First Catch - A Poem for Two Voices

Sarah the Manx

Photo by ?? LV

(Click to Enlarge)

Students - This is a poem for two voices.  You can see it is written in two columns, and one side is for one reader (the human) and one is for another reader (the kitten).  To read the poem, readers take turns reading their lines in order of how they fall down the page.  When two lines sit side-by-side, both readers read at the same time.  You can hear my son Henry and I read it together above.

We have five cats here at The Poem Farm now, and lately Sarah has been bringing back little dead voles to the back door.  When she catches one, she meows loudly so that we will come to the glass door to praise her.  Early last week, she brought a vole back, and I took it away from her.  The next time she came with one, she ran away with it as soon as I opened the door.  It is confusing to be a cat parent sometimes.

I had the good fortune to visit two schools last week as a visiting author: H.B. Milnes school in Fair Lawn, New Jersey, and Vernfield Elementary in Telford, Pennsylvania.  They were wonderful visits for me, and at Vernfield, I wrote a bit with the third graders.  One thing we talked about was two possible ways to write a poem:

to something (poem of address)
or
as something (mask poem).

I wrote on a chart in front of them, pretending to be my kitty, proud to have caught a bird.  Then, in my notebook, I wrote from my own perspective, how I feel when Sarah catches a small animal.  I want to be proud...but...I am sad for the wee bird or vole or mouse too.

Below, you can see the chart paper on which I started the mask side of the poem.

Here is my notebook-play of speaking to the kitten.

And then above you can see the mash up.  It was interesting to write a two voice poem in this way.

After visiting H.B. Milnes school, and later, Vernfield Elementary in Telford, PA, I had the good fortune to attend part of the 2015 KSRA Conference in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.  As part of the Thursday Poetry Evening, poet Sara Holbrook invited me to co-read a poem for two voices from her book  WHAM! IT'S A POETRY JAM.  This, I believe, is what made me choose to write today's poem as a poem for two voices, what helped me decide to mix together the two short demonstration drafts from Vernfield - the good feeling of reading with a friend.

WHAM! IT'S A POETRY JAM is a wonderful book, and if you like performing poetry - or if you've never tried to perform poetry - you will want to check it out. Sara is a fantastic writer, and I loved reading from this great book right with the author herself!

Published by Boyds Mills Press 

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In notebook-news, if you have not yet commented on author Jeff Anderson's post at my other blog, Sharing Our Notebooks, please do.  You may win a copy of his first middle grade novel, ZACK DELACRUZ: ME AND MY BIG MOUTH.  Jeff is author of many of my favorite professional books for teaching writing, and I highly recommend you check out his project journal post.

Last week' Poetry Friday roundup, in case you missed it (as I did) was is at Jama's Alphabet Soup.  There you will find Penny Klostermann's beautiful poetic buttons wrapped up in teddy bears, in chocolates, and in all manner of happiness.

Please leave a comment below if you wish.

Two Flowers - Compare & Contrast

Rose and Dandelion
by Amy LV

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

Students - Today's poem grew from some scratchings in my notebook. A few months ago, I wrote many of the flower-spoken words you read above, but as I reread them and thought about Monday's post about Thistle and about the YA novel I am currently reading - UGLIES by Scott Westerveld - I realized that I am thinking a lot about freedom vs. captivity lately.  I'm not sure why that is, but when you are writing regularly, you can see patterns in your mind and heart.  That's why I keep a notebook - to know what I think!

When I scribbled the beginnings of this poem in my notebook, I only had the lines from the flowers, but as I continued to work on it, I decided it would be fun to "bookend" it with some thinking and a question, the stanzas in italics. One of my favorite poems is Alley Violinist by Robert Lax, and I especially like how it leaves the reader with a question.

In addition to having different voices, this poem uses a technique we call "personification" which means that the writer gives an object or animal human characteristics.  In this case, I let the flowers think and talk. (It's funny, though, because I think that they actually DO talk and it's not a poetic technique at all!) This poem is also a compare/contrast poem, juxtaposing the lives of two flowers.  

So...here are a few things to think about today:  keep your notebook and save those thought-treasures, consider writing something that compares two different things, listen to objects and animals talking (or pretend you can), and remember that you can end your writing with a question.

This week over at Sharing Our Notebooks, I welcome author Peter Salomon and congratulate him on his forthcoming book, HENRY FRANKS. Please stop by and read about his first notebooks, and enter yourself in the giveaway of his new book - coming out this week!

If you are interested in entering to win a copy of THE POETRY FRIDAY ANTHOLOGY (in which I am happy to have 5 poems!), please stop by Friday's post and leave a comment there.  Thistle will draw a winning name on Thursday night, and I will announce the winner on Poetry Friday!

This week also marks a change in The Poem Farm schedule - I am now back and posting poems and poem greetings each Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Please come back and visit for lessons, poem ideas, book recommendations, and classroom Poetry Peeks.  If you are a classroom teacher or homeschooling parent, I invite you to share your students' poetry or your poem teaching ideas here.  If you are interested, please send me an e-mail to amy at amylv dot com, and I will get right back to you.

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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Finding Answers - A Poem for Two Voices

Hope Looks for Eggs & Answers

Photo by Amy LV

Students - Earlier this week, I had the chance to visit Dale Sondericker's looping third grade students at Marilla Primary. They invited me to their classroom because they were having difficulty reading one of my poems - Two Hemispheres - and they wanted me to tell them how I thought it should be read.

We had an interesting talk about the different ways they tried reading the poem and what I had in mind. It was a treat to hear these children's voices read that poem aloud (it's hard to revise a poem like this when you're only one voice reading aloud), and I liked their way as much as the way I'd envisioned the poem being read. As I left the classroom, Dale stressed to his young writers that if you don't know something in reading, if you can't talk with the author, you can figure out what makes the most sense to you. Wise words.

Later in the day of my visit, Dale told me that when I left, one girl said, "I still like our way better." Hooray! So, today's poem is for Mr. Sondericker's third grade writers who read aloud together, who ask questions, and who find answers inside of themselves.

Kate Coombs is hosting today's Poetry Friday roundup over at Book Aunt. Along with sharing everyone's dish to pass today, Kate gives us a peek at some of the "magic tinged" poems that did not make it into her forthcoming book, WATER SINGS BLUE. Visit, read, ask questions, feast!

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Two Hemispheres - MyPoWriYe Poem #94

Thank you to all who visited here for Poetry Friday.  It was festive and fun to host it for the first time.

Yesterday afternoon we went to the local swimming pool.  It's summer here, and our family is dressed in shorts and swimsuits.   On the other side of the world, though, it's winter and time for stocking caps and snowsuits.  Then, in a few months, when we don our snow boots and mittens, our friends across the Earth will be barefoot in sunglasses.  It's so funny and strange how the world spins 'round.  This is a poem for two voices.

Students - what fascinates you about other people in other places?  These fascinations are an endless pool of writing ideas.  Just leaf through books about different countries, and allow yourself to daydream about people, animals, languages...see if you can connect yourself and your life to anyone in your books.

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MyPoWriYe #54 - Poem for Two Voices

I have always enjoyed reading poems for two voices, poems like the ones in Paul Fleischman's book Joyful Noise.  And while this poem began with a back-and-forth structure, it was only as I kept writing that I imagined it as being read by two people.  The ending was the trickiest part, trying to put those voices together.

If you have never read a poem for two voices, it is like a see saw.  Two people take turns with the different sides, alternating lines.  If the two parts are written directly across from each other, both people read them at the exact same time, expressing two different thoughts in the air at once.  It was fun to experiment with this kind of writing.

I am a mother now, but we moms don't always feel like adults.  Sometimes we remember exactly what it felt like to be children, and how some grown up answers did not make sense at all. 

This poem may have sprung from Georgia's question on Saturday.  As soon as we left the driveway for a 4-H event, she asked, "How much longer?"

Here are a few titles with poems for two voices.  Or four! 

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This book by Georgia Heard includes two poems for two voices.

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If anyone out there tries writing a poem for two voices and would like to share, please let me know.  It'd be fun to feature a few of these.  Of if you have favorite books to add to the list above, please do tell!

Last week, Tricia at The Miss Rumphius Effect focused her "Monday Poetry Stretch" on colors.  She posted the submissions yesterday, and my brown poem is cuddled in with the other colorful poems.

'Waiting for more lambs...

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