the #climatepoemproject, and multiform poetry

'Twas the night before April and in poets' houses

the creatures were stirring, including our mouses...

Greetings to all who are vibrating with excitement for the opening of National Poetry Month!

 

First up:

I'm participating in a project of the Authors Take Action group! Many of us are joining in suggesting prompts for a climate-themed poem, open to writers K-5 and up. You can find all the prompts at this Authors Take Action page.  Here's mine...

 

Some people are taking recycling to a whole new level! Watch this video about schools built out of plastic bottles, and then imagine sitting inside a school like that.  Write a poem describing what you see, hear, and feel around you. How is it different than a regular school?

 

 

Or... imagine building a school out of something else that usually gets thrown away, like tires or old washing machines or cardboard boxes.  Maybe your poem will sound like an engineer's structural drawing or an architect's blueprint or a TV commercial advertising your new recycled school!

 

Thanks to Laura Shovan and the other members of Authors Take Action for inviting us all to play along!

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And now, I'm playing along with the Poetry Sisters, who are writing etherees this month.  I've combined the 1-10 syllable etheree with my own creation, the definito.  Enjoy the layers of form; I certainly had fun with them, and came up with something that is kind of the opposite of a school built out of plastic bottles!

 

barely there

     a definito

air.

either

fog or mist.

a ghost. a hint

of something that fleets

         away as you reach it.

           disappearing atmosphere.

                transparent. neither solid nor stiff.

                   something here and yet not here. feels as 

                      real as air, as ether. ethereal.

 

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Finally, next Wednesday I'll start my National Poetry Month project. Assuming that I can get to grips with Squarespace's blogging platform, I'll be adding kids' poems weekly on Wednesdays to the new WHISPERshout Magazine, publishing poetry and art by kids ages 4-12.  The link is here: https://whispershoutpoetry414.blogspot.com/

 Let the wild rumpus begin!!!*

And THANKS to Mary Lee for hosting us today at A(nother) Year of Reading, where she'll also be kicking off this year's Progressive Poem.  She's one of my favorite trailblazers! 

*Yes, I know Maurice wrote "start," but the rhythm is so much better with "begin," don't you think? 😊

looking forward to poetry month?

First things first:  As promised, one commenter on my blogtour post for IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT by Laura Purdie Salas wins a copy of the book, and the winner (courtesy of Random Thing Picker) is....JANET FAGAL!

Now then: what can it mean that I'm at a loss for an April Poetry Month project???

a) I'm too distracted by the burgeoning of spring (and possibly menobrain) to concentrate on anything
b) I've had tons of ideas over the last few months that I just can't remember (see again menobrain)
c) I've grown less structured by grand complicated plans and more able to go with a general intention
d) all of the above

Ah.  And there it is...ALL OF THE ABOVE.

I now choose, for my April Poetry Month project 2019,

a) to be distracted by the burgeoning of spring or anything else that catches my attention, including 
    possibly the unexpected workings of my menobrain
b) to be suddenly struck by an idea I once had & which reappears with a pop (see again menobrain) 
    and usually an exclamation such as "OTTER POPS! They were called Otter Pops!"
c) to be less structured by a grand complicated plan and more able to go with a general intention

turns out you can still buy these...kinda ruins the moment

In other words, I will now become my own Random Thing Picker with the general intention to write a poem--any poem, any length, any form, any style, any topic--each day of this month. 

And also it might be okay to miss a day, because, you know, LIFE.


All of the Above

In the spirit of "growth mindset," "I don't have it...yet,"
"I can't do it...yet," "I haven't learned it...yet,"

I choose it all, all of it, everything,
redhot uncool greedy passion for AllOfEverything

just 

not

allatthesame
time.

  
Our host for the Poetry Friday round-up today is Carol at Carol's Corner, where the daffodils are intensely all of the above for just a short while and furthermore don't feel bad about that in any way.  Bloom on over, and see you also on APRIL 1st!
 

what do kindergarten poets do?

As promised last week, I'm celebrating the (endless end) of National Poetry Month today with poems by 17 kindergarten poets from North Kensington, MD!  After our (year-long) week-long poetry study, the most fun this year was noticing who learned what about poets' techniques--some clearly took in the lesson about creating strong feelings; some chose carefully where their words would go on the page; some used repetition (occasionally by accident!) and some went for juicy words or juicy rhythm.  Once again, I consider it my greatest success as a poetry teacher that all but a couple had good ideas and felt capable of writing a poem.

As the teacher I often get both the first and the last word, but today I'll go first and let Anthony have the last word.  You'll see why. 

Frog Song

tadpole  polliwog

tadpole  polliwog

   (gills   gills)

  back legs   shrinky tail

  front legs   shorty tail

    (change  change)

      

      frogpole   frolliwog

      frogpole   frolliwog

          (lungs   lungs)

                              LEAP!

by Ms. Mordhorst

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Ameera’s  Mirror

my mirror

was gone at

recess

it was alone

and shiny

by Ameera

Planes and Trains

airplane

train

the airplanes

are flying

the trains

are rolling

by Cristian

A Ballerina Dancing

a girl put on her shoes

blue dress

blue shoes

then the girl performed

then she took a bow

by Charm

Star Wars Legos

black

green

circles and squares

I made the

Death Star

by Thomas

Ice Cream

I love to eat

ice cream and

eat other colors

of ice cream!

oreo!!!

strawberry!!!

vanilla!!!

by Catherine

Space

Space oh space

how I love you

you are 1,001,000

miles away   oh

how you make

my brain tickle

by Jack

     

Maniac

The maniac

gets you and

he steals  money  

he sneaks in your

house      he steals

treasure  he steals

food        he steals all

by Jacob

    The Butterfly

the butterfly

is in the

meadow

finding

nectar!

in the flowers

by Ari

Snake

swiveling snake

shedding its skin

slithering away from

a roadrunner

by Aidan

Fish

fish live in

streams and oceans

too    fish eat

plants and insects

too

by Michelle

Cake

I have a

birthday party

I make a cake

and to have

my cake

come here

I like

my cake and

I like my cake

forever

by Jocelyn

Tiger

tiger eating

zebra

meat

by Edwin

My House

my toys are

behind my chimney

my kitchen

is in order

my room is

organized

my house looks

pretty

by Victor

My Egg Hatched

Look at my

egg    it hatched

there is a chick

this chick is

so cute that

I keep it     oh

wow!

by Hannah

Lions

lions are the

king

of the

jungle

lions are

fierce

by Nadia

Ice Cream

I eat ice cream

at my home and

my brother eats ice cream

in a cone

We like

rainbow

ice

cream.

by Victoria

The Clouds Are Nickels

the first part of it:

nickels are the right size

for a cloud 

the next part of it:

clouds are soft 

clouds are like

rice and mashed potatoes.

I will drink lemonade wow!

I am holding a cloud bank

of nickels  wow!

a lot of nickels outside

by Anthony

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When illustrating, Anthony took a nickel out of his pocket and used it for tracing the round fluffy shapes of clouds.  And truly, he knew--or created--the cloud bank image.  So much goodness wow!  Which kindergarten poems are your favorite?

The May Day round-up is with Ellen at Elementary Dear Reader--see you there!

npm travel journal 18: richmond, va

Today I'm visiting Dr. Tricia Stohr-Hunt of The Miss Rumphius Effect, down in my erstwhile hometown of Richmond.  Tricia is a teacher educator at the University of Richmond, and all I can say is that the students of any teacher trained by her are going to be very lucky.

The cool thing about Tricia is that she specializes in using literature--and poetry in particular--to teach math and science, and her National Poetry Month series this year is all about pairing science and poetry books.  Today's post is about animal "collectives," always fun to play with, but every entry in the series is fascinating.  I've chosen to highlight one here that introduced me to books I didn't know of. Animal extinction is the theme.

Tricia pairs Swan Song by J. Patrick Lewis with Can We Save the Tiger? by Martin Jenkins.  These books offer an emotional experience of animals long and forever gone, combined with a nonfiction text that considers the complex relationship between humans and the species they have endangered and destroyed.  The post concludes with a really rich list of links to games, videos and websites that offer students more information and opportunities for action.  I wouldn't quite be able to use this pairing in kindergarten, I think, but for classes 2nd grade and up there will be much to enjoy here, in a soberly fascinated way.

This series is a great one to go with Robyn Hood Black's host post today at Life on the Deckle Edge, where she's highlighting The Poetry Friday Anthology for Science and interviewing Sylvia Vardell and Janet Wong.   Don't miss the rest of Tricia's series--there are many wonderful surprises here, including this one for me!  : )