Birds and Words and Play and Spring!

Sparrow Sighting
by Amy LV

Students - This poem grew from a few words and an experience.

The Words - The other week, as I spoke to a group of kindergarten children in Buffalo, NY, I taught them the difference between a bluebird and a blue jay.  A teacher in the room said, "Oh!  Bluebirds are rare."  And they are a bit rare.  Our family feels lucky to have bluebirds in our pasture as they love nesting in the boxes my husband has mounted on a couple of fence posts. But bluebirds are, indeed, a little bit rare.  This got me thinking about how important it is to appreciate things that are not rare...the daily things.  Our daily birds.

The Experience -  When I walked our dogs around the pasture the other day, a flash of blue darted from one of those fence post birdhouses.  This always happens, and it is magical to see that flash of blue flitting above the grass.  It is a moment I love living over and over again.

Sometimes words and experiences come together in a poem.  And this poem is a list poem because it simply lists many birds (over and over!) and a concrete poem because the names of the birds are each written in a color from each bird. This was fun, something I have not much played with with writing.  Years ago, I did this in a poem about playing solitaire, and that popped up again here.  Color play.

Allow words and experience and play to come together in your poems. We are each at our best when we let sparks of joy and surprise peek through us!

If ever you're stuck as to what to write...you also might try beginning with the words, "I have taught myself...." and see where they take you.  You don't have to keep those words in your poem, but they might bring you to an interesting set of thoughts.

Speaking of joy and words and thoughts...today I am superhappy to welcome Poet Ella Bender from Sheila Cocilovia's second grade at Jefferson Ave Elementary in Fairport, NY. Ella's poem is modeled after my Revision is..., and I am honored.

Here are Ella's words...and her poem:

When Amy came in and gave us the gift of her poem, Revision is..., we read it every day in class and it inspired me to write Spring is... I liked how it sort of rhymed and that it had repeating lines...The scary part was because in the spring, sometimes there are bees that chase you, and that can be scary!

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Thank you, Ella, for sharing your spring celebration list poem with us here today!  

Mrs. Wyman is the winner of last week's giveaway of Kwame Alexander's new book, OUT OF WONDER!  Congratulations!  (I will bring it to you when I see you next week!)  If you missed last week's post, featuring young poet Ben, please do take a peek HERE to read his work.

Kiesha is hosting today's Poetry Friday roundup over at Whispers from the Ridge with a lovely book share and invitation to write.  All are always welcome at these weekly gatherings of poetry and friendship.

Please share a comment below if you wish.

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

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

Humble is Beautiful - Looking Closely to Write

Georgia and Chickadee

Photo by Amy LV

Chickadee Close Up

Photo by Amy LV

Students - Yesterday the chickadee that you see above flew into our window. Georgia heard the window-hit and ran outside to find the bird stunned in a snow pile.  Learning that could not survive the cold stunned for long, she brought it inside and kept it warm in a box until it regained strength.  When Georgia opened the box, little chickadee flew around my study for a moment!  She and Mark caught and sent it back to the wild.

Georgia volunteers at Messinger Wildlife Care and Education Center, a special place here in Holland, NY.  She knows a lot about birds, and she was ready to bring this chickadee to a rehabilitator if it did not fly away within a couple of hours. I am very grateful to Messinger Woods for their work.  And too, they will be bringing a few educational ambassador birds, birds who cannot live in the wild, to my book release party for EVERY DAY BIRDS next Tuesday.  Take a peek at this video about Jimini Crowket. He will be with us for the book party, and I look forward to meeting him.

Sometimes things happen in your daily life, and you just KNOW, "This is a poem idea."  So it was with this little one.  I am so glad wee chickadee is well again, and grateful to have seen its beautiful feathers up close.  This poem pretty much wrote itself as I remembered just looking and looking at these humble and perfect colors on this humble and perfect bird. 

I believe that the small, humble objects and encounters we live each day hold great meaning, if only we look.  So look.  Put down a game or a phone or even a book sometimes...and just look.

When you look at today's poem in terms of writing, you'll notice that it does not have a regular meter at all.  And I planned to write it completely without rhyme.  But can you tell where the rhyme crept in on its own?

Last summer I also wrote a poem about (to) a bird who had flown into one of our windows.  You can read it HERE.  It is a poem of address, written right to the thrush.

Today you can find me visiting Kirby Larson's blog with a post about the family tree for EVERY DAY BIRDS.  Since the book flies into the world on Tuesday, I am very excited to begin sharing its stories.  Thank you, Kirby!

It is a privilege to host writer and nursing student Jenna Kersten over at Sharing Our Notebooks this month.  Please check out her post and comment to be entered to win a copy of Anne Lamott's BIRD BY BIRD.  I am still looking for a few missing winners from earlier drawings, so please check HERE to see if you have won a book

Donna is hosting this week's Poetry Friday roundup over at Mainely Write...enjoy every last morsel.

This weekend, our daughter Hope and I will be at The Dublin Literacy Conference in Dublin, Ohio with many Poetry Friday friends.  I can't wait.  Happy Poetry Friday to one and all!

Please share a comment below if you wish.

Recycle with Birds - Poem #342

Nest Woven with Wool

Photo by Amy LV

Students - this poem came from sitting and thinking in a spot of sun.  I was listening to the spring-hopeful birds, looking out of our living room window, and I remembered the time my children and I saved their hair to leave out for the birds.  One word dipped into another, and my thoughts turned to how birds and animals are wise and resourceful in using their surroundings.  

This poem is about something I admire about birds.  What animal do you admire?  Why?  Is this something you might write about?

In the nest above, you can see a lot of sheep wool.  I've posted this photo before...I love it!  Because we have sheep, the birds around our home help themselves to wool on the ground, wool stuck to tree trunks, all colors of wool!  For more nest poems, see poem #240 and poem #275.

This spring, if you examine the nests around your home, you will see which building materials your own neighbor birds use.  If you're feeling project-y, you might even leave out strands of yarn or string or even your own hair!

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Poem #341 Remembers What it Used to Be

Henry Sands His Gourd

Photo by Amy LV

Hope Waits for Chickadees

Photo by Amy LV

Today's poem is dedicated to Brittany Bruce's kindergarten students at Calvin Coolidge Elementary School in Binghamton, NY.  I visited their school in February, and the students and I played a little "I used to be" game, remembering which animals we each "used to be."  

Brittany asked if I had a poem in this form, and I didn't exactly.  Our game was inspired by a poem I wrote for POETRY TAG TIME, coming to Kindles next month, but that poem does not have this simple repeating line, "I used to be."  Hence, a new poem!  Students - writing is like that sometimes.  Sometimes you realize that you just need a new poem, and the only way to get it is to make it.

So....here is an "I used to be" poem for Brittany's students.  Perhaps they will share some of their own "I used to be" poems with us one day!  

You can read a tidbit about POETRY TAG TIME at Sylvia Vardell's Poetry for Children, and I will have more about it here very soon.

Today's photos are brought to you from yesterday's 4-H meeting here at our home where we began making birdhouses out of birdhouse gourds.  This is a very pleasing project, and while we're not all finished with the wood burning, these houses are very inviting.  

In the second photo, you can see Hope standing beneath a test-gourd which we turned into a feeder.  If you could see it closely, you would notice that it has been decorated by many different people and with two different test colors of stain.

Hope is very patient.  She had seven chickadees feed from the seed she'd placed on her hat, and one right from her hand.  Did you know that chickadees will eat from your hand?

This spring, we are going to plant these gourds!

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Miss Robin Longs for Home in Poem #315...

Miss Robin in the South

by Georgia LV

Miss Robin in the North

by Georgia LV

This is poem #5 in Story Poem Week, a week long project to write poems that tell stories.  This story is short and in the present tense; I imagine our Springtime harbingers awaiting their trip home to our yards and trees and bushes.

Students - My first work on this poem, the work in pencil on unlined paper, did not include this last stanza, but rather ended with Miss Robin's words.  When I typed it, however, I felt that something was missing.  In search of endings, I often go back to beginnings, asking , "Is there a glint of silver that I might reflect in the last lines, a moon to reflect the morning's sun?"  Today there was.

If you ever find yourself wondering how to end a writing piece, be it a poem or a story or even a  nonfiction piece or persuasive letter -- reread your beginning and you might find the silver you need.

If you are interested in having your American Robin questions answered, check out this post by Journey North who has also written a little book about the same topic.  Of course you can find lots of information, including the American Robin's song, at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, a rich source for everything-bird.

Once more, don't forget that the Great Backyard Bird Count begins on February 18.  You can participate in important and fascinating research by keeping track of the birds in your yard for four days!

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A Shrike Strikes & Stabs in Poem #308

The natural world is not always a kind place, and shrikes are brutal birds.  Yesterday, Mark and the children were sitting on the couch discussing the Great Backyard Bird Count and they began talking about shrikes.  I was trying to write in another room, but really I was eavesdropping.  Mark had taught me about shrikes before, but they're so incredible that I had to listen in.  Because their talons are not very sharp, shrikes must skewer their meals onto sticks, hawthorn spikes, or barbed wire in order to eat.

If you would like to see a shrike eating a chickadee, you can do so here.  If you would like to see a shrike eating a junco, visit here.

Last weekend, Georgia awoke early and sat at the front window by our feeder, making extensive notes about each bird's eating habits.  I wondered if some of her thinking came from our recent reading of THE ROBIN MAKES A LAUGHING SOUND by Sallie Wolf and Michael Borstein, a charming poetry book filled with sketches, watercolors, and little listy notes.

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Our family has never participated in the Great Backyard Bird Count before, but we plan to do so this year.  Running the week of February 18-21, this event is meant for children and gives a snapshot of which birds are where during these four days.  Last year, 11,233,609 birds were counted.  I wonder how many were counted more than once!

Take a look here at GBBC website to learn more about how to participate and how to learn more about the birds that live in and travel through our own skies.  I once read that most third grade American children know more rainforest animals than they know backyard birds.  Here's a way to change that.

Teachers - here is another way to deepen and widen students' understandings about the birds in our neighborhoods.  SIGNIFICANT STUDIES FOR SECOND GRADE, by Karen Ruzzo and Mary Anne Sacco, includes a wonderful nonfiction bird study in which students each research a bird and write about it.  Glorious!  If I were a second or third grade teacher, I would teach this unit every year.

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Students - once again, today's poem came from careful listening.  Yesterday's poem came from listening to what everyone was talking about (a snow day.)  Today's poem came from listening to one distinct and interesting conversation.  Did you notice that it is written, while not in five lines, in a limerick rhyme and meter?

For anyone who is wondering, yes.  We do have a snow day today.

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