Write on the Day After a Big Day

This Morning

Photo by Amy LV

Students - I like holidays.  But I also like the days before and after holidays.  And I like thinking about and writing about the times before and after holidays too.  Sometimes I am reminded that any day can feel important.  For me, today is a quiet home day, a day to remember who I am and what matters most to me.  Today's poem celebrates being not-busy, and as I wrote it, I recommitted to gratitude and to trying to be a less busy person.  Today's poem is about the peace I feel inside when I just slow down.

Slowing down is good for writers.  It is good and healthy for all of us humans.  Cats too, I imagine.  

It is wonderful to host Julie Patterson and her notebooks over at Sharing Our Notebooks this month.  Please stop by my other online home and take a peek into her pages...leave a comment, and you may just win a book!

Carol is hosting today's Poetry Friday party over at Carol's Corner.  Please join us at her place for the weekly roundup and to celebrate a new book by Carole Boston Weatherford.  All are always welcome to join in Poetry Friday, a time for friends old and new to gather and share.

I am thankful for you.

xo,
Amy

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.

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.

Milkweed - Feeling Thankful in the Cold

Wishes 2016

Photo by Amy LV

Students - Today I am thinking that Thanksgiving comes at just the right time.  Here in the Northeastern United States, the colorful leaves have mostly fallen, and we can feel snow and a long winter in the air.  Winter lasts for many months 'round these parts, and so the cold days of November are a beautiful time to think about gratitude.  

Today, as I walked up to the pasture with our dogs, I marveled at the exquisite milkweed plant you see atop this post.  It was easy to feel thankful as I touched their little angel wings and felt warm and hopeful inside.

Notice the repetition in today's poem.  Sometimes repetition can emphasize what a writer wishes to express. And I am, indeed, thankful for small natural beauties.  

If ever you're unsure of what to write about, I recommend a walk outside.  Just look around and up and down and here and there.  I imagine that you, too, will find something that fills you with gratitude.

A very Happy Thanksgiving to my friends far and wide.  I am thankful for you.

Stitch Buffalo Stitched Birds - Free Shipping Through December 15

Photo by Amy LV

In case you missed it last week, just like last year, The Poem Farm will be giving a Christmas gift of free shipping for anyone who would like to order two or more handstitched notebooks or bird ornaments.  These are beautiful pieces made by refugee artisan women in Buffalo, NY through Stitch Buffalo.  They do not ship, but only sell locally, so this is a special opportunity. You can read my post and learn more information HERE.  

To read last year's Stitch Buffalo post and poem, visit HERE.  I am so happy and thankful to share that in one week, The Poem Farm readers have purchased $935 of birds and notebooks, most all of which will go directly to the individual artisans who made each item.  Thank you!

At the moment, I am in Atlanta, Georgia for the National Council of Teachers of English Annual Convention.  I look forward to speaking with and meeting up with good friends.  If you're at NCTE, please look for me.  I'll have a bag full of poems to share and would love to give you one or two.

This month I am grateful to have artist Tim Needles visiting my other blog, Sharing Our Notebooks.  His notebooks are inspiring and great fun, and I encourage you to check them out.  Too, the book giveaway on his post ends this Sunday, November 20.

Brenda is hosting today's Poetry Friday roundup over at Friendly Fairy Tales.  All are always welcome in this warm community of folks who love poems and people.

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.

Grace - Still Thankful After Thanksgiving

So Much Grace

by Amy LV

Students - This simple poem is offers my thoughts about yesterday.  I adore Thanksgiving, and here, on the day after Thanksgiving, I am still so full of gratitude for family, for good friends in my daily life and far away and here in Poetry Friday land.

The holiday season ahead of us is one filled with excitement and goodness.  I am excited to make a gingerbread house, to decorate, to fold more stars for our windows, and to make sweet and spicy walnuts.  But right now, and in many small pauses throughout the month, I plan to stop.  Stop to look around at the simple beauties before me.  Stop to feel thankful. Stop to write about the small surprising things that make life grand.  

This poem just tells of a normal everyday part of our family's life - dinner grace.  But yesterday, somehow, it felt different, perhaps because there were more of us around the table, perhaps because I am more aware that life does not always stay the same.  It is important that I feel thankful now for now.  

What are you thankful for?  Big things and small things...they all count. And you know what?  Each one of the things on your list could inspire some writing.  That's where I will continue in my notebook later today.

Over at my other blog, Sharing Our Notebooks, you can learn the winners of this month's books!

Carol is hosting today's Poetry Friday roundup over at Carol's Corner.  Visit her place to find poetry and good poetry people.

Please share a comment below if you wish.