First Autumnwinter Snow - Poem #223

First Dusting - November 6, 2010

Photo by Amy LV

Poem Drafts for "Overnight"

by Amy LV

It snowed here yesterday!  Our family woke to fristyfrost on the grass and powdered sugar on the rooftops.  Henry and Georgia went out and danced, and Henry threw the first snowball of this season.  A tiny one, right at our front door!  All was melted and gone within a few hours, but we know it will be back soon...for good.

Students - If you look above, you can see the handwritten drafts for today's poem.  We were on a long car trip yesterday, and I scribbled as Mark drove (much safer than scribbling as I drove!)  "Overnight" began as a one stanza poem, but as I read it over and over again, I realized that it needed something more.  You might have noticed that the last two lines of the first stanza are the same as the first two lines of the second stanza.  Why?  I just liked them and wanted to say them over again.  Reading and rereading, I still liked hearing them next to each other.  I feel like they give the poem a kind of marveling feeling, just like we had when we awoke one day ago.

After writing this poem, I dug back in to play with the sounds, to see if I could play with alliteration, or repeating of initial sounds.  For example, the third line originally read, "snuggled in the pines", but it now reads "snuggled in spruces".  "In darkness as I dreamed" (line 5) was originally "in the dark as I slept". 

Teachers - if your students have written a whole lot of poems, you might challenge them to dip in again and play with the words of one or two lines, examining each word closely and asking, "Might I choose a different word, a word with sounds to match the beginning sounds I have already used?"

You might also notice all kinds of little jottings on the side of this poem.  That's a habit - jottings and alphabets and numbers and word lists.  Everywhere.

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Free Verse Week - #201 - Preserving Fall

It is Day #2 of Free Verse Week II, continuing through this Friday!

Today my daughters and I stayed home.  Phew!  It has been a busy couple of weeks, and so today we sat in the living room together drinking tea, knitting, reading, and playing with the dollhouse.  We did not take the hike I had imagined when I awoke, the hike which was supposed to send us home laden with leaves for pressing.  And since I did not live the day I imagined, I wrote a poem about that imagined day instead.  Tomorrow we will hike into the poem that rests on my paper tonight.

Students - it's funny the way that writing and living connect.  Sometimes we write things we wish to remember.  Sometimes we write things we wish to do.  This poem is an example of the latter.  What do you wish you had done?  Wish you will do?  Start there.  Wishes are rich.

If you live in a place where fall is singing its own anthem these days, and if you are looking for leaf-ideas, visit Our Big Earth to learn about pressing leaves between wax paper and  Gingerbread Snowflakes to learn about preserving leaves with Mod Podge.  You can find even more information about leaf crafting at Frugal Fine Living.  And if you're still feeling autumnal and artistic, read at Ten Kids and a Dog about how to make a beautiful Indian corn necklace, definitely on my list for this month.

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Spring Drink - My Poem Writing Year #194

Autumn is cider-making time, cider-drinking time, and earlier this week I got to thinking about the drinks of the seasons.  Autumn was done.  Winter was easy.  Summer, a snap.  But what about spring?  Spring did not seem to have a drink of its own.

I called my great-cook-and-party-hostess-extraordinaire-friend Micki to ask her, "Does spring have a drink?"  She replied, "No...not unless you count rain."

So, thank you, Micki...for the inspiration for today's poem!  Nope, it's not about this current Western New York season.  But we can write about any time of year...any time!

Students - this poem sprouted up from something that was missing.  What do you notice seems to be missing?  That empty space may be a great spot for the beginning of a poem!

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My Poem Writing Year #177 - Signs

Raiber Road Sumac

Photo by Amy LV

Fall is an enchantress.  She lures us through her beauty, straight into a den of death.  Fortunately, this death only lasts for a few winter months.  And joyfully, it wears its own shimmering loveliness.  

Around here, we judge autumn's approach by the trees behind our pasture.  Hushes of red and brown are whispering across the hillside this week, promising snow.  And this, students, is where today's poem grew from.  It grew from what I see every day, everywhere.  So go ahead, look around.  What do you see out there?  How might you compare this thing you see to something else?

Now, you may not realize it, but a holiday is just around the corner.  National Punctuation Day is tomorrow, September 24.  Start readying yourself now.  Do whatever it is you do when you celebrate punctuation.  Wear something.  Say something.  Photograph an improperly punctuated sign.  And do it tomorrow.  If you're interested, click the link above and you can read information about how to enter your own punctuation haiku in a National Punctuation Day contest.

Teachers, if you are looking for an interesting book to help you brush up on your own punctuation and usage, here's a good one.

Shop Indie Bookstores

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Spring Visits Western New York

When I was a little girl, I believed that everything could think, talk, and dream of past and future. As a teenager, I ran in forests and along creeks, wondering what went through the minds of rocks and water. Now grown-up, I still give personalities to non-living things because the whole world feels alive to me. Today at The Miss Rumphius Effect, Tricia encourages us to personify inanimate objects. Welcome, Spring!

Spring

Peeking out
from her crystal cocoon
Nature feels
the time is soon

to pop cold buttons
from coats of snow
warm Earth for birth
watch babies grow

crowns of crocus
squeezing leaves
chickadee chicks
bursting bees
hidden kittens
mare and foal

life
more life
her only goal.

© Amy LV