Sometimes A Poem Needs a Friend: Write a Poem for a Poem

On Tuesday, this book, edited by Kenn Nesbitt, illustrated by Christoph Niemann,
and published by Little Brown Books for Young Readers will be born.
It is chock full of all kinds of poems and spare, whimsical pictures.

Available at Your Local Book Shop

I am so happy to have a poem in this collection. You can read it here.

(Click to Enlarge)



A friend read an early copy and asked,
"How much of 'Our Kittens' was taken from real life?"

I love questions like this one.

Q:  How much of "Our Kittens" was taken from real life?
A:  All of it!

"Our Kittens" is a true story from our family, and it happened about two years ago.
Considering my friend's question, I realized that my poem needed a friend poem.
It needed the other point of view.
And so I wrote a poem in the voice of Fiona, that last kitten from "Our Kittens."

Fiona
Photo by Hope VanDerwater

Students - Sometimes a poem needs a friend poem.  This week when I got my own copy of ONE MINUTE TILL BEDTIME, and when I thought about my friend's question, I realized that there was more to this story. And so I wrote "My Boy," the poem I imagine our sweet Fiona really would write for Henry if only she could hold a pencil.

At twelve years old, Henry really did read books to a frightened tiny Fiona, and he helped her trust him and helped her trust the world again.  Now she seeks him out, snuggles him, touches his face with her paw. Fiona loves Henry.  And he loves her.

Sometimes an image stays in your mind for a long time.  The image of my boy reading to a lost creature is one of my favorites, and honestly...I think it's been rattling around in my heart, just waiting to find a home in a poem.

Sometimes a poem needs a friend poem.  Sometimes an image you've carried for years finds you when you are writing.

Creating is funny like that.  We never know...so we must just keep at it.

On this thread of creating, I am thrilled to welcome artist and art teacher Tim Needles to Sharing Our Notebooks this month.  I've admired his work on Twitter for a while, and it's a delight to peek into his fabulous notebooks and to learn about his faith in process.  Don't miss - and please leave a comment to be entered into a book giveaway.

Halloween is Monday, and Election Day is on the horizon.  If you have not noticed, I have placed poems to go with each in the left sidebar here. Enjoy!

This week, Linda is hosting the Poetry Friday extravaganza over at TeacherDance.  So waltz, fox trot, or tango on over and enjoy the good fun and good people.  All are always welcome to read, comment, and link on in.  Happy Poetry Friday!

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