Flames are Horses - Metaphors

Heat

by Diane Mayr

 

Click the arrow to hear me read this poem to you.

Students - Here you can see another partnership between Diane Mayr and me. I regularly participate in Amy Souza's SPARK, a regular way for artists, musicians, and writers to share work and inspire each other.  This is a poem that I wrote quite a while ago, and I have come back to it again and again...making changes here and there.  Diane's art above was inspired by today's poem, and I think that the way she layered words and images over each other is just hauntingly lovely.

Sometimes we all look at objects or places and think, "This looks just like...."  or "This makes me think of...."    or "This is a...."  When we compare two things in such a way, we are thinking metaphorically, allowing one thing to become something else in our minds.  In today's poem, you can see that the flames really do become horses: galloping, cantering, riding night, leaving hoof prints.  That is so because in this poem, I wanted to hold one comparison in my hand (flames are horses) and carry it all of the way through every stanza.

You might wish to try this sometime. Stare around the room you sit in right now, or out of your bus window, or into the night sky.  Does something make you think about something else?  Is the connection strong enough that you might weave a whole poem around it?  Your class might like to try this together first.  If you do, please let me know!

Our other pairing (with Diane's photograph inspiring my poem) is posted here at SPARK, and I also posted it last Poetry Friday. I thank Diane for our collaboration and look forward to SPARK 18!

Today is National Punctuation Day!  Here are a few poems from the archives to help you celebrate: Inky Flyers, Emily Apostrophe, and Nolan the Colon.

This week over at my other blog, Sharing Our Notebooks, Barry Lane shares his notebooks and offers a generous giveaway of two of his books about writing and a CD.  A winner will be drawn on Sunday, September 30...the beginning of Banned Books Week!

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Posters - Do You Love Horses?

Horse by the Side of the Road

Photo by Amy LV

Today is my day off and the first time I've touched a computer in a week - glorious!  Why?  Well, these two weeks find our children and me at Sprucelands Horseback Riding Camp where they are campers, and I am a hill parent.  On Wednesday, the Sprucelands riding instructors offered an evening riding lesson to us moms, and it was such fun! 

Our teachers were extremely patient, and we students walked and trotted around Ring One, laughing and learning together.  I rode a beautiful Appaloosa named Sunrise, and for the first time, I understood why so many people (including Hope, Georgia, and Henry) adore horses.  I will post a photo of this lesson as soon as I have one.

Students - sometimes a poem idea comes from something you feel grateful for.  Today I feel grateful for many things, including my friends and teachers from horse camp.  Taking a few minutes each day to reflect on good happenings is wise, and one fourth grade teacher I know even has her students do this daily in their writers notebooks.   Writing about our "goodnesses" helps us hold onto them and also, I believe, makes us even more grateful.  For what are you thankful? 

One of my favorite things to do in writing is to bring inanimate objects to life through words, and I loved imagining my children's paper horses breathing and cantering around their bedrooms.  There is magic in everything, and in a poem...anything can happen! 

Today's Poetry Friday is over at Book Aunt...so giddy up on over and enjoy the ride.  Many congratulations to our hostess Kate Coombs whose upcoming poetry collection with Chronicle, WATER SINGS BLUE, will be out next Spring.

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