Write in Third Person

November 20, 2024 Before

Photo by Amy LV

November 20, 2024 After

Photo by Amy LV

Students - Sometimes when we read, we assume that the author of a story or poem is writing about themselves, even if they have not said that this is true. The truth is, oftentimes, authors write in the first person 'I' voice when a piece is not about themselves. Rather, they PRETEND that they are someone else and IMAGINE a whole new world that they have never experienced. They write in the 'I' voice even though they never physically experienced what they are writing. For example, I could write a piece about my memories as a cloud (I looked down at tiny trucks and trains) even though I am not actually a cloud.

Similarly, authors can write in the third person 'she/he/they/it' voice even if a piece IS about their own life. Authors can take a step back and imagine themselves at a bit of a distance, watching an experience they truly had, shaping it for a character perhaps just like themselves, perhaps somewhat different. Sometimes characters are really the author, sometimes not the author at all, and sometimes a mix of the author and imagination.

Today's poem is true, it is about something that happened to me two days ago, and it is also in the third person 'he/she/they/it' voice. I wrote it this way because I wanted it to feel a little bit more like a story and as I wrote, I did imagine the character much like me but much older and grayer somehow.

You might wish to try this. Remember something that happened to you, and write about it in the third person 'he/she/they/it' voice. This will help you take a step back. You may choose to keep your memory as it really happened, or who knows? Perhaps you will change it a little. Perhaps you will change it a lot. Perhaps you will end up writing about a completely different thing than you started with. You are the author...so you make all of those important decisions.

Playing with point of view can give our poems and our stories new flavors and can bring new ideas into our minds.

Ruth is hosting this week's Poetry Friday roundup over at There is no such thing as a God-forsaken Town with some thoughtful words and an original poem around the phrase My world, your world, our world. Each Friday, all are invited to share poems, poem books, poetry ideas, and friendship in this open and welcoming poetry community.

Remember...difficult things will always happen in life, even when we work hard. It is good to take that time to sigh, but we can always start again. I wish you new beginnings.

xo,

Amy

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Make a Promise

Trees are Giving

Photo by Amy LV

Students - Have you ever read a book that revisits your mind and heart from time to time? Shel Silverstein's The Giving Tree is such a book for me. Today I imagined a favorite tree, began thinking about how giving and quiet and strong all trees are. I thought about how grateful I am for trees, and then I remembered the human character in Silverstein's book and the destruction he caused within the few short pages of a book. Somehow, my poem's narrator remembered this book too and chose to make a promise to one special tree.

Today I have a few possible writing ideas you might choose to take on:

1. Write about a favorite tree. You might pretend that you ARE the tree or you might write TO the tree or perhaps you will write ABOUT the tree from a distance.

2. Make a list of books that have stuck with you. Choose one and write about why it sticks with you. You may want to refer to it in a poem or story that you write.

3. Make a promise to a person or a group of people or an animal or a plant or yourself. You might wish to write this promise as a poem or maybe you will want to draw your promise. We become the promises we make.

Cathy is hosting this week's Poetry Friday roundup over at Merely Day by Day with an original poem for this week. Each Friday, all are invited to share poems, poem books, poetry ideas, and friendship in this open and welcoming poetry community.

I wish you loving and strong promises - made for and by you.

xo,

Amy

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What Have I Been Given?

Posing with a Pin Oak

Photo by Amy LV

On the Ground

Photo by Amy LV

Students - Two evenings ago, at my knitting group, Gretchen brought out a few jackets and other things that she wished to give away. Katie brought a couple of tablecloths to rehome, Tanya brought pumpkin bread, and Emily brought a baby sweater pattern and pumpkin pie. Once again it felt so good and warm to share with friends. Such sharing is a regular occurance with this group of friends, offering each other items we no longer use but which still have lots of life left, passing baked goods and tea across the table. I was grateful to come home wearing this cozy autumn jacket, and yes...it is the jacket in the photo above, a great match to the pin oak trees in our yard.

Today's poem came to me as I wrote in my notebook yesterday, reflecting on this simple and happy moment with friends. I hadn't planned to write a poem about it, but I was notebooking along, knew I had a poem to write for today, and this one showed up. I am again reminded of the importance of regular writing, of writing not because I am inspired but because it is delightful to see which words and stories and wonderings appear on the page when I set myself to work.

Remember this - you don't a great idea to get started. Just get started.

And if you want to try what I tried, remember something you have been given and write about that. Perhaps it was a gift, or a hand-me-down, a piece of advice, or a bit of food. When we pay attention to what we have been given, we feed our sense of gratitude. You may even wish to make a list of things you have been given in your own notebook. Actually...I think I will do that too.

Ahead of me will be a bit of mending on this cuff. I have a couple of old flowery suitcases full of fabric and will choose a perfect patch. Perhaps I will write about it. Perhaps not!

A Small Hole on One Cuff

Photo by Amy LV

In unhelpful cat assistant news, I bring you Winnie (otherwise known as Winnie Woo or Winnie Walenda). She was happy to join me yesterday in my outdoor writing session...

Winnie the Writer

Photo by Amy LV

Carol is hosting this week's Poetry Friday roundup over at Beyond Literacy Link with the theme of "Autumn's Abundant Gifts." Each Friday, all are invited to share poems, poem books, poetry ideas, and friendship in this open and welcoming poetry community.

May you be given delights and may you give delights to others this week.

xo,

Amy

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Writing Our Surroundings

Time for Inside Fires

Photo by Amy LV

Students - The weather is getting much colder here in Western New York where I live, and because we are having new siding put on our house, I needed to bring all of last year's leftover firewood inside. Yes, I could have piled it out under a tarp, but why do so when it will just need to come in soon anyway? And truth be told, it is cozy living among the stacks of wood. I feel like a little mouse in a storybook.

So now, surrounded by wood, I cannot help but think about wood and then trees and then forests and then questions. Today's poem came from all of this - my right-now surroundings. When you sit down to write you might choose to look around and ask, "What am I surrounded by at this very minute?" Some days for me the answer may be as simple as "messes and cat fur," and some days it might be "cookies and candles." Anything nearby or around us can offer us thoughts and questions, and in this way too, I am thinking about what I wish to surround myself with. One cannot choose everything...but one can choose some of our surroundings.

You may have noticed that this poem has a repeating line - all of this firewood. I invite you to play with repeating one line throughout a poem or a story that you write. And too, if you're not sure how to end a piece of writing, this may be because you are wondering something. If so, just end with a question as I have done today. Writing strategies and techniques belong to all of us, and we can all learn from each other. 

Matt is hosting this week's Poetry Friday roundup over at Radio, Rhythm, and Rhyme with all kinds of good publishing news. Each Friday, all are invited to share poems, poem books, poetry ideas, and friendship in this open and welcoming poetry community.

I wish you good and warm and kind surroundings. And I wish you small ways to create these for others too...

xo,

Amy

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A Thank You To...

Bookshelf at Home

Photo by Amy LV

Students - This week has been Banned Books Week, and so I decided to write a poem for the greatest champions of books...librarians. When librarians stand up for books, they stand up for you and for me and for all of the ideas we share and for all of the ideas we do not share. Librarians stand up for thought and for freedom. All of my gratitude to them. Librarians are the lifeguards of thought.

To whom are you grateful? This may be one person or it may a whole group of people who do a particular job or who share a characteristic. Thank you notes can be personal and given to one person or general and written for all to read such as mine today. If you write a thank you poem, you may choose to write your poem in your own voice...or you may choose to write it in the voice of another as I did today. Your voice need not even be human! Feel free to title it as I did..."A Thank You to..."

I look forward to Saturday when I will have the good fortune to learn the educators of The Literacy Connection, a professional organization in Ohio. We will be reading and writing poems together, discovering the many ways that poems can teach us about writing and life as we dig into my book POEMS ARE TEACHERS and the poems of so many. 

Tomorrow, Irene will be hosting this week's Poetry Friday roundup over at Live Your Poem. Each Friday, all are invited to share poems, poem books, poetry ideas, and friendship in this open and welcoming poetry community.

Read, my friends...

xo,

Amy

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Look Around & Choose an Object

Garden Watering Time

Video by Amy LV

Hello Friends! First I would like to thank the community of Ripley Central School (Grades K-6), in New York State, for spending Wednesday with me. It was such a treat to begin these autumn days with thoughtful writers and teachers. I look forward to our future time together, and today's poem came from something I shared in our upper grade assemblies.

One of the most meaningful, interesting, and important parts of being a writer, whether we share our writing or not, is deciding what to write about...choosing an idea. And sometimes we can fall into the trap of believing that we need to have a GOOD idea, an IMPORTANT idea, a SPECIAL idea. But we do not need this at all. We just need to begin writing.

We can begin by starting down one of many possible paths, but one of these paths is simply the path of observation. We look around. We look at one object. We write about this object. Now, you may be wondering, Just what might we write about any object? Well, we can write in any genre, and we might:

• Describe the object with our senses
• Compare the object with something else in the world
• Tell about a personal memory related to this object
• Teach something about this object
• Share beliefs connected to this object
• List words this object brings to our minds and write from these
• Invent the beginning of a story inspired by this object
• Begin a poem about this object

For me, the best part of writing is the surprise part. I like beginning NOT KNOWING what I will write, NOT having a great idea to begin, but rather, allowing an idea to show up on the page like a surprise guest.

As for my poem today, I was trying to think of a writing idea when I realized that I should water the garden. As I did so, I admired the sprinkler and so...the sprinkler became my main character of today.

This poem is short and it does not rhyme. However, it does use a lot of sound repetition, namely of the short i sound. The poem, including title, has 20 words, and 10 of them include the short i sound, my favorite sound in the English language.

I would love to read and share any poems you write from just looking around, choosing an object, and allowing the object to bring you to new places, thoughts, and wordplay.

Linda is hosting this week's Poetry Friday roundup over at Teacher Dance. Each Friday, all are invited to share poems, poem books, poetry ideas, and friendship in this open and welcoming poetry community.

xo,

Amy

ps - For those of you who, like me, are fans of English Professor and Musician Gart Westerhout, he is back with another song version of one of my poems, "Summer Mystery," from two weeks ago. Hear him sing that poem about my generous neighbors here.

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Celebrate a Gift from a Loved One

Fairy Mouse

Stitched and Photographed by Silvia Saenz

Students - So many thank yous to embroidery artist and dear Instagram friend Silvia Saenz, a mender and sewist I admire. Silvia sews to repair garments and also to create joy...as you can see with this cuddly mouse. While the mouse was a gift for a different family member, Silvia often sews and mends for her granddaughter, so I chose to write today's poem in Silvia's granddaughter's voice. I am grateful to Silvia for allowing me to share this photo she took of her work.

When you hear a story or learn something about another person, you might choose to pretend that you are that person and write as if you ARE that person. In this way, the world of writing opens up beyond our own worlds. Of course, when doing this, it is important to consider when it might be necessary to research a particular life experience and when it might be wiser to respect that the experience is so wide and deep that it best be left in the voice of the true experiencer. Because people have given me homemade gifts, today I drew on my own, very similar, experience to write in this granddaughter's voice. If someone has ever made something for your or repaired something for you, perhaps you, too, might wish to explore this topic in your writing.

Did you notice that while this poem rhymes, the ending does not rhyme? This is one way of ending a poem...breaking a pattern. Today's pattern is broken by breaking the rhyme. In a way, this slows the poem down and brings a reader's attention to the warm meaning of those last few words.

Heidi is hosting this week's Poetry Friday roundup over at my juicy little universe with a celebration of looking closely at our world. Each Friday, all are invited to share poems, poem books, poetry ideas, and friendship in this open and welcoming poetry community.

xo,

Amy

ps - Claude has become quite cuddly in the mornings. He raises his paw into the air as if he is in school, and I must pick him up for a snuggle. This morning, he thought he'd keep my notebook warm as I typed.

Claude: Writing Partner

Photo by Amy LV

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