Find Words for a Feeling

Sage 12 Years Ago

Photo by Amy LV

Sage Last Month

(See the white fur heart on her head?)

Photo by Michael V.

Students - On Tuesday, we said goodbye to Sage, our soft, joyful, and funny half Border Collie/half Great Pyrenees friend of twelve years. We met her in the sheep barn of the Wyoming County Fair long ago, and she brightened our days with her love and her antics ever since.

The feeling in this poem is not one I alone feel. Often when we lose a loved one - human or animal - we find ourselves wishing for that person or animal, for company, for comfort, for solace. but we must find this company, comfort, and solace in other ways and places. Carrying grief can be like carrying a backpack full of heavy, cold stones, and sometimes writing and art can help.

Writing-wise, just two notes on this poem:

Line 4 could easily have been combined with line 3. I chose to separate them in order to create space, to give a reader time to process why the girl could not bury her face in her dog's soft ears today. The realization of not being able to so deserves a line of its own.

And the title. I could only have written this title after writing the whole poem. Know that you need not choose a title first. You may wish to, but be open to title revisions after your poem is complete. The title may sneak up on you.

Here is a 2014 poem I wrote about Sage all about how she had so much fur that when you brushed her, it felt like you could make a new dog!

Fly high, Softie Ears Sage. May you join all of the loved humans and pets that have gone before you. And may we meet again.

Mary Lee is hosting this week's Poetry Friday roundup today at A(nother Year of Reading) with a gorgeous poem about natural neighbors and an in-process embroidery piece. Each Friday, all are invited to share poems, poem books, poetry ideas, and friendship in this open and welcoming poetry community.

xo,

Amy

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Do They Know? One Sentence Poems

VanDerCamp in the Adirondacks

Photo by Amy LV

 

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

Students - Today's poem is a concrete poem.  It is in the shape of a short, fat pine tree.  It did not, however, start out as a concrete poem.  For today's post, I rummaged around in my digital files for a poem to share.  (I looked the same way I do when rummaging around the refrigerator for something to eat!)  The poem I found was this one -

Dew

When pines shake out their hair to dry
I wonder if they realize
What a pretty sound it makes
when water falls on tents and lakes.

- ALV

When I retyped the poem, I made two changes.  One change was a line break/shape change.  I started shifting lines around and decided...."Hmmm, maybe this would look cute as a tree!"  I liked it.

Then I reconsidered the title.  I always like imagining trees and rocks and natural things as having thoughts of their own, so I added to the personification of this poem by making the title a question, about trees and their self-knowledge.

This is just a one sentence poem, a shortie.  Could I add more?  Yes.  But for this one, I just want to say one thing, make one small observation and stay right inside of that observation.

Save.  Save.  Save.  That's some of my best advice for writers. Recycling bits of thought and poem allows you to see who you used to be and bump that up against who you now are.  It was a joy for me to find this scrap, to remember trees from my past and to still wonder if they know their own loveliness.

Last week, I shared my collaboration with Diane Mayr in Spark 18 here and here.  This week, over at Diane's blog, Random Noodling, you can see behind the scenes of how she created one of her great layered pieces.  I think it is fascinating to read these process posts, and I feel very grateful to have been paired with Poetry Friday regular Diane on this round!

This week it is a treat to have author Kate Messner visiting Sharing Our Notebooks.  If you are notebook keeper, you will want to visit here to peek inside her notebooks.  If you are a teacher and your class keeps notebooks, this site is growing to be quite full and useful!

Laura Purdie Salas is hosting today's Poetry Friday at Writing the World for Kids!  Head on over to her place for the round up and enjoy the poem-festivities!

About next week...right now I am on the schedule to host.  But I have traded with Betsy Hubbard.  So if you  keep the calendar in your sidebar, please note that change. Poetry Friday on October 12 at Teaching Young Writers with Betsy Hubbard, and I will host here at The Poem Farm on November 30.

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