List Your Way

Our Home Nestled in Snow

Photo by Mark LV

Students - Where we live in Western New York can be very snowy, and this week has been especially snowy. So much that there was no school yesterday or today. Sometimes I know what to write about because it surrounds my every moment - and right now snow is absolutely everywhere. Out every window, out each door...we meet poofs of snow. There is almost two feet out there right now, and the snow is over three feet deep in the town where my husband Mark teaches.

Today's poem is a list poem and a celebration poem and a poem written in quatrains, or four-line stanzas. I simply began listing things I love about snowfall and snow days and snowy mornings and then tried to gently rhyme along the way. Below you can see that there was a lot of crossing out along the way, just as there always is. I love writing by hand because the act of crossing out is part of my process.

Drafting in the Snow

Photo by Amy LV

If you are not sure what to write today or this week or anytime, try beginning with a list. Maybe list things you like about something that many people do not like. (Many people do not like snow!) You need not use everything on your list, and you need not know where it will go when you begin. Your writing mind will lead when you trust it. List your way....

Linda is hosting this week's Poetry Friday roundup over at A Word Edgewise with a playful sharing of poem mashing together, such a fun idea! Each Friday, all are invited to share poems, poem books, poetry ideas, and friendship in this open and welcoming poetry community.

This week I wish you interesting weather and interesting thoughts about that same weather.

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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Begin with "Somewhere a"

Solstice Sun Gingerbread Cookies

Photo by Amy LV

Students - Here where I live in Western New York, yesterday was our shortest day of the year - the Winter Solstice. My family celebrated with a few friends, many candles and a big bonfire, welcoming the return of the sun and thinking together about the new year ahead. Of course today I am thinking about animals, how they too may mark our longest night and this shift in light.

If you wish to take your brain on a little adventure, just write these words on the next page of your notebook:

Somewhere a

You might write it once and see what appears next. You might write it many times, each time completing the sentence with a surprise from your own heart. Then, if you wish, you might choose one of your Somewhere a ideas and let it offer you a poem.

You can learn a bit more about the Winter Solstice here at CBC Kids News.

Jone is hosting this week's Poetry Friday over at Jone Rush MacCulloch with a joyful solstice post. Each Friday, all are invited to share poems, poem books, poetry ideas, and friendship in this open and welcoming poetry community.

I wish you laughter, love, and light as we begin a new year together. See you again here on January 5, 2024!

xo,

Amy

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A New Place...A New Voice

Snow Freckles

Photo by Amy LV

Students - Here in Western New York, the weather is jumping back and forth between cold and warm, snowy and clear, dark and sunny. But I can hear Winter packing her bags, heading off to visit others. Daffodils are nudging up, and robins will all be back soon. If you do not live in a snowy place, know that we snowfolks consider the sighting of a robin as an important sign of spring. While not all robins migrate, this is still an important moment for me....first robin!

Today I offer you two ideas to consider with your own writing:

1. Write in a different place. I am not saying that we need to take vacations to write; we can simply walk a few steps in a direction away from where we usually write to find a new perspective. Try writing outside. Try writing under your desk. Try moving to a different room. New impressions, sights, sounds, and smells give us new ideas. The more we feed our senses, the more ideas we will have. Today I walked around outside and wrote a bit in the chilly air after taking the photo above and the one below.

Nudging Daffodils

Photo by Amy LV

2. Write in the voice of another. Today I share a poem in the voice of Winter. This means that I pretended to BE Winter as I wrote. I imagined which images Winter might wish to press into her suitcase, and I thought about my different senses when I did so...this is how I thought of the "cocoa breath" line, probably my favorite.

Heidi is hosting this week's Poetry Friday roundup at my juicy little universe with a whole birthday party of fabulous poems. Please know that all are welcome each Friday as folks share poems, poem books, poetry ideas, and friendship.

May you find a couple of interesting new places and voices this week. Your writing can take you anywhere.

xo,

Amy

ps - It really isn't spring here quite yet. Snow is coming back this weekend!

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For You - Giving a Box

Snow in the Country

February 1, 2023

Video by Amy LV

Students - The other day, I walked outside to the scene you see above. It was such a magical snow - fat flakes falling in the stillness. I captured the short video above, and as I walked back inside, I thought to myself, "I would like to give this scene, this snow, to someone who would love it." Later, I wrote that thought into my notebook.

The origins of a poem are somewhat mysterious. This one grew from that snowy day scene, and also from a line from a "The Uses of Sorrow" - a poem by Mary Oliver:

Someone I loved once gave me

a box full of darkness.

Then I remembered the time, many years ago, when I had a video chat with author/teacher Margaret Simon and a few of her students from Louisiana. We had lots of snow here, and as they do not know snow, I brought some inside, and in front of my screen gave them a tiny snowman.

So there it is: Outside Scene + Someone Else's Poem + A Memory = A New Poem.

This is why paying attention matters. Sometimes the littlest thing comes back to haunt you in the very best way.

If you were to fill a box with something and give it to another, inviting them to enjoy the contents...what might you fill it with? Of course the thing you choose wouldn't have to really fit into the box, and of course it doesn't have to be something you could even ever put into a box at all. But still...what might you select, from all of the everythings you can imagine?

It is possible that this thought will walk you right into the arms of a poem.

Laura is hosting this week's Poetry Friday roundup at Laura's Blog with a joyful celebration of FINDING FAMILY, the newest book by Laura Purdie Salas. Please know that all are welcome each Friday as folks share poems, poem books, poetry ideas, and friendship.

For you, I offer a box full of ideas and a box full of hope.

xo,

Amy

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A Found Object, A Few Words

Spring Memory

Photo by Amy LV

Students - Some of you may have heard about the big winter storm we had here in the Buffalo, NY area last month. My mom's neighborhood was buried snow and felt so many heavy winds that a few of her trees blew to the ground. Last weekend, my husband went and cut them down and up. In one, he found the nest you see above on our woodpile. It is woven of sticks and rootlets and even a few ribbons that Mr. Cardinal found and brought to Ms. Cardinal who did the building.

My mom remembers last spring, the cardinals flying in and out of the cedar. So quickly one season moves to the next, so quickly an old cedar is here and then only a memory. And now the nest has traveled to our home where we admire it.

I knew that I wanted to write about this cardinal nest, but how? Should I write an ode to nests? A letter from the cardinal? I finally settled on haiku, a form that asks for few words, the form where less is always and truly more. 

To put my mind and heart in the mood of this nest and genre, I read the poems in the archive of the Haiku Society of America's Haiku Award winners, in memory of Harold G. Henderson. If you ever wish to write a certain type of poem, it helps so much to first read many examples. This puts a writer in the spirit of the writing, and I believe that I would not have written today's poem without having climbed up onto the shoulders of great haiku writers through reading.

Thank you to my friend Robyn Hood Black, artist, poet, and author who inspires me with her own haiku and knowledge of this form. You can read some of her haiku thoughts and her own haiku here at her website.

Susan is hosting this week's Poetry Friday roundup at Chicken Spaghetti. (I am unable to link to this post yet, but will as soon as it is available.) Please know that all are welcome each Friday as folks share poems, poem books, poetry ideas, and friendship.

May nature offer your a surprise gift this week.

xo,

Amy

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Listening & A Poetry Peek

Woolly Bear on Wood

Photo by Amy LV

Students - I have been stacking a lot of wood for winter these days, and as I've done so, I have found three soft woolly bears tucked in the load of wood that was dumped in our yard. They are adorable, I simply love them, and I have written about them a few times here.

If you are looking for something to write this week, consider looking at and for creatures. Listen to the creature you choose. If it doesn't say anything, pretend! What might it say. What would you do?

I did tuck every one of those three woolly bears into my gorgeous, freshly-stacked pile. We're all ready for the big Western New York snows now.

You can learn more about woolly bear caterpillars here in The Westborough News "Nature Notes" column written by Annie Reid.

Today is such a special day here! It is the first Poetry Peek in a long time, and I could not feel more excited and grateful to welcome these fourth grade poets -  and their teachers Ms. Lewis and Ms. Miner - from Tioughnioga Riverside Academy in Whitney Point, NY.  These students are regular celebrators of Poetry Friday and are like old friends here at The Poem Farm. Ms. Miner and I have known each other for a long time, and we were reconnected by student poet Maykayla who shared her beautifu list poem "Blue" with me back in November. 

In the slideshow below, you will have the opportunity to read twenty poems, each with a note from the poet about where they found inspiration. I have not spoken with these poets about their process, but reading their words, it is easy to see that they have studied line breaks, careful word selection, repetition, comparisons (similes and metaphors) and solid endings. What do you notice when reading? What will ou learn from them?

As I read each poem and looked carefully at each joyful, thoughtful illustration, I felt as if I got to take twenty small vacations, right from my desk, kittens by my side.

Thank you, poets from Whitney Point! Thank you, Makayla! Today we celebrate you!

And reader friends, please enjoy these poems, a poetry anthology on your screen...

To enlarge the presentation, simply click the three dots at the bottom of it, and select ENTER FULL SCREEN.

Jone is hosting today's Poetry Friday roundup at Jone Rush MacCulloch with a double golden shovel poem, a gift poem, and a call for folks to join the Winter Poem Swap. Please know that all are welcome each Friday as folks share poems, poem books, poetry ideas, and friendship.

I wish you a warm and woolly week ahead!

xo,

Amy

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Bring Personification to Nature

 

Students - You may have heard the word personification before. And you may have noticed that it holds the word person inside of it. Well, personification is the giving of human qualities to things that are not human, including animals, plants, and inanimate objects.

Today I was excited to see the new snow on the ground. I knew that I would go outside to admire the dustings of powdered sugar everywhere. But before I walked into the yard in my slippers and nightgown, I read a few poems, including one by Laura Purdie Salas. In "Ode to Bare Branches," the speaker says that they want to be like a tree, to "open my arms/drop everything/and just stand there."

Perhaps her words drew me to the little oak you see in the photo above, clinging tight to its orange in this world of white. And listening to Oak's brittle leaves tinkling like windchimes, I imagined that she just doesn't feel ready to let her leaves go yet. And that is ok. We each know the right time, OUR right time.

Now, does a tree think like a person does? I don't think so. But I gave the tree the quality of human thinking, and this is personification.

Try it. Go outside or if you cannot do so now, look out of a window or gaze at some nature photographs. Choose a natural object and ask yourself, "If this were a person, what might it think/do/wonder/believe/fear/wish? Let your poem start there.

As for the title, did you notice that the last line leads you to the title?

"then we always know/The Right Time."

There are many ways to title a piece. When you write your next piece, try out a few titles. You do not need to choose the first title that comes to your mind.

And of course this letting go is not only about leaves and oaks and melting snowflakes. Yesterday was Thanksgiving, and as our family has lost two beloved grandfathers within the past many months, we deeply felt their loss at our table, just as we do each day. We are letting parts of them go, and yet we hold onto, will always hold onto so much.

I wish you the knowing.

Snowy Slipper Toes

Photo by Amy LV

Ruth is hosting today's Poetry Friday roundup at There is no such thing as a God-forsaken town with a Gratiku (gratitude haiku), a thoughtful ode to "Ode to Autumn in Haiti, 2021 and a bit of thinking about odes. Please know that all are welcome each Friday as folks share poems, poem books, poetry ideas, and friendship.

xo,

Amy

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Winter Triolet

Candle

Photo by Amy LV

Students - I adore candles. I love looking into a flame and thinking about the past and the now and the future. I like to play with the wax of a candle and to watch a flame flicker with a breeze or my breath. I am grateful for the tiny bit of warmth that one candle can offer. In these dark days of Western New York winter, candlelight is a gift of hope, and today I try to honor this gift with a few words.

What gives you hope? Might you write about it for the first time or again?

Today's poem is a special kind of poem called a triolet. You will note that it has 8 lines and lots of repetition. In a triolet, lines 1, 4, and 7 are the same. Lines 2 and 8 are the same. And the rhyme scheme goes like this: A B a A a b A B. In poetry language, this means that lines 1, 3, 4, 5, and 7 end with the same rhyming sound as do lines 6 and 8. Notice the matching capital letters for the lines which match each other.

I like writing poems with strict forms sometimes because such writing forces my hand. This means that I have to work with what is given: number of lines, repetition, rhyme patterns. I have fewer choices to make and will often make interesting choices based on the constraint. For me, choice works like Goldilocks and her porridge: I don't like too much, and I don't like too little either. 

A triolet felt just right today, partly because no one made me do it. Rather, I read a triolet by my friend, Author and Poet Laura Shovan the other day. I believe that her fine writing placed this form firmly in my head.

And yes, I did write these in the middle of the night.  I finished it at 3:53am today.

Clock

Screenshot by Amy LV

Writing Longhand in Bed

(Gotta find my notebook!)

Photo by Amy LV

As we begin our stride into a new year, I wish each one of you beautiful days of light balancing darkness and hope balancing despair. Our world is full of both, and small bits of light shine brightly, whether they are candles or people. You are lights for me, and I am grateful.

Buffy is hosting this week's Poetry Friday roundup at at Buffy's Blog with a fabulous review of a Liz Garton Scanlon's new beautiful book, ONE DARK BIRD, illustrated by Frann Preston-Gannon. 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 every week.

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A Poem for the Winter Solstice

Warm Wool and a Window Star
Photo (Woolens and Star Too) by Amy LV

Students - Today's poem is an occasion poem...I wrote it for the occasion of the winter solstice which is today!  Today marks the first day of winter and the shortest day of the year.  After tonight at 5:23pm, our days in the Northern Hemisphere will each grow a bit longer.  Can you feel it?

My poem today is not in a special form, and it does not rhyme.  To make it a poem, I did a few things.  You will note the line breaks, some lines holding only one word each.  These line breaks changed many times.  And I read the poem over and over again for rhythm and to select and reselect the very just-right words I needed.  You might notice some repeated sounds.  I love free verse poems, and I plan to write more of them in 2019 as they help me focus more carefully on techniques other than perfect rhyme and counted rhythm.

One line that I may come back to from this poem is you will find me.  I might write a poem saying, Next year/you will find me or Someday/you will find me...  You are welcome to borrow or adapt this line if you like it. I often borrow lines from poems I like.

If you wish, you may learn more about the winter solstice at Wonderopolis.  Who knows...we may be standing outside in our colorful woolens at the same time tonight.  There will be a full moon and a meteor shower too, so it's a big night.

Buffy is hosting this week's Poetry Friday roundup at Buffy's Blog with a bit more about the winter solstice and a lovely book recommendation. This community is here and sharing poems and poemlove every Poetry Friday, and everyone is invited to visit, comment, and post.  And if you have a blog, we welcome you to link right in!

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Walk, Discover, Write, Repeat

Close Up of Tracks

Photo by Amy LV

Students - Lately, my husband and I have been alternating taking walks on our quiet road with walks through our empty pasture.  We once had sheep in that pasture, but now it is a place for us to let our dogs run as we hike around and through the field. Along the one edge of the field, we have a few bluebird boxes mounted on fence posts.  It's so wonderful to see the bluebirds flitting around in summer, and on Wednesday, I noticed the tracks at the base of this post.

Bluebird Box on Post

Photo by Amy LV

Mark-my-husband-the-science-teacher-and-naturalist told me that these are mouse tracks leading right up to the post, that mice have clearly scampered up the post and into the hole to live for winter.

Here's a close up of the bluebird box.  Can you see how a mouse might skitter right up that rough back, holding on with his or her toenails, and into the hole or the place where the box is coming apart?

Close Up of Bluebird Box

Photo by Amy LV

And here, just a few fence posts away, is another box with no tracks at the base at all. I wonder if that's because this box is not coming apart?

Empty Winter Home

Photo by Amy LV

When I learned that mice sometimes spend their winters in bluebird summer homes, I became so excited and happy and ran to the house to get my camera to take these pictures.  I thought, "Oh, this would be an adorable picture book."  I had lots of fun beginning to imagine the pages in my mind, planning what I would write.

But.

But then I did a bit of research here at Sialis, "a resource for people interested in helping bluebirds and other native cavity-nesters survive and thrive."  And as I read, I learned.  I learned that it is not healthy for mice to winter in bluebird houses.  Mice carry a disease that can be harmful to bluebirds, and it is also not a good idea to get mice used to living in a bluebird house.  One wouldn't want to have a bluebird and a mouse competing for the same house or to have a bluebird reject a house because mice were already there.

So that was the end of my picture book idea.  And I was a little bit sad.  But I was a little bit happy too, because I learned that we can clean out our bluebird boxes, take off the roofs next winter, and help those birds even more.  But a part of me wants to build small mouse houses too!

You can see some pictures of mice inside of bluebird houses HERE.  For even though I wanted to open ours up to check on who's inside, I did not want to disturb the mice.

Here are the writing lessons from this whole story:

• Go for walks - we can find all kinds of interesting curiosities on walks.
• When you make interesting discoveries, take pictures so that you can think about them later.
• Research.
• Be willing to let go of ideas you like if you learn they are somehow unsound or could cause confusion.  There is a saying in writing - "Kill your darlings."  This means that a writer needs to let go of favorite bits sometimes.  It's hard to do it, but it will often make our writing stronger.  Writers need to be brave.
• Add mystery to a poem.  In my first draft, I indicated that the tracks were "mouse footprints" right away.  But in a later draft, I changed it so that the reader be surprised at the end. This was what I call revision to add mystery!

Writing is always here to teach us.  We may not like what we learn at first, and we may not learn what we expect, but that's why I keep coming back.

Over at Sharing Our Notebooks, I'm thrilled to start 2016 by welcoming wonderful science writer Melissa Stewart and her notebooks.  Please mosey on over and take a peek behind the scenes at her wonderful writing.  And if you're curious about who won the wonderful giveaway from Tanny McGregor, don't miss that announcement.

It's Poetry Friday, and this week's roundup is beautifully held by Tabatha over at The Opposite of Indifference.  Over at her place, you can read today's beautiful poem, explore a fabulous blog, and you can also find links to all kinds of poetry goodness going on this week.

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