Who's Quirky? Everyone!

My New Umbrella

Photo by Amy LV

Students - I often wonder about where others' ideas come from, and then, when I am in a good writing groove, I remember. Ideas come from absolutely everywhere. Earlier this week, rereading my notebook from last May, I came across this little entry:

Notebook Entry - May 2024

Photo by Amy LV

Intrigued by such a curious invented person, I decided to write more about her:

Poem Draft #1 March 2025

Photo by Amy LV

Then, somehow, the rhythm of a famous, anonymous, old (around 1888) nonsense rhyme that goes like this, invaded my body:

Moses supposes his toeses are roses;

Moses supposes erroneously.

For nobody's toeses are roses are posies.

As Moses supposes his toeses to be.

Of course, with any old, anonymous verse, there are other, newer versions, and you can read about these at Wikipedia. What surprised me - and ALWAYS surprises me - is that this rhythm was rattling and rolling around in my brain unbeknownst to me...and its meter showed up in my own-this-week-lines. After doing a little sleuthing, I realize that this has happened before with "Moses Supposes His Toeses Are Roses" - see my poem Manny the Manatee.

As I drafted and redrafted at my computer, the main character of this poem changed from a she to a he...and I went with it!

Poem Draft #2 March 2025

Photo by Amy LV

Today I have two writing suggestions for you. 

The first suggestion is to read poems aloud regularly. Read to your family. Read to your cat. Read to an old sneaker. Read to your dog. Read to a cactus. Read to your stuffies. Read to the air. Read to yourself. If you read and write regularly, the rhythms that go through your body will come through in your own lines, even when you are not trying for it. Yes, I did revise and tweak and fine tune...but the rhythm was already inside of me.

The second suggestion is to think about quirks, both yours and those of others. The Cambridge Dictionary defines a quirk as "an unusual habit or part of someone's personality, or something that is strange and unexpected." You might think about your own quirks, the quirks of those you know, or the quirks of imaginary people. Then...write!

What are my quirks? Hmmm. One of my quirks is that I always buy a lot of baking supplies whenever we are expecting a snowstorm here in Holland, NY. Another of my quirks is that I sing a special song to our cat Winnie when I want her to come inside. What are your quirks? The quirks of others you know? The quirks of imaginary characters such as my own Umbrella Man? These may well make for excellent writing inspiration.

And...Happy Spring! Yesterday was the first day of spring where I live, and I so I tried out my new umbrella in the morning's sunshower. Isn't it all beautiful?

Spring Equinox Sunshower at The Poem Farm

Video by Amy LV

Thank you to Rose for hosting this week's Poetry Friday roundup over at Imagine the Possibilities with a joyous, poetic celebration of spring. Each Friday, all are invited to share poems, poem books, poetry ideas, and friendship in this open and welcoming poetry community.

Be quirky. Be quirky. Be quirky. That is all.

xo,

Amy

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Notice Something Someone Enjoys

Fiona Settles into a Sunbeam

Photo by Amy LV

Students - Spring is coming to Western New York, and all of us here are turning our faces up to the sun and drinking it into our skin. Last week I watched Fiona settle into a golden sunbeam, and she looked so cute and happy that I had to take her photograph. 

As writers, our job is to pay attention to the small and big happenings that fill each day - just normal events such as hearing a teacher read aloud wonderfully, tasting perfect frosting, or cozying up into a sunbeam like Fiona. Our lives are richer when we notice these bits of our world, and so, too, is our writing.

If you are looking for a writing idea this week, pay attention to what makes another person or an animal happy. Perhaps keep a little list of times when others are happy and why they became happy. Then, write a poem or a story or some thoughts from your notes. Maybe you will even wish to write about what makes YOU happy. My poem begins as a list of the many places Kitty finds the sunbeam and then toward the end, the poem keeps the reader in one place to watch Kitty drift off into purry snores. You may have noticed the movement in lines 3-6, each drifting more toward the right. These lines move because...well...sunbeams move!

When we pay attention to happiness, we become happier. Our feelings so often follow our thoughts. And our thoughts grow from our attention. This is why I try to point my attention wisely. We cannot control everything, but we do have some say about what we grow in our own brain gardens.

Below you can see Winnie relaxing on our front porch near my knitting basket this week. Do you think she likes sunshine too?

Solar Powered Winnie

Photo by Amy LV

Thank you to Janice for hosting this week's Poetry Friday roundup over at Salt City Verse with a celebration of Women's History Month. Each Friday, all are invited to share poems, poem books, poetry ideas, and friendship in this open and welcoming poetry community.

I wish you more happiness than you think you could possibly find.

xo,

Amy

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Begin with IF

This is a Chickadee

Photo by Amy LV

Students - Happy March to you...the month that is said to "come in like a lion and out like a lamb." This March roared in with a new Candlewick Press book filled with poems selected by Irene Latham and Charles Waters and illustrated by Olivia Sua, and I feel lucky to have today's poem included in the collection. The book is titled IF I COULD CHOOSE A BEST DAY: POEMS OF POSSIBILITY, and on Monday many of us read our poems in a happy Zoom room with The Writing Barn. It was a treat to see Ms. Corgill's students and Mrs. Harvey's students there too!

I chose to write "Finch, Robin, Jay" about one small thing I believe a person can do to make their life better - learn the name of just one bird. Many of the poems are like this, about things a person can actually do...but some are more fanciful, using the IF to imagine more unusual or even impossible-in-real-life happenings such as Sylvia Liu's "If You Catch a Magic Fish." Beginning a poem with the word IF can take a writer anywhere.

The most famous IF poem I know is titled "If," and it is by Rudyard Kipling. It is also a list poem, and you can read it here at The Poetry Foundation.

I write about finding poems ideas by wondering WHAT IF in my book POEMS ARE TEACHERS: HOW STUDYING POETRY STRENGTHENS WRITING IN ALL GENRES, a book filled with  poems by adults, young people, filled with lessons and ideas. We all spend time in our minds wondering What would happen if....? and today or this week, perhaps you will choose to follow your own IFs in your writing. (It's also a great way to plan your dreams and future.)

Thank you to Margaret for hosting this week's Poetry Friday roundup over at Reflections on the Teche with an original and clever poem in the form of a weather forecast. Each Friday, all are invited to share poems, poem books, poetry ideas, and friendship in this open and welcoming poetry community.

May your week be filled with possibility, my friends!

xo,

Amy

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Try a Piece of a Triolet

Patterns and Travels

Photo by Amy LV

Students - I feel fortunate to once again share a musical version of my poem by my friend Gart Westerhout, a professor, composer, pianist, singer, and director of a musical theater in Japan. We met through the internet, through poetry and music, and while I always have concerns about the internet, finding good and talented friends in this way brings me joy. Thank you, Gart!

Yesterday I was driving home from the credit union over the snowy Western New York 

hills and had this thought, I want to write another triolet! And so last night, I did so. Isn't it neat how

our brains can just make decisions and then follow through? And the more little things we learn, the 

more ideas we give our brains to chew on and try out. Today's poem is about a friend, a friend from a 

faraway place. Many of us have and love such friends.

A triolet is, indeed, one of my favorite forms. I enjoy the rolling repetition and the way a writer can emphasize an idea simply by repeating it according to the form's rules. You will notice that lines 1, 4, and 7 match, as do lines 2 and 8.  If you look carefully, you will also notice that the rhyme scheme is: ABaAabAB. If you read it aloud and listen verrrry closely, you may notice that the poem is written in iambic pentameter, ten syllables per line with the accents reading daDUM, daDUM, daDUM, daDUM, daDUM.

Now, while this can be a lot to keep track of (it helps me to reread and look at another triolet I've written as I write: This Beet II, Wintertimes, Triolet for a Stone), it's also interesting to simply experiment with one technique from a particular form. Maybe write a poem about a friend you have or can imagine. Maybe try any one of these crafting techniques:

• writing an 8-line poem
• repeating a line two or three times
• keeping the same number of syllables in each line
• making your first two lines match your last two

Experimenting with forms gives us new ways to play with old ideas.

Next Monday! You are all invited to join many of the children's poetry community in celebrating a new Candlewick poetry anthology by Irene Latham and Charles Waters - IF I COULD CHOOSE A BEST DAY: POEMS OF POSSIBILITY. Register your class here at The Writing Barn to hear many poets (including me) read their IF poems aloud.

Find This Book at Bookshop.org

Thank you to Denise for hosting this week's Poetry Friday roundup over at Dare to Care. Each Friday, all are invited to share poems, poem books, poetry ideas, and friendship in this open and welcoming poetry community.

I wish you friends from near and far, friends you understand and love and who understand and love you right back. May you be such a friend to yourself.

xo,

Amy

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Fold Paper to Unfold Your Heart

Folded Hearts

Photo by Amy LV

Students - Yesterday I wrote this line in my notebook: I can fold a heart from paper. My plan was not ever to write a poem from this line, but the act of writing in my notebook offered me those words, and their rhythm spoke to me. These seven words were originally the first line of today's little verse, and while I did change it, you will note that the meter remains the same: DAdum DAdum DAdum DAdum. Reading poems aloud regularly helps me to feel the rhythms in my blood. If you like writing poetry, I suggest lots of reading poetry aloud alone in a room or to others. Your heart will come to feel as if it is beating to the meters of the poems you read.

Today's poem also grew from the fact that I do love folding paper. Our dining room windows are still covered with white folded snowflake-stars, and I am slowly interspersing hearts amongst them. Writing about hearts and folding heart-shaped valentines got me thinking about how many people I love who are now far away from me, either by location or by death.

Have you ever written a poem by making art first? Try folding a few hearts by following the directions below, either the written or YouTube instructions. As you fold heart after heart, as this folding comes easier and easier to you, pay attention to whose faces appear in your own heart, which memories rise for you. For me, today, I am thinking about friends who once lived near to me but now live in new places, friends I would love to invite for a cup of cocoa and a long walk, friends who I now only see sometimes.

You might choose to make a valentine or two with your folded hearts and/or your poem(s). Remember this: handmade gifts of art and writing are meaningful and cannot be purchased. Such gifts are important gifts indeed.

And if you do write about one person...strive to use specific examples and stories as you do so. I began by writing that I remembered the things you always do and games we played together but then realized how I could paint more realistic and more specific story-pictures with a snorty laugh and a dressed up kitty and summer games of hide-and-go-seek. 

Easy Instructions to Fold an Origami Red Paper Heart by cool2bkids.com

Origami Heart (Folding Instructions) by EzOrigami

Thank you to Jan for hosting this week's Poetry Friday roundup over at Bookseedstudio. Each Friday, all are invited to share poems, poem books, poetry ideas, and friendship in this open and welcoming poetry community.

If you try making a different kind of art and allowing it to inspire you, I would love to hear about it!

xo,

Amy

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Experiment with a Short Form

Family Button Box

Photo by Amy LV

Students - Today's poem blossomed from an old family cigar box full of buttons and a chance opening to a page in Kyle Vaughn's inspiring book LIGHTNING PATHS: 75 POETRY EXERCISES.

The short form is inspired by the landay, a thousands-of-years-old, two-line poem form with nine syllables in the first line and thirteen syllables in the second line. (Go ahead...count.) Vaughn explains that such poems are "simple and deal with common, earthly concerns: love, suffering, war, nature, beauty, death." Landays often criticize elements of life, are anonymous, and are shared by and among Afghan women, shared orally as a way to express anger and grief, frustration and love. 

I am not living in Afghanistan long ago or today, composing and speaking these words with my neighbors and in-person community, but I too wish to learn to express a feeling with a certain number of syllables - twenty-two. My small lines speak to the grandmother who died before I was born, who died before my parents were even married. I believe that the button box belonged to her, Geraldine Pappier Ludwig. I wish I could bring Grandma Ludwig back to life for a day with this box of buttons on the table and a kettle of water brewing for tea we could share.

You might wish to try writing a poem inspired by the landay form. If so, draft two lines about one of these big ideas or another big idea of your choosing:

love

suffering

war

nature

beauty

death

Consider choosing a feeling or a memory or an object or a small moment of time related to the big idea to get started. And try counting syllables. Work toward nine syllables in your first line and thirteen in your second line. Writing only two lines allows us to focus on the count more easily than when we are writing four or eight or sixteen or thirty-two lines.

Thank you to Tabatha for hosting this week's Poetry Friday roundup over at The Opposite of Indifference with a perfect monologue from Shakespeare's HENRY V and her ever-generous thoughts. Each Friday, all are invited to share poems, poem books, poetry ideas, and friendship in this open and welcoming poetry community.

Hmmmm. Perhaps each of those buttons yearns to have a poem written about it. Back to the box I go!

xo,

Amy

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Celebrate Secondhand Objects

Everything Thrifted

Photo by Amy LV

Students - Every bit of clothing you see in the photo above was owned by someone (or someones) before me. The hat belonged to my former and now deceased English Professor Julia Walker, the silk scarf came from a thrift store about a year ago, and I just purchased the blue corduroy jacket with its velvet cuffs and collar earlier this week. Yay for old clothing owned once by others! My good friend Katie has a motto - "Secondhand first," a motto I believe is very wise. Not only do we save money when we buy used, we also preserve stories and protect the planet by conserving resources. So...if you have ever wondered about thrifting, please know that I am 100% Team Thrift, celebrating the preservation of stories and resources.

Today's poem is about one thrifted item, my "new" blue coat. When I saw it hanging on the rack this week, I knew it would be mine next. And I do so love imagining the memories and stories and songs that used jackets and scarves and shirts and skirt hold from their former owner (owners?)

Do you own an article of clothing or a toy or another object that was once owned by someone else? What is this object? What memories do you believe it still might hold? You may wish to pretend that this object is talking to you, sharing memories of its past. Do these memories make you laugh? Cry? Write about what you imagine, what you wonder, what you think, what you believe.

It is environmentally sound and poetic to buy used. Be like my friend Katie. Remember her words, "Secondhand first." You help the planet...and you can imagine some good stories too.

If you're interested, here is my messy, crossed-out draft for today's poem. Celebrate the discovery of the just-right word! It takes time, dear friends, time. 

Glorious Messy Draft

Click to Enlarge

Photo by Amy LV

Thank you to Tricia for hosting this week's Poetry Friday roundup over at The Miss Rumphius Effect with a celebration of typewriters (and inspiration for me to pull out my old orange typewriter!) Each Friday, all are invited to share poems, poem books, poetry ideas, and friendship in this open and welcoming poetry community.

xo,

Amy

Please share a comment below if you wish.

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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