Time Trains - Following the Line

Trains and Stars

by Amy LV

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

Students - Today's poem started one place and ended another, just like a train does.  Did you notice that?  I started with a child listening to a father's watch ticking...and then by the end, we were looking up at the stars.  Sometimes that happens in a poem; it takes you on a little trip.  This happened to me today, and I decided I wanted to travel along.

This poem was probably a bit inspired by Colleen Schultz's March 17, 2013 column in PARADE magazine in our local paper.  The column is called "The Things I'd Carry", and it is about five special objects in her house, including an old cookie jar from her parents and a paper mache Statue of Liberty made by her daughter.  I cut this article out to keep and started to ask myself what I would keep. And it is funny, but I wouldn't actually keep a watch at all.  But object-thought led to object-thought, and somehow I was a child listening to a watch, holding a big hairy dad wrist and daydreaming.  Who knew?

You'll notice that this poem is written in quatrains, four lines per stanza.  And the lines are short, the words simple.  I have learned that I like to write poems like this and that this rhyme scheme and feel is often the voice I choose.

I am not able to find Colleen's object article online yet, but if I do, I'll share it with you.  In the meantime, you might allow her idea to let you think about objects for a little while. What would you carry and keep if you could only choose a few things?  You may find that you will like to write about one or many of those objects...or you may find that just thinking about objects gets you thinking in some interesting directions as happened with me.

Today I am happy to share that I received 300 copies of my almost-out book, FOREST HAS A SONG.  They're for my party next week, and I wish you could all come.

Oh My!

Photo by Amy LV

I am very happy to welcome Angela Stockman to Sharing Our Notebooks, my blog about writers notebooks, this month.  Visit here to take a peek inside her notebooks and leave a comment to be entered into a drawing to win one of her favorite books.

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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Just Like I Used To Do...

Memories

by Amy LV

Students - lately I have been focusing more on writing regularly in my notebook. It may because of all of the peeks I've been taking into others' notebooks at my new blog, Sharing Our Notebooks. It may because I'm digging into Julia Cameron's book FINDING WATER: THE ART OF PERSEVERANCE. But no matter the reason, I'm so glad to be nestling into fresh pages this fall.

Yesterday I was diddling along in my book, writing about the quiet morning, the colors outside my window, and the steam-patterns rising from my mug of tea. I always allow myself to change directions, switch ideas at any time, let the writing find its path, and that's just what I was doing. At once I was writing about a memory I've told you before.

Years ago, when Mark and I lived in the suburbs, we had some sweet girl-neighbors. One day they came by to swing their dolls in our blue hammock...but they had their dolls hidden in plastic bags so no one would see that they still liked dolls. Well, I still like dolls. And I like my daughters' dolls too, even though none of us play with them so much any more. Dolls, like so many other things, feel alive to me.

So during yesterday's writing time, I imagined one small interaction between a girl (Me? My daughter? My old neighbor girl?) and her doll, a little snatch of pretend-time. In it, I saw me as a little girl and my daughters as grown-ups, my mother as a child, and me as a grandma. We girl-women in my family all used to play dolls, but so suddenly it seems that things change. Just yesterday I was putting plastic ice skates on my Ginny doll. And now...I'm a real mom! Strange.

In Jamie Lee Curtis's book WHEN I WAS LITTLE: A FOUR YEAR OLD'S MEMOIR OF HER YOUTH, the narrator talks about things she "used to do." What did you "used to do"? Try making a list of all of the things you used to do...and all of the things you do now. Choose one thing and write, write, write. Don't think too hard; just follow the line of your pencil.

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Dar Williams illustrates a feeling of change very well for me in her song, one of my favorite songs, "When I Was A Boy."

One way which I feel very privileged to be spending some of my autumnwinter time is as a first round poetry judge for the 2011 CYBILS. The CYBILS are the Children's and Young Adult Bloggers' Literary Awards, and nominations for every category begin tomorrow, October 1 and go through October 15. To learn more about the CYBILS, visit here.

Happy Poetry Friday to all! Sara is hosting today's Poetry Friday roundup over at Read Write Believe.

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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!

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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!

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Poem #347 Brings Daylight Saving Time

Clock

by Amy LV

Happy Daylight Saving Time!

Yesterday I listened to an interview with Howard Mansfield in which he spoke about TURN AND JUMP, his book focusing on how we perceive time.  "Spring ahead.  Fall back."  That's what my mom always used to say.  Daylight Saving Time is a funny thing.

Here at the Naval Oceanography Portal, you can read a bit of history about Daylight Savings Time in the US as well as the dates for Daylight Savings Time for the past and next several years.

As for funny stories around here regarding Daylight Saving Time...one fall we invited friends  for dinner, and I could not figure out why there were soooo rudely late.  'Turns out I had not changed our clocks back.  And last night I looked at the kitchen clock, stunned that it was already 11pm.  'Turns out Mark had set the clocks back early!

Students - occasionally the calendar dictates our writing.  Today was one of those times for me.  What on the calendar interests you?  Is there a month, a holiday, a special birthday or anniversary that makes you want to sit and write or sit and draw or sing?

Teachers - DAYS TO CELEBRATE, edited by Lee Bennett Hopkins, includes calendars with fascinating facts about different dates as well as several timely poems for each month.  It's a handy and interesting classroom resource, illustrated beautifully by Stephen Alcorn.

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There are two states in the United States which do not honor Daylight Saving Time.  Do you know which ones they are?  Check npr to find out.

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