True Story - Poems Can Tell Stories

 Parakeet and Sparrows

by Amy LV

Students - This story is true, just as the title says!  Earlier this fall, I was visiting a different neighborhood and saw a parakeet hanging out with a flock of sparrows.  It was one of the most magical and curious things that I have ever seen, and sometimes I catch myself still wondering how the parakeet came to join those sparrows.

Poems can tell stories, and today's poem does tell a story, a true one.  Sometimes when I sit to write, I think about stories I love to tell, stories I love to remember and think about.  Sometimes, as in my poem Ketchup Man,  I make stories up. Sometimes, as in my poem After the Wedding, I write a story poem inspired by a fairy tale. And sometimes, as in my poem Luigi del Bianco, a story poem idea comes from a moment in history.

When we write stories or story poems, we can choose the person who will tell the story.  Today's poem is in the person's voice, but I could write it again in the parakeet's voice or in a sparrow's voice.  Maybe I will try this.

But today I started with the words:

Let me tell you a story....

I didn't keep these words in the poem, but they got me started.

You might try this should you ever feel a little unsure of what to write.  Just start with, Let me tell you a story...

Today's poem has a rather steady meter, so I did a lot of reading aloud and tapping as I wrote.  And as is often the case, the ending was the trickiest part.  I wrote and rewrote so many endings.  None of them included the reference to the expression, Birds of a feather flock together until this last one.  It just felt right.  Sometimes you know.

This week, over at Sharing Our Notebooks, I am thrilled to welcome teacher, literacy coach, author, and founder of Book Love...Penny Kittle!  Please check out her notebooks, the great exercise she offers us, and leave a comment to be entered into a book giveaway.

I very much look forward to attending and presenting next week at the 2014 NCTE Convention.  I am honored to be on a panel with Irene Latham, Ann Marie Corgill, Katie DiCesare, and Kathy Collins.  I am grateful to be on the NCTE Award for Excellence in Poetry for Children committee and excited to be on that panel and to announce the next NCTE Poetry Award winner.  Too, I will host a table at the Chidren's Literature Luncheon as FOREST HAS A SONG is a 2014 CLA/NCTE Notable book.  Most of all, I can't wait to see many friends, new and old.

Keri is hosting today's Poetry Friday celebration over at Keri Recommends.  Stop on by and enjoy all of the poetry offerings in the Kidlitosphere today.

Please share a comment below if you wish.

I'll Never....in Las Vegas for NCTE12

I'll Never Have a Lion for a Pet

Photo by Amy LV

 

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

Students - Today's poem started in a funny way.  The other day I got thinking about knitting a sweater for a starfish and how difficult it would be for a starfish to wear a sweater.  How would she put it on?  This is a funny problem, and one I will never solve.  That whole idea made me think about the many things that I will never do, and the result is this list poem.  (Tip: Hang onto those funny thoughts that cross your mind.  You never know when you will need them!)

Today's poem is dedicated to Moira and her classmates in Ann Marie Corgill's second grade class at Cherokee Bend Elementary School in Mountain Brook, Alabama.  Yesterday, Moira posted a beautiful poem about her class to her Kidblog, celebrating their caring and loving community.  Ann Marie is my roommate this week at NCTE, and I was lucky enough to hear her read Moira's poem.  When I realized that my poem was about friendship, I knew it was for "the Corgill kids."

Ann Marie Corgill is the author of one of my favorite professional books, OF PRIMARY IMPORTANCE.  If you are a primary teacher, you will not want to miss this gem!

Available through Stenhouse

Keep watching this space for poetry by Moira and her classmates.  Soon they will write a Poetry Peek for The Poem Farm, and I am already looking forward to that day.

Greetings from NCTE12!  It is such fun to be here in Las Vegas this week, learning from inspiring and wise souls.  Last evening, Natalie Merchant serenaded us with her beautiful album, LEAVE YOUR SLEEP, classic children's poems set to music.  It was simply enchanting, and I highly recommend the CD.  You can check out the book trailer below.  I cannot wait to get my hands on this one - it just came out a couple of days ago...

In case you did not see it on The Poem Farm Facebook page, Kate Messner and Joanne Levy are coordinating KidLitCares, a relief effort for victims of Hurricane Sandy, and I have offered two books and a Skype visit as an auction item.  Please visit here for my offering and here for all of the offerings, from Skype visits to signed books to manuscript critiques.  All money goes to help those who need a little assistance in the wake of Sandy.

It is an honor to be a peanut-butter-loving-visitor to Jama Rattigan's blog today, Jama's Alphabet Soup.  Today I join Irene Latham, Douglas Florian, and Charles Waters in sharing a peanut butter poem for National Peanut Butter Month.   My poem, is about something else I'll never do, and it is perfect for this week. I packed peanut butter and homemade raspberry jam into my suitcase for breakfasts in Vegas!

I am still away...working on a new project this month, but I have truly missed Poetry Friday, so I will try to continue Friday posts.

Anastasia is hosting today's Poetry Friday over at Booktalking.  Visit her space to find out about everything happening around poetry town this week.

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!

Can You Spot the Differences?

If you are a new visitor to The Poem Farm, via NCTE or elsewhere, I welcome you!  This blog began back in 2010, when I decided to write and post a new children's poem and mini lesson each day for a year. It was such fun that I continued on posting regularly, usually 3 poems and lessons per week. The archives of The Poem Farm are searchable (above) by both technique and topic, and I welcome students and teachers to share their own work too.

Thank you for visiting!

-Amy

Mark & Hope...Years Ago

Photo by Amy LV

Students - I found this old poem today, and I at first was going to just share it with you.  Then, reading it over and over again, I realized, "I can make this better."  It's an old poem, maybe from 2002, and seeing it ten years later gave me some perspective.

Below you can read the poem both ways, and then talk with a partner about what you notice is different.  Which do you think is better?  It is important for writers to revisit our work, to always ask, "How can I make this better?"  Maybe I will revise this poem again in 2022!

2002

2012

Today's poem is about a place I love.  I often write about favorite places because when you write about a favorite place, you get to keep that place with you forever...in words.  This is really just a little list poem about some of my favorite things at the shore, and I wanted the poem to have a little of a back and forth feeling, just like the tide.  Did you notice that the first two and last two lines of this poem are the same?  It's a circle poem!

I am still away...working on a new project this month, but I wanted to swing by with a little poem that is making me smile at this chilly time of year.  Here in WNY, the snowflakes are just starting to fly, just a wee bit, and this makes me think of the shore.

If you will be at NCTE this week, please know do visit our Poetry Panel, full of Poetry Friday friends, as we celebrate Poetry Friday and THE POETRY FRIDAY ANTHOLOGY!

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!

Fly with Sparrows & a Hawk - Poem #238

Sparrows & Hawk

by Amy LV

The other day I was sitting on a Florida sidewalk with my little notebook open on my lap, wondering what to write.  I looked up as one looks in the refrigerator to find better food than was in the refrigerator last time, and I saw a big bird coasting on the winds.  Seeing that big bird all alone made me wonder if s/he was lonely and it made me think about how sometimes crows and other small birds chase and harass hawks away.  My husband, a science teacher, has pointed this out to us several times.  

Students - we don't have to know what to write before we get started.  Half of writing is having an openness to what is before us, listening always, ready to accept a poem or a story when it sails by.  This is why it is important to have quiet spaces both in and around us.  

At NCTE on Saturday, artist David Diaz (illustrator of 2009 poetry book SHARING THE SEASONS edited by Lee Bennett Hopkins) spoke about this idea of "percolating".  In a session about creating art, he remarked, "Part of the process is not working...any given day, there may be 3-4 hours in the garden.  It (the work) is always there...Work in the garden is work because then you're thinking about it."

While at NCTE, I also had the opportunity to attend a wonderful session on Friday titled "Poets and Bloggers Unite" with poets Sylvia Vardell (Poetry for Children), Elaine Magliaro (Wild Rose Reader), and Tricia Stohr-Hunt (The Miss Rumphius Effect) along with poets Lee Bennett Hopkins, Pat Mora, Marilyn Singer, and Jame Richards.  

The bloggers, who have been featuring the poets for a few weeks and will continue to do so this week, explained the purposes of their blogs, and the poets talked about their writing.  Many ideas were tossed up such as: finding ways to make blogs more interactive, sharing more podcasts and videos of poets reading their work (Sylvia was taping all along, and I look forward to seeing the footage on her blog!), the importance of poetry across the content areas, how much it matters for teachers to write alongside our students, and the need to explore all types of poetry, not only funny poems.

Toward the end of the session, Pat Mora reminded us how lucky we all are, calling her work as a writer "privileged work" and acknowledging that as we had this opportunity to talk about words, others were making our hotel beds and taking care of our needs.

We were also treated to readings from each of the poets' books: Jame's THREE RIVERS RISING (a novel in verse about the Johnstown flood), Pat Mora's DIZZY IN YOUR EYES: POEMS ABOUT LOVE (love poems for teens, highlighting various forms), Marilyn Singer's MIRROR, MIRROR: A  (fairy tale reversos, a form Marilyn invented), and Lee Bennett Hopkins's BEEN TO YESTERDAYS (Lee's award-winning autobiographical poems).

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Many congratulations to J. Patrick Lewis, winner of the 2011 NCTE Award for Excellence in Poetry for Children for his body of work!  You can read more about this at Poetry for Children or Wild Rose Reader.  And if you feel like a poetry stretch for yourself this week, head on over to The Miss Rumphius Effect where Tricia has posted a new one!

I will list this year's NCTE Poetry Notable books sometime soon, and this Friday will bring us a Poetry Peek into Reading Specialist Amy Zimmer Merrill's Poetry Breaks at Calvin Coolidge Elementary in Binghamton, NY!

(Please click on COMMENTS below to share a thought.)

Poetry Friday & #227 - A Dictionary Poem

Dictionary Forest Hike

by Amy LV

This is poem #24 in a Friday series of poems about poems.

Students - it is an interesting exercise to try to write many poems about one topic, and I have done this for the past 24 Fridays - poems about poems.  If you don't want to repeat yourself over and over again (poetry is great, poetry is great, poetry is great), you must discover new ways to hold an idea up to the light.  This poem is about a half-real/half-imaginary place.  For some time I have been longing to write a poem about the dictionary as a place to hang out, and this poem grew from that long-time-longing.  Here is where a writer's notebook comes in handy; each little scribbling waits patiently, hoping to be snapped up by a project.

Another funny thing about this poem is that I really wanted to include all eight parts of speech.  I learned from Donna Hooker-Topping and Sandra Josephs Hoffman's GETTING GRAMMAR that you can easily remember the parts of speech if you can recall the name IVAN CAPP (interjection, verb, adverb, noun, conjunction, adjective, pronoun, preposition).  This book has is stuffed-full with fun and easy-to-play grammar games and tips for remembering grammar rules.  Writing this poem, I actually jotted the names IVAN CAPP on my paper to be sure that I included all eight parts of speech!

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Next week, I look forward to spending Poetry Friday at NCTE in Orlando, Florida.  Most exciting will be the Friday session about poetry and blogging featuring poetry bloggers Sylvia Vardell of Poetry for Children, Tricia Stohr-Hunt of The Miss Rumphius Effect, and Elaine Magliaro of Wild Rose Reader.  Sylvia, Tricia, and Elaine have been featuring Lee Bennett Hopkins, Marilyn Singer, Pat Mora, and Jame Richards, poet members of the panel, for the past week and will continue to do so.  If you are attending NCTE, you can find details about this session here.

Two Fridays from now (the Friday after Thanksgiving), we welcome literacy specialist Amy Zimmer Merrill from Calvin Coolidge Elementary in Binghamton, NY for another Poetry Peek!  If you are a teacher or librarian or homeschooling parent willing to share a bit of how you enjoy poetry with children, please drop me a note.  I'd love to feature you on such a Peek too!  See the right hand sidebar for previous Peeks, full of favorite ways to dish up bowls of poems.

Teachers and Parents - the holidays are sneaking up, and I must refer you to MotherReader's list of 105 Ways to Give a Book.  It is a fabulous list, and after today, I will leave the link in my right hand column list of parenting links.  Thank you, Pam!

You can find today's Poetry Friday roundup with Terry over at Scrub-a-Dub-Tub.  Mosey on over there to see what's happening poetry-wise in the blogosphere, and know that you are all welcome to participate in Poetry Friday at any time.  You can find a link with all of the details here and also in the right hand column.

(Please click on COMMENTS below to share a thought.)