Velcro Stories Want to Become Poems

One Adored Dog

Photo by a Loved One

Students - This poem is based on a true story.  I only know a little bit of the story, but I filled in the rest, inventing details that felt real and possible to me. Sometimes we see or hear or learn a story and it never ever leaves us. When I heard about this story, I could not let it go.  Or maybe...it could not let me go.

Stories that stick to us like velcro in our hearts are ones that want to be written.  A writer can write any story as a poem, and even if you've written a story out in long form before, you can try rewriting it as a poem.  Story poems are called narrative poems, and as is true with all poems, they need not rhyme at all.

I enjoyed playing with this new meter and as usual tap, tap, tapped as I wrote. Tapping syllables on a table or on my cheek helps me feel the rhythm of a poem in my body.

Visit my notebooks blog, Sharing Our Notebooks, to find out who won the Decomposition Notebook. And stay tuned, as there will be a new notebooks post coming this weekend.

Thank you to Rebecca who is hosting today's Poetry Friday over at Sloth Reads, a post celebrating a day I never knew existed with a poem I never knew existed - double fun! 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.

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.

For My Faraway Friend - Poems about Real Feelings

Cat in La Alberca, Spain

Photo by Amy LV

Students - I just returned from a week in La Alberca, Spain, as part of a program that included both Spanish and English speaking adults.  It was a beautiful time, and in one short week, all of us became good friends.  Now, we are all back or heading back to our own homes, knowing how far away we all live from each other, wondering if we will ever meet again.  It reminded me of my childhood days at summer camp, when a week can begin with complete strangers and end with dear friends.

So, today's poem is about the real feelings I have in my heart right now.  Though I took many actual photographs of the time with my new Spanish and Anglo friends, I also took pictures with my heart.  And those will always be with me.

What feelings are in your heart right now?  There are probably many, feelings right in the living room of your heart, and feelings in the attic too.  Poke around.  You might just find a poem idea in there.

Mary Lee is hosting this week's Poetry Friday roundup over at A Year of Reading.  Visit her place to find out what all of the moo-ing is all about!

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.

Day 20 - National Poetry Month 2015 - Sing That Poem!

Happy National Poetry Month!

Welcome to Day 20 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 Spice Song.  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.

Love Lasts

by Amy LV

Students - Today's poem is for all of us who have lost people.  Some of us have lost loved ones to death, some to moving, some for a time to prison, some to an argument...there are many ways to lose a loved one and that feeling of wanting to be near again is one that people of all ages can understand.

The other week at a school assembly, a young boy said to me, "My mother told me that if someone you love dies or goes away, you can keep the person inside of you with your love."  He is right.  

Poems grow from feelings.  And poems can heal feelings too.

Please share a comment below if you wish.

Field & Difficult Goodbyes

Field

Photo by Amy LV

When I was a little girl, our home was surrounded by fields.  And so of course, my sister Heidi, the neighbors, and I would play and play and play in the ditches and goldenrod patches, pretending we were runaway orphans, animals, anything and everything.  We'd pat down the weeds and hide ourselves in there for hours, and the green stems really felt like solid walls.  These neighboring fields were my second home, my imagination home.

In time, each field was bulldozed into a lot for a new house, and the locations of our small hideaways disappeared, turning, one-by-one, into grassy yards and basements.  Progress goes on, but sometimes it makes me feel sad.

Students -This is a poem about change, and it is also about a loss that made me a little bit empty.  You will notice that structurally, this verse is simply a list of descriptions, closing up with a question and statement.  Writing this poem didn't make the houses go away, but giving voices to my feelings helped me to say goodbye and maybe, to connect with other people who have felt this same way.

If you're interested in thinking more about children spending more time in nature, visit the Children & Nature Network, an organization brimming with generous and wise resources for home and classroom.

Please share a comment below if you wish.

To find a poem by topic, click here. To find a poem by technique, click here.

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