Secrets, Buttons, and a Giveaway!

Remembering

by Amy LV

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

Students - The snow poems are blowing through my mind these days.  It is COLD here in Western New York, and this morning as I carried wood from the woodpile to our hearth inside, I looked at all of the twinkly diamonds in the morning light.  I knew that a snow poem was in my near future.

Sometimes reading poems by other people can help get my poem mind moving, and this morning, I visited Tricia's The Miss Rumphius Effect to fill my heart with poems.  It was a treat to read the different poems using anaphora, a technique I plan to experiment with this weekend.  I recommend that you check out Tricia's site too, as she offes "Poetry Stretches" each Monday with various exercises for poets to try.

This poem is, in a way about the water cycle, and a way about magic.  For although snowflakes were once ocean drops and ocean drops were likely snowflakes, I know that they do not hold these memories.  Again, this blending of true and whimsy is the tightrope I most love to walk.  Also, stories.  Things within things.  Surprise at what lies beyond.  These are areas I love to explore in poetry.  What do you love to explore with your writing?  The only way to find out is to write lots and lots.

Today I am excited to offer a giveaway of a beautiful, thoughtful gift.  Jeannine Atkins, author of BORROWED NAMES and other books, as well as blogger at Views from a Window Seat sent me a package this week including some magnificent buttons and stories for my charm string (see sidebar) and an autographed copy of her inspiring book (you will want to buy it if you do not win it), VIEWS FROM A WINDOW SEAT: THOUGHTS ON WRITING AND LIFE.  As I already own this book, she said that I could offer it to a reader and commenter on this post.  So....please just leave a comment to be considered, and I will draw a name next Thursday evening, to be announced next Poetry Friday.

Book and Buttons from Jeannine Atkins
Photo by Amy LV

Don't miss Lee Ann Spillane's fabulous notebook post over at my other blog, Sharing Our Notebooks...you will be amazed.  This Sunday, I will draw one commenter's name to win a copy of her e-book, READING AMPLIFIED.

Tara is hosting this week's Poetry Friday fun over at A Teaching Life along with her new kitty, Gepetto!  Please visit her place for the buffet of links to everything poetry in the Kidlitosphere this week. And if you'd like to link your own post in, please join us.

Please share a comment below if you wish.

MyPoWriYe #198 - Questions for a Shell

Maine Beach 2006

Photo by George Ludwig

 

Teachers and Students - this type of poem is called a "climbing rhyme", and it is Burmese.  I just learned about this type of poem from Tricia over at The Miss Rumphius Effect this week.  Over at her weekly Poetry Stretch, Tricia offers all kinds of challenges, and right now, you can read her post and explanation of Burmese climbing rhymes and also a selection of other offerings which match this style of poem.

Below, you can see why this kind of poem is called a "climbing rhyme".  Notice how there are three different rhymes and how each one walks up three lines, just like stairs.  Writing this poem was interesting.  I actually started with the rhymes and not an idea.  Walking through my rhyming dictionary, I just made lists and lists of rhyming words until I found three sets of three rhymes that felt like they'd be good friends in a poem.  Then, I shuffled them around like upside down cups in a carnival game, working toward four syllables per line with the climbing rhymes in the proper spots.  It was almost like doing a jigsaw puzzle!

Thank you very much to Ruth and Stacey at Two Writing Teachers for sharing how The Poem Farm can be a resource for finding mentor poems.  If you missed their generous shout out, I invite you to take a peek at today's Two Writing Teachers post, Highlights from the Week. 

If you are a new visitor here, I welcome you to look around at recent links or with the Search box up above.  I write all kinds of daily poems, serious to funny, and most days I explain where the poem came from or something about the process by which I wrote it.  If you find this work useful to you or your teaching, I invite you to join as a follower or to 'like' The Poem Farm on Facebook...

Remember, tomorrow is Poetry Friday over at Liz in Ink.  See you there!

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