Poetry Friday round-up is with Amy at The Poem Farm.
Naomi Shihab Nye visited our classroom this week. We watched her video of Valentine for Ernest Mann. Showing the video made it feel like she was right there with us having a conversation. Then we read the poem again and again, talking about it at length. This poem can start a classroom controversy over whether or not skunks are really beautiful.
I asked my students to re-read the poem again and find some words that speak to them and try out their own poem. I shared my poem. (posted here)
Sometimes poetry magic happens. It happened for Lani. She sat quietly with her notebook for a while and came to me to share this poem. She was proud that she wrote the poem from the point of view of the poem. I think she caught the golden fish on the first try.
You can try to look for me
and I won’t be there
I won’t be in a drawer or
in your pocket. I won’t be
on a shiny plate ready to
share. Since you can’t order
me like you order a
Big Mac at McDonalds
You will have to search for
me like archeologists search
for bones. It will take a
while to find me and
it won’t be easy if
I’m in your hair or in
a skunk’s eyes. You
just have to look. I can
be anywhere from the
outside to inside your home.
The most likely place that
I will be is in the back
of your mind, ready to
happen and be shared.–Lani, 5th grade (after Naomi Shihab Nye’s Valentine for Ernest Mann)
Reflections on the Teche 
Excellent work, Margaret and Lani! Time well spent.
This so deserves to be shared. I love everything about this post, Margaret but especially Lani’s poem…..so so so wonderful……I am going to share your post on my FB page. It is just perfect and with my friends. Congratulations on having Naomi visit. Lucky you and smart you!!! Wink. Wink. But Lani’s poem, I am going to share this with my Pen Women friends. I am sure they will relate!! Please tell Lani how much I admire the way she wrote her poem and her whole understanding of writing and poetry and ideas. Delightful.
Beautiful. Naomi is a poeting mentor. Lani…love this:Since you can’t order
me like you order a
Big Mac at McDonalds
You will have to search for
me like archeologists search
for bones.
Wow. I loved watching the video and then reading Lani’s work. Stunning interpretation and internalization of the poem. I may have to conduct some author/poet visits this way! Thanks for the idea.
Oh, and that last day of school….what a memory. Releasing students back into the world after we have met, loved and worked along side them. No one knows the bitter sweet of that last day like teachers. Bravo, Margaret.
Oh, I do love this:
The most likely place that
I will be is in the back
of your mind, ready to
happen and be shared.
Love how you introduced this with the author’s video. You student’s work is a lovely companion to the original — to be pulled out of one’s pocket and read again and again. I choose another path for my students: http://whatelse2learn.blogspot.com/2016/09/poetry-friday-each-drawer-is-different.html
I see what you mean about you and me and Naomi Nye. I love that poem, and both yours and Lani’s response to it. There is a part of poems that do us such good, and I’m happy that you bring that to your students.
Oh, yeah. She nailed it! Fifth grade wisdom is just about enough to knock your socks off, isn’t it???
That’s why it’s so important to expose them to poetry!
Lani’s poem is stunning! I love those final lines. Your students are very lucky to have you guiding and inspiring them, Margaret!
The third Naomi Shihab Nye poem I’ve read in PF today! I LOVE her! I read this one with my eighth graders recently. One of my favorites. I love your student’s response. Ruth, thereisnosuchthingasagodforsakentown.blogspot.com
Lani did a marvelous job. I think I see one, shining in her eyes.
Just lovely. She did a wonderful job with this!
What a beautiful way to invite a poet in. Naomi Shihab Nye is a great soul; your students are very fortunate to meet her through her words. They can love her all year – all life – long. Lovely, Lani! Like an archaeologist….yes. xo
How awesome to have a Lani in your room! She truly got into the poem’s pov!