Showing posts with label Wonder. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Wonder. Show all posts

Sunday, April 26, 2026

listen - day 26

   

As I strive to become a better listener and to connect more with my sense of hearing, National Poetry Month 2026 finds me writing daily, handwritten, index card poems inspired by sounds and listening.. I have begun a new notebook to collect the sounds I notice throughout the month, and I will reflect on them in short poems. My ears - and my heart - are open wide. 
 
I invite you to join me in this project, on any of my projects from the past 16 years, or on a project of your very own. To do so, simply write a poem each day of April in any way you wish. Share or don't share, as you wish. Your poems are your poems. Your projects are your projects. And if you wish learn a bit more about writing poetry, I welcome you to the short lessons in the tab above: COAXING POEMS VIDEOS - 2024.
 
National Poetry Month 2026 Poems
April 1 - listening, listening
April 2 - clicking kitty
April 3 - spring morning 
April 4 - tea
April 5 - team
April 6 - from far away 
April 7 - on a day of April snows 
April 8 - breakfast
April 9 - beep beep beep 
April 10 - now
April 11 - but why?
April 12 - winter warmies
April 13 - better than a touch screen  
April 14 - swish of the brush 
April 15 - heartbeat 
April 16 - robin? sparrow? 
April 17 - a good meal 
April 18 - their notes 
April 19 - the show 
April 20 - performance
April 21 - grandfather clock 
April 22 - our maillady zooms 
April 23 - potato chips
April 24 - this fire
April 25 - sneeze music 

Here is poem 26 - 
 
 
 
Students - Something I have noticed this month is that our home is a pretty quiet home. We live on a country road with almost no traffic, our children are grown, we do not keep TV or radio on in the background, we do not play video games, and our cats, while not totally quiet, are not boisterous. So as the month has gone on, I have needed to push myself to think of sounds. This one is a seasonal sound, one we only hear during certain (though many) months of the year. Plows are loud, and I loved that lie-a-bed time of wondering if snowy days would become official snow days, for me, for Mark, for our children. For folks who live in cold climates, snow days are sweet surprises!
 
One way to gather ideas for writing (sound ideas or other ideas) is to fold a piece of paper into four quadrants, or take four separate sheets of paper, and label each with one of the seasons: spring, summer, winter, fall. Then, under each heading, list some sounds or memories or images that come to you related to that season. Our lists will all be different, depending on the weather where each of us lives.
 
To learn about many of the wonderful National Poetry Month projects happening online this April, visit the generous Jama Rattigan at Jama's Alphabet Soup. 
 
I wish you a fun-to-think-about question today!
 
xo,
a. 

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Friday, September 19, 2025

Wonder about a Person from the Past

Great Grandma Marie's Chair
Photo by Amy LV


Students - I never knew my Great Grandmother Marie Braun Pappier, but her chair lives in my living room now, and our kitty Claude likes to lie down in between the rockers. My mom has always told me how kind and loving Marie was, how she'd read the newspaper in that chair and rub her hands at the ends of the arms. I like thinking about how many hours it must have taken to wear away the paint, and when I rub my hands on those worn brown places, I feel connected to this ancestor of mine, Marie who married Henry, my father's mother's father.

Marie Braun Pappier's Chair
Photo by Amy LV

This week you might choose to take a trip back in time in your mind, visiting an ancestor or other person you may know or may have never known. Perhaps you have heard a name or place or small story about someone from the past. Perhaps an ancestor, perhaps someone completely unrelated to you. Maybe there is an object in your home that connects with this person: a chair, a watch, a cup, a book title, a sweater, a painting or photograph. The object may be old or it might just remind you of the person. 

Follow your thoughts and wonderings. Jot what rises in your mind. And see where you go. You might go to a poem place or a story place or simply a wondering place. All such places are good. 

If you keep a notebook, you may even make a list of people-from-the-past to write about in your own future.

Here is a photo of my Great Grandmother Marie with my father and mother on their wedding night, midnight December 31, 1967 - January 1, 1968.

Marie Braun Pappier with George Ludwig and Debby Dreyer Ludwig
New Year's Eve 1967

This week, Jama is hosting the Poetry Friday roundup over at Jama's Alphabet Soup with a continued celebration of the alphabet and a truly fun abecedarian. Each Friday, all are invited to share poems, poem books, poetry ideas, and friendship in this open and welcoming poetry community.

We are all connected.

xo,

Amy

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Wednesday, April 30, 2025

HELLO MY NAME IS - Day 30

Happy Last Day of 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 shared poems written in the voice of Little Red Riding Hood, and I used this idea sheet to help me write all month long.


Here are this month's poems. What fun I had writing them!

LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD'S POEMS SO FAR

And now for today!

Students - Gosh, I must admit that I am going to miss this project. I think I will likely keep working on it, living for a bit longer in the world of Lou and her family and friends.

Writing a poem mostly each day (sometimes more, sometimes less due to lots of school visit travel) within the course of a month is a true challenge for me, and I now plan to print these 30 bits and play around with them, see what/if they wish to become next.

All of my gratitude to you for joining me on this final day of HELLO MY NAME IS... Taking on a project like this is something like letting people see you dance to music in your living room, a little brave and a little embarrassing. But I did it...and you were kind. Thank you!

Happy final day of National Poetry Month 2025!

xo,

Amy

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Friday, April 25, 2025

HELLO MY NAME IS - Day 25

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

And now for today!


Students - Today's poem is about something I have wondered about many times - What do animals dream about? What was my pet's life before we knew each other? I even wrote a whole picture book about this idea, the idea of animal dreams. This book is called DREAMING OF YOU. So, I suppose only makes sense that the Lou/LRRH in me would wonder this same thing, especially about Frank who did an evil deed. What was Frank-the-wolf's life before his calm dog life now?

Today's poem is from Lou's point of view, but I also wanted to make it a standalone poem. This means that while we know it's from LRRH's perspective because we know this month's theme here, another person could read this poem not knowing this and imagine it is from any dog owner's perspective. The poem can stand alone, without the other poems from this month.

Writing from wonder is always interesting. What are some of your life questions? You might choose to explore one in the world of a poem. As I did, you might even decide to include a direct questions in your poem, maybe even in the very last line as you see above. Ending a poem with a question gives readers something to think about.

Thank you for joining me on this twenty-fifth day of HELLO MY NAME IS...

Thank you very much to Heidi for hosting this week's Poetry Friday roundup over at my juicy little universe with a poem by a student and the Progressive Poem too. While you're at her place, don' tmiss the information she shares about her WHISPERshout writing workshops and poetry magazine written by young writers. Each Friday, all are invited to share poems, poem books, poetry ideas, and friendship in this open and welcoming poetry community.

Students - 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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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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