Day 4 - National Poetry Month 2015 - Sing That Poem!

Happy National Poetry Month!

Welcome to Day 4 of this Year's Poem Farm Project!

Find the Complete April 2015 Poem and Song List Here

First, I would like to welcome all old and new friends to The Poem Farm this April. Spring is a busy time on all farms, and this one is no exception.  Each April, many poets and bloggers take on special poetry projects, and I'm doing so too.  You can learn all about Sing That Poem! and how to play on my April 1st post, where you will also find the list of the whole month's poems and tunes as I write and share them.  If you'd like to print out a matching game page for yourself, you can find one here, and during April 2015, you'll be able to see the song list right over there in the left hand sidebar.

Yesterday's poem was At Night.  Here is the tune that goes along with it, below. Did you figure it out?

And here, below, is today's poem.  Look at the song list in the sidebar or on your matching form to see if you can puzzle out which tune matches this one.

Friends Share Everything

by Amy LV

Students - So far, this month's project has me thinking in a whole different way than usual: meter first and then content second.  So as you can see today, sometimes the content is a bit wacky!  Revision is pretty easy, and probably funny to listen to - revision sounds like me humming away.

It took me quite a while to write today's silly verse, and it is silly...and untrue...mostly. I do not have two cockroaches in my shoe.  However, cockroaches are more friendly than most folks realize.  You can read a little bit about that below, or click over to the BBC Nature article for even more on this subject.

from Why Cockroaches Need Their Friends

by Matt Walker, BBC Nature

Yesterday I hosted Poetry Friday here, and there are all kinds of wonderful poetry links to explore.  And don't forget - over at Jama's Alphabet Soup, Jama is keeping a list of poetry projects 'round the Kidlitosphere all month long.  So much poetry happiness!

Please share a comment below if you wish.

Female Praying Mantises and Truth

Praying Mantis
by Amy LV

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

Students - I have no idea why I wrote the phrase - Praying mantis prays for life - in my notebook the other evening.  But I did.  And then the other lines followed.  In the morning, however, I knew that I needed to do some research.  I wondered, "Is it really true what I've heard?  Do the female mantises REALLY eat the males after mating?"  So I did a bit of reading, and I found out that while this does happen, it is not as frequent as I had imagined.

When a female mantis is hungry, she may eat the male after mating, but usually she does not. This is more likely to happen in captivity, and it is more likely when the female is hungry.  When a praying mantis female does eat a male after mating, he unwittingly sacrifices his life for her health and the health of her eggs.

The title of this poem serves as a warning.  Just as we should not grocery shop when we are hungry (we will buy too much), a male praying mantis should not woo a female praying mantis who is hungry (she may devour him).

Research is important in all genres of writing.  It would be terrible if my poem made all female praying mantises out to be killers.  They are not!  Truth matters, and writers must be responsible to the truth.

Please share a comment below if you wish.

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

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