Coaxing Poems 9: Time for Rhyme

Well...hello there Poem Friends! Welcome to the ninth of ten poetry video visits here at The Poem Farm. In each of these short clips, I will share a small something about poetry, and you will always be able to find the poem(s) I read below the video. If you wish, you may watch the earlier videos linked below:

COAXING POEMS VISITS:

Visit 1: We Are Libraries

Visit 2: Eat the World

Visit 3: Make & Break a Pattern

Visit 4: Abacadabra!

Visit 5: Tell Us a Story

Visit 6: Give it Space

Visit 7: Choose a View

Visit 8: Tap it Out

And here is Visit 9: Time for Rhyme:

Students - Today we think about rhyme. Rhyme gives poetry a special sound, and many poets enjoy rhyming to create a mood or a feeling of repetition, song, or comfort for readers. I like to rhyme, and when I do, I like to be sure that my rhymes make sense. I do not want anyone to really notice the rhymes at all, actually. If a rhyme doesn't make sense, fit together, or seem to mean anything, like the one below, a reader might shake their head and think, "Well, that's weird." If I tried to write something for the purpose of weirdness, that's good, but otherwise, such weird head shaking is usually not a good sign.

I like eating sweet cupcakes.

I do not ride bikes in lakes.

In an earthquake, the earth shakes.

Morning Tea

Photo by Amy LV

I do use a few techniques to help me with rhymes:

• Jot the alphabet and make lists of rhyming words from the alphabet (see below).
• Use Rhymezone or a paper rhyming dictionary. Make lists of the sense-making rhymes.
• If I cannot find a strong rhyme for the word I wish to rhyme with, try changing that word to a different word that may have more rhymes. (But don't choose a not-so-good substitute!)
• Read each pair or set of rhymes in my poem to be sure they make sense. I do not want rhymes to draw attention to themselves.
• Ask someone to read my poem aloud and not comment. Listen and see if it needs changes.
• Ask someone to read my poem to see "Am I forcing the rhyme?" 

Below you can see where I have jotted the alphabet and made lists of rhyming words from it. You may also notice that the poem below is written in quatrains (four line stanzas) but that I chose to change to couplets (two line stanzas) when I typed it up. Line breaks (remember Coaxing Poems Visit 6: Give it Space) matter.

When you make your own poems, you will make many decisions and ask yourself many questions. One of these questions may be, "Do I wish to rhyme...or not?" And only you know the answer.

Thank you for joining me for Visit 9 of Coaxing Poems. May your days ahead be full of fine rhyme...

xo,

Amy

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Coaxing Poems 7: Choose a View

Hello again, my Poem Friends! Welcome to the seventh of ten poetry visits here at The Poem Farm. In each of these short videos, I will share a small something about poetry, and you will always be able to find the poem(s) I read below the video. If you wish, you may watch the earlier videos linked below:

COAXING POEMS VISITS:

Visit 1: We Are Libraries

Visit 2: Eat the World

Visit 3: Make & Break a Pattern

Visit 4: Abacadabra!

Visit 5: Tell Us a Story

Visit 6: Give it Space

Please make yourself comfy for Visit 7: Choose a View.

Students - Today's visit is all about choosing a view, deciding who to be and where to stand in any piece of writing. This is something we do in all writing, not just poetry. Do remember that most all of these writing teachings cross genres, and what we learn in our poetry writing, we bring to our prose. I so believe in bringing our poetry understandings to other forms of writing that I wrote a book about this idea - POEMS ARE TEACHERS: HOW STUDYING POETRY STRENGTHENS WRITING IN ALL GENRES (2017).

As you learned in the video, my poemdrafts for this week are all about the character of Little Miss Muffet. I wrote about her in many different ways, choosing a different view, or point of view, for each poem.

Draft, First Person as Miss Muffet

Photo by Amy LV

Early on in writing a poem, you will choose a view - or decide who to write as or to in your poem. Will you be yourself or a different character? Will you address someone in your poem or your readers directly? Will you write from a little distance? Remember that you may just make this choice without thinking a lot about it. But it still helps to understand what is going on behind the scenes of your and others' writing. Keep these possibilities in mind:

First Person - This is where you write in the I voice. You may be you or another, but you write using I. You might write AS someone or something else or you might write TO someone or something else using the word I in your poem. Writing TO someone or something not present in a poem is called apostrophe or a poem of address.

Second Person - This is where you write in the YOU voice. In certain lines of your poem, you speak directly to your reader with word YOU. This point of view invites the reader right into the world of your poem.

Third Person - This is where you write in the HE/SHE/IT/THEY voice. You are speaking about someone or something from a wee bit of distance. You are not the one speaking, nor are you speaking to a particular person object. Rather, you are telling ABOUT it.

Below, you will find four poems about Little Miss Muffet, each from a different viewpoint.

Here is my first person poem about Little Miss Muffet. You will note that I am writing AS Little Miss Muffet in the I voice. First person poems can be in our own voices, but when we write in the voice of another, such poems are called persona poems.

Below is another poem in the first person I voice, but this time I chose to write TO Little Miss Muffet rather than AS her. I am being me and using the I voice as I speak to Little Miss Muffet. I am using the word YOU, but not speaking to the readers. I am speaking to Miss Muffet herself. A poem that speaks to someone or something not actually here is called an apostrophe or a poem of address.

This next poem is in the third person voice. Notice how I use the word THEY to describe what Alice and Mary are doing. I am not writing AS them or TO them, but rather ABOUT them.

And in this final poem, I write in the second person, addressing readers using the word YOU.

Choosing a view - or point of view - offers a writer possibilities. When we write as someone or something, we will discover different ideas than when we write to or about this person or thing. I recommend writing a few different drafts, as I did, all around the same subject but taking different viewpoints for each one. Remember, no need to rhyme!

As you read your independent reading books or when you read books together, take a moment to consider the point of view. Who is telling the story? How does the point of view change the story?

Linda is hosting this week's Poetry Friday over at TeacherDance with an original acrostic poem about choices and kindness. Each Friday, all are invited to share poems, poem books, poetry ideas, and friendship in this open and welcoming poetry community.

Here's to a week filled with interesting, beautiful, quirky, and magical views. And if we have sad views, may they help make us kinder souls.

xo,

Amy

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Coaxing Poems 6: Give it Space

 

Greetings to you dear and funny Poetry Friends! Welcome to the sixth of ten poetry visits here at The Poem Farm. In each of these short videos, I will share a small something about poetry, and you will always be able to find the poem(s) I read below the video. If you wish, you may watch the earlier videos linked below:

COAXING POEMS VISITS:

Visit 1: We Are Libraries

Visit 2: Eat the World

Visit 3: Make & Break a Pattern

Visit 4: Abacadabra!

Visit 5: Tell Us a Story

Please make yourself comfy for Visit 6: Give it Space.

Students - Line breaks and stanzas create the space in our poems. They are the air our poems need to breathe. See, to not make space inside of a poem is to stuff the poem into an airless jar, and we do not want our poems to live inside of airless jars. 

Pinecone Treasures

Photo by Amy LV

You may have noticed that I played even more with the line breaks - and the words - of this poem between recording the video and typing it up here. I decided to break this poem into two stanzas...one about the pinecones without the boy and one about the boy and his pinecone plans.

Below you can see some of my drafting for this poem. Messy, isn't it? Real work often is, so please do not worry about neatnes in your first drafts. Allow the messy thinking part of writing to be part of your work.

Now, notice the slashes. Those idicate where I chose to break my lines. If you ever write a poem that looks like a paragraph, or if you do not like the line breaks you first choose, know that you can change them. Simply draw slash marks to show where you will move to new lines in your recopy/typing of the work. 

Some Messy Pinecone Drafting

Photo by Amy LV

Here again, as in the video, you can see thre ways I considered breaking up that first sentence of the poem. You may have made choices than I did with these words, and this is one part of what makes writing interesting: we each do it our own way based on who we are.

A Few Line Break Possibilities

Photo by Amy LV

Consider breaking a line (going to a new line) in your poem if:

• You wish for your readers to pause for a moment
• You wrote line you wish to repeat exactly the same way
• A new voice is speaking
• You want the words and motion of your poem to match each other
• One line - or word - is very important, deserving of its own line

If you wish for a greater pause or to show a more important change or shift as I did in today's poem, you might move to to a new stanza to help your readers feel this change as they read.

The space in a poem matters. As you write a poem, say this to yourself: Give it space.

Margaret is hosting this week's Poetry Friday over at Reflections on the Teche with two poems that span the human experience from love to grief. Each Friday, all are invited to share poems, poem books, poetry ideas, and friendship in this open and welcoming poetry community.

I wish you - and your poems - the healthy beauty of space in the week ahead.

xo,

Amy

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Coaxing Poems 5: Tell Us a Story

 

Hello again, you sweet Poetry Friends! Welcome to the fifth of ten poetry visits at The Poem Farm. In each of these short videos, I will share a small something about poetry, and you will always be able to find the poem(s) I read below the video. If you wish, you may watch the earlier videos linked below:

COAXING POEMS VISITS:

Visit 1: We Are Libraries

Visit 2: Eat the World

Visit 3: Make & Break a Pattern

Visit 4: Abacadabra!

And now I invite you to join me for Visit 5: Tell Us a Story!

Students - Today, as we think about about story poems - narrative poems - we simply think about all of the elements of story and mix them elegantly with all of the elements of poetry. Think of it this way:

Plot, Characters, & Setting + Line Breaks, Pattern, & Metaphor... = Story Poem

Story Poem Still Life

Photo by Amy LV

In this first free verse story poem, I invent a character related to a character we all know. I invent the problem and the setting for this character. The poem also has a problem, solution, beginning, middle, and end. 

You may notice the repeated words and the places where I chose to move to a new line. As (mostly) always, I drafted this poem by hand. In the revision, I experimented with my line breaks. The enter key is very helpful for poets who do some revision at the computer.

The below poem is about characters who usually do not talk at all - Rain and a flower. When we write story poems, we can include dialogue, just as we include dialogue in our prose (not poem) stories. Can you find the places where characters speak in this poem?

This poem and the next do include a bit of rhyme, rhyme that makes sense. I am not striving to rhyme with this series, but truth be told, sometimes...like a baby fox, rhyme sneaks in under the wire fence of my free verse intentions.

This next poem is in the I (first person) voice. A reader might assume that the speaker is actually me, but as writers, we can use the I voice as ourselves or we can write in the I voice pretending to be someone or something else. I have been thinking about the idea of a "word bouquet" for a couple of weeks now. Sometimes a thought needs to live in our notebook and mind for a while before finding its way into a poem or story.

What do you notice about the line breaks in this poem? What do the short lines do for a reader?

As you read and write story (narrative) poems, talk with each other about the following:

• Who are the characters?
• What is the setting?
• Is there a problem? If yes, what is it?
• How does the problem get solved?
• What happens at the beginning, middle end?
• Do the characters change?

Talk about these too:

• Does this story (narrative) poem feel like it could really happen?
• Is this a fiction story?
• Might this story be a blend of fiction and truth?
• Is this poem based in history?

And these:

• What do we notice about the line breaks?
• Does the poet repeat any lines? Why so?
• Do we find any interesting repetition?
• Are there metaphors? Are they fresh?
• What language dance moves do we admire in this poem?
• What makes this poem "poem-y?"

As you think and talk about these questions, you will discover ideas for your own poems. When writers read, we learn new writing ideas, especially when we try.

One reason I enjoy writing poems so much is because the words simply surprise me on the page. If I did not write poems, I would never have met Little Red Riding Hood's younger brother or heard a conversation between Rain and a flower or written the words "jam jar vase." An afternoon of writing offered me these gifts.

Poems cannot be wrong. Yes, if we read and write many poems, there will be poems we prefer...but poems are not wrong. Experiment! Play with your life and with your words. We each get one life and as many words as we wish - we can choose joy in our lives and in our words.

Mary Lee is hosting this week's Poetry Friday over at A(nother) Year of Reading with thoughts and a poem about secrets. Each Friday, all are invited to share poems, poem books, poetry ideas, and friendship in this open and welcoming poetry community.

Happy story-collecting, my dears...

xo,

Amy

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If you are under 13 years old, please only comment 

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Coaxing Poems 4: Abracadabra!

 

Hello again my dear Poetry Friends, and welcome to the fourth of ten little poetry visits starting off the New Year at The Poem Farm. In each of these short videos, I will share a small something about poetry, and you will always be able to find the poem(s) I read below the video. You can find the earlier videos linked below and you may wish to watch those first:

COAXING POEMS VISITS:

Visit 1: We Are Libraries

Visit 2: Eat the World

Visit 3: Make & Break a Pattern

And now I invite you to join me for Visit 4, Abracadabra!

Students - The whole world feels more interesting when we practice comparing various objects and feelings to different things we know in life. We find one way that two things are alike, tap our magic writing wands, and we turn one thing into another, right on the page. In this way, writing is magic. We see things anew, and we pass these surprising images on to our readers.

Here you can see the notebook page where I remembered some metaphors I have written before and came up with some new ones too. I have never written such a metaphor list in my notebook, but I think do this more often as I found it quite helpful.

Metaphor Notebook Page

Photo by Amy LV

Enjoy these two short, non-rhyming poems centered on metaphor, each comparing one thing to another. As a writer, it is my hope that each poem, even without a matching photo, will give readers a new way to see a familiar object.

When I was a little girl, I used to suck on lemons. Perhaps this is why I wished to write about citrus fruit. 

Orange Snack

Photo by Amy LV

The below poem, about my kitty Claude, focuses on just one object that I compare him to - a throw pillow. But truth be told, I compare Claude to many things. He is fast and quiet and hazy-furry, so sometimes I call him a ghost, and sometimes I call him a cloud. Perhaps I should make a page in my notebook for all of the different things I compare Claude to in the world.

Claude on the Couch

Photo by Amy LV

One last note to you about metaphors. You will read many metaphors in books and hear many people use metaphors in speech. Sometimes these are used so often that they lose their freshness. When I write in metaphor, I try not to use metaphors I have read or heard often, such as "He was a quiet mouse" or "Her anger was a thunderstorm." The work of a writer is to dig into our own strange and beautiful selves and find brand new ways of seeing old things. And when we come upon such a comparison...it is joyously surprising for our writing selves. We don't want our metaphors to be stale like week-old doughnuts.

In travel news, thank you so much to the Heights Elementary School community in Oakland, NJ for inviting me to visit this week. It was a joy to share some writing with you and to see the photographs of all of the projects you made with your own hands. I wish you much happiness in your own writing journeys.

Author Visit to Heights Elementary School

Photo by Librarian Stacy Contreras

Susan is hosting this week's Poetry Friday over at Chicken Spaghetti with a new year piñata poem inspired by a news article. Each Friday, all are invited to share poems, poem books, poetry ideas, and friendship in this open and welcoming poetry community.

Remember that you are a writing magician, and with a brilliant flash of your pen, you can turn one thing....into another. 

Poof!

xo,

Amy

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Coaxing Poems 3: Make & Break a Pattern

Hello, Poetry Friends, and welcome to the third of ten little poetry visits starting off the New Year at The Poem Farm. In each of these short videos, I will share a small something about poetry, and you will always be able to find the poem(s) I read below the video. You can find the earlier videos linked below and you may wish to watch those first:

Coaxing Poems Visit 1: We Are Libraries

Coaxing Poems Visit 2: Eat the World

And now...today's visit. Visit 3!

Students - Just as animals often wear patterns on their fur, feathers, and fins, poems often wear patterns in the way their lines are organized. As readers and writers, we can notice and admire the patterns of others' poems and try these out for ourselves. Below you can look at the lines of the three free verse poems that I read in the video above.

In Year After Year, the first six lines go back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. You can see that the south lines are represented by white Legos and the north lines represented by blue Legos. The last line of the poem breaks the pattern, and this change is represented by a red Lego.

In Two Kitties, the first four lines tell about Winnie and are represented by green Legos. The second four lines tell about Claude and are represented by gray Legos. The ending, revealing a way that Winnie and Claude are alike, twists and breaks the pattern and is thus represented by a red Lego. (Yes indeed, I could have used two Legos to represent these two lines!)

In Why I Don't to Finish My Book, each of the first seven lines of the poem list something that the writer WON'T do once they finish reading their current book. These lines are each represented by one yellow Lego. The last line tells something the speaker WILL likely do when they are finished with the book - feel lonely. This change, twist, break in the pattern is once again represented by a red Lego.

While I chose to use a red Lego in each of these examples to show how the endings break the pattern set up in these poems, I could have chosen a different color to show this break. If you choose to draw or form models of the patterns you notice in poems you read or in poems you write, of course you should choose any colors you wish. 

If you are looking for an interesting exercise to try, find a patterned poem in a book and play with drawing colorful Legos to show how the pattern works. You might do this with a friend. Then, you might try to write your own poem that follows the same pattern. The more we read and discover...the more writing ideas we have for ourselves. Reading is an endless river of clear and brilliant gifts. We simply need to dip our hands into the water.

Thank you to our son Henry, for sharing his Legos with me for this visit.

Educator Friends: I would love to hear if you are writing along with me during this series. Please comment below, email me at the contact button above, or tag me on social media if you wish to share.

Robyn is hosting this week's Poetry Friday over at Life on the Deckle Edge with a joyful and poetic tea party. Each Friday, all are invited to share poems, poem books, poetry ideas, and friendship in this open and welcoming poetry community.

All joy to you in reading and writing and living...

xo,

Amy

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Coaxing Poems 1: We Are Libraries

Greetings, Poetry Friends! 

It has been almost four years since I have shared a video series, and with this new year, it feels like time again. I welcome you to ten little Friday visits we'll call Coaxing Poems. This week and next we will focus mostly on discovering ideas for poems, inside the libraries that are us. As the weeks roll on, we will talk a bit about possibilities for setting up poems and sculpting language like clay.

Below this video visit, you will find the poems I share within it.

This poem about my Great Aunt Kay came to me when I held my palms up toward the sky and let my inner invisible librarian place a topic in my hands.

An Aunt Kay Sweater

Drawing by Amy LV

And this poem idea, about a cloud friend, arrived the same way!

New Cloud Friend

Drawing by Amy LV

Students - You will notice that these poems do not rhyme - none of the poems I will share during Coaxing Poems will rhyme. But notice the short lines. Notice the words. Notice the space. Pay attention to what is description and what is feeling. Feel free to try out what you notice, breaking up your own lines to slow a reader down, repeating words, and helping your readers sense...and feel...your words.

Marcie is hosting this week's Poetry Friday over at Marcie Flinchum Atkins with her 2024 word and plans for great adventures in the year ahead. Each Friday, all are invited to share poems, poem books, poetry ideas, and friendship in this open and welcoming poetry community.

Have fun in the stacks of your inner library, coaxers!

xo,

Amy

ps - Educator Friends, I am trying to think of a way to celebrate this series when it is complete. If you have any ideas for this, please let me know in the comments. Thank you!

Please share a comment below if you wish.

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If you are under 13 years old, please only comment 

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