Two Dogs - Combining Reality and Fantasy

Dog Brushing

by Amy LV

Students - Today's verse grew from an interruption.  I was writing in my notebook yesterday morning when our daughter walked into the room to tell me how when pulling some burdocks from Sage, she pulled out a huge clump of fur.  This reminded me of times we've brushed huge piles of fur out of Sage, times we've said, "We could make a new dog out of this pile!"

Once again, I learned that paying attention to the world - even when writing - can yield an idea.  It may be a weird idea, but an idea nonetheless.

Sound-wise, today's poem is a little bit breathless.  I could have broken it up into stanzas (where would you do this?) but instead, I kept the lines in one big blob.  I did this because I like the way the lines run all into each other, the way this makes a reader read more quickly.  It feels like a story-I-want-to-tell-now!

Often, I will take a bit from my real life and then play with the reality, adding just a wee bit of fantasy.  The dog is real.  We really brush her.  We really get a pile of fur. The fur pile really feels large enough to make a new dog. But the magic words?  Nope.  And the new dog growing?  Nope.  That's where I play.  Try this yourself  sometime. Start real.  End unreal. 

Our Dog Sage

Photo by ? LV

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He's My Bud - Poems from Life & Books

Goldfish Backpack

by Amy LV

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

Students - When I was a little girl, my grandmother had a pet goldfish.  His (her?) name was Goldie, and he (she?) lived in a fish tank on Grandma's kitchen counter.  He (she?) got bigger and bigger and then stopped, just as they say fish do, depending on the size of the tank.

How did I get the idea for today's poem?  I have no idea!  But as I trace back in my mind, I think it may because last week, I read aloud Dan Yaccarino's THE BIRTHDAY FISH, an adorable book which includes a picture of a girl pulling her fish bowl in a wagon.  This picture must have stayed with me.  That and Goldie, of course.  I often pretend to know what other creatures are thinking...and goldfish probably do want to travel a bit more.  Don't you think?

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If you are not sure what to write about today, you might want to read a picture book or a magazine first.  What picture strikes you?  What does it make you think and wonder?  Just start writing, and see what happens.  You might surprise yourself.  I did.

Almost every line in this poem has eight syllables.  But there are four lines with only seven syllables. Can you find them?  You may also notice that the last two lines are much shorter, really one line broken in two.. Sometimes it's neat to finish a poem like that, funneling it down to a slowed-down, short-line ending.

This week I am thrilled to have author Kate Messner visiting Sharing Our Notebooks.  If you are notebook keeper, you will want to visit here to peek inside her notebooks.  If you are a teacher and your class keeps notebooks, this site is growing to be quite full and useful!

Remember, it is Banned Books Week and also time to nominate books for the Cybils too!  Here you can see the poetry books that have already been nominated.

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Y is for YET

Y is for YET

Photo by Amy LV

Cali in 2009

Photo by ?

We're pet lovers here at Heart Rock Farm. With 2 dogs, 5 cats, a rabbit, 7 sheep, 14ish chickens, and a fish, (and two class pet guinea pigs spending the weekend), there is always a creature to love. I'm a great believer in pets making people kinder and more responsible too. So when I sat to write a poem using the word YET, I thought of NOT YET, and then I thought about things that parents might say NOT YET about.

Our family is trying to learn to say NO MORE when it comes to pets!

Students - This short and simple poem is written in rhyming couplets - each pair of two lines rhymes at the ends of the lines.  I do not write often in couplets, but this poem felt so simple and sad that I wanted the meter to match. What do you notice about the syllables?  Do you notice anything else about this poem?  (Hint - look at the ending.)

If you are new to The Poem Farm, welcome! This month I have been walking, letter-by-letter, through the dictionary (closed-eyed), pointing to a letter each day, and writing from it. You can read poems A-X by checking the sidebar, and you can visit Lisa Vihos and read her accompanying daily haiku at, Lisa's Poem of the Week. In today's comments, watch for Lisa's Haiku and also Christophe's haiku. It's a lot of fun to meet new friends in the poetry forest.

Over at my other blog, Sharing Our Notebooks, there are two new peekable notebooks. So if you are a notebook-keeper, a notebook-keeper-hopeful, or a teacher who uses notebooks in your classroom, please don't miss Suz Blackaby's post about her process and word tickets or Allan Wolf's post about wall writing and butt books.

Monday is the first chalking celebration over at Teaching Young Writers. Join organizer-Betsy, Linda from TeacherDance, many others, and me as we chalk, photograph, and share poems. April 30!

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

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O is for OVER

O is for OVER

Photo by Amy LV

April 13, 2012

Poster by Georgia LV

Our cat was missing last week.  We'd gone on holiday, visiting family in Vermont and Massachusetts, and when we got home, our cat Mini was gone. We found a few bits of his fur, and knowing there are coyotes around these parts, we feared the worst.  In my mind, he was gone.  

Georgia, on the other hand, had the gumption to make signs on Friday, and Mark hung them on trees nearby. Yesterday morning, as I slept, I suddenly felt something on the bed.  It was....Mini!  Mark had found him in the yard, skittish and difficult to catch, but home.  We shared a can of tuna to celebrate, and I feel sure that Mini read Georgia's signs, knew he was loved, and thought, "I'd better get back to them."

Students - This poem is a true story poem.  I happened to pick an easy word for today, and I was happy to have something that would work with this family news.  I was also a bit excited to see that OVER is a guide word in my dictionary.  It's the first guide word of the Dictionary Hike!

You will notice that the first three stanzas of this poem are quatrains, but the rest of the poem is not structured in quatrains, even though the rhyme is. When you get to the fourth through sixth stanzas, things are a little different. The waiting changes to bleakness and then that one line of JOY followed by thinking and quiet rejoicing.  

One line standing alone packs power, and when you decide on line breaks, you determine how others will read your poem.  I thought about that a lot in writing today's poem.

The whole Mini story has special significance this week, because today I am honored to be visiting Greg Pincus over at Gotta Book for his 30 Poets/30 Days series.  The poem I sent to Greg weeks ago was inspired by Mini, and earlier this week I feared it would be a memorial poem.  Not so!  Mini lives on, and if you visit Gotta Book today, you can read about his double life.  (Perhaps this is what Mini was doing last week.)  Thank you so much, Greg, for inviting me to participate in this year's...

In case you are new to The Poem Farm, this month I am walking, letter-by-letter, through the dictionary, (closed-eyed) pointing to a letter each day, and writing from it. You can read poems A-N by checking the sidebar, and you visit Lisa Vihos and read her accompanying daily haiku at, Lisa's Poem of the Week.

You may also be interested to know that I have categorized 200 poems by both topic and technique - see the top tabs.  300 to go.

Many congratulations to Jone and Myra!  You have each won a copy of NASTY BUGS by Lee Bennett Hopkins!  Please send your snail mail address to my e-mail address at amy at amylv dot com.  I will be heading to the post office to send off your books this week!

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