Tag: Dictionary For A Better World

Poetry Friday: What the World Needs Now

Catherine Flynn9 Comments

Back in March, Irene Latham and Charles Waters visited our school virtually to share their passion for poetry and to create “wordzines” with our students. Before their visit, teachers shared Dictionary for a Better World, Irene and Charles’s amazing collection of “poems, quotes, and anecdotes from A to Z.” We were all inspired by the wisdom and love that fills this book. Our fourth graders were so excited about their wordzines and the poems in Dictionary for a Better World that they decided to create their own book of “poems, quotes, and anecdotes.” And so What the World Needs Now was born. My friend and colleague Bernadette Linero, teacher extraordinaire, found a way to publish the book and all students have a copy to keep and treasure always. Here’s a peek into the creative work of our fourth graders:

Thank you to Irene and Charles for helping our students to think deeply about empathy, kindness, compassion and more. Thank you for inspiring them to create their own art and poetry that will, in the words of Nelson Mandela, “create a better world for all who live in it.”

Please be sure to visit Buffy Silverman for the Poetry Friday Roundup!

News From the Natural World: Song of the Pink Moon

Catherine Flynn21 Comments

I knew I wanted to write about this week’s spectacular pink moon today, but wasn’t sure what format my poem should take. This morning, I was rereading Dictionary For A Better World, by Irene Latham and Charles Waters. I am absolutely in love with this book. Charles and Irene’s poems are just the beginning of the many layers to this rich and rewarding book. If you haven’t read it, read it now. You’ll feel much better.

Hope seems to be in short supply lately, so I had this page bookmarked. As it happens, Irene’s poem about hope is a nonet, “a nine-line poem that begins with a one-syllable line and builds to a nine-syllable line, or the reverse.” As today is April 9th, this seemed like the perfect time to try this form.

Song of the Pink Moon

Round
pink moon
rises, shines
her bright spotlight
on a woodland pond.
Soaring from the shadows,
the humming and thrumming of
a thousand exuberant spring
peepers, singing the world a love song.

Draft © Catherine Flynn, 2020

My view of last night’s pink moon.

Other “News From the Natural World” poems:

April 8: Jewel of the Jungle
April 5: Phantom of the Forest
April 4: To Build a Nest
April 3: Apple Cake
April 2: Specimen
April 1: Forest Snail

Today, it’s Carol Varsalona’s turn to choose a line for this year’s Progressive Poem.

1 Donna Smith at Mainely Write
2 Irene Latham at Live Your Poem
3 Jone MacCulloch, deowriter
4 Liz Steinglass
5 Buffy Silverman
6 Kay McGriff
7 Catherine Flynn at Reading to the Core
8 Tara Smith at Going to Walden
9 Carol Varsalona at Beyond Literacy Link
10 Matt Forrest Esenwine at Radio, Rhythm, and Rhyme
11 Janet Fagel, hosted at Reflections on the Teche
12 Linda Mitchell at A Word Edgewise
13 Kat Apel at Kat Whiskers
14 Margaret at Reflections on the Teche
15 Leigh Anne Eck at A Day in the Life
16 Linda Baie at Teacher Dance
17 Heidi Mordhorst at My Juicy Little Universe
18 Mary Lee Hahn at A Year of Reading
19 Tabatha at Opposite of Indifference
20 Rose Cappelli at Imagine the Possibilities
21 Janice Scully at Salt City Verse
22 Julieanne Harmatz at To Read, To Write, To Be
23 Ruth, thereisnosuchthingasagodforsakentown.blogspot.com
24 Christie Wyman at Wondering and Wandering
25 Amy at The Poem Farm
26 Dani Burtsfield at Doing the Work That Matters
27 Robyn Hood Black at Life on the Deckle Edge
28
29 Fran Haley at lit bits and pieces
30 Michelle Kogan