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. Red Orange!
Tomatoes and Time
by Amy LV
Students - Today's poem takes us back twenty days, to April 6, our first visit to Miss Johnson's fire escape. I was surprised to pull RED ORANGE from my box...and then I was tickled, as I realized that this color could connect with my YELLOW ORANGE inspired poem earlier this month.
One truth about National Poetry Month is that it always makes clear to me just how quickly time does go. At the start of the month, there are no color poems. And then, suddenly, there are 26. Time. A little bit of work each day adds up.
If you are Writing the Rainbow with me, perhaps your color for today will connect with a different poem you have written before, maybe a color poem and maybe not. But know this - poems do partner themselves sometimes. It happens.
If you're new to writing poetry, you might wish to look at the line breaks in this poem. Why do you think I ended the different lines as I did? I tried a few different versions, one with lines doubly long, but this sounded best to me in the end.
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-sixth day of National Poetry Month!
Please share a comment below if you wish.
This collection could easily be a novel-in-verse. I can imagine sitting next to Miss Johnson and enjoying her orange red tomatoes. Not until summer, but as you said, time can go fast, and summer will be here soon.
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