What Reminder Do You Need?

Chubby Sunflower Bee

Photo by Amy LV

Students - On these August mornings, I often begin the day by picking blackberries and flowers. Sometimes, I see bees dozing in the zinnias and on the sunflowers, and I smile...wondering what they dream about. 

Reflecting on these bees, I found myself noticing how much I love watching them doze, how much I love their little pollen pants and fuzzy bodies. I found myself noticing how different this experience is than the experience of reading information and looking at pictures (even adorable pictures) on my phone or computer screen.

Long ago, I remember reading an article about a baby swiping at a magazine, trying to turn the page as one does on an iPad. That troubled me, and it troubles me when I find myself trying to click on one of my own thoughts (does anyone else do this?) When such a thing happens, I am reminded:

Go outdoors.

The natural world is real in ways that the technological world can never be. Trees and bees and meteors remind us of our humanity. We need them. This is my reminder to me...and perhaps to you if you also need it.

What might you need to be reminded of? Perhaps make a list...and then choose one or more of the items from your list to write about. Maybe a poem, maybe not. When we write about our goals and struggles, it helps us to think about them in new ways. And sometimes, when others' read our reminders, they find themselves reminded of something too. In this way, writing helps us and others at the same time.

Teachers - It is a new school year. Please allow me to recommend more time outdoors. The best book I can recommend about combining curriculum with time outdoors is one of my favorite professor's books - LITERACY MOVES OUTDOORS by Valerie Bang-Jensen. Wise, practical, and beautiful. I cannot recommend this book more!

Available through Heinemann

This week, Heidi is hosting the Poetry Friday roundup over at my juicy little universe with good news and a sudoko poem. Each Friday, all are invited to share poems, poem books, poetry ideas, and friendship in this open and welcoming poetry community.

May your brain encourage you and also push you where you need to be pushed...

xo,

Amy

Please share a comment below if you wish.

Know that your comment will only appear after I approve it.

If you are under 13 years old, please only comment 

with a parent or as part of a group with your teacher.

Think About What Is Growing Now

Teapot Full of Flowers

Photo by Amy LV

Students - My birthday was this week, so I picked a teapot full of zinnias and other flowers from my gardens and brought them to my mom. I'd thrifted the teapot a few weeks ago, and it was fun to turn it into a vase. I was excited to give my mom the flowers and also to wait for more zinnias to replace the ones I'd cut. Zinnias are a "cut and come again" flower, meaning that the more you cut the flowers, the more the flowers grow. I love that. You can see more growing already, here outside my writing shed, Gratitude.

Gratitude with MORE Zinnias

Photo by Amy LV

Thinking about the generosity of such flowers, I remembered each time our family has adopted a new pet, the way that each of our hearts grew bigger and more full of love. We didn't need to worry about sharing or not having enough love. Our love was give and give again.

Claude and Winnie

Photo by Amy LV

Today, when I wasn't sure what to write but still felt happy about the birthday flower teapot, I decided to write about zinnias...and in doing so, I realized that writing, too, is write and write again. The more I write, the more easy and comfortable it is to write. The less I write, the more difficult it becomes. When I pay attention and write, connections grow.

So, I am thinking about this. Giving helps us as much as it helps others. When we give, we grow.

Another Scribbly Draft

Photo by Amy LV

What is growing in your life? It may be a plant or a creature or an idea or a feeling. It might be a curiosity or wish or a goal. What do you wish to grow of more in your life? Even though there are many aspects of life that we cannot control at any given time, we can always find meaning and water the things we wish to grow within ourselves. We can be generous to us.

Regarding technical poem stuff, this poem is written in rhyming couplets, two lines at a time, each two rhyming.

This week, Molly is generously hosting the Poetry Friday roundup over at Nix The Comfort Zone with poetry that reminds us of the beautiful pause of summer. Each Friday, all are invited to share poems, poem books, poetry ideas, and friendship in this open and welcoming poetry community.

May you grow as you choose, my friends.

xo,

Amy

Please share a comment below if you wish.

Know that your comment will only appear after I approve it.

If you are under 13 years old, please only comment 

with a parent or as part of a group with your teacher.

Look for Messages & Make Meaning

One Feather

Photo by Amy LV

Students - A big question that people often ask out loud or wonder to themselves is, What is the meaning of life? I wonder this too, and lately I have decided to believe that the meaning of life is the meaning we give our lives. We can choose what matters to us and live our lives according to these beliefs. So, looking for small messages and giving them meaning is giving me joy.

It is summer here in Western New York, and a hot summer indeed. To get exercise and experience more of the elements, I am striving to walk in water for one hour each day. This might be at the YMCA pool or in a creek with a friend or on very special days, in Lake Erie. The feather I found last week was on one of those Lake Erie days. It called to me, and I find myself thinking about the seagull who left it behind.

Today's eight lines are written in a form called a triolet. I very much enjoy writing triolets, and you will find several of them here at The Poem Farm. You will notice that lines 1, 4, and 7 are exactly the same, as are lines 2 and 8.  If you look carefully, you will also notice that the rhyme scheme is: ABaAabAB. If you read it aloud and listen verrrry closely, you may notice that the poem is written in iambic pentameter, ten syllables per line with the accents reading daDUM, daDUM, daDUM, daDUM, daDUM. 

This week, consider looking for messages. Know that a message counts as a message if you believe it to be a message...anything counts! Make meaning of your life. Give meaning to feathers and sweet snowflakes and the smell of maple syrup and a song that plays on the radio at the very perfect time. Decide what the message means to you, and maybe write about it. (Yes, I still do need to decide what the feather-message is for me.)

If you wish to try a bit of a triolet, try repeating a line or two...or choose two rhyming words to thread through a poem, or write something with eight lines. One need not follow every form rule to try something new.

Jan is hosting this week's Poetry Friday roundup over at Bookseedstudio with a focus on resilience. Each Friday, all are invited to share poems, poem books, poetry ideas, and friendship in this open and welcoming poetry community.

Life can be tough sometimes. And so, this week, I wish you magical messages big and small, in every sense from sight to smell to taste to touch to hearing.

xo,

Amy

Please share a comment below if you wish.

Know that your comment will only appear after I approve it.

If you are under 13 years old, please only comment 

with a parent or as part of a group with your teacher.

Watch for Small Surprises

Cozy Smokey

Photo by Amy LV

Students - This week, my husband and I took a little trip to Murray Brothers, a nearby garden center, to purchase a pink-flowering rhododendron and a couple of periwinkle delphinium for our yard. When we approached the counter to pay, there was Smokey again, snoozing away, making our day that much cozier and happier. I asked if I could take his picture (he did not wake) and knew that I must write about this soft boy. Even though Mark and I have shopped at Murray Brothers many times, each time we smile at this kitty who dozes so dreamily on the counter, seemingly unaware of his many admirers.

Our days are peppered with small joys, and teaching our eyes to watch for them is very important. It is possible to walk through the same day with eyes for good or eyes for bad, and by looking for good, we not only feel better, but we can better help to bring more good into our world.

My suggestion this week is to look for those small joyous surprises that make you smile inside. Consider writing about one of them. In this way, you will grow that joy inside of you. You may even find ways to radiate it out to others. 

Here is another picture of that sweet Smokey.

Curled up Smokey the Cat

Photo by Amy LV

And yes, of course we donated a little to the Smokey Care Fund.

Everyone Takes Care of Smokey the Cat

Photo by Amy LV

Tabatha is hosting this week's Poetry Friday roundup over at The Opposite of Indifference with a wise and lovely poem by Laura Purdie Salas. Each Friday, all are invited to share poems, poem books, poetry ideas, and friendship in this open and welcoming poetry community.

Thank you to the folks at Murray Brothers for brightening so many gardeners' days...and thank you to you for all of the ways that you bring happiness and kindness into the lives of others.

xo,

Amy

Please share a comment below if you wish.

Know that your comment will only appear after I approve it.

If you are under 13 years old, please only comment 

with a parent or as part of a group with your teacher.

What is a Weird Thing About You?

A Few Peonies

Photo by Amy LV

(I will post a recording when the recoder is not giving me difficulty!)

Students - The other day as I walked by the peonies on the table, I looked at the petals falling from my peony bouquet and again I heard/imagined hearing the sound of piano notes. This made me wonder if everyone hears piano notes when they see many flower petals fall at once. Perhaps this is something I heard in a cartoon once, or perhaps my brain just thought of it, but either way, my brain hears it now.

Yesterday my friend Karen shared this Albert Einstein quote with me, "Creativity is seeing what everyone else has seen, and thinking what no one else has thought." So this week let me recommend that you fall in love with paying attention to the very special and individual way that you see the world. What is something weirdly wonderful about the way you see things? Watch for it. Then, express this wonderfulness in some way. Spending time on human thought and human art makes us more thoughtful, and it makes us more artful. 

Today's poem is short, but I spent a lot of time playing with the words to find just-the-right-ones and also to arrange them just so. Originally, the lines were longer and the poem looked like this:

Then, after playing with the words for a long time, I decided that the poem should have more of a falling feeling, so by adding more line breaks, I created more falling from line to line. Do remember that when you write a poem, the line breaks (where you choose to go from line to line) and white space (space where there is no text) play an active part in the life of the poem. So feel free to play with them! Move the lines one way. Then another. 

Thank you to my friend Mary Lee for reminding me this week of the importance of making every day.

Tanita is hosting this week's Poetry Friday roundup over at{fiction, instead of lies}, sharing some different poetic forms and new poems too. Each Friday, all are invited to share poems, poem books, poetry ideas, and friendship in this open and welcoming poetry community.

I wish you glorious and wonderful weird moments inside and outside of your own head!

xo,

Amy

Please share a comment below if you wish.

Know that your comment will only appear after I approve it.

If you are under 13 years old, please only comment 

with a parent or as part of a group with your teacher.

Unplug and Listen

A Garden After Rain, June 6, 2025

Photo by Amy LV

Students - It rained all last night here, and oh did I love it! The sound of rain is one of my favorite sounds (along with crunching leaves and the bump of a rock kicked down the road). Right before dinner yesterday, I planted a few more plants, hoping that Mother Rain would swoop in overnight...tucking each basil and pea and nasturtium plant into their big earthen bed. And she did! In fact, it is still raining now in the morning as I write on the front porch. It sounds just like a lullaby.

Today's poem is a small one, yet I wrote many notebook pages about rain before I arrived here. Somehow the simplicity of the rain, the purity of the water droplets, the gentle drumming felt so...so...so...opposite of much of the online world. This opposite place is important for my humanity. For all of our humanity.

The few lines above are a list poem, beginning with a list of the things NOT happening, and twisting at the end to the one thing that IS happening. List poems are not difficult to write, and they can allow us to contrast two things.

This week - this summer - this life - I encourage you to unplug from everything and allow thoughts to arrive in your mind in the quiet. Allow non-tech sounds to tap on your heart. Write with no devices nearby. If you make this a practice, such times will become a good, solid friend to you. This is one of my own summer goals, and should you join me, I would love to hear about it.

I would like to extend my respect and gratitude to the fourth, fifth, and sixth grade members of the TRA (Tioughnioga Riverside Academy) Writing Club in Whitney Point, NY for our time together this week. I so appreciated joining your club virtually for one day and admire how you meet weekly and explore different writing topics and techniques in community. I wish you all a beautiful writing summer. Thank you, too, to your teacher leaders including Laura Farwell who connected us, who have built this important place for thinking and creation.

Buffy is hosting this week's Poetry Friday roundup over at Buffy Silverman with a spotlight on two new lyrical STEM picture books. Each Friday, all are invited to share poems, poem books, poetry ideas, and friendship in this open and welcoming poetry community.

May you be soothed by raindrops and other nature goodnesses.

xo,

Amy

Please share a comment below if you wish.

Know that your comment will only appear after I approve it.

If you are under 13 years old, please only comment 

with a parent or as part of a group with your teacher.

Write a Love Song to Something

A Spring Joy

Photo by Amy LV

Students - There are so many things to love in the world! Today I love my little packets of seeds. I find it quite incredible that each one of the little seeds will grow into a big flower that can attract bees and butterflies, grow its own seeds, and inspire humans to paint and love it.

We spend a lot of time on computers and other devices these days, and today I encourage your writing selves to fall in love with not-digital things. You, too, may wish to write a love poem to one of the objects or beings you love. Maybe a plant. Maybe an animal. Maybe an art supply. Maybe a cloud. Only you can know and decide.

As writers, our interests beyond writing give us ideas and a reason to love life. And so now, I am turning off my computer and phone and heading out into the rain.

Michelle is hosting this week's Poetry Friday roundup over at More Art for All with a beautiful original painting titled Red-winged Blackbird at Montrose Point along with two poems inspired by it. Each Friday, all are invited to share poems, poem books, poetry ideas, and friendship in this open and welcoming poetry community.

xo,

Amy

Please share a comment below if you wish.

Know that your comment will only appear after I approve it.

If you are under 13 years old, please only comment 

with a parent or as part of a group with your teacher.