Find Meaning in a Repeated Moment

Claude the Cat

Photo by Amy LV

Students - Every time I come into our living room these days, Claude is perched on the chair I set near our Christmas tree. I know that I can find him napping, looking at the tree, or looking like he is guarding the tree. I placed the chair in this spot because I, too, love sitting near the Christmas tree, and it warms my spirit to know that Claude and I share this appreciation. I even wrote this poem in the very early morning, pages lit only by rainbow lights.

Writing by the Light of the Tree

Photo by Amy LV

Today I chose to write about something I see again and again, so many times that I could not help writing about it. We all have such recurring moments in our lives, small events that repeat. These may be snips of conversation or small daily rituals or sights in nature (the morning sky has been so pink here lately) or something else. 

Our daily lives regularly give us new sights and smells and sounds and they also regive us old ones. Today I am looking to find meaning in the repeating minutes, and in doing so in my notebook, I created an imagined friendship between my cat and the angel on our tree. How grateful I am to have done so! Here you can see Claude giving his tree a sniff...

Claude Sniffs His Tree

Photo by Amy LV

This week, you might wish to jot down small events or sights or other sensory bits that strike you. Keep a list on paper or in your head. Maybe you will sketch or take photos of these events. Listen to your heart as you choose one to write about in a long way. The moments that strike us strike us for a reason, and we can find the meaning behind our interest through writing.

Michelle is hosting today's Poetry Friday roundup over at MoreArt4All with an inspiring offering of poetry and visual art. Each Friday, all are invited to share poems, poem books, poetry ideas, and friendship in this open and welcoming poetry community.

May you find beauty and connect with all kinds of old friends...

xo,

Amy

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Write About a Process & a Peek

Almost Socks!
Photo by Amy LV

Students - Today's poem is about one of my favorite hobbies...knitting! I have been knitting for almost 40 years, as I learned when I was a Rotary exchange student in Denmark. While I am still nowhere the knitter I wish to be someday, I regularly take on small challenges (this week a bit of lace in a winter headband) and so get better inch by inch. For many years, I began many hobbies and abandoned them because it took too long to become good at them. I wish I had learned about the importance of mistakes sooner.

This week you may wish to write about something you have made or about the process of making something. Try listing me-made things in your notebook. Or maybe....make a list of mistakes you have made and write about one of those. Mistakes make much more interesting stories than perfection does. I love making things so much that I wrote a whole book about it - WITH MY HANDS: POEMS ABOUT MAKING THINGS.

Today I am grateful to welcome Kensley, a writer from Alden Intermediate School in Alden, NY. Kensley is a wise young person who understands the importance of writing not only to connect with others but the importance of writing to connect with ourselves and to heal our own hearts. Thank you, Kensley, for joining us here today.

I, for one, will be keeping Kensley's advice close at hand as like Kensley, I, too, have found writing to be a good friend in times of sadness and grief. Thank you again, Kensley, for your generosity in sharing your words and advice with us.

Linda is hosting today's Poetry Friday roundup over at A Word Edgewise with a cool poetry mash-up. Each Friday, all are invited to share poems, poem books, poetry ideas, and friendship in this open and welcoming poetry community.

Here in Western New York this week, it is snowy and chilly. May words keep all of you warm, wherever you are.

xo,

Amy

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Look Out of a Window

Morning Flight

Drawing by Amy LV

Students - There are times when I am not in the mood to write, but still I sit down and do it. Every time this happens (and it is often as it is difficult to begin writing), I am so glad that I did. I love surprising myself with new words that come from mysterious places. So my first piece of advice today is to do the thing that future you wishes you had done....even if you are not in the mood!

When I sat at my desk this morning, I looked out the window wondering, "What should I write?" Between several trees in the distance, I saw a few birds swooping around and imagined being one of them. Then, my pen began to move.

If you are nosy like me, perhaps you'll enjoy seeing my draft. Yes, I do write by hand as I love the fluidity of my hand moving across the page, making messy letters and scribbles and sometimes racing faster than I expect. I am a fast typist, but writing with ink on paper is my true poetry home.

Draft of "You Ask Why I'm Singing"

(Click to Enlarge)

by Amy LV

Not sure what to write? Look out your window. Any window will do. I wish you flight!

Carol is hosting today's Poetry Friday roundup over at The Apples in My Orchard. Each Friday, all are invited to share poems, poem books, poetry ideas, and friendship in this open and welcoming poetry community.

I look forward to meeting the students of Coleman School in Glen Rock, New Jersey next week!

xo,

Amy

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Let Your Poem Tell a Story

Boo

Drawing by Amy LV

 

Students - Happy Halloween! Today my little poem tells a story that arose as I wrote this morning. It is helpful to remember that often, our ideas come to us AS we write, not before we write. Many times I will think to myself, "I don't know what to write," but once I begin, ideas rise to meet me. So if you don't have an idea when you pick up your pen or pencil, worry not. Just dive in anyway.

Since today is Halloween, I have been thinking about ghosts and witches and jack o-lanterns and candy. I would like to thank the warm and wise students, teachers, and administrators of Alden Primary School and Alden Intermediate, both in Alden, NY for welcoming me into their writing worlds for so many days this month. You have inspired me in many ways, from your powerful writing to your joyful pumpkins to your generous sharing. Thank you for our time writing and talking writing together.

This week, I suggest that you try writing a story poem. Invent a character, and make something happen. Again, do not worry that you need a complete plan. Just begin...and see. Poems are short and perfect places to experiment with new ideas and techniques.

Jone is the host of today's Poetry Friday roundup over at Jone Rush MacCulloch with original spooky poems and ideas for writing spooky poems too. Each Friday, all are invited to share poems, poem books, poetry ideas, and friendship in this open and welcoming poetry community.

xo,

Amy

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Work...and Trust the Mystery Too

Self-Talk in Sky

Drawing by Amy LV

Students - Where did this little verse come from? I honestly do not know. Last evening I was writing in my notebook and jotted the line I tried to do a thing I did not think that I could do and then I just kept following word after word after word and those wordy breadcrumbs led me to the small cottage that is now this poem.

I do write by hand, and writing the drafts for this poem ended up as quite a messy experience with crossouts and writing over writing and words spilling from page to page linked by arrows and lists of rhyming words. There was work...and too, there was mystery. See, even though I did the work here, I am still somewhat surprised by the poem. (Where on earth did the kite come from?) Writing is indeed mysterious like this. We do work, and still we can be surprised by which lines choose to land in our hearts and on our pages.

This week I suggest writing a bit each day in a notebook, write bits about what you see and think, write about your wonders and hopes. List words you love, and listen to the part of you that is whispering good ideas. By doing this regularly, you will always have writing ideas just waiting for you to shape into the pieces you are meant to write.

This week, Sarah Grace is hosting the Poetry Friday roundup over at Sarah Grace Tuttle with happy news about her redesigned website (including resources for teachers!) and an original poem titled "Hitchhiker". Each Friday, all are invited to share poems, poem books, poetry ideas, and friendship in this open and welcoming poetry community.

I wish you the strength to hear the words that help you become the you you most wish to be.

xo,

Amy

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Make a Comparison

Sweaters

Drawing by Amy LV

Students - Last week I complimented a man who stood in line with me at the grocery store on the joyful sunflowers he was purchasing. His eyes welled up, and he told me that his twenty-seventh wedding anniversary would be the next day, that his wife had died in early summer, and that she had loved sunflowers. The man was going to place the sunflowers on her grave. I have been thinking about him ever since.

I have a handful of friends who are grieving the loss of loved ones at this time, and so when I sat down to write, this sunflower man and my grieving friends came right to my mind. I found myself thinking about how different people grieve in different ways, and that we usually never know what is happening inside another person's heart. 

As I wrote, I felt myself remembering and inspired by one of my favorite poems, Charlotte Zolotow's poem "People." (Scroll down a wee bit at this link to read it.) I appreciate the way Charlotte compares two different kinds of people in her poem, the way she describes each type of person in its own stanza. I chose to write one stanza per type of grief sweater, and I also added a third stanza offering a bit of advice.

Reading helps us writers as the more we read, the more possibilities we understand and can imagine for our writing. Today I challenge you to try writing a poem - or some other kind of writing - that compares two things. You may wish to list some ideas: two pets, two kinds of cookie, two ways to show a feeling, any two things. Write one stanza (or paragraph) about the first and then another stanza (or paragraph) about the second. If you wish, add a third...or fourth...or fifth. You may surprise yourself.

If you are wondering why I repeated that last line - as good as it can - it is because I wanted to linger in that sadness. Grief does not usually feel good, and I hope to honor this truth.

This week, Linda is hosting the Poetry Friday roundup over at TeacherDance with a thoughtful and timely poem inspired by a collection of books written by Charles Dickens and recently donated to the all-volunteer-run bookstore where she works. Each Friday, all are invited to share poems, poem books, poetry ideas, and friendship in this open and welcoming poetry community.

This week may you be comfortable in all of your clothes and in all of your moods. May you be you.

xo,

Amy

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Take Photos! Repeat End Words!

(This is the first morning of Fall 2025 where I am writing by the heater....brrr!)

Bumblebee Bottom Sticking Out of a Dahlia

Photo by Amy LV

Students - Yes, it's true! Some bees - bumblebees certainly - do sleep in flowers! And this summer I found many adoze as I did my morning garden rounds. They are adorable all tucked into their petal beds. I have fallen in love with this image and this knowledge that bees sometimes sleep in flowers. I carry it with me every day now.

With this thought and photo in mind, today I wrote my first tritina, a new form to me - with much gratitude to "The Poetry Princesses," a group of poet friends who share different forms and ideas for writing. They shared this form last week, and I was so enchanted by their poems last week on Poetry Friday, I wanted to have a go at a tritina myself.

Here is an explanation of the tritina from Tamar Yoselff at Poetry School - The American poet Marie Ponsot invented the tritina, which she describes as the square root of the sestina. Instead of six repeated words, you choose three, which appear at the end of each line in the following sequence: 123, 312, 231; there is a final line, which acts as the envoi, which features all three words in the order they appeared in the first stanza. So the poem is structured as three tercets and one single line in conclusion.

Tritina Draft, October 3, 2025

Photo by Amy LV

You can see in my draft above how I listed words I might choose as end-line words at the top and then wrote the numbers along the left hand side of the draft to help me stay in order for this form. Forms can be very helpful to me as a writer. Rather than finding them restrictive, I find they can be freeing, helping me to find new ideas as I wrestle with word orders and syllables. I do not believe that one must always or ever write in forms, but sometimes...it does help and push me to do so.

This week, I have two different recommendations for you. The first suggestion is to take photos - either with a camera or with your mind (like Cam Jansen in the CAM JANSEN books). Use your photos to inspire your writing. Or if you prefer, write inspired by photographs taken by others. I welcome you to work with any of the photos here at The Poem Farm, for example. The second suggestion is to try playing around with the ends of your poem lines. You need not write a whole tritina, but perhaps you will choose one important word and repeat it at the ends of a couple lines of your poem. Repetition is a powerful force. When it is used well, we readers love it and are drawn to it as bees to pollen.

As for these photographs, a couple of years ago, when our children moved away, I decided I needed to take care of something and would learn to garden a little bit. These flowers are part of my learning - they are dahlias. Here is another bee - all pollen dusted - snoozing away in his own dahlia. (I am writing "him" and "his" as according to my research, it is most often the male bumblebees that sleep in flowers.)

Pollen Dusted Sleeping Bee in a Dahlia

Photo by Amy LV

And here is a ladybug resting in the day.

Little Ladybug Napping

Photo by Amy LV

Tomorrow I look so forward to reading and maybe writing with the children who visit me at Meg's Alice, Ever After Books in Buffalo, NY. This is the most delightful bookshop, and if you are ever in Western New York, I highly recommend a visit! Tomorrow I will be there from 10:30am - 11:30am and welcome you.

This week, Matt is hosting the Poetry Friday roundup over at Radio, Rhythm, & Rhyme with some celebratory news and two poems by two different poets from his anthology A UNIVERSE OF RAINBOWS: MULTICOLORED POEMS FROM A MULTICOLORED WORLD. Each Friday, all are invited to share poems, poem books, poetry ideas, and friendship in this open and welcoming poetry community.

Sleep well, my friends, as well and as cozy as you can. I wish I could grow you each a big flower bed!

xo,

Amy

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