Photo by Amy LV
Click the arrow to hear me read this poem to you.
Students - This photograph is of a snake shed that our son Henry found outside. It's a special one because it's all in one piece. You can even see the eye holes!
Eye Holes Close Up
Photo by Amy LV
I didn't know what I would write about this morning, but I knew that I wanted to write something. So I sat myself down at my desk, looked up, and there it was: this snake shed. Immediately, I began writing the first few words, and immediately I knew that the poem would be long and skinny just like a snake. This is called a concrete poem, where the shape of the words matches the meaning of the poem.
At first, this poem was going to be a poem about Medusa, my husband's high school class snake. The other week, Mark had his school picture taken with Medusa (Dusy) around his neck. She is shedding her skin right now too, and well...maybe I just have snakes on the brain.
Dusy Sheds in September and Hope says,
"Wow! It looks like Dusy Exploded!"
Photo by Mark LV
Bio Note from Mark VanDerwater, Science Teacher: Bio note: each eye is covered by its own single scale that is embedded in the rest of the snakes skin (kinda like goggles) and explains why they don't blink.
One thing I'm realizing is that the more interesting things I have around me, the more interesting poems I can write. Last Friday I wrote about acorns, today a snake shed. Collecting objects helps me to write.
What neat objects do you place in your writing space? What do you keep nearby that inspires you? Teachers - what beautiful or curious or fascinating objects might you bring in or invite students to bring in to school? Here is a beautiful book about keeping a nature table; I may have mentioned it before.
You can read about snake sheds here at wiseGEEK and watch a snake shed its skin below.
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