Let Your Poem Tell a Story

Boo

Drawing by Amy LV

 

Students - Happy Halloween! Today my little poem tells a story that arose as I wrote this morning. It is helpful to remember that often, our ideas come to us AS we write, not before we write. Many times I will think to myself, "I don't know what to write," but once I begin, ideas rise to meet me. So if you don't have an idea when you pick up your pen or pencil, worry not. Just dive in anyway.

Since today is Halloween, I have been thinking about ghosts and witches and jack o-lanterns and candy. I would like to thank the warm and wise students, teachers, and administrators of Alden Primary School and Alden Intermediate, both in Alden, NY for welcoming me into their writing worlds for so many days this month. You have inspired me in many ways, from your powerful writing to your joyful pumpkins to your generous sharing. Thank you for our time writing and talking writing together.

This week, I suggest that you try writing a story poem. Invent a character, and make something happen. Again, do not worry that you need a complete plan. Just begin...and see. Poems are short and perfect places to experiment with new ideas and techniques.

Jone is the host of today's Poetry Friday roundup over at Jone Rush MacCulloch with original spooky poems and ideas for writing spooky poems too. Each Friday, all are invited to share poems, poem books, poetry ideas, and friendship in this open and welcoming poetry community.

xo,

Amy

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If you are under 13 years old, please only comment 

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Who's Quirky? Everyone!

My New Umbrella

Photo by Amy LV

Students - I often wonder about where others' ideas come from, and then, when I am in a good writing groove, I remember. Ideas come from absolutely everywhere. Earlier this week, rereading my notebook from last May, I came across this little entry:

Notebook Entry - May 2024

Photo by Amy LV

Intrigued by such a curious invented person, I decided to write more about her:

Poem Draft #1 March 2025

Photo by Amy LV

Then, somehow, the rhythm of a famous, anonymous, old (around 1888) nonsense rhyme that goes like this, invaded my body:

Moses supposes his toeses are roses;

Moses supposes erroneously.

For nobody's toeses are roses are posies.

As Moses supposes his toeses to be.

Of course, with any old, anonymous verse, there are other, newer versions, and you can read about these at Wikipedia. What surprised me - and ALWAYS surprises me - is that this rhythm was rattling and rolling around in my brain unbeknownst to me...and its meter showed up in my own-this-week-lines. After doing a little sleuthing, I realize that this has happened before with "Moses Supposes His Toeses Are Roses" - see my poem Manny the Manatee.

As I drafted and redrafted at my computer, the main character of this poem changed from a she to a he...and I went with it!

Poem Draft #2 March 2025

Photo by Amy LV

Today I have two writing suggestions for you. 

The first suggestion is to read poems aloud regularly. Read to your family. Read to your cat. Read to an old sneaker. Read to your dog. Read to a cactus. Read to your stuffies. Read to the air. Read to yourself. If you read and write regularly, the rhythms that go through your body will come through in your own lines, even when you are not trying for it. Yes, I did revise and tweak and fine tune...but the rhythm was already inside of me.

The second suggestion is to think about quirks, both yours and those of others. The Cambridge Dictionary defines a quirk as "an unusual habit or part of someone's personality, or something that is strange and unexpected." You might think about your own quirks, the quirks of those you know, or the quirks of imaginary people. Then...write!

What are my quirks? Hmmm. One of my quirks is that I always buy a lot of baking supplies whenever we are expecting a snowstorm here in Holland, NY. Another of my quirks is that I sing a special song to our cat Winnie when I want her to come inside. What are your quirks? The quirks of others you know? The quirks of imaginary characters such as my own Umbrella Man? These may well make for excellent writing inspiration.

And...Happy Spring! Yesterday was the first day of spring where I live, and I so I tried out my new umbrella in the morning's sunshower. Isn't it all beautiful?

Spring Equinox Sunshower at The Poem Farm

Video by Amy LV

Thank you to Rose for hosting this week's Poetry Friday roundup over at Imagine the Possibilities with a joyous, poetic celebration of spring. Each Friday, all are invited to share poems, poem books, poetry ideas, and friendship in this open and welcoming poetry community.

Be quirky. Be quirky. Be quirky. That is all.

xo,

Amy

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Coaxing Poems 5: Tell Us a Story

 

Hello again, you sweet Poetry Friends! Welcome to the fifth of ten poetry visits at The Poem Farm. In each of these short videos, 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!

And now I invite you to join me for Visit 5: Tell Us a Story!

Students - Today, as we think about about story poems - narrative poems - we simply think about all of the elements of story and mix them elegantly with all of the elements of poetry. Think of it this way:

Plot, Characters, & Setting + Line Breaks, Pattern, & Metaphor... = Story Poem

Story Poem Still Life

Photo by Amy LV

In this first free verse story poem, I invent a character related to a character we all know. I invent the problem and the setting for this character. The poem also has a problem, solution, beginning, middle, and end. 

You may notice the repeated words and the places where I chose to move to a new line. As (mostly) always, I drafted this poem by hand. In the revision, I experimented with my line breaks. The enter key is very helpful for poets who do some revision at the computer.

The below poem is about characters who usually do not talk at all - Rain and a flower. When we write story poems, we can include dialogue, just as we include dialogue in our prose (not poem) stories. Can you find the places where characters speak in this poem?

This poem and the next do include a bit of rhyme, rhyme that makes sense. I am not striving to rhyme with this series, but truth be told, sometimes...like a baby fox, rhyme sneaks in under the wire fence of my free verse intentions.

This next poem is in the I (first person) voice. A reader might assume that the speaker is actually me, but as writers, we can use the I voice as ourselves or we can write in the I voice pretending to be someone or something else. I have been thinking about the idea of a "word bouquet" for a couple of weeks now. Sometimes a thought needs to live in our notebook and mind for a while before finding its way into a poem or story.

What do you notice about the line breaks in this poem? What do the short lines do for a reader?

As you read and write story (narrative) poems, talk with each other about the following:

• Who are the characters?
• What is the setting?
• Is there a problem? If yes, what is it?
• How does the problem get solved?
• What happens at the beginning, middle end?
• Do the characters change?

Talk about these too:

• Does this story (narrative) poem feel like it could really happen?
• Is this a fiction story?
• Might this story be a blend of fiction and truth?
• Is this poem based in history?

And these:

• What do we notice about the line breaks?
• Does the poet repeat any lines? Why so?
• Do we find any interesting repetition?
• Are there metaphors? Are they fresh?
• What language dance moves do we admire in this poem?
• What makes this poem "poem-y?"

As you think and talk about these questions, you will discover ideas for your own poems. When writers read, we learn new writing ideas, especially when we try.

One reason I enjoy writing poems so much is because the words simply surprise me on the page. If I did not write poems, I would never have met Little Red Riding Hood's younger brother or heard a conversation between Rain and a flower or written the words "jam jar vase." An afternoon of writing offered me these gifts.

Poems cannot be wrong. Yes, if we read and write many poems, there will be poems we prefer...but poems are not wrong. Experiment! Play with your life and with your words. We each get one life and as many words as we wish - we can choose joy in our lives and in our words.

Mary Lee is hosting this week's Poetry Friday over at A(nother) Year of Reading with thoughts and a poem about secrets. Each Friday, all are invited to share poems, poem books, poetry ideas, and friendship in this open and welcoming poetry community.

Happy story-collecting, my dears...

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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Velcro Stories Want to Become Poems

One Adored Dog

Photo by a Loved One

Students - This poem is based on a true story.  I only know a little bit of the story, but I filled in the rest, inventing details that felt real and possible to me. Sometimes we see or hear or learn a story and it never ever leaves us. When I heard about this story, I could not let it go.  Or maybe...it could not let me go.

Stories that stick to us like velcro in our hearts are ones that want to be written.  A writer can write any story as a poem, and even if you've written a story out in long form before, you can try rewriting it as a poem.  Story poems are called narrative poems, and as is true with all poems, they need not rhyme at all.

I enjoyed playing with this new meter and as usual tap, tap, tapped as I wrote. Tapping syllables on a table or on my cheek helps me feel the rhythm of a poem in my body.

Visit my notebooks blog, Sharing Our Notebooks, to find out who won the Decomposition Notebook. And stay tuned, as there will be a new notebooks post coming this weekend.

Thank you to Rebecca who is hosting today's Poetry Friday over at Sloth Reads, a post celebrating a day I never knew existed with a poem I never knew existed - double fun! Please know that the Poetry Friday community shares poems and poemlove each week, and everyone is invited to visit, comment, and post.  And if you have a blog, we welcome you to link right in with us.

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.

Family Stories Into Free Verse

Amy and Thor, April 1971
Photo by Debby or George Ludwig

My Sister Heidi (Now a Doctor!) and Val, Circa 1987
Photo by Debby or George Ludwig

Students - Somehow, the other day, I got to thinking about how my family got our second dog Valentine.  It was a funny story, a bittersweet story with the loss of a dog and the gain of a dog in just one day.  The Thor and Valentine story is one that I like to tell over and over again.

My poem does not rhyme, but you may notice a bit of repetition.  We need not rhyme our poems; repeating words and sounds and patterns hold poems together very well.  

Take a moment to read Peyton's poem about how her family got their dog.  As I typed my poem, days after writing it, I realized that I may have been inspired by her words and structure.  I have read Peyton's poem aloud many many times, and so it has sunk into my writing soul.  Notice her use of repetition and also the way she stretches out her line breaks, especially in the second stanza.  I love that.  Thank you, Peyton, for your inspiration!

Peyton's Poem from My Book POEMS ARE TEACHERS

Available through Heinemann

And here they are!

Peyton & Sawyer Then

Photo by Pam Koutrakos

Peyton & Sawyer Now

Photo by Pam Koutrakos

Which family stories do you enjoy telling over and over again?  It just might make for a good poem.  You may wish to write a free verse poem with close attention to repetition and line breaks just as Peyton did, just as I did.  These are both story poems, otherwise known as narrative poems, and we can take our own stories written as prose or jotted as notes or sketches and turn them into poems anytime we wish.

Read poems aloud, over and over again.  They get in your blood that way.

Laura is hosting today's Poetry Friday roundup over at Writing the World for Kids. Do not miss her fabulous news about her newest wonderful book, SNOWMAN - COLD = PUDDLE, illustrated by Micha Archer and published by Charlesbridge! Please know that the Poetry Friday community shares poems and poemlove each week, and everyone is invited to visit, comment, and post.  And if you have a blog, we welcome you to link right in with us.

P.S. I am thrilled to be teaching at the Enka Primary School in Istanbul, Turkey all next week.  I look forward to meeting new people, to learning and listening and writing about this experience for years to come...  

xo, Amy

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If you are under 13 years old, please comment only with a parent 

or as part of a group with your teacher and class.

Looking for Joy...Everywhere!

Students - It is good and wise to look for happiness.  To find small and big joys...to seek out stories of kindness and love and friendship and people and animals being their best selves.  Sometimes you find these by looking, and sometimes they come across your path.  This true storypoem you find here today came across my path in the form of news.  Good news does not always plop into your lap; sometimes you do have to look for it.  I got lucky here...the story of sweet Max and darling Quackers did plop right into lap!  And now, I plop it into yours!

When you read today's poem, you'll notice specifics, specifics such as the death of Quackers' friends, and even the name of the road that Max and Quackers walk along - Route 28.  These specifics all came straight from an article I read online; I did not invent them.  I could invent facts to make up my own story...but I did not do so in this case.  This is a straight storypoem retelling of a surprising friendship.

Writing it made me happy.

Find stories that make you happy. Find joy and goodness.  Look up from your screen.  That's where you'll find the best stuff.  Pass your good stories on.  Make up good stories.  We humans of all ages need and want to read them.

Teachers, through tonight, Heinemann is still holding a giveaway for 5 copies of my new POEMS ARE TEACHERS at Goodreads. If you're interested in the book, please try to win it.

It's a delight to welcome writer and professor Julie Patterson over at my other blog, Sharing Our Notebooks. I feel so lucky to get to peek into others' notebooks, and doing so has helped my own writer self find ideas and inspiration.  Please, teachers and students both, visit. You may also leave a comment to be entered into a book giveaway.

Jama is hosting week's Poetry Friday roundup over at Jama's Alphabet Soup with a delicious celebration of doughnuts. Yum indeed...all are welcome.

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.

Grace - Still Thankful After Thanksgiving

So Much Grace

by Amy LV

Students - This simple poem is offers my thoughts about yesterday.  I adore Thanksgiving, and here, on the day after Thanksgiving, I am still so full of gratitude for family, for good friends in my daily life and far away and here in Poetry Friday land.

The holiday season ahead of us is one filled with excitement and goodness.  I am excited to make a gingerbread house, to decorate, to fold more stars for our windows, and to make sweet and spicy walnuts.  But right now, and in many small pauses throughout the month, I plan to stop.  Stop to look around at the simple beauties before me.  Stop to feel thankful. Stop to write about the small surprising things that make life grand.  

This poem just tells of a normal everyday part of our family's life - dinner grace.  But yesterday, somehow, it felt different, perhaps because there were more of us around the table, perhaps because I am more aware that life does not always stay the same.  It is important that I feel thankful now for now.  

What are you thankful for?  Big things and small things...they all count. And you know what?  Each one of the things on your list could inspire some writing.  That's where I will continue in my notebook later today.

Over at my other blog, Sharing Our Notebooks, you can learn the winners of this month's books!

Carol is hosting today's Poetry Friday roundup over at Carol's Corner.  Visit her place to find poetry and good poetry people.

Please share a comment below if you wish.

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.

Wizard at the Fair - Writing Observations as Memories

Artist Jerry Ward at the Erie County Fair

August 7, 2014

Photo by Amy LV

Students - Yesterday, as I watched Jerry Ward carve this bust of Don Quixote, I was transported to a new place inside of myself.  A man appeared from inside of a tree trunk, and it was magical!  Sawdust smells tickled my nose, and I sat mesmerized by this chainsaw artist.  I knew that I would write a poem about my feeling because some moments in our lives just call out to us, "I am a poem!  I am a poem!" and this was one of them.

After Jerry finished carving the bust, he turned to the audience - sitting on big logs - and told us that he releases figures from wood.  When I began to write, this Don Quixote came to life in my poem, happy to be free after many so many years.

My first draft of today's free verse poem was in the present tense: "I sit/watching/the Wizard of Wood..." But as I wrote, I realized that poem would work better in the past tense.  Sometimes when people think about their memories, they think about years and long ago.  But memories are falling around us like twinkling raindrops...every single minute.  You can take something that happened to you today - and write about it in the past tense voice, as if it happened long before.  

What has happened to you today already?  What might happen in the next few hours?  If you live your life paying attention to everything, you will see how a now-happening might just be a poem in the making.  Open your eyes!  Open your ears!  What do you find?

Jerry Ward's Don Quixote at the Erie County Fair

August 7, 2014

Photo by Amy LV

To see more of Jerry Ward's artwork, visit his website here and read about how "Wood is mystical."

Mary Lee is hosting this week's Poetry Friday roundup over at A Year of Reading.  Do not miss the poem she shares with us today.  You, too, might "snort your morning tea!"

Please share a comment below if you wish.

A Crow, a Child, & a Poetry Peek

Crow in Tree

Photo by Hope LV

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

Students - Yesterday afternoon, my daughter Hope and I were driving home, and a murder of crows (yes, a group of crows is called a 'murder'!) was settling into many of the trees lining our road.  I stopped the car, rolled down the window of the driver's side, and tried to take a photograph, but before I could, all of the crows had flown away.  Hope offered to take a photo from her side of the car, rolled down her window, and...the same thing happened!  Only one crow remained, and here it is.

Later in the evening, I studied the picture and imagined a story to go with it.  The first two stanzas rolled out easily, but it the third one is my favorite.  I like it in the way I like writing that is given to me, almost a surprise from a little writing bird...maybe a crow...

At first my poem-crow was a boy.  And the poem-child was a boy too.  I needed to make a change.  See, I like a balance of male and female in my poems.  So I needed to choose, "Should the crow be female or the child be female?"  Well, I chose the crow to be female, mostly because 'her' rhymes with 'perfect', 'perch', and 'birch' in stanza three.  I find it funny and wonderful how a change for gender surprised me by improving rhyme as well.

Be open to such surprises in your writing.  For me, the surprises are the best part.  The surprises, not the poems, are why I write.

Today I am so happy to welcome kind and wise Suparna Kudesia, a teacher of 6, 7 and 8 year olds at The Logan School for Creative Learning in Denver, Colorado. The Logan School is an independent school that truly depends on the support of its community to continue its good work. Suparna would like to thank and acknowledge teacher assistant Jessica Silas who took all of these wonderful pictures.  Thank you to Suparna, Jessica, and the young learners and poets who share their classroom.  It's a pleasure to host them here for a Poetry Friday Poetry Peek!

"It depends." 

So much of what happens at my school is rooted in those two words. My school, where I get to practice being a better listener, learner, and human each day, is a non-profit independent school in Denver, Colorado. It dependeth embodies the way I see each child: a living wonder with dreams, fears, loves, and wishes. How I respond to each child's individual curiosities, wonderings, and hopes depends on each child. I try each day to listen to each of my students and scaffold them, walk with them to the next challenge, to the next level of adventure, and we also take time to walk down reflection boulevard and think deeply about our learning, growth, and welcome new questions about the world around us.

One special way in which my students are agents of their own learning is through an individual unit. Every one of the 250 students in my school chooses their own individual unit of study. From gravity, mermaids, and DNA to deception, terrorism, and Rosalind Franklin. Children pick their unit and as their teacher, I write an individualized curriculum with and for each child.

Is every child's unit guided by her/his interest. Yes.
Does every unit look the same. No.

Those seem simple enough to answer.

Can a 7 year old study quantum physics? It depends.
Would I have a Socratic seminar about gender in my classroom? It depends.
How do children create projects? It depends.
What determines growth as a mathematician, listener, or scientist? It depends.

So much depends on those two words. Units open doors for children to grow as language artists, social scientists, chemists, artists, architects, inventors, and something that is always very exciting - as  poets. One way in which my students practice being poets is to integrate their excitement and learning surrounding their units with their growing skills as poets. We find different ways to bring poetry into our units and children take their love for poetry in many different directions. 

One such path has been constructed by our love for William Carlos Williams's poem The Red Wheelbarrow. When we read this rather uncomplicated 8-line poem that is in fact one sentence, we meditate over his choice of words, the picture he painted for us, the depth and simplicity of documenting what he sees, and the parts of speech buried so systematically in the poem. We also talk about why "so much depends upon" that red wheel barrow and the possible stories behind that wheel barrow, that rain water, and those white chickens. Then, we begin to ponder, brainstorm, research, and write about what depends upon our units. 

Why is studying about renewable energy or Alaska so important? The children follow a process of research and learning and then experiment with words, patterns, and sounds to create their own versions of William Carlos Williams's poem. Each child works on a few drafts in their writers notebooks and are often freed by the pattern of the poem and always integrate factual information about their unit. After some iterations of editing, the children share their final pieces. We then publish the poems on our bulletin board for our poems, lovingly called, "Poetree". 

This year, my students really enjoyed this project and are coming to school regularly with more "so much depends upon" poems about their units long after the project saw completion in our classroom. 

Poem by Zoe

Poem by Mari

Poem by Pearly

Poem by Sabrina

In my practice as an educator, I feel grateful to be in a space where there is a certain comfort in acknowledging how education of our children lies in the sometimes very uncomfortable space of "it depends".  "It depends" can be messy because it has fewer boxes within which to put children. When we can look at children for all they are and can be, sometimes the boxes that exist in the world of education can be terrifyingly confining. 

How do you define a child who cares deeply about endangered species, has a deep understanding of numbers, is learning to add two digit numbers, listens deeply, loves Taylor Swift, dreams about forests with giant talking ants, struggles at and loves soccer, wants to be a better reader, knows every type of toothed whale, sees themselves as seahorses, is learning how to hug, feels safe communicating in sign language, sees colors differently, can enjoy music with their eyes closed, breathes poetry, is sometimes overwhelmed with noise, laughs when talking about the purple polka-dotted people eater, is making a model of a tornado intercept vehicle, can empathize, doesn't like chocolate and loves homemade pho or pasta…? Is this child a 3.97 GPA? Or maybe an A-? 

I would rather brave the daily joyful confusion of understanding each of my students as individuals than assign them numerical values. So, I don't mind being stopped in hallways or interrogated by skeptics to elaborate on how, why, and so what of "it depends", because this allows me to honor all children as they are and all they can become.

Thank you to Suparna, Jessica, and this classroom community and school for joining us today.  Thank you for sharing your thoughtful and enriching work.

Diane is hosting today's Poetry Friday roundup over at Random Noodling.  Head on over to her place and join us in this week's poetry celebration all 'round the Kidlitosphere.

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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