#7 - For Mrs. Kellner's Class

We are one week into the April NaPoWriMo challenge to write a poem and post it each day.

Today I was lucky enough to meet with a class of children who have decided to study poetry now, during National Poetry Month.  In Holland, NY, Mrs. Kellner's first graders have been studying a poet each month as Lee Bennett Hopkins suggests in his classic book, Pass the Poetry, Please!  These young students know their favorite poems, and they are beginning to write poems too.  Listening to their voices and hearing what they plan to write about, I knew that my poem for today would be a present.  So, Mrs. Kellner's class - this one is for you!

The Poems Call

Pull a poem from the air.

You may not see it hiding there

but seeds hide deep until the Spring.

Inside of you is everything

you need to make a word parade

full of music never played.

Listen closely.  You will hear

poems giggling in your ear --

Write me!  Write me!

The poems call

and only you can write them all.

For when a poem finds a child

it settles in to live a while

until this child can find the words

and set them free like summer birds.

I just thought that you should know

you're full of poems

head

to 

toe.

Poem in Your Pocket Day is at the end of this month, and at Country Parkway Elementary in Williamsville, NY, teachers and students will celebrate pocket poems all day long.  With poems hanging on walls and tucked into clothing, this community will also enjoy "roaming poem-ing" and "poem blast" announcements.  Click the link to this holiday (the 9th annual) above, and you will find many ideas for celebrating poems in pockets!

Teachers - if you have poetry ideas to share or if you have suggestions or thoughts for Poem Farm blog posts, please click on comments below, and let me know.