Writing with the Senses

Finnish Coffee Braids

Photo by Amy LV

Students - I baked the bread you see in this picture yesterday afternoon, and it really IS Mrs. Roske's braided bread recipe. When I was a little girl, our church had a yearly bake sale, and every year I waited for that bread. Every year we bought it...if it was still there. This is a Finnish bread made with my favorite spice, cardamom, and as you can see, it's brushed with a sugar glaze. It is fun to paint the bread with a paintbrush!

Beginning today's poem, I planned to write a free verse poem, though a little rhyme did creep in. More important is the repetition of Mrs. Roske's braided bread, because hearing those words again in the poem mimics the way I thought about that bread in my mind over and over -- before, during, and after eating.

Does my stomach really have ears? Well, in a way. In a way. And for a poem, in a way is enough. In fact, sometimes in a way is even better than really.

I feel very lucky to still have this recipe, copied from our church's old cookbook. And as I plan to do more bread baking, it felt right to begin again with my favorite.

Favorite Old Recipe

Photo by Amy LV

Do you have a food that sings to your stomach? Do you love a smell that sings to your nose? Is there a sight that sings to your eyes? Or a texture that sings to your sense of touch? Remember, our senses feed our poetry selves. Pay attention to your senses. You might even make lists in your notebook of favorite things to see, smell, touch, hear, and taste. Any one item from any one list could call a new piece of writing from within you. If you like, mix your senses up a bit as I did, allowing my stomach to hear.

As you write, you may choose to play with a repeating word or line. If you're unsure if your choice works, read the words aloud a couple of different ways to see which sounds (feels) best to your ear (stomach).

Happy New Year wishes to all of you, and thank you for your companionship on my writing journey. I am grateful for you. If you'd like to find a Poem Farm New Year Poem, here you go:

2011 - January 1
2014 - New Year's Eve
2016 - Wisdom

Michelle is hosting this week's Poetry Friday roundup at at Michelle Kogan with a poem and artwork reminding readers of the importance of activism at this time in our earth's history. We invite everybody to join in each Friday as we share poems, poem books, poetry ideas, and friendship. Check out my left sidebar to learn where to find this poetry goodness every week throughout the new year ahead.

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.

A Goodbye to Gloria

Goodbye, Gloria!
Video by Amy LV

Students - Many times I have heard this quote by Italian writer Cesare Pavese: "We do not remember days, we remember moments." I will always remember a moment from this week...the moment when our first monarch butterfly walked up my arm and flew away.

Earlier this summer, I popped in from summer with a post about the milkweed plants in our front garden.  It was Welcome to monarchs.  Today, almost two months later, I say Goodbye.  

Yesterday, I was writing about the week and about Gloria in my notebook. It was at the top of my third page of writing that I wrote the sentence below.

August 30, 2018 Notebook Snip

Photo by Amy LV

Immediately, I placed asteriks around the four words and moved to a new page to begin a poem.

One of my favorite parts of notebook keeping is the not-knowing.  Which words will arrive?  Which words will those words next invite?

Rereading today's poem, I now realize that both this one and my poem from two weeks ago refer to actions not taken rather than actions taken.  It is curious to me how various themes and patterns emerge and repeat within a short writing time span.  Once again I find myself thankful that through writing, I come to understand and see.  You might consider trying this yourself.  Rather than writing about something that DID happen or IS happening, write about what DID NOT happen or WILL NEVER happen.  It's an upside down way of looking at things and often reveals a new thought.

I wish you had all experienced Gloria's glorious flight with me and am happy to offer you these pictures.

The Ghost of Gloria

Photo by Amy LV

Why, Hello, Girl!

Photo by Amy LV

Friendly Butterfly

Photo by Amy LV

A Monarch on Her Own

Photo by Amy LV

If you ever feel at a loss for what to write about - or at a loss for joy - spend some time with plants and animals and weather and sky.  The natural world is evergiving.

Robyn is hosting this week's Poetry Friday roundup at Life on the Deckle Edge. Each week we gather together, sharing poems, books, and poetry ideas all at one blog.  All are always welcome to visit, comment, and post.

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.

I Build, Fun Poetry Mondays, and Poemdesigns

Our Daughter Hope Built a Stool
Photo by Amy LV

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

Students - Today's poem is a shortie and a sweetie.  It is about something that I believe is very important: making things.  I love making things, and I love watching other people make things too.

Did you notice how each line except the last one begins the same way and then the last line is an invitation?  I very much like inviting readers right into a poem.  What do you build?  (Me?  Poems!)

Today I am very happy to welcome second grade teacher Laurie Luft and her students from Terry Taylor Elementary in Spencerport, NY.  I had the opportunity to visit their classroom in June, and I learned about something new and neat: Fun Poetry Mondays. Welcome, Laurie and students!

Teacher Laurie Luft

Photo by Librarian Mrs. Paul

Click the arrow to hear a Fun Poetry Friday welcome!

The Fun Poetry Friday Folder

Photo by Laurie Luft

Have you ever heard of Fun Poetry Mondays?  This was an idea that my student Meghan had for sharing poems over the loudspeaker of our school each Monday after announcements.  She quickly had three other students get on board with her idea: Trevor, Arriyanna, and Taylor.  They planned and practiced.  First, they decided to write and share theme-poems about famous people.  Then they worked on the roles each one of them would have in the group,

The Fun Poetry Monday group met daily, wrote the opening and closing "jingle", decided on the poem to be read the following Monday, and then practiced the announcement. It was so exciting to see a student-driven project like this come out of one student's love of poetry! 

I was the facilitator and would check in with the group periodically throughout the week to provide guidance and make suggestions. The group performed three Fun Poetry Mondays during the month of June, and I am so proud of them for their creativity, collaboration, and ability to apply those 21st Century critical thinking skills on this real-life project. 

These students got to share their love of poetry and their project idea with Mrs. VanDerwater when she visited. They were so excited! 

Meghan wrote and shared a poem about Amelia Earhart.

Amelia Earhart 
by Meghan

I will find her.
I know I will.
Amelia Earhart.
Her story is sad but I will find her.
She should be somewhere in the Howlind ISlands.
I will.  I know I will.
Amelia Earhart wrote a letter
to her husband
Before she left on her big flight.

It said...

"I want to do it because I want to do it.  Women must try to do things as
men have tried.  When they fail, their failure must be but a challenge to others."

Meghan and Amy with Meghan's Poem

Photo by Laurie Luft

Click the arrow to hear Meghan read her poem, "I Will Find Her".

Trevor, Arriyanna, Taylor, & Meghan with Amy

Photo by Laurie Luft

It was an absolute delight to visit Laurie Luft and her second graders, and I was so happily surprised to find this wonderful slide show of our time together at the class blog.  Thank you, poet friends and thank you, Laurie Luft, for opening your classroom to me.

Today I also welcome George Welgemoed with two more poemdesigns for poems he found here.  In each of these designs, George has used either his own or his son's photographs (yes, that is George's son's tarantula), and then, through filtering and various brushing effects, he brings the imagery to life. Notice how he uses different fonts and colors to create a mood for each poem. If you click on either one, you will be able to read the poems. I have made a special place here at The Poem Farm for George's work, and you can find it by clicking on the Find a Poem tab above, and then following the link to George's art.

Click to enlarge and read the poems.

Sherry is hosting today's Poetry Friday roundup over at Semicolon, and Matt Forrest is hosting over at Radio, Rhythm, and Rhyme. Poetry Friday is EVERYWHERE.

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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Visit Sharing Our Notebooks to peek in all kinds of notebooks.
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Baby Cereal and Fourth Grade Poets

Yum!

by Amy LV

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

Students - Today's poem is an older one, and it's from a whole collection of baby poems that I have written.  Since Mark and I have three children, we have lots of baby stories, and for a time, I thought that I might join my baby poems together into a book.  Now I don't think so.  I am working on different projects, and so the baby poems are sitting and waiting for another day, another month, another year.

You may have noticed that every line of today's poem begins with the same word.  I got the idea to try this from a poem titled Good Books, Good Times!,  from a book by the same name, by Lee Bennett Hopkins.  There's another interesting technique to notice too, another idea I learned from Lee's poem.  Can you find it?

To write this little poem, I used Lee's great poem, "Good Books, Good Times!" as a mentor poem.  This is a great thing to do.  Find a poem you love, notice something you find interesting about the writing, and then try that interesting thing yourself!  Stand on that poet's shoulders to attempt something new.

Today I am happy to host fourth grade teacher Nathan Monaco and his students from the Arcade Elementary in the Pioneer Central School District.  I thank them for sharing their poetry unit journey.  Welcome, Nathan and students...

This year my 4th grade classroom had fun with an author study unit about poetry using Amy VanDerwater’s writing.  She was generous enough to allow me to use her poetry and her artwork from The Poem Farm as freely as I wanted.  The unit wound up being 3-4 weeks long, and I combined Amy’s poetry with other themes I had learned about through writer’s workshop.

Aiden's Notebook

At the beginning of the poetry unit, my students were less than enthused to say the least.  They shared their malcontent about poetry in general and basically summed it up as boring.  I let them know that they had not been taught poetry by me yet and that they were going to be learning about a poet who they had never heard of.  Each student received a bound copy of a book that my teaching assistant and I had made.  This book contained some of Amy’s poetry split up into sections according to the "technique" sections (line breaks, question poems, mask poems, personification, etc.) on The Poem Farm website.

Before delving into the different types of techniques, my class spent one week learning about the 5 Doors of poetry by Georgia Heard, using each door to think about poems by Amy.  If you have never heard of Georgia Heard, she has a book titled Awakening the Heart: Exploring Poetry in Elementary and Middle School where the idea of the 5 Doors comes from.  

Available through Heinemann

I spent one day on each of Georgia Heard's doors:

• The Heart Door – things that you love, things that are important to you

• The Memory Door – memories from your life: happy, sad, funny, etc

• The Wonder Door – things that you are wondering about, questions you have

• The Observation Door – things that you observe in the world around you

• The Concerns About the World Door – things that concern you, or things that you are thinking about for the world, issues in the world.

One could also invent/introduce all kinds of other doors such as a humor door, but I decided to leave that out as 4th graders can take that too far and ruin the whole mojo of taking poetry seriously.

Day 2 - The Wonder Door

by Evelyn

Day 2 - The Wonder Door

by Gabbie

After the week of comparing Amy’s poetry to the 5 Doors, we were ready to explore her techniques as described in her website.  We read her poetry aloud, discussed why her poems were organized in such a way, patterns the students saw, and of course we talked about the importance/unimportance of rhyming in poetry.  Only one technique was talked about each day, but we kept track of the different techniques on poster boards in the room.  If students were compelled to continue working with one technique, I allowed it, and as the unit went on there was always a technique that a student felt comfortable worked with.  The class spent one week on the different techniques as well.

Week 2 - Personification
by Cheyenne

Our  last week of this unit was spent publishing through a company called Studentreasures, a company that binds student work in hardcover for free.  The actual publishing process for the company is a little tedious, (it took a whole week to publish poetry), but it was completely worth it.

Published Book Cover
by Andrew

Published Inside Book Page
by Marissa

We completed our unit in late March/early April.  Now, in the beginning on June, I still have students choosing to create poetry during writer’s workshop time.  Some students have even created poetry journals, and I would be very confident saying that all students thoroughly enjoyed the poetry unit.

Thank you again to Nathan and his fourth graders for sharing their journey today.  I feel lucky to have had my poems included as part of their study.

All best to all of you for a beautiful week full of poetry and adventure!

Please share a comment below if you wish.

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

Like The Poem Farm on Facebook for more poems, articles, and poemquotes!

Sweet Sweet Dog - Love Poems

Sage, Amy, & Cali

Photo by Elizabeth Pellette

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

Students - If you have a pet or know a friendly pet, then you may know the feeling of wanting to burrow your face into that pet's fur.  Our own two dogs are extremely sweet and surprise us with all of the little ways they show love.  This poem is for Cali and for Sage, for all of the dogs I've ever loved, and for all of your dogs too.  

To start writing today's poem, I first just sat and read lots and lots of poems yesterday afternoon, poems by Aileen Fisher, Eve Merriam, and David McCord.  Then, I opened up my notebook and started to write.  These words are the ones that decided to show up. Well, to be honest, they did not show up exactly like this.  But I moved them and added to them and subtracted from them and just kept going until this is what stayed on the page!

You might have noticed that this poem uses a lot of repetition.  When I talk to dogs, I often repeat myself.  It's important that they understand me. Don't you agree?

In wonderful news, as posted by Lee Bennett Hopkins, Guadalupe Garcia McCall is the recipient of the 2013 LEE BENNETT HOPKINS/INTERNATIONAL READING ASSOCIATION PROMISING POET AWARD for UNDER THE MESQUITE (Lee & Low). In "This stunning debut novel" (School Library Journal) Lupita, a high school freshman, one of eight children born in Mexico, learns her mother is diagnosed with cancer. The tender, free verse, novel deals with Lupita's courage to deal with a life tragedy.

Available through Amazon

And in more fabulous Lee Bennett Hopkins award news, Kate Coombs won this year's Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award for her picture poetry book, WATER SINGS BLUE.  About this beautiful collection of ocean poems, illustrated by Meilo So, Jonathan Hunt of School Library Journal writes, "Water Sings Blue...got four starred reviews and is, to my mind, the standout poetry collection of the year."  

Available through Amazon

To learn more about these awards, visit Lee's site at AWARDS.

Julie Larios is hosting today's Poetry Friday roundup over at The Drift Record.  Head on over to see what's brewing poetry-wise in the Kidlitosphere this week!

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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Snipping Snowflakes

Hope's Window
Photo by Amy LV

Students - Snipping paper snowflakes is one of the simple pleasures of life!  If you live in a snowy place, it is a way to bring snow inside.  If you live in a place with no snow, it is an easy way to create some.  Last week, when my daughter Hope was sick, she cut lots and lots of snowflakes out of red, green, and white paper.  You can see some of them above, in our living room windows.

If you're interested in knowing how I snipped this poem out, take a peek into my notebook below.  You'll see that I first started writing about fog and clouds and my notes turned to something I saw last night, raindrops on a twig.  Then, looking at the window, I began writing about Hope and her snipping...

Click to enlarge image.

...and then I began poem-ing!  One thing that helped me write today was something I did last night.  Before bed, I read aloud many many poems from J. Patrick Lewis's new IF YOU WERE A CHOCOLATE MUSTACHE.  Falling asleep with the rhythms of our Children's Poet Laureate in my head was a wonderful thing to do, and it is something I highly recommend.  Read ALOUD the work you admire, and those rhythms will sink into you.

Click to enlarge image.

If you have ever wondered about snowflakes all being different from each other, visit Wonderopolis to read all about the chances of that happening.

To learn about how to make paper snowflakes, visit Martha Stewart or High Hopes.

Over at Design Sponge, you can read a great tutorial about making doily snowflake garlands.

And at Spoonful, you can find a recipe for sweet tortilla snowflakes.  We will make these today!

There may be no snow in Holland, NY right now...but we can make our own!

Available through Amazon

I am so happy to have Mary Lee Hahn as a guest over at Sharing Our Notebooks this week.  If you have not yet visited her notebook, please don't miss it!

And for those of you who knew that I was away for a bit, I am now back to posting on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.  It is good to be home!

Please share a comment below if you wish.

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

Like The Poem Farm on Facebook for more poems, articles, and poemquotes!

Let's Not Talk About Bullies...

An Old Picture of Hope and Monster 

Photo by Amy LV

 

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

Students - I have been listening to the news lately, and there has been lot of talk about bullying.  The other day, maybe after too much news, this line popped into my head - Let's not talk about bullies.  Then, over the past few days, it kept on popping up in my head, and I could not shake it out.  So that's where this poem came from at first. Once I started writing, though, I realized that if I don't want to talk about bullies, there must be something else that I DO want to talk about.  And there is.  Kindness.

When we used to live in Amherst, NY, we had a neighbor named Nancy.  Nancy would feed birds right out of her hand, right out of the air, and she knew each chickadee by sight.  This past summer, our daughter Georgia volunteered at a wildlife rehabilitation center with our friend Margaret, and there she witnessed much kindness as people fed injured herons and orphaned possums.  Just yesterday, I walked into my credit union, and a man waited to hold the door for me to walk through.  Good people are everywhere, and I wish to celebrate them.

If you need a writing idea, you might try asking yourself...What do I NOT want to talk about?  What DO I want to talk about?  You might even want to begin with a line like, "Let's not talk about..." and see where it takes you.  (You can always take off that first line later!)

In terms of structure, you may have noticed that this poem repeats the word let's over and over again, usually at the beginning of the lines.  In my mind, I'm calling this an invitation poem as it invites the reader to do something...talk goodness.

You may also notice the circular structure.  The first two and last two lines are the same - I love doing that!

Today's picture is of our oldest daughter, Hope, a few years ago.  She is holding Monster, a wonderful cat who has since died.  We took stray Monster into our hearts years ago, and he returned the favor by loving some abandoned kittens we found in a ditch.  Sometimes animals are the most kind of all...

Congratulations to Diane Mayr (Random Noodling)....winner of last week's giveaway of THE POETRY FRIDAY ANTHOLOGY!  Please send me your snail mail address, Diane, and I will get it off to you.

Over Sharing Our Notebooks, Peter Salomon is still visiting on the eve of the publication of his book HENRY FRANKS. Stop by and read about Peter's first notebooks and enter yourself in the giveaway of his new book - the drawing is tomorrow!

Katya is hosting today's Poetry Friday roundup over at Write. Sketch. Repeat. Visit there to see who's got what at today's poem party!

Please share a comment below if you wish.

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

Like The Poem Farm on Facebook for more poems, articles, and poemquotes!

Repetition Repetition Repetition Repetition

Repeating Parrots

by Amy LV

Before anything else, I would like to thank Jama Rattigan for inviting me to her 2011 Poetry Potluck Series!  Yesterday at Jama's Alphabet Soup, Jama highlighted my poem "Mother Bird's Lullaby" along with a dear family recipe and some photographs from The Poem Farm, also known as Heart Rock Farm.  It is such a treat to be a visitor to her joyful and whimsical blog.

Repetition

Students - repetition is comforting, soothing, and strong.  As readers, we like repeating lines and images in books, and we enjoy them in our poetry too.  

One thing you will notice as you read poems is that often they have bits that repeat.  It might be a word.  It might be a rhythm.  It might be a whole line or a whole stanza.  Sometimes poems are circular, repeating the beginning and ending.  Notice repetition in your reading and try it in your writing.

In this poem, you can see one line that repeats twice and also that many lines begin with the same word.

from September 2010

This poem does whole chunks of text, but you can see how the structure is the same in almost every line... "A ..... is a ........"

from November 2010

This poem alternates one line of repeating text with something different.

 from July 2010

Here are a few more poems with repetition.  What repeats in each one?  If you think one of these repeating techniques is interesting, try it in your own writing, and please share in the comments!

To Do List 
Everynight Everywhere
Toe Jam Jam

For this final upcoming week of National Poetry Month, I will continue to post about different ideas and strategies for writing poetry.  After that, The Poem Farm will take a brief hiatus as I try to decide on a new venture for this space.  If you have suggestions or recommendations, please do tell!

This Month's Poetry Revisits and Lessons So Far

April 1 -   Poems about Poems

April 2 -   Imagery

April 3 -   Poems about Animals We Know

April 4 -   Line Breaks and White Space

April 5 -   Poems from Everyday Life

April 6 -   Free Verse

April 7 -   Poems from Wonders & Questions

April 8 -   Classroom Poetry Peek & Circular Poems 

April 9 -   Poems about Science

April 10 - Rhyming Couplets  

April 11 -  Riddle Poems 

April 12 -  List Poems 

April 13 -  Poems for Occasions

April 14 -  Concrete Poems

April 15 -  Poems about Food

April 16 -  Quatrains

April 17 -  Poems about the Seasons

April 18 -  Alliteration

April 19 -  Poems about Sports

April 20 - Compare/Contrast Poems 
April 21 -  Family Story Poems 
April 22 -  Poems about Nature
April 23 -  Today - Repetition

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