some near rhymes.  Notice that the second and fourth lines of each stanza end with words that have similarities in sound, but only one of the three pairs is a true rhyme.  Can you find it?

What do you long for?  What will you pass on?  Therein lies poetry.

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To find a poem by topic, click here. To find a poem by technique, click here.

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I, TOO, AM AMERICA - Book Giveaway!

Update as of Monday, November 13, 2012...

Linda of TeacherDance is the winner of the book - I, TOO, AM AMERICA.

Congratulations to you, Linda!

"As soon as healing takes place, go out and heal somebody else."

Maya Angelou

If you are looking for a way to help teachers and children whose classrooms and libraries have been devastated by Hurricane Sandy, please consider this donating to Literacy Lifeboats, an initiative with the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project to help replace classroom libraries, easels, rugs, and all manner of things that help children connect with books, worlds, and healing words.  Join Naomi Shihab Nye, Tomie DePaola, Lucy Calkins, Lois Lowry, Avi, and many of your other favorite authors who are helping rebuild classrooms and libraries.  Click here for more information, and please pass this along.  Thank you!

Available through Amazon

I am away from this blog for the month, tapping away on a few lessons for a new grade 2 poetry unit of study with Stephanie Parsons and Lucy Calkins. Still, today I would like to offer a giveaway of this gorgeous book, I, TOO, AM AMERICA, the beautiful Langston Hughes poem illustrated by three-time Caldecott Honor Recipient Bryan Collier.  This book comes to us from Jane Bell at B is for Books in Orchard Park, NY and has been signed on the title page by Bryan Collier.

Election Day is over.  May our country work and grow in the way of peace.

Here are a couple of poems to think about from The Poem Farm archives.

War
Worlds Apart
Hope
Two Boys

Please just leave a comment on today's post to be eligible to win a copy of this important book.  I will draw a winning name on Saturday and will announce the winner here and on The Poem Farm Facebook page!

Thank you, Jane, for your generous book donation!

If you will be at NCTE next week, please come to our Saturday poetry panel about where poems come from.  There will be many Poetry Friends there...and I can't wait!

Ed DeCaria is hosting today's Poetry Friday roundup over at Think Kid, Think!  Stop by to see his cool Poetry Friday table of wonders...

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!