Momentary Longings, Feeder Birds, & a Poetry Peek

View from Study Window

Photo by Amy LV

Students - Did you ever have a flash of, "Oh...I wish...!"  I sure have.  Sometimes a thought - maybe an impossible, magical thought - will enter my mind, a thought like, "Oh...I wish those feeder birds could come in and eat with me!"  The thought may come and go quickly, within seconds, replaced with a practical thought such as, "I should clear the table."

Well, today I would like to suggest that paying attention to fleeting, magical thoughts or momentary longings is a fine way to find writing ideas.  Listen to the thoughts that sneak in between some of your usual thoughts.  Allow an flash of insight or a quick wish to plant a seed in your mind and in your notebook, growing into a poem or a story or a painting.

The photograph you see atop this post is one that I took through my study window just last week.  I live in Holland, NY, a snowy place in wintertime, and this is what I see each day when I sit at my desk.  My husband feeds the birds to help them get through cold days, and I feel lucky to watch them eat.  But yes, sometimes I do wish to have them as indoor guests.

I shared this photo with my friend, Principal Anthony Morey, of Wealthy Elementary School in East Grand Rapids, Michigan.  And he shared it with the students of his school, inviting them to write from what they saw.  Last year I was fortunate enough to meet these students (you may remember when I wrote about the visit HERE), and so I was excited to think about them writing from this bird picture.

This school will soon have a visit from Laura Purdie Salas, and the children have been studying her work.  One neat thing that Laura offers on her blog each Thursday is an invitation to write what she calls "15 Words or Less Poems."  Readers are welcomed to view a photo on her blog, to write a brief poem (15 words or less), and to share it in the comments.  You can see this week's invitation at Laura's blog, Writing the World for Kids,  HERE.

Well, guess what?  A few students from Mrs. Bishop's second grade class at Wealthy Elementary looked at my bird photograph, and they wrote 15 words or less poems of their own to share with all of us.  I would like to thank these writers, their teacher Mrs. Bishop, their principal Mr. Morey, and Laura Purdie Salas for combining beautiful energies to bring these poems to us today.  Enjoy!

View from Study Window

Photo by Amy LV

Bird Feeders 

There is a bird feeder outside

Hanging from a tree

So calm

No sound

Whispering breeze

by Skyler T.

The Post

A post stands

In the winter cold

Waiting for birds

Come to me birds

by Lillie A.

Bird Seed 

Peck, peck, peck

I am pecking for seeds

I wanted seeds

Mmmm, Mmmm

Yum!

I love seeds

by Nava T.

Much gratitude to these young writers for sharing your words with us.  I so appreciate the way each of these poems takes a different perspective: Careful description, writing as the feeder, writing as a small bird.

This month I am tickled to host tremendous science writer Melissa Stewart at Sharing Our Notebooks.  If you have not yet done so, please do not miss her post and generous sharing of her own notebooks, process, and a poem that she wrote when she visited a wetlands with some students from Wealthy Elementary school recently.

Today's Poetry Friday roundup is living with Keri at Keri Recommends.  Join her for a thoughtful reflection on creativity and to discover many poetrylove posts sprinkled all around the Kidlitosphere this week.

Please share a comment below if you wish.

Apology - A Poem of Address

Wood Thrush - After Hitting a Window

Photo by Amy LV

Doing OK

Photo by Amy LV

Flown Away!

Photo by Amy LV

Students - Today's poem tells the story I share with a little wood thrush, a story this bird and I lived together just yesterday morning.  It is a story with a happy ending, but I at first I could not know how it would end.  I was worried about this pretty bird who hit my living room window, worried about this small body so beautiful in its feathers.

My poem above is a poem of address, a poem which speaks directly to someone or something, in this case - a small soft wood thrush.  Have you ever found yourself talking to something that cannot talk back to you?  Sometimes I talk to keys and socks that I cannot find, asking them to come out and make themselves seen.  Sometimes I talk to my kitten.  Sometimes I talk to my car.  In a poem of address, you can come right out and talk to whatever, whomever you wish.

So many congratulations to the wise and wonderful Jacqueline Woodson, who this week was named by The Poetry Foundation as our new Young People's Poet Laureate.  Author of BROWN GIRL DREAMING, THE OTHER SIDE, SHOW WAY, LOCOMOTION, and many more books for young readers, Jackie is a gift to us all.  I can't wait to see what she does for poetry...for children...for humanity...in her new position.

It is summertime now, and I wish everyone many beautiful adventures outside. Don't forget, though, to take your notebook with you!  You may lalready know that I am collecting ideas for summer notebooking ideas over at my other blog, Sharing Our Notebooks, and I invite you to visit and share your own idea too.  It is great fun to learn about all of the ways people find writing and drawing ideas - 66 and counting!

Today I'd like to especially thank third grade teacher Kim Doele and her students from Wealthy Elementary in East Grand Rapids Michigan.  These students have shared so many great posts and ideas at Sharing Our Notebooks. Many readers have already told me through Twitter how excited they are to try these students' notebooking ideas.

Below you can find links to these students' specific posts at Sharing Our Notebooks. Big hugs to all of you!

Inspire Yourself with Walks and Books - by Finn

Write About People You Love to Be With - by Eoghan

Begin With the Day's Weather - by Greta

Write as Something or Someone Else - by Hayden

Compare Two Ways to Do Something - by Julia

Write About a Subject You're Interested In - by Mo

Look at One Object in Many Different Ways - by Teagan

Write Two Poems about Alike/Different Things - by Alyssa

Get Writing Ideas at Wonderopolis - by Henry

Buffy Silverman is hosting today's Poetry Friday extravaganza over at Buffy's Blog. Head right on over there to join in the poetry fun!

Please share a comment below if you wish.

Friendship - Writing from Words, Writing from Joys

Word Blanket by the Students of Wealthy Elementary

Photo by Amy LV

Poem from My Website

Wealthy Word Blanket Close Up

Photo by Amy LV

Students - What a magnificent week it has been for me here in the East Grand Rapids School District in Michigan!  I have had the opportunity to love poetry with children in all three elementary schools and could not be more thankful.

The picture you see above is of a paper word blanket with one favorite-word-square made by each student in Wealthy School.  When I walked into this school on Wednesday, I was tickled and humbled to find that my "Word Blanket" poem had come to life in this glorious rainbow paper quilt.  

Today's poem grew from a close up photograph I took of this quilt, also above. You will be able to find some of the poem's words in the quilt squares as I wrote my poem straight from this portion of the quilt.  The feelings of today's poem grew from the feelings in my heart which is telling me that I am very lucky indeed to have met so many new friends this week.

You can write from the Wealthy Elementary word blanket too if you wish.  Simply enlarge the quilt picture by clicking on it and choose a word or two to get you started!

So much gratitude to Third Grade Teacher and Poetry Club advisor Kim Doele, Principal Anthony Morey, Art Teacher Peri denDulk, and to all of the teachers and parents who made art, read poems, set up beautiful lunch tables, coordinated displays, and made this week a magical wonderland of poetry.  As I walked into school yesterday, I found a mom writing this on her child's locker whiteboard.  It is a great question that each of us can ask ourselves every single day.

Locker Note from a Mom at Wealthy Elementary

Photo by Amy Ludwig VanDerwater

I feel so thankful to have spent this time at Wealthy Elementary.  Late this afternoon, I was given a beautiful framed quilted tree, just like the one in the Word Blanket above.  Both were made by parent Gloriana Zimdar, and now, when I do not know what to write...I will look at it and feel my friendship with the people at this wonderful school.

Gorgeous Quilted Tree by Gloriana Zimdar

(A Match to the Word Blanket Tree)

Photo by Amy LV

Here are two teachers' blog posts about this past poetry week at Wealthy School. Read Poetry Club advisor and Third Grade Teacher Kim Doele's post here at Mrs. Doele's Third Grade.  And here you can read Mrs Goodman's Second Grade Blog post.  All I can say is...I am a lucky and grateful person.

Award-wise, this was a wonderful week for poetry!  Head on over to The Miss Rumphius Effect to learn of the poetry books that won awards and honors at the American Library Association (ALA) Midwinter meeting in Chicago this week. Congratulations to all!

Liz is hosting this week's Poetry Friday roundup over at Elizabeth Steinglass.  Visit her cozy online home today to join us in a poetry celebration that holds all of us in the same poetry hug.

Please share a comment below if you wish.

A What If Poem & A Poetry Peek

An Unknown Gift

by Amy LV

Students - The other week, I heard an interview on npr (I cannot find it now) with Kevin Dykstra and Fred Monroe, the two divers who have found a shipwreck that may be the long-lost Griffon, a ship that vanished from Lake Michigan in 1679.  (You can read more here at Great Lakes Exploration and in The Washington Post, in an article posted this morning.)

Well, I just could not get that - still cannot get that - interview out of my mind.  I began writing today's poem the day after hearing that radio show, and inspired by Laura Purdie Salas's poem at Writing the World for Kids today and by Irene Latham's poem - Titanic Remenbers April 16, 1912 -  in the voice of the Titanic, I thought I'd play with my own shipwreck poem a bit more.  

This is a free verse poem, and it's a what if poem too.  I like exploring ideas that have never happened, imagining worlds and people and even gifts such as the gift for detecting shipwrecks.  Writing can take us to new places; we are free. You can read another what if poem from The Poem Farm in 2012 here.

What radio or tv stories, magazine or newspaper articles are stuck in your mind?

What poems have you read that make you wish to get writing yourself?

What if? What if? What if?

Today I am honored to welcome my new friend, third grade teacher Kim Doele and four of her Poetry Club students from Wealthy Elementary School in Grand Rapids, Michigan! I am excited that I'll be spending the first week of February as a visiting poet in the East Grand Rapids School District, learning alongside students and teachers, and this Poetry Friday, I extend a hearty welcome to Poetry Club members Nora, Sophia, Teagan, and Hania and to Kim who shares her love of poetry with them each Wednesday.

Every Wednesday afternoon I eat lunch on my feet. That is, if I remember to eat at all. When 11:30 arrives my classroom evolves into a Poetry Club (but smells more like a cafeteria.) Between 30 and 40 third and fourth grade students enter, notebooks in hands, and settle in to eat their lunches.  They are eager to begin writing, and it doesn't take long for their lunches to disappear.  Soon, they are ready to write.

I usually begin our Poetry Club meeting by reading a few poems, sharing a new book of poetry, introducing a poet, or playing a recording of a poet reading.  This group is not only hungry for lunch but also for writing ideas and I try to fill them up. They each keep a list in the front of their notebooks which they add to each week. I float among the third and fourth grade poets during our workshop.  "Float" because that's how it feels when you are lingering over a young poet's shoulder watching words pour out into a notebook.  I will admit that sometimes it feels more like flying because it seems everyone wants me to hear a poem at the same moment.  We read, we write, and make sure to leave time to share.  I am in awe of this poetry-loving group

In anticipation of Amy's February visit, we have been spending extra time reading poems at The Poem Farm.  Often times the students will choose to respond to poems with a poem of their own, and many times they have chosen one of Amy's. Inspired by her recent photo of a box of snow and her poem A Wish for a Friend, some of the students chose to write their own wishes for a friend.  I was surprised at their unique approaches.  Of course when they shared the poems that follow, other students were inspired to write wishes as well.

When I asked the Poetry Club how they would choose to spend their lunchtime during Amy's visit, the most popular idea was to ask her if they could read their poems to her.  We can't wait!


A Wish for a Friend
 by Nora

I wish...
I could mail some pumpkins that people
in Antarctica could carve
and give them a "how to" manual
to say it is not hard.
I want to give them this so they
can carve on Halloween Night
and give the trick or treaters a
snowshoe running fright.


A Wish for Zeus
 by Sophia

I wish that I could mail a...
New thunder bolt
for you to grip in your
big, huge, gigantic hand when
you get mad at people
like Hera.
Are you still mad at her
for stealing your old
thunder bolt?


A Wish for a Friend
 by Teagan

I wish...
to send a
right foot to the
three stooges
because two left feet don’t
keep you from
bumping into things.


A Wish for Harry Potter
 by Hania

I wish for Harry Potter
not to be in danger
So that he'd have his parents back
and so Hermione Granger
would fall in love with him.
And he would not have to go
into the Chamber of Secrets
and if that wasn't so
he'd be much safer.
So he'd have Sirius Black
So that he'd go get Cedric back
So that he'd never know an Umbridge name
So that he was never in the Triwizard game
So that he never hated Snape
So that he'd never speak Snake
So that he could never fight
in the dark misty night,
 Lord Voldemort

These poems from Kim's Poetry Club are a wish come true for me.  Thank you to each poet and to their teacher for sharing with all of us on this Poetry Friday.

Yesterday was the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and we celebrate this day with a school holiday on coming Monday.  We continue to need Dr. King's and his vision as we learn to live in peace together.  Here is a poem - For Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.- from The Poem Farm archives, 2011.

Irene Latham is hosting today's Poetry Friday roundup over at Live Your Poem.  Join us to make poemfriends, wallow in words, and rub poems all over your body.

Please share a comment below if you wish.