Let Your Poem Tell a Story

Boo

Drawing by Amy LV

 

Students - Happy Halloween! Today my little poem tells a story that arose as I wrote this morning. It is helpful to remember that often, our ideas come to us AS we write, not before we write. Many times I will think to myself, "I don't know what to write," but once I begin, ideas rise to meet me. So if you don't have an idea when you pick up your pen or pencil, worry not. Just dive in anyway.

Since today is Halloween, I have been thinking about ghosts and witches and jack o-lanterns and candy. I would like to thank the warm and wise students, teachers, and administrators of Alden Primary School and Alden Intermediate, both in Alden, NY for welcoming me into their writing worlds for so many days this month. You have inspired me in many ways, from your powerful writing to your joyful pumpkins to your generous sharing. Thank you for our time writing and talking writing together.

This week, I suggest that you try writing a story poem. Invent a character, and make something happen. Again, do not worry that you need a complete plan. Just begin...and see. Poems are short and perfect places to experiment with new ideas and techniques.

Jone is the host of today's Poetry Friday roundup over at Jone Rush MacCulloch with original spooky poems and ideas for writing spooky poems too. Each Friday, all are invited to share poems, poem books, poetry ideas, and friendship in this open and welcoming poetry community.

xo,

Amy

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If you are under 13 years old, please only comment 

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Be Ready for Characters to Appear

Ghost Gratitude

by Amy LV

Students - Today's poem is in the spirit ('spirit!' - get it?) of the season...the whole season of autumn, rolling two holidays into one.  Earlier this month, sometime between the stretch of Halloween and Thanksgiving, this small sprite appeared in my mind, Sammy, the ghostie who loved Thanksgiving most of all.  I have more thoughts about Sammy, but today's poem was my first official meeting with him on paper.

Sometimes it's fun to turn something on its head a little bit.  You know, ghosts SHOULD favor Halloween ...but in a poem, a writer can flip such an idea around.  The ghost world of this poem is normal.  You know...sheets, ghost families, and all of that.  But this ONE thing is different - Sammy loves the wrong holiday best.

Such playfulness is not only plain fun for a writer, it's surprising for a reader too.  Sometimes writing can just allow a soul to take a little trip into a pretend land of the mind.  Everything doesn't have to be real in writing.  We can let our imaginations float a bit, even right through old stone walls if we wish.  I actually have a picture in my head of wee Sammy with a cranberry sauce stain on his sheet.  But that's for another day.

Did you notice the repetition in this poem, repetition of the words thank you and I love?  

Did you notice how I stretched out those last four lines of the poem? This is to slow readers' reading down toward the end, to emphasize the importance of death not being really final to this young ghost.

Pay attention.  Perhaps this week or sometime at the end of this calendar year, a curious character will walk right into your head.  If she or he does, jot down who it is.  Pay attention.  Your mind is creative; you just must pay attention to it.

Jane is hosting today's Poetry Friday party over at Raincity Librarian!  Jane is not only hosting for the first time today...but she is doing so from Osaka, Japan.  Please stop over, congratulate her on her new book WILD ONE....and take part in the poetry joy.  All are always welcome to join this gathering of poemlove and friendship.

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If you are under 13 years old, please comment only with a parent 

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Old Poem, New Trailer, Giveaway!

Art by Jill Dubin

From BABYBUG October 2017

Students - Yesterday my sister wrote to tell me, "Your poem is on the back page of this month's BABYBUG magazine!"  We give a subscription of BABYBUG to our little nephew, and Heidi and Luke were reading along when all of the sudden they found my old poem.  This was one of my first published poems, in LADYBUG many years ago, and I was happily surprised to learn that the Cricket Media group had reprinted it.

Today's poem is a short and sweet one.  And really, it's simply a procedural or how-to poem.  Notice how each line offers one more step in making a jack o'lantern.  It's both poem and how-to.  Sometimes I enjoy thinking about HOW to do something and then writing about it.  You might choose to write a poem of this sort yourself.  What do you know how to do?  It might be something small such as carving a jack o'lantern or something big such as making a friend.

One thing I do not know how to do is make book trailers.  But fortunately, I know some talented people who do.  I am very thankful to the team of DAS HAUS Productions for producing this trailer which captures the feeling of my poem "Forever" and all of READ! READ! READ!, my new book with talented illustrator Ryan O'Rourke and published by Boyds Mills Press.

Thank you to:
Robbie Snow - Writer Director
Brandon Babbit - Executive Producer
Sawyer Oubre - Director of Photography (and my friend)
Dylan Genis - Gaffer
Jimmie Cummings, B. Reddick Jr., & T. James - Actors

Enjoy....

I am holding an Amazon giveaway for 5 winners, each to win 1 copy of READ! READ! READ!  This giveaway ends on October 18, and if you wish, you can enter it HERE.

Please visit the latest post at my other blog, Sharing Our Notebooks to win a copy of Caroline Starr Rose's latest book!  She's sharing a poem AND a peek inside of her notebooks.

Happy Poetry Friday, friends!  Have a wonderful time celebrating 13 this week and all week long at Live Your Poem with Irene who is hosting this week's Poetry Friday roundup!

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.

How to Be a Ghost - Listy How-To Poems

 

Fionacat & Amyghost

Photo by Henry LV

Students - Happy Halloween!  I love Halloween, mostly because I love making costumes and carving jack o'lanterns.  When I was a girl, my dad and I would always get big appliance boxes, and we'd make crazy costumes: stove, refrigerator, table...  It is tons of fun to make a costume from old clothes and crazy bits of this and that. Tonight I will be a ghost.  We had a couple of white sheets leftover from our girls' toga day at high school, and so one is now the ghost costume you see above.  Our children are dressing up as a sea anemone, a plastic army guy, and Robin Hood.

Today's poem is simply a set of directions, a how-to poem, a list.  I had fun imagining all of the different things that would be important for a person who wishes to dress as a ghost, especially the black-cat-hugging-part as our little Fiona celebrates her first Halloween this year. 

As with any list poem, I like to to have a bit of a twist, a surprise at the end. Wouldn't it be funny to be snuggled in your bed and to find two eyeholes in your top sheet?

Linda is hosting today's Poetry Friday roundup over at TeacherDance.  There you will find a gathering of poems, poets, and poetry news all around the Kidlitosphere this week.

Happy Poetry Halloween Friday!

Please share a comment below if you wish.

Rainbow Witch - Being Who We Are

Rainbow Witch

Photo by Hope LV

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

Students - The origin of this poem is funny, as is the origin of many pieces of writing.  Our daughter Hope was waiting for a backpack to arrive in the mail, and when it did, the package seemed rather small for a backpack.  When she opened the package, she realized why.  There was no backpack at all!  Instead, the package contained the rainbow wig you see above.

Of course we all had to try it on, and I grabbed a witch hat from the coat tree for good measure.  When my friend Sue saw the look, she said, "I think 'Rainbow Witch' should be your next poem."  And so it is.  Sue, this one's for you.

Beginning to write this, the first lines came right away.  'Hat' and 'cat' are of course easy, natural witch rhymes.  But then I kept writing.  How should this small verse end? Hmmm... I wanted my witch to know that she was a little bit different.  And I wanted her to feel good about being different.  I love books where characters are strong enough to be their true selves.

by Megan McDonald

by Mary Whitcomb

When our children were small, they loved this book about a witch who wishes for a different kind of pet.  Actually, we all still love it.

by Arthur Howard

Do you have a favorite book about someone who stays true to him or herself even in the face of people who try to make him or her change?

For another Halloween poem, click here to read Moon on Halloween in The Poem Farm archives.  Scroll down past the first blue poem, and you will find it. It's orange!

There is still time to enter the giveaway for a pair of handknit (by me) handwarmers over at Friday's post.  Stop on by if you like reading about bean mosaics or if you imagine that you might have chilly hands soon.

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

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Witch Decisions - Mask Poetry for Halloween

Vacuum...or Broom?

by Amy LV

 

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

Students - Today - Halloween - is a dress-up day, so I decided to dress up as a witch!  You might recognize this as a mask poem, a poem when the poet writes pretending to be someone else.  To write these lines, I sat with my notebook and began imagining problems a young witch might have.  Modern witches, like modern teenagers, may feel confused about when to use new technology. Should a witch use an app to write a spell or should she count on traditional magic?  Should she wear black jeans or a black dress?  For today's poem, I allowed my witch to stay a bit old fashioned.

For today, you might wish to write in the voice of someone else.  Pretend you are wearing a mask (maybe the one you will wear for Halloween tonight) and write in that voice.  Or write in the voice of an animal you know or an object sitting right near you right now.  What does that crayon being think about?  What struggles does a mermaid wish?  What does a rat wonder?

Usually I write poems longhand, in black pen or pencil into my notebook (also old fashioned, some might suggest).  And then, once I have crossed out and fiddled for some time, I type a poem up.  Below you can see the way I first typed this little poem.  Originally, it was in quatrains with the rhyming (or near rhyming) words at the ends of every other line.  Later, I decided to break the lines up a bit differently, to honor certain pauses...and the poem ended up as you see it above.  The rhymes, however, still match a quatrain pattern.

Witch Transportation

It cannot fly too high (the cord).

It sucks up every cloud.

It scares my own black cat.

It's heavy.  And it's loud.

Other witches cackle when

they see my shadow on the moon.

And so this Halloween I'll trade

my shiny vacuum for a broom.

When I was a little girl, some of my favorite books were the Dorrie the Little Witch books by Patricia Coombs.  If you don't know those great stories, you can read about them here at Vintage Kids' Books.  And from what I see here, it seems that several of the Dorrie titles have been reprinted.  Yay!

For older Halloween poems here at The Poem Farm, click on over to Pumpkin or Taking Stock.

If you did not read yesterday's post with Dee Michel (Eve Merriam's son), please be sure to stop by and see his magnificent edible books and hear about his childhood!

Here are some witch jokes for you!  Happy Halloween!

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

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Taking Stock & SPARK 17

Murphy Fix

by Diane Mayr

 

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

Students - This is the second time this week that I've written from a photograph.  On Wednesday, I wrote from that wonderful barn roof near my home, and now this!  Today's poem was inspired by Poetry Friday writer and artist Diane Mayr's photograph above, MURPHY'S FIX, and both are a part of SPARK 17, a project I take part in regularly, a project generously hosted by Amy Souza here.  Anyone is welcome to participate.  Simply read and learn about it, and you can sign up for SPARK 18 with a chance to swap your own writing, music, or art with someone else.

I lived with Diane's photo in my head for a few days before I decided what poem to write.  The colors and variety of candies just got to me, and every once in a while I would see them in my head.  

Should the poem be about candy wrappers stuffed in my car pockets and coat pockets and on this very desk?  No. Should the poem be about how I can chew a whole pack of gum in less than an hour and not even feel badly about it?  No. The poem should be about Halloween night, every Halloween night....when my sister Heidi and I would spread our candy out and trade and laugh and eat the hours away.

You may be wondering why this poem is about a boy and a girl when my personal memory is about two girls.  Well...I wanted to make the poem about a brother and a sister...and so I did.  I have nephews and a son and love including both genders in poems when I can.

Today's poem is partly a list poem.  You can see that there are places that are simply lists of candy names.  I am quite sure that I did this because this week I just kept reading Kenn Nesbitt's book I'VE SEEN MY KITCHEN SINK, and I giggled at the list of foods in his poem, My Special Diet. I also thought about Jack Prelutsky's Bleezer's Ice Cream and Shel Silverstein's Sarah Sylvia Cynthia Stout, both poems with food-filled lists.  It's quite fun to make a list of rhyming foods, and it's not too difficult.  Try it sometime, even just in your notebook.  Real foods OR make-believe foods.

When I asked Diane Mayr about the photograph above, she replied, "It's just candy for a funeral lunch.  In honor of the departed mother of a dear friend.  (Cross my heart and hope to die, it's the truth.)  I just took a photo of the candy before it was put into a bowl.  I cropped and manipulated the photo a little." 

Don't you think it's the most vibrant and wild candy picture?  I loved writing from it.

It's not Halloween today. I know! But a writer can write and an artist can create about any thing at any time.  Yes!

Teachers - You might wish to try a modified SPARK project in your own class, or with a class across the hall!  If you do, please let me know.  I'd love to feature it here.

Congratulations to all of the 2012 Cybils judges, especially the ones for poetry. You can see a complete list here (full of many names you know and love)...and follow their tweets and updates as the books come rolling in.  Please send your nominations between October 1 - October 15.

This week over at my other blog, Sharing Our Notebooks, I am so happy to welcome Barry Lane.  Teachers - Barry has offered a generous giveaway of two of his books about writing and a CD, and the drawing will take place on September 30.  

This week, I have finally linked all of the wonderful Poetry Peeks from this blog into one index.  If you are looking for some inspiration, student mentor poems, or ideas for ways to bring more poetry into your classroom, don't miss this new index.  You will permanently find it in the tabs up top.

I had to smile when I saw Renee's Poetry Friday roundup today over at No Water River.  She's hosting us with candy.  Quinkidink!  Head on over to enjoy all of the goodies she has spread before us.

Addition:  This afternoon I received a special poem from a second grader, and it warranted its own Poetry Friday post.  Click here to read it!

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

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