Poetry Friday round-up is with Carol at Beyond Literacy Link.
One of my favorite books in my rather large collection of poetry books is What the Heart Knows by Joyce Sidman. This week I shared the poem Happiness, a chant invoking happiness. We talked about writing from the perspective of direct address to an emotion. I directed my students to choose an emotion and to try using imagery to make the emotion personified. I played along with my kiddos and took out the magnetic poetry cookie sheets. Finding the word poems mused me to write a direct address to poems. Karson and I both used the imagery of a monarch butterfly drawing on our experience of hatching and releasing monarchs this week.
Poems,
You hide in shadows
of oak trees.
You whisper words
in the breeze.
You shudder my heart.Poems,
When we meet eye to eye,
I am amazed
by your strength,
unexpected yet welcome.Poems,
Your delicate wings
unfold before our eyes
surprising us
with your ease of flight.–Margaret Simon, draft, 2019
Free image from Pixabay.
Excitement,
too much thrill can bring confusion
and confusion leads to mystery.
You are like the breeze on the top of a mountain.
When I see the brightness of the moon, I feel you.
You are the feeling when a monarch flies into the distance.
Curiosity,
You are full of forest mazes
that my mind gets stuck in.
My eyes show the way.
You bring me thoughts,
you make me think,
Curiosity
Reflections on the Teche 
Thank you for sharing these beautiful poems. I’ll be looking for a copy of Joyce Sidman’s book.
I don’t know this Joyce Sidman book, and will have to get my hands on a copy and check it out. “You shudder my heart” –what a line!
I love the comparison of poems with butterflies—beautiful and fleeting, capturing a moment and then letting it go. And, as you and Karson describe, that ease of flight. Thanks to all three of you for giving me something interesting to think about today!
Margaret, from one experience a poem evolves. I saw your images on Instagram and was so inspired by the release of the monarch butterflies into the wild. I love how the last stanza of your poem was released for our viewing:
Poems,
Your delicate wings
unfold before our eyes
surprising us
with your ease of flight.
Thank you for sharing the children’s poems as well. They are impressive.
Oh, my goodness….these poems make me want to write like this. What an incredible exercise. I love how your students get to learn in layers with you. Their hearts are well equipped for a lifetime of poetry. Beautiful post today.
Karson has got me with “too much thrill can bring confusion…and confusion mystery.” WOWsa!
Your poem and the children’s, too, are lovely. What a great exercise, Margaret, and touching from your butterfly time this past week. I love “Your delicate wings
unfold before our eyes” for poems.
I love the “forest mazes” of curiosity and the excitement of a monarch’s flight. Your last stanza is true/not true. Good poems make it look easy, but we all know the sweat and blood it takes to get them to that point!!! (Love that we both used DELICATE!)
Love your opening stanza, especially its final line: “You shudder my heart.” Karson’s “When I see the brightness of the moon, I feel you.” is a great image of excitement — one I connect with. And Jaden’s “forest mazes /
that my mind gets stuck in” is so good! Thanks for sharing.
These are fabulous!