New Suncatcher
Photo by Amy LV
Students - I love the way that suncatchers toss rainbows all around a room, and so this past week I hung a suncatcher in a window here at home. There they were: rainbows everywhere! I wanted to run around and touch them all!
Today's poem is a list poem. You will notice that the first stanza is simply a list of where the rainbows are.
The second stanza is a thought I have about all of these rainbows.
You can try this type of poem too. Simply look around until you find something interesting. Feel free to DO something to MAKE something interesting. Look carefully, making a list in your mind of what you see. If you want, write this list down now. This list can be your first stanza.
Then, have a thought about what you see. Make a leap from what is there to what is in your mind. You might connect what you see to something else, ask a question about it, have an opinion about it. Let this be your second stanza.
Now that you have the bones of your poem, play around with the words to get them just right. This part takes me quite a while as I try to figure out whether to use plurals or singulars, the word the or the word a, adjectives or no adjectives, and on and on. As always, read your poem aloud to yourself as you revise. This is how you will know if it sounds right to you.
As for titles, your title can add a wee bit more to your poem. In today's poem here, the only way you know the poem is about a suncatcher is because I use that word in the title. Titles can bring information to a poem.
Back in 2010, the first year of this blog, I wrote a poem about prisms and bending light and rainbows. It is titled "Science is like Writing," and you may read it HERE if you wish.
Here are a few of the rainbows that my suncatcher set free!
Cupboard Rainbow
Photo by Amy LV
Bookshelf Rainbow
Photo by Amy LV
Closet Rainbow
Photo by Amy LV
Knee in Nightgown Rainbow
Photo by Amy LV
Carol is hosting today's Poetry Friday roundup at The Apples in my Orchard with some news about an enrichment group she has been teaching. Please know that all are welcome each Friday as folks share poems, poem books, poetry ideas, and friendship.
xo,
Amy
Update on August 27, 2021 - A few people asked about a photo of a rainbow on a kitten or on a rocking chair. When I wrote this poem, I had not actually seen a rainbow on each of the things listed...some were imagined. But, later in the week, my daughter Hope snapped some kitten-rainbow pictures, and here they are!
Tuck & Rainbows
Photos by Hope VanDerwater
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