Find Words for a Feeling

Sage 12 Years Ago

Photo by Amy LV

Sage Last Month

(See the white fur heart on her head?)

Photo by Michael V.

Students - On Tuesday, we said goodbye to Sage, our soft, joyful, and funny half Border Collie/half Great Pyrenees friend of twelve years. We met her in the sheep barn of the Wyoming County Fair long ago, and she brightened our days with her love and her antics ever since.

The feeling in this poem is not one I alone feel. Often when we lose a loved one - human or animal - we find ourselves wishing for that person or animal, for company, for comfort, for solace. but we must find this company, comfort, and solace in other ways and places. Carrying grief can be like carrying a backpack full of heavy, cold stones, and sometimes writing and art can help.

Writing-wise, just two notes on this poem:

Line 4 could easily have been combined with line 3. I chose to separate them in order to create space, to give a reader time to process why the girl could not bury her face in her dog's soft ears today. The realization of not being able to so deserves a line of its own.

And the title. I could only have written this title after writing the whole poem. Know that you need not choose a title first. You may wish to, but be open to title revisions after your poem is complete. The title may sneak up on you.

Here is a 2014 poem I wrote about Sage all about how she had so much fur that when you brushed her, it felt like you could make a new dog!

Fly high, Softie Ears Sage. May you join all of the loved humans and pets that have gone before you. And may we meet again.

Mary Lee is hosting this week's Poetry Friday roundup today at A(nother Year of Reading) with a gorgeous poem about natural neighbors and an in-process embroidery piece. 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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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.

Please share a comment below if you wish.day 

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

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

Old Jottings + Old Photos + Old Jewelry = New Poem

Edythe Toebe, My Great Aunt

Photo by ?

Students - This poem is about my wonderful Great Aunt Tom.  Her real name was Edythe, but she went by the name Tom.  With sparkly blue eyes and a thousand artistic hobbies, she was a blast, and I miss her.  Many years ago, I even wrote an essay about her for our local npr station.  You can read it HERE if you wish.

Life gets busy, and I had not thought about my Aunt Tom in a while.  But then, it came time to write, and once again I didn't know what to write about, I opened a few old notebooks and began to paw through them, looking for a spark.  And happily, I found this, a notebook entry with some picture book ideas, an entry from 1999 (older than many of you!)

1999 Notebook Entry Sparks New Poem

Photo by Amy LV

Just as the book IF YOU GIVE A MOUSE A COOKIE by Laura Numeroff, one thing led to another, and reading this entry made me want to find Aunt Tom's old costume jewelry box.  I remember our oldest daughter playing with these sparkles shortly after Aunt Tom died.  When you open the box today, almost twenty years after Aunt Tom's death, you can still smell her perfume.

Aunt Tom's Pretty Jewelry

Photo by Amy LV

When I opened the box and smelled my Aunt's perfume again, writing the words did not feel difficult.  It was as if my aunt was right there with me.

What do you notice about the rhyme and meter in this poem?  

Many of you know that I love keeping notebooks, recommend that everyone keep a notebook, and even blog about notebooks at Sharing Our Notebooks, a site I've dedicated to just that.  Keeping a notebook, as the wise Shelley Harwayne once said, is like giving a present to your future self.  If I had not jotted in my notebook seventeen years ago, I would not have thought about my dear Aunt Tom this week.  One never knows when old jottings will come in handy...keep a notebook.

Today I am very happy to welcome fifth grade teacher Tracy Minton and her poets from the Douglas J. Regan Intermediate School in the Starpoint Central School District in Lockport, NY.  They have very generously offered to share some of their poems with us, and I've put them on a Padlet below teacher Tracy Minton's words.

Before really beginning our unit on poetry, I gave the students various books and poems to explore. They often read in pairs or small groups. We also read some poems whole group, talking about meaning and various techniques authors used. We learned some types of figurative language that might be found in poetry, and when reading various poems, we identified the figurative language used and discussed the meaning. Students explored writing poems using similes, metaphors, personification, onomatopoeia and hyperbole.

I also taught the students some elements of poetry such as: verse, stanza, meter, rhyme and rhythm. We read poems and highlighted the elements used. We also explored writing free verse poems. In mini-lessons we learned how to gather ideas, make lists, use emotions and put our hearts and souls into our poems. Many of my conferences involved helping the kids with line breaks and focusing on the real meaning that they wanted to give their audiences. 

For the easiest view of these students' poems, click to the Padlet HERE. 

(Read the instructions atop the page to see how to open each poem individually)

I am so pleased with the poems that my students wrote. They worked so hard for weeks, stretching their ideas and really pushing themselves to go out of their comfort zones.  They have truly amazed me as authors and poets!

Thank you very much to Tracy and her students for joining us today...I feel thankful to have the opportunity to share young poets' work in this space.

Over at Sharing Our Notebooks, you can see the winner of our latest giveaway and anticipate next week's new post.  Yay for notebooking!

This Poetry Friday, find the roundup celebrating a beautiful new picture book over at Irene's place, Live Your Poem.  While you're there, be sure to wish Irene a happy birthday week for FRESH DELICIOUS, her newest book of poems.  I'll have her visiting this space with more on that book next Monday.

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