Write a Poem PSA

 

Tricky Tick

Drawing by Amy LV 

Students - My husband got a tick on him last week...it dug right in, and we had to dig it out. Then, when he picked up the medicine a couple of days later, there was a tick crawling on his hand from a morning hike. Alas, spring is here, and we are now remembering to tuck in our socks and check ourselves for ticks. In the night the other night, I found myself hearing the line, a tick may pick you...and it stuck itself to me...just like a tick.

Merriam Webster defines a public service announcement as "an announcement made for the good of the public," and today I am reminding you to beware of ticks. Today's poem is a brief announcement in the form of a poem, and while it does not include everything one can do to beware of ticks (check your body, keep grass trimmed...), there is some helpful and important advice in these lines. No one wants Lyme Disease. 

We write public service announcements when we wish to share information with others that we believe will help them. What information do you know that may help another person or group of people? You might try writing this information in the form of a poem, to teach and to have fun with words at the same time.

To learn more about protecting yourself from tick bites, and what to do if you do find a tick attached to you, check out this npr article. To learn more about different types of ticks, visit TickSafety.com. If you want to know more and more about ticks, listen to this podcast by The Field Guides.

Marcie is hosting today's Poetry Friday roundup over at Marcie Flinchum Atkins with happy news and information about her new book WHEN TWILIGHT COMES: THE ANIMALS AND PLANTS THAT BRING DAWN AND DUSK TO LIFE. Each Poetry Friday, all are invited to share poems, poem books, poetry ideas, and friendship in this open and welcoming poetry community. 

National Poetry Month begins next Wednesday, and as always, I'll be doing a poem-a-day project all month. You'll find more information here on Tuesday, March 31, but for now, please know that I welcome you to join me in a month of writing. My project is titled:

I look forward to spending the first day of National Poetry Month with the first graders of Indian Trail Elementary School in Canal Winchester, Ohio. Safe, good week to you all, my poem-y friends.

 

xo,

a. 

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Celebrate Something!

 

My Feet in the Garden This Morning

Photo by Amy LV

 

Students - Happy First Day of Spring! I am celebrating! Here in Western New York, we are alternating daily between warm sunny days and cold snowy days, but happily, spring bulb flowers are strong and can weather storms. Above you can see some little grape hyacinths and daffodils sprouting up in the garden outside my writing shed, Gratitude. We, too, can weather storms.

Today's poem is a poem of celebration. I have been visiting the gardens every day, walking around and welcoming each new sprout.  They feel like old friends coming back after a long trip to the Land of Winter. Today's poem also follows a particular form - the pantoum. I could only find one pantoum that I've written here at The Poem Farm....a poem about wearing masks, posted on July 3, 2020.

 The pantoum form is interesting in that it follows a particular repetition scheme but not a special meter. I was reminded of it by reading Stephen Dunning and William Stafford's book GETTING THE KNACK: 20 POETRY WRITING EXERCISES. You will notice in my spring pantoum that each stanza includes four lines, and in each stanza, the second and fourth lines repeat the first and third lines of the following stanza.

I love seeing messy drafts, so below you'll find mine from this morning. The numbers in parenthesis are a reminder to me that this line should repeat the line that is numbered in the parenthesis. I used a poem in Dunning and Stafford's book as a mentor for my rhyme and meter.

 

Pantoum Draft with Many Crossouts

Photo by Amy LV 

 

If you are ever unsure of what to write about on any given day, try walking around a part of your day and finding something to celebrate. Not only will you have a new bit of writing, you will lift your spirits too. 

Tanita is hosting today's Poetry Friday roundup over at Tanita S. Davis with wise words about how poems are songs and how songs can give us strength. Each Poetry Friday, all are invited to share poems, poem books, poetry ideas, and friendship in this open and welcoming poetry community. 

May you find warmth where you live this week, outside in the weather and inside of your heart. Remember that the way you act in the world can provide warmth and goodness for others too. Peace.

 xo,

Amy 

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Lean on a Meter

Thor and Amy, 1971

Photo by Debby or George Ludwig

 

Students - Earlier this week, I was writing in my notebook about names. We have two cars, an old one and a not-as-old-one, and each has a name. The old Accord is named Iris (she's blue), and the less-old one is named Pearl (she's pearly white). This got me thinking about children and dogs and cats and chickens and hamsters and horses and all of the beings we name in our lives. I thought about how some people name every dog or cat they ever have the same name, and well...I got a name bee in my bonnet! I decided to try to play with the idea of naming in a poem but was not sure how to begin.

Sometimes when I have a writing topic but not a way in, I read poems by others, and sometimes, I borrow a meter from someone else, counting the syllables and studying the rhymes, marrying those syllables and rhymes to my own topic. On this day, I read and played with and leaned into the poem "The Python" by Hillaire Belloc, using the same meter and rhyme as the first 8 lines of his poem. You can read Belloc's poem HERE at The LiederNet Archive if you wish to listen to the poem that I leaned on.

Where did I find this poem? Well, in this old book from 1968, a book remaindered from a library but still so very full of riches! Remember this...when someone else is throwing something away, this does not mean that their discarded object does not have value. It might be just what you need!

CURRENTS IN POETRY by Richard Corbin, 1968

 Photo by Amy LV

If you begin writing this week, and if you are not sure how to begin, I recommend taking a writing break. Turn to reading. Perhaps something about the way another writer has crafted a piece will give you some shoulders to stand on. We all need each other.

Margaret is hosting today's Poetry Friday roundup over at Reflections on the Teche with three different poems in three different forms offering three different small journeys. Each Poetry Friday, all are invited to share poems, poem books, poetry ideas, and friendship in this open and welcoming poetry community. 

Oh, if you're wondering how Thor (my first dog) got his name, I am not sure! Lots of love to you this week. Feel free to name a wild bird in your yard or a favorite chair in your home.

xo,

Amy

 

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Try Try Try a Tricube

Winnie, February 1, 2026

Video by Amy LV

Students - We like to tell ourselves that our cat Winnie is very smart. She is an indoor/outdoor cat, and so these Days of Deep Snow when she's stuck inside make her stir crazy. A few days ago, I caught Winnie tossing knitted hearts to the ground (spreading love?) and felt it urgent to film the moment. And while you can see Winnie tossing the hearts above, you cannot see the several times I filled and refilled her heart bowl. This was a good game.

As I think about our cat's simple fun, I think about how sometimes my own writing life gets a little boring too. I let it get boring and then I avoid it. I need to throw some hearts around like Winnie did, need to try something new and see what happens. Toss some words on the page and watch them fall over and over. Well, this week I'm playing, sharing a poem in a form I've never tried before.

Last week, as I moseyed around other people's Poetry Friday posts, I learned about a new-to-me form - the tricube. This form was invented by Phillip Larrea, an American journalist, and he first shared it in 2016 at Writer's Digest. So Happy 10th Birthday, Tricube!

As you have likely noticed, this is a simple form, and you can learn more about it here at Writer's Digest. No special rhyme. No special meter. Just this:

1. Three syllables per line

2. Three lines per stanza

3. Three stanzas

I chose to give my title three syllables too!

You might enjoy playing around with this not-scary form. I enjoyed making little lists of possible phrases to include and then moving them around the page. Now I'm thinking that I could even write phrases on bits of paper and actually, physically move them around my desk. I could even be fun to invite a group people to choose a subject and each write a few three syllable phrases, each on a different slip of paper, on that subject. Then, we could take the slips and move them around to form group tricubes.

Suddenly I don't feel bored...

This week I am happy to be a part the Colorado Reading Association (CCIRA) conference in Denver, Colorado. I'll be speaking about keeping writer's notebooks and stregthening writing through poetry study. Time with teachers is time that makes me feel grateful.

Molly is hosting today's Poetry Friday roundup over at Nix the Comfort Zone with two poems after Wendell Berry's "Like Snow." Each Poetry Friday, all are invited to share poems, poem books, poetry ideas, and friendship in this open and welcoming poetry community.

Trying something new is a creative way to face moments of boredom. Go ahead and push some objects off of a desk...or maybe consider writing a new-to-you kind of poem!

xo,

Amy

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Repeat What Matters to You

Happy Poetry Friday! The roundup is here today.

Heart in Snow

Photo by Amy LV

Students - Today's poem is about something I have been thinking about lately: ways to be good. And I wrote about it in the form of a triolet. I write many triolets here, and I've shared the following words about them in this space before as well:

A triolet is one of my favorite forms. I enjoy the rolling repetition and the way a writer can emphasize an idea simply by repeating it according to the form's rules. You will notice that lines 1, 4, and 7 match, as do 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.

The main thoughts that matter to me in today's poem are:

1. One can be one's best self in many different ways.

2. True goodness will not always be celebrated.

I think that this may be the first time that I have broken up the lines of a triolet as I usually keep them all in one eight-line stanza. I made today's line breaks, as one does, to emphasize the meaning of the lines I wish to stand out:

There are so many ways one can be good.

One cannot judge what matters by confetti.

When you write this week, you may consider repeating a line, either in your poems or in your prose. Repetition helps a reader focus, even when the reader doesn't realize it, and a writer can use repetition in different ways. Pay close attention to your reading to notice how your favorite writers use repetition to make something clear: a word, a phrase, a symbol, an action. Why might these repeat? Try what you admire.

Each Poetry Friday, all are invited to share poems, poem books, poetry ideas, and friendship in this open and welcoming poetry community. I'm hosting today, and if you have a link to leave, I welcome you to do so below. Whether you leave a link or not, you are most welcome to click around and explore for inspiration and goodness.

I wish you warmth and peace this week.

xo,

Amy

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Explore a Question or Concern

My Phone and the Real World

Photo by Amy LV

Students - This morning, on such a gorgeous snowy day, I woke up to write and to see what would show up on the page. When I approach the page, sometimes I know where I'll begin. Sometimes not. Today I found myself noticing my own mind and how distracted I can become sometimes, too often thinking that I need or want to check something on my phone. Even though I do this, I am not happiest with myself or my mind or spirit when I do so. So I started to write about it. Writing, I was reminded me of Mike Teavee from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and then line by line today's poem appeared.

Appearing poems don't usually look pretty. For me they're full of inky scribbles and cross outs, two things that feel much better for me on paper than at a screen. As do most things, to be honest.

Notebook in the Morning

Photo by Amy LV

Today you may consider taking a question or concern from your own life and writing from that. You might even fictionalize it as I did here, taking your original question or concern and then building a made-up story around it. Sometimes, fictionalized concerns will bring up new truths and ideas. Stoeytelling can also make writing less personal and even easier to explore. As a writer, this is your right. The pages are your freedom. They are also mine.

And remember - you can always end a poem with a question. You may also title your poem after you write it. This one took a bit. I kept reading and reading the poem, knowing that the title would show itself. It did. No One Knows is a line in the poem. And well, it also answers the final question.

Tabatha is hosting today's Poetry Friday roundup over at The Opposite of Indifference with some wise "random bits." Each Friday, all are invited to share poems, poem books, poetry ideas, and friendship in this open and welcoming poetry community.

Take good care of your mind. It is you, and what you shape now will be with you for your whole life.

xo,

Amy

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Ask a Photograph

Geo. R. Ludwig 

Detroit and Broadway, Buffalo, NY

Photo from Amy LV's Collection

Students - Today's poem grew from meandering. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines the verb meander this way - "to follow a winding or intricate course." The course I followed began with just writing in my notebook, letting one idea lead to the next. At some point, I remembered the old photograph you see above and went to find it. When I did, I remembered that it was taken in January, did the quick math (2026-1896), and realized that it was taken 130 years ago! This is old. I took a photo of the photo and zoomed in on my great grandfather's face.

George Richard Ludwig, 1896

Photo from Amy LV's Collection

Ah! If only I could bring him back to life. If only I could ask him some questions, learn about his dry goods store, now long-gone, learn about my grandfather George C., learn about this time in my family, in Buffalo, in America. But I cannot. Still, though, I can study the faces in the photo. And I can imagine. I can imagine what he might say to me. From this photo, in which he stands proudly in front of his growing shop, I believe he says to build. And while I will not build with bricks, I commit to build with words. For him.

This week, if you are uncertain where to begin with your writing, consider meandering. Just write and see where your pencil leads you. Or begin with a photo. Ask someone in the photo a question...in your mind or on paper. Listen to what this person tells you. See, the advice you receive from a photograph-person may also be advice from your deepest self. 

Remember that your poem need not rhyme or follow a special pattern. Your poem wants to be you, a reflection of you, a photograph of what you feel and believe and think right now. 

AI cannot know what you feel and believe and think. Feelings and beliefs and thoughts are slow and come from within. Meander. Take the long way.

Thank you to dear Tabatha of The Opposite of Indifference who set up such a delicious December poem swap. I was matched with darling Robyn-who-I-wish-I-could-see-every-day. She generously gifted me with magical earrings and an ornament based on one of my ghost poems as well as a poem that, well, I would be honored to hear as a ghost at my own funeral. You can read the poem and see what I sent to Robyn at her blog, Life on the Deckle Edge. Thank you, friends!

Jan is hosting today's Poetry Friday roundup over at bookseedstudio with a song and some thoughts about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Each Friday, all are invited to share poems, poem books, poetry ideas, and friendship in this open and welcoming poetry community.

And while it's a bit late, Happy New Year! I have been thinking about you and wishing you all of the goodnessess that can come in time. Each of you is strong and full of light, and I wish you discovery and hope in the days and months that lay before you.

xo,

Amy

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