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Poetry Friday Round-up

Posted in Poetry Friday, tagged drum, Jack, Laura Shovan, Michelle Heidenrich Barnes, Penny Parker Klostermann, persona poem on May 19, 2016| 30 Comments »

Poetry Friday round-up is here today!

photo by Margaret Gibson Simon enhanced on Picmonkey

Revisiting Presence, my 2016 One Little Word, makes me think of poetry. Poetry is about presence. We capture a moment, a thought, an image in a single verse and sit with it in the presence of the poem.

This month’s Ditty challenge on Michelle’s blog, Today’s Little Ditty, is a persona poem, suggested by Laura Shovan.

A persona poem makes the poet (then the reader) see the world through the eyes of another person. Today, I am a featured poet on Penny Parker Klostermann’s blog. She has a series “A Great Nephew and a Great Aunt” in which she shares a poem after her nephew’s art. She also invites other poets to participate. I volunteered to write a poem from my nephew’s drum riff.

My nephew Jack, 11 years old, has been playing drums all his life. He owns his own drum set and is taking private lessons. He selected percussion as his instrument for band next year in middle school.

Jack and I, along with my sister Beth, had a Google hangout. I asked Jack to create his own drum riff, and I would write a poem to go with it. When Beth sent me the video, I was inspired to write a poem in Jack’s persona. I am sharing the poem here, but please click over to Penny’s blog to see the video of Jack on the drums.

The beat
starts in my toes,
startles my legs,
up-down
up-down!
My fingers feel the groove
until the tingling,
spine-riveting jolt,
budda-bump-bum
budda-bump-bump-bum,
is more than I can stand.
I must
I must
beat the drum!
by Margaret Simon, all rights reserved

Jack’s first drum set

I am hosting the Poetry Friday round-up today. Please leave your link by clicking the button below.

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Poetry Friday: Making Masks, Making Poems

Posted in Creativity, Gifted Education, Poetry Friday, Writing, tagged Gifted by Nature Day, mask poems on May 13, 2016| 11 Comments »

Poetry Friday round-up with Violet. Click here to read more posts.

The end of the school year is coming to a close. One fun day that our gifted students look forward to every year is Gifted by Nature Day. We hold it in City Park and all the elementary gifted students in our parish attend. The day is full of games, art, and writing.

This year middle school gifted students (who fondly remember their own Gifted by Nature Days) led this year’s art activity. They presented a skit about endangered animals. Then our kids were encouraged to freely create their own favorite animal, real or imaginary.

I led a poetry writing activity as a response to the mask activity. And what better poetic form to use than a mask poem? The directions were simple: Write a poem from the point of view of your mask. Use your creature’s name as the title. Use I statements. We read a few mentor poems from Irene Latham”s Dear Wandering Wildebeest and Patricia MacLachlan’s Cat Talk.

The students were primed for creative thinking after making their masks. I am sharing some of the masks and poems here.

This is Erin as a narwhal, of course.

Call me watercat.
I am guard.
I am smart and curious.
I run very quickly through
prickly vines.
I am big.
I am blue.
I am sneaky.
I am fluffy.
I am strong.
I am a watercat.
by Madison, 2nd grade

How adorable is this puppy mask with a bow on its chin!

Dis-Grace
I am a disgrace.
I am a mess of an animal.
I am rainbow.
I have three sets of ears.
My mouth stays open.
My nose is green.
People come around me and say “whoo.”
They must hate me.
Then I hear people say, “That’s cool.”
Maybe I’m not a Dis-Grace after all.
by Emily, 5th grade

Shadow, by Jacob, 2nd grade

I was born in a magic cloud.
Then I flew all day.
I made a lot of friends
and we played in the Milky Way.
Then we found a top hat,
black and a very light gray.
I put it on and then I had the power
to always save the day. Jaci, 5th grade

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Poetry Friday: Beannacht

Posted in Gratitude, Poetry Friday, tagged John O'Donohue on May 6, 2016| 12 Comments »

Poetry Friday round-up with Sylvia at Poetry for Children. Click here.

Whatever it was that led me back to the poem Beannacht by John O’Donohue, I must thank the Universe. The world has only to listen to his dear Gaelic voice to feel at peace and to know all will be well.

I strive to look for the blessings of a day.

Black-eyed Susans line the drive-thru at CC’s….

The cardinal will not stop tweeting!

My fingers are full of paint.
The classroom floor has paint splatters.
Even my blow dryer is splattered with paint.
I’m painting end-of-the year projects with messy kids.

My daughter is outside reading a magazine
soaking up sun, Vitamin D and Vitamin R (relaxing).

Along with John O’Donohue, I bless you.

May the nourishment of the earth be yours,
may the clarity of light be yours,
may the fluency of the ocean be yours,
may the protection of the ancestors be yours.
And so may a slow
wind work these words
of love around you,
an invisible cloak
to mind your life.

Happy Friday!
Happy Spring!
Happy May!

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NPM16 #29: Words

Posted in Poetry, Poetry Friday, Teaching, Writing, tagged #imagepoems, Mary Oliver, nature poem, Rumi, steal like an artist, word groups on April 29, 2016| 11 Comments »

Poetry Friday round-up at Buffy’s Blog.

Where do you find words? I am always in search of the right words, whether I am writing a poem or a blog post or a Facebook message. The right words in the right order.

As I sat next to Vannisa while she revised a poem to enter into a 4-H poetry contest, she and I stared at the screen. She was looking for the last stanza, the inner thinking, that punch of an ending. Where were the words she need?

I pulled out a precious Mary Oliver book from the shelf, A Thousand Mornings. Vanissa swept her hand over the cover. She knows it feels soft, like silk. I read aloud the last lines of some of Mary Oliver’s poems. I was teaching Vannisa how to “steal like an artist.”

This is the list we made:

earth-praise
temple
my heart
angels singing

I can’t share her final draft because we’ve sent it in. Maybe she will win. But we both won when we sat together with the master Mary Oliver and celebrated the right words.

As I continue to write a poem a day (Just one more day, folks!), I decided to use these stolen words in a poem of my own.

Melody

The male cardinal
wakes us every morning
with his earth-praise–
monotone,
happy tone
morning music making.

I nudge the cat
to move off my foot
stretch out of bed
while you stay, softly snoring.

Coffee brews.
The day wakes.
My body is still tired.

But this cardinal
is determined in his glory-making.
He persists
until I turn and see
angels

singing along
in his tree-temple
making melody
of the morning.

–Margaret Simon

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NPM16 #22 Palindrome Poem

Posted in Poetry Friday, tagged palindrome poem, student poetry on April 22, 2016| 8 Comments »

Poetry Friday round-up with Jama At Jama’s Alphabet Soup.

This week we brainstormed all the poetry forms we know. The list included reverso, zeno, haiku, concrete, abecedarian, and so on. But one form that we didn’t have on the list was the palindrome poem. That’s because Kielan made it up. This is what she wrote in her post:

The first, third, and fifth lines are free verse. The second and fourth sentences are palindromic sentences. You can have more than 5 lines, though. Below is an example.

Would you rather
Borrow or rob
My best friend, Bob?
Yo, banana boy!
Leave him alone.

–Kielan

Try to write your own Palindrome.

To write a palindrome poem, you first may need to look at a list of palindromes. We found this one.

I gave it a try.

The doggone day I slipped in
dumb mud,
I cursed the blooming
lid off a daffodil.
My mom washed my mouth out with soap.

–Margaret Simon

Jacob was writing this one beginning with the palindrome “Do Geese See God?” Then he told me that he is afraid of dogs. I replied “I wonder if God is afraid of dogs?” Warning: this poem contains a putrid word.

Sometimes I wonder
Do geese see God?
I always tell my dog
“Dog! no poop on God!”
Is God scared of dogs?

–Jacob

Now it’s your turn. Can you write a palindrome poem? My students and I want to know. Write it in the comments or send to me by email and I will add it to this post.

Robyn is adding a line to the Progressive Poem today. Click the image.

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NPM16 #15 Poetry Friday

Posted in Poetry Friday, Teaching, Writing, tagged abecedarian, Amy Ludwig Vanderwater on April 15, 2016| 12 Comments »

Poetry Friday round-up with Michelle at Today’s Little Ditty

This month as I go through poetry every day with my students, inevitably favorite forms emerge. From her blog, Amy Ludwig VanDerwater introduced my students (and me) to the abecedarian form. One by one my students are trying this out. I have said it’s a very challenging form. Some rise to a challenge.

Kaiden has risen to this challenge not only using the form, but also repeating the word wonder. When he got stuck on a letter, he searched a list of Shakespeare words.

All the time wondering
Batty in the night for wonder
Can’t get any sleep from wondering
Dying to quench my thirst for wonder
Enclosing myself in books of wonder
Fascinated by wonder
Going insane from wonder
How did it become this way
I have no idea
Judged because of my wild hair from wondering too much
Kindling the fire of wonder
Loving every drop of wonder
Mourning without wonder
Not having any time for doing work because of wonder
Oblivious of all my dirty and messy ways
Prowling the library for wonder
Quivering without wonder
Rest is impossible with all this wonder
Sleep I can’t
Tearing up books
Unfortunately, I am addicted to wonder
Vigorously turning pages
Withering with out wonder
Xhaling because my wonder is filled
Zzz’s I can finally catch

–Kaiden, 5th grade

Earlier in the week we danced with paintbrushes, making watercolor abstract paintings while listening to music. One selection led some of us artist/poets to think of water (rain). It’s been raining every morning for the last few days. I wrote a more playful poem while my 5th grader, Tobie, is thinking deeply and writing serious poems.

Tobie’s painting of water

As I sit intently
listening to the music that played
I thought of how there were many others
much more
than you could even imagine

Before you think
of planets in space
imagine drops of water in a sea
grains of sand on a beach
every blade of grass in a lawn
every second before dawn

–Tobie, 5th grade

Rainy Day

Rainy Day by Margaret Simon

Popping in puddles
painting balloons.
Sprinkles bubble.
Wet air
Wet hair.
I don’t care.
Let’s play anyway.

–Margaret Simon

Follow the Progressive Poem to Matt Forrest’s Radio, Rhythm & Rhyme

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NPM16 #8 Poetry Friday Abecedarian

Posted in Poetry, Poetry Friday on April 8, 2016| 18 Comments »

Poetry Friday round-up with Laura Purdie Salas

Day 5 is with Janet at Live your Poem

National Poetry Month is in full swing. My students are steeping in poetry. They are writing and reading poems every day.

Amy Ludwig VanDerwater is a favorite in my classroom, so I shared her site The Poem Farm on Wonder Wednesday. She is writing poems every day about the Wonder of the Day from Wonderopolis. The thing that caught my students’ eyes was Amy’s abecedarian poem, To Make Compost.

Some of my students took the challenge to write an abecedarian poem. Emily was inspired to write about animals in a zoo. She imagined all the animals and searched for verbs and adjectives to describe them.

Koo-Koo Zoo

Any zoo has animals
But ours are special we have:
Caring Cats
Dancing Donkeys
Eager Elephants
Flying Ferrets
Giggling Giraffes
Howling Hummingbirds
Ignorant Iguanas
Jogging Jellyfish
Karaoke Kangaroos
Laughing Llamas
Magic Monkeys
Nerdy Newts
Offended Octopi
Parachuting Parrots
Quizzing Quails
Racing Rhinos
Sailing Snakes
Tap Dancing Tigers
Untidy Unicorns
Vanishing Vultures
Wrestling Walrusses
X-raying Eels
Yodeling Yachts
Zipping Zebras

–Emily, 5th grade

Vannisa worked for 2 days on her poem. She used a dictionary to help her find the words she wanted to say. She was looking for unique words to express her philosophy of kindness.

All of your actions are
Beyond what you think

Continuous caring
Decreases your selfishness
Exercises your soul

Follow
Good
Hearts
Into a
Jungle where
Kindness and
Love are
Major,
Never wasted

On a fast
Pace,
Quickly
Racing,
Spreading,
Tailoring
Under and over
Vines

Wildfire-spreading,
X-ing out negativity,
Yawing around the city,
Zigzagging everywhere, is love

–Vannisa, 6th grade

I am writing a poem a day to images. This is a picture of flowers growing in our front flower bed taken through the arrowslits in the entryway to our house. Our house is like a castle, complete with a turret with arrowslits. When I Googled arrowslits, I the word embrasure came up as a synonym. Here is a draft of my first ever abecedarian.

A window
Beyond the
Downstairs
Embrasure

Flowers burst open
Give light to the view
Here, I stop
Invite spring in

Just to
Kiss blinking stars
Linger outside for this
Moment

Never would I’ve imagined
Open stars landing here
Popping and
Quickening to life, they

Return to
Stand
Tall each year
Under this

Veranda of the castle
Wings waiting to fly
eXciting space with
Yearning and
Zest

–Margaret Simon

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National Poetry Month Day 1

Posted in Poetry, Poetry Friday, Writing, tagged #imagepoems, NaPoWriMo, National Poetry Month, Poem a Day on April 1, 2016| 17 Comments »

#imagepoems Day 1 image

Today is April 1st and April Fool’s Day. I have fooled myself into thinking I can write a poem every day in April to an image. This first image was a joke played on me when I entered the bathroom at Ann Taylor Loft. “Watch out for the mannequins.” I was warned. I imagined they had wisdom to share. I also tried to play with the “in” sound. (Note: If you are playing along with me, put your poem or a link to it in the comments.)

Wisdom of the Mannequins

Appreciate the bare skin of things.

Sometimes it pays to be a skinflint.

Stand up straight and let your hips glide.

Don’t underestimate the power of a soft brush of blush.

Listen with a tinted ear.

You want to fit in the skin you’re in.

Bend, blend, and be happy.

–Margaret Simon

Poetry Friday round-up with Amy at The Poem Farm.

The Progressive poem begins at Laura’s site: Writing the World for Kids.

Jessica Bigi is joining in the poem-a-day image poems with this taste of spring today:

Moonbeam crowns
Embroidered bumblebee gowns
Brassy trumpet jazz
Teacup gardens steeping
Sweet is spring’s song
Spades Queens Kings

–Jessica Bigi

Art by Jessica Bigi

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SOL16 #25: Detangle

Posted in Poetry Friday, Slice of Life, tagged Good Friday, poetry, roses on March 25, 2016| 18 Comments »

Join the Two Writing Teachers blog for March Slice of Life Challenge.

Today is Good Friday. For me, it’s always a day to be quiet. We don’t have school today, so I can take my time waking up (I still wake in the dark.), sip my coffee slowly, and sit with these roses. Our local grocer sells roses for $10.99 a dozen. Every once in a while, I buy them for myself. I bought these over a week ago, and they are still bright and blooming. Flowers can make the saddest of days seem brighter. So in the glow of roses, I contemplate a poem.

The yarn is a tangled mess.

I could have taken the time
to prepare, rolled patiently
this thread into a ball
the needle would glide
smoothly through.
But I left out this step.
Now I am struggling with knots.

How in our daily haste to get started,
to make something new,
we make the process harder.

Yet, as I sit and detangle,
my mind unravels, too.
I release the struggle
into my fingers
let go of the tangles,
knit a prayer.

–Margaret Simon

Poetry Friday round-up with Heidi at My Juicy Little Universe.

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SOL16: #19 Celebrating Authors Skyping

Posted in Poetry Friday, Slice of Life, tagged Janet Sumner Johnson, Laura Shovan, Skype on March 19, 2016| 11 Comments »

Join the Two Writing Teachers blog for March Slice of Life Challenge.

Each student has a chance to ask a question.

Laura Shovan and Janet Sumner Johnson are on tour as “Sweet Sixteens,” debut children’s authors of 2016. I love any opportunity to connect my students with authors, so when I heard they had some openings, I jumped at the chance.

To prepare my students for this visit, I have been reading aloud an ARC (Advanced Reader Copy) of The Last Fifth Grade of Emerson Elementary. We are getting to know Hannah, Sloane, Sydney, Kate, George, and other students in the fifth grade at Emerson. The school board plans to sell the school for demolition and a new grocery store. Under the guidance of Ms. Hill, who must be a wonderfully kind teacher, the students protest and use poetry to get their voices heard. Laura Shovan creates a compelling story with her intricate knowledge of each character carefully depicted in the craft of poetry.

With Laura was Janet Sumner Johnson, author of the The Last Great Adventure of the PB&J Society. We had time to read only one chapter of this book before our visit, but Janet packs so much into that first chapter that my kids were full of questions. Janet said that she wrote the first version of the book 15 years ago. It’s been through lots of revisions. My students enjoyed learning about how Janet got her idea for the PB&J Society.

Janet and Laura on the Promethean Board

As an aspiring author myself, I took a special interest in what these wonderful women had to say about their writing and publishing experiences. Laura showed us her huge binder full of tabs in which she kept every draft of every poem for every character. I was amazed!

Both authors connected with the kids and were respectful of each and every question, even the silly ones like “Do you know about narwhals?” Kaiden loved being the first to notice that the homeless girl in Laura’s book had the last name Holmes. I believe that there are many more clever details in these two books. They come out in April. Get ready to add them to your classroom library.