In addition to p*tag for teens, there's Poetry Tag Time, perfect for your elementary teacher friends, and Gift Tag (pictured here), which features poems about presents. All can be enjoyed on iPhones, Kindles, Nooks, computers and interactive whiteboards.
For a taste of p*tag, here's my piece "The Wishing Tree," introduced this way:
People (adults, mostly) say that “money doesn’t grow on trees, you know,” like it’s no work at all to produce a crop of juicy peaches or shiny acorns. Other people (little kids, mostly) think that lots of things grow on trees, like corks and popcorn. This photo came with the title “Wishing,” so it was easy to embrace the intriguing idea that wishes grow on trees. Does that mean there’s a Come-True Tree somewhere?
A Wishing Tree
on every star
every puff of birthday breath
every penny down the well
you wish for the same thing
on every four-leaf clover
every loose eyelash
every turkey’s furcula
you wish for the same thing
(can’t tell us, can you?
if you do it won’t come true)
you wish it every day
until one day you’re walking along,
secretly wishing on random things:
cloud shaped like a duck
three green punch-buggies in a row
your own lucky-left blue shoe
and you find—who knew?—a wishing tree
hung with white wishes as light as popcorn:
“I wish I could fly”
“I wish for a slumber party with a rock star”
and of course
“I wish to have three more wishes”
reaching deeper between the leaves
you find riper, heavier wishes:
“I wish my dog was still alive”
“I wish I had stuck up for myself”
and then—no way!—
“My wish is the same as yours”
this one you pluck, fold in half and
tuck into your right shoe,
waltzing away on the soles
of twin wishes
Heidi Mordhorst 2011
from p*tag, compiled and edited by Sylvia Vardell and Janet Wong
To give p*tag as an online gift, go to Poetry Tag Time. Click on the "Give as a Gift" button at the Amazon listings for our books, follow the prompts, and a book will be ready to download instantly on a Kindle or iPad. Be a poetry elf!
Love this poem, Heidi. Especially the way you describe lightness:
ReplyDeleteevery puff of birthday breath
hung with white wishes as light as popcorn:
So great to see you at NCTE, btw!
wishing is hard work, too, sometimes. especially if you want it to be just right.
ReplyDeletethis photo seems to want to trigger a memory of something one of my classes did a long time ago where we... did we messages of peace? hang paper cranes? the memory flickers so much i can't even be sure it isn't imagined, like roger ebert realizing that a treasured childhood memory is really a scene from a movie he'd forgotten about.
anyway, well done. now off to checl out this p*tag thing...
I wish I were funny.
ReplyDeleteI wish I could sing.
and I wish, I wish I could write poetry.
Love the poem! I also love the idea of a poetry e-book for kids. I'll check it out later. Have to work now!
ReplyDeleteJanet over at The Write Sisters
I wonder if students would write beautiful poems if you just offered the prompt, 'wishing tree', then after, read your poem? I love that you used so many 'wishing' pieces. We always wished when seeing the rainbows, but I think my grandmother made that up. Thanks for the books; they will make excellent gifts!
ReplyDelete"waltzing away on the soles
ReplyDeleteof twin wishes"
soles, or souls? could be either, methinks.
Fun snapshot from today's Poetry Friday in my classroom -- new principal was there to witness two girls reading aloud a poem...from our new classroom Kindle! (Gift Tag and Poetry Tag Time are favorites to Kindle-read alone or with a buddy!!)
I like the poem. I recently read, actually listened on cd, "The Wishing Trees" by John Shors. Lovely story, if you haven't read it.
ReplyDeleteI love that last wish & the urge to carry that one away! Great gift idea here.
ReplyDelete