Dilemma - Writing from "What If?"

 

Hmmmmm?

by Amy LV

Students - More and more, I believe that writing without a plan is a good practice.  Sometimes people sit down and think, "I cannot write because I do not already have a writing idea."  But if you sit and just start writing any old gibberish, an idea will come and sit on your shoulder!  

The other day I sat and just wrote the words What if? in the margin of my big black notebook, and today's poem showed up.  

Try it sometime.  Sit down to write when you have no idea what you will write about.  Just start.  Let the idea sit on your shoulder!  (Don't think it will not come.  Such thoughts scare ideas away!)

If you're not sure what to write, start with What if?

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Early

Present-Giving

by Amy LV

Students - Everyone is full of secrets at our house these days, stealing off to bedrooms with scissors and tape, paper and bows. Between sips of egg nog and licks of peppermint, we're all getting excited to give gifts to one another. I love thinking about what my family will like to open on Christmas morning and I love making, finding, and wrapping gifts. Just like when I was a little girl, it is difficult to wait! Writing today's poem, I took that waiting-feeling and wrapped it up inside a poem.

I remember many years ago when Hope (now thirteen) was four years old. Mark had taken her to go Christmas shopping, and she was intent on keeping my present a secret. Hope was fascinated with bathrooms at that age, and I was charmed to hear her exclaim, "Mommy! There was a potty at the watch store!" Mark's secret was out, but we will tell that adorable story forever.

In happy poetry-news, I am pleased to share that I AM THE BOOK, edited by Lee Bennett Hopkins, has won a Nerdy Book Club Award, and my poem from that book ("Book") appears on the award posting.  It was a gift to be a part of this book-love anthology...thank you, Lee!

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Many good wishes to all of you and your loved ones during this beautiful time of love and light.

Dori is hosting today's Poetry Friday roundup over at Dori Reads. Cheers!

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Have a Special Sandwich with Poem #339

PBJF

by Amy LV

Students - this poem was just plain fun to write.  My brain was flying in a hundred directions, just listing all kinds of phrases in my notebook.  Phrases like, "I used to be a bug" and "The opposite of patience" were filling up the lines and adding up to...nothing.  Then, suddenly, the words "peanut butter and jellyFISH" jumped from my pen and I just followed them.  It's just plain silliness!  Playing with the sounds of words is so much of the fun of writing.  What new words might you combine?

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Why Are Flamingos Pink? Poem #333

Colors!

by Amy LV

Students - have you ever scooped a few different ice cream scoop flavors into one bowl?   Have you ever let them sit a little too long?  If you have, then you will remember how the different flavors eventually swirl into one color.  Finding ideas is like this too.  

Tracing today's poem to its idea-finding roots, I found several connections:

1.  My mom just bought Mark a John James Audubon calendar with a flamingo on the front cover.

2.  I have always been fascinated by flamingos and their pinkness.

3.  Our children are in love with the  YouTube video MARCEL THE SHELL WITH SHOES ON which caused them to make their own video today about John James Audubon shooting a flamingo before drawing it.  This was quite amusing, with Georgia as John James Audubon, Henry as the dead flamingo, and Hope as videographer.

It was fun to think about rhyming words for "diet."  "Quiet" is another good one!

It is true that flamingo diets affect their colors, and if you'd like to read about this, check out The Wild Ones.  For even more information, visit The Straight Dope.  When my mother-in-law traded cigarettes for baby carrots several years ago, she truly did begin to turn orange.  So be careful!

In other animal news, DIZZY DINOSAURS, edited by Lee Bennett Hopkins and illustrated by Barry Gott, is now available!  I feel very fortunate that my poem "Bathtime" appears in this fun collection.

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Nancy Claeys, my SPARK 11 partner, has posted our work (button piece & weather vane piece) together on her blog A Rural Journal.  I encourage you to take a look around her beautiful photographs and writings.  Through this window, I have found a world of new farm blogs to visit.

SPARK 12 will take place in May!

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Does Your Grandma Tell Stories? #282

Grandma's Stories

by Amy LV

Students - this poem idea came from the way my mother and mother-in-law enjoy telling our children stories about when we were little!  None of the stories in this poem are actually true, but there's a really funny one I won't tell here (my brother-in-law would blush). "Tell me a story about..." is a phrase which we expect to hear at extended family dinners, and it helps us hold on to our history.  

So, if you have not yet asked your grandparents about your parents and aunts and uncles when they were little - do!  You will find all kinds of writing ideas in your family's stories...heartwarming and sad and silly.

One of my favorite free verse poetry books is HEY WORLD, HERE I AM! by Jean Little.  This book speaks so honestly and simply and has given me lots to ponder about family.

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We welcome everyone to add to the collaborative New Year's poem begun by Charles Ghigna and me the other day!  On Sunday, we will put everything together and repost it next week.

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Poetry Friday & Poem #269 - Poem on Ice

 Skating a Poem

by Amy LV

This is poem #30 in my 2010 Friday series of poems about poems.  Our family thought about going ice skating yesterday, but then we decided to go later in the week.  Still and all, I got thinking about ice skating and how ponds and rinks full of skaters always look like scribbles upon scribbles.  Surely there are hidden messages and secret poems engraved in the cold.

Students - once again, I found it most helpful to listen to my children read my work.  The last line of this poem originally read, "I'll let my ice skates write today" but when Georgia read it, she read it as it now stands.  Sometimes just hearing someone else read your words can help you hear them more clearly.

Here is a sweet little I CAN READ book, edited by Lee Bennett Hopkins.  My first published poem, "Christmas Night," appears in this book, and my husband surprised me with the original artwork by Melanie Hall shortly after it was published.  My poem is all about reading on Christmas because my sister and I always spent Christmas afternoon and evening reading underneath our tree.

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Mary Lee is graciously hosting Poetry Friday on this Christmas Eve.  Follow the trail of gingerbread to A Year of Reading , and delight in poetry on this special day.

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A boat and an airplane fell in love...#252

Boat & Airplane

by Amy LV

A couple of weeks ago, flying over the Great Lakes, I looked down at Earth.  We weren't too high yet, and I could see tiny sailboats making little white wave wakes.  I thought about me looking down at the boats, and I wondered if anyone in those boats was looking up at the plane.  Somehow this story poem took hold then and comes to you, mysteriously, today...

Students - here is a neat writing contest, expiring on January 17, 2010.  It's at Spilling Ink, a website named after the inspiring book by Anne Mazer and Ellen Potter.  Well, these two authors are hosting a short story contest involving an invention and a problem.  The prize is a book and a Skype visit with the author Ellen Potter...a visit during which your class can ask questions all about writing!  Check out the details here.  In case you missed it, I linked to SPILLING INK, the book, back at the end of June.

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Magnets Pull Us In - Poem #247

Magnets!

by Amy LV

Today is day #3 of Nonfiction Week during which each poem will have a nonfiction focus.  This poem grew from me leafing through THE NEW CHILDREN'S ENCYCLOPEDIA, a resource chock-full of so many facts it could make your head spin. This book is also full of photographs, time lines, sketches, and a little bit about a lot. The idea of magnets, um, attracted me, especially because we use the phrase "opposites attract" about people too.

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Students - try this.  Think of a science fact you have studied on your own or in school that just knocks your socks off.  Then follow the wonderings, fascinations, connections on a piece of paper.  I think magnets are neat, especially after I learned that you can crumble up an iron-rich cereal such as Total and attract the tiny bits of iron with magnets.  Who knew?  Just thinking of an amazing fact might spark-start a poem or a writing piece. 

Speaking of magnets, here is the magnetic toy I wish to own.  It's not recommended for children under fourteen, but oh...it looks like fun.

Tomorrow is Poetry Friday!  Should the weather hold and our internet stay up (we may receive over a foot of snow), I will share some favorite 2010 poetry books as selected by the NCTE Poetry Notable Committee.

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Come on Over for Leftovers & Poem #244

Again!?

by Georgia LV

We bought a 30 pound Thanksgiving turkey this year.  You know what this means, don't you?  I don't have to cook for months!  Seriously, we have a lot of turkey in our refrigerator, and while we've eaten five meals of Thanksgiving dinner, this week the turkey will morph into different mystery dishes, starting with  turkey barbecue, a dish not mentioned in this poem.

Students - the idea for this poem came as I set out the platter of turkey for yet another meal.  The whole thing just made me laugh, and that laughter made me want to write a poem about turkey leftovers.  I am not the most creative cook, so I went hunting around the internet to find lists of real turkey recipes.  If you check out Mike's Leftover Turkey Recipes and Leftover Turkey Recipes from Razzle Dazzle Recipes, you will find some of the real recipe names I found!  I looked for recipes that rhymed and went from there.

Something interesting about this poem is that the shape of my first draft looked quite different.  You can see it here.

After looking at the poem this way, I began wondering how it would look with "Turkey" on a line by itself, over and over.  That seemed funnier somehow, so I printed it out both ways and took a poll of my family by asking, "Which version do you like better?"  The top version (my favorite too) won.  You may have a different opinion, and that's perfectly allowed.  Neither is right, but it sure is fun to go back and forth.  It sure is fun to revise.

What's important to note about this is that we can take our exact same words and lay them out on the page in different ways.  This is one way to revise a poem: switch up the line breaks!

For a rollicking read aloud poem, one which I am sure subliminally inspired me here, visit Poets.org to read Jack Prelutsky's "Bleezer's Ice Cream."

Today marks the 2/3 way point through my year to write and post a new poem each day...what a wonderful time it has been.  Many thanks to all of you for riding along with me!

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