Month: April 2016

Another Small Object Poem

Catherine Flynn3 Comments

Large-Blue-RGB-National-Poetry-Month-LogoEarly in March, Amy Ludwig VanDerwater challenged the readers of Today’s Little Ditty, Michelle Heidenrich Barnes’s blog, to write a poem about a small object. I immediately thought of this little hen that had sat on my grandmother’s what-not for years.

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Then I tried to write a poem about it. That turned out not to be so easy. Throughout the month I wrote other small object poems, but kept thinking about this one. This morning I finally wrestled it into something I’m mostly satisfied with. In the spirit of all the poets who are writing a poem a day this month, I’m sharing draft number twenty-one.

Unlike the biddies nesting
out in our chicken coop,
you roost upon a bed of glass
instead of sweet, fresh hay.

You’re always poised and calm,
never cluck-cluck-clucking
or ruff-ruff-ruffling
your milky white feathers
when I lift you off your nest.

For it isn’t speckled eggs
you’re keeping safe and warm.
The eggs I find rainbow-hued.
You’re hatching jelly beans!

© Catherine Flynn, 2016

These pressed glass hens were also made of white milk glass, so I took some poetic license with my model so the surprise made more sense.

My friend Margaret Simon challenged me to write a poem each day in April with her. She has written and shared her poems at her blog, Reflections on the Teche. Be sure to visit her to read her inspiring words.

Poetry Friday: A Day Full of Poetry

Catherine Flynn8 Comments

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“The best-laid schemes o’ mice an ‘men
Gang aft agley”
~ Robert Burns ~

I started working on the poem I planned to share today on Monday. I drafted two versions and played with them both throughout the week. I recorded different lines on my phone on the way to work. But when I sat down last night, nothing worked. The poem just wouldn’t come together and it’s still a muddled mess.

My day was filled with poetry, though. I shared Amy Ludwig VanDerwater’s poem, “Wonder,” with teachers at our Language Arts Committee meeting this morning:

“Wonder”

Water the wonder
that lives in your brain.

Water your wonder
with questions like rain.

Read the rest of the poem, and more about Amy’s 2016 poetry project, here.

Then the principal and I read this Douglas Florian poem during morning announcements:

Find this poem and more poetry ideas in Penguin's Guide to Poetry in the Classroom here.
Find this poem and more poetry ideas in Penguin’s Guide to Poetry in the Classroom here.

I shared many poems with my students throughout the day, but didn’t have a minute to think about my own poem. By the time I left work, my prime writing hours were long gone. The weather was writing it’s own poem, though. Dark gray clouds piled up in the northwest, while the sky was still bright blue in to the south. Impatient rain drops were falling and the wind was picking up. It was a gorgeous sight that made me think of this Emily Dickinson poem:

“A Drop fell on the Apple Tree” (794)

A Drop fell on the Apple Tree –
Another – on the Roof –
A Half a Dozen kissed the Eaves –
And made the Gables laugh –

A few went out to help the Brook
That went to help the Sea –
Myself Conjectured were they Pearls –
What Necklaces could be –

The Dust replaced, in Hoisted Roads –
The Birds jocoser sung –
The Sunshine threw his Hat away –
The Bushes – spangles flung –

The Breezes brought dejected Lutes –
And bathed them in the Glee –
The Orient showed a single Flag,
And signed the fête away –

Emily Dickinson

Please be sure to visit Amy Ludwig VanDerwater at her lovely blog, The Poem Farm, for the Poetry Friday Roundup.

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