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Thanksgiving Day

Posted in Poetry Friday, Writing, tagged Betsy Hubbard, poetry, thanksgiving, Two Writing Teachers on November 29, 2013| 12 Comments »

See more Poetry Friday at Carol’s Corner.

Yesterday, Thanksgiving Day, Betsy Hubbard of Two Writing Teachers asked us to take a moment to be still and write a poem. I actually wrote this poem by speaking into my phone on the way to Walgreens to get some decongestant. (My sinuses do not like the cold.) While I was shopping, a young woman, girl actually, asked if she could help me find something. Then she commented that I smelled. “It’s not a bad smell.” I had carried the roasting turkey smell with me. Anything can make its way into a poem.

Thanksgiving Day

Fire orange blazes from the tops of the trees
announcing the season’s change,
so I drive to my parents’ home by the lake
through the woods, tall pines, draping oaks.

Mama puts the turkey on early in the morning
while I still lounge in pajamas.
That Thanksgiving smell fills the air,
a scent I cannot emulate,
a scent I hold here

in my clothes, in my hair, my heart.
My mind does not wander to times before;
I do not miss the sound of children.
No, I am just here with this now,

This turkey roasting, the warmth of the fire,
this place where I am always loved.

–Margaret Simon

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Repetition: A Bridge to Details

Posted in Poetry Friday, Teaching, Writing, tagged Ava Leavell Haymon, gifted education, National Writing Project, repetition, The Quarterly on November 22, 2013| 12 Comments »

See more Poetry Friday with Katya at Write. Sketch. Repeat.

How do you write a poem? Where do you begin? I learned long ago from working with children writers that they are full of ideas. I wrote an article for the National Writing Project journal The Quarterly in 2005 when it was still in print titled “Writing with William.” (I was pleased to find it on a Google search.) In the article, I described a tutoring experience that led me to understand young writers need tools, not ideas, structures, not prompts. When I was talking with Ava Haymon, our state poet laureate, last weekend about writing ideas for students, she said a technique that she likes to use is repetition.

Using Ava’s poems as models, I introduced this structure to 6th graders at our monthly enrichment day we call WOW (Way out Wednesday.) “The Child Born” begins each line with the same three words, “The child who.” I asked the students to listen for the details. Following the reading, we did a memory test. “What did you remember?” While they didn’t quite understand the poem, they did remember almost every line, especially “The child who bites cuticles instead of fingernails,” and “The child who sucks her hair at night.” Details are memorable. Another model I used was Betsy Franco’s “Fourths of Me” from The Poetry Friday Anthology for Middle School.

Then I gave them the assignment: Write about whatever you want to, but begin each line or each stanza in the same way. Examples: Before, Everybody, As long as, The child who, Anyone, Who, Why, I am. The students also added beginnings to the list.

This was a successful lesson because everyone wrote a poem. Even the kid who said he hates writing poems. Even the one who said she has never written a poem before. After writing, we shared and did a memory test for each other’s poems. They realized the importance of using specificity and original ideas to draw a reader’s attention.

What Do You See?

When you see the stars, you see the sky
But when I see the stars, I see the days passing by.
When you see the beach, you see grains of sand.
But when I see the beach, I see a place untouched of man.
When you see the ocean, you see fish and pearls.
But when I see the ocean, I see an underwater world.
When you see a child, you see a small man.
But when I see a child, I see a gift from God’s hands.

–Kaley

Before and After

After the sun sets at night,
After the bud blooms,
After the plane takes off in flight,
I’ll go home to my room.

Before the sun rises at dawn,
Before dew forms on the flower,
Before the bird lands in its nest,
The king will give up his power.

This time I will not stay silent,
This time I will speak.
This time I will not be shy,
This time I’ll be bold.

–Ethan

My Dream

I am the frail one.
I am the fragile one.
I am the annoying one.
I am the one in the back of the classroom.
I am the new student.
I am the one no one wants around.
I am the dumb one.
I am the one nobody talks to.
I am the runt of the litter.
I am the timid one
Only in my dreams.

–Jack

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Slippery Slide

Posted in Poetry, Poetry Friday, Teaching, Writing, tagged cento, gifted classroom, Lemony Snicket, Poetry Magazine, steal a line on November 15, 2013| 11 Comments »

See more Poetry Friday at Jama’s Alphabet Soup.

Most students in the middle grades know the name Lemony Snicket, so when I introduced his article from Poetry magazine, they were primed to listen. In this article, Lemony Snicket introduced adult poetry to children. He says, “Poetry is like a curvy slide in a playground — an odd object, available to the public — and, as I keep explaining to my local police force, everyone should be able to use it, not just those of a certain age.”

We read aloud the whole article. My instructions for writing were simple, “Steal a line that you like and write from there.”

The poem I wrote is a Cento, in which I took a line from each of the poems in the article.

An open door says, “Come in.”
The room I entered was a dream of this room.
I’m in the house.
I’m still here?
There is no need for you to come and visit me.
You are food. You are here for me to eat.
There will never be enough.
Nothing anyone could do to stop it coming.
The next obvious question:
“Does anyone want to be my sack of potatoes?”
Think of a big pink horse.
There are monsters everywhere.
What is it the sign of?
It is what it is.
That’s Poetry to me.
Thank you, I have enjoyed imagining all this.

Some student samples:

If I would be walking
down the road that
you told me to imagine,
would it be full of gumdrops,
and rainbows covered
in sprinkles and chocolate
fudge on a marshmallow
cloud that tastes like
strawberry icing or maybe
chocolate ice cream on the
hottest day of the year,
or would the road be
full of dark nights, but no stars
and gravestones, with lost kids,
and a grey, lonely path with
cracks in the middle
that can swallow
me up in one bite, with
eyes looking at me in
every direction?

If I would be walking
down the road you told
me to imagine,
which road would I be walking?
If I would be walking
the road you told me
to imagine, would my road
include you?

–Brooklyn

Electric green and red tears
reflected like rainbows over water in the daylight
right before rain
a warning of good fortune
telling us it’s okay
–Kendall

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Poet Laureate in our Midst

Posted in Poetry, Poetry Friday, Writing, tagged A&E Gallery, Ava Leavell Haymon, Lemony Snicket, Poetry Foundation, Poetry Reading on November 7, 2013| 13 Comments »

See more Poetry Friday with Diane Mayr at Random Noodling

Ava Leavell Haymon, Louisiana Poet Laureate

“Somewhere, out beyond ideas
of wrongdoing and right-doing,
there is a field.

I will meet you there.” –Rumi

Thus is the epigraph that opens Ava Leavell Haymon’s latest work of poetry, Eldest Daughter. Ava is the most recently appointed Louisiana Poet Laureate, and she is coming to New Iberia next weekend to a Fall Poetry Night. (Fist-arm pump) Yes! If you met Ava, the thing you would remember about her is her laugh, and she laughs often.

Ava’s poetry is masterly crafted, yet easily accessible. Lemony Snicket selected one of Ava’s poems, The Witch has Told You a Story, to feature in his article, All Good Slides Are Slippery for Poetry Magazine. Mr. Snicket says that “poetry is like a curvy slide in a playground — an odd object, available to the public — and, as I keep explaining to my local police force, everyone should be able to use it, not just those of a certain age.” I shared this article with my students this week. We wrote our own poems by stealing a line from one or more of the poems in the article. This was a great activity and produced some funny poems. Stay tuned.

Ava has given me permission to share two of her poems with you. This first is from the collection Why the House is Made of Gingerbread. I love this collection. Who would have thought that the classic Hansel and Gretel would have yielded such moving and thoughtful poetry?

THE WITCH HAS TOLD YOU A STORY

You are food, she said.
You are here for me to eat.
Fatten up, and I will
like you better. Your brother will
be first. You must wait your turn.
You must feed him yourself.
You must learn to do it. Take him
eggs with yellow sauce, and muffins,
butter leaking out the crooked break
in the sides. Fried meats
later in the morning and sweets
in a heady parade from the oven.

His vigilance, an ice pick of hunger
pricking his sides, will melt
in the unctuous cream fillings.
He will forget. He will thank you
for it. His little finger stuck every day
through the cracks in the bars
will grow sleek and round,
his hollow face swell
like the moon. He will stop dreaming
the fear in the woods without food.
He will lean toward the mouth
of the oven, the door
that yawns wide every afternoon
to better and better smells.
–Ava Leavell Haymon, all rights reserved

The second poem comes from Ava’s latest work Eldest Daughter. I haven’t read them all yet, but the ones I have are so full! Full of childhood fears, sensibilities, and humor. LSU Press says “she combines the sensory and the spiritual in wild verbal fireworks.” And to hear her read them, you see the fireworks glow in her eyes. She is a delight, and I can’t wait to introduce her to my town.

THE CHILD BORN

with a caul
the child who eats the skin that forms on scalded milk
the child who bites cuticles instead of fingernails
the child who sucks her hair at night
the child who sings in her sleep
the child who does not mind the squeak of blackboard chalk
the child who swallowed a blue bead
the child who will not throw up
the child who refuses to listen
the child with the gristle knob at the arch of her ribs
the child who knows where the matches are
the child who looks too long at her father
the child who likes to spit
the child who looks in the eyes of the dog
the child who sits for hours
the child who sometimes laughs when she’s by herself
the child whose cold hands
the child who eats clay
the child who can look cross-eyed
the child who starts fires
the child who hides in a chinaberry tree
the child who listens
the child who grows quieter and quieter
the child who can be trusted with knives and scissors
the child who never reaches under her bed
the child who goes where no one is
the child who cuts things out
the child who hums little songs no one can recognize

Ava Leavell Haymon, all rights reserved

Fall Poetry Night will be Saturday, November 16th at 6:00 PM at A&E Gallery. Other poets reading will be Mickey Delcambre, Suzi Thornton, Diane Moore, and Margaret Gibson Simon.

Ava reading from Eldest Daughter on YouTube (This one is for adults only despite what Lemony Snicket may say.):

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The Festival of Words

Posted in Poetry Friday, Writing, tagged Naomi Shihab Nye, student writing, Sugarcane, The Festival of Words, youth writing contests on November 1, 2013| 11 Comments »

See more Poetry Friday with Linda at Teacher Dance.

The Festival of Words is around the corner (next weekend!). Naomi Shihab Nye is coming to the small town of Grand Coteau, Louisiana to be a part of this great celebration of poetry. Naomi is a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets, and she is coming to see us and share poetry with us. I have signed up for her workshop next Saturday and have gotten special permission to bring a student with me.

The Festival of Words was organized six years ago by a small group who believed that Poetry is for Everybody. With drive-by poetry and open air readings, the festival brings the power of poetry to the streets.

The Festival also holds a student writing contest. The contest is open to 6th-12th graders. The highest level I teach is 6th grade. My student, Brooklyn, entered her poem about sugarcane and placed FIRST in the Jr. High Division. I have been teaching Brooklyn since she was in 4th grade, and it delights me to see her writing develop to contest-winning level. I am so proud of her. Her winning poem is here:

I’m home

A green line of cane,
above the tan dirt,
under the bright blue
Louisiana sky.

Colorful, like a
shining rainbow after
a harsh rain,
like a path full of
roses and daisies.
There is a hushing noise,
made by the stalks slowly
and gently rubbing together,
hush, hush, hush.

With the touch of the angel’s wing
so delicate and free, reassuring
you that anything is possible.

Always giving off the soft,
welcoming, harmless,
I’m home feeling.
I’m home,
I’m home,
I’m home.

Brooklyn, all rights reserved

From the Festival of Words Kickstarter Site on Why it Matters: “Writing poems and stories gives people of all ages a positive means to communicate, share, and respect each other’s words and individuality. • Creative writing raises student literacy levels • Creative writing teaches problem-solving, analysis, and creative thinking • Students who participate in the arts are more likely to excel academically and professionally.”

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Falling into Poetry

Posted in Poetry Friday, Teaching, Writing, tagged Amy Ludwig Vanderwater, clustering, fall poetry, gifted writers, JoAnn Early Macken, writing exercises on October 25, 2013| 13 Comments »

Finally in the deep south the temperatures are cooling off. Everyone is putting out their decorated pumpkins and synthetic spider webs. Halloween is around the corner. Time to write some fall poetry. I introduced fall poetry by posting Amy Ludwig Vanderwater’s poem “Preserving Fall” on our kidblog site. Her poem is about pressing leaves in waxed paper. I remember doing this as a child and with my own kids, but my students have never done this. We are going on a field trip today to Natchez, Mississippi where there may be more colorful leaves to collect. I promised we could press leaves next week.

In the meantime, I shared Amy’s book Forest Has a Song. We picked out favorites to read aloud. From JoAnn Early Macken’s book Write a Poem Step by Step, I asked the writers to use a cluster method for gathering ideas when pre-writing. I like how clustering can bring forth words you may not find otherwise.

One of my clusters turned to my backyard satsuma tree, full of ripening fruit.

Satsuma Time

Look outside the kitchen window;
First sign of fall,
peeks of yellow,
sparkle like diamonds
ripening in the sun.
Heavy hanging on the tree,
Abundance gathered one by one.
Satsuma sweet,
Autumn citrus treat.

–Margaret Simon

See more Poetry Friday at Live your poem with Irene Latham.

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Wetlands Writing

Posted in Poetry Friday, Teaching, Writing, tagged ekphrastic poetry, fine art photography, Louisiana wetlands, Marjorie Pierson on October 18, 2013| 15 Comments »

Photo by Marjorie Pierson, all rights reserved.

I’d like to introduce you to a my friend and cousin, photographer Marjorie Pierson. Marjie has an amazing eye for light in nature. She lives in North Carolina, teaches a fine art class at Duke, and sponsors a girls’ art club at Durham Academy. Her mother lives here (actually, across the street),so Marjie visits often. She always finds time to explore the bayous and marshes and take photographs. She creates large prints on canvas that look like oil paintings.

Marjie did not visit my class on her latest visit, but her photographs did. She has developed an inspiring website. I told my students about Marjie’s interest in wetlands preservation and talked to them about writing ekphrastic poetry. I used a 6-room organizer from Georgia Heard’s book Awakening the Heart.
Then I played classical music while the students watched a slideshow of wetlands beauty and wrote.

Magic happened as magic often does when writing combines with art. Here are some of the poems my students wrote.

Song of the Wetlands

The beautiful details of the wetlands.
Shadows reflecting off of the water.
I am silent.
I smell sweet and damp.
I feel wet, mossy, grassy and slimy.
I taste bitter, salty water and sweet.
Like
I am pretty places
flowing everywhere,
a wetland full of
green.
I am precious and you can preserve me to save me before I am gone.
–Tyler

Silhouette of the Sea

The fine art of blue dancing waters
embrace the feel of warmth

reflections of green
sounds of nature

a wind in the silhouette

smells like freshly cut grass
small droplets drip
drip
dropping
on the smallest blade of grass
–Vannisa

I’m Home

A green line of cane,
above the tan dirt,
under the bright blue
Louisiana sky.
Colorful, like a
shining rainbow after
a harsh rain,
like a path full of
roses and daisies.
There is a hushing noise,
made by the stalks slowly
and gently rubbing together,
hush. hush, hush.
With the touch of the angel’s wing
so delicate and free, reassuring
you that anything is possible.
Always giving off the soft, welcoming,
harmless, I’m home feeling.
I’m home,
I’m home,
I’m home.

Join the Poetry Friday blog hop at Merely Day by Day.

Check out Matt Forrest’s Mortimer Minute over at Radio, Rhythm, and Rhyme.

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Living Treasure

Posted in Poetry, Poetry Friday, Teaching, Writing, tagged teaching gifted, Wonderopolis on October 11, 2013| 15 Comments »

Happy Poetry Friday! For more poetic fun, hop over to Laura Purdie Salas’ site Writing the World for Kids.

Mortimer Minute has hopped over to Michelle’s place today–Today’s Little Ditty.

Chuck Savall
coral.org

Ever since I discovered the website, Wonderopolis, I have wanted to find a way to use it with my gifted students. On Tuesday, I saw the widget for the Wonderopolis link on Amy Rudd’s site. It caught my eye. The wonder of the day was the Great Barrier Reef. I got lost in the video swimming along the reef. I decided to make Wednesday into Wonderopolis Wednesday. I showed the Wonder of the Day and the video and asked my students to use at least 3 of the Wonder Words in their writing. I always write alongside them.

In walks my principal for a “walk-through evaluation.” We were finishing up the quiet writing time and getting ready to share. My normally vivacious class clammed up. No one wanted to share. What was I to do? I shared my own attempt at a rhyming poem with this disclosure, “I’m trying to write a rhyming poem and you know how hard this is for me.” When I read aloud, one student suddenly became an expert on rhyming poetry. He explained to me how I had to not only rhyme, but I had to have a consistent beat to each line. My students chimed in to help me write my poem. We continued revising the next morning. I think in the end we created a pretty good poem. But I must credit my students for their guidance.

By the way, my principal thought it was awesome that I had them critiquing me. She thought it was a little “teacher act.” But I explained, “No, I really needed the help. I’m terrible at rhyming.”

Living Treasure: The Great Barrier Reef

Discover our ocean friend.
Twenty thousand years to no end.
Golden-tailed hope rises on the wind.

Coral flowers sway with the tide.
Sea turtles, stingrays gracefully glide.
Among the lacy red, a mollusk will hide.

White-fingered anemone hug dancing fish.
Swimming, swaying, a rainbow swish.
A beauty, a wonder, a diver’s lifelong wish.

–Margaret Simon, all rights reserved

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Mortimer Minute

Posted in Poetry, Poetry Friday, tagged Children's poetry, Hunter Gibson, Illuminate, John Gibson, Mortimer Minute on October 4, 2013| 11 Comments »

Mortimer is one busy bunny, hopping all over the country to interview children’s poets. I want to thank Tabatha Yeatts for tagging me in the blog-hop. Here are the rules:

1. Answer 3 questions:These questions are somewhat created by you, but you can borrow from other bloggers.

2. Invite poetry loving friends to follow you. I will introduce you to two fabulous poetry writing friends at the end of my post.

3. Say thanks and link up, so Mortimer can keep on hopping along!

Mortimer: What has been one of your favorite ways of sharing poetry in school? (question borrowed from Tabatha.)
Me: My students have been loving the end of the month Chalkabrations, the creative genius baby of fellow Poetry Friday blogger, Betsy Hubbard. However, I have to say that the lagniappe (the little something extra) that happened last April during National Poetry Month still tops my list. For every day of the month, I would introduce a poetry form for each letter of the alphabet. A for acrostic, B for bio-poems, and so on. Well, the end of the school year is always filled with those doggone standardized tests and on the day of the letter K, I was administering a test. My students were not supposed to come to class; however, three of them appeared. I told them they could stay if they worked quietly. They got together and wrote an amazing Kyrielle about Kindness. I was so blown away that I had them read it aloud on the intercom the next day. They wrote in response to the Boston Marathon Bombing. Writing is healing, and my students knew this. Had I taught them this? The link to my original post is here, but I will reprint the poem for Mortimer.

26 Acts of Kindness

There’s something kind that we must do
To pay respects, so let’s be true
It won’t be for me or for you
So help the dreams they can’t pursue

Please, show your kindness, here’s your cue
Be the person God asked you to
We can stop them from feeling blue
So help the dreams they can’t pursue

Their families are torn in two
Come, everyone, and get a clue
Those men would wish they could undo
So help the dreams they can’t pursue

What is our country going through
To me, it feels like déjà vu
You all know who I’m talking to
So help the dreams they can’t pursue

by Kaylie, Brooklyn, and Kendall

Mortimer: Do you remember the first poem you ever wrote?
Me: Yes, but it is very embarrassing. What I remember is waiting for my mother to pick me up from Miss Jo’s piano lesson. Miss Jo had a big tree in her front yard. I danced around the tree and made up this poem, “Spring is my favorite time of year/ when the sky is blue and clear./ Flowers blooming all around./ Snow is melting on the ground.” This may be the reason I need to keep my day job.

Mortimer: What is your current poetry project?
Me: I am so proud to be publishing a small book of poems to accompany my father’s drawings. I should receive my first shipment any day now. You can read a review on Diane Moore’s blog A Word’s Worth. You can order a book with CD from the page Illuminate.

My brother, Hunter Gibson, is a talented musician.

My brother is a wonderful musician, and he has decided to add to this family project by making a Christmas CD of traditional and original Christmas songs. I sent him a recording of me reading three of the poems and he put together a mix with an original tune. This touches me to my very core. Not only do I connect with my father through his art, but I am connecting with Hunter through his music.

Here’s tagging…

Here’s Michelle!

Michelle Heidenrich Barnes who writes children’s poetry, picture books, and greeting cards. Her creative challenge is to bring out the natural musicality and rhythm of words and let them bounce around (and otherwise run amok) within the sphere of her imagination. You can find her blog at Today’s Little Ditty. Her Mortimer Minute will be posted Oct. 11th.

Here’s Matt!

Matt Forrest writes radio commercials and poetry for adults as well as children. He is a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators (SCBWI). He’s been in recording studios, on theatre stages, and in front of TV cameras…and has always managed to leave before security arrived. He’s done voicework and audio production for companies around the country, and his voice can be heard from Maine to Florida, from California to New Jersey, from the U.K. to Dubai. Matt’s post will go up on Oct. 18th at his blog site Radio, Rhythm, and Rhyme. Please hop along!

Poetry Friday is being hosted today by Doraine at Dori Reads.

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Happy Sugar Cane

Posted in Poetry Friday, tagged Children's poetry, Illuminate, Sugarcane, The Poem Farm on September 27, 2013| 12 Comments »

Today is Sugarcane Festival Farmer’s Day in New Iberia. I have watched the cane grow all summer. It is over 8 feet tall. Should be a good year!

Sugarcane stalks standing tall,
side by side,
guarding, swaying
swish, swish!

Hear the sweetness?
Smell the burning field?
Anticipate the haul-
Slow, slow.

Moving to the mill,
Grind, Grind
Just in time
for Christmas candy canes.
–Margaret Simon

Poetry Friday is being hosted today by Amy at The Poem Farm.

Happiness is a new poetry book. Announcing the release of Illuminate, a book of my poems with my father’s drawings. Here’s what others are saying:

“John Gibson, the father and artist, and Margaret Simon, the daughter and poet, have teamed up to communicate the beauty and mystery of the manifestation of God in the world in this small volume. Finely honed lines by both artist and writer will cause readers to ask for more, as the creators of Illuminate have, with light and deft strokes, captured the gift of the Incarnation.” Diane Moore

“In the imaginative, graceful and grace-filled poems of Margaret Simon, we are taken into her experience of faith through a vision that is clear and a voice that is authentic. Each poem, lovingly crafted, is homage to her father’s art and to her God, and resonates with her love of and enchantment with words.” Clare L. Martin, poet and author of Eating the Heart First (Press 53, 2012)

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