Drawing Into Poems - April 2013 Project

Welcome to my April 2013 National Poetry Month Project.  I began this blog for April 2010, when I wrote a poem each day of the month for the first time ever.  In 2011, I cataloged those poems for easy finding.  In April 2012, I took a Dictionary Hike, opening the dictionary from A-Z, writing a poem from a word beginning with every letter in the English language.

This year will be something different. My 2013 April poetry project will be called Drawing into Poems. Each day of this month, I will slow myself down, look closely at something, draw it, and take notes around my drawing. I'll photograph and share the drawing and notes here each day. From time-to-time, at least on Fridays, I'll share a poem inspired by my drawings and notes. The purpose of this project is to help me see more clearly and to help me linger on images.  My goal is not to become a great artist, but rather to become more in tune with my sight, more deeply connected with the world, more slow, more thoughtful.

I am not a person who has spent a lot of time drawing. Cartoons, yes....drawing by looking, no. It is not easy for me to see shadows or perspective or shapes.  But I believe that I can learn.  And the month of April is going to help...one day at a time.  This brief video clip (which I have watched tens of times) helps me believe that I can learn to draw, to see, to write better poems than I do now.

I chose this project because I have always wanted to learn to see better, to understand through seeing, to develop my own sensitivity.  Carolyn Lesser's poem, "Artists' Eyes", has always been one of my favorite poems. It ends like this:

Artists’ eyes and hearts and hands

Give us ourselves new again.

Give us our world new again.

Reminding, us once more,

That beauty is here.

Now.

A few people have mentioned joining this project, and I welcome everyone - children, teachers, poets, people who spend too much time looking at computer screens, anyone who wishes to just look, see, make marks, and be amazed.  Here are a few books I'll be bringing with me through the month, and I welcome you to read and learn with me.

Kerry Ruef

Available through The Private Eye


Hannah Hinchman

Available through Amazon


Danny Gregory

Shop Indie Bookstores


Frederick Franck

Shop Indie Bookstores


Betty Edwards

Shop Indie Bookstores

And here is my very first slow-down-and-sketch-and-write entry of the month.  

Day One - Pineapple

Students - One grand thing about drawing-while-you-look is that it helps you see so many things you would never notice before.  Your eyes slow down.  I am going to try to slow my eyes down all month....and this will help me see new ideas for poems, new ideas in surprising places.  Try it.  Look...and draw.  Slowly.

Today I am excited to be starting off the 2013 Kidlitosphere Progressive Poem! Please read the first line here today, and follow along each day of the month. Irene has once again gotten this warm and wonderful community project off the ground.

Laura Purdie Salas, over at Writing the World for Kids, is generously offering a Poem Starter video for each day of April.  Not only will this be a great way for students and teachers to learn about new books, it is also an opportunity to hear Laura read so beautifully and to receive a snip of inspiration for poems of our own.  Today she shares the first poem and a Poem Starter from my new book FOREST HAS A SONG.

For this year's Poetry Month, I am tickled to be Author-in-Residence over at ReaderKidZ. Over the next couple of weeks, you will be able to visit ReaderKidZ and read a bit about my writing and my life.

If you haven't yet checked the multitude of National Poetry Month projects in the Kidlitosphere, do visit Jama's Alphabet Soup where Jama has graciously rounded them up from poetry starter videos to poems each day to community projects and student sharing. Let the joy begin!

Please share a comment below if you wish.

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

Like The Poem Farm on Facebook for more poems, articles, and poemquotes!

Shell Teeth - THE PRIVATE EYE

A Sketch and Notes

by Amy LV

Students - Today's poem came from a drawing and a bit of thinking that came from the drawing.  Above, you can see a shell that I drew.  I was looking through a jewelers loupe, trying to draw as accurately as I could.  Then, I took a few notes about what the shell made me think about, what it reminded me of.  I asked myself the Questions from Kerry Ruef's book, THE PRIVATE EYE: What does it look like?  What else does it remind me of?  Why is it like that?  Why did it remind me of that?

A few days later, I came back to my sketch and notes and turned my initial interesting thought into the short verse atop this post.

Can you look at the notes and then follow the trail of drawing to writing to poem?

This process:  looking, drawing, thinking, writing, is very well articulated in THE PRIVATE EYE by Kerry Ruef.  I adore this book, and I am very excited about trying more of the ideas in here.  Science, art, and poetry are so tightly linked...and this book has a lot to teach me.  Author and founder of THE PRIVATE Kerry Ruef emphasizes, 

...the intellectual development that comes when kids (and adults) are nudged to press for 5 - 10 things “it reminds them of”. Repetition of the Questions — and a person’s answers — is what builds fluency and a habit for creative and critical work, poetry and beyond. People who are already highly associative and know instinctively how to put their associations to work don’t need the Questions, per se. But most people need those questions made conscious and succinct.  The questions work in concert for arousing associations, for exploring overlapping characteristics in associations, and for creating inferences, solving problems, and making theories out of their associations.  The Questions themselves act as magnifier, they cause the mind to keep looking as it makes associations/connections of all kinds. The Questioning sequence is actually the most important part of The Private Eye.

Today, if you're not sure what to write, try starting with drawing.  Look at something very closely.  Study it.  Draw its lines and edges and curves and leave its white spaces.  Then take some Private Eye notes.  Ask yourself the Questions: What does it look like?  What else does it remind me of?  Can I think of 5-10 things it reminds me of?  Why is it like that?  Why did it remind me of that?  Use these notes to help you begin a poem or a story or a piece of nonfiction. Your drawing will lead you.

Available through The Private Eye

Thank you to Irene Latham, my dear poetry friend who told me all about The Private Eye when she recommended it to me as a way to help children explore the forest with my new book.  When you see me soon with FOREST HAS A SONG, I'll likely have a jewelers loupe in my pocket!

Today's Poetry Friday roundup is brought to us by Heidi Mordhorst over at My Juicy Little Universe.  It's wonderful to have her back from her time away, and I encourage you to head on over and check out this week's poetry menu.

Please share a comment below if you wish.

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

Like The Poem Farm on Facebook for more poems, articles, and poemquotes!