Who's Quirky? Everyone!

My New Umbrella

Photo by Amy LV

Students - I often wonder about where others' ideas come from, and then, when I am in a good writing groove, I remember. Ideas come from absolutely everywhere. Earlier this week, rereading my notebook from last May, I came across this little entry:

Notebook Entry - May 2024

Photo by Amy LV

Intrigued by such a curious invented person, I decided to write more about her:

Poem Draft #1 March 2025

Photo by Amy LV

Then, somehow, the rhythm of a famous, anonymous, old (around 1888) nonsense rhyme that goes like this, invaded my body:

Moses supposes his toeses are roses;

Moses supposes erroneously.

For nobody's toeses are roses are posies.

As Moses supposes his toeses to be.

Of course, with any old, anonymous verse, there are other, newer versions, and you can read about these at Wikipedia. What surprised me - and ALWAYS surprises me - is that this rhythm was rattling and rolling around in my brain unbeknownst to me...and its meter showed up in my own-this-week-lines. After doing a little sleuthing, I realize that this has happened before with "Moses Supposes His Toeses Are Roses" - see my poem Manny the Manatee.

As I drafted and redrafted at my computer, the main character of this poem changed from a she to a he...and I went with it!

Poem Draft #2 March 2025

Photo by Amy LV

Today I have two writing suggestions for you. 

The first suggestion is to read poems aloud regularly. Read to your family. Read to your cat. Read to an old sneaker. Read to your dog. Read to a cactus. Read to your stuffies. Read to the air. Read to yourself. If you read and write regularly, the rhythms that go through your body will come through in your own lines, even when you are not trying for it. Yes, I did revise and tweak and fine tune...but the rhythm was already inside of me.

The second suggestion is to think about quirks, both yours and those of others. The Cambridge Dictionary defines a quirk as "an unusual habit or part of someone's personality, or something that is strange and unexpected." You might think about your own quirks, the quirks of those you know, or the quirks of imaginary people. Then...write!

What are my quirks? Hmmm. One of my quirks is that I always buy a lot of baking supplies whenever we are expecting a snowstorm here in Holland, NY. Another of my quirks is that I sing a special song to our cat Winnie when I want her to come inside. What are your quirks? The quirks of others you know? The quirks of imaginary characters such as my own Umbrella Man? These may well make for excellent writing inspiration.

And...Happy Spring! Yesterday was the first day of spring where I live, and I so I tried out my new umbrella in the morning's sunshower. Isn't it all beautiful?

Spring Equinox Sunshower at The Poem Farm

Video by Amy LV

Thank you to Rose for hosting this week's Poetry Friday roundup over at Imagine the Possibilities with a joyous, poetic celebration of spring. Each Friday, all are invited to share poems, poem books, poetry ideas, and friendship in this open and welcoming poetry community.

Be quirky. Be quirky. Be quirky. That is all.

xo,

Amy

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Songs - Poems Can Compare

Raindrops and Snowflakes

by Amy LV

Students -There is a certain stillness on country winter days, and yesterday morning, while moving cars around in the driveway, I paused to look at white snow, green trees, pink sky. When I sat down to write about it, this poem appeared on the page. The silence of winter snow at once highlighted to me the noisiness of rain. I adore both, weather-silence and weather-sound.

Winter Morning in the Country

Photo by Amy LV

You may be wondering what filigree is. Filigree is a type of fancy and complex metalwork, often seen in jewelry and looking like lace. Filigree is made of bits of metal thread and beads, and the delicacy of the work reminds many people of snowflakes. If I were a newly born snowflake, I imagine that I might need to concentrate very hard on my fancy angles and never-before-seen exquisiteness. It would be too much to speak.

Google Search for 'Filigree'

After I wrote my poem, I remembered that I had heard the word filigree to describe a snowflake before. And yes, it was in this wonderful poem, below, by Walter de la Mare (1873 - 1956). You will note that Walter's poem is in the voice of one snowflake, speaking to a human. This is different from my poem which simply compares one aspect of snow with one aspect of rain: sound. The same subject, even with a same word or two, can spin many different poems indeed!

The Snowflake Before I melt, Come, look at me! This lovely, icy filigree! Of a great forest In one night I make a wilderness Of white: By skyey cold Of crystals made, All softly, on Your finger laid, I pause, that you My beauty see: Breathe; and I vanish Instantly. by Walter de la Mare This poem is in the public domain.

Admiring the morning sky, writing a small poem, considering the intricacy of snowflakes, remembering other Walter de la Mare poems...one thing leads to another in writing. Today I will add two words to my current notebook's 'Favorite Word List': filigree and intricate. Maybe delicate too. Make it three. Definitely make it three.

I have often thought about the quietness of snow, but I have never compared it to rain. If you seek a writing subject, consider rummaging through your notebook or mind or heart, to find a thought you think often. Might you compare it to something else in one particular way? If so, you, too, could write two small stanzas, each describing that one particular way the two objects are different...or the same.

Do raindrops and snowflakes really sing? No...but it seems like they do. When you give a non-human thing living qualities or intentions, we call that personification. This poem uses that technique.

It is a pleasure to welcome Stephanie Affinito to my other blog, Sharing Our Notebooks. Simply visit that space to check out her delightful 'One Little Thing' notebook, and comment by February 2 for a chance to win a copy of Ralph Fletcher's A WRITER'S NOTEBOOK. And if you keep a notebook and wish to share it over there, please just send me an e-mail.

Jone is hosting this week's Poetry Friday roundup at Deowriter with poetry postcards and a sweet journal giveaway. 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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Wallow in Wonder Day 29 - One Couplet in the Rain

Welcome to Day 29 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

April 22 - After a Week in Foster Care - a poem inspired by Wonder #1674

April 23 - Pay Attention - a (recycled) poem inspired by Wonder #1675

April 24 - Please Don't Ask - a poem inspired by Wonder #201

April 25 - Mama Kangaroo's Poem - a poem inspired by Wonder #447

April 26 - Not Anymore - a poem inspired by Wonder #1675

April 27 - If We Were Whales - a poem inspired by Wonder #1676

April 28 - Written on a Paper Airplane - a poem inspired by Wonder #1677

And now for Day 29!

Wonder #1679 - from April 28, 2016

Pocket of Blue

by Amy LV

Students - This is the shortest poem of my Wallow in Wonder series.  I am not sure why, but thinking about rain and showers just placed this picture in my head. I liked the first line and then played for quite a while to get the second.  

This is simply a couplet - one pair of rhyming lines - and it sketches simply one image.  Sometimes writing can be very spare.  Feel free to play with many words...and very few.  You will learn different things as you experiment with various styles.

I am currently holding two Poetry Month giveaways...both ending tomorrow, April 30!

It has been an absolute pleasure this week to host teacher Emily Callahan and her students from Kansas City here to The Poem Farm.  To learn about Popcorn and Poetry and to enter a giveaway for a Ralph Fletcher book...visit HERE.

Lucky me to have Stefanie Cole and her students from Ontario, Canada at Sharing Our Notebooks all 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 a giveaway for a Lynda Barry book.

Buffy is hosting today's Poetry Friday roundup over at Buffy's Blog.  Hop over to her place to her a wooing toad and to see all of this week's poetic offerings.

Happy Day 29 of National Poetry Month 2016! 

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

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

Free Verse and a Visit from Irene Latham

Wet Leaves

Photo by Amy LV

Students - Today's poem is a quiet poem, and it is about the picture you see above, a picture I took just yesterday.  On my way into a school yesterday morning, after an 80 minute drive in the rainy dark, I emerged from my car to see these magical leaves, made even more magical by rain and morning sun.  

While part of me wished to hurry into school, another part of me said, "Stop, Amy. Take a picture of this.  You will want to remember this pretty scene, here where you least expected to find one."  I could have taken a picture with my mind.  I could have stopped to draw the scene.  Instead, yesterday, I took a photograph.  And here it is. In photo captured then and later, captured with the photo of words.

This is a quiet poem because this small still life gave me a quiet feeling inside.  So rather than focusing on rhyme-playfuness today, my poem focuses on focus - on looking carefully at one beautiful, surprise life-painting just left there in my busy path. If you have visited The Poem Farm before, you may know that I sometimes push myself to write free verse, unrhymed, poems. This moves me out of my comfortable home in rhyme and bouncy meter.

When you look around at the world, not at a screen and not at the busythoughts inside of your head, you will see beauty in many surprising places.  Each time I do, I feel tremendously lucky.

Speaking of lucky...

Today we are all lucky to welcome poet and novelist Irene Latham.  I invited Irene to share about revision and her newest book, DEAR WANDERING WILDEBEEST, a cool, informative, and beautifully written collection of poems about animals from the African grasslands. 

Available through

your Independent Bookseller

or through Amazon

Thank you, Amy, for inviting me to talk about revision! The Poem Farm is one of my favorite places to visit... so warm and inspiring!

Rarely have I written a poem that didn't go through extensive revisions. Simply changing one word in a poem constitutes a new draft... and often it is that one word that I can't imagine until it wakes me up in the middle of the night! I love watching a poem become more clearly what it was meant to be all along. One of the best ways to be able to “see” this is to allow a poem to rest between drafts. Just like bread, a poem needs a chance to breathe after it's been kneaded. Then you can come back to it and bake it to a nice golden-brown in your mind's oven.

I'm not sure a poem is ever really done, but at some point, we must stop and move on. I was revising the poems in DEAR WANDERING WILDEBEEST right up until we went to press. A litmus test that I use for myself when putting together a collection is this: if this poem is the only poem a reader ever reads out of this book, will I be satisfied with that? It took me a long time to find the “yes” to that question regarding the snake poem. It's kind of a tricky poem, as it includes all five snake species native to the African continent. That's asking a lot of a poem! Anyhow, here's the poem that appeared in the version of the book when it was first acquired by Millbrook Press:

Lifestyles of the Sleek and Sinuous

My name is Black Mamba.

Wanna chasssssssssssse?

            Boomslang, that's me.

            Welcome to my treehouse.

They call me Cape Cobra.

Seen any weaver birds lately?

            Saw-scaled Viper's my name.

            When I sizzle, you shake.

I go by Puff Adder.

Step on me, if you dare.

-------------------------

See how I tried to include in each couplet a quality unique to that particular kind of snake? That was a good approach, and I wanted to keep it. BUT. I wanted to employ more poetic techniques to really make this poem shine, so I kept at it.

Lifestyles of the Sleek and Sinuous

Black Mamba

races

chases.

            Boomslang

            h

              a

                  n

                        g

                            s.

Cape Cobra

herds

weaver birds.

            Saw-scaled Viper

            rubs, shrugs

            sizzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzles.

Puff Adder

hisses –

rarely misses.

----------------------------------

See how I kept some of the things that were working in the earlier version, but pared the poem AND amped up all the remaining word choices? I made sure there was rhyme in every couplet while still giving information unique to each snake. And now, yes, if this is the only poem you read out of DEAR WANDERING WILDEBEEST, I am satisfied that you've gotten a taste of what the rest of the book holds. No weakling poems allowed! The goal in a collection is to make each and every poem shiny enough to be the title poem. It's something to strive for, anyway. :)

Click to Enlarge this Spread from DEAR WANDERING WILDEBEEST

If you're reading this, and writing your own poems, be patient with yourself. Remember that we have millions of words to choose from, so endless variations are possible. Keep tinkering – that's where the joy is! And also, rest. You'll know when it's time to stop.

Thank you, Amy, for having me – and for all the ways you share the love of poetry with the world! xo

I am very grateful to Irene for joining us today here at The Poem Farm and also at Sharing Our Notebooks.  To peek into Irene's notebooks, head over there, peek away, and comment to be entered to win your own copy of DEAR WANDERING WILDEBEEST.

Renee is hosting today's Poetry Friday party over at No Water River.  All are welcome to join in, visit, share, and love poetry in her joyous space today.

Please share a comment below if you wish.