HELLO MY NAME IS - Day 3

  Happy National Poetry Month!

(Feel free to search for poems in the sidebar or watch videos in the tab above.)

Hello, Poetry Friends! This month I am sharing poems written in the voice of Little Red Riding Hood, and I invite you to join me in writing in the voice of someone else too. You might choose a fairy tale character or a book character or a person from history or anyone else real or imagined. These are your poems, so you make the decisions. Each April day, I will share my poem and a little bit about writing poetry. Mostly, we’ll just be writing in short lines with good words and not worrying about rhyming. Meaning first. Our focus this month will be adopting the perspective of another…for 30 days. I invite you to join me in this project! To do so, simply:

1. Choose a character from fiction or history or somewhere else in the world of space and time, and commit to writing a daily poem in this person's voice for the 30 days of April 2025. You might even choose an animal.

2. Write a new poem for each day of April. Feel free to print and find inspiration from this idea sheet that I will be writing from all month long.

Teachers, if you wish to share any HELLO MY NAME IS... subjects or poems, please email them to me at the contact button above. I would love to read what your students write and learn from how they approach their own projects.

LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD'S POEMS SO FAR

April 1 - First Poem

April 2 - My Name

And now for today!

Students - I am very much enjoying pretending to be Little Red Riding Hood so far. It feels as if each day I learn a little new about the LRRH (Lou) inside of me. To choose the poem topic for each day, I try to find a hint in the poem from the day before. If I do, I allow that hint to lead me into the next poem. Yesterday Lou wrote "But yes it's true, I do love red." This made me think about all of the red things she might adore. And somehow, I got to the tune of "My Favorite Things," the famous song from the movie THE SOUND OF MUSIC. 

Go ahead, sing today's poem to the tune of...

Raindrops on roses, and whiskers on kittens.

Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens.

....

If you don't wish to sing it, you can hear me do so above. 

Writing a poem to the tune of a song is one of my favorite writing things to do. The meter (and rhyme scheme if you wish) is offered by the song, and then you just sing along as you write to check if each line matches. Sometimes this requires a lot of crossing out and revision, as you can see below. 

Draft of "Red"

(Click to Enlarge)

Photo by Amy LV

I encourage you to try this. Choose a song, perhaps "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" or "Happy Birthday" and go from there. (And don't be surprised if I, as Little Red, lean on a song more than once this month!)

Looking at this draft, you may have noticed that I dated my page March 20, 2025. Because I am on the road a lot this month, I began writing in March so that I am able to travel, teach, and still post even on the busiest days.

Thank you to the students, faculty, administration and Librarian Christopher Gray of St. John's School in Houston Texas. I just spent two days there, sharing poems and writing poetry with all of the students in grades K-5. Much gratitude to retired teacher Olga McLaren, whose vision and generosity left a gift of a visiting poet to the school each year. It was so good to see her and her husband again!

And thank YOU for joining me for Day 3 of HELLO MY NAME IS...

To learn about more National Poetry Month projects and all kinds of April goodness, visit Jama's Alphabet Soup where Jama has generously gathered this coming month's Kidlitosphere poetry happenings. And if you are interested in learning about or writing from any of my previous 14 National Poetry Month projects, you can find them here. Happy National Poetry Month!

xo,

Amy

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15 Years! A Place! A Poetry Peek!

The Poem Farm is 15 years old tomorrow.

How lucky I feel to have been an in-person-and-virtual-visitor to classrooms, a reader of student and adult poems, and a part of this wise blogging community. My first poem at The Poem Farm, on March 29, 2010, was titled Spring. This space was meant to last for one month...yet here we are. I feel so much gratitude and love. And now...poetry.

Illustration from A UNIVERSE OF RAINBOWS

Painting by Jamey Christoph

Students - In just a couple of days, bookstore shelves will welcome this new Eerdmans book, A UNIVERSE OF RAINBOWS: MULTICOLORED POEMS FOR A MULTICOLORED WORLD with poems selected by Matt Forrest Esenwine and illustrations by Jamey Christoph. Divided into sections - Rainbows of Light, Rainbow Waters, Living Rainbows, Rainbows of Rock, and Rainbows Beyond - this book celebrates the joy and surprise of all kinds of rainbows, and each poem is accompanied by a scientific sidebar offering a few interesting facts.

My poem is about the Caño Cristales, a Columbian river I had never heard of before, a river sometimes called the "River of Five Colors" or the "Liquid Rainbow" because of the way it sometimes looks just like a flowing rainbow. A special aquatic plant named Rhyncholacis clavigera grows in this river, and this plant changes the river's colors change based on the temperature, rainfall, other interplay of other living things, and sunlight at any given time....so occasionally, it's rainbow-y!

I often write about things I know about or have experienced, and I have never visited Columbia, so it was interesting to once again dive into a bit of research-before-writing. It was also fabulous to travel to a new place in my mind, to read about and study photographs of a beautiful wonder so far from where I live. You might wish to do this - write about somewhere you have never been or maybe never even heard of. While I was assigned to write about this river, you might assign yourself a place by opening an atlas or a nature book to any page. Close your eyes, open the book, open your eyes...and there's your place. Bon voyage!

In terms of crafting, you might write in the voice of your place (we call this a mask or apostrophe poem)....or you, too, might notice one word that hopes to stand alone on a line because it's so important. Did you notice how I gave Color! its own line in this poem? I did so because I hope that readers will pause their reading around that word. This is why I left a lot of space around it. I also chose to have my river share a message at the poem's end - feel free to try that if it sounds like fun to you. What message would your place like to share with humans?

It is such a joy to welcome Mrs. Melinda Harvey's imaginative fourth grade writers from Iroquois Intermediate School to The Poem Farm today! Below you may read their poems inspired by IF I COULD CHOOSE A BEST DAY: POEMS OF POSSIBILITY, the new book with poems selected by Irene Latham and Charles Waters and illustrations by Olivia Sua. I shared my poem from this book a couple of weeks ago, and now feel fortunate to make space for these thoughtful IF poems.

Click the Left Right Corner to Enlarge

These poems made me wonder about so many things, so much so that I have started an I WONDER page in my notebook. Thank you, Mrs. Harvey, and thank you, poets! 

Thank you to Marcie for hosting this week's Poetry Friday roundup over at Marcie Flinchum Atkins as she welcomes her new book ONE STEP FORWARD, "a YA historical fiction novel in verse about Matilda Young -- the youngest American suffragist imprisoned for picketing the White House to demand women's right to vote." Congratulations, Marcie! Each Friday, all are invited to share poems, poem books, poetry ideas, and friendship in this open and welcoming poetry community.

May your week ahead be full of surprises...and vibrant color too.

xo,

Amy

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Sit With One Color

More and More Blueberries!

Photo by Amy LV

Students - For the past few weeks, I have picked more berries than I have ever picked! Strawberry season was not great here in Western New York due to a late frost and then short drought, but raspberries and blueberries are joyfully out of control. My small patch of raspberries usually yields a small bowl of berries, but this summer I am up to picking around 16 quarts of raspberries. Blueberries are just coming ripe now, and while we have some here, I do most of my blueberry picking at a local farm with more bushes.

Today's poem simply sits with the color blue of blueberries. Sometimes I think about how few blue foods there are. Candies, yes, but not even so many. So blueberries are indeed special bringing a sweetness to the color blue.

If you wish to write today, look around. Let your eyes fall onto a color that delights you. Allow that color to take you on a small journey of thought and wonder.

Margaret is hosting this week's Poetry Friday roundup today at Reflections on the Teche with an ode to some jam made by a friend...more berry love! 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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One Word Can Inspire a Poem

Twilight in My Pocket

Photo by Amy LV

Students - I collect words. In most every notebook that I keep, I save a page at the end for some favorite words. I love words for many reasons - sound, memories, meaning. Below you can see the list from my now-notebook. (The criss cross lines are from a writing game that I like to play with myself.) I copy words from books and words from poems, words people write to me and words I hear people speak. When I need to find a writing idea, I can always choose a word from my list. 

This is what I did today - I chose the word twilight from my notebook list below and wrote it on top of my notebook page. Then I wrote a poem from that one word. (Of course this is only ONE of my favorite words!)

Can you find twilight on the list?

Current Notebook Word List

Photo by Amy LV

I think the word twilight is magical and beautiful. You can read its definition and see a photo of a twilight sky below.

Definition of "Twilight"

Merriam Webster Online Dictionary

Photograph of Twilight

International Cloud Atlas, World Meteorlogical Association

Consider making your own list of favorite words in a notebook or on a piece of paper. This will not only give you possible writing ideas, but keeping a list will also direct your mind to pay attention to interesting and lovely, fascinating and fun words. See, once we begin paying attention to something, we see it and notice it more and more. 

Becoming a word-noticer is worth it. If your class of friends celebrates words together, you can even make a bulletin board or keep a FAVORITE WORDS notebook together. Then...see what stories and poems grow from your words.

And remember...you can always repeat words and lines in your poems, just as I did above.

This week has found me away from home, on a four day writing residency with the first and second graders of the Edgemont School District in Scarsdale, NY. Whenever I write with young people, I learn from them, and on my long drive home to Western New York this afternoon, I will hold these students' poems in my heart. Thank you to the PTA, teachers, administrators, and children of Edgemont for hosting me with such open hearts.

School Visit - Greenville Elementary

Photo by PTA

Rose is hosting this week's Poetry Friday roundup at Imagine the Possibilities with a joyful welcome to spring. Please know that all are welcome each Friday as folks share poems, poem books, poetry ideas, and friendship.

Next Friday I will announce my 2023 National Poetry Month Project - for yet another poem each day of April. Past projects have included poems that can be sung (Sing That Poem), poems matched to crayon colors (Writing the Rainbow), and poems about thrifted objects (Thrift Store). I still have no idea what I will do this year, but we'll all know next week!

I hope that you find lots of neat words as you go through your next days. And I hope that neat words find you too!

xo,

Amy

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Begin with "If"

A Sky Peek

Photo by Amy LV

Students - This week I spent a lot of time outside because it was very beautiful...and because I was planting hundreds of flower bulbs: in our yard, at a friend's apartment, at my mom's house, and at my father's grave. Digging around under trees, I found myself looking up through them, and so I took that photograph above.

Today's poem starts with the word "If." And while I wrote about something I actually did myself (look up through a tree), I could have written an "If" poem about an imaginary experience, or I could have written about something that might have happened differently such as, "If I never met Winnie..." You might try making a list in your notebook, each line beginning with the word "if." 

If...

If...

If...

See where your list brings you. You may be surprised. I surprised myself today by beginning with this one, small word. 

Also, notice the line breaks in today's poem. Some are longer, and some are shorter. By making shorter lines, I hope that a reader will slow down just a wee bit on the shorter lines, pausing for just a moment. Listen to my recording to see what I mean.

Saturday Update: Such fun! Teacher Mandy Robek and her second grade writers wrote a wonderful community "If" poem and each made illustrations to go with it. You can read it and see their pictures here at Mandy's blog, Enjoy and Embrace Learning.

Jone is hosting this week's Poetry Friday roundup with a joyful celebration of book launches. Please know that all are welcome each Friday as folks share poems, poem books, poetry ideas, and friendship.

I hope that you will discover one new possibility this week...and that perhaps you, too, will be enchanted by a bewitching color.

xo,

Amy

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Many Colors in One

 

Gray Boy Tuck

Photo by Amy LV

Students - One thing that's true about color is that there is not just ONE red or ONE yellow or ONE gray...there are many. And this is true of our cat Tuck. He is every gray of the gray rainbow, and in today's poem, I try to list a few of those grays. 

A color can be an emotion or a sound or a feeling or a sight, and I know that I can think of many more grays for Tuck. When I do, I might come back and revise this poem. I do plan to keep listing more grays in my notebook. I think I will take myself on a gray treasure hunt through my life this week.

Endings are interesting for writers. At first this poem just ended with "rainstorm in May," but I wanted to add a touch of surprise, a touch of humor...and truth. Tuck has some gorgeous green eyes nestled in all of his gray fur.

I encourage you to try this exploration of color in writing. Choose one color and list as many KINDS of that color as you can stretch yourself to think of. You may come up with some expected ones (green as grass) but try to come up with some that maybe no one has thought of before. Then, see if you are interested in using your list...or even one kind of color from your list and grow a writing idea or piece of art from it.

Here is my favorite book about particular colors. It is out of print now, but if you can find it at the library, do!

And here are a few more photographs of this very snuggly boy. I wish that you could reach through your computer screen to pet him. (And so does he!)

Tuck at Work

Photo by Amy LV

Sleeping Stripes

Photo by Amy LV

Baby Tuck

Photo by Hope or Amy LV?

Linda is hosting today's Poetry Friday roundup at TeacherDance with the delights of Halloween and a poem about a carved pumpkin I would like to meet...Jill O'Lantern! Please know that all are welcome each Friday as folks share poems, poem books, poetry ideas, and friendship.

xo,

Amy

Please share a comment below if you wish. 

If you are under 13 years old, please comment only with a parent 

or as part of a group with your teacher and class.