Look Around & Choose an Object

Garden Watering Time

Video by Amy LV

Hello Friends! First I would like to thank the community of Ripley Central School (Grades K-6), in New York State, for spending Wednesday with me. It was such a treat to begin these autumn days with thoughtful writers and teachers. I look forward to our future time together, and today's poem came from something I shared in our upper grade assemblies.

One of the most meaningful, interesting, and important parts of being a writer, whether we share our writing or not, is deciding what to write about...choosing an idea. And sometimes we can fall into the trap of believing that we need to have a GOOD idea, an IMPORTANT idea, a SPECIAL idea. But we do not need this at all. We just need to begin writing.

We can begin by starting down one of many possible paths, but one of these paths is simply the path of observation. We look around. We look at one object. We write about this object. Now, you may be wondering, Just what might we write about any object? Well, we can write in any genre, and we might:

• Describe the object with our senses
• Compare the object with something else in the world
• Tell about a personal memory related to this object
• Teach something about this object
• Share beliefs connected to this object
• List words this object brings to our minds and write from these
• Invent the beginning of a story inspired by this object
• Begin a poem about this object

For me, the best part of writing is the surprise part. I like beginning NOT KNOWING what I will write, NOT having a great idea to begin, but rather, allowing an idea to show up on the page like a surprise guest.

As for my poem today, I was trying to think of a writing idea when I realized that I should water the garden. As I did so, I admired the sprinkler and so...the sprinkler became my main character of today.

This poem is short and it does not rhyme. However, it does use a lot of sound repetition, namely of the short i sound. The poem, including title, has 20 words, and 10 of them include the short i sound, my favorite sound in the English language.

I would love to read and share any poems you write from just looking around, choosing an object, and allowing the object to bring you to new places, thoughts, and wordplay.

Linda is hosting this week's Poetry Friday roundup over at Teacher Dance. Each Friday, all are invited to share poems, poem books, poetry ideas, and friendship in this open and welcoming poetry community.

xo,

Amy

ps - For those of you who, like me, are fans of English Professor and Musician Gart Westerhout, he is back with another song version of one of my poems, "Summer Mystery," from two weeks ago. Hear him sing that poem about my generous neighbors here.

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Make Small Observations

A Few Things

Photo by Amy LV

Students - This short poem lists four facts, the fourth of which wraps up the previous three. And while you may think that I wrote the poem after looking at my table, the truth is that I made the tea and placed these objects together only after the writing. Art is funny how it moves in cirlces and spirals and swirls, never in only one way. 

And how true it is that the humblest of things are often the most nourishing. Yesterday I listened to the podcast WE CAN DO HARD THINGS, and Guest Morgan Harper Nichols talked about collecting sticks outside. Host Glennon Doyle recounted picking up purple rocks and giving them to her daughter. And listening to both, I was reminded of times I have picked up sticks and rocks, times that different members of our family have done so. When my parents divorced years ago, I took a long walk in the woods, gathering smooth sticks that had lost their bark. I placed them into a vase and was comforted by their haunting beauty.

You might wish join me in listing a few facts about simple objects that bring quiet cheer. Perhaps a poem will grow from your observations too. One never knows, so it helps to try opening all kinds of poem locks with all kinds of imagination keys.

Marcie is hosting this week's Poetry Friday roundup today at Marcie Flinchum Atkins with a small celebration of chicory along with her plans for this August's Sealey Challenge. (I have never taken this challenge on before and am now inspired to do so.) Each Friday, all are invited to share poems, poem books, poetry ideas, and friendship in this open and welcoming poetry community.

xo,

Amy

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 

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Look, List, & Have a Thought

 

New Suncatcher

Photo by Amy LV

Students - I love the way that suncatchers toss rainbows all around a room, and so this past week I hung a suncatcher in a window here at home. There they were: rainbows everywhere! I wanted to run around and touch them all!

Today's poem is a list poem. You will notice that the first stanza is simply a list of where the rainbows are.

The second stanza is a thought I have about all of these rainbows.

You can try this type of poem too. Simply look around until you find something interesting. Feel free to DO something to MAKE something interesting. Look carefully, making a list in your mind of what you see. If you want, write this list down now. This list can be your first stanza.

Then, have a thought about what you see. Make a leap from what is there to what is in your mind. You might connect what you see to something else, ask a question about it, have an opinion about it. Let this be your second stanza.

Now that you have the bones of your poem, play around with the words to get them just right. This part takes me quite a while as I try to figure out whether to use plurals or singulars, the word the or the word a, adjectives or no adjectives, and on and on. As always, read your poem aloud to yourself as you revise. This is how you will know if it sounds right to you.

As for titles, your title can add a wee bit more to your poem. In today's poem here, the only way you know the poem is about a suncatcher is because I use that word in the title. Titles can bring information to a poem.

Back in 2010, the first year of this blog, I wrote a poem about prisms and bending light and rainbows. It is titled "Science is like Writing," and you may read it HERE if you wish.

Here are a few of the rainbows that my suncatcher set free!

Cupboard Rainbow

Photo by Amy LV

Bookshelf Rainbow

Photo by Amy LV

Closet Rainbow

Photo by Amy LV

Knee in Nightgown Rainbow

Photo by Amy LV

Carol is hosting today's Poetry Friday roundup at The Apples in my Orchard with some news about an enrichment group she has been teaching. Please know that all are welcome each Friday as folks share poems, poem books, poetry ideas, and friendship.

xo,

Amy

Update on August 27, 2021 - A few people asked about a photo of a rainbow on a kitten or on a rocking chair. When I wrote this poem, I had not actually seen a rainbow on each of the things listed...some were imagined. But, later in the week, my daughter Hope snapped some kitten-rainbow pictures, and here they are!

Tuck & Rainbows

Photos by Hope VanDerwater

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