progressive poem 2015: line 3

Welcome one and all to Day 3, Line 3 of this year's Progressive Poem, curated by Irene Latham.  I'm delighted to participate again this year! I note that as an ever-changing group, we seem to like to take big risks.  In 2012 we spilled our dreams in a spice-scented Moroccan market. In 2013 we danced and dangled under the Big Top of the Poetry Circus.  In 2014 we journeyed clutching sapphire eggs into the company of a blue-eyed friend.

This year Jone and Joy have led us into the wild in so many interesting ways.  These long lines defy regular meter, don't demand rhyme, and give us a whole delta to explore.  I''m fascinated by the "she" who roams it, shoeless and netless.  Let her fend for herself,
let her body be one with the landscape...

She lives without a net, walking along the alluvium deposits of the delta.

Shoes swing over her shoulder, on her bare feet stick jeweled flecks of dark mica.
Hands faster than fish swing at the ends of bare brown arms. Her hair flows 


I see that my blogwidth is not enough to contain these lines; can we break them for today?  Then it looks like this, and what is changed, do you think?
 
She lives without a net, 
walking along the alluvium deposits of the delta.
Shoes swing over her shoulder, 
on her bare feet stick jeweled flecks of dark mica.
Hands faster than fish swing at the ends 
of bare brown arms. Her hair flows


Tomorrow Laura PS at Writing the World for Kids continues the poem, and I bet her blog is wide enough to hold the flow.  Not to get sedimental, but I just love this big ol' collaboration of poets...Go Us!

Follow along each day to see how our poem grows, and join Amy at The Poem Farm for a singable round-up this first Poetry Friday of National Poetry Month!

2015 Kidlitosphere

Progressive Poem

1 Jone at Check it Out

2 Joy at Poetry for Kids Joy

3 Heidi at My Juicy Little Universe

4 Laura at Writing the World for Kids

5 Charles at Poetry Time Blog

6 Ramona at Pleasures from the Page

7 Catherine at Catherine Johnson

8 Irene at Live Your Poem

9 Mary Lee at Poetrepository

10 Michelle at Today's Little Ditty

11 Kim at Flukeprints

12 Margaret at Reflections on the Teche

13 Doraine at DoriReads

14 Renee at No Water River

15 Robyn at Life on the Deckle Edge

16 Ruth at There is No Such Thing as a Godforsaken Town

17 Buffy at Buffy's Blog

18 Sheila at Sheila Renfro

19 Linda at Teacher Dance

20 Penny at A Penny and her Jots

21 Tara at A Teaching Life

22 Pat at Writer on a Horse

23 Tamera at The Writer's Whimsy

24 Tricia at The Miss Rumphius Effect

25 Tabatha at The Opposite of indifference

26 Brian at Walk the Walk

27 Jan at Bookseedstudio

28 Amy at The Poem Farm

29 Donna at Mainely Write

30 Matt at Radio, Rhythm & Rhyme

 

Poetry Friday & NCTE

The time draws near and I'm getting excited...the NCTE Annual Convention begins next Thursday, November 20!  I'm looking forward, as I do every year, to spending some time surrounded by fellow teachers who are passionate about English language and literature teaching.  It's also the time of year when I get to hang out in person with the blogging poets and teachers whom I "see" each Friday right here in the virtual Poetry Friday community.  Click here to find out more about the six-year-old Poetry Friday tradition.
 
Out of these steadily inspiring virtual relationships has come a great gift to teachers--the Poetry Friday Anthologies, created and compiled by two champions of children's poetry, professor and cheerleader Sylvia Vardell and poet and community organizer Janet Wong.  Their mission to support teachers in bringing more poetry into  classrooms began with an e-book--Poetry Tag Time--a concept which I am proud to have been a little helpful in developing.

There are now three Poetry Friday Anthologies--one for K-5, one for middle school, and most recently one for science.  Over the last few weeks I've been highlighting science poetry by "classic" poets, but The Poetry Friday Anthology for Science is a catalog of the best poets currently writing for children, all in one place, supporting teachers as they attempt to do Too Much All at Once.

I'm a classroom teacher.  I know what our curricula look like.  Someone in our central office (or several someones) puts together a ginormous pile of standards, indicators, lessons and resources in an effort to help us classroom professionals offer our students a rich and "rigorous" curriculum.  (Personally I prefer a rich and vigorous curriculum; somehow "rigor" always make me think of dead bodies, stiff and cold.)  The effect is almost always an overwhelming feeling of dread as we look ahead each week to all that we are supposed to do and teach in our measly 6 hours per day with our students.  The triage is bloody and there is only one solution:  synergy.

syn·er·gy  ˈsinərjē/    noun

the interaction or cooperation of two or more organizations, substances, or other agents to produce a combined effect greater than the sum of their separate effects

Synergy is the creation of a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts.

We also call this "integrating the curriculum," but when your curriculum is delivered to you in several separate binders or individual webpages labeled Math, Reading, Writing, Science and Social Studies, it can be hard to remember that none of these "subjects" stands alone and separate--not in our adult minds, and certainly not  the minds of elementary students.  That's just not how people think and learn.

There is always a necessity to get down into the details of how to teach each little skill and concept, but if we let that approach run our days in the classroom, we rob our students of the chance to marvel at the beauty of the interdependent web of ideas, knowledge and indeed all existence.

So how do we successfully attempt Too Much All at Once?  One way is to use poetry to address other curriculum areas.   This will be the subject of the Children's Literature Assembly Master Class that I'll be helping to lead at this year's NCTE conference.  My roundtable discussion will focus on ways to use poetry to teach science and vice versa--to synergize the elements of language, metaphor, curiosity, investigation, research and data into a whole that becomes a powerful tool for student engagement and learning.  The Poetry Friday Anthology for Science takes us there with next to no effort (although we will need some courage, if we're not teachers who live entirely comfortably in the world of poetry).

Here's a shout-out to my colleagues at Rock View Elementary School in North Kensington, MD, some of whom will win copies of The PFA for Science in a raffle on Monday.  I'll close with one of my personal favorites from this anthology, placed in the 1st grade section but accessible to elementary kids of all ages.  It's by Mary Lee Hahn, my friend and fellow classroom teacher from Dublin, Ohio, who will also be presenting at the CLA Master Class next weekend.  See how few words--well-chosen words!--you need to bring rhyme, rhythm, scientific concepts and higher-order thinking to your students?

The Lion and the House Cat ||  Mary Lee Hahn

different strength
different size
same chin
same eyes

different mane
different stride
same stretch
same pride

And below are a few snippets and excerpts from this wonder of a book, all taken from the Pomelo Books website.  Go on and make your teaching life a little more efficient and a little more beautiful:  commit to Poetry Friday (once a month? every other week? every Friday?) and get yourself one of these anthologies to help out.

Poetry Friday is hosted today by Keri at Keri Recommends.  Enjoy!
 

     

poetry friday is here! object voices

Welcome to all...it's still dark out, but it's sounding like a beautiful day in Bethesda.  I know it's not quite April, but National Poetry Month starts today here at my juicy little universe.  This month I'm going to be exploring poems in the voices of the inanimate world (and I hope there will be some guest poets later in the month, also).

As humans we do a lot of talking--in my house especially!--and it's easy to imagine animals and plants finding language to express their views and emotions. But it's a little more of a stretch to put words in the nonexistent mouths of things, to hear the voices of the objects around us, and when they come through clearly it's an exciting look into another world.

Here's one from my collection of poems in the voices of folk and fairy tale objects.  I had fun trying to get the vocabulary and speech patterns to fit the station and style of things like Cinderella's glass slipper, Rapunzel's hair, and the Third Pig's bricks.

Little Bricks, Little Bricks,
Let Me Come In

We’re  thick  thick  thick
We’re  dense  dense  dense
There’s only one thing that makes sense:

We  stick  stick  stick
We  stack  stack  stack
We do not crack when wolves attack

Side to side and back to back
Our shoulders square   our faces flat
We stand  we stick  we sit  we stay

Huff and puff at us all day,                         wolf!

But bricks don’t budge
They don’t cave in
Not by the straw of our chinny-chin-chins


Heidi Mordhorst 2010
all rights reserved


Laura Purdie Salas has also played with this idea in her recent volume, BookSpeak (Clarion, 2011).   We went to the library last night in preparation for a Spring Break trip to Arizona; just listen to this globe-trotting book speaking.

VACATION TIME!


Whenever I’m checked out, it’s like a vacation.
I’m scanned and I’m packed for a new destination!


I’ve floated in airplanes. I’ve lain on the beach.
I’ve hidden in bunk beds — just out of your reach.


Been stained by spaghetti, been splashed at the lake.
I’ve shared your adventures. I’ve kept you awake.


At night in your sleeping bag — too dark to see –
you whipped out a flashlight to keep reading me.


I never quite know where my reader is bound,
and hundreds of times I’ve been lost and then found.


It’s good to get home, look around, see what’s new,
but before long I’m antsy . . .


A trip’s overdue!

Copyright © 2011 Laura Purdie Salas.
All rights reserved.

Look for more talking-object poems throughout April, and if you have a favorite, let me know. 
And now, let the wild round-up begin!

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Robyn posted early this week and features a really fun new abecedarian from Nancy Raines Day called A is for Alliguitar at Read, Write, Howl.  Go try out a tromboa, a saxofox or a wolbourine!

Jone at Check It Out has a useful little listing of National Poetry Month blog celebrations.  Our friends are serving up such richness!  Jone herself will be featuring thirty days of poems by students.

Joy's celebration is of Janet Wong's new collection Declaration of Interdependence, and she's giving away four autographed copies!  Visit her at Poetry for Kids Joy.

Amy LV has a darling (but also clever) poem about baby dreams at The Poem Farm, along with info about her plans for April both on the Farm and at her Sharing Notebooks blog.

Myra and Co. at Gathering Books are lingering in Women's History Month before leaping into [American] National Poetry Month--with the help of  Walt Whitman and a piece of Leaves of Grass I don't recall seeing before.  Wow!

At The Drift Record, Julie has an original poem from the point of view of a kite, as well as news about Sylvia Vardell's new book and words from Janet Wong again--this time calling us all to agitate for a higher profile for poetry! [This formerly incorrect link is now fixed. Sorry, Julie!]

Mary Lee is posting today at A Year of Reading on all the ways she WON in the March Madness Poetry Tournament.  We all won just by reading poems like "Saffron Harvest."

Renee hosts guest poet Miranda Paul--from the crocodile pit!--today at No Water River, and will be sharing videos and interviews with a lovely assembly of poets throughout April.

Tabatha's got the second installment of her Fictional Favorites series, featuring Irene Latham's poem picks in honor of characters from The Hunger Games.  This could be too wonderful for one post!  Go to The Opposite of Indifference to catch fire.

Irene herself at Live Your Poem has written an Ode to Mary Lee (yes, our Mary Lee!) and thoughts on her experience as a reader and writer in the March Madness tournament.  I think it has been a novel experience for many of us, and we're all looking forward to the Final Four.

Two of my favorite Lauras are posting today:  Local Laura Shovan, who shares an interesting visit with fellow Marylander Kay Weeks and her online Senryu Journal at Author Amok.

Minnesota Laura [Purdie Salas] has her 15 Words or Less results, as usual, and Janet Wong again!  (Did I miss the memo about how March 30 is Janet Wong Day?]  It's her Polar Bear poem from the e-book Once Upon a Tiger at Writing the World for Kids.

Your host will now pause to celebrate Spring Break by reading aloud pages 382-405 of Harry Potter VII and posting poetry in the halls of a certain middle school.  More round-up around lunchtime!
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What a busy Friday!   Jama's announcing her Poetry Potluck plans in honor of Mary Oliver and her own list of Poetry Month events at Alphabet Soup.

Linda's ruminating on being part of online writing communities, and I hope is not as disappointed as I am that the sun lasted approximately 15 minutes this morning in our part of the world!  Visit her at Write Time.

As usual, Diane offers a plethora of poetry at Random Noodling (a spring poem by Wm. Allingham, "Four Ducks on a Pond") at Kids of the Homefront Army (a poem called "This Close"), at Kurious Kitty (the words to "Old Salty Dog Blues" in honor of Earl Scruggs, who passed away this week), and at Kurious K's Kwotes (a quote from Adrienne Rich, who also passed away this week).

Sherry reminds us of the delights of Poe with The Raven" at her Semicolon blog.

Elaine shares her original mask poem "Trunk Talk"--go see which kind of trunk is talking at Wild Rose Reader.  She also announces her book giveaway during April...goodies, goodies!

At On Point, Lorie Ann offers "Offering," a haiku.  Nice to have you, Lorie Ann.

Violet takes us to Canada for thoughts on the demise of the Canadian penny and some nursery rhymes at Line upon line.

It's a windy end to March at The Write Sisters with Jet and "Only the Wind Says Spring."

Ed has two posts for us today, some cool miscellaneous data on the Madness and one on waking up, both at Think Kid, Think.

In a pleasingly smooth segue, at Carol's Corner Carol features Charles R. Smith, sports poet superstar and author of five books of basketball poems.  Folks, let's make sure Carol (and all the other poetry lovers who also love sports) understand that all passions are prime poetry impulses!

Katya also remembers Adrienne Rich with "Diving into the Wreck" and some links to more information about this most distinguished American poet.  Find her at Write. Sketch. Repeat.

Tamera Will Wissinger is one of quite a few authors with debut books coming out in 2012.  They're all blogging at The Lucky 13s, and Tamera's post today is on Why Poetry Matters.  Thanks for stopping by, Tamera!

Donna shares a neat little poem along with some very nice crafting related to it at Mainely Write, and another one here!

At A Teaching Life, Tara's featuring Laura Purdie Salas as well today (making it officially Janet-Wong-AND-Laura-Salas Day), again putting the delightful BookSpeak into the spotlight.

Janet returns to the timeless classic Hailstones and Halibut Bones at her All About the Books blog.  She's feeling purple today!

Ruth made me laugh with her teacher's intro to a hopeful poem with a wonderful title, "Horses at Midnight Without a Moon."  Enjoy it at There is no such thing as a God-forsaken town.

Linda at TeacherDance is featuring Renee LaTulippe and her awesome (and I do not use that word lightly) poetry video blog project.  I didn't quite understand what Renee is up to, rushing to round up this morning.  Please go see what a service she's providing to the community!

Lately risen to the Final Four of the March Madness Tournament, the heroic Greg is sharing his playground acrostic poem from Round 3, using the inspiring word "truce."  Enter the battle at GottaBook.

Susan wades back into Poetry Friday (how we've missed you!) with her own March Madness contribution at Susan Taylor Brown, as well as her plans for Poetry Month.  I loved this poem, not least because of its pantoumian structure. 

At bildungsroman (a fine title for a blog), Little Willow shares a D.H. Lawrence poem in honor of the recently published book Joe Golem and the Drowning City.  I think Little Willow ought to check out Tabatha's Fictional Favorites above!

Kerry froths things up with a review of the classic Barnyard Dance (4 million copies in print!) over at Picture Books & Pirouettes.  Everybody ready?

Gosh, I love Poetry Friday when I have time to enjoy it properly!  Time now for your hostess to attend to more of those mundane matters...cat-feeding, laundry, supervising "Granny Wars" on the trampoline...I'll round up any last posts much later tonight.  Thanks for stopping in, everyone!

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Our friend at Books 4 Learning joins us with a review of If Peas Could Taste Like Candy, a collection
by Crystal Bowman.  I'm confused, though...don't peas already taste like candy?  ; )

Marjorie at Paper Tigers shares photos and an interview with Dutch photographer Taco Anema. 

To close the evening, Sylvia stops in to plug what is surely a must for every poetry-loving, poetry-teaching, poetry-promoting one of us--her new Poetry Teacher's Book of Lists!  Get the full story at Poetry for Children.

That's it, everyone!  I'm looking forward to making a second round to read more carefully, and I'm grateful to be a part of this community.  Until next time, my neighbors in PoetryTown!

"what buds?"

My son is 8 and although he knows a lot about the world, I'm sometimes surprised at what I assume he knows and doesn't. We had another 2" of snow overnight on Tuesday and therefore (somewhat absurdly) a 2-hour delay on Wednesday, so we had time to gear up and head out to the bus stop half-an-hour early. It wasn't great snowball snow--fine and flaky and extra-sparkly in the sun--so we found other ways to amuse ourselves, like shaking snow off branches (and is there anything more beautiful than dark branches frosted in sparkling snow against a blue, blue sky?) .

"Look at all the buds," I said. "They know spring will come again even though it doesn't feel like it now." I bothered to say it out loud because this knowledge added to my hopeful, sunny, fresh-air feeling. Duncan looked up and said, "What buds?" You know, like he'd never heard of buds. I pointed out the little textured teardrops at the end of each twig on the--actually I don't even know what kind of tree we were standing under. "Each of those is a tiny beginning of a leaf, just waiting for the weather to warm up." "Really? Cool," he replied, and went to jump daringly into the snow from a wall which is rumored to contain a snakehole.

There was time when I eschewed exclamation marks as a sign of weak writing in need of bolstering by flashy punctuation. Frank O'Hara changed my mind about that (and has inspired many others), and see how WCW uses one surprisingly! in this otherwise softspoken poem. I think it renders perfectly the feeling we have when we can cross something big off our to-do list, relax and store up wisdom. Hm. I miss that feeling...

Winter Trees
by William Carlos Williams

All the complicated details
of the attiring and
the disattiring are completed!
A liquid moon
moves gently among
the long branches.
Thus having prepared their buds
against a sure winter
the wise trees
stand sleeping in the cold.

Enjoy Poetry Friday today with Laura Purdie Salas at Writing the World for Kids--and congratulations indeed to Joyce Sidman for her Newbery Honor medal--it'll look great on the cover of Dark Emperor. Go Poetry!

[uptoFIFTEENonline-listservs] in the picture

I find lists to be a powerful way of describing and defining. When I placed a personal ad in the Village Voice ohsomany years ago, it consisted of a list of items in my possession, among them "103 earrings, garlic press, Swiss Army knife, X tapes." That last got me plenty of suggestive letters from folks who misunderstood thoroughly.


I've realized that I'm now receiving daily digests from no fewer than 15 different listservs; taken together they describe and define me pretty thoroughly. The most recent addition is the Maryland Writers' Association, where I found an announcement about this project:



Welcome to SPARK!

Open to writers, musicians, and visual artists of all kinds,
SPARK is a participatory creativity event that takes place four times each year.

The project’s rules are simple: Writers send their partners a story or poem; artists send an image of their painting, photograph, or sculpture; and musicians and video artists send either a file or a link to their work on another website. Then, over the 10-day project period, each person uses their partner’s piece as a jumping off point for new work of their own.

This site is a work in progress, containing inspiration and response pieces from SPARK’s 2010 rounds. You can view those pieces by clicking “See the work,” above. You can also see work from SPARK’s first six rounds here.

SPARK Rounds take place in February, May, August, and October. If you’d like to join us, send us a note!

I've already registered to participate in SPARK 10 later this month, because I had so much fun doing something similar before. I've written some poems to go with paintings by my friend Elyse Harrison, a local artist who runs a studio/gallery, and participated in an event a few years ago where Elyse invited artists and writers to collaborate and then put up a show of their work. I wrote a poem to go with a provocative landscape photograph that I had intended to post here, but alas, I can't find it.

So instead I'll put up this week's "15 Words or (ahem) Fewer" poem, a weekly opportunity provided by the endlessly energetic and inspiring Laura Purdie Salas. This week she posted the above, and in response I posted the following.

gown

it's the elbows
that tell the story
of the next twenty-four years
of togetherness

Heidi Mordhorst
ARR MATEY 2010


While a list, like a column of tiny buttons, might describe and define, sometimes it's what is not quite in the picture that tells the real story.

Laura and Heidi at the ALA Poetry Blast 2010










Check out the list of Poetry Friday posts at Carol's Corner!