Day 16 - National Poetry Month 2015 - Sing That Poem!

Happy National Poetry Month!

Welcome to Day 16 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 You and Me.  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.

Time

Photo by Amy LV

Students - Today's poem is about something that always strikes me.  Old barns. Whenever I drive here near home or far away in other rural areas, I fall in love with barn after barn.  There are so many stories in old barns, and I wish that I could bewitch each old barn I see...bewitch it into talking for just five minutes...so that I could learn the stories from its past.

Yesterday, I had a long drive home from Vermont, after two delightful days teaching in the Georgia Elementary and Middle School.  On my way, I passed many old barns, and the one you see above simply stole my heart.

Today's poem is a simple verse, full of simple solid noun-words: barn, moon, cow, cats, children.  I wanted my poem to feel sturdy and safe, just like a steady barn.  I wrote it while driving, in my head, once again stopping at gas stations to jot on the paper below.  Because I was driving, most of the revision was invisible...in my old singing head!

You can think about your writing even when you are not writing; just let the ideas and sounds play together in your head.  You can think about writing at any time at all: when you are riding your bike, sitting on a bus seat, looking out of your living room window at the rain.

The wondrous poet Eve Merriam once said, "I've sometimes spent weeks looking for precisely the right word.  It's like having a tiny marble in your pocket, you can just feel it.  Sometimes you find a word and say, 'No, I don't think this is it...' Then you discard it, and take another and another until you get it right."

We can all be like Eve, thinking about our writing during all times of day, carrying words in our pocket, patiently waiting and searching for just the right ones.

Poem Draft (Most Revision Done in Head While Driving)

Photo by Amy LV

Please share a comment below if you wish.

Hooray! It's Manure Day! Poem #349

Early Spring Field

Photo by Amy LV

This poem is dedicated to Dale Sondericker, a second grade teacher at Marilla Primary in the Iroquois Central School District.

Writing in a workshop yesterday, looking for an idea, I found myself glancing around the cafeteria.  I saw Dale writing, and my mind followed this train of thought - 

Dale is a great teacher.  Dale is also a dairy farmer.  That must be a lot of work.  We live near some dairy farmers, and they are working all of the time.  One thing our neighbors do is bring the manure trucks by to spray the fields next to our home.  I just saw one of those trucks the other day.  Seeing that truck  made me think about how our little world would smell differently that day.  Hmmm...maybe could write a poem about manure. 

While looking at Dale does not usually or immediately make me think of manure, today the leap from idea to idea, thought to thought, brought me there.

Students - follow your own thoughts today, and try writing after your writing, reflecting on how you arrived at your idea.  It isn't true that authors and writers always know what they will write before they write it.  Sometimes we all need to simply follow the leap!

As writers and creative humans, we must be ready for such leaps, willing to accept whatever presents itself as a possible poem idea.  Who knows what new crops will grow in our fertile minds?

(Please click on POST A COMMENT below to share a thought.)