Showing posts with label Generosity. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Generosity. Show all posts

Friday, August 8, 2025

Think About What Is Growing Now

Teapot Full of Flowers
Photo by Amy LV


Students - My birthday was this week, so I picked a teapot full of zinnias and other flowers from my gardens and brought them to my mom. I'd thrifted the teapot a few weeks ago, and it was fun to turn it into a vase. I was excited to give my mom the flowers and also to wait for more zinnias to replace the ones I'd cut. Zinnias are a "cut and come again" flower, meaning that the more you cut the flowers, the more the flowers grow. I love that. You can see more growing already, here outside my writing shed, Gratitude.

Gratitude with MORE Zinnias
Photo by Amy LV

Thinking about the generosity of such flowers, I remembered each time our family has adopted a new pet, the way that each of our hearts grew bigger and more full of love. We didn't need to worry about sharing or not having enough love. Our love was give and give again.

Claude and Winnie
Photo by Amy LV

Today, when I wasn't sure what to write but still felt happy about the birthday flower teapot, I decided to write about zinnias...and in doing so, I realized that writing, too, is write and write again. The more I write, the more easy and comfortable it is to write. The less I write, the more difficult it becomes. When I pay attention and write, connections grow.

So, I am thinking about this. Giving helps us as much as it helps others. When we give, we grow.

Another Scribbly Draft
Photo by Amy LV

What is growing in your life? It may be a plant or a creature or an idea or a feeling. It might be a curiosity or wish or a goal. What do you wish to grow of more in your life? Even though there are many aspects of life that we cannot control at any given time, we can always find meaning and water the things we wish to grow within ourselves. We can be generous to us.

Regarding technical poem stuff, this poem is written in rhyming couplets, two lines at a time, each two rhyming.

This week, Molly is generously hosting the Poetry Friday roundup over at Nix The Comfort Zone with poetry that reminds us of the beautiful pause of summer. Each Friday, all are invited to share poems, poem books, poetry ideas, and friendship in this open and welcoming poetry community.

May you grow as you choose, my friends.

xo,

Amy

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Friday, April 18, 2025

HELLO MY NAME IS - Day 18

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

Students - Writing the poems of the last two days, I knew that today's poem would be about delivering pie to the fairy tale forest neighbors. And today, I just wrote by watching, watching Nan and Lou pack their baskets and go. I did not think as much as usual about every single word, didn' t try to rhyme, didn't fuss with meter. This poem just wanted to live today, just as it is. Perhaps I will return to it later, move the words around, strengthen a verb, change a syllable count...perhaps not. But for today, everyone gets pie.

Thank you for joining me on this eighteenth day of HELLO MY NAME IS...

Thank you also to Jone for hosting this week's Poetry Friday roundup over at Jone Rush MacCulloch with an interview with Shirley Thacker. Each Friday, all are invited to share poems, poem books, poetry ideas, and friendship in this open and welcoming poetry community.

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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If you are under 13 years old, please only comment 
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Friday, September 6, 2024

Repetition in a Summer Mystery

Hello Friends!

If you are just back to school, welcome back to school! I wish you and your new teacher and new friends a joyful and meaningful year ahead, and I look forward to writing together and perhaps meeting some of you and reading your work.

You will notice that The Poem Farm has a new search feature. Thank you so much to Marisa Saelzler who helped me so perfectly with this. You may search by topic, poetic technique, or type of poem. To learn more about this, click the FIND A POEM tab above.

A Visit from the Tomato Fairy
Photo by Amy LV

Students - Today's poem is about a small, surprise event that happened just this week at The Poem Farm. I went to get my mail from the big blue mailbox, and the small newspaper box next to it held one big tomato, two small cherry tomatoes, and a few flowers. It seemed they may have been left the day before, and the whole scene in my newspaper box made me so happy. Right away I knew that I would write about the generosity of this mystery-giver.

As you write this week, you might wish to look out for kindnesses - surprise or not - or to remember past kindnesses you have given or received. Somehow just thinking and writing about such memories makes our todays better.

One thing you may notice about this poem is that I repeat a lot of words. This repetetion just seemed to happen on its own at first, but then, I so enjoyed the feeling of the poem's words rolling over on themselves that I just kept at it, repeating words on purpose. Which repeated words do you find?

If you want to try this with your own writing, just begin writing with an ear for repetition. You might begin a line with the last word of the line before. You might repeat a whole line or thread up words from earlier in your poem. There are many ways to repeat, and repetition adds a song-like quality to your poem. 

September 19, 2024 Update - My talented friend, English Professor and Musican Gart Westerhout is once again back with a song version of a poem. Please enjoy "Summer Mystery," sung by Gart. Thank you, friend!

Buffy is hosting this week's Poetry Friday roundup over at Buffy Silverman with an early book celebration for her forthcoming beautiful STARLIGHT SYMPHONY and a poem about a walking stick. Each Friday, all are invited to share poems, poem books, poetry ideas, and friendship in this open and welcoming poetry community.

Happy Septembering!

xo,

Amy

ps - Yes...I did find out who the mystery tomato-giver was. It was two wonderful girls who live on our road...so many thank yous to them. The tomatoes were deee-licious!

Please share a comment below if you wish.
Know that your comment will only appear after I approve it.
If you are under 13 years old, please only comment 
with a parent or as part of a group with your teacher.