HELLO MY NAME IS - Day 16

Happy National Poetry Month!

(Feel free to search for poems in the sidebar or watch videos in the tab above.)

Hello, Poetry Friends! This month I am sharing poems written in the voice of Little Red Riding Hood, and I invite you to join me in writing in the voice of someone else too. You might choose a fairy tale character or a book character or a person from history or anyone else real or imagined. These are your poems, so you make the decisions. Each April day, I will share my poem and a little bit about writing poetry. Mostly, we’ll just be writing in short lines with good words and not worrying about rhyming. Meaning first. Our focus this month will be adopting the perspective of another…for 30 days. I invite you to join me in this project! To do so, simply:

1. Choose a character from fiction or history or somewhere else in the world of space and time, and commit to writing a daily poem in this person's voice for the 30 days of April 2025. You might even choose an animal.

2. Write a new poem for each day of April. Feel free to print and find inspiration from this idea sheet that I will be writing from all month long.

Teachers, if you wish to share any HELLO MY NAME IS... subjects or poems, please email them to me at the contact button above. I would love to read what your students write and learn from how they approach their own projects.

LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD'S POEMS SO FAR

April 1 - First Poem

April 2 - My Name

April 3 - Red

April 4 - Frank

April 5 - The Big Bad Wolf Had Been a Stray

April 6 - 8am on a Sunday

April 7 - Her Real Name is Orla Lola Bruin

April 8 - My Neighborhood

April 9 - Mushroom Hunters

April 10 - From Coat to Cloak

April 11 - Speaking of Coats

April 12 - Forgiveness is a Gift

April 13 - Here

April 14 - Running Home

April 15 - Nan's Apple Pie

And now for today!

Students - Today's how-to poem poured out of me. In my own life, I am thinking about building community and how sometimes just sharing food with neighbors and friends and even strangers (firefighters, teachers, librarians, police, nurses and doctors and med techs, suffering people) can make the world better. Nan knows this. Her instructions for baking pie weave back and forth from the technical steps of baking to more heart-full thoughts about love and care for others.

As I wrote, something interesting happened that happens on a somewhat frequent basis. I noticed that the poem I was writing matched the sound and repetition-feel of another poem. I paused mid-line to figure out which one.

Today's poem matches much of the meter of "Fort" from my book WITH MY HANDS: POEMS ABOUT MAKING THINGS. The reason for this is that last week I was fortunate to spend several days in Ohio schools, and I read "Fort" aloud a few times. Poem meters get into one's bloodstream like that. So let me recommend something to you. Find a poem that you like to read aloud. Read it aloud a few times a day, every day, for a week. Keep writing during this time. You may notice that the meter of the poem you have been reading seeps into your own writing. And if it doesn't, it may do so someday in the future when you don't even notice.

Poem "Fort" from Amy LV's book, WITH MY HANDS

Published by Clarion Books, 2018

Remember Nan's advice. Bake. Make things. Sing with joy as you do so. Share the works of your hands with the world. It matters. It really does. Your song is contagious, even when you don't realize it.

Thank you for joining me on this sixteenth day of HELLO MY NAME IS...

To learn about more National Poetry Month projects and all kinds of April goodness, visit Jama's Alphabet Soup where Jama has generously gathered this coming month's Kidlitosphere poetry happenings. And if you are interested in learning about or writing from any of my previous 14 National Poetry Month projects, you can find them here. Happy National Poetry Month!

xo,

Amy

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If you are under 13 years old, please only comment 

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HELLO MY NAME IS - Day 8

 Happy National Poetry Month!

(Feel free to search for poems in the sidebar or watch videos in the tab above.)

Hello, Poetry Friends! This month I am sharing poems written in the voice of Little Red Riding Hood, and I invite you to join me in writing in the voice of someone else too. You might choose a fairy tale character or a book character or a person from history or anyone else real or imagined. These are your poems, so you make the decisions. Each April day, I will share my poem and a little bit about writing poetry. Mostly, we’ll just be writing in short lines with good words and not worrying about rhyming. Meaning first. Our focus this month will be adopting the perspective of another…for 30 days. I invite you to join me in this project! To do so, simply:

1. Choose a character from fiction or history or somewhere else in the world of space and time, and commit to writing a daily poem in this person's voice for the 30 days of April 2025. You might even choose an animal.

2. Write a new poem for each day of April. Feel free to print and find inspiration from this idea sheet that I will be writing from all month long.

Teachers, if you wish to share any HELLO MY NAME IS... subjects or poems, please email them to me at the contact button above. I would love to read what your students write and learn from how they approach their own projects.

LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD'S POEMS SO FAR

April 1 - First Poem

April 2 - My Name

April 3 - Red

April 4 - Frank

April 5 - The Big Bad Wolf Had Been a Stray

April 6 - 8am on a Sunday

April 7 - Her Real Name is Orla Lola Bruin

And now for today!

Students - Today we learn a little bit about where Lou lives. I do not think that in a month's time we'll be able to meet everyone and learn their actual names or much about them, but at least we have a sense of Little Red Riding Hood's neighborhood. Did you know that all of these folks live near each other?

Today's verse leans very heavily on the double dactyl form. I do not follow all of the rules for a double dactyl today, only the meter...and it helped me! I adore playing with meters of different songs and poems, and writing in different rhythms and beats presses me into writing with different words and ideas.

Playing with meter today also made me very picky about which of Lou's neighbors to name today. Their names had to fit the double dactyl meter. I visited this His and Hers Bookclub blog post that lists nineteen fairy tale characters and chose from there.

Thank you for joining me on this eighth day of HELLO MY NAME IS...

To learn about more National Poetry Month projects and all kinds of April goodness, visit Jama's Alphabet Soup where Jama has generously gathered this coming month's Kidlitosphere poetry happenings. And if you are interested in learning about or writing from any of my previous 14 National Poetry Month projects, you can find them here. Happy National Poetry Month!

xo,

Amy

Please share a comment below if you wish.

Know that your comment will only appear after I approve it.

If you are under 13 years old, please only comment 

with a parent or as part of a group with your teacher.

Coaxing Poems 8: Tap it Out

Sweet greetings to you, my Poem Friends! Welcome to the eighth of ten poetry video visits here at The Poem Farm. In each of these short clips, I will share a small something about poetry, and you will always be able to find the poem(s) I read below the video. If you wish, you may watch the earlier videos linked below:

COAXING POEMS VISITS:

Visit 1: We Are Libraries

Visit 2: Eat the World

Visit 3: Make & Break a Pattern

Visit 4: Abacadabra!

Visit 5: Tell Us a Story

Visit 6: Give it Space

Visit 7: Choose a View

And now I am pleased to share Visit 8: Tap it Out:

Students - While most of this series has focused on meaning making in our poems, today's visit centers on sound. The sound of a beat, the tapping, the rhythm in our blood as we read and dance and move to a poem or song.

Spring Lions

by Amy LV

I love playing with meter, rhythm, and beat. One way I do this is by borrowing the meter of another poem or song and bringing my own ideas to it. Sometimes, when my writing is finished, I'll sing it...and sometimes I will just leave my lines as a poem, and no one will ever know that it is singable.

When I do this, I usually write out the poem or song that I am using as my "meter model," and count the syllables for each line, noting the number at the beginning or ending of each line. Then, this guides me in the writing of my own verse. Sometimes I copy the numbers down on a new blank page, right at the ends of where my own lines will go to help me write each line in the same rhythm as my model.

Then, as I write, line-by-line, I tap my fingers on the table or my shoulder and if my model is a song, I sing my poem to see if my words and syllables (and stresses, or the stronger or emphasized syllables) sound right.

On my notebook pages below, you can see where I have writen out a few little well-known tunes and their syllable counts.

Counting Song Syllables

Photo by Amy LV

You can try this same thing. It helps to start with a simple tune, matching each line of what you write to the sound of the tune you choose. It may even help to write your first meter-model poem together with a class, clapping and tapping syllables together. It can take a little while to get used to doing this, but once you start, you will find yourself tapping everywhere!

I often think about how wonderful it would be to be a musician and to invent new song rhythms, singing them along with new words, and I have been fortunate to have some friends who do this. Some of you have heard songs by my friends Barry Lane and Gart Westerhouse. These musicians write their own material and sometimes set the words of others to music too. It is an honor for me when they write music to my words, and in a way, it's the inside out process of what I do when I set poems to others' music. Here are a couple of pieces for you to enjoy by these friends. I share them with my gratitude to Gart and Barry:

Barry Lane sings THE SOUND OF KINDNESS, my latest book.

Gart Westerhouse plays piano and sings "In the Dark of Morning," a free verse poem shared here at The Poem Farm.

For those of you who are interested in music, you may wish to do this yourself - find some words (by you or another) and make a tune to go with them. If you play an instrument, experiment with bringing your instrument into the party too.

Thank you to Truman Elementary in Lackawanna, NY and Lindbergh Elementary in Kenmore, NY for the lovely visits this month. I am smiling away over here remembering our time together.

The final two Coaxing Poems videos will be up by month's end as once April begins, I will begin my (as yet unchosen) National Poetry Month Project.

Rose is hosting this week's Poetry Friday over at Imagine the Possibilities with a joyful nod to spring and its birds. Each Friday, all are invited to share poems, poem books, poetry ideas, and friendship in this open and welcoming poetry community.

May you tap your way through the week ahead!

xo,

Amy

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Know that your comment will only appear after I approve it.

If you are under 13 years old, please only comment 

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Lean on a Song & Welcome Guests

Sky After Poeming

Photo by Amy LV

Students - Can you believe that I took the above sky photograph just moments after writing this poem? Well, I did! This week has been so beautiful, so summery in Western New York.

Today's poem leans on the meter of the 1936 song "Dona Nobis Pacem" ("Grant Us Peace" in Latin). If you listen to the recording above, you will hear me read the poem and then sing it to the tune of the song. "Dona Nobis Pacem" lives in my mind this week as I have just joined a newly formed threshold choir (Raven's Call) here in Buffalo, NY, a small choir that will sing at the bedsides of seriously ill and dying people who wish for music. This is but one of the songs we are learning, and I am singing it to myself inside and outside.

I do like to think that this is a true equation: topic + structure + wordplay = poem. Sometimes I begin with a topic, sometimes a structure, sometimes some wordplay. Today, structure (the meter of "Dona Nobis Pacem") guided my way. This and my recent thoughts about how we speak to ourselves in our own minds. 

I've suggested this several times before, but here it is again. If you're not sure where to begin with a poem, choose a song you like and then write words that can fit in the lines perfectly (or well enough!) I like to count the syllables and then match syllables and stresses as perfectly as feels right.

HERE is a beautiful voice and piano recording of "Dona Nobis Pacem," a round that is often sung in three parts, here all sung by Julie Gaulke.

And NOW....is a happy honor to welcome Fourth Grade Teacher Cheryl Donnelly and her poets from Tioughnioga Riverside Academy in Whitney Point, NY who took on the April 24 HOURS Challenge. My goodness gracious! How this school takes poetry on. I was lucky enough to visit these writers in mid-May, and feel grateful to them and to Teacher Cheryl Donnelly and Intermediate Literacy Coordinator Dr. Kristie Miner for all of their joyful sharing.

Enjoy this joyful slideshow of poems, one poem from each poet, and know that each poet wrote many poems as part of their own 24 HOURS project, choosing a favorite for us here at The Poem Farm. Do take notice of the many different voices and poetic techniques these writers chose.

Click the three dots and ENTER FULL SCREEN to enlarge.

Thank you again to this poetic community from Tioughnioga Riverside Academy for joining us today.

Tricia is hosting this week's Poetry Friday roundup at The Miss Rumphius Effect. Each Friday, all are invited to share poems, poem books, poetry ideas, and friendship in this open and welcoming poetry community.

xo,

Amy

Please share a comment below if you wish.

Know that your comment will only appear after I approve it.

If you are under 13 years old, please only comment 

with a parent or as part of a group with your teacher.

Poetry Friday & Falling in Love with Meter

POETRY FRIDAY IS HERE! 

WELCOME!

Two Pen Cases

Photo by Amy LV

Students -  I fell in love with a meter last week.  Yep, I did.  I was home, just reading in this book...

Frost Collection

Photo by Amy LV

...and I came across this poem, Asking for Roses, by Robert Frost.  I read it quietly.  And then I read it out loud, just listening to the rolling rhythm. I loved the story, but I really loved the meter.

Asking for Roses - in the Public Domain

(Click to Enlarge)

Photo by Amy LV

And while I was at it, I fell in love with the rhyme scheme too.  I thought it was so NEAT that the word roses ended every single one of the six stanzas.  And that there were six rhymes for the word roses, each ending the second line of each stanza.  I took some notes about Frost's rhymes.

Frost's Rhymes

(Click to Enlarge)

Photo by Amy LV

Then I decided to try my hand at Frost's lovable meter, choosing first my six-times repeated word (writing!) and its associated rhymes.  I needed seven words that rhymed...seven words that could make sense together.  I visited RhymeZone to scout out rhymes, selecting the ones you see on my notebook page below. Honestly, at first, I did not think that the words below would work.  I worried that they would not sound forced.  But I pushed on.

Possible Rhymes

(Click to Enlarge)

Photo by Amy LV

I kept trying, kept writing, kept scribbling.  Below you can see that my writing process really does require significant crossing out, something I find much more comfortable with pen on paper.  Initial drafts for me need some serious black-pen-scribbling.

Poemscribbles

(Click to Enlarge)

Photo by Amy LV

As always, I read and listened, read and listened until I liked how the poem sounded.  Then I took it to my keyboard and continued revising a word here, a word there, over the course of a week.  And I am pretty happy.  My poem's meter learned from another poem's meter.  And I learned too.

It is true that you, too, can fall in love with a poem and a meter, just as I did with Frost's Asking for Roses.  I share a poem about this on the back cover of my new READ! READ! READ! (Wordsong), illustrated by Ryan O'Rourke, and released just this past Tuesday.

Back Cover Snip of READ! READ! READ!

Cookie by MamaSeuffertSweets

Read poems aloud often.  And talk about the different meters you admire with your writing friends. Experimenting with meter is a wondrous way to challenge ourselves.  Allow yourself to breathe in a meter you've never breathed in before, and you may just be surprised by the words that follow!

I am so happy to welcome author Caroline Starr Rose to my other blog, Sharing Our Notebooks this month. Please stop by to read her notebook poem, to peek into her notebooks, and to enter her book giveaway! And know...I seek student notebook sharers over there...please consider sharing!

It's my pleasure to host the Poetry Friday roundup here today.  If you wish to share the link to your poetry post, please do so below at the Inlinkz Link-Up, and I will be around to comment today and throughout the weekend.  

All visitors - we welcome everyone to this poemgathering every single week.  Anyone may read.  Anyone may comment.  Anyone may link in!  Happy Poetry Week ahead!

xo,

Amy

An InLinkz Link-up

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.

Day 26 - National Poetry Month 2015 - Sing That Poem!

Happy National Poetry Month!

Welcome to Day 26 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 Life's Door.  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.

Slice of Bookshelf

Photo by Amy LV

Students - As you may have figured out, I adore books.  In fact, my next poetry collection is titled READ! READ! READ! and will be illustrated by Ryan O'Rourke and published by Wordsong/Boyds Mills Press in the fall of 2017.  

Today I was thinking once again about how many places a book can take a person.  I remembered hearing Gary Paulsen tell a crowd how books helped him through difficulties in his childhood, and I know how different and good I feel when I am in the middle of a great book.  So this poem is just one more celebration of books!  

What do you wish to celebrate today?

Below you can see how I worked on the meter of this poem.  Each dot represents an unstressed syllable, and each slash represents a stressed syllable.  The straight up line shows where lines 3 and 4 each end, and the arrow indicates go back to the beginning.  This may help you puzzle out which tune matches today's words.

Meter Play

by Amy LV

Speaking of books and bookstores, today I am happy to welcome young poet Ada Bastedo, who shared her baseball poem at last Thursday's annual poetry reading at Monkey See, Monkey Do Bookstore in Clarence, NY.  I am always grateful to be a part of this beautiful and cozy evening, and too, I am thankful that Ada offered to share her poem here.  In the spirit of baseball and good sportsmanship, enjoy!

Monkey See, Monkey Do Bookstore

Photo by Amy LV

The Baseball Rules

When you are in a ballgame,

You should make it a fair play 

All throughout the innings

Even when it's not going your way.

When your turn is called

And you are up to bat, 

And you miss three swings.

Please oh please don't throw your hat

For alone in the dugout 

You will have to sit,

So try not to be tempted,

please don't throw a fit.

Just look at pro ballplayers,

When three strikes call them out.

They don't throw a hissy fit

Or cry, or yell, or pout. 

For when the game is over

You may leave in glory or shame,

But you will always want to hear

Your game was so well played. 

by Ada Bastedo, age 9

Warm wishes to all in this last week of National Poetry Month!  

Please share a comment below if you wish.

Day 19 - National Poetry Month 2015 - Sing That Poem!

National Poetry Month!

Welcome to Day 19 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 Small Wish.  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.

Singing Spices

by Amy LV

Students - Today's poem is all about meter.  It's simply a list of spices, and as my daughter Georgia said, as a poem it really doesn't stand on it's own.  But it is singable!

To find spices of varying syllables and stresses, I visited Wikipedia and kept scrolling up and down to find out which spices I'd choose from the spice rack of the Internet.

Wikipedia Spice List

I was sad to learn that salt is not a spice at all, and this fact sent me back to revision-land.

When I sang the poem, I learned that I had repeated "tarragon" a couple of times. In an earlier draft, I'd repeated "pepper" a couple of times. This was rather maddening.  Back to the singing board again and again I went.  This was a really good exercise...and tougher than I thought it would be.  I even had to look up how to pronounce tumeric!  

Just a Couple of Drafts

Photo by Amy LV

You might enjoy this writing exercise too.  Think of a category: arctic animals, frozen foods, clothing, anything at all.  Then, make or find a list of all of these things and see if you can sing them to a song.  It's actually quite good writing practice.  

To check yourself, ask someone else to sing the song.  That is how you'll really know if it works.

Here, from New Iberia, Louisiana, is Margaret Gibson Simon's student Emily Genest, singing her own poemsong at Reflections on the Teche.  Can you figure out the tune to Emily's funny words?

Teachers - You will not want to miss tonight's  #nctechat on Twitter!  Mary Lee Hahn and Janet Wong are hosting a chat all about poetry! You can read their blog post - "What is the Role of Poetry in Literacy Learning? - here.  If you are new to Twitter, you can learn about getting started at Edudemic.

Please share a comment below if you wish.

Day 6 - National Poetry Month 2015 - Sing That Poem!

Happy National Poetry Month!

Welcome to Day 6 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 Winterspring.  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.

Wyoming

Photo by Amy LV

Students - Today is April 6th, and this means that we have waltzed our way through one fifth of the poemsongs for this month.  I thought it would be a good idea to offer a tip for figuring out the tunes. This hint comes from how I write them.

Songs often have patterns, and these patterns are built from syllable counts per line and repeated words and repeated rhymes and other sounds.  To write these poemsongs, each day I begin with a song in mind. I choose a tune from the matching form or the list in the sidebar there to the left and then count out the number of syllables per line all the way through the song.

You can see an example of this below.  Look at the right hand side of my notebook, and you will see the syllables I've counted out for today's poem.  (The title is underneath that napkin in the upper left hand corner.  No peeking!)

Notebook Draft - Click to Enlarge

Amy LV

Sometimes I sing the original song with syllable counts instead of the words.  The first stanza of this song would sound like this:

1-2-3.
1-2-3-4.
1-2-3-4.
1-2-3-4.
1-2-3.
1-2-3-4.
1-2-3.
1-2-3.

Originally, I wrote today's verse out with these line breaks, to match what you see above in the handwritten draft.  See how the syllables in each line match what you see in my notebook and in the numbers I just wrote.

Sometimes, though, line breaks can be heard differently.  I looked up today's song, and I found that the lines actually break in a different way than I originally heard them, in the way you see below.  There are the same number of syllables as you see in my handwritten and longer version above, but this version has fewer, longer lines.  Check out the comparison.  Same numbers but different line breaks.

SYLLABLES I DECIDED UPON (Final Poem - Up Top)

1-2-3-4-5-6-7.

1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8.

1-2-3-4-5-6-7.

1-2-3-4-5-6.

MY FIRST DRAFT SYLLABLES (Longer Version - Just Above)

1-2-3.

1-2-3-4.

1-2-3-4.

1-2-3-4.

1-2-3.

1-2-3-4.

1-2-3.

1-2-3.

As poem writers, we always decide not only how we want our poems to sound, but also how we want our poems to look.  In this poemsong, I prefer the longer, fewer lines.  But often I try the same words a few different ways to see what feels, what looks best.

Can you sing the song yet?  If not, go to the matching form or sidebar song list and count out the syllables in the first few lines of each song. What matches what I counted above?  I try to stay quite true to the numbers so that these songs are easily singable.  It is a bit like a math puzzle, isn't it?

Oh, and that cute kitty?  That's Wyoming.  We found her at a county fair this summer, lost and crying in a thicket and covered in fleas.  We brought her home all snuggled in my green fleece and within a few weeks, we found her a wonderful home with a lady whose beloved "Sammy" cat had just died.  It was a beautiful pairing.

Many of my poems are about cats, and sometimes I write about longing for pets.  We do love animals around here....  Meow!

Please share a comment below if you wish.

Day 1 - National Poetry Month 2015 - Sing That Poem!

Happy National Poetry Month!

Welcome to This Year's Poem Farm Project!

Find the Complete April 2015 Poem and Song List in This Post!

(Introductory Poem - Sing this verse to the tune of Mairzy Doats!)

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.

This month at The Poem Farm, you will find a game called Sing That Poem! Every day I will post a new poem written to match the meter of a well-known song....but I'm not telling which song.  You can print the Sing That Poem! PDF below or just look at the song titles in the sidebar here to match each day's poem with the song it was inspired by.  I'll post a recording each next day with the answer to the previous day's poem/song match, and you can sing right along if you wish. My goal in this project is to stretch my writing muscles into new meters and to have some fun too. 

Find Your Printable Matching Form Here

Each day, I'll keep a running list below of the whole month's poem/songs in case you miss some or join us late.  I'm glad you're here.

SING THAT POEM! Answers

April 1 - Let's Play Ball - Words Here (Below) / Let's Play Ball - Tune Here

April 2 - Blue Soul - Words Here / Blue Soul - Tune Here

April 3 - At Night - Words Here / At Night - Tune Here

April 4 - Sharing - Words Here / Sharing - Tune Here

April 5 - Winterspring - Words Here / Winterspring - Tune Here

April 6 - I Will - Words Here / I Will - Tune Here

April 7 - Greefee Wumpa - Words Here / Greefee Wumpa - Tune Here

April 8 - Look - Words Here / Look - Tune Here

April 9 - There is a Poem - Words Here / Tune Here

April 10 - City Home - Words Here / City Home - Tune Here

April 11 - In the Harbor - Words Here / In the Harbor- Tune Here

April 12 - Ocean Writer & The Best Dog Words Here/ Both Poems Tune Here

April 13 - Painter - Words Here / Painter - Tune Here

April 14 - Librarian's Song - Words Here / Librarian's Song - Tune Here

April 15 - You and Me Words Here / You and Me - Tune Here

April 16 - Memories - Words Here / Tune Here

April 17 - Red Kite - Words Here / Tune Here 

April 18 - Small Wish - Words Here / Tune Here

April 19 - Spice Song - Words Here / Spice Song - Tune Here

April 20 - Still - Words Here / Tune Here

April 21 - Cool as You Are - Words Here / Cool as You Are - Tune Here

April 22 - Earth Day Song - Words Here / Earth Day Song - Tune Here

April 23 - I Want You To Know This Before My Party Words Here / Tune Here

April 24 - Rattlesnake, Rattlesnake Words Here / Rattlesnake, Rattlesnake - Tune Here

April 25 - Life's Door - Words Here / Life's Door - Tune Here

April 26 - In a Book - Words Here / In a Book - Tune Here

April 27 - Alone Outside - Words Here / Alone Outside / Tune Not Here Yet

Let's sing!

xo,

a.

Here it Comes!

by Amy LV

Students - Which song does this poem match?  You can look at the songs in the sidebar or on the Song Page to try to sing this one to different tunes.  I know you can figure it out.  And if not, I will sing it to you tomorrow!

You will notice that I am trying to incorporate the rhythm and rhyme patterns from well-known songs into my poems each day.  Sometimes I might change the line breaks, and I may not repeat every line and word in the exact same way that the model songs do.  However, I promise that my poems this month will be singable!  I really enjoy writing out the syllables for a known song and then counting out my poem's syllables, checking the beats and rhymes for singable-ness.

Why a baseball poem to start the month?  Well, here where I live in Western New York, the grass is starting to show after a long winter of snow.  That means that baseball season is soon.  Hooray!

If you are curious about previous Poem Farm projects during past Poetry Months, here's a little history of National Poetry Month here:

April 2010 - First month ever of The Poem Farm.  It was to be a 30 day project

April 2011 - A roundup of techniques from all of 2010 - TPF would stay online.

April 2012 - Dictionary Hike - Daily poems from A-Z from random words.

April 2013 - Drawing into Poems -A new daily drawing inspired some new poems.

April 2014 - Thrift Store Live - Daily poems grown from my own thrift store photos. 

April 2015 - Sing That Poem! - Matching song game to explore various meters.

You can learn details of all of the neat Poetry Month projects happening 'round the Kidlitosphere at Jama's Alphabet Soup. Jama has graciously rounded us all up again!  Have fun exploring, and happy April!

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