Showing posts with label One More Line Crow. Show all posts
Showing posts with label One More Line Crow. Show all posts

Thursday, April 25, 2024

ONE MORE OR LESS LINE CROW 25

  Happy National Poetry Month!

(For new poetry writing videos, see the COAXING POEMS tab above.)

 

Hello Poetry Friends! If you visited earlier this month, you may have noticed a change my National Poetry Month project title. For my National Poetry Month Project this year, I had originally planned to study crows and share a new crow poem each day of April with the number lines in each poem corresponding to the date. The plan was to write 1-line poem on April 1...and go all the way up to a 30-line poem on April 30. For a variety of personal and poetic reasons, I have changed the project. The poems have lengthened to 15 lines...and now they decrease from 15 back down to 1. Hence the new name: ONE MORE OR LESS LINE CROW. 

To do so, simply:

1. Choose a subject that you would like to stick with for 30 days. You might choose something you know lots about...or like me, you might choose something you will read and learn about throughout April.

3. Write a new poem for each day of April 2024, corresponding the number of lines in your poem to the date. For example, the poem for April 1 will have 1 line. The poem for April 14 will have 14 lines. The poem for April 30 will have 30 lines. OR....invent your own idea! And if you start later in April, just play around however you wish.

4. Teachers and writers, if you wish to share any ONE MORE LINE... subjects or poems, please email them to me or tag me @amylvpoemfarm. I would love to see what your students write and to know that we are growing these lines...and our understandings of different subjects...together.

Twenty-Five Crows, Six Lines
Photo by Amy LV



Students - Some birds are good savers, and the American Crow is one such bird. American Crows hide, or cache, food for later, saving it underneath snow or under leaves or grass or high in trees. Then, when food is difficult to find, they will remember where they hid it. Again, Crow is a very intelligent bird. 

This is just a little free verse poem celebrating such intelligence. There is a bit of repetition in those first two lines and a bit of a rhythm, but it is quite a simple little poem that stands back, notices, and reflects.

Thank you for joining me for ONE LINE CROW...

To learn about more National Poetry Month projects and all kinds of April goodness, visit Jama Rattigan at Jama's Alphabet Soup where Jama has generously gathered this coming month's happenings. Happy National Poetry Month!

xo,

Amy

ps - If you are interested in learning about any of my previous 13 National Poetry Month projects, you may do so here.

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Sunday, April 21, 2024

ONE MORE OR LESS LINE CROW 21

Happy National Poetry Month!

(For new poetry writing videos, see the COAXING POEMS tab above.)


Hello Poetry Friends! If you visited earlier this month, you may have noticed a change my National Poetry Month project title. For my National Poetry Month Project this year, I had originally planned to study crows and share a new crow poem each day of April with the number lines in each poem corresponding to the date. The plan was to write 1-line poem on April 1...and go all the way up to a 30-line poem on April 30. For a variety of personal and poetic reasons, I have changed the project. The poems have lengthened to 15 lines...and now they decrease from 15 back down to 1. Hence the new name: ONE MORE OR LESS LINE CROW. 

To do so, simply:

1. Choose a subject that you would like to stick with for 30 days. You might choose something you know lots about...or like me, you might choose something you will read and learn about throughout April.

3. Write a new poem for each day of April 2024, corresponding the number of lines in your poem to the date. For example, the poem for April 1 will have 1 line. The poem for April 14 will have 14 lines. The poem for April 30 will have 30 lines. OR....invent your own idea! And if you start later in April, just play around however you wish.

4. Teachers and writers, if you wish to share any ONE MORE LINE... subjects or poems, please email them to me or tag me @amylvpoemfarm. I would love to see what your students write and to know that we are growing these lines...and our understandings of different subjects...together.

Twenty-One Crows, Ten Lines
Photo by Amy LV



Students - Have you ever wondered about those crows perching on the electric lines? Well, they are a little bit warm...and there is a looot of space to sit together. And...you can see everything when you're up high. 

Today's ten line poem is made up of rhyming couplets, and the last line is shorter than the rest. I did this on purpose. When you break a pattern in your writing, it changes how your reader reads, thus drawing attention to the change. In breaking this pattern, I hope for readers to slow down and think about how quickly it all goes. Crows flying...and everything else too.

Thank you for joining me for ONE LINE CROW...

To learn about more National Poetry Month projects and all kinds of April goodness, visit Jama Rattigan at Jama's Alphabet Soup where Jama has generously gathered this coming month's happenings. Happy National Poetry Month!

xo,

Amy

ps - If you are interested in learning about any of my previous 13 National Poetry Month projects, you may do so here.

Please share a comment below if you wish.
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Thursday, April 11, 2024

ONE MORE LINE CROW - Day 11

Happy National Poetry Month!

  (For new poetry writing videos, see the COAXING POEMS tab above.)


This month I am studying crows, sharing a new crow poem each day of April. The number of lines in each poem will correspond to the date, with a 1-line poem on April 1...and a 30-line poem on April 30. If you'd like to play along, simply choose a topic that you'd like to explore for 30 days. It might be a subject that you already know a lot about or perhaps you'll explore something new.

I invite you to join me in this project! 

To do so, simply:

1. Choose a subject that you would like to stick with for 30 days. You might choose something you know lots about...or like me, you might choose something you will read and learn about throughout April.

3. Write a new poem for each day of April 2024, corresponding the number of lines in your poem to the date. For example, the poem for April 1 will have 1 line. The poem for April 14 will have 14 lines. The poem for April 30 will have 30 lines. OR....invent your own idea! And if you start later in April, just play around however you wish.

4. Teachers and writers, if you wish to share any ONE MORE LINE... subjects or poems, please email them to me or tag me @amylvpoemfarm. I would love to see what your students write and to know that we are growing these lines...and our understandings of different subjects...together.

Eleven Crows, Eleven Lines
Photo by Amy LV



Students - Today's eleven line poem borrows from the roundel form, but it is not actually a roundel. It does have eleven lines. The first and last stanzas are quatrains (four lines). The second stanza is a tercet (three lines). The beginning of the first line does repeat as both the fourth and eleventh line. But I did not follow the roundel rhyme scheme; my poem does not rhyme at all.

This said, I relearned something today. As writers, we can take a form invented by someone else and borrow parts of this form for our own poems without completely following every rule of the form. I like the way that this first part of my first line returns, and I have never done just that just that way before. Nor have I ever intentionally written an eleven line poem with two four line stanzas and a three line stanza between them. Thank you, roundel, for the lesson and the learning.

As for crow roosts, they are incredible and huge, up to two million crows. Scientists believe that crows roost together in winter for warmth, to protect each other from predators, and to share information about food sources and news, and possibly to find mates. 

In writing poems about crows, one challenge I face is choosing which facts to include. A poem can give information, yes...but I do not want my poems to feel like scientific articles. This is a balance. When I imagine this crow collection as a book, I imagine nonfiction notes around the pages, in the way that Nicola Davies includes nonfiction notes in her narrative nonfiction books ONE TINY TURTLE and BAT LOVES THE NIGHT.

A special note to Ms. Corbett's students who asked, "What are these small toy crows sitting on in all of these photographs?" It is a funny answer. Yes, they look like they are sitting on a tortilla or a round loaf of bread...but in fact, they are sitting on the stone mushroom statue in our yard. I took a photograph of all 30 crows and then subtracted one at a time to take all of the photographs for this month.

Mushroom Statue
Photo by Amy LV

Thank you for joining me for ONE LINE CROW...

To learn about more National Poetry Month projects and all kinds of April goodness, visit Jama Rattigan at Jama's Alphabet Soup where Jama has generously gathered this coming month's happenings. Happy National Poetry Month!

xo,

Amy

ps - If you are interested in learning about any of my previous 13 National Poetry Month projects, you may do so here.

Please share a comment below if you wish.
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Tuesday, April 9, 2024

ONE MORE LINE CROW - Day 9

  Happy National Poetry Month!

(For new poetry writing videos, see the COAXING POEMS tab above.)


This month I am studying crows, sharing a new crow poem each day of April. The number of lines in each poem will correspond to the date, with a 1-line poem on April 1...and a 30-line poem on April 30. If you'd like to play along, simply choose a topic that you'd like to explore for 30 days. It might be a subject that you already know a lot about or perhaps you'll explore something new.

I invite you to join me in this project! 

To do so, simply:

1. Choose a subject that you would like to stick with for 30 days. You might choose something you know lots about...or like me, you might choose something you will read and learn about throughout April.

3. Write a new poem for each day of April 2024, corresponding the number of lines in your poem to the date. For example, the poem for April 1 will have 1 line. The poem for April 14 will have 14 lines. The poem for April 30 will have 30 lines. OR....invent your own idea! And if you start later in April, just play around however you wish.

4. Teachers and writers, if you wish to share any ONE MORE LINE... subjects or poems, please email them to me or tag me @amylvpoemfarm. I would love to see what your students write and to know that we are growing these lines...and our understandings of different subjects...together.

Nine Crows, Nine Lines
Photo by Amy LV



Students - One of the most interesting parts of this project so far has been the science learning. When I chose crows as my April subject, I admit to imagining a poem with "murder" as its focus. Because, see, in the world of words and poetry, we do talk about things like murders of crows. We like that surprise. We like funny and unusual uses of words. But scientists do not use such fanciful, poetic words for groups of birds. A group of crows is a flock, just as a group of geese is a flock. I read a couple of articles about this (here's one at Audubon) and decided to write about a group of crows after all, but in a different way, centered on what I learned.

Today's poem is a nonet, or a nine-line poem organized by syllables. The first line of a nonet has nine syllables, and the syllable number decreases by one in each line...concluding with a one-syllable line. I chose flock as my final syllable to emphasize that this is the proper name for a group of crows.

If you would like to read more about the nonet form, you may do so at MasterClass or, even better, explore everything about nonets with Irene Latham. She has written a whole wonderful book of them titled NINE: A BOOK OF NONET POEMS. Each of Irene's poems focuses on something related to the number nine and is written in the nonet form. 

Available Wherever You Purchase Books
Or at Your Library!

Thank you for joining me for ONE LINE CROW...

To learn about more National Poetry Month projects and all kinds of April goodness, visit Jama Rattigan at Jama's Alphabet Soup where Jama has generously gathered this coming month's happenings. Happy National Poetry Month!

xo,

Amy

ps - If you are interested in learning about any of my previous 13 National Poetry Month projects, you may do so here.

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 
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Monday, April 8, 2024

ONE MORE LINE CROW - Day 8

 Happy National Poetry Month!

(For new poetry writing videos, see the COAXING POEMS tab above.)


This month I am studying crows, sharing a new crow poem each day of April. The number of lines in each poem will correspond to the date, with a 1-line poem on April 1...and a 30-line poem on April 30. If you'd like to play along, simply choose a topic that you'd like to explore for 30 days. It might be a subject that you already know a lot about or perhaps you'll explore something new.

I invite you to join me in this project! 

To do so, simply:

1. Choose a subject that you would like to stick with for 30 days. You might choose something you know lots about...or like me, you might choose something you will read and learn about throughout April.

3. Write a new poem for each day of April 2024, corresponding the number of lines in your poem to the date. For example, the poem for April 1 will have 1 line. The poem for April 14 will have 14 lines. The poem for April 30 will have 30 lines. OR....invent your own idea! And if you start later in April, just play around however you wish.

4. Teachers and writers, if you wish to share any ONE MORE LINE... subjects or poems, please email them to me or tag me @amylvpoemfarm. I would love to see what your students write and to know that we are growing these lines...and our understandings of different subjects...together.

Eight Crows, Eight Lines
Photo by Amy LV



Students - This poem is written in a special form called a triolet.  You will notice that lines 1, 4, and 7 are the same, as are lines 2 and 8.  If you look carefully, you will also notice that the rhyme scheme is: abaaabab. I love the looping and swooping feeling of repetition in a triolet, and the rolling repetition of this form matched my hope for today, April 8...the day that needed an eight line poem.

Thank you for joining me for ONE LINE CROW...

To learn about more National Poetry Month projects and all kinds of April goodness, visit Jama Rattigan at Jama's Alphabet Soup where Jama has generously gathered this coming month's happenings. Happy National Poetry Month!

xo,

Amy

ps - If you are interested in learning about any of my previous 13 National Poetry Month projects, you may do so here.

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 
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Sunday, April 7, 2024

ONE MORE LINE CROW - Day 7

 Happy National Poetry Month!

(For new poetry writing videos, see the COAXING POEMS tab above.)


This month I am studying crows, sharing a new crow poem each day of April. The number of lines in each poem will correspond to the date, with a 1-line poem on April 1...and a 30-line poem on April 30. If you'd like to play along, simply choose a topic that you'd like to explore for 30 days. It might be a subject that you already know a lot about or perhaps you'll explore something new.

I invite you to join me in this project! 

To do so, simply:

1. Choose a subject that you would like to stick with for 30 days. You might choose something you know lots about...or like me, you might choose something you will read and learn about throughout April.

3. Write a new poem for each day of April 2024, corresponding the number of lines in your poem to the date. For example, the poem for April 1 will have 1 line. The poem for April 14 will have 14 lines. The poem for April 30 will have 30 lines. OR....invent your own idea! And if you start later in April, just play around however you wish.

4. Teachers and writers, if you wish to share any ONE MORE LINE... subjects or poems, please email them to me or tag me @amylvpoemfarm. I would love to see what your students write and to know that we are growing these lines...and our understandings of different subjects...together.

Seven Crows, Seven Lines
Photo by Amy LV



Students - You may be noticing that one week in, these crow poems are following one crow through its life cycle and that many of the poems include facts. I am not sure what will happen to our main character here, but I was startled to learn that half of baby crows do not make it through the first year. There is a lot of danger out there in the form of predators especially, and so crows stick close to their folks for quite a while.

When I write poems, I write without a plan, following my head and heart and hand. As I began realizing that today's poem would rhyme, I was not sure what I would do with that last line.

But of course...I had to shorten it. And repeat it. Yes, I could have kept it all on one line, but the new line creates a pause for the reader, and this pause emphasizes the brutal reality that Young Crow has half a chance to live one year...and half a chance to die. The pause creates time to think and to spotlight this natural drama.

to live one year...
                             ...to live one year.

Remember line breaks. Remember repetition. They show a reader how to read. They show a reader what matters.

Thank you for joining me for ONE LINE CROW...

To learn about more National Poetry Month projects and all kinds of April goodness, visit Jama Rattigan at Jama's Alphabet Soup where Jama has generously gathered this coming month's happenings. Happy National Poetry Month!

xo,

Amy

ps - If you are interested in learning about any of my previous 13 National Poetry Month projects, you may do so here.

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 
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