Poetry Friday round-up is with my kind friend, Tara at a Teaching Life.
When I am in need of inspiration, I take a break and check my social media feeds. Maybe this is really just distraction, but today I followed the yellow brick road to a poem from posts on Instagram.
Rainbows over Bonne Terre farm in Breaux Bridge posted by my friend Jen. Click to visit her B&B page.
Ominous sky, Rain, Tall cane, Summer day.
Fat caterpillar crawling up Up, Up.
The one
I’m always becoming has caught me again and again.*
A surprise
around every corner.
A rainbow
named Sparkle, Endless fascination inside a life.
Join the Spiritual Thursday round up at Reading, Teaching, Learning.
On Wednesday, I was out of the classroom at an enrichment day for 6th graders. While I was away, my students were still writing poems. At the beginning of this National Poetry Month, I told them that they would write a poem each day. I have provided some kind of prompt activity (video, music, other poems), but this day they just chose to write. I checked our Kidblog site and found new poems. These poems were not sing-songy rhyme poems. They were serious poems about real life.
Poetry can be serious. Poetry can be spiritual, but I’ve not told my students about this aspect. However, writing in poems can bring out deep feelings even in the youngest of poets. In an effort to capture this move to deep thinking, I have found a poem in the poetry of my students.
Secrets are hidden,
the rain doesn’t care;
It’s still pouring down.
Life
shining like a precious jewel
is waiting for us.
Many don’t
know the comfort
of last words and hopes.
Rest is impossible
with all this wonder.
A found poem by Margaret Simon from poems by Lani, Tobie, Kaiden, and Erin
Follow the Progressive Poem to Deo Writer with Jone.
Also inspired by Amy, quick watercolor in the sketchbook.
The kidlitoshpere is wildly growing with poems. Amy Ludwig VanDerwater is writing daily to wonders from Wonderopolis. I found a poem in her post, How Sweet is Honeysuckle?
The line “Words live on like echoes” came from Barry Lane’s song “Sammy Miller” from Force Field for Good.
I wrote two poems today,
one from an open window with honeysuckle
and rhyme, but this time the poem
felt not ready to be shared.
Words live on like echoes…
I need to let a poem sit
read words over and over
Trust the feeling,
Move on.
Words live on like echoes…
Poems make me happy.
Poems make me sing.
I pretend to be a mother hummingbird.
I like the sounds of words.
Words live on like echoes…
Poems make me fall in love
with hummingbirds. I want to
plant a garden of milkweed,
trumpet honeysuckle,
& love poems
for you.
Join the Two Writing Teachers blog for March Slice of Life Challenge.
Julie’s horse Abbie
I am not a horse person. Every day I drive down a country highway to my school. In fall I watched the swaying sugarcane. Now the fields are bare, and my attention turns to the pastures with horses. In one of these pastures there are three mares and two foals. They gather around the hay bale together.
I am reading The War that Saved my Life and riding alongside Ada on her pony, Butter.
I am writing a verse novel and decided I want my MC to go horseback riding. Having little experience with horses, I turned to my friend and writing critique partner, Julie Burchstead. Julie lives in Vermont, and she has horses. Here is a link to a poem she wrote about building the barn.
Her expertise will make its way into my WIP, but in the meantime, I played with her words and created a found poem.
In the Saddle a found poem from an email from Julie Burchstead
Feel and smell leather reins.
The horse is warm.
Western saddles creak like leather shoes.
Even through the saddle,
you can sense their mood and their power.
You are on horse time, a different time all unto itself.
Your body falls into rhythm
of the horse’s movement
like being rocked.
Their bodies warm as their muscles warm,
sweat has a rich friendly scent-like hay and summer.
Find your center-like a dancer-a yoga practitioner-
Sit deep and tall.
I miss the days
galloping down the beach,
hair streaming, bareback,
the rhythm of hoofbeats,
the splash of water,
the connection you have
with a powerful living animal.
There is something healing
about a horse,
this huge animal
that trusts us.
Julie riding Abbie. She and Abbie have been together for 15 years.
Poetry Friday round-up with Linda Baie at Teacher Dance.
Join the Two Writing Teachers blog for Tuesdays Slice of Life Challenge.
February is not National Poetry Month. That’s in April. But Laura Shovan has a birthday, and she invites us all to play with poetry during her birthday month. I love a good word game, so when Laura Purdie Salas. posted about writing Found Moon Poems with 4th graders, I borrowed this idea to write a poem for Laura Shovan’s project. (Found Object Poem Project with Laura Shovan.)
Wonderopolis is a super-duper place to find nonfiction information. When Linda Baie sent the above picture for Laura’s project, I saw a porcupine. I quickly discovered that this was a pufferfish skeleton, not a porcupine, but too late, I had found a Wonderopolis article. Using copy, paste, and strike-through, I isolated words for a poem. When I started putting the poem together, it sounded like two voices to me. Thus a found poem for two voices.
I haven’t tried this activity with my students yet, but I will. I hope they enjoy collecting words as much as I do.
In addition to joining the Slice of Life Challenge at the Two Writing Teachers blog, I have committed to hosting a DigiLit Sunday round up each week. If this is your first time here, consider joining us on Sundays. I love reading about all the new tools available for students and how teachers are using them. Use the button below on your site.
Please use this button on your site for DigiLit Sunday posts
This week was the last of our third nine weeks. How this year is flying! My students do a book talk presentation each quarter, so this was the week to get them done. I love how the room buzzes with computer activity and how talk revolves around books. I added a new requirement this quarter: found poems. These were their instructions:
1. Find a section of 50-100 words. This may be your favorite part or the climax or a part with a good description.
2. Copy words or phrases from the section.
3. Rewrite or type as a poem. Notice line breaks. You may change the order or add words only if necessary to add meaning.
4. Check your poem for tone. Does it reflect the tone of the book?
My students choose the technology they wanted to use for their presentations. Some used Emaze, Powtoon, Animoto, or PowerPoint. Some used the technology to guide their talks. Other used it as a hook or to enhance the presentation.
I want to share some of the found poems, a Powtoon, and an Animoto trailer.
Vannisa used chapter quotes from Counting by 7’s. Each phrase connects to the character in some way.
Tobie wrote this poem from the Halloween chapter in Wonder. He could relate to the black hole August wanted to go into.
Matthew’s Animoto book trailer for Escape from Mr. Lemoncello’s Library.
Mission Impossible is a favorite background. Tobie used it to create this Powtoon presentation about Wonder.
Digital Learning Day is on March 13th. My plan is a Crazy Comment Challenge in which my students will try to write as many comments as possible on other SOL posts. Please consider joining us. More about Digital Learning Day can be found here. Use the hashtag #DLDay, #sol15, and #crazycomments in your Tweets.
If you have written a Digital Literacy post, please add your link in the comments. I will add them to this post. I am having some trouble with link up apps lately, so I’m just using the old fashioned way.
Slice of Life Day 17. Join the Two Writing Teachers Slice of Life Challenge.
I have a tree-hugging naturalist friend who sends out an email every month around the time of the full moon. His email is called Full Moon Alert or FMA.
One of the methods of writing I enjoy is erasure poetry or found poetry. I often find a poem in Jim’s FMA.
Full Ides (of March) Moon
Full moon rises Sunday at sunset.
Spring officially starts Friday,
Buds swelling,
swamp red maples coming into bloom,
thangs were moving y’all.
Sky reverberates
with the smudge of cranes.
I love you little.
I love you big.
My ladies are working hard already.
European honey bees are an all-girl operation,
and these are happy dancing
their butter butts, like the warblers
catching Crane flies.
A pair of raptors dive spectacularly,
two lovers celebrating newfound love
in this the season of love.
Happy spring y’all!
Get out and enjoy the fine spring weather.
Get out and stand there with your mouth open
watching that moonrise and sunset with loved ones.
What a gift! And bring some little ones along.
–Margaret Simon, found from Possum Foret’s FMA March 15, 2014
Jane Hirshfield is one of my favorite poets. Such a gentle soul! I attended a reading years ago at the Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival, a blessing to be in her presence. I don’t remember what she read but how she read. Her voice was like the soft rocking of a grandmother. I wanted to stay in her voice and live there.
I spend too much time on Facebook, but it’s not what you may think. I skim over the pictures of my friends’ families and dinners and children and click on links from my professional learning communities. The other day The Academy of American Poets posted a link to this Jane Hirshfield article, 5 Poetic Essentials for the Home Cook.
I spent some time with her article to absorb the essence of it. Here I have created a found poem.
Simple obedience isn’t possible.
Right now you are making something
of this very moment. Imagination
rises like wild yeasts. Why not invite it?
What else is needed? Lemon zest of curiosity, yes!
Taste the boldness. Experiment because failure is inevitable.
Classic companions-oil and water-make good company.
We sustain one another. The pause here is essential.
However brief or silent, it changes the day
seasoning with powerful gratitude.
–Found by Margaret Simon, all rights reserved
Poetry Friday is hosted today by Laura Shovan at Author Amok
A found poem is a form of poetry using existing text and fashioning it into a poem. My students enjoy this kind of poetry because it seems easy; Just find some golden lines, put them together, and voilà, a poem!
“Poems hide in things you and others say and write. They lie buried in places where language isn’t so self-conscious as ‘real poetry’ often is. [Writing found poems] is about keeping your ears and eyes alert to the possibilities in ordinary language” (Dunning and Stafford, Getting the Knack: 20 Poetry Exercises.) For a complete lesson on Found Poetry, go to Read, Write, Think.
Watercolor painting of Mr. Al by Jerome Weber
In May of 2011, an old oak tree was saved by a group of community members. At the time, I involved my students in writing letters to save the tree. It was moved with much effort and at a high cost. I pass this tree every day as I drive to school. A friend of mine is the arborist hired to care for Mr. Al. On Tuesday, the newspaper had an update on Mr. Al’s health. The title of the article was “Looking a Little Thin but OK, Mr. Al weathering it all.”
Weather forecasters predict severe storms.
One resident is not concerned.
Mr. Al, 120 years old,
is setting down roots
in his new home.
Weighing 800,000 pounds,
such a move can put significant
strain on his magnitude,
a pretty mean way to treat an old tree.
The stately oak looks thin
but this is normal for his type.
He’s catching up.
Come and sit by my roots,
invites Mr. Al,
and think the things that
an old guy thinks.
–Margaret Simon, all rights reserved
A friend, mentor, fellow blogger, Diane Moore resides half the year in Sewanee, Tennessee. I don’t think she has quite embraced the gray landscape of Gothic architecture and mountain mists. Today, her blog came to me while I was looking out on our warm green landscape and feeling tired. I loved her words and composed a found grossblank. Found because these are her words. Grossblank because there are 12 lines of 12 syllables. Here’s to the contrasts of colors in our lives:
A Gray and Green Day
For Diane Moore
This neutral color of gray pervades The Mountain
This morning. Gentle rain, iron-colored sky mists.
Pearl, charcoal, silver, gunmetal replace old gray–
Pessimistic hue no more uplifting than fog.
Color dignified by Gothic architecture.
To be creative, stare at green life, lighten up.
Walk in the woods; Alleviate anxiety.
Sacred shades of green and blue signify a new
Paradise of painted oceans, spirits lifted.
Poetry in emerald peace, trees leafing out.
Grass drinking dew, mint fragrant in spring memory.
Even the sky is the color of my opera.
Margaret Simon lives on the Bayou Teche in New Iberia, Louisiana. She teaches gifted elementary students, writes poetry and children's books. Welcome to a space of peace, poetry, and personal reflection. Walk in kindness.
Reflections on the Teche 