Friday, March 10, 2023

A New Place...A New Voice

Snow Freckles
Photo by Amy LV



Students - Here in Western New York, the weather is jumping back and forth between cold and warm, snowy and clear, dark and sunny. But I can hear Winter packing her bags, heading off to visit others. Daffodils are nudging up, and robins will all be back soon. If you do not live in a snowy place, know that we snowfolks consider the sighting of a robin as an important sign of spring. While not all robins migrate, this is still an important moment for me....first robin!

Today I offer you two ideas to consider with your own writing:

1. Write in a different place. I am not saying that we need to take vacations to write; we can simply walk a few steps in a direction away from where we usually write to find a new perspective. Try writing outside. Try writing under your desk. Try moving to a different room. New impressions, sights, sounds, and smells give us new ideas. The more we feed our senses, the more ideas we will have. Today I walked around outside and wrote a bit in the chilly air after taking the photo above and the one below.

Nudging Daffodils
Photo by Amy LV

2. Write in the voice of another. Today I share a poem in the voice of Winter. This means that I pretended to BE Winter as I wrote. I imagined which images Winter might wish to press into her suitcase, and I thought about my different senses when I did so...this is how I thought of the "cocoa breath" line, probably my favorite.

Heidi is hosting this week's Poetry Friday roundup at my juicy little universe with a whole birthday party of fabulous poems. Please know that all are welcome each Friday as folks share poems, poem books, poetry ideas, and friendship.

May you find a couple of interesting new places and voices this week. Your writing can take you anywhere.

xo,

Amy

ps - It really isn't spring here quite yet. Snow is coming back this weekend!

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14 comments:

  1. Amy, wow. I love all the memories being packed up and put away to make room for spring. Nice! On a different note, I just read "Write, Write, Write" and I'm going to get "Read, Read, Read" next. So many wonderful poems!

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  2. You and I had similar thoughts this week (but you were much kinder to winter!)

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  3. We've had a flip-flop March, warm today & the next few, then snow is forecast. Love that robin has whisked winter away!

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  4. Thank you for the prompts for persona poems, Amy.

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  5. Beautiful, Amy! Today some can't-leave-yet snowflakes are falling on the ready-to-bloom daffodils. Perhaps they'll stay tucked inside themselves an extra day.

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  6. I love this, Amy! And what a fun framework of a poem for young writers. Fabulous. I'm not missing winter yet, as it's still here with me. But I sure miss it once ugly, muddy spring arrives in MN.

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  7. Oh I so many memories. And I love the rhythm in this poem.

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  8. I also love the rhythm in your poem. Writing in the voice of winter is a good way to remain positive about winter's gifts like cocoa breath memories. I always marveled when the robins joined my photo ops (In Syracuse and Long Island).

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  9. I love the idea of winter packing up after a robin's arrival. That's a fun poem. And your writing ideas are great! I'll try one this week.

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  10. The previous anonymous was me, Susan T.

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  11. A change of scene does the body and the imagination good! I love Winter's cocoa breath and how she knows when it's time to move on...

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  12. Aw, you're helping me to see the lovely memories of winter when (usually) at this time of year I'm just annoyed by it and can't wait for spring. :)

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