Greetings to you dear and funny Poetry Friends! Welcome to the sixth of ten poetry visits here at The Poem Farm. In each of these short videos, I will share a small something about poetry, and you will always be able to find the poem(s) I read below the video. If you wish, you may watch the earlier videos linked below:
Please make yourself comfy for Visit 6: Give it Space.
Students - Line breaks and stanzas create the space in our poems. They are the air our poems need to breathe. See, to not make space inside of a poem is to stuff the poem into an airless jar, and we do not want our poems to live inside of airless jars.
Pinecone Treasures
Photo by Amy LV
You may have noticed that I played even more with the line breaks - and the words - of this poem between recording the video and typing it up here. I decided to break this poem into two stanzas...one about the pinecones without the boy and one about the boy and his pinecone plans.
Below you can see some of my drafting for this poem. Messy, isn't it? Real work often is, so please do not worry about neatnes in your first drafts. Allow the messy thinking part of writing to be part of your work.
Now, notice the slashes. Those idicate where I chose to break my lines. If you ever write a poem that looks like a paragraph, or if you do not like the line breaks you first choose, know that you can change them. Simply draw slash marks to show where you will move to new lines in your recopy/typing of the work.
Some Messy Pinecone Drafting
Photo by Amy LV
Here again, as in the video, you can see thre ways I considered breaking up that first sentence of the poem. You may have made choices than I did with these words, and this is one part of what makes writing interesting: we each do it our own way based on who we are.
A Few Line Break Possibilities
Photo by Amy LV
Consider breaking a line (going to a new line) in your poem if:
You wish for your readers to pause for a moment
You wrote line you wish to repeat exactly the same way
A new voice is speaking
You want the words and motion of your poem to match each other
One line - or word - is very important, deserving of its own line
If you wish for a greater pause or to show a more important change or shift as I did in today's poem, you might move to to a new stanza to help your readers feel this change as they read.
The space in a poem matters. As you write a poem, say this to yourself: Give it space.
Margaret is hosting this week's Poetry Friday over at Reflections on the Teche with two poems that span the human experience from love to grief. Each Friday, all are invited to share poems, poem books, poetry ideas, and friendship in this open and welcoming poetry community.
I wish you - and your poems - the healthy beauty of space in the week ahead.
xo,
Amy
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If you are under 13 years old, please only comment
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Hello, Poetry Friends, and welcome to the third of ten little poetry visits starting off the New Year at The Poem Farm. In each of these short videos, I will share a small something about poetry, and you will always be able to find the poem(s) I read below the video. You can find the earlier videos linked below and you may wish to watch those first:
Students - Just as animals often wear patterns on their fur, feathers, and fins, poems often wear patterns in the way their lines are organized. As readers and writers, we can notice and admire the patterns of others' poems and try these out for ourselves. Below you can look at the lines of the three free verse poems that I read in the video above.
In Year After Year, the first six lines go back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. You can see that the south lines are represented by white Legos and the north lines represented by blue Legos. The last line of the poem breaks the pattern, and this change is represented by a red Lego.
In Two Kitties, the first four lines tell about Winnie and are represented by green Legos. The second four lines tell about Claude and are represented by gray Legos. The ending, revealing a way that Winnie and Claude are alike, twists and breaks the pattern and is thus represented by a red Lego. (Yes indeed, I could have used two Legos to represent these two lines!)
In Why I Don't to Finish My Book, each of the first seven lines of the poem list something that the writer WON'T do once they finish reading their current book. These lines are each represented by one yellow Lego. The last line tells something the speaker WILL likely do when they are finished with the book - feel lonely. This change, twist, break in the pattern is once again represented by a red Lego.
While I chose to use a red Lego in each of these examples to show how the endings break the pattern set up in these poems, I could have chosen a different color to show this break. If you choose to draw or form models of the patterns you notice in poems you read or in poems you write, of course you should choose any colors you wish.
If you are looking for an interesting exercise to try, find a patterned poem in a book and play with drawing colorful Legos to show how the pattern works. You might do this with a friend. Then, you might try to write your own poem that follows the same pattern. The more we read and discover...the more writing ideas we have for ourselves. Reading is an endless river of clear and brilliant gifts. We simply need to dip our hands into the water.
Thank you to our son Henry, for sharing his Legos with me for this visit.
Educator Friends: I would love to hear if you are writing along with me during this series. Please comment below, email me at the contact button above, or tag me on social media if you wish to share.
Robyn is hosting this week's Poetry Friday over at Life on the Deckle Edge with a joyful and poetic tea party.Each Friday, all are invited to share poems, poem books, poetry ideas, and friendship in this open and welcoming poetry community.
All joy to you in reading and writing and living...
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.
