Try a Piece of a Triolet

Patterns and Travels

Photo by Amy LV

Students - I feel fortunate to once again share a musical version of my poem by my friend Gart Westerhout, a professor, composer, pianist, singer, and director of a musical theater in Japan. We met through the internet, through poetry and music, and while I always have concerns about the internet, finding good and talented friends in this way brings me joy. Thank you, Gart!

Yesterday I was driving home from the credit union over the snowy Western New York 

hills and had this thought, I want to write another triolet! And so last night, I did so. Isn't it neat how

our brains can just make decisions and then follow through? And the more little things we learn, the 

more ideas we give our brains to chew on and try out. Today's poem is about a friend, a friend from a 

faraway place. Many of us have and love such friends.

A triolet is, indeed, one of my favorite forms. I enjoy the rolling repetition and the way a writer can emphasize an idea simply by repeating it according to the form's rules. You will notice that lines 1, 4, and 7 match, as do lines 2 and 8.  If you look carefully, you will also notice that the rhyme scheme is: ABaAabAB. If you read it aloud and listen verrrry closely, you may notice that the poem is written in iambic pentameter, ten syllables per line with the accents reading daDUM, daDUM, daDUM, daDUM, daDUM.

Now, while this can be a lot to keep track of (it helps me to reread and look at another triolet I've written as I write: This Beet II, Wintertimes, Triolet for a Stone), it's also interesting to simply experiment with one technique from a particular form. Maybe write a poem about a friend you have or can imagine. Maybe try any one of these crafting techniques:

• writing an 8-line poem
• repeating a line two or three times
• keeping the same number of syllables in each line
• making your first two lines match your last two

Experimenting with forms gives us new ways to play with old ideas.

Next Monday! You are all invited to join many of the children's poetry community in celebrating a new Candlewick poetry anthology by Irene Latham and Charles Waters - IF I COULD CHOOSE A BEST DAY: POEMS OF POSSIBILITY. Register your class here at The Writing Barn to hear many poets (including me) read their IF poems aloud.

Find This Book at Bookshop.org

Thank you to Denise for hosting this week's Poetry Friday roundup over at Dare to Care. Each Friday, all are invited to share poems, poem books, poetry ideas, and friendship in this open and welcoming poetry community.

I wish you friends from near and far, friends you understand and love and who understand and love you right back. May you be such a friend to yourself.

xo,

Amy

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Writing Our Surroundings

Time for Inside Fires

Photo by Amy LV

Students - The weather is getting much colder here in Western New York where I live, and because we are having new siding put on our house, I needed to bring all of last year's leftover firewood inside. Yes, I could have piled it out under a tarp, but why do so when it will just need to come in soon anyway? And truth be told, it is cozy living among the stacks of wood. I feel like a little mouse in a storybook.

So now, surrounded by wood, I cannot help but think about wood and then trees and then forests and then questions. Today's poem came from all of this - my right-now surroundings. When you sit down to write you might choose to look around and ask, "What am I surrounded by at this very minute?" Some days for me the answer may be as simple as "messes and cat fur," and some days it might be "cookies and candles." Anything nearby or around us can offer us thoughts and questions, and in this way too, I am thinking about what I wish to surround myself with. One cannot choose everything...but one can choose some of our surroundings.

You may have noticed that this poem has a repeating line - all of this firewood. I invite you to play with repeating one line throughout a poem or a story that you write. And too, if you're not sure how to end a piece of writing, this may be because you are wondering something. If so, just end with a question as I have done today. Writing strategies and techniques belong to all of us, and we can all learn from each other. 

Matt is hosting this week's Poetry Friday roundup over at Radio, Rhythm, and Rhyme with all kinds of good publishing news. Each Friday, all are invited to share poems, poem books, poetry ideas, and friendship in this open and welcoming poetry community.

I wish you good and warm and kind surroundings. And I wish you small ways to create these for others too...

xo,

Amy

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Know that your comment will only appear after I approve it.

If you are under 13 years old, please only comment 

with a parent or as part of a group with your teacher.

A Repeating Line

Hearts

by Amy LV

Students - Today's poem is about something I am thinking about: how important it is for me - and for each of us - to be present and kind in the face of another's struggles and sorrows. We cannot do everything, but each of us can do something...every day...to bring more peace and hope to our world. We can each pay attention to the people around us, noticing if they may be hurt (inside or out) and if they might need a bit of our care.

You will see that this poem has a repeating line that turns at the end. I did not plan that. The poem made it happen. Allow your poems to lead you, young friends.

Linda is hosting the Poetry Friday roundup at A Word Edgewise with thoughtful words and a golden shovel poem about her work as a school librarian this week. Please know that all are welcome each Friday as folks share poems, poem books, poetry ideas, and friendship.

I offer my deepest respect and appreciation for all teachers and staff in schools over this past year and days. Thank you for all that you do to love, teach, and protect our students every day. For those of you heading into summer now, I offer you my love and wishes for joy and rest.

xo,

Amy

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

Building Nests, Making Metaphors

An Artist
by Amy LV

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

I received a lovely note from Musician and English Professor Gart Westerhout who "has a regular habit of doing what might be called a cold singing of poems, in other words singing the poem before even having read it." Below you can enjoy Gart, who runs a community theater ((osugimusicaltheatre.com) in Japan, singing "Robin." 

Students - Robins won't be back to Holland, NY for a while, but that doesn't keep me from thinking about them.  Around our house, trees are getting browner and browner before the world will (soon) turn white.  We'll all stay hunkered down for a many months, feeding the fire with wood and ourselves with chili and crusty bread.  And then...many months from now...we will once again see that little red chest of a hopping robin, pulling spring up from the south in her beak.

Today's poem is not about something I can see outside right now, but it is about something I can see in my heart's eye.  One of the great gifts of poetry is that through the lines of a poem, we can relive our best moments and resee our favorite people and times.  The robin may not be in our yard...but I can still keep her close.  Can you think of something that is not happening right now, maybe something from a long time ago, something you would like to hold onto?  Close your eyes and try.  You can hold that thought, that place, that person...with a poem.

You may have noticed that today's poem compares a robin to an artist.  Making a comparison in a poem like this is called a metaphor, and if you read and listen carefully, you will find metaphors everywhere.  Life and writing is made more interesting when we can learn to see things as other things, when we can tie different experiences together in magical and unexpected ways.

Did you notice the repeating line in this poem?  It just appears twice, but it's there.  

For any of you wondering about the title of "Robin," this is a case where the title gives a reader a wee bit of information than the poem.  The poem does not actually name the type of bird at all, though careful readers would probably guess from one particular clue.  Which one?

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