Pinky Centimeter
Photo by Amy LV
Students - This poem was a lot of fun to write because even when I was a little girl, I loved the sound of centimeter, decimeter, meter, kilometer. Just those four words are a poem of their own! I grew up thinking in inches and feet, but I do remember learning about the metric system and will always remember that a centimeter is about the width of a finger. (If you are a child, your index finger may be a centimeter wide. My pinky is about a centimeter wide!)
I find it interesting that most people in the world measure using the metric system, while here, where I live in the United States, many do not. I love the idea of all people measuring length the same way, the idea of feeling connected by how we see our so-big, so-small world. My husband Mark is a science teacher, and he thinks in metrics. Maybe someday I will too.
You may have noticed the funny line breaks in the last three lines of this verse. Sometimes I play with the way lines break up, but only if it will further the meaning of the poem. In this case, the way the words move far away from each other mirrors the way that people live far from each other, in many different countries.
'Meter Stick', along with 217 other poems by many, many poets appears in the brand new book, THE POETRY FRIDAY ANTHOLOGY FOR SCIENCE, compiled by Sylvia Vardell and Janet Wong of Pomelo Books and the POETRY FRIDAY ANTHOLOGY series fame. The larger K-5 Teacher's Edition, also available for Kindle, includes a variety of literacy and science activities, and the smaller editions are illustrated and grade specific, just right for little hands.
Stay tuned for April, when I will be giving away a copy of this book each week. (Thank you, Sylvia and Janet!)
THE POETRY FRIDAY ANTHOLOGY FOR SCIENCE
This has been a very exciting week at The Poem Farm! Some of you may have read that on Monday, my first book, FOREST HAS A SONG, won the 2014 Golden Kite Honor Book Award for Picture Book Text, given by the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators. I was surprised and honored and decided to celebrate by offering a giveaway of ten copies of FOREST to one person who could think of people who might like them. Today I am happy to announce that the winner of this giveaway is....Janet! Janet - Please send me an e-mail here with your snail mail address as well as a list of names to whom you would like me to sign the books, and I will get them in the mail this week.
In other exciting news, with gratitude to talented web designer Donna Farrell, I invite you to visit my fresh new website over at www.amyludwigvanderwater.com. On the home page, you can peek at a video of LeVar Burton from Reading Rainbow reading four poems, including one of mine, from I AM THE BOOK by Lee Bennett Hopkins.
Margaret is hosting today's Poetry Friday party over at Reflections on the Teche! Head on over and join us at the table of this week's poetry goodness. We Poetry Friday friends invite everyone to join us, poke around, and share your own links too!
Please share a comment below if you wish.
