HELLO MY NAME IS - Day 13

 Happy National Poetry Month!

(Feel free to search for poems in the sidebar or watch videos in the tab above.)

Hello, Poetry Friends! This month I am sharing poems written in the voice of Little Red Riding Hood, and I invite you to join me in writing in the voice of someone else too. You might choose a fairy tale character or a book character or a person from history or anyone else real or imagined. These are your poems, so you make the decisions. Each April day, I will share my poem and a little bit about writing poetry. Mostly, we’ll just be writing in short lines with good words and not worrying about rhyming. Meaning first. Our focus this month will be adopting the perspective of another…for 30 days. I invite you to join me in this project! To do so, simply:

1. Choose a character from fiction or history or somewhere else in the world of space and time, and commit to writing a daily poem in this person's voice for the 30 days of April 2025. You might even choose an animal.

2. Write a new poem for each day of April. Feel free to print and find inspiration from this idea sheet that I will be writing from all month long.

Teachers, if you wish to share any HELLO MY NAME IS... subjects or poems, please email them to me at the contact button above. I would love to read what your students write and learn from how they approach their own projects.

LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD'S POEMS SO FAR

April 1 - First Poem

April 2 - My Name

April 3 - Red

April 4 - Frank

April 5 - The Big Bad Wolf Had Been a Stray

April 6 - 8am on a Sunday

April 7 - Her Real Name is Orla Lola Bruin

April 8 - My Neighborhood

April 9 - Mushroom Hunters

April 10 - From Coat to Cloak

April 11 - Speaking of Coats

April 12 - Forgiveness is a Gift

And now for today!

Students - Today I was not sure what to write about, so I looked at my grid (above) and just chose something! Once I chose a topic, the first line appeared...and I just followed it down the page to see where it would lead. It was curious and surprising to find that Baby Bear (Ben means son) has joined the little writing club...and that Frank likes to write too. Since we are in fairy tale land, of course the animals can write and of course everyone can balance on a tree branch and write at the same time.

If you're ever not sure what to write, just choose something - anything! - and trust that once you get started, some words will appear. You need not love them. But each time we write, we strengthen our writing muscle, inviting more surprises to jump from the tip of our pens and pencils.

Thank you for joining me on this thirteenth day of HELLO MY NAME IS...

To learn about more National Poetry Month projects and all kinds of April goodness, visit Jama's Alphabet Soup where Jama has generously gathered this coming month's Kidlitosphere poetry happenings. And if you are interested in learning about or writing from any of my previous 14 National Poetry Month projects, you can find them here. Happy National Poetry Month!

xo,

Amy

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Make a Promise

Trees are Giving

Photo by Amy LV

Students - Have you ever read a book that revisits your mind and heart from time to time? Shel Silverstein's The Giving Tree is such a book for me. Today I imagined a favorite tree, began thinking about how giving and quiet and strong all trees are. I thought about how grateful I am for trees, and then I remembered the human character in Silverstein's book and the destruction he caused within the few short pages of a book. Somehow, my poem's narrator remembered this book too and chose to make a promise to one special tree.

Today I have a few possible writing ideas you might choose to take on:

1. Write about a favorite tree. You might pretend that you ARE the tree or you might write TO the tree or perhaps you will write ABOUT the tree from a distance.

2. Make a list of books that have stuck with you. Choose one and write about why it sticks with you. You may want to refer to it in a poem or story that you write.

3. Make a promise to a person or a group of people or an animal or a plant or yourself. You might wish to write this promise as a poem or maybe you will want to draw your promise. We become the promises we make.

Cathy is hosting this week's Poetry Friday roundup over at Merely Day by Day with an original poem for this week. Each Friday, all are invited to share poems, poem books, poetry ideas, and friendship in this open and welcoming poetry community.

I wish you loving and strong promises - made for and by you.

xo,

Amy

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Writing Our Surroundings

Time for Inside Fires

Photo by Amy LV

Students - The weather is getting much colder here in Western New York where I live, and because we are having new siding put on our house, I needed to bring all of last year's leftover firewood inside. Yes, I could have piled it out under a tarp, but why do so when it will just need to come in soon anyway? And truth be told, it is cozy living among the stacks of wood. I feel like a little mouse in a storybook.

So now, surrounded by wood, I cannot help but think about wood and then trees and then forests and then questions. Today's poem came from all of this - my right-now surroundings. When you sit down to write you might choose to look around and ask, "What am I surrounded by at this very minute?" Some days for me the answer may be as simple as "messes and cat fur," and some days it might be "cookies and candles." Anything nearby or around us can offer us thoughts and questions, and in this way too, I am thinking about what I wish to surround myself with. One cannot choose everything...but one can choose some of our surroundings.

You may have noticed that this poem has a repeating line - all of this firewood. I invite you to play with repeating one line throughout a poem or a story that you write. And too, if you're not sure how to end a piece of writing, this may be because you are wondering something. If so, just end with a question as I have done today. Writing strategies and techniques belong to all of us, and we can all learn from each other. 

Matt is hosting this week's Poetry Friday roundup over at Radio, Rhythm, and Rhyme with all kinds of good publishing news. Each Friday, all are invited to share poems, poem books, poetry ideas, and friendship in this open and welcoming poetry community.

I wish you good and warm and kind surroundings. And I wish you small ways to create these for others too...

xo,

Amy

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Know that your comment will only appear after I approve it.

If you are under 13 years old, please only comment 

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Change Eyes for a Week

 

Tree (And Mark's Hives)

Photo by Amy LV

Logs

Photo by Amy LV

Fire

Photo by Amy LV

Ash

Photo by Amy LV

Students - It is getting cold near here in Western New York, and coldness means wood fires. Wood fires are all thanks to the trees around here, and today I am thinking how one thing becomes another, about how the wood that is keeping me warm this minute was not long ago a tree in the forest out back. I thought I'd go around and snap a few photographs of this cycle.

You may have heard the expression, "The only constant is change," attributed to a Greek philosopher (person seeking wisdom) named Heraclitus. This means that change is the only thing that stays the same. Life is always changing. One thing is constantly becoming another. I feel eight years old inside, but my body has changed into that of a grown-up. My kittens Tuck and Winnie look like cats now, even though I still think of them as and call them kittens. The ball of wool yarn (once sheep) I purchased has become some cozy handwarmers. That bag of flour in our kitchen (once wheat), is part of the cookies I baked, along with many ingredients which were also once other things.

Just look around. Look at one thing. What was it before? If that thing had a memory that went back and back and back, what might it remember? Think about it. Tell someone. Jot it down.

I encourage you to look at the world with "change eyes" this week. What changes do you notice? What has become something else? How have YOU changed? What does the new object or new you remember of the old object or the old you? 

Allow these thoughts to play together in your mind...you will likely have many fabulous new ideas, and perhaps they will lead to writings or pieces of music or artwork. If they do, please let me know.

One more thing to notice. Look at today's poem and find the words that come back around: tree, logs, fire, ash, soil, seed, remember. Repetition in a poem can be your good friend. If you write a poem this week or look at an old one, consider repeating something you already have there. 

Matt is hosting today's Poetry Friday roundup at Radio, Rhythm & Rhyme with a first birthday celebration of FRIENDS AND ANEMONES: OCEAN POEMS FOR CHILDREN, a book by members of The Writer's Loft in Sherborn Massachusetts. Please know that all are welcome each Friday as folks share poems, poem books, poetry ideas, and friendship.

I wish everyone a joyful week full of making, discovering, and feeling whole.

xo,

Amy

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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.