Welcome to Day 3 of 24 HOURS. For my 2023 National Poetry Month Project, I will share a new daily poem about 1 hour in 1 day in the life of an old barn. I will write 24 hourly poems, 1 for each hour of a spring day, beginning with midnight and ending right before the following midnight. Because April has 30 days, I will write and tuck 6 additional poems into the month, likely 2 at the beginning, 2 in the middle somewhere, and 2 at the end.
I invite anyone who wishes to join me in this challenge too. To do so, simply:
1. Choose a place or a person, an animal or an object you could imagine writing 30 poems about, someone or something you could imagine following and writing about through an imaginary day.
2. If you wish, download the hourly log and note page below to keep track of poem ideas as you have them through the month. You may do this project on your own, with a friend or two, or with your whole class, each person selecting different hours.
(Teachers - Please print or make a copy so students can access these.)
3. Write a new poem each day of April 2023. You might write in order of the hours (I probably will), or you might choose to write your hourly poems in a mixed-up order and place them in order at month's
end. If you miss a day, do not worry. Just come on back to your project when you can. Even if you write only a handful of poems around your subject, it will be worth it. And know that I will share some poem writing ideas along the way.
4. Teachers and writers, if you wish to share any 24 HOURS subjects or poems, please do so on social media with the hashtag #24Hours. Teachers, if you have permission from parents and only first names on student poems, I will share those topics and poems here in a Google Slides presentation.
24 HOURS POEMS:
And now for Day 3!
Students - My hours have begun! It is midnight with Old Barn now, and you've possibly noticed that I have capitalized these two words even though we don't usually capitalize adjectives and common nouns. I have done this because Old Barn is the main character in my poetry sequence, and we do capitalize names.
Young poets often ask, "Do I need to write a title first?" No, you do not. You do not need to give your poem a title at all if you do not wish to.
I do like to title most poems, and usually choose a title after writing a poem...not before. Today's poem is an example of this. I kept thinking about stars at night, how we humans do not always see them, even as they dance above our sleeping selves. Today's poem focuses on Old Barn seeing these stars, including a most special shooting star...and then...AFTER writing the wee poem, I discovered the title. We humans see a shooting star and we wish. What might Old Barn wish for? Well, as many old barns - including ours - need some repair - I imagined that Old Barn might wish for more time, more life.
If you are wondering what "peepers are," your answer is below!
To learn about more National Poetry Month projects and all kinds of April goodness, visit Jama Rattigan at Jama's Alphabet Soup where Jama has generously gathered this coming month's happenings. Happy continued National Poetry Month!
xo,
Amy
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