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