Be Ready for Characters to Appear

Ghost Gratitude

by Amy LV

Students - Today's poem is in the spirit ('spirit!' - get it?) of the season...the whole season of autumn, rolling two holidays into one.  Earlier this month, sometime between the stretch of Halloween and Thanksgiving, this small sprite appeared in my mind, Sammy, the ghostie who loved Thanksgiving most of all.  I have more thoughts about Sammy, but today's poem was my first official meeting with him on paper.

Sometimes it's fun to turn something on its head a little bit.  You know, ghosts SHOULD favor Halloween ...but in a poem, a writer can flip such an idea around.  The ghost world of this poem is normal.  You know...sheets, ghost families, and all of that.  But this ONE thing is different - Sammy loves the wrong holiday best.

Such playfulness is not only plain fun for a writer, it's surprising for a reader too.  Sometimes writing can just allow a soul to take a little trip into a pretend land of the mind.  Everything doesn't have to be real in writing.  We can let our imaginations float a bit, even right through old stone walls if we wish.  I actually have a picture in my head of wee Sammy with a cranberry sauce stain on his sheet.  But that's for another day.

Did you notice the repetition in this poem, repetition of the words thank you and I love?  

Did you notice how I stretched out those last four lines of the poem? This is to slow readers' reading down toward the end, to emphasize the importance of death not being really final to this young ghost.

Pay attention.  Perhaps this week or sometime at the end of this calendar year, a curious character will walk right into your head.  If she or he does, jot down who it is.  Pay attention.  Your mind is creative; you just must pay attention to it.

Jane is hosting today's Poetry Friday party over at Raincity Librarian!  Jane is not only hosting for the first time today...but she is doing so from Osaka, Japan.  Please stop over, congratulate her on her new book WILD ONE....and take part in the poetry joy.  All are always welcome to join this gathering of poemlove and friendship.

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.

Sometimes A Poem Needs a Friend: Write a Poem for a Poem

On Tuesday, this book, edited by Kenn Nesbitt, illustrated by Christoph Niemann,
and published by Little Brown Books for Young Readers will be born.
It is chock full of all kinds of poems and spare, whimsical pictures.

Available at Your Local Book Shop

I am so happy to have a poem in this collection. You can read it here.

(Click to Enlarge)



A friend read an early copy and asked,
"How much of 'Our Kittens' was taken from real life?"

I love questions like this one.

Q:  How much of "Our Kittens" was taken from real life?
A:  All of it!

"Our Kittens" is a true story from our family, and it happened about two years ago.
Considering my friend's question, I realized that my poem needed a friend poem.
It needed the other point of view.
And so I wrote a poem in the voice of Fiona, that last kitten from "Our Kittens."

Fiona
Photo by Hope VanDerwater

Students - Sometimes a poem needs a friend poem.  This week when I got my own copy of ONE MINUTE TILL BEDTIME, and when I thought about my friend's question, I realized that there was more to this story. And so I wrote "My Boy," the poem I imagine our sweet Fiona really would write for Henry if only she could hold a pencil.

At twelve years old, Henry really did read books to a frightened tiny Fiona, and he helped her trust him and helped her trust the world again.  Now she seeks him out, snuggles him, touches his face with her paw. Fiona loves Henry.  And he loves her.

Sometimes an image stays in your mind for a long time.  The image of my boy reading to a lost creature is one of my favorites, and honestly...I think it's been rattling around in my heart, just waiting to find a home in a poem.

Sometimes a poem needs a friend poem.  Sometimes an image you've carried for years finds you when you are writing.

Creating is funny like that.  We never know...so we must just keep at it.

On this thread of creating, I am thrilled to welcome artist and art teacher Tim Needles to Sharing Our Notebooks this month.  I've admired his work on Twitter for a while, and it's a delight to peek into his fabulous notebooks and to learn about his faith in process.  Don't miss - and please leave a comment to be entered into a book giveaway.

Halloween is Monday, and Election Day is on the horizon.  If you have not noticed, I have placed poems to go with each in the left sidebar here. Enjoy!

This week, Linda is hosting the Poetry Friday extravaganza over at TeacherDance.  So waltz, fox trot, or tango on over and enjoy the good fun and good people.  All are always welcome to read, comment, and link on in.  Happy Poetry Friday!

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.

October - Writing When Your Breath Has Been Taken Away

Our Barn on October 20, 2016

Photo by Georgia VanDerwater

Students - Yesterday, driving to our home with my children, my daughter said, "Look at the hill!  It's breathtaking.  Really, my breath is taken away."

The Hill from the Road

Photo by Amy LV

Later, she took the photo atop this post.  This time of year in Western NY always takes my breath away, and today's post is simply a celebration of fall.  And, well, I suppose it's a celebration of repetition too.  Did you notice the rolling repetition in this poem?

Look for beauty.  It's here.  Even on a down day, it's here.

Through tomorrow, if you are a bilingual primary teacher (English/Spanish), you may enter my giveaway on Twitter.  You can see the information below, and primary teachers of bilingual classrooms may retweet to enter.  Teachers - you can find me on Twitter at @amylvpoemfarm.  If you are not on Twitter, please just comment with the bilingual grade you teach, and I will enter you! 

Tricia is hosting today's Poetry Friday party over at The Miss Rumphius Effect. Please know that everyone is always welcome to Poetry Friday: to read, to celebrate, to share.  Happy PF!  xo, a.

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.

Q is for QUAINT

Q is for QUAINT
Photo by Amy LV

My MACMILLAN DICTIONARY FOR CHILDREN defines quaint this way: Pleasant or attractive in an old-fashioned or amusing way: the narrow streets of a quaint old village.  

This is a great-sounding word, and it may even be quaint, for we do not hear it so much in everyday speech.  But I was happy to where my finger landed for today's poem as I love the sound and meaning of this word.

Students - This is a definition poem, or a poem that defines the word it is titled by.  You will notice that in my poem, each stanza offers a bit more of a definition through example, the final two lines bringing it all to a close with an opinion.  See how each stanza begins with the word QUAINT and then elaborates a wee bit more?  I enjoyed writing this very much, thinking about the different images that would best help a reader picture my word.

If you want to try this, you might just open your dictionary like I did and see what word you get.  Or you might think about a word that holds lots of meaning for you or a word you think is confusing or even a word with multiple meanings.  Then you can play with defining it through word, image, and opinion.  I would be very interested in reading any such poems should you give it a try!

Remember...it might get messy.  (See part of my draft below.)  Messy is good when it comes to writing!

Draft of QUAINT

by Amy LV

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-Q by checking the sidebar, and you visit Lisa Vihos and read her accompanying daily haiku at Lisa's Poem of the Week. You can also follow Christophe's haiku with each daily word in the comments for that post.

If you have not yet taken a peek into Laura Shovan's notebook to see the evolution of her poem, April, please go and read her post at my other blog, Sharing Our Notebooks.  There is a giveaway on that post for her beautiful chapbook, MOUNTAIN, LOG, SALT, AND STONE.  Names will be drawn tomorrow!

Today, in another post, I am hosting the 2012 Kidlitosphere Progressive Poem. It's just like a dinner, but everyone contributes a line instead of a dish. Our 2012 poem is a grownup poem, but the idea of this project would be lots of fun to try with students. I spent hours working on my line!

Please share a comment below if you wish.

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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Poetry Friday & #163 - To Do List

"To Do List" is #16 in my series of Friday poetry poems!

Happy Poetry Friday!  

Today we will explore ways to bring poetry and rocks together.

Poems fill the air around us, and sometimes we get all swirlytwirlybusy and miss them.  Yet small beauties and moments of grace, times when plain-turns-amazing, are as common as rocks.  

Several years ago, my good friend Maria gave me some stones for my garden, homemade bricks actually, on which she had pressed the words, "YOU ARE MY SUNSHINE".  These four blocks live tucked under our Black Eyed Susans now, and I think of Maria whenever I walk by that garden spot.  If you're considering making your holiday gifts this year, I can vouch for the sturdiness and happy-feelings of my word bricks.  Check out Poetry Stones for more information.

On a similar note, I just found a new blog-to-love, downstream activities for kids.  In one post, Mary K. Weinhagen offers a fabulous poem and rock project along with a photo, and now I can't wait to make my own stone poem.  As soon as I do, I promise to post a photo.  And if you try it, please share a photo here and with Mary too.  This is one of the neatest craft and literacy projects I have found in some time.  It combines science, writing, and art... enough to make me quiver! 

It is funny how things come in threes, and so do today's rocks.  This week, Kidlitosphere Central offered up a new edition of Literacy Lava, a free digital Australian magazine of ideas for literacy educators.  On page five of this sixth edition, you can read a lovely short article (accompanied by photos) about how to make story stones for nursery rhymes, stories, or spelling games.  Catherine Oehlman tells how rocks and stones have been used in many cultures for hundreds of years in the telling of stories.  She offers suggestions of how we can do the same.  Why not bring a bit more nature into the classroom and home with words and stones?

Students - today's poem is a list poem, as I'm sure you could tell.  You may have also noticed that each line ends the same way.  It's fun to use repetition in this way, and if you try it, I'd love to read your work.  It will be such a treat to feature student work on a Poetry Friday very soon, and I invite all of you - students and teachers - to send poems or poem thoughts.

For your "To Do List" for today, I recommend a visit to Anastasia's blog, Picture Book of the Day, for the complete Poetry Friday roundup.

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My Poem Writing Year #143 - Hungry

This is one of our children's favorite breakfasts.  They can eat near a whole loaf of bread when it's Cinnamon Toast Day around here.  In fact, they pop so many slices in the toaster that I wanted to show it by repeating that stanza again and again and again.

Students - favorites, favorites, favorites.  What are yours?  Many writers like to make lists of all kinds of favorites.  This way, when we aren't sure what to write about, we can just check one of those lists to find something we love.

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MyPoWriYe #99 - Car Sick

When I was a little girl, even a trip to the post office would send me hanging out of a car window like a beagle in the wind.  Unlike the parents in this poem, my parents quickly pulled over on side streets, highways, and everything in between.  "Car Sick" comes from my own memories of motion sickness.  Thirty years later, I find myself on the mom-end of this, and I try to stop quickly too.  

Writing ideas lurk in our embarrassing moments as well as our glories.  Students, what embarrasses you?  You might make a list of embarrassing memories in your notebook, and choose one to write from.  Even if you don't write about an embarrassing memory now (I never wrote about my car sickness as a child), your idea will wait...

Onto something less icky, the online summer issue of EDIBLE BUFFALO is out, and with it, my first new column, "Notes from Heart Rock Farm" on pages 12 - 13, all about children and chores.

Tomorrow is Poetry Friday.  See you then!

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