Delight & Wonder & Story

Laundry Tree

by Amy LV

Students - Last week I took a long drive, and while passing through a small town, I came across the tree you see above. Honestly, I have not been able to stop thinking about it! There is something delightful in the unexpected, and I did not expect to see an oak tree wearing a rainbow of shirts. I turned my car around, stopped in front of the house, and took the photo. As I drove away, I could see the woman in my rearview mirror, touching the shirts to see if they were dry.

There are many ways to approach a poem when you have a wee idea. With this one, I decided to stand back and keep myself out of the poem. I read something this week about poems that do not use the words I or me and began there.

You might notice a bit of repetition here. First, I repeat the words the woman and the tree over and over here. This was not necessary. I certainly could have given the woman a name or referred to the tree as Oak or it. I didn't do these things because I love the idea of the woman being mysterious and nameless and any woman and the tree too...somehow by not naming them, it feels to me that they could be any one of us.

And did you wonder why that last line is so short? I played with other, longer lines that kept more with the rest of the poem's rhythm, but in the end, I wanted the end to leave the reader with a short statement of truth. The tree knows. By not including as many words in this last line, I hope to create a pause - a slowing down - in the reading.

This week I encourage you to try this. Look for something delightful or unexpected. (These things are everywhere...we just have to look.) Then, wonder about this thing you saw or otherwise sensed. Make up a story about it. Write all of this down, and see where it leads you.

Thank you to The Bookworm and to everyone who made my little book release party for THE SOUND OF KINDNESS so cozy and perfect. I am grateful. Please watch for some giveaways throughout this year of books, speech bubble sticky notes, and special napkins. Kindness parties all around!

Book Release Party for THE SOUND OF KINDNESS

August 15, 2023

Photos by Mark LV and Gretchen Oubre

Linda is hosting this week's Poetry Friday roundup today at TeacherDance with a magical poem about growing up...and play. Each Friday, all are invited to share poems, poem books, poetry ideas, and friendship in this open and welcoming poetry community.

May you find delight and stories in places you least expect!

xo,

Amy

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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.

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Poems About Endings

Clara and Her Kittens on May 1
Photo by Amy LV

Henry and Clary Sage on July 21

Photo by Amy LV

amylvpoemfarm · Fostering Kittens - a poem by Amy Ludwig VanDerwater

Students - On Sunday, the last two kittens our family is fostering will be off to their new homes. Throughout this spring and summer of Covid-19, we have had the pleasure of caring for a mother cat named Clara (her new family named her Molly) and Clara's five kittens: Nutmeg (now Opal), Pepper, Clary Sage, Rosemary, and Ginger (soon to be Gertrude Stein). Caring for these kittens and watching them grow has given our family so much joy. Now it is natural and right for them to have bigger lives in homes of their own, but still...it is sad to split them up and to say goodbye.

Poems stand by us in times of emotion: happiness, fear, grief. Wherever you are right now, there is a poem to match. Have you ever written a poem about letting something go? If you wish to try this, you might start by making a list of losses you have experienced and then choosing one to write from. Oftentimes our joys and sorrows hold hands and together, these feelings and experiences make us who we are. In your poem, see if you can hold two emotions at once.

Did you notice that I repeated the words they were ours? This poem is very short, but those words are important, important enough for me to write twice. Repetition is a way to slowly sew meaning into a reader's heart. When you write, reread your work to see if there are words or lines important enough to repeat.

Margaret is hosting this week's Poetry Friday party over at Reflections on the Teche with a generous share and the question: What is Poetry? 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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Death and Mystery and Love

Mini Monster and Me, Fall 2019

Cat and Mom Selfie

Students - The other week, I wrote in my notebook a bit about the ghosts of dead pets coming to visit their owners. I wondered on paper how these dead pets know how to find their loved humans if they have moved to new homes. I think about this because I have loved many animals in my life, including our current seven: Cali (dog), Sage (dog), Sarah (cat), Mini Monster (cat), Pickles (cat), Firepaw (cat), and Fiona (cat). I believe that we will always be connected somehow, just as I am forever linked to my childhood dogs Thor and Valentine, and Mark's and my first dog Eli.

In Cynthia Rylant's soulful books DOG HEAVEN and CAT HEAVEN, she describes these animal Heavens, and my mind and heart will always carry the scene in DOG HEAVEN when the dog visits the family who loved him on Earth.

This idea of pet-ghosts visiting us is a mystery that haunts me in a very good way.

Mini Monster, in the above picture, is a very special cat to me right now. Some of you may know this. If you are interested in reading a 2010 essay about him, you may do so HERE. This piece also appears in Katherine Bomer's THE JOURNEY IS EVERYTHING (Heinemann, 2016).

Today's poem is an almost - sonnet.  It has fourteen lines in iambic pentameter (daDA daDA daDA daDA daDA) with the even lines rhyming.  Then, at the end, the final couplet rhymes too.  You will note a turn after line 8, a change in focus. My poem does not rhyme every alternate line, though, so it's not a true English sonnet.  

If you are thinking about your own poetry, one suggestion I have is to read lots of poems aloud. Tap out the meters, feel the rhythms in your hands and your feet and your body. Poems are songs. Poetry is music. Listen and feel others' poems inside of you, and these poems will offer your own writing more possibility, as the rhythms that live in us cannot help but come out in our writing.

What mystery haunts you? There's a poem there...I promise. Hours after writing this post, I realized that this topic of visitors in sleep must be deeply on my mind. See, my poem Two Girls, from November 8, 2019's post is also about this topic and also speaks to the reader at the end. I am going to pay attention to this curious and current interest.

Carol is hosting this week's Poetry Friday roundup at at Carol's Corner with Maya Angelou's gorgeous poem titled Continue. 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 every week in this beautiful new year before us.

All peace and bravery and laughter and light to you and your loved ones in this new year...this new decade!

xo,
Amy

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Velcro Stories Want to Become Poems

One Adored Dog

Photo by a Loved One

Students - This poem is based on a true story.  I only know a little bit of the story, but I filled in the rest, inventing details that felt real and possible to me. Sometimes we see or hear or learn a story and it never ever leaves us. When I heard about this story, I could not let it go.  Or maybe...it could not let me go.

Stories that stick to us like velcro in our hearts are ones that want to be written.  A writer can write any story as a poem, and even if you've written a story out in long form before, you can try rewriting it as a poem.  Story poems are called narrative poems, and as is true with all poems, they need not rhyme at all.

I enjoyed playing with this new meter and as usual tap, tap, tapped as I wrote. Tapping syllables on a table or on my cheek helps me feel the rhythm of a poem in my body.

Visit my notebooks blog, Sharing Our Notebooks, to find out who won the Decomposition Notebook. And stay tuned, as there will be a new notebooks post coming this weekend.

Thank you to Rebecca who is hosting today's Poetry Friday over at Sloth Reads, a post celebrating a day I never knew existed with a poem I never knew existed - double fun! Please know that the Poetry Friday community shares poems and poemlove each week, and everyone is invited to visit, comment, and post.  And if you have a blog, we welcome you to link right in with us.

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Writing the Rainbow #28 - Wisteria

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

April 15 - Bundle - Inspired by Robin's Egg Blue

April 16 - Our Rooftop - Inspired by Periwinkle

April 17 - Childhood Trees - Inspired by Mahogany

April 18 - In Our Laundry Room - Inspired by Blue

April 19 - Summer Treat - Inspired by Red

April 20 - Home - Inspired by Timberwolf

April 21 - After School - Inspired by Apricot

April 22 - Misty's Eyes - Inspired by Yellow Green

April 23 - City Night - Inspired by Black

April 24 - Sharing Asparagus - Inspired by Asparagus

April 25 - I Wonder Things - Inspired by Wild Strawberry

April 26 - On Miss Johnson's Fire Escape Again - Inspired by Red Orange

April 27 - Saturday Morning - Inspired by Blue Violet

And now...today's crayon.  Wisteria!

Dance

by Amy LV

Students - Yesterday's color, BLUE VIOLET was purple-y....and I've written about purple-y sky with PERIWINKLE.  So today's challenge was to find a new window into a new purple.  Tia Inez, from April 17 (MAHOGONY), led the way.

Now, I don't know so much about Tia.  I don't even know if Tia and our friend are really related or if they are just so close that they feel like family.  Today, though, family or not, Tia Inez is sharing some of her thoughts about life.  Sometimes people do this - give us advice or tips or wise words.  We can remember and write about them.  Or, as writers, we can make up our own and give them to our characters.

If you are Writing the Rainbow with me, perhaps your color for today will bring you to a place of thinking or advice.  Maybe you will find yourself musing on an idea or topic as I did her through Tia Inez.  

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 one colorful and beautiful place to visit.  (And I heard there may be a few new poems going up there soon...written by another poet who is writing about a colorful apartment building of her own!)

JoAnn Early Macken is hosting today's Poetry Friday roundup over at Teaching Authors with some spring beauties.  All are always welcome to this weekly poetry party.

And please don't miss the links to all kinds of Poetry Month goodness up there in my upper left sidebar.  Happy twenty-eighth day of National Poetry Month.  Only two days left after today!

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Love Repeat Love Repeat Love Repeat

I Love Granny Square Afghans

(I buy them at thrift stores...)

Photo by Amy LV

Students - Valentine's Day, the holiday of love, is just around the corner.  And today's poem is a celebration of love.  The other afternoon, I was walking with my husband, and I loved kicking a round rock down the sidewalk.  Yesterday evening, our daughter said, "I love drinking water!"  And always, I love black ink and cheese. 

One of my favorite poets, Billy Collins, has written a poem (and a book) titled "Aimless Love."  This poem is about loving the small things of life, and am quite sure that his poem planted a poemseed in my mind, a poemseed that grew into today's "Did You Know."

Writing is very much about love and falling in love with feathers and pumpkin muffins, socks and bike rides.  And Valentine's Day is a cozy time to think about how many good things there are to love in our world.  There are many many.

Today's poem does not rhyme, but you will notice some repetition.  Sometimes writers repeat lines throughout a poem and sometimes at the beginning and end of a poem. I've done both in this one, and you can try repeating in one of these ways too should you wish.  Writing techniques are free for the sharing.  I love that.

What do you love?  

If you write a poem today...will you play with repetition?

Love

Repeat

Love

Repeat

Love

Repeat

Last week I was honored to host teacher Holly Van Epps and her eighth grade poets with their haunting free verse poems written in refugee voices.  Please be sure to read their words if you have not yet done so. And Tony Johnston's beautiful book, VOICE FROM AFAR: POEMS OF PEACE, will soon be on its way to giveaway winner Linda B.  Please send me snail mail address, Linda, and I will get your book in the mail to you.

Katie is hosting this week's Poetry Friday roundup over at The Logonauts.  Head over there for poems, ideas, and community.  We are a welcoming group....and we welcome you!

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Sometimes A Poem Needs a Friend: Write a Poem for a Poem

On Tuesday, this book, edited by Kenn Nesbitt, illustrated by Christoph Niemann,
and published by Little Brown Books for Young Readers will be born.
It is chock full of all kinds of poems and spare, whimsical pictures.

Available at Your Local Book Shop

I am so happy to have a poem in this collection. You can read it here.

(Click to Enlarge)



A friend read an early copy and asked,
"How much of 'Our Kittens' was taken from real life?"

I love questions like this one.

Q:  How much of "Our Kittens" was taken from real life?
A:  All of it!

"Our Kittens" is a true story from our family, and it happened about two years ago.
Considering my friend's question, I realized that my poem needed a friend poem.
It needed the other point of view.
And so I wrote a poem in the voice of Fiona, that last kitten from "Our Kittens."

Fiona
Photo by Hope VanDerwater

Students - Sometimes a poem needs a friend poem.  This week when I got my own copy of ONE MINUTE TILL BEDTIME, and when I thought about my friend's question, I realized that there was more to this story. And so I wrote "My Boy," the poem I imagine our sweet Fiona really would write for Henry if only she could hold a pencil.

At twelve years old, Henry really did read books to a frightened tiny Fiona, and he helped her trust him and helped her trust the world again.  Now she seeks him out, snuggles him, touches his face with her paw. Fiona loves Henry.  And he loves her.

Sometimes an image stays in your mind for a long time.  The image of my boy reading to a lost creature is one of my favorites, and honestly...I think it's been rattling around in my heart, just waiting to find a home in a poem.

Sometimes a poem needs a friend poem.  Sometimes an image you've carried for years finds you when you are writing.

Creating is funny like that.  We never know...so we must just keep at it.

On this thread of creating, I am thrilled to welcome artist and art teacher Tim Needles to Sharing Our Notebooks this month.  I've admired his work on Twitter for a while, and it's a delight to peek into his fabulous notebooks and to learn about his faith in process.  Don't miss - and please leave a comment to be entered into a book giveaway.

Halloween is Monday, and Election Day is on the horizon.  If you have not noticed, I have placed poems to go with each in the left sidebar here. Enjoy!

This week, Linda is hosting the Poetry Friday extravaganza over at TeacherDance.  So waltz, fox trot, or tango on over and enjoy the good fun and good people.  All are always welcome to read, comment, and link on in.  Happy Poetry Friday!

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Wallow in Wonder 22 - After a Week in Foster Care

Welcome to Day 22 of Wallow in Wonder!  For my 2016 National Poetry Month project, I will celebrate learning and writing from learning, writing poems from each daily Wonder at Wonderopolis.  As I did with my Dictionary Hike in 2012, I am looking to surprise myself with new inspiration daily.  This year, such inspiration will show up in my inbox each morning.  I will print it and carry each Wonderopolis Wonder around all day...and in the afternoon or evening, I will write and post the poem for the next day.  

I invite anyone who wishes to take this challenge too.  Just read today's wonder over at Wonderopolis, and write a poem inspired by it for tomorrow.  Share it tomorrow at your own site, and if you wish to link in my comments for others to find (or share your poem there), please feel free to do so tomorrow, the day after the Wonder is published at Wonderopolis.  If you would like to share any ways you have used Wallow in Wonder or your own site (safe for children only please), please feel free to do so in the comments.

My April Poems Thus Far

April 1 - So Suddenly - a poem inspired by Wonder #1659 

April 2 - Thankful Journal - a poem inspired by Wonder #1660

April 3 - The Storm Chaser - a poem inspired by Wonder #779

April 4 - A Jar of Glitter - a poem inspired by Wonder #641

April 5 - To Make Compost - a poem inspired by Wonder #1661

April 6 - Deciding Now - a poem inspired by Wonder #1662

April 7 - Hummingbird's Secret - a poem inspired by Wonder #1663

April 8 - Limits - a poem inspired by Wonder #1664

April 9 - Sundogs - a poem inspired by Wonder #1665

April 10 - Perspective - a poem inspired by Wonder #128

April 11 - At the History Museum - a poem inspired by Wonder #115

April 12 - Seventy-Five Years Ago Today - a poem inspired by Wonder #1666

April 13 - Homer's Poem - a poem inspired by Wonder #1667

April 14 - The Right - a poem inspired by Wonder #1668

April 15 - 5:00 am - a poem inspired by Wonder #1669

April 16 - Writing - a poem inspired by Wonder #1670

April 17 - Sometimes - a poem inspired by Wonder #194

April 18 - Once - a poem inspired by Wonder #192

April 19 - Eat It - a poem inspired by Wonder #1671

April 20 - Chatty Green Tomato - a poem inspired by Wonder #1672

April 21 - This Argument We're Having - a poem inspired by Wonder #1673

And now for Day 22!

Wonder #1674 - from April 21, 2016

Counting

by Amy LV

Students - You may have picked up on the fact that today's poem ends with missing someone, just as yesterday's poem does.  Why is that?  I am not sure, but again, sometimes a writer has a theme running through his or her mind without even realizing it, a sort of background music, perhaps, that affects what he or she writes.  Maybe I am missing someone...

Thinking about yesterday's wonder, never having been a child in foster care or a parent caring for a child in foster care, I imagined how I might feel if I were a child in this situation.  As you read in the Wonder (if you read it), there are many reasons that children spend time in foster homes.  And while foster homes serve an important role in helping families and children get the space and shelter they need, it must be very difficult for a child to move into a new strange home for a period of time.  I imagined how I might feel, even if my parents were struggling as parents, living in a new place for a little while.

This is a list poem, beginning with a list of all of the things that are good and healthy in the imaginary writer's foster home, yet it ends with a twist.  A twist that reflects upon how although there is much good, there is still deep love for family and loneliness for them.

Making a list and then reflecting at the end of it is an interesting poetic structure.  You might wish to try this out, with a serious topic such as I did...or with a more playful subject.  Explore all kinds of techniques and topics with your poetry.

It is a treat to host teacher and librarian Stefanie Cole and her students from Ontario, Canada at Sharing Our Notebooks this month. This is a fantastic post full of notebook inspiration, a video clip, and a great book giveaway from Stefanie. Please check it out, and leave a comment over there to be entered into the giveaway.

Happy Day 22 of National Poetry Month 2016...Earth Day!  If you did not see my post featuring the wonderful J. Patrick Lewis from earlier today, please catch it HERE.

Jama is hosting today's Poetry Friday roundup over at Jama's Alphabet Soup with a beautiful and delicious celebration of one of my favorite new books.  Enjoy all of the offerings, and please join in as you wish!

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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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