A Pinecone - Poems Can Describe

In My Yard Today

Photo by Amy LV

Students - This short little poem is simply a poem of description and a poem of comparison.  I wrote it while working with some wonderful second graders at Northwood Elementary in Hilton, NY.  We were looking closely at natural objects, sketching them, and writing about them while using jewelers loupes.  I learned this process from the wonderful site, The Private Eye and every once in a while, I love reminding you about their work.

Here you can see my poem without line breaks and then again with line breaks.

No Line Breaks - Line Breaks

Photo by Amy LV

If you ever write something that sounds like a poem but does not look like a poem, remember that you can add or change line breaks during or after writing.  I like to use slashes to help me imagine line break possibilities, slashing and then copying the poem with new line breaks.  Sometimes I rewrite the same words many different ways, considering which way looks best and sounds best on the page.

Line breaks matter in poetry.  Read poems out loud to get the feel of others' line breaks, and enjoy playing with your own.

Did you know that pinecones open up when it is warm and dry and close up when it is wet?  They are good seed savers.  Interesting nonfiction facts always make for interesting poem topics.

Thank you to the sweet schools I visited in the past week: Schlegel Road in Webster, NY, Greenacres in Scarsdale, NY, and Lenape Meadows, Betsy Ross, and George Washington in Mahwah, NJ.  It was a pleasure to join your writing communities, each for a day!

Jama offers us a sweet and delicious entry into May this Poetry Friday where she is hosting this week's roundup at Jama's Alphabet Soup.  Visit her place to explore all poetry happenings around the Kidlitosphere.

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.

Drawing is Seeing - Draw First

Sketch

Photo by Amy LV

Students - Throughout this spring, I have been fortunate to spend time drawing and writing with young people.  I have read and heard that to truly see something, a person must slow down.  I have learned that by drawing an object, you come to understand it in a new way. I discovered this again this spring.

When you draw something, in a way, you become this thing.  I adore John Moffitt's poem To Look at Any Thing, a poem about becoming, about slowing down.

If you wish to get to know an object, try drawing it first. Then write.  Visit The Private Eye, one of my favorite learning sites, to discover more.

In other pinecone news, we just lost a very tall spruce at The Poem Farm.  It broke and Mark cut it and then it fell.  

Fallen Spruce

Photo by Amy LV

Now I am harvesting pinecones.  Many to smell, many to draw, many to use for crafts.  If you have any fabulous pinecone craft ideas, please leave them in the comments. I want to make pinecone goodnesses WITH MY HANDS.

Over at my other blog, Sharing Our Notebooks, I could not feel more fortunate to host the sixth grade notebookers of Michelle Haseltine's class for the first ever notebooks blog takeover!  Every single day of May, a new student or pair or group of students will share tips and ideas for notebooking.  Please stop by for inspiration and writing ideas!  And leave a comment.  Someone will win a cool new notebook each Friday!

Brenda is hosting today's Poetry Friday roundup at Friendly Fairy Tales.  Each week we gather together, sharing poems, books, and poetry ideas all at one blog.  All are always welcome to visit, comment, and post!

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.

A Leaf Journey & Poet Guests

Pressed Sumac Leaves

Photo by Amy LV

Students - The poem above is simply a true story stretched out as a poem.  It is about last night in my living room. In beginning my writing last evening, I decided to read a bit about poetry first.  But when I opened my book, I found all of the sumac leaves you see above.  I held and touched and thought about the leaves, the tree, the meadow.  

I often save little mementos of seasons (leaves, pinecones) or outings (ticket stubs, programs) or holidays (cards, bits of wrapping paper).  Today I find myself thinking that these simple saved objects might be wonderful writing springboards for many of us.  What do you tuck away and save?  Did you ever find a wee something that brought back a memory of a specific place and time?  If so, you might consider writing about it.

You will notice that this poem rhymes every other line....until the last few lines.  What happens there?

Today we have special guests! I am thrilled to welcome Reading Specialist and Leader in Me Teacher, Alicia McKenrick and her students from Pembroke Primary School in Pembroke, NY. Join Alicia on a journey from eye to finger to brain to heart, from shape to memory to color.

In the slides below, teachers will learn how to explore metaphor and analogous thinking with The Private Eye, an incredible resource explained with great wisdom and humor by Alicia.

If you are a student and you do not need to learn about teaching writing, please skip ahead to slide 32 and then to 34 and then to 39 and onward.  On these particular slides, you will find poems and yarn art highlighting students' fingerprints.  You may wish to learn from these models, studying your own fingerprint design as writing inspiration!

Click Enlarge Box to Enlarge

I extend my gratitude to Alicia and these young poet-artists for generously sharing this beautiful process, for allowing us to enjoy these poems and yarn paintings.  It was an absolute delight!  Teachers, you may access Alicia's Lesson template referenced in her slides HERE.

Linda is hosting today's Poetry Friday roundup at TeacherDance with a celebration of almost-spring! Each week, we gather our posts together at one blog, so if you visit Linda this week...you will be introduced to many new poets and blogs and books.

Happy Poetry Friday!
xo

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.

Pussy Willows Meow for Spring!

Welcome to Day 9 of Drawing Into Poems, my daily drawing/seeing/writing study into poetry.  You can read more about this month-long project here on my April 1 post.  Feel free to read the books with me, and pull out your own sketchbook and jewelry box full of metaphor too...

Day Nine - Pussy Willows

Click the drawing to enlarge it.

Students - Last night, my husband and I took a walk down our country road.  And there they were!  The pussy willows were out!  I was so happy that I almost did a pussy willow dance.  See, around here, pussy willows (along with daffodils, snowdrops, crocuses, and robins) are the harbingers of spring.  I picked some to bring inside.

Sitting down with my sketchbook, I decided to only draw one branch of these wee softies so that I could spend more time and space writing around the edges of my drawing.  I am trying to come up with many comparisons and descriptions for the things that I am drawing, as recommended by one of my new favorite books, The Private Eye, by Kerry Ruef.  I am excited to play more with my thoughts about this picture...to make a poem from some of these jottings.

Teachers - My Poetry Resource of the Day is Wonderopolis.  Check out some past poetry wonders, and take note that I will be leading this month's #Wonderchat on Twitter, next Monday April 15 at 8:00pm EST.  I welcome you to join us!

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!

Drawing the Everyday to See Something New

Welcome to Day 7 of Drawing Into Poems, my daily drawing/seeing/writing study into poetry.  You can read more about this month-long project here on my April 1 post.  Feel free to read the books with me and pull out your own sketchbook and jewelry box full of metaphor too...

Day Seven - My Glasses

Click the drawing to enlarge it.

Students - Today I am back home again, and yesterday I decided to draw something very daily, a normal part of my life: a pair of glasses.  I was looking about my house, trying to choose a subject, and this old pair of glasses just looked up at me from a shelf.  You can see where I was trying to draw the shadow.  You can also read how I am making comparisons between what I draw and other thing in the world, as THE PRIVATE EYE asks us to do when drawing and thinking.  These little notes may give me poem ideas.  (I really like the idea of glasses being like pretzels!)

My friend Nancy March (if you missed the Poetry Peek with Nancy and her neighbor Olivia, please do check it out and leave a comment for this young poet) just shared a very inspiring sketching blog with me.  If you like peeking into others' sketchbooks, check out Sketchbook Wandering, a lovely place to spend the morning, afternoon, or evening!

Teachers - It's Week 2 of National Poetry Month, and if you are looking for more wonderful ways to share poems this month and all year round, this post at Teach with Picture Books will inspire you greatly.  It's a great one, chock full of books, links, and ideas.

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!

Drawing Into Poems - April 2013 Project

Welcome to my April 2013 National Poetry Month Project.  I began this blog for April 2010, when I wrote a poem each day of the month for the first time ever.  In 2011, I cataloged those poems for easy finding.  In April 2012, I took a Dictionary Hike, opening the dictionary from A-Z, writing a poem from a word beginning with every letter in the English language.

This year will be something different. My 2013 April poetry project will be called Drawing into Poems. Each day of this month, I will slow myself down, look closely at something, draw it, and take notes around my drawing. I'll photograph and share the drawing and notes here each day. From time-to-time, at least on Fridays, I'll share a poem inspired by my drawings and notes. The purpose of this project is to help me see more clearly and to help me linger on images.  My goal is not to become a great artist, but rather to become more in tune with my sight, more deeply connected with the world, more slow, more thoughtful.

I am not a person who has spent a lot of time drawing. Cartoons, yes....drawing by looking, no. It is not easy for me to see shadows or perspective or shapes.  But I believe that I can learn.  And the month of April is going to help...one day at a time.  This brief video clip (which I have watched tens of times) helps me believe that I can learn to draw, to see, to write better poems than I do now.

I chose this project because I have always wanted to learn to see better, to understand through seeing, to develop my own sensitivity.  Carolyn Lesser's poem, "Artists' Eyes", has always been one of my favorite poems. It ends like this:

Artists’ eyes and hearts and hands

Give us ourselves new again.

Give us our world new again.

Reminding, us once more,

That beauty is here.

Now.

A few people have mentioned joining this project, and I welcome everyone - children, teachers, poets, people who spend too much time looking at computer screens, anyone who wishes to just look, see, make marks, and be amazed.  Here are a few books I'll be bringing with me through the month, and I welcome you to read and learn with me.

Kerry Ruef

Available through The Private Eye


Hannah Hinchman

Available through Amazon


Danny Gregory

Shop Indie Bookstores


Frederick Franck

Shop Indie Bookstores


Betty Edwards

Shop Indie Bookstores

And here is my very first slow-down-and-sketch-and-write entry of the month.  

Day One - Pineapple

Students - One grand thing about drawing-while-you-look is that it helps you see so many things you would never notice before.  Your eyes slow down.  I am going to try to slow my eyes down all month....and this will help me see new ideas for poems, new ideas in surprising places.  Try it.  Look...and draw.  Slowly.

Today I am excited to be starting off the 2013 Kidlitosphere Progressive Poem! Please read the first line here today, and follow along each day of the month. Irene has once again gotten this warm and wonderful community project off the ground.

Laura Purdie Salas, over at Writing the World for Kids, is generously offering a Poem Starter video for each day of April.  Not only will this be a great way for students and teachers to learn about new books, it is also an opportunity to hear Laura read so beautifully and to receive a snip of inspiration for poems of our own.  Today she shares the first poem and a Poem Starter from my new book FOREST HAS A SONG.

For this year's Poetry Month, I am tickled to be Author-in-Residence over at ReaderKidZ. Over the next couple of weeks, you will be able to visit ReaderKidZ and read a bit about my writing and my life.

If you haven't yet checked the multitude of National Poetry Month projects in the Kidlitosphere, do visit Jama's Alphabet Soup where Jama has graciously rounded them up from poetry starter videos to poems each day to community projects and student sharing. Let the joy begin!

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!

Shell Teeth - THE PRIVATE EYE

A Sketch and Notes

by Amy LV

Students - Today's poem came from a drawing and a bit of thinking that came from the drawing.  Above, you can see a shell that I drew.  I was looking through a jewelers loupe, trying to draw as accurately as I could.  Then, I took a few notes about what the shell made me think about, what it reminded me of.  I asked myself the Questions from Kerry Ruef's book, THE PRIVATE EYE: What does it look like?  What else does it remind me of?  Why is it like that?  Why did it remind me of that?

A few days later, I came back to my sketch and notes and turned my initial interesting thought into the short verse atop this post.

Can you look at the notes and then follow the trail of drawing to writing to poem?

This process:  looking, drawing, thinking, writing, is very well articulated in THE PRIVATE EYE by Kerry Ruef.  I adore this book, and I am very excited about trying more of the ideas in here.  Science, art, and poetry are so tightly linked...and this book has a lot to teach me.  Author and founder of THE PRIVATE Kerry Ruef emphasizes, 

...the intellectual development that comes when kids (and adults) are nudged to press for 5 - 10 things “it reminds them of”. Repetition of the Questions — and a person’s answers — is what builds fluency and a habit for creative and critical work, poetry and beyond. People who are already highly associative and know instinctively how to put their associations to work don’t need the Questions, per se. But most people need those questions made conscious and succinct.  The questions work in concert for arousing associations, for exploring overlapping characteristics in associations, and for creating inferences, solving problems, and making theories out of their associations.  The Questions themselves act as magnifier, they cause the mind to keep looking as it makes associations/connections of all kinds. The Questioning sequence is actually the most important part of The Private Eye.

Today, if you're not sure what to write, try starting with drawing.  Look at something very closely.  Study it.  Draw its lines and edges and curves and leave its white spaces.  Then take some Private Eye notes.  Ask yourself the Questions: What does it look like?  What else does it remind me of?  Can I think of 5-10 things it reminds me of?  Why is it like that?  Why did it remind me of that?  Use these notes to help you begin a poem or a story or a piece of nonfiction. Your drawing will lead you.

Available through The Private Eye

Thank you to Irene Latham, my dear poetry friend who told me all about The Private Eye when she recommended it to me as a way to help children explore the forest with my new book.  When you see me soon with FOREST HAS A SONG, I'll likely have a jewelers loupe in my pocket!

Today's Poetry Friday roundup is brought to us by Heidi Mordhorst over at My Juicy Little Universe.  It's wonderful to have her back from her time away, and I encourage you to head on over and check out this week's poetry menu.

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!