Showing posts with label Process Thoughts. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Process Thoughts. Show all posts

Monday, October 8, 2012

If I were my dog for just one day...

The Dogs of Heart Rock Farm - Cali and Sage in 2012
Photo by Amy LV


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

Students - Our family laughs a lot when we watch and play with our two dogs. Cali is almost four, lovely, loving, and a bit serious.  Sage is only one, floppy, and as my Aunt Tom would say, "full of spit and vinegar!" They have a rollicking time together, and we have a blast loving and watching them.

Today's poem grew from a month-old notebook entry.  Usually, my notebook entries skip from idea to idea, thought to thought.  I just gather up as many little bits of braindust that I can find.  Then, later, I comb through them choosing something to stick with for a bit.  For today it was the image of a dog curling a tail around herself, just as Cali and Sage both do.

Notebook Entry Snip from September 11, 2012
 by Amy LV

To begin today's poem, I flipped through my notebook until I found something that struck me. Then, once on the page you see above, I reread those circled words, "I would love to be able to curl up in a tiny ball and wrap my big, fluffy tail around me." I thought about what other things I would do if I were a dog, played with rhymes, and wrote this poemlist.  (Have you ever wondered why dogs roll in dead things?  If I ever become a dog...at last I will know!)

This poem is nothing more than a rhyming list.  You'll notice that many poems that you read are lists, much like this one. Today's poem is also one super-long sentence, and the title is part of it.  If you listened to me read the poem, you may have noticed that I read the title right into the first line...with barely a pause at all.  This is because I used the rhythms in the title as part of the rhyme and meter scheme of the verse.  A  long pause would ruin the sound and song.

Update!  Shortly after this poem was posted, Matt Forrest, from Radio, Rhythm and Rhyme, shared an answer poem.  You can hear him read it here.  What do you think it might be about?

If you are interested in writing some list poems of your own, here is a list of some I have written.  It's fun to brainstorm all kinds of lists and then later come back and ask, "Hmmm...might this work as a poem?"

List Poems to Explore

If you are a notebook keeper, you will not want to miss Kate Messner's post over at Sharing Our Notebooks.  Looking into the notebooks of generous writers can give us ideas for our own writing.

FYI - Right now I am on the schedule to host this Poetry Friday.  But I have traded with Betsy Hubbard.  So if you  keep the calendar in your sidebar, please note that change. Poetry Friday on October 12 at Teaching Young Writers with Betsy Hubbard, and I will host here at The Poem Farm on November 30.

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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Thursday, April 26, 2012

V is for VULTURE & Very Special Guest

V is for VULTURE
Photo by Amy LV


Well, we're back on track now after our little W/V mix-up.  And what a great word for today!  Today's word, the very last in the V section of my dictionary, led me to the Turkey Vulture Society, some good learning, and a greater appreciation of scavengers.

Today's poem is a villanelle.  I once again turned to that great Paul Janeczko book, A KICK IN THE HEAD, to help me puzzle out form, and the villanelle is a tricky one. You'll see the 5 tercets followed by a quatrain as well as the rhyme scheme: aba, aba, aba, aba, aba, abaa.  You will notice that the first line of the poem repeats as the last line of stanzas 2 and 4 as well as the third line of stanza 6. You will also see that the third line repeats as the last line of stanzas 3 and 5 as well as the final line of the poem.  You may also notice that each line has 10 syllables.

If you are familiar with John Milton's poem On His Blindness, you will know the line - "They also serve who only stand and wait."  That line went through my head as I wrote about vultures.  There is something powerful in waiting, in patience.

When I told my daughter Hope that I was going to write a villanelle about vultures, she said, "Wouldn't it be neat to do a Dictionary Hike where each poem type had to begin with the letter of that day?"  Hmmm... Here we go: Acrostic, Ballad, Cinquain...

And now for our guest poster!

Georgia LV
Photo by Amy LV

Today I am most excited to welcome my eleven-year-old daughter, Georgia, to this space.  She is a frequent photographer of Poem Farm photos, and she has been taking her own Dictionary Hike this month, right through the letters of her name.  So far Georgia has written poems from:

G - GLIMPSE
E - ENTHRALL
O - ONCE

And today, she writes from REDWOOD.  Last night after I came home from a school meeting, Georgia met me at the door with her poem, and I asked right away if she would allow me to share the poem and her process.  I am so grateful that she agreed.  Below you can read Georgia's poem, see her draft, and read her thoughts.


Draft of R IS FOR REDWOOD
By Georgia LV

The first thing I did was to Google REDWOOD tree facts. I didn't know I would write about any particular tree. I found that the largest Redwood tree was 379 feet tall and that it had a name. I became enthralled (my second word) by this tree character and decided to find out all I could about him.

I jotted down any facts that I found interesting and then crossed them out if I changed my mind. I was also very intrigued by the name. What does it mean? Why was he called that?

I looked HYPERION up in the online dictionary and found it was a name for a titan (Greek giant). Then I looked at my facts and added a couple in.

I formed my poem around the facts and not the facts around the poem. This is the first factual poem I have ever done. It was a lot of fun. Try it sometime!

Thank you to Georgia for her openness in sharing her fourth poem of this month and her thinking process too.  Writing ABOUT our thinking helps us understand it even more.

Happy Poem in Your Pocket Day to all!  Today I have a poem in my pocket. The poem is Candles by Carl Dennis.  And since I will not see many people today, I will send in copies to my children's teachers.  Here it is for you!  What poem do you have (or would you like to have) in your pocket today?  Please share in the comments as we're all always looking for more beautiful poemfriends.

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-W by checking the sidebar, and you 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 is has been grand to poetryhike with new friends.

Do not miss this week's funny and informative post at Sharing Our Notebooks. Author and poet Suz Blackaby is sharing her notebooks as well as a clever writing exercise. Stop by to read her words and to enter the giveaway for her book, NEST, NOOK, & CRANNY.  The winner's name will be drawn TONIGHT!

Remember, tomorrow is Poetry Friday, the last of this year's National Poetry Month.

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!
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Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Inky Flyers - MyPoWriYe #196



Students - did you figure out what this poem is about?  I will play music for one moment to see if you've got it.  Da Da Dum!  Da Da Dum!  Tra La Laaaaaaaaaa!  If you guessed "quotation marks", then you are correct!

One of the most exciting moments in writing a poem is discovering the initial comparison, concept, or magical thought.  I love the idea of quotation marks flying around speakers' words in books.  It's so cute, so adorable, so personified!  Once those little punctuation sparrows flew into my head, there was no shooing them out.  

EXCEPT.

Except what?  Well, the first draft of this poem contained one of my favorite rhymes:  words and birds.  And while this is not a serious problem, I went back into the archives to see how many poems I have written using this exact rhyme.  There were six poems rhyming words and birds, or word and bird, not including this one.

Somehow, this drove me crazy.  What was wrong with me that I keep using these same two over and over again?  Back to the writing board, searching for another rhyming word for word or words, I visited RhymeZone and was tickled to find the first entry was blurred.  Hooray!  Not only would this break an old pattern, it would also create an image of flying marks without using the word bird at all.

Below, you can see one of my favorite baby-book-gifts.  BLESS US ALL, by Cynthia Rylant, spins a cozy prayer about families and animals for each month of the year.   Two of these poems contain the rhyming words stories and glories.  I remember noticing this years ago and marveling at how my favorite writers have favorite words, and sometimes we can spot them!  And one of my most favorite poets of all, the 1985 recipient of the NCTE Award for Excellence in Poetry for Children, Lilian Moore, likes words and birds too.  She rhymes them in her lovely poem, "Poets Notice Everything".

Students - try reading several books by one author and keeping an ear/eye out to see if your author has a favorite word that keeps showing up.  Check your own writing too.  Do you have favorites?  If you do, be sure to read carefully asking, "Is this truly the right word for this spot, or am I simply leaning on an old favorite?"  If it's the right word, keep it.  But if you are just coming back to something easy, a word that drips out without effort, be willing to let it go as you seek the perfect word for your moment or thought.


Today's poem is also a riddle poem.  It can be tempting to title our works with the most obvious idea that comes to mind.  In fact, I almost titled this poem, "Quotation Marks".  Then I began wondering, "What if I don't tell what this poem is about?  Will the reader know?  Won't it be more fun to allow the reader to discover the meaning?"  I do hope that you were able to figure it out.

"Inky Flyers" continues The Poem Farm's series of punctuation poems.  Somehow it is more interesting to write about those little dots and blips than I ever imagined!

(Please click on COMMENTS below to share a thought.)
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