Writing, Brains, and Notebooks

Writing is Exploring is Writing

by Amy LV

Students - Today's poem is really a how-to poem, but not a clear cut how-to such as "How to Make a Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich."  Rather, it is a poem about how to do something that is in a way concrete, and in a way, mysterious - writing.

You will notice that I compare writing to walking a dog.  That's because when I walk my dog, I never know where she will want to go.  We have discoveries and adventures.  Such a sense of discovery and adventure is writing at its best too.

When I started writing this poem, I had no idea where it would go.  Rather, I just followed my pen and mind and there appeared the tracks.

Trust yourself.  If you don't know what you wish to exactly write, just get started, and see where you go.   Allow your pen to find its way into the brambles of metaphor and the secret paths of simile. You may well find a hidden room.

Today I am tickled to welcome English Language Arts director, Mary Wheeler, from St. John School in Houston, Texas with this zany Poetry Peek!  Enjoy!

Thank you, Mary, for e-mailing me these joyous pictures to share here today.  If anyone tries this way to display poetry, or if you have another way that you like to share students' poems, please let me know as I would love to feature it.

Now that our brains are feeling colorful, I would like to extend an invitation to all. In the past week, my other blog, Sharing Our Notebooks, has lit up like a bonfire. It started when Kimberley Moran of iWrite in Maine wrote and asked me about hosting some ideas for student notebooking over the summer.  She wrote the first one, and now we already have 27 entries!  All are welcome to contribute, and you can see the list of how to post here and the list of entries already up here.

Here's how easy it is to share.  Just think of one way you get inspired to write in your notebook (or on your napkin or on your computer or on your arm...) and then write up a paragraph sharing that idea/exercise. Then, snap a photo of a page (or napkin or screen or arm...) and e-mail or Google Doc it to me with a brief bio. Then, I put it up with all the others, and we all have a wondrous list of writing exercises to inspire not only our students...but us too.

All are welcome - students, teachers, writers, artists, mechanics, chefs, jotters, scribblers of all types.  The more variety, the merrier.  I welcome you to share and hope that you will.

Here's an easy Tweet if you just want to copy and use it -

@amylvpoemfarm is collecting #notebook ideas! Share your short paragraph, photo, bio here to join the fun - http://bit.ly/1LbP1K1 #writing

Matt Forrest is hosting today's Poetry Friday party at Radio, Rhythm, and Rhyme...with wonderful news.  Please stop by, enjoy all of the poetry offerings, and congratulate Matt on his book contract!

Please share a comment below if you wish.

Snipping Snowflakes

Hope's Window
Photo by Amy LV

Students - Snipping paper snowflakes is one of the simple pleasures of life!  If you live in a snowy place, it is a way to bring snow inside.  If you live in a place with no snow, it is an easy way to create some.  Last week, when my daughter Hope was sick, she cut lots and lots of snowflakes out of red, green, and white paper.  You can see some of them above, in our living room windows.

If you're interested in knowing how I snipped this poem out, take a peek into my notebook below.  You'll see that I first started writing about fog and clouds and my notes turned to something I saw last night, raindrops on a twig.  Then, looking at the window, I began writing about Hope and her snipping...

Click to enlarge image.

...and then I began poem-ing!  One thing that helped me write today was something I did last night.  Before bed, I read aloud many many poems from J. Patrick Lewis's new IF YOU WERE A CHOCOLATE MUSTACHE.  Falling asleep with the rhythms of our Children's Poet Laureate in my head was a wonderful thing to do, and it is something I highly recommend.  Read ALOUD the work you admire, and those rhythms will sink into you.

Click to enlarge image.

If you have ever wondered about snowflakes all being different from each other, visit Wonderopolis to read all about the chances of that happening.

To learn about how to make paper snowflakes, visit Martha Stewart or High Hopes.

Over at Design Sponge, you can read a great tutorial about making doily snowflake garlands.

And at Spoonful, you can find a recipe for sweet tortilla snowflakes.  We will make these today!

There may be no snow in Holland, NY right now...but we can make our own!

Available through Amazon

I am so happy to have Mary Lee Hahn as a guest over at Sharing Our Notebooks this week.  If you have not yet visited her notebook, please don't miss it!

And for those of you who knew that I was away for a bit, I am now back to posting on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.  It is good to be home!

Please share a comment below if you wish.

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

Like The Poem Farm on Facebook for more poems, articles, and poemquotes!

If I were my dog for just one day...

The Dogs of Heart Rock Farm - Cali and Sage in 2012

Photo by Amy LV

 

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

Students - Our family laughs a lot when we watch and play with our two dogs. Cali is almost four, lovely, loving, and a bit serious.  Sage is only one, floppy, and as my Aunt Tom would say, "full of spit and vinegar!" They have a rollicking time together, and we have a blast loving and watching them.

Today's poem grew from a month-old notebook entry.  Usually, my notebook entries skip from idea to idea, thought to thought.  I just gather up as many little bits of braindust that I can find.  Then, later, I comb through them choosing something to stick with for a bit.  For today it was the image of a dog curling a tail around herself, just as Cali and Sage both do.

Notebook Entry Snip from September 11, 2012

 by Amy LV

To begin today's poem, I flipped through my notebook until I found something that struck me. Then, once on the page you see above, I reread those circled words, "I would love to be able to curl up in a tiny ball and wrap my big, fluffy tail around me." I thought about what other things I would do if I were a dog, played with rhymes, and wrote this poemlist.  (Have you ever wondered why dogs roll in dead things?  If I ever become a dog...at last I will know!)

This poem is nothing more than a rhyming list.  You'll notice that many poems that you read are lists, much like this one. Today's poem is also one super-long sentence, and the title is part of it.  If you listened to me read the poem, you may have noticed that I read the title right into the first line...with barely a pause at all.  This is because I used the rhythms in the title as part of the rhyme and meter scheme of the verse.  A  long pause would ruin the sound and song.

Update!  Shortly after this poem was posted, Matt Forrest, from Radio, Rhythm and Rhyme, shared an answer poem.  You can hear him read it here.  What do you think it might be about?

If you are interested in writing some list poems of your own, here is a list of some I have written.  It's fun to brainstorm all kinds of lists and then later come back and ask, "Hmmm...might this work as a poem?"

List Poems to Explore

Word Blanket

Banana Phone

Fiction

Find a Roll of Foil
If
Gum for Free
I Want to Ask My Teacher
Questions
Fish
On Eating an Elephant
Under Your Feet
Last Day of School
Breakfast for Dinner
Don't Tell
How To Be My Favorite Book
Jewels
My Friend
Favorite Words - Poem Unavailable
When I'm Here
A Tail
Daisy
What is a Poem?
Alone
I Count
Read
Similarities
Ready
How To
reasons
Labor Day
I Can
To Do List
I Read
Tea Party Time
Warning
Voracious
The Dictionary Forest
Grocery Stories
nest
Leftovers
King Tutankhamun Dead at 19

25 - 150 Hertz
Poem Eyes
Doors and Windows Glow
Collector
Dee-dee-dee!
Finding the Way
List of List Poems
Thanksgiving II
Changing
Baby Dreams Of...

For more searchable poem lists, check the tabs above!

If you are a notebook keeper, you will not want to miss Kate Messner's post over at Sharing Our Notebooks.  Looking into the notebooks of generous writers can give us ideas for our own writing.

FYI - Right now I am on the schedule to host this Poetry Friday.  But I have traded with Betsy Hubbard.  So if you  keep the calendar in your sidebar, please note that change. Poetry Friday on October 12 at Teaching Young Writers with Betsy Hubbard, and I will host here at The Poem Farm on November 30.

Please share a comment below if you wish.

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

Like The Poem Farm on Facebook for more poems, articles, and poemquotes!

E is for EXPONENT

EXPONENT

Photo by Amy LV

Students - To be honest, I was not happy when I pointed at the word EXPONENT.  It didn't seem like a beautiful word, and it doesn't have many great rhymes (proponent, component).  I don't have any strong or funny feelings for exponents, and I worried that this would be a toughie.

But then I decided to hug my word, embrace this little surprise of the Dictionary Hike (see upper left-hand sidebar for a definition of this project), and I am so glad I did.  What you see here is a short definition poem written in the voice of an exponent.  A poem written in the voice of the speaker is called a mask poem, and I decided to make my little exponent speaker tell about his/her job, to feel proud even though exponents are small.  In the end, I enjoyed experimenting with writing a simple definition, hoping of course that math teachers will find this verse useful.

Would you like to visit some exponents and learn about the exponent rules? You can do so over at Algebra LAB.

So, if you're taking a Dictionary Hike, and if you point to a word that's not your favorite, consider giving it a whirl anyway.  You, like me, may be surprised by what is in your pen!

This week, if you visit Sharing Our Notebooks, you can hear Janet talk all about how she (doesn't) keep notebooks, the way she revisits old ideas, and you (like me) will learn some great revision strategies for your own poems.  If you leave a comment on that post by the end of today, you may win these four books, generously donated by Janet!  I will announce the winner tomorrow, Poetry Friday.

You can win these books over at Sharing Our Notebooks!

Each day of this dictionary project, Lisa V. will write and post a haiku for that day's word at her blog.  You can read all of these over at Lisa's Poem of the Week.  Please join us and share in the comments if you wish!

The Poem Farm is becoming searchable by topic and poetic technique.  There are now around 70 poems listed and linked both ways so as to make this space useful for young writers and teachers. If you have a suggestion for me, please share as I welcome ideas!

Please share a comment below if you wish!

You can like The Poem Farm on Facebook for more poemlove...

Cat's Recipe and Writer's Notebooks

 

Sarah Waits

Photo by Amy LV

Students - one of the great things about keeping a writer's notebook is that your writing just hangs out in there. You may not see value or meaning in one day's piece of writing, but it will be there, waiting for you. And then, a week, month, or year later...you may come back to it and find the value, find the meaning.

I wrote a version of this poem several months ago and let it just sit. And then on Sunday, our cat Sarah sat staring out of the front window as several fat Blue Jays zipped in for suet. "Snap!" went the picture. "Hmmm!" went the brain. I remembered this old poem, dusted it off, revised it a bit, and here you go!

I learned this song in Girl Scouts.  Do you know it?

Make new friends
but keep the old.
One is silver
and the other gold.

Here it is with a few little changes...for writing!

Write new thoughts
but keep the old.
One is silver
and the other gold.

Sometimes thinking and writing grows better with time and layers, the same way that trees grow ring-by-ring.  Try going back to some of your old writing, in notebooks or paper piles, and find something you'd like to visit again.  Set a time to just sit and reread what you've got.  Then, when the perfect day arrives, you will remember, "Oh!  I have an entry about that!"

You can peek inside some different notebooks (Naturalist! Artist! Novelist! Poet!) at my other blog home, Sharing Our Notebooks.

'Like' The Poem Farm Facebook Page for regular updates of all things poetry!

(Please click on POST A COMMENT below to share a thought.)

Finding Luck & Throwing Eyelashes

This week it's Poetry Saturday in Holland, NY! We had a big snowstorm, and it interfered with our satellite. Please excuse my tardiness to the Poetry Friday party!

Eye Self-Portrait

by Georgia LV

Students - Sometimes you might find a poem or writing idea inside of an old writing piece. Today's poem grew from a two-week-old notebook entry. As you read the entry below, you might notice small snips that appear in "Finding Luck."

January 4, 2012

The day began, like many days, with a shower. A hotel shower where so many men and women I will never meet have washed their bodies, breathing deeply, readying themselves for a day ahead. As I looked to the white curtain, I could see a small eyelash curled against the fabric. Someone else's eyelash. Not mine.

In these moments, I decide and re-decide what I will say inside my own head, how I will react. A part of me wants to squeal, "Gross!" and live like my Grandpa Norman who would not stay in hotels or eat in restaurants lest he get the germs. But another side of me is superstitious. This side of me says "Pa-diddle!' and kisses a fool when I see a one-headlight car. This side punches Hope when I see a punch buggy. An eyelash? Why you throw it over your shoulder, of course.

I stood there in the shower, eyeing the tiny line of hair, thinking back to the many small eyelashes I have gently brushed from the cheeks of Hope, Georgia, and Henry, throwing them over their shoulders.

Warm water poured down my back as I heard a clear voice in my head say, "Oh, what the heck!" And I watched as my own hand gently brushed the eyelash from its curtain and threw it over my own wet shoulder.

Again, like always, I thought, "It's lucky!" and wondered if the luck would be mine or if somebody somewhere today had a wonderful day with no idea where the luck hailed from.

I would not consider myself a very superstitious person, but there are certain little habits I have, like tossing eyelashes and avoiding cracks in the sidewalk. Back in 2010, I posted a poem about lucky socks along with a recommendation for Janet Wong's great poetry book about superstitions, KNOCK ON WOOD.

Lately I have been posting more links to great poems and quotes on The Poem Farm Facebook Page. Please 'like' it to receive these links and poems and quotes on your news feed.

Tara is hosting this week's roundup over at A Teaching Life. You may well have already been there, but in case not...enjoy! Happy week ahead!

(Please click on POST A COMMENT below to share a thought.)

White Fields & Notebooks

Little Notebook

Notebook Entry from March 24, 2010

Lately I've been thinking a lot about writer's notebooks. A month ago, I began a new blog, Sharing Our Notebooks, partly to inspire me to get back into more notebook writing. Well, it's working.

We had a busy week this week with a new batch of foster kitties to "home" and a new manuscript to revise. So, last night I wasn't sure what to to choose to write about. With notebooks on the brain, it didn't take long to think, "I'll just reread one of my old notebooks and find an idea."

That said, I walked to my big old desk with this little old cherry notebook, opened a page, and found the bit of entry you see above. The poem comes almost directly from this entry, "...walking in the white fields with my pen, uncertain of what I will find."

So if you've ever wondered, "Why keep a notebook?" Here's why. You never know what's stuffed in there that you might need later. One day's idle thought is another day's inspiration.  Try it.  Just open your notebook today, flip through, and choose a line that sounds neat.  Then, make something bigger out of it.

The last two lines in this poem come from Natalie Goldberg's WRITING DOWN THE BONES. She writes, "Writers live twice. They go along with their regular life, are as fast as anyone in the grocery store, crossing the street, getting dressed for work in the morning. But there's another part of them that they have been training. The one that lives everything a second time. That sits down and sees their life again and goes over it. Looks at the texture and detail."  This idea of "Writers live twice," is one that rings deeply in me.

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Please note that the nominations for the Cybils (Children's and Young Adult Bloggers' Literary Awards) including poetry books, are open for another week! Please check out the Cybils website if you haven't yet done so and take a peek at the already-nominated poetry books here.  As a judge for this year, I look forward to reading these books and helping to usher some of them to the short list.

Mary Ann is hosting today's Poetry Friday roundup over at Great Kid Books. Thank you, Mary Ann.

Meow!

Penny, Pumpkin, & Juniper
Photo by Henry LV

(Please click on POST A COMMENT below to share a thought.)

Announcement: New Blog Debuts Today!

Notebook Stack

Photo by Amy LV

Student & Teacher Friends - Today I would like to invite you to my new blog, Sharing Our Notebooks, a blog for just that.  The first post is a peek into my own notebooks, but after today, you will be able to read bits from all kinds of notebooks...maybe yours!  

Please join if you wish, and come back each Tuesday to learn about all kinds of ways to use a notebook.  My hope for this new blog is that it will give us all ideas and fuel for our writing journeys!

The Poem Farm will continue in this space each Friday, and possibly more.  I look forward to hearing about how you celebrate poetry in your classrooms, and I hope to see you in my new space too - Sharing Our Notebooks.   If you would like to share a page from your notebook - or if you know a notebook keeper of any sort who might wish to do so - please drop me a line at amy at amylv dot com.

Happy beginning to another beautiful year!

(Please click on POST A COMMENT below to share a thought.)

Poetry Friday, Peek, & Notebook Keeping

Sleep Pile

Photo by Amy LV

Students - this poem came from my files.  It's a little one that I began writing long ago and came back to this week.  Something wonderful about keeping a writer's notebook is that you can visit and revisit it over and over again looking for good things to revise and play with some more.  Keeping a notebook reminds me that the small snips of my life matter greatly if I hold onto and spin silken words around them.

I love writing lists, remembering crystals of my childhood, gluing letters, and making plans in my notebook.  Right now I am working on a picture book because the idea has popped up in my notebooks again and again over the past few years.  Keeping a notebook helps us know what we circle back to and helps us recognize which topics keep calling out to us.

If you do not keep a notebook now, you  might want to make this a summer project.  Just get a book you like, and decorate the cover if you wish.  Don't be afraid of how pretty it is or think that you need perfect ideas.  Just dive in and follow the words.

A Few of My Notebooks

Photo by Amy LV

A few weeks ago, I was tickled to open up my e-mail to find this letter from Terry Semlitsch, a mom and special education teacher at Wales Primary in the Iroquois Central School District here in Western New  York.  Terry's son, Braden, is a first grader in Peggy Long's classroom in this same school.

Hi Amy!  I just wanted to share what my son is doing with poetry.  Braden is in Mrs. Long's first grade class at Wales.  He has been very inspired to write poems on his own!  When he gets home from school, he almost always goes to his room to write some poems.  I have attached some pics of his display of poems in his room.  So cute!  And I love that he loves writing poems!

When I asked Terry to tell more about her thoughts as teacher and mother, she wrote,

From a parent perspective, we were absolutely thrilled with Braden's interest in writing poetry.  For a week straight (when he was being immersed in poetry in the classroom and just starting to write his own at school), he grabbed a notepad and started writing as soon as he got home from school.  He never got discouraged with spelling, he wrote freely, and always had ideas for topics.

When we went anywhere in the car, Braden would grab a notepad for the drive.  Sometimes he would write poems, and other times he would brainstorm ideas for poems.  Although he doesn't always write every day at home, he often looks at everyday events and thinks aloud about how that could be a poem.  For example, with all of this crazy rain, we get literally hundreds of worms in our driveway.  Braden commented that it was like a "worm party" and went on to say what he would say in a poem.  He also made an Easter card for his grandma with a little poem for her.

He is so much more comfortable with writing now.  This poetry unit gave him the spark of confidence he needed to know that his thoughts are not wrong and he can say things in whatever way he chooses.

Braden's Home Poetry Display

Photo by Terry Semlitsch

Braden's Poem Close-Ups

Photo by Terry Semlitsch

Two of Braden's Poems

Photo by Terry Semlitsch

Braden's love of poetry grew in his classroom, and his teacher, Peggy Long, shares her own experience of teaching poetry this year below.

As the start of my poetry unit approached, I began to feel the anxiety associated with  never having taught poetry before.  Certainly we had read a lot of poetry, but to have first graders write it themselves seemed a bit intimidating.

I stayed focused on my initial objective of immersion.  We began reading lots of poetry all the time.  I read to them, they read to me, we read chorally, and they would take their poetry binders home each night and read to their parents.  We began to chart all of the things we noticed and appreciated about poetry.  I wasn't sure of the effect of all this sharing, but I knew they were enjoying it as much as I was.

After about a week and a half, the seeds began to sprout.  The children began to reveal poems they had been writing at home.  The subjects of their writing were as wonderful and unique as the children themselves!  At this point, I knew, they're ready.  And even more, so was I ready.

Here is a class poem written by Mrs. Long's class and a concrete bee poem by Nicole K.

Lunch Room Noises

Loud chewing,

Quiet talking,

Banging trays,

Slurping milk,

Laughing friends,

Clapping hands,

Yelling people,

And that's all I

HEAR!

by Mrs. Long's Class

"Bees" by Nicole

Photo by Peggy Long

Notes like the one I received from Terry, the opportunity to work with teachers like Peggy and Terry, and a chance to read these beautiful works by young people...these are some of the great joys of my life.  Thank you to these teachers and children for brightening our Poetry Friday.

For today's Poetry Friday roundup,visit the delightful and tea-loving Toby over at A Writer's Armchair, a very cozy and nourishing nest where you can snuggle with words.