Sit With One Color

More and More Blueberries!

Photo by Amy LV

Students - For the past few weeks, I have picked more berries than I have ever picked! Strawberry season was not great here in Western New York due to a late frost and then short drought, but raspberries and blueberries are joyfully out of control. My small patch of raspberries usually yields a small bowl of berries, but this summer I am up to picking around 16 quarts of raspberries. Blueberries are just coming ripe now, and while we have some here, I do most of my blueberry picking at a local farm with more bushes.

Today's poem simply sits with the color blue of blueberries. Sometimes I think about how few blue foods there are. Candies, yes, but not even so many. So blueberries are indeed special bringing a sweetness to the color blue.

If you wish to write today, look around. Let your eyes fall onto a color that delights you. Allow that color to take you on a small journey of thought and wonder.

Margaret is hosting this week's Poetry Friday roundup today at Reflections on the Teche with an ode to some jam made by a friend...more berry love! 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 

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

A Snugsafe Summer Memory

Hummingbird Coming In

Photo by Amy LV

Hummingbird Landing

Photo by Amy LV

Hummingbird Perching

Photo by Amy LV

Students - We have a hummingbird feeder on our front porch, and anytime we head outside, we can hear one -- ZZZZZZZZZ!  We always hear the hummingbirds before we see them, and today I decided to try to get a picture of one. Well, hummingbirds are very fast and flitty, so I had to sit still, camera poised for quite a while before one chose to drink the new nectar I'd just poured into the feeder.

Here is a video, taken just this morning. It is of the same hummingbird you see in the pictures above. I think it is funny how it is hiding behind that feeder post! Be sure to listen as it hums away into the day at video's end.

Mary Oliver, a poet I love, once wrote a poem titled The Place I Want to Get Back To, about a lovely nature memory of deer. We all have memories we can keep and revisit during dark or lonely or sad times. Part of making a life is watching and waiting carefully to beauty and then keeping it close. I will always have this hummingbird, and now, should you wish, so will you.

Consider slowing down today. Go somewhere nature lives. Sit and watch. Be open to skies and weather, bugs and birds. Listen to wind. Tuck your own memory of wild beauty somewhere where you can find it later. Writing a poem is a joyful way to keep a magnificent sight forever.

And if you ever want to make a new word by smushing two words together, go ahead. I rather like snugsafe and somewinter.

The winners of last week's generous giveaway of SCHOOL PEOPLE by Lee Bennett Hopkins are: Cheriee, Jena, Buffy, Molly, and Linda M. (I will be in touch with you for your address.) Much gratitude to Boyds Mills & Kane for this generous giveaway of one of Lee's last anthologies.

Kat is hosting today's Poetry Friday roundup over at Kathryn Apel with two new Australian verse novels and some good news.  Please know that we gather each Friday, sharing poems and poemlove, and all are always welcome.

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.

Sticky Hands and Shirley's Poets

Sticky Hand!

by Amy LV

(I will share an audio recording of this poem when my voice comes back!)

Students - It's clear to see that this poem is simply fun to read. That's why I wrote it...to have fun in my mouth. The verse is about a feeling I have every time I roast marshmallows (I like them burned, peeling each layer off, seeing how many layers I can eat). The word 'sticky' repeats so many times because this is how I feel when I'm licking my fingers clean.

I love poems that play with sound, poems such as: "Click Beetle Clack Beetle" by Mary Ann Hoberman, "The Pickety Fence" by David McCord", "Lemons" by Patricia Hubbell, and "Yellow butter, purple jelly, red jam, black bread" by Mary Ann Hoberman.  Find these, and read them aloud with a friend!

For today's Poetry Peek, I am so happy to introduce teacher and writer Shirley Thacker from Indiana.  I had the pleasure of meeting Shirley at All Write! this year, and it is a pleasure to welcome her sharing student work here at The Poem Farm.

I love the beginning of the school: new supplies, fresh ideas, and brand new composition notebooks. . . a home to exciting stories and heartwarming poetry. No matter if it is my looping classes (Grades 1 or 2) or my Composition Comp Camps--on the first day we always decorate our new notebooks with stickers or pictures to personalize them. I use Georgia Heard's AWAKENING THE HEART to have the students make a heart and fill it with topics that they are experts at for future ideas. I use Ralph Fletcher's HOW TO WRITE YOUR LIFE STORY to make a map to record the place/time they're most familiar with. . . themselves and their surroundings.

I begin my Poetry Study in Reading Workshop 2-3 weeks before I start it in Writing Workshop. Students will have read and enjoyed lots and lots of poetry before I ask them to write any. (Some will already be ahead of the game!) One of my favorite mentor texts is PEACH AND BLUE by Sarah Kilborne. It is rich with a variety of writing craft that I use for mini lessons. I had re read the section describing the pond when we talked about imagery. Bray wrote his piece about Rock Skipping.

Rock Skipping Pond

by Bray Wilson

When you skip your rock

A magic

Overwhelms you.

It feels so good.

PLOP, Plump, SPLASH.

As it sinks

The magic seems

To leave,

But really the magic

Never leaves.

That’s when you wonder . . .

What might

Happen next??

Sometimes ideas are generated from class discussions too. After reading SOMEDAY, by Allison McGhee, students paired up to discuss their somedays . . .which led to 'I Wonder' with some of them. Kingston wrote his 'I Wonder' for Comp Camp.

Why?

by Kingston Browning

Why do birds fly? Why can’t fish cry?

Why do we walk? Why can’t dogs talk?

Why do we pass away? Why can’t we stay another day?

Why don’t we live in ice and snow? Why do fibs just grow, grow, grow?

Why is the world so big and round? Why are things lost and found?

Why isn’t every day a sunny day? Why do pets run away?

Why are bugs so small? Why can’t we fit inside a ball?

Why?

Mentor texts: ALL THE PLACES TO LOVE by Patricia MacLachlan, OH, THE PLACES YOU'LL GO! by Dr. Seuss, or Mark Teague’s HOW I SPENT MY SUMMER VACATION are all great leads to the students’s special places. Madysin wrote about her desire to go to Hershey, Pennsylvania.

Hershey, Pennsylvania

by Madisyn West

Smells like Chocolate

Light Posts with Hershey Kisses on the top

In another state

Hershey Kisses on the pillows at night

I can’t wait to go there. . .

I know I will someday

I know it smells like Chocolate,

I know it is temperate,

I know it is sweet.

I can’t wait to go there. . . .

I know I will some day

Someday . . . Someday . . .

Out to the garden to pick green beans, listen to the birds, and watch the butterflies. Summer is good!

Much gratitude to Shirley and her young poets for joining us today with these delightful poems and suggestions.

This week, I shared a writing exercise at Kate Messner's Teachers Write! Summer Camp. You can read the exercise - and stunning writing in the comments - here and read my whole DEAR STRANGER letter here if you wish.

If you have not yet peeked into Linda Baie's notebooks, you may do so at my other blog, Sharing Our Notebooks, a place to highlight notebooks and notebook keepers of all kinds.

Michelle is hosting Poetry Friday over at Today's Little Ditty.  Visit her place to find all of the poetry goodness being shared in the Kidlitosphere today.

Please share a comment below if you wish.

To find a poem by topic, click here. To find a poem by technique, click here.

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