Time - Think about Two Perspectives

Sage in the 4-H Barn (2010?)

Photo by Amy LV

Students - I don't know where today's poem came from.  I was writing in my notebook, and I think that the holidays got me thinking about visiting relatives which made me think about how quickly children seem to grow up.  This made  me think that if children are getting older, I am getting older too...but I never really feel like this is true.

Then I got to thinking about when our own children first talked about babies they once know seeming so big or how our pets have gotten older without us even noticing where the time has gone.

In a way, this is a comparing and contrasting poem.  In the first stanza, we see what the grownups say and feel.  In the second, we get the narrator child's point of view.  It is interesting to explore an idea from a couple of different perspectives.  We learn about others and about ourselves too.  You might want to give this a try!

Below, enjoy a little kindness video of our cat Mini Monster giving grown-up Sage a little face bath last weekend.

Over at my other blog, Sharing Our Notebooks, you can find a very cool peek into Julie Patterson's notebooks. Leave a comment...and you just may win a book!

Diane is hosting today's Poetry Friday roundup over at Random Noodling.  Please stop by if you'd like to visit many different blogs, all celebrating poetry.  We meet weekly, and everyone is invited!

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.

To My Kitten - A Poem Can Be About Two Things

Hercules

Photo by Georgia VanDerwater

Students - Our family is fostering kittens right now, something we love to do and yet have not done in a couple of years.  This means that we are taking care of kittens and their mamas until we can find homes for the kittens. Once we find homes for all kittens, we will give their mamas back to their owners.

It fills us with a lot of joy to watch these little ones grow up.  But it's always a wee bit sad too, because we want to keep them all with us.  

Eliza's Kittens (Eliza is eating!)

Photo by Amy LV

Mamacita and Her Roaming Kittens

Photo by Amy LV (with kitten on right foot)

As I wrote today's poem about these sweet kittens growing up and finding new places to live, growing into big new lives, I realized that I might also be writing about our daughter who graduates from high school this month and will soon be off to New York City for college.  Do you think that a poem can be about two things at the same time? (I do.)

Pay attention to your brain as you write. Sometimes you may think you are writing about one subject, and your brain or heart is thinking about another subject at the exact same time.  Please let me know if this happens to you!

I am thrilled to share that Linda Rief has opened her gorgeous notebooks this week at Sharing Our Notebooks.  That blog is back up and going again, so please visit and leave a comment to be entered into a giveaway of one of Linda's books.  You can find all kinds of notebook inspiration over there!

Mary Lee is hosting today's Poetry Friday roundup over at A Year of Reading with wonderful story poem.  All are always welcome at these weekly gatherings of poetry and friendship.

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.

Writing the Rainbow #26 - Red Orange

Welcome to my National Poetry Month project for 2017!  Students - Each day of April 2017, I will close my eyes, and I will reach into my box of 64 Crayola crayons.

Aerial View of Crayola Box

Photo by Georgia LV

Each day I will choose a crayon (without looking), pulling this crayon out of the box. This daily selected crayon will in some way inspire the poem for the next day.  Each day of this month, I will choose a new crayon, thinking and writing about one color every day for a total of 30 poems inspired by colors.

As of April 2, it happened that my poems took a turn to all be from the point of view of a child living in an apartment building.  So, you'll notice this thread running through the month of colors. I'd not planned this...it was a writing surprise.

I welcome any classrooms of poets who wish to share class poems (class poems only please) related to each day's color (the one I choose or your own).  Please post your class poem or photograph of any class crayon poem goodness to our Writing the Rainbow Padlet HERE.  (If you have never posted on a Padlet, it is very easy.  Just double click on the red background, and a box will appear.  Write in this box, and upload any poemcrayon sharings you wish.)

Here is a list of this month's Writing the Rainbow Poems so far:

March 30 - Pick a Crayon, Write a Poem - Project Introduction 

April 1 - Misty - Inspired by Carnation Pink

April 2 - Each Morning - Inspired by Lavender

April 3 - Outside My Building - Inspired by Dandelion (!)

April 4 - Mr. B. - Inspired by Olive Green

April 5 - Once in a While - Inspired by Tumbleweed

April 6 - On Miss Johnson's Fire Escape - Inspired by Yellow Orange

April 7 - The Guy Downstairs - Inspired by Spring Green

April 8 - I Watch Her - Inspired by Forest Green

April 9 - Their Hands - Inspired by White

April 10 - Up and Down - Inspired by Orange

April 11 - Eavesdropping - Inspired by Sky Blue

April 12 - Mr. Mick - Inspired by Red Violet

April 13 - Sights - Inspired by Purple Mountains' Majesty

April 14 - On Saturdays - Inspired by Melon

April 15 - Bundle - Inspired by Robin's Egg Blue

April 16 - Our Rooftop - Inspired by Periwinkle

April 17 - Childhood Trees - Inspired by Mahogany

April 18 - In Our Laundry Room - Inspired by Blue

April 19 - Summer Treat - Inspired by Red

April 20 - Home - Inspired by Timberwolf

April 21 - After School - Inspired by Apricot

April 22 - Misty's Eyes - Inspired by Yellow Green

April 23 - City Night - Inspired by Black

April 24 - Sharing Asparagus - Inspired by Asparagus

April 25 - I Wonder Things - Inspired by Wild Strawberry

And now...today's crayon.  Red Orange!

Tomatoes and Time

by Amy LV

Students - Today's poem takes us back twenty days, to April 6, our first visit to Miss Johnson's fire escape.  I was surprised to pull RED ORANGE from my box...and then I was tickled, as I realized that this color could connect with my YELLOW ORANGE inspired poem earlier this month.

One truth about National Poetry Month is that it always makes clear to me just how quickly time does go.  At the start of the month, there are no color poems.  And then, suddenly, there are 26.  Time.  A little bit of work each day adds up. 

If you are Writing the Rainbow with me, perhaps your color for today will connect with a different poem you have written before, maybe a color poem and maybe not.  But know this - poems do partner themselves sometimes.  It happens.

If you're new to writing poetry, you might wish to look at the line breaks in this poem.  Why do you think I ended the different lines as I did?  I tried a few different versions, one with lines doubly long, but this sounded best to me in the end.

Colors can take us anywhere.  And if you'd like to join in with your own poem at our Writing the Rainbow Padlet, please do! It is one colorful and beautiful place to visit..

And please don't miss the links to all kinds of Poetry Month goodness up there in my upper left sidebar.  Happy twenty-sixth day of National Poetry Month!

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.

Snowman Slippers - Poem #27 for April 2014 Poetry Project

LIVE!

Learn about this, my April 2014 Poetry Project, HERE!

Snowman Slippers

Photo by Amy LV

Students - Today's poem is showing up late in the day, the latest post time so far this month.  It has been a good and busy weekend full of visitors and sporting events, and so at last I sit and think and write and revise and record.

I have been saving this snowman slippers picture for a couple of weeks now. They are so cute, and although I've written about footwear two other times this month with Orange Boots on April 6 and Dancing Shoes on April 10, I could not let these snowman slippers slip by.

One thing you might notice in today's verse is that there is just one rhyme sound throughout the whole poem: toes/grows/knows/clothes/slows/snows.  I very much enjoyed writing this and wrote it quite quickly, in about twenty minutes.  I like it too.  This is a poem that I consider a present-to-me.  I sat there, and someone else wrote it through me.  Sometimes, as I've said before, we are given such little writing presents from the writing great beyond.  We get them, I think, because we have worked very hard on other days.

Snowman Slippers - Draft Page Spread #1

Photo by Amy LV

As I worked on today's poem, another poem came to mind, one that also uses the -ose rhyme.  If you'd like to have a good giggle and lots of fun watching a tongue twister dance movie clip, peek at Moses Supposes His Toeses are Roses from SINGIN' IN THE RAIN with Gene Kelly and Dennis O'Connor.

Yesterday's post about a stringless violin offers my last giveaway for April 2014.  Please simply leave a comment there if you are interested in being entered into a drawing for one of two books.

Please share a comment below if you wish.

Stuffed Raccoon - Poem #17 for April 2014 Poetry Project

LIVE!

Learn about this, my April 2014 Poetry Project, HERE!

Stuffed Raccoon

Photo by Amy LV

Students - I have been saving this raccoon photograph for several days because I think it is so adorable.  It is actually part of a picture with more stuffed animals, but I just chose one for today's poem.

Three Cute Stuffed Animals

Photo by Amy LV

I was not sure where to begin for today's verse because I did not want to write a too-sad poem.  Even though sometimes I feel a little sad in thrift stores, wondering where all of the people went, I did not want sadness to take me or this collection over.

I dove into my notebook and came up with a poemdraft I liked.

Stuffed Raccoon - Draft Page Spread #1 

Photo by Amy LV

Or so I thought.

First Typed Poemdraft - Done?  No.

Today's post was all done - I thought.  Poem typed.  Poem recorded.  Draft photographed.  It was just to comment.  In doing so, I saw that the poem had a little typo, so I went in to fix it.  Something was bothering me in the poem. Actually three things, but I didn't know that yet.  

The first niggly trouble was that the poem felt just too sad after all.  I do feel sad when I see stuffed animals in thrift stores, but again, I didn't want my occasional melancholy feeling to pervade this collection.  I was going to keep it anyway though, for now, because it was after midnight and I was sleepy.

The second thing that bothered me was that whole part about girls and boys and women and men.  It felt too...too...sophisticated and adult.  I was going to keep it anyway though, for now, because it was after midnight and I was sleepy.

The third thing?  Well, I reread the poem to myself one more time, and something sounded familiar.  Do you know what it was?  

The word 'again.'

I ended April 9th's poem - "Bicycle" - with 'again.'  This would not do.  It was back to the drawing board for another ending.  Then another typing.  Another recording.  Even though it was way after midnight and I was sleepy.

Reading my final version for today, above, I noticed something interesting.  The sound of this poem reminds me of the sound of a poem I wrote last year, "Moon Mama."  It has that same rolling sound and the question in the middle and the sense of looking back too.  I read this poem many times aloud on Monday and Tuesday during school visits at St. John's School in Houston, Texas, and the rhythms, reinforced by my voice and through my body, came back in this poem for today.

This is why we read poems aloud over and over and over; they come back to us in surprising ways. 

(Oh!  If you're wondering if I noticed that yesterday's poem includes the word 'small' in its first line, just as today's does, I did notice, and I will likely change that poem's first line to read, "A big box of picture frames...")

Please share a comment below if you wish.

Growing - Poems about Time & Change

How Tall are Heidi & Amy?

Photo by Amy LV

A couple of weeks ago I shared a poem called "Mysteries" about my recently-sold childhood home.  During my last visit to our home, I walked around taking photographs of everything I would want to remember, those distinct and touchable-smellable-feelable rooms of childhood.  

A few weeks later, my sister said, "I would love a photo of that wall where Dad used to mark our heights."  I said, "I got it."  For this was an important bit of space for me too.  I remember standing up straight underneath Dad's flat hand at both seven and at sixteen, wondering if I had grown and changed.  Can you see how my dad painted AROUND our heights when he repainted the back hall?  

Students - Writing this poem helped me see one way that time passes in my life - how my body grows and changes.  There are so many ways to notice change and growth.  Our new puppy, Sage, is getting bigger, and we can tell by how heavy she is in our arms.  As a little girl, I listened to our grandfather clock singing and bonging on the quarter hour.  This month, I am marking time by the Concord grapes filling our porch edges, the abundance of cider apples at the market, and the acorns littering our driveway like so much confetti.  How do you know that time is passing?   Try choosing one change in your life and follow it through a poem.  The choices are infinite.

Mom's Clock

Photo by Amy LV

Since I mentioned my wonderful sister today, I would also like to celebrate Kristine O'Connell George's newest book, EMMA DILEMMA, all about two sisters.  As an older sister, this poem rings honest and beautiful and funny and bittersweet, all at the same time.  You can check out the Facebook page for EMMA DILEMMA here and see a photo of Heidi and me here!

Shop Indie Bookstores

Time does bring new things, and today I would like to welcome you to my very new blog, Sharing Our Notebooks.  In this new space, I will post and share a variety of notebooks for your nosy-peeking-pleasure.  I seek notebooks of all types: student, chef, inventor, writer, jotter, doodler, painter, any and all pages are welcome.  Please consider joining this blog fit for classroom and personal use, highlighting notebooks of children and adults alike!

Today's Poetry Friday post is over at Secrets and Sharing Soda. Head on over there to read some great poems-about-poetry and to enjoy all of the links!

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