Water - Writing about Mysteries

Pour It!

Photo by Amy LV

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

Students - Last week I received a comment from a teacher who told me her students particularly liked this poem about how I see science as like writing, breaking out the light inside of us.  Her words made me want to revisit some more old poems, ones that have never been on this site.  Rummaging around in my files, I found this one about water.  The poem had been getting dusty and lonely as I wrote it in 2002 and had never shared it with anyone.  I did make a change to it today, adding line breaks.  Before it was all in one stanza, but now it is has four stanzas.  Did you notice that the first and last stanzas are the same? Yes! It is a circular poem.

What is mysterious to you?  The things we find amazing and mysterious are often fantastic writing topics.  I  have always thought it's neat that a water can be solid, liquid, or gas...so I celebrate that idea here!

Here are a few more of my poems about water: Over Sixty Percent, The Water Tower, my boots love, Tide Pool.

And here is a great book of concrete poems about water by Joan Bransfield Graham - SPLISH SPLASH.

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In happy news, my first copy of FOREST HAS A SONG arrived last week. Here I am, holding it.  (Can you tell that I am tickled?)

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To find a poem by topic, click here. To find a poem by technique, click here.

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Water - Writing about Contrasts

Watery World

by Georgia LV

Daily

Photo by Amy LV

Students - Sometimes it is fun to trace back the family tree of a piece of writing - where did it come from? Well, this one came from a few places. One place it came from is a poem that I've read a few times this week, The Place I Want to Get Back To by Mary Oliver. The last few lines read -

If you want to talk about this
  come to visit. I live in the house
    near the corner, which I have named
      Gratitude.

Mary Oliver's poem got me thinking about what I'm grateful for.

Then, I came across the drawing above that my daughter Georgia drew.

I did some reading about informational texts, particularly compare and contrast.

I also remembered this book -

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And all of this led to to today's poem!

Try it - find a piece of writing you've done (or write a new one) and then trace it back.  Find its relatives and see where it came from in your attic-mind.

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A Cowry Shell Speaks in Poem #268

Listening to Sea Voices

Photo by Mark LV

Cowry Shell

Photo by Amy LV

This is another one of my favorite-kind-of-poem-to-write-poems.  I love poems where inanimate objects talk.  It is such fun to imagine what they might think and say.

Students - one of my favorite parts of daily writing is the mystery of not knowing what poem will be born each day.  Last evening, I thought to myself, "I have no idea what to write!"  Then, somehow, I began thinking about rocks and shells and how they often take long journeys in people's pockets, journeys that lead them far far away from their places of origin. 

The tiger cowry shell in these photos has such a story, though I don't know all of it.  This big shell came into my hands through an auction.  Near our home, Gentner's Commission Market, in Springville, NY, opens up on Wednesdays during much of the year.  Last spring, Mark and I went to the auction and just as a whole table was about to be sold as a whole, I decided to bid $3.00 on a wooden plate holding three large shells.  With the exchange of 300 cents, this shell, once alive, came into my possession.  Last night, I picked it up from my messy desk and felt its cool breathing in my ear.

It is good to hold something when you write, to feel edges, textures, sides, shapes and rough spots.  Try it.  Find an object you wish to write about, and as you write, take little breaks to simply hold it and understand it deeply.

When I was a little girl, I had a shell collection.  In particular, I remember one little yellow cowry shell.  It reminded me of a mouth.  Did you know that cowry shells were once used as money?  Here's a drum rhyme about a cowry shell used as money, from OFF TO THE SWEET SHORES OF AFRICA, by Uzoamaka Chinyelu Unobagha.

If you seek a book full of ocean critter poems, seek no longer.

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Mary Lee will host Poetry Friday tomorrow over at A Year of Reading.  

ps - If you were wondering, this type of shell may be spelled cowry or cowrie.

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Free Verse Week - #104 - Over Sixty Percent

Carl Sandburg's poem, "Arithmetic", always make me smile, and having read it a few times this week, I am wondering that's why I asked questions in this poem.

I also received and read Toby Speed's delightful WATER VOICES in the mail a couple of days ago, and her poetic riddles continue to slosh in my mind.

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If you are interested in water facts, check out the US Geological Survey's Water Science for Schools, and you will find a lot of interesting information.

I wrote much of today's poem wearing swim goggles as an inspiration to write about water.  Sometimes it  helps to have a little prop around, just an object to look at and think about as one writes.  Perhaps later in the year I will have a "costume week" during which I wear costumes to get the writing going!

Students - what might you place on your desk or near you as you write today?  You might consider a little talisman or charm for good feelings.  Or maybe you will select an object to write about, keeping it right next to you or in your desk where you can touch it from time to time.

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