Poems Can Help Us Say Goodbye

 

George Charles Ludwig II

1944 - 2020

Loved by So Many

amylvpoemfarm · Here And Gone And Here - a poem by Amy Ludwig VanDerwater

Dear Students and Friends - I have not been in this space for a couple of weeks because my loving father, George Ludwig, died on August 21, 2020. Instead of tending this space, I have been missing my dad very much and also taking care of his house and business.

Too, I have taken a position as a fourth grade teacher, and I could not be happier about this. It has been a sad time and a time of new beginnings, and I am grateful that my dad knew about my job. He was so happy for and proud of me, and I cannot wait to meet my students this week. It has been 22 years since I was a classroom teacher, and at this time of loss, I am happy to have a beautiful new beginning too. Thank you to everyone at Parkdale Elementary and everyone in the East Aurora Union Free School District for welcoming me so warmly.

Each person experiences ups and downs on life's rollercoaster, and I am grateful to have spent so much of my own life-ride with my father. Some of you may know the feeling of almost not believing that someone is gone, and at such a time, reading and writing poems can help us hold our feelings up to the light. Even when the world feels scary, words are here for us. Words and poems can help us grieve, can help us say goodbye.

I wrote this poem in the second person, choosing to write in the you voice instead of the I voice, even though this poem is actually about me and my own dad. It just felt right this way. Remember, when you write your own poems, you may choose the point of view. It need not always be your own.

Carol is hosting this week's Poetry Friday party over at Beyond LiteracyLink with the roundup and her Embracable Summer Gallery of poems and images.We invite everybody to join in each Friday as we share poems, poem books, poetry ideas, and friendship. Check out my left sidebar to learn where to find this poetry goodness each week of the year.

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Special Objects & Senses

Aunt Tom's Jewelry Box

Photo by Amy LV

Students - I have written about my wonderful Aunt Tom (Edythe) and her green jewelry box before, HERE in 2016.  She was a fabulous human, a flapper and musician, an glittery-eyed artist. She was my Grandma Florence's sister, and as I didn't have any aunts and uncles or cousins (my parents are only children), she was one of my few relatives. Below you can see her as a young woman. The photograph is from my Great Grandfather John's album, an album I am lucky to have.

My Great Aunt, Edythe Toebe

Photo by ?

Today's poem does not rhyme. Poems need not rhyme. But you will note that it does pay attention to where the lines break. The line that begins She has been gone stands alone because 20 years is a long time, and I wanted to leave space around those words.

I brought a few senses in here too. Which senses can you find in the poem: sight, smell, touch, hearing, taste?

If you are writing a poem or story or bit of nonfiction or notebook entry, consider your senses. Which have you included? Which might you include? 

And if you are not sure of what to write about, do you have a relative who makes you smile? Have you ever been given something that once belonged to someone now gone?

It has been a wonderful week of author visits in the Williamsville School District. Thank you to all students, teachers, and administrators at Maple East Elementary, Maple West Elementary, and Dodge Elementary for our time together.  I look forward to visiting the other Williamsville elementary schools in a couple of weeks.

Carol is hosting this week's Poetry Friday roundup as well as a celebration of summer at her place, Beyond Literacy Link. Please know that we gather each Friday, sharing poems and poemlove, and all are always welcome.

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A Wish for Today

In a Tree

Photo by Amy LV

Students - The picture you see above is our son!  On Monday, he decided to read in a box elder tree in our yard.  But he did not choose to just sit on a branch.  Rather, he chose to tie his hammock into the tree's branches.  The book he is holding is THE HIDDEN LIFE OF TREES.

I have been thinking about trees lately as my father has done a lot of work on our own family tree, and I often wish I could go back in time to meet my long-gone ancestors.  Today's poem marries our son's reading tree with this longing to know the people of my past.

If you're wondering what to write today, you might consider thinking about what's been popping up in your mind lately or you might begin by recalling an image from this past week.  I often take photographs of scenes that interest me to write about later.

Another idea is this. You might choose to simply lift my title, "A Wish for Today" and use this to inspire your own wish poem.  What is one wish you have for today? Earlier this week, I visited Harris Hill Elementary School in Penfield, NY, and some of the kindergarten students were writing wish poems.  Perhaps they helped to give me this idea too!

You may have noticed that this poem rhymes the following words: tea, tree, see, me. This did not just happen.  After I wrote the first two lines, I knew that I wanted to keep rhyming with tree, so I made a list of words that rhyme with tree and then chose from there.  The words led the way to this poem!

COMMENTER ALERT...Over at my other blog, Sharing Our Notebooks, I am so excited to host the sixth grade notebookers of Michelle Haseltine's class for the first ever notebooks blog takeover!  Every single day of May, a new student or pair or group of students will share tips and ideas for notebooking.  Please stop by for inspiration and writing ideas!  And leave a comment; comments mean so much to writers of all ages!  Plus, someone will win a cool new notebook each Saturday!

Jama is hosting today's Poetry Friday roundup at Jama's Alphabet Soup with bluebirds and blue...  Each week we gather together, sharing poems, books, and poetry ideas all at one blog.  All are always welcome to visit, comment, and post!

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Time - Think about Two Perspectives

Sage in the 4-H Barn (2010?)

Photo by Amy LV

Students - I don't know where today's poem came from.  I was writing in my notebook, and I think that the holidays got me thinking about visiting relatives which made me think about how quickly children seem to grow up.  This made  me think that if children are getting older, I am getting older too...but I never really feel like this is true.

Then I got to thinking about when our own children first talked about babies they once know seeming so big or how our pets have gotten older without us even noticing where the time has gone.

In a way, this is a comparing and contrasting poem.  In the first stanza, we see what the grownups say and feel.  In the second, we get the narrator child's point of view.  It is interesting to explore an idea from a couple of different perspectives.  We learn about others and about ourselves too.  You might want to give this a try!

Below, enjoy a little kindness video of our cat Mini Monster giving grown-up Sage a little face bath last weekend.

Over at my other blog, Sharing Our Notebooks, you can find a very cool peek into Julie Patterson's notebooks. Leave a comment...and you just may win a book!

Diane is hosting today's Poetry Friday roundup over at Random Noodling.  Please stop by if you'd like to visit many different blogs, all celebrating poetry.  We meet weekly, and everyone is invited!

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Writing the Rainbow Poem #15 - Robin's Egg Blue

Welcome to my National Poetry Month project for 2017!  Students - Each day of April 2017, I will close my eyes, and I will reach into my box of 64 Crayola crayons.

Aerial View of Crayola Box

Photo by Georgia LV

Each day I will choose a crayon (without looking), pulling this crayon out of the box. This daily selected crayon will in some way inspire the poem for the next day.  Each day of this month, I will choose a new crayon, thinking and writing about one color every day for a total of 30 poems inspired by colors.

As of April 2, it happened that my poems took a turn to all be from the point of view of a child living in an apartment building.  So, you'll notice this thread running through the month of colors. I'd not planned this...it was a writing surprise.

I welcome any classrooms of poets who wish to share class poems (class poems only please) related to each day's color (the one I choose or your own).  Please post your class poem or photograph of any class crayon poem goodness to our Writing the Rainbow Padlet HERE.  (If you have never posted on a Padlet, it is very easy.  Just double click on the red background, and a box will appear.  Write in this box, and upload any poemcrayon sharings you wish.)

Here is a list of this month's Writing the Rainbow Poems so far:

March 30 - Pick a Crayon, Write a Poem - Project Introduction 

April 1 - Misty - Inspired by Carnation Pink

April 2 - Each Morning - Inspired by Lavender

April 3 - Outside My Building - Inspired by Dandelion (!)

April 4 - Mr. B. - Inspired by Olive Green

April 5 - Once in a While - Inspired by Tumbleweed

April 6 - On Miss Johnson's Fire Escape - Inspired by Yellow Orange

April 7 - The Guy Downstairs - Inspired by Spring Green

April 8 - I Watch Her - Inspired by Forest Green

April 9 - Their Hands - Inspired by White

April 10 - Up and Down - Inspired by Orange

April 11 - Eavesdropping - Inspired by Sky Blue

April 12 - Mr. Mick - Inspired by Red Violet

April 13 - Sights - inspired by Purple Mountains' Majesty

April 14 - On Saturdays inspired by Melon

And now...today's crayon. Robin's Egg Blue!

New Baby

by Amy LV

Students - A few ideas floated into my head for today's color, and then, suddenly, it was clear.  The building needed a baby.  And so today...it has one.  And I was surprised to find that Mr. B. (from April 4, olive green) decided that he wanted to join this poem too, as a gift-giver.  We always knew he was a generous man, didn't we?

If you are Writing the Rainbow with me, perhaps you might choose to use a repeating line in your poem as I did.  My repeating line is the name of today's color, but yours need not be so.  It is true that a repeating line gives a poem a poem-y feeling.

Colors can take us anywhere.  And if you'd like to join in with your own poem at our Writing the Rainbow Padlet, please do! It is growing and simply full of color and delight.

And please don't miss the links to all kinds of Poetry Month goodness up there in my upper left sidebar.  Happy fifteenth day of National Poetry Month!

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

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Gingerbread Doves: Funny Family Stories Make Good Poems

December 23, 2016

The Poem Farm is taking an internet-free holiday through the New Year!
Many joyous wishes to you and yours during this time of light.
Peace,
Amy

Two Girls Decorate Gingerbread Doves at Grandma's House

Photo by Amy LV

Students - Today's poem sprouted from something that happened last weekend.  I don't even need to tell you what happened because the poem and the photograph above tell the whole story.  We had such a good time at my mom's house, and you can see our two girls happily decorating.

When I began writing toward this poem, my first words were inspired by the red tin of cookies sitting on our coffee table.  

Tiny Gingerbread Cookies

Photo by Amy LV

I began writing about cookies whispering to me. Then I imagined that these cookies were the great-grandchildren of the famed Gingerbread Boy of storybook lore.  And then I remembered last weekend.  I remembered the giggles we all had over the two styles of cookie that our girls decorated together: one style by one sister, one by the other.

Gingerbread Cookies of All Kinds

(Can You Find the Shark?)

Photo by Amy LV

Pay attention to when you laugh.  In laughter, in family giggles, in guffaws and snorts...we discover the joyous poems of our lives.  I wish you so so many good laughs this winter season!

If you, like I, enjoy discovering old and wonderful picture books, don't miss THE BEDSPREAD by Sylvia Fair.  Our youngest daughter's nursery school teacher recommended it to us as she had two daughters who were very different from each other...and we do too!  Writing today's poem brought me back to this old favorite.

Read More About this Book Here

Tabatha is hosting today's Poetry Friday party over at The Opposite of Indifference.  Join her, and all of us, in finding goodness in poetry and life all week long.  Everyone is always invited to Poetry Friday, and the tea is always on.

Please share a comment below if you wish.

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

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Corn Plants - Watching Things Grow

Morning Cornfield

Photo by Amy LV

Students - This morning, driving home from bringing our daughter to where she volunteers at Messinger Woods, I stopped on our road to take this photograph.  Living out in the country, I am continually amazed by the changes in the landscape.  In early summer, I especially love these lines of corn.  They remind me of lines on notebook paper.  It's a gift to live in one place for a long time, to see the same scenes and colors, to love them more each year.

The expression "knee high by the 4th of July" to describe good corn growing always comes to mind when we drive by cornfields.  And while this yardstick is no longer the standard for corn growth, the line does live on in many of us.  It's fun to say!

Sometimes I smile to hear our children (12, 14, 15) talk about noticing much younger children growing up so quickly.  How can it be that I am old enough to have children who are old enough to notice children growing?  Time fools us sometimes, and today's poem is a simple rhyming comparison of the growth of corn to the growth of a child.

If you'd like to read about how corn grows, visit The National Gardening Association.

Jone is hosting today's Poetry Friday party over at Check it Out.  As I always say, check it out!

May you notice a few beautiful growing things today, wherever you live and whatever your season.

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On Mother's Day - For a Dad

Love
by Amy LV

Students - I wrote today's poem because I have been thinking about children who do not have moms living with them.  A mom is a special person.  But a dad or a grandma or grandpa or aunt or uncle will often step in and be the mom who - for whatever reason - might not be there.  Thank you to everyone who does the job of a mom each day - dads, grandparents, other relatives, teachers, nurses, those who love us when and how we most need it.  

You will notice that this poem does not go on and on.  It is simple.  The feeling is simple too.  Sometimes too many words are too many words.

Jama is hosting today's Poetry Friday roundup over at her delicious blog, Jama's Alphabet Soup.  Visit Jama's place to enjoy Poetry Friday fun all around the Kidlitosphere this week!

This weekend you will find me at the International Reading Association Conference in New Orleans, LA.  I will be speaking as a part of this panel about THE POETRY FRIDAY ANTHOLOGY FOR SCIENCE, and I will be signing FOREST HAS A SONG at the Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Booth (#1951) from 1:00pm - 2:00pm.  Can't wait!

Happy Mother's Day!

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High Chair - Rituals, Routines, and Small Places

Sage Investigates

Photo by Amy LV

Click the arrow to hear me read this poem to you.

Students - Watching and thinking about animals is funny!  Our children use special voices when they imagine what our dogs and cats would say if they could speak English.  This poem comes from an old collection about a new baby, and I just found it and cracked right up.

Like us, animals have rituals and routines that they follow through their days.  A pig belonging to a friend of ours begins each morning at sunrise roaming beneath apple and pear trees.  Our dog Eli used to always spend each morning roaming under the high chair.  Can you think of any rituals that an animal you know follows?  What about you?  What do you do again and again, the same way each time?  This repeated action might be a neat idea for a poem.

Did you notice how the middle lines of today's poem goes back and forth?  I like to do that in a poem when there is movement between two beings or happenings.  You might have also noticed that the first two lines and the last two lines rhyme.  They're like bookends, tying this whole wee oaty circle poem together.

Today's verse is titled after a place, one piece of furniture that we have not had in our home for years.  Each place deserves its own poem.  Don't you think so?

Did you know that Cheerios are the most popular breakfast cereal in the United States?  The Cheerios company is 72 years old, and you can find the factory in Buffalo, NY, only about thirty minutes from where we live.  If you drive near the Cheerios factory, you can smell Cheerios.  Really!  (Buffalonians can even wear shirts displaying this fact.)  Once, several years ago, the factory donated many old Cheerios boxes to me for a bookmaking project.

Here is another baby and cereal poem from The Poem Farm archives, titled Baby Cereal. Can you tell that feeding babies was a theme of my life for several years?

Would you like to make a guitar or a dollhouse out of a Cheerios box?  Well, you can. These instructional videos by Joel Henriques are sponsored by Cheerios, but you could use almost any light cardboard box for the crafts.  Joel's blog, made by joel, is full of neat things to make.

Laura Purdie Salas is hosting this week's Poetry Friday extravaganza over at writing the world for kidshttp://www.laurasalas.com/blog/pf-buckled-bricks/.  Don't miss the new and old friends and poems!

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To find a poem by topic, click here. To find a poem by technique, click here.

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Saying No to Pressure

No Thank You

by Amy LV

Click the arrow to hear me read this poem to you.

Students -This poem grew from something I have noticed.  Peer pressure affects all of us, and while young people often pressure each other in uncomfortable ways, sometimes grownups can be pushy in unkind ways too. (Here I am not speaking of the many healthy ways that parents require responsibility of their children or the necessity of teachers expecting students to do fine work; I am speaking of unkindness.)  I wanted the speaker in my poem to hold fast to a belief (vegetarianism), even in the face of a grownup who is teasing in a not-so-nice way.  I am not a vegetarian, but I admire all who stand up for their beliefs, and "Saying No" is a way for me to honor these people.

Today's poem is a free verse poem; it does not have a driving meter or rhyme.  Rather, I wrote it in a conversational tone, as if the speaker is talking to a friend or to him/herself.

"Saying No" can be found in a new book, THE POETRY FRIDAY ANTHOLOGY FOR MIDDLE SCHOOL, released last Friday, March 1, 2013.  For those of you who know about THE POETRY FRIDAY ANTHOLOGY...and for those of you who do not...the middle school edition is here!  Launched last Friday, March 1, this book is full of poems and Take 5! suggestions of ways to explore each poem. 

Sylvia Vardell and Janet Wong have done it again, and it is an honor to have two poems in this book - one about a first sports practice and the one I share here today.  You can learn more about the book and enter for a chance to win a copy at the POETRY FRIDAY ANTHOLOGY FOR MIDDLE SCHOOL website.

Available through Pomelo Books

In FOREST HAS A SONG (my book to be released in 22 days) news, illustrator Robbin Gourley, has generously shared development sketches for our girl character.  I find her behind-the-scenes drawings and photos and sketches to be fascinating, and I hope you do too.  You can see them here.

Please share a comment below if you wish.

To find a poem by topic, click here. To find a poem by technique, click here.

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Stealing and Sharing - Passing it On

 Our Joke

by Amy LV

Click the arrow to hear me read this poem to you.

Students - Sometimes I plan to end a poem one way, but the poem decides to end itself another way. Writing today's verse, I planned to end with just a lonely waiting nose, no Grandpa.  The poem was going to have a sad ending.  But then the ending changed.  Partly because of difficulty with rhyme and partly because of the circle of families, I decided to bring this Grandpa tradition into the new generation.

If you are wondering whether today's poem is true for my own life, it is not. Both of my grandfathers died before I was two years old, and as my parents are both only children I do not have aunts or uncles or therefore, cousins.  So today's poemfacts are true for me, but the feeling of missing someone and wanting to keep that someone alive is very true.

This is a poem written in quatrains, and it has some near rhymes.  Notice that the second and fourth lines of each stanza end with words that have similarities in sound, but only one of the three pairs is a true rhyme.  Can you find it?

What do you long for?  What will you pass on?  Therein lies poetry.

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Poem #291 - My dad works in a coal mine...

Students - I wrote this poem out loud, vocally.  Driving home from school yesterday, I flicked on the radio and heard the words, "...coal miners..."  I do not even know what the rest of the sentence said.  But instantly, I flicked off the radio and began writing in the air with my voice.  Somehow I knew what to write about.  

I repeated each line over and over again, playing with sounds and meters until I finally found a place to stop my car - a tiny post office.  And in its darkened parking lot, I sat and jotted these lines into my notebook.

Stories about trapped coal miners haunt me, and I sometimes think about the bravery of people who work in physically dangerous professions.  Yesterday I wondered, "What might the child of a coal miner think when kissing Daddy goodbye?"  

(Please click on COMMENTS below to share a thought.)

Do You Take Forever to Say Goodbye? #288

Poem Pencil Draft

by Amy LV

Students - this poem comes from a very real place in our family's life.  Whenever Mark or I go to pick up one of our children from a friend's house, they always end up with more play time than we had expected.  This is because we adults have such a fine time chatting in the doorway.  I didn't figure this out right away, but now I know about it.  Hope, Georgia, and Henry told us, "We always get extra time to play because you talk so much!"

Can you think of something, some little thing that happens over and over again in your life?  It might be as small as the way your cereal crunches or the way you like your toilet paper to hang on the roll (coming out from under, please) or the sound of your dog's tail thumping on the hardwood floors.  You know what?  I may write about each of these things...

Ideas.  Everywhere.  Yes.

(Please click on COMMENTS below to share a thought.)

Reach into the Candy Dish with #260!

Candy Dish

Photo by Amy LV

Students - the image of stained glass candies twinkling in a dish flashed across my mind yesterday.  I'd just purchased a bulk bag of such candies for gingerbread house decorating.  Later, I imagined them clinking together and catching the light.  This reminded me of my husband Mark's grandmother, who always had a full candy dish in her house.  I used to love seeing what she had in there...and so did our children!  Grandmas are great that way.

As I wrote this poem, I could not help but think of my favorite candy poem, one which flashes across my own inward eye often, Valerie Worth's "sweets."  I love the ending of this poem:

Strange

How they manage

To flavor

The paper

page.

Shop Indie Bookstores

Once again, I recommend this book highly for all classrooms, homes, and all who want to learn about metaphor, making each word count, and seeing so much in our world.

(Please click on COMMENTS below to share a thought.)

Poem #253 is about mi abuela...and food

Students - I've said this before, but sometimes poems are like dreams.  They come from all kinds of places, a swirly twirl of memories and moments and now and then.  As far as I can figure, this poem came from several places:

my mother and mother-in-law, both wonderful grandmas

the fact that I ate Mexican food (veggie fajitas) for lunch yesterday

a recent conversation with a friend about her son's Spanish class

Monday's dinner conversation about being an exchange student

our children's exceptionally strong and beautiful hugs

If you are a person who is fortunate enough to speak two or more languages, you might want to try whirling them together into one poem...just like a recipe with a bit of salt and a bit of sweet!  (Chocolate covered pretzels, anyone?)  I do not speak Spanish, but I do know a few Spanish words, and tucking them into this poem gave it a warmer more intimate feeling.  The more languages and words we know, the more possibilities we hold in our fingers.

Here is a bilingual Spanish/English book for all of us.  If you live in the southern hemisphere, let it help you kick off summer.  If you live in the northern hemisphere, may it remind you of warmer days.  These poems in both languages are full of bright and joyful imagery.

Shop Indie Bookstores

Words are the writers' tools, and today I have pledged to save two words - kexy (brittle, withered) and namelings (persons bearing the same name) - over at Save the Words, a very neat website referred to me by my librarian friend Gayle Kerman over at Country Parkway Elementary in Williamsville, NY.  Readers can adopt words-on-their-way-out-of-use, promising to help to bring them back to life through spoken and written language.  As a 40-year-old Amy, I have many namelings! 

Please let me know if you adopt a word.  They need us.

(Please click on COMMENTS below to share a thought.)

Happy Father's Day - #81 - Homemade

Happy Father's Day to all fathers, grandfathers, uncles, neighbors, men-who-step-up-to-the-plate, mothers who serve as both mom and dad, and all men who love the children of this world.

My own father would like to make a poetic offering for today as well.  He says, "Dads aren't fads."

(Please click on COMMENTS below to share a thought.)