Day 13 - National Poetry Month 2015 - Sing That Poem!

Happy National Poetry Month!

Welcome to Day 13 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 poems were Ocean Writer and The Best Dog.  Here is the tune that goes along with them, 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.

Vase of Flowers - 2011

by Georgia LV

This poem has been removed as it hopes to appear

in my forthcoming book, WITH MY HANDS: POEMS ABOUT MAKING THINGS.  

I am sorry, and I will try to write a new one with the same meter for this spot.

xo, a.

Students - Painting and writing are very similar to each other. Both require facing a blank page and making something new. Both ask us to look outside and inside ourselves, to find what it is we have to say.  Both welcome us as explorers!

Today's song was a little bit of a challenge for me because it has a very different rhythm and pattern.  It was a fun puzzle, and what is interesting for me is that writing these as songs makes me think of them as songs.  I want to try to step back and see if I can see them as poems - do they still work as poems...or do they need the tunes to work?

This week begins NYS Common Core testing.  It is very important to be sure to play outside, draw, paint, do all kinds of things to express your gifts.  Humans are multifaced, and by exploring many ways of making, we discover who we are.  I wish you some good messy play!

Please share a comment below if you wish.

Day 12 - National Poetry Month 2015 - Sing That Poem!

Happy National Poetry Month!

Welcome to Day 12 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 In the Harbor.  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.

One Pen at a Time

Photo by Amy LV

Students - Yesterday I began trying to write to the tune/beat of a different song, but you know what?  I just wasn't in the mood for that tune, so I switched to this one instead.  It is funny to me that one tune would not somehow appeal on a certain day, but this is exactly what happened.  Now that other meter is all counted out and waiting for the just-right day.

I do adore the idea of octopi and writing and ink.  In fact, I wrote another octopus-writer poem back in 2010, and you can read it here if you wish.  It is interesting to hold onto your writing, students, because if you keep at it, you will notice themes in your own work.  Who knows? Maybe in 50 years, I'll have a complete collection of octopus-writer poems.

Did you know that the preferred plural of 'octopus' is actually 'octopuses' and not 'octopi'?  Here is why.

from Grammarist.com

Well, I certainly AM a "fan of quirky words" - so much so that this seven letter delight landed in my thirty-five word poem not once, but twice!

Which quirky words do you like?  Consider making a list of these and then just choose one to write from. Simply place one of those quirky words atop a fresh page...and go! Writing from one word often yields surprising poemjourneys.

There is a second poem to go with today's song, and it is actually the first one I wrote.  You can read/sing it below.  I am curious as to what you think of the differences between these two and if you prefer one to the other.

Hope and Eli at Camp - Summer 2000

Photo by Amy LV

Please share a comment below if you wish.

Octopus - Poems of Address & School Visit

Oh, Octopus!
by Amy LV

Students - The idea for this poem came from a student at Eggert Elementary School in Orchard Park, NY.  I was teaching a writing workshop for upper grade students, and one student drew the nest from my writing pot.

Writing Pot

Photo by Brian Muffoletto

On the back of the nest were written the words FABULOUS FACT.  This meant that we were all to think of a favorite fact and let this fact inspire a poem or snip of writing.  One girl shared the fact that octopuses have three hearts, something I never knew.  This fact stuck in my brain, and this morning inspired today's verse to an octopus.  You'll see many facts about octopuses in this poem, and a little twist at the end. 

It is interesting to write poems of address, or poems that speak TO something. This might be an angle you wish to try with a topic.  Instead of writing ABOUT something, speak to it, as if it were right there with you. What would you say? And if you wish for it to answer, simply begin a new stanza and write a conversation poem.

On both Wednesday and Thursday of this week, I had the good fortune to visit Eggert Elementary for a big old poetry celebration.  Thank you many times over to principal Terry Tryon, the Eggert PTO, to teacher Brian Muffoletto and Tara Zimmerman, to parent Karen Nuwer, to art teacher Wendy Johnson and music teacher Rachelle Francis and to all of the teachers and students for making this a very magical visit.

I cannot recommend highly enough the beautiful song, "Birch are Soprano" by Dan Berggren, on his album TONGUES IN TREES.  My Wednesday morning began with a sneak listen to the Eggert chorus, who will be performing the first choral version of this song.  If FOREST HAS A SONG were a movie, I would hope for this song be the soundtrack.

Available through Amazon

Then, I feasted on expansive and amazing hallway displays of a variety of poems - by children and by me too.  Words and artwork everywhere. Students wrote poems on leaves, on animal silhouettes, and art teacher Wendy Johnson blew up pictures from FOREST and anthologies with my poems and invited children to make owls, flowers, and other beautiful art.

Teacher Brian Muffoletto filled the display case with my poem, "Kindness."  

Front Display Case

Photo by Amy LV

Squirrel Poet

Photo by Amy LV

Brian and teacher Tara Zimmerman made this enormous poetree!

Large Poetree with Students' Poems

Photo by Amy LV

FOREST and Me

Photo by Brian Muffoletto

Chickadee & Beautiful Birds

Photo by Amy LV

Poems on Silhouettes

Photo by Amy LV

The nurse and I had our photo taken by this big louse.

BIG Louse!  

Photo by Amy LV

Wow!  Thank you again to all all all of Eggert Elementary for such a wonderful two day visit.

Next Tuesday is April 1, April Fools Day, and the beginning of National Poetry Month.  This year I will not be taking a Dictionary Hike (2012) or Drawing Into Poems. Rather, I will write a whole collection of poem drafts, one each day of the month, live, for a new manuscript titled THRIFT STORE.  I'll share notes about process, drafts, audio, and pictures.  By the of the month, I hope to have a collection worth revising, and I invite you to watch me work.  I think I'll call it THRIFT STORE LIVE.

If you have not visited Sharing Our Notebooks lately, this week I am so happy to have Mary Poindexter McLaughlin with a story and her notebook-celebrating poem, "The Book."  Visit to enjoy this tribute to notebooks, and comment to be entered into the Post-It note giveaway!  Next week I will welcome notebook keeper Alex McCarron into this space.

Today's Poetry Friday celebration is over at A Year of Reading with Mary Lee Hahn.  Visit her wonderful place for all kinds of poetry goodness as we get ready for April, National Poetry Month!

Please share a comment below if you wish.