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. Timberwolf!
Great Gray Bricks
by Amy LV
Students - Isn't Timberwolf a beautiful name for a color? When I began writing in my notebook about this color, it took me to thinking about gray animals. I did a little bit of research and was amazed to find that there are many many gray animals! Such beautiful ones. Just writing this poem made me fall in love with gray.
As I wrote, listing these gray animals, I was reminded of the Shaker abecedarius, a poem I wrote about when I wrote my first abecedarian in 2010. You can read the beautiful shaker abecedarius, beautifully illustrated by Alice and Martin Provenson, HERE. Just scroll down once you arrive at the link.
If you are Writing the Rainbow with me, perhaps your color for today will get your mind generating a list. You may use your list to begin your poem as I did...or not. Maybe your color will make you think of animals. Perhaps you too, will have a strange connection. Mine went from - TIMBERWOLF to GRAY ANIMALS to GRAY BRICKS to HOME....
It strikes me today that this young speaker, threaded throughout this month's poems, is quite an animal lover. It also strikes me that many of Crayola's crayon colors are named for the beauties of nature. Writing a series of poems around one topic yields discoveries about the topic and yourself.
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 growing every day, full of ideas and poems by poets of all ages.
And please don't miss the links to all kinds of Poetry Month goodness up there in my upper left sidebar. Happy twentieth day of National Poetry Month!
Please share a comment below if you wish.
I love this one.
ReplyDeleteLove the movement from beautiful gray animals to one specific animal "swiooping softly over snow" to the gray bricks of home.
ReplyDeleteWhen I read your daily poems I stop after two lines -- without peeking -- and imagine where the rest will lead. You always surprise me, Amy. I love that! Please ponder a book about your Crayola crayon companion! Please? xo Christie @ https://wonderingandwondering.wordpress.com/blog/
ReplyDeleteYes, I think your person is in love with nature, even living in an apartment building! I imagine there are lots of gray animals for safety. I like your ending focus, home, Amy.
ReplyDeleteI love this, Amy. Grey is one of my favorite colors, and I love the cozy feeling it (and your poem) evokes.
ReplyDeleteThis: "It strikes me today that this young speaker, threaded throughout this month's poems, is quite an animal lover. It also strikes me that many of Crayola's crayon colors are named for the beauties of nature. Writing a series of poems around one topics yields discoveries about the topic and yourself."
ReplyDeleteYES!!