Showing posts with label poetry friday. Show all posts
Showing posts with label poetry friday. Show all posts

Friday, September 8, 2023

Give Some (Writing?) Advice


Hello friends! I am the grateful host of this Poetry Friday. Please scroll to the bottom of this post to visit all of the different people sharing poems and poemlove and fellowship today.

A Few Stones
Photo by Amy LV

In many places, it is the start of a new school year, and as I believe that writing poetry is a fabulous way to begin a new year and a beautiful way to get to know people, this poem is for all of you new poem writers.



Students - If you are in a place that is just starting school, happy new school year! If you have been in school for a while, happy day just the same! Today I am thinking about beginnings and doing new things, including making new kinds of writing. Each time I take too much time off or place too much distance between me and writing, it feels new again. This is good...and also difficult. For me, it is often trickier to start something new than it is to keep going with something already on the move. So writing regularly can be one helpful secret for writers. Then, the approaching-the-page feeling is simply I'm back! rather than What do I do again?

Today's little poem compares writing to a different activity I love - collecting stones. Truth be told, I also love collecting shells, buttons, pinecones, sea glass, yarn, flowers, old handkerchiefs, and of course words. I do believe that writing a poem is a lot like collecting little treasures and making patterns with them. And while I sometimes get nervous about writing or feel like there is a bag of tricks I do not know, the truth is that writing is collecting and arranging, standing back and rearranging. Writing is making time for the glory of words in all of their shapes and sizes. Writing is a way to figure out what we think and to think about what what we wish to figure out. It is not a mystery, and each of us can do it. But we need to eat. We need to rest. We need to not always be on the go-go-go. Pausing is part of writing. Allow yourself to look out the window, to look down at the pavement and to see the flat stone that is looking up at you. Eat.

What will you write this week? Perhaps you, too, will write a poem with a tip or a thought about writing as I did here. Maybe you, too, will think of an interesting "Did you ever...? question to begin a poem. Such an open-ended start could take you into the world of real or into the world of pretend. You may even choose to write a poem with a You Asked... title. Sometimes beginning with any old title gets a writer going, and you one always change a title later once the draft is on its way. Maybe you will compare one thing to a different thing as I have compared picking up and arranging stones to picking up and arranging words. We all learn from each other. If I could read your writing right now, I would learn from you.

Bloggers - I invite you to add your posts for Poetry Friday below. And if you're new to Poetry Friday, just click the blue button, and you will be able to visit other blogs and add your own if you wish!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

I leave you with good thoughts about trying new things and sticking with habits that help you be your favorite you.

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.

Friday, July 9, 2021

What Did You Find?


Hello again, my dear friends. I have been away for a long time, and I am grateful to return. I know that this community of generous writers and sharers has been here all along, making the world kinder and wiser through words, and it feels good to be back. I rejoin today with a poem about finding things and feelings.

Robin Eggs
Photo by Mark VanDerwater



 
Students - As is often the case, when I began to write today's poem, I did not know what I would write about. I waited. (The ideas do come, you know. They sneak up on you.) When I look back, however, I understand that this poem grew from gathered images I have held without realizing. Earlier this spring, my friend Christian told me stories about the robin family living in her garage. Later this spring, I found half of a robin egg at a park. Earlier this week, my husband shared the above photo with me, taken outside of his parents' garage. 

Summer is fantastic for finding, and you can always write a poem about something you find. If you would like to write a poem similar to this one, just write two stanzas: the first stanza describing what you found and the second stanza telling your feelings and emotions around it.

Margaret is hosting today's Poetry Friday roundup over at Reflections on the Teche with an original list poem titled "Eight Reasons to Take a Walk on a Sunday Morning." All are welcome each Friday as folks share poems, poem books, poetry ideas, and friendship. 

I wish you joy!
xo,
Amy

Please share a comment below if you wish. 

Friday, April 10, 2020

10 - Poems Can Ask Questions

Last week's winner of  my book POEMS ARE TEACHERS is....Janet F.!
(Please send me an e-mail to amy at amylv dot com with your snail mail address.)
Thank you, Heinemann!


Happy National Poetry Month, and welcome to Poetry Friday, our little community's way of sharing poetry. Anyone may join this little community at any time. At the bottom of this post, you can learn more...and you can find the roundup with all kinds of links to poetry, poem ideas, books, and more.

Welcome to my 2020 National Poetry Month Project
See My Last 10 Poetry Projects HERE

Each day of April 2020, I will share three things:
  • A dice roll of three word dice
  • A video explaining one poetic technique titled POEMS CAN... You can also find these at Sharing Our Notebooks as part of my ongoing Keeping a Notebook project
  • A poem inspired by one or more of the dice words and the technique

Here are All of This Month's Poems:

And now, for today's words! 

Day 10 Words
Photo by Amy LV





Thank you to Heinemann for giving away a copy of my book POEMS ARE TEACHERS: HOW STUDYING POETRY STRENGTHENS WRITING IN ALL GENRES each week of April. I will draw names from the previous week each Thursday evening at 11:59pm, and I will announce a winner each Friday. Please leave a way to contact you in your comment as if I cannot contact you easily, I will choose a different name. This week's winner is named atop the post.


If you would like to learn more about other National Poetry Month projects happening throughout the Kidlitosphere, Jama has rounded up many NPM happenings over at Jama's Alphabet Soup.  Happy National Poetry Month 2020.

I am hosting Poetry Friday today. If you have a link to leave...please do. If you are new here, please check out all of the wonderful offerings of so many poetry lovers by clicking the blue button below.

xo,
Amy

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!
Click here to enter
Little Mouse is a Wonderer
Photo by Amy LV

Please share a comment below if you wish.day 

Friday, March 20, 2020

Outside My Window


Dear Poetry Friends,

For the foreseeable future, I will crosspost on Fridays, here and at Sharing Our Notebooks, where I have been sharing - and will continue to share - a daily notebooking talk. (Today is Day 5.) Instead of writing about my poem in a blog post as is usual on Fridays, I will include that day's video talk from Sharing Our Notebooks.

If you are new to visiting The Poem Farm, I welcome you to poke around. There are all kinds of things to try.

Fridays are for Poetry...in both of my online homes.

Take walks. Be good to yourself. I care about you.

xo, 
Amy

ps - I had a book come out this week. It is titled WRITE! WRITE! WRITE!, and it was edited by the fabulous Rebecca Davis, illustrated by the amazing Ryan O'Rourke, and published by Boyds Mills Kane. You can see the trailer and learn more about it HERE if you wish. Check out my sidebar for an adorable butterfly pencil template made by Ryan.

Betsy the Writing Camper
Photo by Amy LV





Michelle is hosting this week's Poetry Friday roundup at Michelle Kogan with some bright poems about spring. 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 each week of the year.

Please share a comment below if you wish.

Friday, April 19, 2019

Poetry Friday

THE POETRY FRIDAY ROUNDUP IS HERE.

Join Us!

If you would like to learn more about other National Poetry Month projects happening throughout the Kidlitosphere, Jama has rounded up many NPM happenings over at Jama's Alphabet Soup.  Happy continued National Poetry Month 2019!

If you are here to link in for Poetry Friday...please do so below.  And if you've never joined us for Poetry Friday before, please know that you are always invited.  Each week, a different blogger hosts a roundup of posts...and all are invited to visit and link in if you wish.  Today is my turn, so if you click below, you will be transported to a list of many poetry places to visit around the Kidlitosphere today and beyond.
You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!
Click here to enter
See you tomorrow!

xo,
Amy

Please share a comment below if you wish.

Friday, September 14, 2018

A Poetry Friday Quiet Boat



Quiet Boat Eraser Stamp
Photo by Amy LV




Students - This week I have been very lucky to visit three schools in Williamsville, NY.  Next week, I will be lucky to visit three more.  And as I have been chatting with students about poetry, I am remembering again and again how vast and endless is the brain.

Inside of you - inside each and every one of us - live worlds and ideas and hopes and dreams and questions.  When you sit to write and draw, it may take a moment to call one up.  But trust yourself.  Wait.  You will think of something.  Often, I look at a blank page for some time. But always, an idea appears...like a boat.  It is not always a great idea, but it's mine. 

And remember this too: the more interesting things you do, the more you will have to write about.  I am not referring to fancy things, but rather a variety of things.  Today I may sit outside for a few moments and watch ants walk around. Or maybe I will draw the pictures up in the sky, wondering if anyone else sees the same penguin I see.  What I do affects what I write.  And so it is for you.

So do stuff.  And when you do, you'll have more boats and ants and clouds to write about later.

See that repetition?  It's neat to circle words around and around in a poem.  Such repeated words layer like cozy sweaters.

Big hug.

Teacher Friends - Some of you may know Pat Schneider's poem, How the Stars Came Down.  This poem includes this line, one I may well have shared before: "I had a new home in my remembering." I am over and over fascinated by this idea that what we put in our minds returns to us.  I remember it as a mom and as a teacher, asking myself, "What experiences of value am I offering that will feed this child again and again? What am I offering to myself that I can return to one day hence?"

I am hosting Poetry Friday today.  This is a weekly gathering of all kinds of poetry goodness, shared all around the Kidlitosphere.  All are welcome, and all are invited.  To visit this week's links, or to leave your own link, please just click the button below.

Please share a comment below if you wish.


Friday, September 22, 2017

Poetry Friday & Falling in Love with Meter

POETRY FRIDAY IS HERE! 
WELCOME!


Two Pen Cases
Photo by Amy LV




Students -  I fell in love with a meter last week.  Yep, I did.  I was home, just reading in this book...

Frost Collection
Photo by Amy LV

...and I came across this poem, Asking for Roses, by Robert Frost.  I read it quietly.  And then I read it out loud, just listening to the rolling rhythm. I loved the story, but I really loved the meter.

Asking for Roses - in the Public Domain
(Click to Enlarge)
Photo by Amy LV

And while I was at it, I fell in love with the rhyme scheme too.  I thought it was so NEAT that the word roses ended every single one of the six stanzas.  And that there were six rhymes for the word roses, each ending the second line of each stanza.  I took some notes about Frost's rhymes.

Frost's Rhymes
(Click to Enlarge)
Photo by Amy LV

Then I decided to try my hand at Frost's lovable meter, choosing first my six-times repeated word (writing!) and its associated rhymes.  I needed seven words that rhymed...seven words that could make sense together.  I visited RhymeZone to scout out rhymes, selecting the ones you see on my notebook page below. Honestly, at first, I did not think that the words below would work.  I worried that they would not sound forced.  But I pushed on.

Possible Rhymes
(Click to Enlarge)
Photo by Amy LV

I kept trying, kept writing, kept scribbling.  Below you can see that my writing process really does require significant crossing out, something I find much more comfortable with pen on paper.  Initial drafts for me need some serious black-pen-scribbling.

Poemscribbles
(Click to Enlarge)
Photo by Amy LV

As always, I read and listened, read and listened until I liked how the poem sounded.  Then I took it to my keyboard and continued revising a word here, a word there, over the course of a week.  And I am pretty happy.  My poem's meter learned from another poem's meter.  And I learned too.

It is true that you, too, can fall in love with a poem and a meter, just as I did with Frost's Asking for Roses.  I share a poem about this on the back cover of my new READ! READ! READ! (Wordsong), illustrated by Ryan O'Rourke, and released just this past Tuesday.

Back Cover Snip of READ! READ! READ!

Read poems aloud often.  And talk about the different meters you admire with your writing friends. Experimenting with meter is a wondrous way to challenge ourselves.  Allow yourself to breathe in a meter you've never breathed in before, and you may just be surprised by the words that follow!

I am so happy to welcome author Caroline Starr Rose to my other blog, Sharing Our Notebooks this month. Please stop by to read her notebook poem, to peek into her notebooks, and to enter her book giveaway! And know...I seek student notebook sharers over there...please consider sharing!

It's my pleasure to host the Poetry Friday roundup here today.  If you wish to share the link to your poetry post, please do so below at the Inlinkz Link-Up, and I will be around to comment today and throughout the weekend.  

All visitors - we welcome everyone to this poemgathering every single week.  Anyone may read.  Anyone may comment.  Anyone may link in!  Happy Poetry Week ahead!

xo,
Amy


Please share a comment below if you wish.

Thursday, September 8, 2016

Poetry Friday, Connecting Poems, and YOU JUST WAIT

Happy Poetry Friday!  
I am hosting today, and I welcome you!


Soccer Stuff
Photo by Amy LV

from YOU JUST WAIT
and 
THE POETRY FRIDAY ANTHOLOGY FOR MIDDLE SCHOOL
Both Books Created and Edited by Sylvia Vardell and Janet Wong



Students - Many of us have been new before: to a school, to a neighborhood or family or team or friend group.  And while being new is exciting, it can also be a little bit scary.  Today's poem is from a brand new book I'm celebrating for Poetry Friday today. The title of the book is YOU JUST WAIT, and it was created by Janet Wong and Sylvia Vardell.  I was honored that they chose this poem of mine (from THE POETRY ANTHOLOGY FOR MIDDLE SCHOOL) to be part of the story.

YOU JUST WAIT is different from most other books as it threads together poems by many poets to make one complete story. And interspersed between the poems are various writing exercises to try out yourself.

This is a neat idea, this taking poems by many people, writing some new ones, and stitching them together to make a new and complete whole.  Poems that never knew each other before are now woven together into a book, telling a story.  You could try this too - tie connections between others' poems that have never been connected before, and write some of your own new poems to fill in between the cracks.  It's like a verse novel marrying an anthology marrying a book of writing ideas!

Many of you may know about the Poetry Friday Anthology Series, published by Pomelo Books, and today I am happy to welcome creators and editors Janet Wong and Sylvia Vardell to The Poem Farm.

Sylvia and Janet Hugging some Poetry Friday Anthologies
Photo by Emily Vardell

While YOU JUST WAIT - Pomelo's latest book - is for reading...it is also for writing.  Janet joins us today to share thoughts about this newest book.  And she is also offering five copies to one winner who comments on today's post. Welcome, Janet...take it away!


We wanted to try something really different with YOU JUST WAIT: A POETRY FRIDAY POWER BOOK. Last spring I revisited a great post on Lee Bennett Hopkins by Renée M. LaTulippe at her No Water River blog and was reminded by how Lee has always pushed for something new and original with each book. 

For instance, his HarperCollins I Can Read Books were groundbreaking in the way they used quality literature as instructional text. Lee was also one of the first to combine nonfiction informational text with poetry—now a standard element in poetry books with a social studies or science connection. 

With YOU JUST WAIT and hopefully with forthcoming books in a Poetry Friday Power Book series, we’re also happy to defy categorization. YOU JUST WAIT is a verse novel made for tweens and teens, yes. But it is also a journal for young writers. And a creativity book that encourages kids to doodle and explore their thoughts on life. And a book on poetry instruction, with mentor texts for teachers. All that, rolled into one.

(from page 7 of YOU JUST WAIT):  This book offers you several choices for reading, thinking, writing, and responding. Overall, it’s a story in poems, but all of this is also organized in PowerPack groups that help you get a “behind the scenes” look at how poems work and how poets write and think. In each of these PowerPack groups, you’ll find five things:
PowerPlay activity
Outside poem (from another poetry book)
Response poem 
Mentor text 
Power2You poem writing prompt


Below, you can take a look at Powerpack10 from the book.  Each Powerpack is organized in the same way, with these same five sections.


(Please click to enlarge any images that are too small for you to read.)

From YOU JUST WAIT
Created and Edited by Janet Wong and Sylvia Vardell

From YOU JUST WAIT
Created and Edited by Janet Wong and Sylvia Vardell


From YOU JUST WAIT
Created and Edited by Janet Wong and Sylvia Vardell

From YOU JUST WAIT
Created and Edited by Janet Wong and Sylvia Vardell

From YOU JUST WAIT
Created and Edited by Janet Wong and Sylvia Vardell

From YOU JUST WAIT
Created and Edited by Janet Wong and Sylvia Vardell

What do I want kids to do with the book? I say: “You can write in your book, draw in it, follow the writing prompts to write poems, whatever you want. The book is YOURS.  My hope is that kids will really enjoy taking ownership of their books. I want the books to look ragged and well-worn 12 weeks after students receive them. (There are 12 PowerPacks in the book.) 

It is a treat to offer not one or two or three or four, but five copies of YOU JUST WAIT to one commenter on this post, enough for a little group to have a lot of fun with this latest addition to the Poetry Friday Anthology Series.  Please simply leave a comment on this post by next Thursday, September 15, to be entered into the drawing.  I will announce the winner next Poetry Friday, September 16.  Thank you to Janet and Sylvia for such generosity.  If you win, you'll have five of the first copies...hot off the press.

If you would like to read more about YOU JUST WAIT, Sylvia Vardell is celebrating this book birthday over at Poetry for Children!

If you have a link you'd like to share for this week's Poetry Friday roundup, please do so below!  I will be out and about commenting through the early part of next week as I'm off on a road trip to Vermont.  It's my sweet nephew Luke's first birthday!  xo





Please share a comment below if you wish.

Friday, June 10, 2016

Taking Classes, Appreciating Now, Sitting...


Front Porch View
Photo by Amy LV




Students - Last weekend our family went on our annual trip as part of the Allegheny Nature Pilgrimage.  One of the classes I took was a writing class with Karen Lee Lewis of The Blue Plate Studio.  This was a thoughtful and inspiring class, and as part of it, Karen read us some beautiful ecopoetry and gave us time to write creatively about birds.  I loved hearing others' writing, and during my writing time, I worked on the poem above.

Karen read from and recommended this book, it is now on my to-read list.  


Taking a class from a great writing teacher gave me new things to think about and pushed me in new ways. I loved being a student, sitting surrounded by colorful paint chips, wise words on chart paper, and the sounds of pencils working on novels, newspaper articles, poems, memories...all about birds.

Today I leave you with three summer thoughts:

1.  Take a summer writing class if you can.  Even for one day, even with a friend your age who has one new writing idea to share with you.  Let another's writing advice push you.

2.  Appreciate something small and daily.  Let this small daily thing move you to write.  Perhaps think about birds, as I did in my class with Karen.

3. Sit.  Make time for sitting and paying attention this summer.  There are so many cool activities to join, but leave time for sitting.  Space is good for all of us and for our writing too.

If you missed Tuesday's post here at The Poem Farm, please visit and leave a comment for the third grade writers from Heather Sass's class in Webster, NY.  You'll be treated to a joyous collection of poems celebrating bodies, inspired by two books: LOVE THAT DOG by Sharon Creech and THE BEST PART OF ME  by Wendy Ewald.

Over at Sharing Our Notebooks, I am so happy to host teacher Katie Liseo and her adventurous student notebookers with a very inspiring post and giveaway of Aimee Buckner's NOTEBOOK KNOW-HOW. You have two days left to comment and enter that giveaway, as I am drawing a name on Sunday.

Carol is hosting Poetry Friday roundup over at Beyond Literacy Link.  Stop over and enjoy all of this week's poetry offerings...Poetry Friday is for everyone!

Please share a comment below if you wish.

Friday, February 12, 2016

Writing About Love...What I Want to Squeeze


Mini
Photo by Hope VanDerwater




Students - This Sunday is Valentine's Day, and this has me thinking about people and pets and things that I love.  One pet I love a lot is Mini Monster, and I have written about him many times including HERE.  Sometimes my family laughs at me when I hug Mini really hard and he tries to wiggle of my arms, but he often stays in my arms and lets me kiss him on his ears and tell him how handsome he is.

Today, or anytime this week, you might think about writing about someone or something you love.  What do you want to squeeze and hug and what do you adore?  Valentine's Day is a grand time to think about love, big love and small love...like my love of drinking tea and of teeny pine cones.

You will notice that today's poem is written in free verse, in quatrains.  Nothing rhymes, but I still needed to read this aloud to myself many times to hear if it sounded just right to my ears.  On another day, I may reread this poem aloud again and make some more changes, but today it sounds as I wish it to sound.

Kimberley is hosting this week's Poetry Friday roundup over at Written Reflections with a delightful story and a celebration of one of my favorite poetry collections. Enjoy all of the offerings and the good people who join together each week to share poems and thoughts about poetry.

May this week fill you up with love, for things you know and for unexpected surprises too.

Please share a comment below if you wish.

Friday, January 8, 2016

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.

Please share a comment below if you wish.