PoetryTagTime & Writing in Costume!

Today is the day that my poem is "up" at PoetryTagTime!  PoetryTagTime is the new e-book (easily downloadable for .99 on your PC or phone) featuring poems by thirty different children's poets.  In this game, one poet tagged another who tagged another, each person writing a poem inspired by the one before.  The e-project was put together by Janet S. Wong and Sylvia Vardell, and I have even seen classes of children do their own "take-off" of PoetryTag.

It is an honor for me to be a part of this e-book, and today at PoetryTagTime Tips, you can find Sylvia Vardell's recommendations for bringing my poem into the classroom.  She has written such suggestions each day of this month, one post for each poem. 

Here is my tag poem.  It was inspired by Robert Weinstock's poem and then traveled to inspire Tracie Vaughn Zimmer.

My Hand

Whenever I look 

at my hand

I remember

I once was a starfish

in love with the sea.

Riding her waves

I ate clams.

I grew arms.

I never imagined

one day I would be

a person with legs

happy on land.

Were you always human?

Do you understand?

© Amy LV

This is my favorite type of poem to write because I love pretending that I am or have been other things besides myself.  This is why I love writing mask poems!  It's writing dress up and magic all in one.

PoetryTagTime was a lot of fun for our children to read in the car (from my phone), and I love the way Janet and Sylvia included information and website links to all of the poets.  If you are a student, writer, teacher, parent, homeschooler, grandmother, or poem lover who would like to learn more about several children's poets writing today, I promise you that your .99 will be very well spent on PoetryTagTime.

Poems Through a Mask

Students - when we write through a mask, this means that we write in the voice of someone or something besides ourselves.  If I wanted to write about my bunny, I could write, He hops.  He jumps.  He carrot eats!  

If I wanted to write AS my bunny, however, I would write I hop  I jump.  I carrot eat!

Writing mask poems allows us to take all of the facts we know and to swirl them with our imagination...what would it feel like to BE a car, to BE a waterfall, to BE the smallest lamb in a flock?

Here are some of my mask poems from this year.  (Apologies for no images, but rain storms are making our connection unstable.)  I encourage you to try some mask poems of your own.  And please, feel free to post poems in the comments.  I would love to read your work, students, and I would love to share it here with your permission.

Pill Bug's Lament
February 3

Car Wash

whiskers      whiskers

Class Pet

Maple Mother

For this final week of National Poetry Month, I will keep posting about different ways to find poem ideas or different poetic techniques.  Next week, I will be taking a short break from blogging as The Poem Farm seeks a new direction...suggestions accepted!

This Month's Poetry Revisits and Lessons So Far

April 1 -   Poems about Poems

April 2 -   Imagery

April 3 -   Poems about Animals We Know

April 4 -   Line Breaks and White Space

April 5 -   Poems from Everyday Life

April 6 -   Free Verse

April 7 -   Poems from Wonders & Questions

April 8 -   Classroom Poetry Peek & Circular Poems 

April 9 -   Poems about Science

April 10 - Rhyming Couplets  

April 11 -  Riddle Poems 

April 12 -  List Poems 

April 13 -  Poems for Occasions

April 14 -  Concrete Poems

April 15 -  Poems about Food

April 16 -  Quatrains

April 17 -  Poems about the Seasons

April 18 -  Alliteration

April 19 -  Poems about Sports

April 20 - Compare/Contrast Poems 

April 21 -  Family Story Poems 

April 22 -  Poems about Nature

April 23 -  Repetition

April 24 -  Poems Inspired by Fairy Tales

April 25 -  Concerns Poems
April 26 -  Today - Mask Poems

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