To My Kitten - A Poem Can Be About Two Things

Hercules

Photo by Georgia VanDerwater

Students - Our family is fostering kittens right now, something we love to do and yet have not done in a couple of years.  This means that we are taking care of kittens and their mamas until we can find homes for the kittens. Once we find homes for all kittens, we will give their mamas back to their owners.

It fills us with a lot of joy to watch these little ones grow up.  But it's always a wee bit sad too, because we want to keep them all with us.  

Eliza's Kittens (Eliza is eating!)

Photo by Amy LV

Mamacita and Her Roaming Kittens

Photo by Amy LV (with kitten on right foot)

As I wrote today's poem about these sweet kittens growing up and finding new places to live, growing into big new lives, I realized that I might also be writing about our daughter who graduates from high school this month and will soon be off to New York City for college.  Do you think that a poem can be about two things at the same time? (I do.)

Pay attention to your brain as you write. Sometimes you may think you are writing about one subject, and your brain or heart is thinking about another subject at the exact same time.  Please let me know if this happens to you!

I am thrilled to share that Linda Rief has opened her gorgeous notebooks this week at Sharing Our Notebooks.  That blog is back up and going again, so please visit and leave a comment to be entered into a giveaway of one of Linda's books.  You can find all kinds of notebook inspiration over there!

Mary Lee is hosting today's Poetry Friday roundup over at A Year of Reading with wonderful story poem.  All are always welcome at these weekly gatherings of poetry and friendship.

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.

Sometimes A Poem Needs a Friend: Write a Poem for a Poem

On Tuesday, this book, edited by Kenn Nesbitt, illustrated by Christoph Niemann,
and published by Little Brown Books for Young Readers will be born.
It is chock full of all kinds of poems and spare, whimsical pictures.

Available at Your Local Book Shop

I am so happy to have a poem in this collection. You can read it here.

(Click to Enlarge)



A friend read an early copy and asked,
"How much of 'Our Kittens' was taken from real life?"

I love questions like this one.

Q:  How much of "Our Kittens" was taken from real life?
A:  All of it!

"Our Kittens" is a true story from our family, and it happened about two years ago.
Considering my friend's question, I realized that my poem needed a friend poem.
It needed the other point of view.
And so I wrote a poem in the voice of Fiona, that last kitten from "Our Kittens."

Fiona
Photo by Hope VanDerwater

Students - Sometimes a poem needs a friend poem.  This week when I got my own copy of ONE MINUTE TILL BEDTIME, and when I thought about my friend's question, I realized that there was more to this story. And so I wrote "My Boy," the poem I imagine our sweet Fiona really would write for Henry if only she could hold a pencil.

At twelve years old, Henry really did read books to a frightened tiny Fiona, and he helped her trust him and helped her trust the world again.  Now she seeks him out, snuggles him, touches his face with her paw. Fiona loves Henry.  And he loves her.

Sometimes an image stays in your mind for a long time.  The image of my boy reading to a lost creature is one of my favorites, and honestly...I think it's been rattling around in my heart, just waiting to find a home in a poem.

Sometimes a poem needs a friend poem.  Sometimes an image you've carried for years finds you when you are writing.

Creating is funny like that.  We never know...so we must just keep at it.

On this thread of creating, I am thrilled to welcome artist and art teacher Tim Needles to Sharing Our Notebooks this month.  I've admired his work on Twitter for a while, and it's a delight to peek into his fabulous notebooks and to learn about his faith in process.  Don't miss - and please leave a comment to be entered into a book giveaway.

Halloween is Monday, and Election Day is on the horizon.  If you have not noticed, I have placed poems to go with each in the left sidebar here. Enjoy!

This week, Linda is hosting the Poetry Friday extravaganza over at TeacherDance.  So waltz, fox trot, or tango on over and enjoy the good fun and good people.  All are always welcome to read, comment, and link on in.  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.

One - A Sad and Happy Cat Day

Little Wilbur

Photo by Amy LV

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

Students - Friday was a sad day and a happy day.  The sad part was that kittenWilbur died. He was the runt of Freya's litter, and he lived for six weeks. We'd named him after Wilbur from CHARLOTTE'S WEB, in the hopes that he too would survive.  But it was not to be. We tucked Wilbur's body into a tiny box, and in the rain, Mark buried him in our little graveyard underneath the pear tree.

The saddest picture we've had here at our farm in a long time is the picture of mother Freya licking her little Wilbur, trying bring him back to life.  Writing today's poem helped me to do something with the teary feelings   I held in my heart that night.

The happy news was that Phoebe (Freya's sister), who had two dark gray kittens as of Friday morning, gave birth to two more (sandy and orange) on Friday!  This was a complete surprise as we did not know cats could do that.  The four new babies are doing well, and the three (six week) old kittens are now ready for homes.

Update on May 14, 2013 - Third grade teacher Jennifer Wright and her students read this poem and allowed it to inspire their own heartfelt and honest poems of loss.  Jennifer explains her lesson and shares some very beautiful poems at her wise blog, Teaching Simplicity. 

Phoebe and Her Four Kittens

Photo by Amy LV

Today I bring you two poems by student friends.  The first is by fifth grader Grace McCormick, who some of you remember from Sharing Our Notebooks.  Her class decorated their door to match FOREST HAS A SONG cover, and Grace's poem was written on one of the leaves.  This joyful verse celebrates red boots, something the girl in my book wears on many many pages.

Red Boots

by Grace McCormick

Dakota's poem comes to us from Silver Star School in Vancouver, Washington.  School librarian Ms. Mac from Check It Out always invites anyone who wishes to request a poem postcard in April with a poem written by a student in her school.  I was lucky enough to receive this powerful one.

by Dakota M.

Thank you, young poets, for sharing your poems with all of us!  We are very grateful.

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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Moon Mama and a Poem about Writing

Phoebe and Her Two New Kittens (Born Wednesday!)
Photo by Georgia LV

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

Students - Today's poem grew from a real farm happening this week.  We foster kittens here, but we've never had kittens born here because we have our own cats spayed and neutered.  Well, we were fostering a pregnant mother, Phoebe, and it was such fun to wait for her kittens.  On Wednesday, they were born...two tiny snugglers.  

In writing today's poem, I wanted to honor Phoebe and her sister, Freya, who is taking care of four kittens of her own up in our barn.  After all, Sunday is Mother's Day!

Freya and Her Four Kittens

Photo by Georgia LV

So, I just began writing and writing, and the whole poem shaped itself around the idea of the moon.  I loved that image.  Then, on purpose, I repeated words: kitten, treasure, moon, snuggle.  What was the hardest part of writing this poem?  The ending!  I believe it took me as long to write the last line as it took to write the whole rest of the poem.  Sometimes writing is like that, but having faith that your hard work and persistence and willingness to wait for just-the-right-words, often gives you just the line you wish for.

Four of Freya's kittens are ready to be adopted right now, so if you are interested, please drop me a line to my e-mail address at amy at amylv dot com or leave a message in the comments.  We are in the Buffalo, NY area.  Here's a bigger picture of them for you to see!

Happy Mother's Day to all moms and teachers and friends of children everywhere!  And children, a poem for your mother is a splendid gift!

Hope and Kittens

L-R: Tundra, Guinevere, Wilbur, and Otter

Photo by Amy LV

Today I am very grateful to welcome kindergarten teacher Nicole DiBattisto and her students from Quest Elementary in Hilton, NY.  Last week, I had the good fortune to visit Quest as a visiting author.  I know many of the teachers at Quest from writing workshops, and it was a delight to see them again.  Librarian Stephanie Harney had students share poems in their pockets (and in her husband's shirt pockets), and the day was full of festive poem fun! 

Nicole's young students wrote a poem about writing poems, and I had the chance to read it. After being charmed by their words, of course I asked if Nicole would be willing to share here.  She was, and so I welcome Nicole and her poets to The Poem Farm today! 

Isabella, Tessa, and Madison 

Photo by Nicole DiBattisto

Write A Poem

by Mrs. DiBattisto's Class

Look at the world in a different way.

Look through your heart.

Write.

Break the rule

use white space

Wow how cool.

Sometimes a poem is long.

Sometimes a poem is short.

Maybe it will have a song.

Maybe it will repeat.

Maybe it will rhyme.

Write a poem...

anytime.

This how it all came about:

1.      I threw out the idea of writing a poem about poems.

2.      We started talking about what we knew about poetry and how to craft a poem.

3.      Kids started saying what they knew.

4.      I typed their words.

5.      We looked and read  what we had and moved things around, added some, and took things out.

6.      I guided the students to think about how we could include what we know about poems into the actual poem.

7.      We added some rhymes, noticed that we already had repetition and white space.

8.      We read it a few times and decided we liked it the way it was.

And there it is!  An absolutely delightful how-to poem about writing.  Thank you so much to this class and to Nicole for sharing this poem and their process with us today.  I imagine that many many students will be reading it for inspiration for their own poetry.

I would also like to extend a special thank you to teacher Joe Long and his fifth graders at Iroquois Intermediate in Elma, NY, for surprising me with their beautiful classroom door decorated as the cover of FOREST HAS A SONG.  Around the edges of this door, you see leaves filled with poems - theirs and mine.  Illustrator Robbin Gourley (I sent the photo to her right away) and I were simply tickled.

Door Decorated by Fifth Graders and Teacher Joe Long

Iroquois Intermediate

Photo by Amy LV

Anastasia is hosting today's Poetry Friday roundup over at her poetry blog.  Visit her place to check out what is happening in the poetic Kidlitosphere today!

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!