Poetry Friday round-up is with Erin at The Water’s Edge.
From the collages, we then wrote an I am poem. For this, I offered sentence stems to get the ideas flowing. Today, I am posting one of my collages and poem along with Madison’s. Madison wanted to use a unique word, so we looked through what I call “the big whopping dictionary,” a two book set my daughter bought me at an antique store. Madison found the word reliquary, and we had a discussion about the metaphorical use of a river as a reliquary. I love what she did with her poem.
I am a silver-tongued storyteller.
I wonder where my path leads.
I echo laughter, tears, and songs.
I watch the sun, moon, and stars.
I call your name.I am a silver-tongued storyteller.
I remember tales of old.
I nurture time and treasures.
I say the heart is true.
I hope you’ll hear my call.Margaret Simon, (c) 2018
I am a Rambling River Reliquary
I wonder if I can ever turn back.
I echo the past.
I watch the present.
I call for the future.
I wind a wide bend.
I touch every memory.
I nurture your thoughts.
I want to never stop.
I remember the crashing thunder.
I say ” Swshhh, rrww! ”
I tell the wind my tales.
I hope I can find more.Madison, 5th grade
Reflections on the Teche 
I love this. I may need to share when I teach the I AM poems.
Wow! these are all so different and so spot on for their word choice. I think your workshop will be a smashing success. I had to look up reliquary. I think she did an amazing job at metaphor here.
Oh, Madison! Such beautiful imagery coming through in her piece! And she so beautifully tells the story of a reliquary (which I had to look up to define) My favorite lines:
I tell the wind my tales.
I hope I can find more.
I hope I will hear more from Madison!
You ARE a silver-tongued storyteller, Margaret! I do believe you’ve earned that title. I hear your heart’s call loud and clear, BTW. 🙂
And Madison, what a fabulous job she did with her poem! I also had to look up reliquary, but now that I have, I’ve fallen in love with the idea of a rambling river reliquary. What a beautiful journey this poem takes me on!
How wonderful to be a time-nurturer and a thought-nurturer!
I’m sure Madison will find more tales to tell!
Margaret, I like the idea of creating magazine collages to inspire writing. “Nurture time and treasures,” stands out from your poem and I really like Madison’s line, “I nurture time and treasures”. Both you and Madison are silver-tongued storytellers-that is a great term for an I am poet.
Inspiring line to start with and repeat, “I am a silver-tongued storyteller.” Love that flying fish–porpoise in your collage.
A “reliquary” makes a rich analogy for a river poem, and I’m sure Madison will snag and “find more.”
Hey Margaret, really digging the poems and the marrying of images too. I think of doing collage from time to time but I never buy magazines. There’s probably other things I could use or different ways to get old magazines if I wanted. One of these days.
Love the imagery of both of these, you silver-tongued storyteller! I have to say, I was pretty impressed with a 5th-grader using a word like “reliquary”…the conceit of a river as a repository of relics is pretty profound.
It’s always lovely to read what you’re doing with your students, and this time I love Madison’s “I Tell the wind my tales” and your ‘I Am a silver-tongued storyteller’. That line seems like a new book title, Margaret!
Wow! I love both of these poems–Your “silver-tongued” storytelling and Madison’s beautiful poem with its sophisticated use of the word reliquary. Thanks for sharing!
What a cool project to explore the Where I’m From poems with art and poetry.