Welcome to my National Poetry Month project for 2017! Students - Each day of April 2017, I will close my eyes, and I will reach into my box of 64 Crayola crayons.
Aerial View of Crayola Box
Photo by Georgia LV
Each day I will choose a crayon (without looking), pulling this crayon out of the box. This daily selected crayon will in some way inspire the poem for the next day. Each day of this month, I will choose a new crayon, thinking and writing about one color every day for a total of 30 poems inspired by colors.
As of April 2, it happened that my poems took a turn to all be from the point of view of a child living in an apartment building. So, you'll notice this thread running through the month of colors. I'd not planned this...it was a writing surprise.
I welcome any classrooms of poets who wish to share class poems (class poems only please) related to each day's color (the one I choose or your own). Please post your class poem or photograph of any class crayon poem goodness to our Writing the Rainbow Padlet HERE. (If you have never posted on a Padlet, it is very easy. Just double click on the red background, and a box will appear. Write in this box, and upload any poemcrayon sharings you wish.)
Here is a list of this month's Writing the Rainbow Poems so far:
And now...today's crayon. Black!
Some Are Sleeping...Some are Not
by Amy LV
Students - Today's poem is a sonnet, a fourteen line poem written in iambic pentameter (da DA da DA da DA da DA da DA). It's in Shakespearean sonnet style, with three quatrains and an ending couplet. Often during a National Poetry Month challenge, I take on a sonnet. It's a puzzle and great fun to count the syllables and most importantly, still make sense.
When I rhyme, my first goal is to be sure that the rhyme does not distract from what the poem wishes to say.
If you are Writing the Rainbow with me, perhaps your color for today will inspire you to write in a form such as a sonnet or a haiku or a limerick. Once in a while I play with form, though if you visit here often, you may have noticed that I usually do not write in named forms, but sometimes...I do! Perhaps your poem will take you to nighttime or to a different time of day than you usually explore.
Colors can take us anywhere. And if you'd like to join in with your own poem at our Writing the Rainbow Padlet, please do! It is one colorful and beautiful place to visit..
And please don't miss the links to all kinds of Poetry Month goodness up there in my upper left sidebar. Happy twenty-third day of National Poetry Month!
Please share a comment below if you wish.
Amy, The dark night city comes alive in this pitch-perfect poem for the color black crayon.
ReplyDeleteAnd your working with the sonnet reminds me that a goal on my To Do list is to spend more time
working my words into forms.
Each day I have wondered what the next day's color will be.
Oh, a sonnet to a city and night and all that goes on. Lovely !!
ReplyDeleteJanet Clare F.
Night is a perfect choice for the color black and a sonnet, no less. I am still intimidated by the sonnet. You bring us right into the city night.
ReplyDeleteI love all the things happening in the city behind "those flashing rectangles of light." But my favorite line has to be - "Old people walk old dogs beneath old stars."
ReplyDelete