Two Dogs - Combining Reality and Fantasy

Dog Brushing

by Amy LV

Students - Today's verse grew from an interruption.  I was writing in my notebook yesterday morning when our daughter walked into the room to tell me how when pulling some burdocks from Sage, she pulled out a huge clump of fur.  This reminded me of times we've brushed huge piles of fur out of Sage, times we've said, "We could make a new dog out of this pile!"

Once again, I learned that paying attention to the world - even when writing - can yield an idea.  It may be a weird idea, but an idea nonetheless.

Sound-wise, today's poem is a little bit breathless.  I could have broken it up into stanzas (where would you do this?) but instead, I kept the lines in one big blob.  I did this because I like the way the lines run all into each other, the way this makes a reader read more quickly.  It feels like a story-I-want-to-tell-now!

Often, I will take a bit from my real life and then play with the reality, adding just a wee bit of fantasy.  The dog is real.  We really brush her.  We really get a pile of fur. The fur pile really feels large enough to make a new dog. But the magic words?  Nope.  And the new dog growing?  Nope.  That's where I play.  Try this yourself  sometime. Start real.  End unreal. 

Our Dog Sage

Photo by ? LV

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Moon Memory - Real Pretend Poems

Wyoming County Fair - August 15, 2013

Photo by Amy LV

Click the arrow to hear me read this poem to you.

Students - Today's offering is one of those "this just happened to me" poems. Well, sort of.  I mean, we did spend last evening at the fair.  That part is true. And I did see the moon.  (See it in the photograph?)  While I didn't ride the Tilt-a-Whirl, I did think about Moon on our car trip home, I wondered  about her looking down on the Wyoming County Fair.  Does she ever wish she could ride the Tilt-a-Whirl?

In my first drafts of this poem, Moon never does come down to Earth; she stays longing up there in the sky.  But then I thought a thought that many writers think. WHAT IF?  What if Moon DID ride the Tilt-a-Whirl?  And what if I sat beside her?  Such a happy thought for me...

This is something a writer can always do.  We can take real memories and write half-real and half-pretend. 

George Welgemoed is in this week with two more of his wonderful Poemdesigns.  You can see the complete collection here, and clicking on each image will enlarge it.  Thank you, George, for sharing your ability to so fantastically combine words with images and fonts.  

Cathy Mere is sharing her DIGITAL or PAPER notebook question and exploration at Sharing Our Notebooks. Stop by to learn about all kinds of notebook apps and learn what Cathy has discovered about these and about herself too.  There is also an app giveaway, many thanks to Cathy.

Lisa is hosting today's Poetry Friday at Steps and Staircases.  Stop on by to find out what is happening poetry-wise in the KidLitosphere today.

Please share a comment below if you wish.

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Become a Violin in Poem #358

Lynx in a Violin Case

Photo by Amy LV

Students - our children all play musical instruments, and so we are lucky to have a house filled with songs.  Sometimes when I listen to Hope, Georgia, and Henry playing, it feels as if their bodies have joined with their instruments - they sound so good!  This reminds me of the feeling I used to occasionally have when playing piano or the all-happy-lost feeling I have sometimes while writing.  

It is a wonderful gift to be at one with  your passion.  Today's poem came from that place, that feeling of connectedness to music and an instrument and all who have played it before.

Before bed last night, I read some poems aloud from A CHILD'S ANTHOLOGY OF POETRY edited by Elizabeth Hauge Sword.  This is a splendid collection mixing old classic poems with new to-be classics.  Highly recommended for reading aloud together or for adults and children to read quietly on their own.

Last's night's selections were, "in Just-spring,"  "maggie and milly and molly and may," and "anyone lived in a pretty how town" by E.E. Cummings.  We also read Jack Prelutsky's "The Spaghetti Nut" and "Homework! Oh, Homework!,"  Randall Jarrell's "Bats," Ogden Nash's "The Adventures of Isabel," Lewis Carroll's "Father William," and Christopher Morley's "The Plumpuppets."

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Parents and teachers - never underestimate the power of reading poetry aloud.  In a short time, you crack open a whole world of language, experience, and beauty, of fun, playfulness, and wonder.  There is always time to read a poem.  And once you do...the poem is there forever.

I snapped today's photo at the girls' violin lesson.  Their teacher's cat loves to snuggle into the instrument cases!

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A Cowry Shell Speaks in Poem #268

Listening to Sea Voices

Photo by Mark LV

Cowry Shell

Photo by Amy LV

This is another one of my favorite-kind-of-poem-to-write-poems.  I love poems where inanimate objects talk.  It is such fun to imagine what they might think and say.

Students - one of my favorite parts of daily writing is the mystery of not knowing what poem will be born each day.  Last evening, I thought to myself, "I have no idea what to write!"  Then, somehow, I began thinking about rocks and shells and how they often take long journeys in people's pockets, journeys that lead them far far away from their places of origin. 

The tiger cowry shell in these photos has such a story, though I don't know all of it.  This big shell came into my hands through an auction.  Near our home, Gentner's Commission Market, in Springville, NY, opens up on Wednesdays during much of the year.  Last spring, Mark and I went to the auction and just as a whole table was about to be sold as a whole, I decided to bid $3.00 on a wooden plate holding three large shells.  With the exchange of 300 cents, this shell, once alive, came into my possession.  Last night, I picked it up from my messy desk and felt its cool breathing in my ear.

It is good to hold something when you write, to feel edges, textures, sides, shapes and rough spots.  Try it.  Find an object you wish to write about, and as you write, take little breaks to simply hold it and understand it deeply.

When I was a little girl, I had a shell collection.  In particular, I remember one little yellow cowry shell.  It reminded me of a mouth.  Did you know that cowry shells were once used as money?  Here's a drum rhyme about a cowry shell used as money, from OFF TO THE SWEET SHORES OF AFRICA, by Uzoamaka Chinyelu Unobagha.

If you seek a book full of ocean critter poems, seek no longer.

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Mary Lee will host Poetry Friday tomorrow over at A Year of Reading.  

ps - If you were wondering, this type of shell may be spelled cowry or cowrie.

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#256 - Let Your Gum Take You for a Ride

Never Been the Same

by Amy LV

This poem is strange.  Yes, it is.  I love secrets.  Love watching geese flying in Vs.  Love blowing huge bubbles with bubble gum.  Put it all together, and I end up with this poem! 

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Round and Round We Go - Poem #221

Breaking Free

by Amy LV

I grew up near Binghamton, NY, "the Carousel Capital of the World".  There are six merry-go-rounds in my hometown area, built by George F. Johnson, founder of Endicott-Johnson shoes.  As a boy, George was too poor to afford a carousel ride, so he donated carousels to the Binghamton area about a hundred years ago with the understanding they would be free for all children, forever.  I remember placing a piece of litter into the big barrel at the Ross Park Zoo in exchange for my free ride.

My favorite poems to write are ones like this...poems with just a hint of magic!

Today is the Rochester Children's Book Festival.  I am not sure if our family will make it this year, but I highly recommend this day full of authors and books...even Jane Yolen will be there!

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