Finding Questions and Wonders with Jeannine Atkins

Winter Chickadee

Photo by Amy LV

Students - Today's poem came from my own wonders about migrating birds (How do they KNOW?) and from the birds we see in our yard each winter. Today I share a questioning nature poem - from Chickadee's point of view - in honor of our special guest, a poet I admire so deeply.

Jeannine Atkins

Photo from www.jeannineatkins.com

It is my absolute honor to welcome Jeannine Atkins, author of, among other books, BORROWED NAMES, LITTLE WOMAN IN BLUE, VIEWS FROM A WINDOW SEAT, and her latest...gorgeous...FINDING WONDERS.  Stay tuned for her forthcoming STONE MIRRORS (later this month) but today, please enjoy Jeannine's words about FINDING WONDERS, a book that has received stars from both Booklist and The Bulletin of the Center of Children's Books, a book that has been named a Book that Makes a Difference by The Horn Book, a book that has made me cry and cheer out loud.

I asked Jeannine, "Do you feel that you BECOME these girls when you write about them?"

She answered, Yes, there is some sense of channeling, of reading enough and getting the details till I feel like I have a special key.

Welcome, Jeannine!  Please tell us about this latest book.

Available at Your Local Bookshop

Finding Wonders is about three girls who were born in earlier centuries and whose lives focused on the close looking needed in science. Poems often begin with close looking, too. I want to see past words, which sometimes seem in the way, to what’s in front of my eyes.

A Room in the Queen’s Gallery in London

Honoring the Plants and tools Maria Merian Worked with 

after Sailing from Europe to South America in 1699

Photo by Jeannine Atkins

Maria Sibylla Merian grew up helping her stepfather in his studio and learning to paint. She loved the colors of butterflies, moths, and flowers, but she was even more fascinated to watch how a small animal changed, from a caterpillar or silkworm to a chrysalis or cocoon, then to a butterfly or moth. Maria Merian’s paintings had to be still, but sometimes she painted all the stages of a life in one picture.

Maria Sibylla Merian’s Work on Display

in the Queen’s Gallery in London

Photo by Jeannine Atkins

To write some poems, I also wanted to show these small creatures in motion. I watched videos of silkworms spinning sticky silk around themselves, and weeks later, breaking open the cocoon. I wrote metaphors comparing the spinning to dancing and twirling a spoon around a cake to frost it.

Can you watch an action, such as a caterpillar crawling up grass or a spider making a web? Try comparing the motion to something from your own life.

Writing about Mary Anning, the first person to make a living selling fossils, meant I had to imagine her life, back before there was a word for “dinosaur.” In my mind’s eye, I saw Mary walking down the beach, picking up what she called curiosities. These stones with an impression of plants or animals are what we call fossils. I wrote about the questions these stones might have raised in her mind.

Trilobites and Ammonites 

Such as those Mary Anning Collected

Photo by Jeannine Atkins

Choose a scientist from the past to write a poem about. What do you know now that she or he wouldn’t know then? Can you write a poem as a conversation between you and this scientist, speaking about something now known that wasn’t known long ago?

Thank you so much to Jeannine for joining us here this week...and we are even luckier still because Jeannine is offering a giveaway of one signed copy of her book to a commenter on this post.  The winner will be posted in this same space next Friday, January 13, so please leave your comment by Thursday evening, January 12.

For more about FINDING WONDERS, visit here:

Doraine Bennett's post at Dori Reads, November 18, 2016
Linda Mitchell's post at A Word Edgewise, January 6, 2016

Linda is hosting today's Poetry Friday roundup over at TeacherDance.  Head on over and join the poetry joy.  All are always welcome.

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.

"Once Somebody Asked Me" - Beginning With a Line

Choosing Water
Photo by Amy LV

Students - Yesterday, I went to the big Buffalo library and very much enjoyed reading David Elliott's book illustrated by Holly Meade, IN THE SEA.

Shop Indie Bound

Perhaps this is why I wrote about the sea yesterday.  Or maybe it is because we had the good fortune to have Allan Wolf stay at our home this month, and he acted out some poems from his fabulous book-in-many-voices, THE WATCH THAT ENDS THE NIGHT: VOICES FROM THE TITANIC.

Shop Indie Bound

Or perhaps it was just time for me to - once more - feel fascinated by the fact that a human being has never seen a live giant squid (though they have been recorded).  

It could be that this week of coldcoldcold weather has me dreaming of the ocean.  I do not know the reason why this poem appeared yesterday.  But as soon as I wrote the first line, "Once somebody told me..." I just followed the line on and on until the end.  

It can be interesting to take a line from someone else's poem, sometimes a first line, and follow it for yourself, creating a whole new poem from the same first few words as someone else.  You might wish to try this strategy if ever you feel stuck for an idea.  You could try my line, "Once somebody asked me..." or you might choose a line from a poem you have always loved or a poem you just open up to in a book right now.  It is always good to have a multituide of ways to get writing, even when it seems tough to begin.  

In giveaway news: Margaret Simon is the winner of last week's giveaway of Jeannine Atkins' beautiful, autographed book VIEWS FROM A WINDOW SEAT: THOUGHTS ON WRITING AND LIFE.  Margaret, please just drop me a line at amy at amylv dot com with your address, and I will mail your book next week.

Tricia is hosting today's Poetry Friday extravaganza over at The Miss Rumphius Effect, so you can head on over to her place to see what's brewing poetry-wise all around the Kidlitosphere this week. And do not miss her delightful book review and interview with Joan Bransfield Graham from yesterday.  And while you're there, scroll on back to check out some of Tricia's "Poetry Stretches", her regular Monday feature inviting writers to work their poetry muscles.

Happy Poetry Friday to one and all!

Please share a comment below if you wish.

Secrets, Buttons, and a Giveaway!

Remembering

by Amy LV

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

Students - The snow poems are blowing through my mind these days.  It is COLD here in Western New York, and this morning as I carried wood from the woodpile to our hearth inside, I looked at all of the twinkly diamonds in the morning light.  I knew that a snow poem was in my near future.

Sometimes reading poems by other people can help get my poem mind moving, and this morning, I visited Tricia's The Miss Rumphius Effect to fill my heart with poems.  It was a treat to read the different poems using anaphora, a technique I plan to experiment with this weekend.  I recommend that you check out Tricia's site too, as she offes "Poetry Stretches" each Monday with various exercises for poets to try.

This poem is, in a way about the water cycle, and a way about magic.  For although snowflakes were once ocean drops and ocean drops were likely snowflakes, I know that they do not hold these memories.  Again, this blending of true and whimsy is the tightrope I most love to walk.  Also, stories.  Things within things.  Surprise at what lies beyond.  These are areas I love to explore in poetry.  What do you love to explore with your writing?  The only way to find out is to write lots and lots.

Today I am excited to offer a giveaway of a beautiful, thoughtful gift.  Jeannine Atkins, author of BORROWED NAMES and other books, as well as blogger at Views from a Window Seat sent me a package this week including some magnificent buttons and stories for my charm string (see sidebar) and an autographed copy of her inspiring book (you will want to buy it if you do not win it), VIEWS FROM A WINDOW SEAT: THOUGHTS ON WRITING AND LIFE.  As I already own this book, she said that I could offer it to a reader and commenter on this post.  So....please just leave a comment to be considered, and I will draw a name next Thursday evening, to be announced next Poetry Friday.

Book and Buttons from Jeannine Atkins
Photo by Amy LV

Don't miss Lee Ann Spillane's fabulous notebook post over at my other blog, Sharing Our Notebooks...you will be amazed.  This Sunday, I will draw one commenter's name to win a copy of her e-book, READING AMPLIFIED.

Tara is hosting this week's Poetry Friday fun over at A Teaching Life along with her new kitty, Gepetto!  Please visit her place for the buffet of links to everything poetry in the Kidlitosphere this week. And if you'd like to link your own post in, please join us.

Please share a comment below if you wish.