Inspired by Nature, Inspired by a Teacher

Fingernail Clams Feeding from Western New York Woodland Vernal Pool
(Scooped from a Vernal Pool in Winter, Returned in Spring)
Video by Mark VanDerwater

Students - It is good to have a special place where you can go to be alone, to think and to pay attention to the world.  Here on our property, we have a vernal pool, a little body of water that just stays for part of the year, and my husband Mark loves to go and visit the critters.  There is a vernal pool at his high school too, and above, you can see a video Mark took of some of the teeny critters in wintertime, after they had warmed up inside his classroom.

When we are quiet and when we visit a place again and again, watching and writing, looking and drawing, we can learn very much.  About the world and about ourselves too.

I have another teacher friend who loves vernal pools too...

Today I am absolutely delighted to introduce Christie Wyman, a wise kindergarten teacher at Country Elementary School in Weston, Massachusetts.  I have followed Christie's beautiful teaching on Twitter (@MrsWymansClass), and I feel very lucky to welcome her and her last year's students to The Poem Farm today.  Enjoy this watercolor celebration of words...paying tribute to some plants and animals who live close by.  Welcome, Christie!  Welcome, writers and artists!

My Kindergarten students and I are inspired daily by the natural beauty of the school grounds of our PreK-3rd Grade elementary school and adjacent town conservation trails. 

Not far along one of the walking trails sits a vernal pool -- the first in a series of them, in fact. We visit this particular spot every 6-8 weeks to observe the changing of the seasons, learn about communities and habitats, and the wildlife that make their home in this truly magical place. Some animals are seen; some leave signs of their presence; others remain elusive throughout the year.

As the year progresses, our knowledge about vernal pools and their inhabitants grows. We use a schema chart with Post-its to record our thinking throughout the year, including our current and new learning, our misconceptions, and questions. Nature’s “cast of characters” inspired us in a new direction this year --writing poetry about them and painting their portraits in watercolors.

We began our poetry project by adopting a character. Each student researched their vernal pool community inhabitant and made a list of facts they had learned. After individually conferring about these facts, we gently -- ever so gently -- shaped them to take on a different form: poetry. Some Kindergarten poets chose to have their character do the talking, while others preferred to ask them questions. All are a lovely intermingling of science content knowledge and literacy learning. 

We’d like to introduce them to you now!

Thank you so much, Christie and students, for joining us today.  These poems are works of art are luscious, and if the critters and trees could read...they would surely feel honored.

Teachers - This is an exquisite example of tying poetry and art to science, and these young writers' poems would be magnificent mentor texts for other young writers studying habitats near to their own schoolyards.

In other happy news...  Many many congratulations to wise poet Irene Latham, winner of the 2016 International Literacy Association Lee Bennett Hopkins Promising Poet Award for her wonderful DEAR WANDERING WILDEBEEST!  Irene shared a bit of her revision process here in 2014, and I am so happy that her book - and her gifts - have been recognized with this generous award from Lee Bennett Hopkins.

Chelanne is hosting today's Poetry Friday party over at Books4Learning, and she offers a peek into Irene's book too.  Don't miss!  Each Friday, someone new hosts Poetry Friday, a listing of the week's poems and poetry ideas all around the blogosphere. All are always welcome to visit and share.  Happy Poetry Friday!

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.

Eating, Pretending, & Celebrating with Poet Irene Latham

Students - Welcome to a writing invitation from my friend, poet Irene Latham, someone who thoughtfully and joyfully spirits readers off to places near and far with just a few words.

Here she is.  Wave!  (Trust me; she is as kind and as wise as she looks.)

Learn More about Irene at her Website

Read More of Irene's Poems at her Blog, Live Your Poem

Irene has two new books out this spring.  Here is the first one you will not want to miss, published by Millbrook Press just last month.  If you have read DEAR WANDERING WILDEBEEST (and if you haven't yet, do), you will appreciate this second collaboration between Irene and illustrator Anna Wadham.

Available through IndieBound

But today, we will sink our teeth more deeply into last week's release, published by WordSong. This book of poems about foods from the farmers' market will delight you with feast-your-eyes imagery and mouth-watering metaphors. Irene is a grand chef, and words are her ingredients.

Available through IndieBound

In celebration of last week's's release, Irene has generously offered to share a writing exercise with all of us. So, take out your pencil or pen, your notebook, read, and then let Irene's voice speak to you as you write.

Welcome to Irene!

One of my favorite ways to approach any poem is to write it as a persona poem. Right away this allows me to be something I'm not, to be imaginative, and to experience empathy. It's a wonderful way to explore the world! In fact, the early drafts of FRESH DELICIOUS contained several persona poems – but in the editorial process it was determined that the “I” voice of a fruit or vegetable that's about to be eaten might be a little creepy/scary for young readers! So I rewrote or eliminated those poems. But YOU are welcome to write farmers' market persona poems. To begin, here are some questions you can ask your fruit or vegetable:

What do you look like?
What's your favorite part of the day?
Do you like it when the farmer visits?
Do you have other visitors? Who, or what?
How does it feel to be picked?
What kind of weather do you enjoy? 
What kind of weather do you dread?
Where to you live – in a row? On a vine? A bush?
Who are your neighbors and what are they like?
Do you know what's going to happen to you?
How do you feel about your purpose in life?
What are your memories?
What's your greatest desire?
What's in your heart?

And here is a poem that contains the answers I heard when I asked a muscadine (a kind of grape) some of those same questions. 

Memoirs of a Muscadine

When I was little
I was green and hard,
like a pea.

Now I'm plump
and juicy
and purple.

When I was little
I clung
close to the vine.

Now I reach
for the breeze
and tug at my stem.

When I was little
I didn't know
how to speak.

Now I pop! squish!
when I meet
your teeth.

- Irene Latham

And here is the poem that replaced the muscadine poem – and also, with just 7 words, holds the honor of being the shortest poem in the book!

From FRESH DELICIOUS: POEMS FROM THE FARMERS' MARKET

(Click to enlarge this image)

Basil

a bouquet
of minty
green
butterfly
wings

- Irene Latham

Thank you, Amy, for inviting me to the Poem Farm – a place that is as fresh and delicious as it gets. xo, Irene

So many thank yous to Irene for joining and feeding us today.  And gratitude, too, to WordSong, the publisher of FRESH DELICIOUS. WordSong has offered to give away a copy of Irene's new book to a commenter on this post, so please leave a few words below to be entered. I will draw a winning name this Friday, March 18.

If you happened to miss last Friday's post, you will want to visit HERE to read the poems by Mrs. Minton's fifth grade poets.

Please share a comment below if you wish.

Free Verse and a Visit from Irene Latham

Wet Leaves

Photo by Amy LV

Students - Today's poem is a quiet poem, and it is about the picture you see above, a picture I took just yesterday.  On my way into a school yesterday morning, after an 80 minute drive in the rainy dark, I emerged from my car to see these magical leaves, made even more magical by rain and morning sun.  

While part of me wished to hurry into school, another part of me said, "Stop, Amy. Take a picture of this.  You will want to remember this pretty scene, here where you least expected to find one."  I could have taken a picture with my mind.  I could have stopped to draw the scene.  Instead, yesterday, I took a photograph.  And here it is. In photo captured then and later, captured with the photo of words.

This is a quiet poem because this small still life gave me a quiet feeling inside.  So rather than focusing on rhyme-playfuness today, my poem focuses on focus - on looking carefully at one beautiful, surprise life-painting just left there in my busy path. If you have visited The Poem Farm before, you may know that I sometimes push myself to write free verse, unrhymed, poems. This moves me out of my comfortable home in rhyme and bouncy meter.

When you look around at the world, not at a screen and not at the busythoughts inside of your head, you will see beauty in many surprising places.  Each time I do, I feel tremendously lucky.

Speaking of lucky...

Today we are all lucky to welcome poet and novelist Irene Latham.  I invited Irene to share about revision and her newest book, DEAR WANDERING WILDEBEEST, a cool, informative, and beautifully written collection of poems about animals from the African grasslands. 

Available through

your Independent Bookseller

or through Amazon

Thank you, Amy, for inviting me to talk about revision! The Poem Farm is one of my favorite places to visit... so warm and inspiring!

Rarely have I written a poem that didn't go through extensive revisions. Simply changing one word in a poem constitutes a new draft... and often it is that one word that I can't imagine until it wakes me up in the middle of the night! I love watching a poem become more clearly what it was meant to be all along. One of the best ways to be able to “see” this is to allow a poem to rest between drafts. Just like bread, a poem needs a chance to breathe after it's been kneaded. Then you can come back to it and bake it to a nice golden-brown in your mind's oven.

I'm not sure a poem is ever really done, but at some point, we must stop and move on. I was revising the poems in DEAR WANDERING WILDEBEEST right up until we went to press. A litmus test that I use for myself when putting together a collection is this: if this poem is the only poem a reader ever reads out of this book, will I be satisfied with that? It took me a long time to find the “yes” to that question regarding the snake poem. It's kind of a tricky poem, as it includes all five snake species native to the African continent. That's asking a lot of a poem! Anyhow, here's the poem that appeared in the version of the book when it was first acquired by Millbrook Press:

Lifestyles of the Sleek and Sinuous

My name is Black Mamba.

Wanna chasssssssssssse?

            Boomslang, that's me.

            Welcome to my treehouse.

They call me Cape Cobra.

Seen any weaver birds lately?

            Saw-scaled Viper's my name.

            When I sizzle, you shake.

I go by Puff Adder.

Step on me, if you dare.

-------------------------

See how I tried to include in each couplet a quality unique to that particular kind of snake? That was a good approach, and I wanted to keep it. BUT. I wanted to employ more poetic techniques to really make this poem shine, so I kept at it.

Lifestyles of the Sleek and Sinuous

Black Mamba

races

chases.

            Boomslang

            h

              a

                  n

                        g

                            s.

Cape Cobra

herds

weaver birds.

            Saw-scaled Viper

            rubs, shrugs

            sizzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzles.

Puff Adder

hisses –

rarely misses.

----------------------------------

See how I kept some of the things that were working in the earlier version, but pared the poem AND amped up all the remaining word choices? I made sure there was rhyme in every couplet while still giving information unique to each snake. And now, yes, if this is the only poem you read out of DEAR WANDERING WILDEBEEST, I am satisfied that you've gotten a taste of what the rest of the book holds. No weakling poems allowed! The goal in a collection is to make each and every poem shiny enough to be the title poem. It's something to strive for, anyway. :)

Click to Enlarge this Spread from DEAR WANDERING WILDEBEEST

If you're reading this, and writing your own poems, be patient with yourself. Remember that we have millions of words to choose from, so endless variations are possible. Keep tinkering – that's where the joy is! And also, rest. You'll know when it's time to stop.

Thank you, Amy, for having me – and for all the ways you share the love of poetry with the world! xo

I am very grateful to Irene for joining us today here at The Poem Farm and also at Sharing Our Notebooks.  To peek into Irene's notebooks, head over there, peek away, and comment to be entered to win your own copy of DEAR WANDERING WILDEBEEST.

Renee is hosting today's Poetry Friday party over at No Water River.  All are welcome to join in, visit, share, and love poetry in her joyous space today.

Please share a comment below if you wish.

2013 Progressive Poem Begins Here!

Happy National Poetry Month!  

I welcome you to the 2013 Kidlitosphere Progressive Poem!

Last year, Irene Latham invited poetry-lovers to share in a progressive poem feast which she kicked off at her blog, Live Your Poem, on April 1, 2012.   Day-by-day, throughout April, different people took  turns hosting the growing poem, each adding one new line. Our poem gathered lines and stanzas, and on April 30, 2012, it was complete.  What fun it was to see the poem twist and turn and become, just as a poem by one person does.  I was fascinated each day to visit the next host...curious as to how each writer's heart would bend the meaning and sound.

Today I am very happy to have the opportunity to write the first line of the 2013 Kidlitosphere Progressive Poem.  On Irene's advice, I leave my line without punctuation - open and ready to fall into the arms of Joy Acey.

The first line of this year's poem, chosen to include sound and a hint at magic and memory is:

When you listen to your footsteps

It's yours now, Joy!

Please follow along, visiting each blog as this one line grows to thirty poem breaths, a community poem written by poetry friends old and new.

2013 Kidlitosphere Progressive Poem Schedule
Watch a poem grow day-by-day as it travels across the Kidlitosphere! April 1-30.

April

1  Amy Ludwig VanDerwater

2  Joy Acey

3  Matt Forrest Esenwine

4  Jone MacCulloch

5  Doraine Bennett

6  Gayle Krause

7  Janet Fagal

8  Julie Larios

9  Carrie Finison

10  Linda Baie

11  Margaret Simon

12  Linda Kulp

13  Catherine Johnson

14  Heidi Mordhorst

15  Mary Lee Hahn

16  Liz Steinglass

17  Renee LaTulippe

18  Penny Klostermann

19  Irene Latham

20  Buffy Silverman

21  Tabatha Yeatts

22  Laura Shovan

23  Joanna Marple

24  Katya Czaja

25  Diane Mayr

26  Robyn Hood Black

27  Ruth Hersey

28  Laura Purdie Salas

29  Denise Mortensen

30  April Halprin Wayland

To see day one of my personal April Poetry Project for this year, click here!

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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2012 Kidlitosphere Progressive Poem

Today I am excited to host the 2012 Kidlitosphere Progressive Poem, brainchild of Irene Latham at Live Your Poem...  Thank you, Irene, for inviting us all to a poem party!

This poem has been growing each day, one line at a time, traveling blog-to-blog, and deepening with each visit.  You can read the whole lineup of contributors in my sidebar (through the end of this month) or over at Irene's first post which introduced and kicked off this project. Each line was written by a different blogger who hosted the poem on his or her writing day. I only wrote a million lines before I finally picked one.

Having seen line breaks change as this poem moves from blog-to-blog, I did the same, knowing and expecting that it will change again...

If you are reading this
you must be hungry
Kick off your silver slippers
Come sit with us a spell

A hanky, here, now dry your tears
And fill your glass with wine
Now, pour. The parchment has secrets
Smells of a Moroccan market spill out.

You have come to the right place, just breathe in.
Honey, mint, cinnamon, sorrow. Now, breathe out
last week's dreams. Take a wish from the jar.
Inside, deep inside, is the answer...

Unfold it, and let us riddle it together,

...Strains of a waltz. How do frozen fingers play?
How do fennel, ginger, saffron blend in the tangine?
Like broken strangers bound by time, they sisterdance...
their veils of sorrow encircle, embrace

Feed your heart with waltzes and spices.


The last line is mine, and now I pass the wish jar to Lori at Habitual Rhymer where she will continue the unfolding.

If you have not yet taken a peek into Laura Shovan's notebook to see the evolution of her poem, April, please go and read her post at my other blog, Sharing Our Notebooks.  There is a giveaway on that post for her beautiful chapbook, MOUNTAIN, LOG, SALT, AND STONE.  Names will be drawn tomorrow!

Please share a comment below if you wish.

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