One of my favorite poetry blogs is Tricia Stohr-Hunt’s The Miss Rumphius Effect. Tricia is an assistant professor of Elementary Education at the University of Richmond, as well as a blogger, poet, and all-around wonderful person. Each April, Tricia chooses a poetry theme, then writes daily posts based on her theme. These posts are incredibly thorough, informative, and inspiring. Yesterday’s post on ekphrastic poetry was no exception.
I had already been thinking about writing some ekphrastic poetry this month because of Irene Latham’s amazing National Poetry Month project, ARTSPEAK! and this painting, Mary Cassatt’s “Children in the Garden (The Nurse)” April’s image on the calendar hanging in my kitchen. The more I studied these people, the more they seemed like the perfect subjects to give voice to.
“Children in the Garden (The Nurse)” Mary Cassatt, 1878 [Public domain], via Wikimedia CommonsAs I began jotting ideas about what each person in the painting might be thinking, or dreaming about, it became clear that there would be echoes between the three. Again inspired by Tricia and her compatriots, The Poetry Seven, I decided to try a villanelle. This form has a specific rhyme scheme and pattern of repetition. I’m not in love with the word “done” to describe when lunch is over, but it had more rhyme options than other choices, so I kept it for this draft.
Children in the Garden, after “Children in the Garden (The Nurse)” by Mary Cassatt, 1878
On a June afternoon, when lunch is done, baby dreams a sweet milk dream
as she dozes in the warm summer sun.
As she knits yellow wool, finely spun, nurse’s eyelids droop in the sun’s bright gleam
on a June afternoon, when lunch is done.
I play in the garden, watched by no one. Tipping my watering can, I pour a stream
of water, glistening, into the warm summer sun.
Bumblebees dart in and out, their work just begun; welcomed by iris and roses; it’s part of nature’s scheme
this June afternoon, when lunch is done.
Spying a cricket, I give chase. I won! My prize safe in my palm, my smile’s a beam
as bright as the warm summer sun.
Breezes stir; I’ve had my fun. I snuggle next to nurse, soft as cream,
on a June afternoon when lunch is done
and doze in the warmth of the summer sun.
Thank you to Stacey, Tara, Dana, Betsy, Anna, and Beth for this space for teachers and others to share their stories each Tuesday. Be sure to visit Two Writing Teachers to read more Slice of Life posts.
Our Read Across America celebration last month incorporated Laura Purdie Salas‘s Wacky, Wild, & Wonderful: 50 State Poems. (Read more here) Classes chose poems from Laura’s book related to their curriculum and used them to inspire their own poetry and door displays.
Laura’s poem about our state, “Connecticut: Storm Warning,” inspired many doors, including the two above from Kindergarten.
One first grade class was also inspired by “Connecticut: Storm Warning,” while another used “Vermont: Sugar Season” as the theme for their door.
Second grade wrote acrostics about our town, while two third grades, below, connected “New Mexico: Recipe for a B-Earth Day Cake” and “Hawaii: Pele’s Fire” to their study of landforms.
Another third grade connected Connecticut’s weather poem to their study of character traits. Fourth grade studies regions of the United States and Washington, D.C. One class was inspired by “South Dakota: Mountain Men” to create their own versions of Mt. Rushmore. Another, below, used “Virginia: Tombstones” to create their own tribute to Arlington National Cemetery.
One fifth grade also used “South Dakota: Mountain Men” and linked it to their biography unit. Students wrote opinions about why their subject was worthy to be included on Mt. Rushmore.
One of the fifth grade science units is about how the Earth’s revolution around the sun causes the seasons, so they were inspired by “New Hampshire: White on Orange” to write seasonal haiku.
Sixth grade voted to determine their favorite state, and Florida was the winner. Seventh grade has been reading Shakespeare, so one class wrote couplets about our town.
Another seventh grade was also inspired by “Hawaii: Pele’s Fire” to create this festive door. Eighth grade has been studying civil rights, and “Louisiana: Cornet Survivor” inspired them to create this poem about the birth of jazz.
This was supposed to be a door decorating contest, but it was impossible to choose winners from all these amazing doors. It would be impossible to share all the wonderful poems the kids wrote in one post, so I’ll be sharing more over the next few weeks.
Laura is hosting the Poetry Friday Round Up at her blog, Writing the World for Kids, today so please be sure to head over to her blog to read more poetry.
When the weather cooperates, my weekend routine includes a walk with my dear friend, Colette, of Used Books in Class. After a winter of snow, cold, and wind, we were happy to walk every day over the Easter weekend.
Our walk takes us through the fairgrounds behind the firehouse, and as we rounded a corner on Saturday morning, this unusual sight caught my eye:
Maxine Greene urged people to see the world with “wide-awake eyes.” Naomi Shihab Nye wrote that “poems hide. In the bottoms of our shoes…” I always share these wise words with my students and try to follow this advice myself. So of course I had to take a picture and write a poem.
A bumper crop of used commodes Sit in the morning sun.
And although the fair is months away,
They’re ready for some fun.
Outside the information booth, They form a jagged line,
Looking for the exhibition tent,
Ready for a turn to shine.
Alas, no ribbons will they win; A sad, cruel fate awaits.
Their usefulness is now long passed.
They are ushered through the gate.
Thank you to Stacey, Tara, Dana, Betsy, Anna, and Beth for this space for teachers and others to share their stories each Tuesday. Be sure to visit Two Writing Teachers to read more Slice of Life posts.
“To feel the affection that comes from those whom we do not know … widens out the boundaries of our being, and unites all living things.” ~ Pablo Neruda ~
A confession: I can’t remember ever reading a poem by Nobel Prize winner Pablo Neruda until I read The Dreamer (Scholastic, 2010), which won the Pura Belpré Award in 2011. Pam Muñoz Ryan’s prose and Peter Sís’s illustrations work together seamlessly to tell the story of Neftali, a boy with deep curiosity about the natural world and a vivid imagination. This boy adopted the pen name Pablo Neruda to avoid the disapproval of his father, and the rest, as they say, is history.
Just a year later, Monica Brown and Julie Paschkis created Pablo Neruda: Poet of the People (Henry Holt, 2011), a gorgeous picture book biography about Neruda.
Together, these books are a wonderful introduction to Neruda’s poetry, which is infused with his “spirit of inquiry” as Ryan describes it in her author’s note to The Dreamer. In an interview with Robert Bly, Neruda advises young poets to “discover things, to be in the sea, to be in the mountains, and approach every living thing.” (This interview can be found in Neruda and Vallejo: Selected Poems, Beacon Press, 1971, edited by Robert Bly) Many of Neruda’s poems are perfect for sharing with children. Along with his directive “to look deeply into objects at rest,” they will inspire children to create their own “odes to common things.”
Ode to My Socks
by Pablo Neruda
Mara Mori brought me
a pair of socks
which she knitted herself
with her sheepherder’s hands,
two socks as soft as rabbits.
I slipped my feet into them
as if they were two cases
knitted with threads of twilight and goatskin,
Violent socks,
my feet were two fish made of wool,
two long sharks
sea blue, shot through
by one golden thread,
two immense blackbirds,
two cannons,
my feet were honored in this way
by these heavenly socks.
They were so handsome for the first time
my feet seemed to me unacceptable
like two decrepit firemen,
firemen unworthy of that woven fire,
of those glowing socks.
To discover more wonderful poetry, please be sure to visit Amy Ludwig VanDerwater at The Poem Farm for the first Poetry Friday Round Up of National Poetry Month.
Happy National Poetry Month, everyone! To kick off this month-long celebration of poets and poetry, I used Bob Raczka’s contribution to The Poetry Friday Anthology for Celebrations,“Some Reasons To Write A Poem” as a model, and came up with my own list of reasons to write a poem.
More Reasons to Write a Poem
Because a dew-laden branch looks like a string of diamonds in the morning sun
Because mixing soap and water creates iridescent bubbles
Because the ice is gone and swans have returned to the river
Because the fluffy orange cat curled up next to you is purring
Because the moon is hanging in the afternoon sky like a gauzy cotton ball
Because you surprised your mother with a bouquet of yellow roses
Les Roses jaunes, Pierre Laprade, 1920 [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
Looking for resources and ways to celebrate National Poetry Month? Head over to Jama’s Alphabet Soup, where Jama Rattigan has collected a treasure-trove of helpful links.
Congratulations, Brenda Davis Harsham of Friendly Fairy Tales! You are the winner of last week’s giveaway of a copy of The Poetry Friday Anthology for Celebrations. I’m know you’ll love this impressive collection.
Recently, I’ve been reading A Poetry Handbook, by Mary Oliver. In the chapter, “Imitation,” Oliver wisely counsels readers that “you would learn little in this world if you were not allowed to imitate.” As I read these lines, I thought of “Postscript” by Seamus Heaney. My head had been full of Heaney’s words and images for days. How would I imitate this gorgeous poem? Could I? Should I even try?
I have very vivid memories of driving from freshman orientation at the University of Maine at Orono to my summer job in Camden for the first time, almost forty years ago. Over the years, I made that trip hundreds of times. But it was that first drive that came to mind instantly when I read Heaney’s poem.
And some time make time to drive down east Along Route One, where it hugs the edge of Penobscot Bay
In late June, when lupines
Stand at attention, spreading a carpet of lavender
Over the hills and in the hollows
And the bay on one side catches the bright light
Of early summer, glistening like shards of glass
scattered among the whitecaps,
blown up by the ceaseless breeze.
And inland, among the stones left behind by sheets of ice
the pastures are green once again,
dotted with cows grazing
in the shadow of a farmhouse,
that has stood for a century, sheltering
weariness and joy, sorrow and laughter,
filling its ever-expanding heart.
Thank you to Stacey, Tara, Dana, Betsy, Anna, and Beth for this space for teachers and others to share their stories each day during the month of March and on Tuesdays throughout the year. Be sure to visit Two Writing Teachers to read more Slice of Life posts.
April is right around the corner, bringing with it showers, baseball, and National Poetry Month! Creating book spine poems is a great way to get your (and your students) poetic juices flowing.
Look! Look! Look!
What do you do with an idea?
Draw!
It’s a book!
The dreamer,
A swinger of birches
Chasing redbird,
Words with wings,
The secret hum of a daisy
Dragons love tacos,
Alphabet soup,
Apples & oranges.
Delicious!
Steam train, dream train,
You nest here with me,
Goodnight songs,
AGAIN!
Sleep like a tiger.
Thank you to Stacey, Tara, Dana, Betsy, Anna, and Beth for this space for teachers and others to share their stories each day during the month of March and on Tuesdays throughout the year. Be sure to visit Two Writing Teachers to read more Slice of Life posts.
Driving to work this morning… Thinking about a poem for Heidi’s MarCH challenge. Today’s word was clutch.
Clutch— of eggs,
fancy purse,
exciting baseball,
get a grip!
Won’t let go changing gears…
I need a dictionary.
Or a thesaurus.
Oh wait. I shared this book with a group of fifth graders toady. The Right Word: Roget and His Thesaurus, by Jen Bryant and illustrated by Melissa Sweet.
Later, at home…
On the treadmill. Reading a chapter from Kate Messner’s 59 Reasons to Write: “Point of View, Voice, and Mood”
“What would this object say?”
I look around.
What a weird conglomeration of stuff there is in this basement!
My eyes settle on my son’s collection of antique hand held planers. Think of all the wood they’ve caressed,
boards they’ve smoothed and
readied to become a table or a bookcase.
Later still…
At my desk What to write about?
I have no idea!
Thank you to Stacey, Tara, Dana, Betsy, Anna, and Beth for this space for teachers and others to share their stories each day during the month of March and on Tuesdays throughout the year. Be sure to visit Two Writing Teachers to read more Slice of Life posts.
Welcome to Poetry Friday! Today is my first time hosting, so I feel like celebrating, and there is a lot to celebrate today. To begin with, it’s the first day of spring! It’s also the International Day of Happiness. What better way to spread happiness than by sharing poetry? So share your poems, read what others have shared, and enjoy! And, to celebrate the publication of The Poetry Friday Anthology for Celebrations, edited by Sylvia Vardell and Janet Wong, I’ll be giving away a copy to one lucky person. Just leave a comment and a winner will be chosen at random. In the meantime, visit Poetry Celebrations for a sneak peek at this fun-filled collection.
It’s also World Folk Tales and Fables Week. To celebrate that, I’m sharing an original poem inspired by this photo (from a calendar I received for Christmas) and “The Frog Prince.” Although “The Frog Prince” is technically a fairy tale, the connection was too good to pass up.
Automaton, Swiss, 1820, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of Murtogh D. Guinness, 1976
No princess would refuse this frog with shiny ruby eyes.
His pearl encrusted legs
would surely mesmerize.
But, oh, poor frog, trapped within this jeweled enamel toy;
no longer can he jump and splash,
or sing his songs of joy.
Her company cannot replace the summer sky above.
Back to the pond he’d rather go,
And forsake her possessive love.
Please leave your link in the comments and I’ll be back throughout the day to round up your links. Thanks so much for stopping by!
Spring is sprouting everywhere today!
Robyn Hood Black at Life of the Deckle Edge starts us off by celebrating spring with a triolet all teachers will relate to.
Buffy Silverman has a menagerie of animal poems at Buffy’s Blog.
At Friendly Fairy Tales, Brenda Davis Harsham has gorgeous photos and a lovely concrete poem about the coming season.
Michelle Barnes welcomes Laura Shovan to Today’s Little Ditty, where shares her plans for an upcoming poetry workshop and a list poem from Heidi Stemple.
Jama is also celebrating spring with a poem from Wendy Cope, a bouquet of photos, and a giveaway of a Julie Paschkis print!
At Random Noodling, Diane Mayr has two poems for Heidi Mordhorst’s March CH challenge, and at Kurious Kitty, she shares Wallace Stevents “The Poems of Our Climate.”
Keri Collins Lewis, of Keri Recommends, takes us traveling to California with a tanka for Michelle’s challenge.
Colette Bennett celebrates the anniversary of Gen. Douglas MacArthur’s “I Shall Return” speechwith a tribute to teachers at Used Books In Class.
Matt Forrest Esenwine is sharing his original poem, “No-Moon Day” at Radio, Rhythm & Rhyme.
Linda Baie at Teacher Dance has another sign of spring with her original haiku, “Arrival.”
Charles Waters has a poem of spring and a basketball poems for Heidi’s CH challenge today at his Poetry Time Blog.
Over at GottaBook, Greg Pincus tries to convince us he’s in a poetry drought. I, for one, find that hard to believe!
At The Opposite of Indifference, Tabatha Yeatts has a beautiful poem, written by her daughter, about finding poems.
Robins have arrived at The Poetry Farm, and Amy is celebrating with an original poem.
At My Juicy Little Universe, Heidi isn’t letting a little snow spoil spring sharing from hatCHing out. Her original poem about 4 year old chefs is making me hungry!
Laura Shovan and Laura Gehl have an interesting discussion about whether rhyming picture books are poetry at Author Amok.
There are more spring poems at Reflections on the Teche, where Margaret is sharing two poems from her talented student, Erin.
Cathy Mere at Merely Day By Day contemplates the beauty of being up before dawn in her original poem.
At The Logonauts, Katie is featuring Jane Yolen,Heidi Stemple and Melissa Sweet’s lovely new book, You Nest Here With Me.
Memories of childhood inspired Donna Smith of Mainely Write to write a hatCH poem for Heidi’s challenge.
Catherine Johnson shares a peek into Alice Walker’s book of poems, There is a Flower at the Tip of My Nose Smelling Me.
Myra has a wonderful clip of spoken word poets Sarah Kay and Phil Kaye performing “When Love Arrives” over at Gathering Books.
Tricia at The Miss Rumphius Effect has two inconceivably good poems, both entries from her March Madness rounds.
Have you ever wondered what those black carts full of books at the library are thinking? JoAnn Early Macken share her idea in an original poem at Teaching Authors.
At The Drift Record, Julie Larios is sharing a spring spell, of sorts.
Julieanne Harmatz is sharing an amazing found poem her students have written from their responses toJacqueline Woodson’s Each Kindness at To Read To Write To Be.
Karen Edmisten is in today with James Weldon Johnson lovely poem, “Deep in the Quiet Wood”.
Bridget Magee has a tanka about a crane fly for Michelle’s challenge at Wee Words for Wee Ones.
At Bildungsroman, Little Willow is sharing “If Spirits Walk” by Sophie Jewett.
At Reader Totz, Lorie Ann is sharing “Paulette” from Bronzeville Boys and Girls by Gwendolyn Brooks and illustrated by Faith Ringgold. She also has an original haiku at On Point.
Football season may be over, but that’s no reason not to celebrate Jone’s poem in The Poetry Friday Anthology for Celebrations.
Over at Pleasures from the Page, Ramona shares her thoughts about I Lay My Stitches Down: Poems of American Slavery by Cynthia Grady with illustrations by Michele Wood.
Just in time for National Poetry Month, Kim of Flukeprints has a review of A Poem in Your Pocket, by Margaret McNamara and G. Brian Karas, as well as how she plans to celebrate with her students.
At Poetry for Children, Sylvia Vardell’s 700th (!) post is celebrating the publication of The Poetry Friday Anthology for Celebrations and features “Spring” by Jane Lichtenberger.
Carol Varsalona is anticipating spring in a lovely CH poem at Beyond Literacy Link.
This post is doing double duty for the March Slice of Life Challenge at Two Writing Teachers. Thank you to Stacey, Tara, Dana, Betsy, Anna, and Beth for this space for teachers and others to share their stories each day during the month of March and on Tuesdays throughout the year. Be sure to visit Two Writing Teachers to read more Slice of Life posts.
Earlier this month, Michelle Barnes, of Today’s Little Ditty, interviewed poet Margarita Engle about her new book Orangutanka (Henry Holt, 2015).Margarita challenged Michelle’s readers to write a tanka, a traditional Japanese form with five lines and a 5-7-5-7-7 syllable count.
As I was driving to work yesterday, I noticed a red-tailed hawk perched in a tree near the edge of a field. That sighting inspired this tanka:
Still as a statue,
keen eyes scan the field below,
spot a flash of gray.
Swooping down on silent wings,
red-tailed hawk scoops up breakfast.
Thank you, Michelle and Margarita, for inspiring me to write these tanka. And thank you to Stacey, Tara, Dana, Betsy, Anna, and Beth for this space for teachers and others to share their stories each day during the month of March and on Tuesdays throughout the year. Be sure to visit Two Writing Teachers to read more Slice of Life posts.
!["Children in the Garden (The Nurse)" Mary Cassatt, 1878 [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons](https://readingtothecore.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/mary_cassatt_-_children_in_a_garden_the_nurse_-_google_art_project.jpg)
![Les Roses jaunes, Pierre Laprade, 1920 [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons](https://readingtothecore.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/pierre_laprade_-_les_roses_jaunes.jpg)
![By Theendofforever at en.wikipedia. Later version(s) were uploaded by Ram-Man at en.wikipedia. [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/), GFDL (www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html), CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/) or CC BY-SA 2.5-2.0-1.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5-2.0-1.0)], from Wikimedia Commons](https://readingtothecore.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/lupinroad.jpg)
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Reading to the Core 