all join in: the poetry friday round-up is here!

Greetings once again to all who keep Poetry Friday, to all who mark National Poetry Month, to all who care about Poetry and Justice for All!  I'm thrilled to be your host today, this Earth Day weekend, and to remind us all of our ancestral roots in the Kidlitosphere by bringing you some number of poems written and composed by kids of my acquaintance.  

You don't need me to remind you that the future of our planet belongs to these our youngest poets. You need THEM to remind you.

and, in conclusion:

Diversity.  Unity.  Wonder.  Belief.   

Now you bring YOUR diversity, unity, wonder and belief to our Friday!  InLinkz will collect your links below.  HAPPY EARTH DAY!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

POETRY FRIDAY ROUNDUP & PoFo Summer Poetry Teachers Institute

Welcome to all!  I'm pleased to host this week's Poetry Friday Round-up (go here for full details thanks to Renee LaTulippe if you're new) and to make good on my promise to report from my pretty glorious last week in Chicago at the Summer Poetry Teachers' Institute.  You'll also find links to all the other cool poetry posts around the web down at the bottom.

I can't remember how I discovered this institute, which is offered free of charge and includes accommodation at the conveniently located but very dorm-like dorms of the University of Illinois at Chicago.  There was a short application form to complete back in April, and then I was notified of my acceptance--it was that simple.  It's unclear to me if there were folks who applied and were NOT accepted, but the Institute, which has sections for Elementary, Middle & High School, and Community College teachers, served about 80 people (very unsure of that number) of whom 20 were in my nicely diverse PK-5 group.

If I sound like I'm selling this program, I am.  You'll see from the schedule below how varied the sessions were and how practically useful the outcomes were at a number of levels, and how time was allocated for processing as well as rest, tourism or home life, according to preference!

We began and ended the week all together with Carol Jago, familiar to me from NCTE--a true teacher leader.  There wasn't a lot of difference between the "seminars" and "workshops"--they were all excellent presentations that often included opportunities to write for ourselves or to plan for our classroom practice; there were handouts and modeling, and in several cases, the gift of books!  We all received a book collection from the Poetry Foundation which included an Engle book, The Flying Girl, and Ted Scheu gave each of us a signed copy of his Someday I'll Be a Teacher. 

The range of the presentation content was wide, and if I have any tiny criticism, it was that some presenters seemed unaware that we were not a wide general audience of teachers, but mostly quite devoted to and experienced with poetry--and in addition most of us were poets ourselves.  Thus a couple of the presentations came in at a rather basic level--and still we managed to glean plenty from each of them!  Details from each presentation may be added throughout the day here, but I can identify the single best line of the week:

POETRY IS ART CLASS WITH WORDS.

This came from Beth Sampson, who runs Hands On Stanzas, a Chicago poetry-in-the-schools project.  She outlined the first five lessons which this organization's poets do in classrooms, and thereby all my best practices as a poetry teacher became a newly organized, explicit, intentional approach with structure and labels!  Concept #1 for kids (and perhaps teachers) with little familiarity of "what poetry is" uses children's experience of art class--a special subject carried out by a specialist teacher in a different room in most districts--to "do a lot really fast."  By comparing the variety of materials, processes, and products that constitute ART, this definition clarifies the broad range of writings that can be poems, the endless ways that words can be used to create them, and the idea that we are using words in different and special ways when we make poetry than when we do other kinds of language work, especially in school settings.

I love, love, love this genius little metaphor (*forehead slap* why didn't I think of it myself?) and honestly, its powerful efficiency is going to change how I approach poetry in my 2nd grade classroom this year.  Usually we begin with a period of input, analogous to the silent/receptive stage of second language learning, because I never know what kind of poetry experience my students will be coming in with.  I wait until around December before I ask kids to Write a Poem, when they've had weeks of exposure to many different forms and a lot of my passion and excitement.  (I also certainly don't discourage them if they think of doing so on their own!)

Being able to "draw on" their shared experience of Art with our seriously excellent art teacher, Leela Payne, will make that leap to writing work nearer to the beginning of the year.  I can't wait!  The other transformative concept from Hands On Stanzas is one that I carry with me as an implicit assumption--that all kids are poets. WE know that, but often they don't know that, so it's important that we let them know that just as in art class, they all come with all the creative tools they need to be successful.  They'll just be applying them in new ways. Do all kids come to art with excellent scissor skills?  No, so we model and teach and share techniques and they get better at cutting--but 99 times out of 100 they know WHAT they want to cut and what color it should be.

Here are some photos from the week, many taken by our Chicago Public School facilitator Shamika Keepers.

We were asked to bring one indispensable resource. I couldn't get it down to one!

from Carol Jago's opening remarks

Looking at how we could use some of the books provided by the PoFo...

Notes from Margarita's presentation

We had time to explore the glorious Poetry Foundation Library.  I recognized a friend!

The many breakout sessions on the schedule were for self-selected groups to work collaboratively on poetry projects for the classroom.   We were encouraged to make maximum use of the Poetry Foundation's website, and the culmination of the week was a Curriculum Fair at which we displayed our concepts Science Fair-style. Here were some of my favorites--not all from the Elementary section, either!

A middle school idea which I loved--and I was so happy to introduce the group to Valerie Worth's small poems!

This was our group's project, designed to work up or down PK-5.  That's my fab new friend Chii.  See my Metaphor Dice?

I'll leave you with a poem I wrote during Eric Elshtain's session, in which we worked on "the rearrangement of past perceptions to create new realities" using the logic of the senses.  He said, "All knowledge and all art begins and ends with the senses."  We imagined that we had met a cloud of our favorite color on the street and taken a handful...

<poem>

So, there is a good some of it, but not the sum of it!  If you are a teacher, do apply for next year, and maybe I'll see you there, since repeat offenders are welcome.

And now....the Round-Up!  Please leave your links in the comments and I will line them up old-school throughout the day.  Thanks for joining us today!

Bedtime Stories

Linda Number 1 is sharing a jam sandwich at A Word Edgewise.

Linda Number 2 has popsicles--four flavors--at Write Time.  Now, who has the main course?

Alan has fighting words for beating the blank page at Poetry Pizzazz.

Sally is dealing with a very very very challenging misfortune:  Too Many Books.

Diane is in with an original called "Pictures of Liberty" over at Random Noodling. 
And at Kurious Kitty you'll find two anniversary poems by Douglas Florian.

Tabatha has a found poem from The Hare with Amber Eyes, to which she refers like everybody knows The Hare with Amber Eyes. 😉  Read this beautiful object at The Opposite of Indifference.

Matt will be cooling us down with an original called "Summer Frost" at Radio, Rhythm and Rhyme.

Laura Number 1 would like to warn you that her post includes a powerful response to the Parkland HS shootings by Tim Singleton.  You will also find a link to her stop on the blog tour for Margaret Simon's Bayou Song.

Laura Number 2 has been sharing her entries for the March Madness Poetry Tournament and concludes today with her last, "Spurious Sayings."  Find it at Writing the World for Children.

Our friend at Books4Learning has a very thorough an enticing review of Javaka Steptoe's anthology In Daddy's Arms I Am Tall.

Michelle Kogan celebrates butterflies and bees in art and writing over at More Art 4 All.

Rebecca lets us enjoy her Summer Poem Swap from Irene about "creepy lakes." I will soon be swimming my curious self over to Sloth Reads to find out what that's about!

Jone is introducing a new haiku anthology at Deowriter that includes some of her work.  Congratulations, Jone!

Fats at Gathering Books is highlighting the work of a young Instagram poet, Caroline Kaufman.

Early Birdsong

Mary Lee reports on a miracle she witness this morning at A Year of Reading.

There's more about lakes--not all creepy--with Irene at Live Your Poem.

Ruth is sharing poems for travelers at There Is No Such Thing As a God-Forsaken  Town.  I love airports too, as last week's travels reminded me.

Lunchbox Letters

Little Willow reminds us to keep dancing over at Bildungsroman.

Tara is sharing some Mary Oliver today at Going to Walden.

Catherine has poems commemorating the 49th anniversary of the moon walk at Reading to the Core.

Afternoon Authors

At the Mistakes Anthology blog Tabatha has a poem by Michelle Kogan to share.

Margaret has a review of Marilyn Singer's new book and a writing prompt to share at Reflections on the Teche.

Mandy is following a question this week about disappearing parsley at her blog Enjoy and Embrace Writing.

Evening Entries

Carol is looking at Long Island through the eyes of Emma Lazarus at Beyond Literacy Links.

And now, a flash poem:  Molly Hogan's hollyhocks.  The End. 😀   Read about them at Nix the Comfort Zone.

Christie has also been away at Cornell's BirdSleuth educator retreat! She has hungry herons at Wondering and Wandering.

And, to close out the weekend's reading, Sylvia brings a report on her presentation about pets and reading from ILA at Poetry for Children.

poetry friday round-up: open house

Yes, indeed, friends--my house is open!  Today at 1:30 pm children and their families will surge in around the lists posted in the foyer of the school to see who has which teacher, and then the new 2nd graders will surge up the stairs to the 2nd floor for the first time to find their new classrooms, and then 16 of them will surge through my door looking for a new home away from home.  I hope they find it, and I hope you will also find a home away from home here today in this community, in a poem someone has posted.  I almost always find something just right!

Three Little Birds
(a mindful breathing practice)

Criss cross. Sit straight.
Hands out. Reach and gather.
Gently scoop it to your belly.
Hold it there for 1, 2, 3
feathered seconds.
Its bones are hollow,
its eyes are bright.

Now lift. Lift it up
with gentle hands
and let it fly lightly away
taking your breath
along with it.

Reach again and scoop
a second one.  Don't worry
about a thing.
Hold it, counting 1, 2, 3,
and then let it fly.

Once more, a third little bird,
reach and gather, hold it
to your belly.
Hear a melody pure and true,
and let this one fly too.

draft (c) HM 2016
with thanks to Bob Marley

**************************
I won't be available to do any rounding-up until much later today, but the link-up will automate us and I look forward to reading your posts as I get a chance over the weekend!

An InLinkz Link-up

welcome to the Found Objects project, day 15!

Ahhh....a snowy morning, a hot cup o' joe, and no school!  Thanks, George & Abe!

I have the honor today of helping out my friend and Maryland neighbor with her annual February Write-Along Challenge.  (Laura's kind of busy right now, with her NEW BOOK* set to come out in April.) This project goes by many names, and I'll let Laura herself explain it thoroughly at her new blog, but the short version is:

one interesting prompt per day in February = one new poem per participant per day

Laura is very careful to let everyone know that perfect attendance is not a requirement for participation, although some do challenge themselves to that discipline.  I'm in the other camp, joining in when I can, but since today's prompt is the Found Object photo that I provided, I'll be working on my draft along with rounding up the responses of others today.

And let's be frank, shall we?  Although each of us blasting out a poem-a-day may enjoy a blazing moment of transcendent poetic glory here and there, it will be a very rare poem shared that doesn't need some time to percolate (heh heh "percolate" get it?) and another few rounds of review and revision.  Most of our responses are very definitely drafts.  But as I noted earlier, there is something liberating about just Going For It--conceiving a poem, typing it, cutting and pasting it and clicking to put it out there, all in under an hour.  This practice exercises all kinds of muscles other than actual composition, doesn't it!?

Now, let's go find some transcendent poetic glory....

Jessica Bigi gives us a related round, brown textured treat:

Chocolate Chip Cookies


Vanilla splashes
Flowery fingerprints
Cookie dough everywhere
Spoonful of chocolate chips
Magic baking on trays
The best part of all
Slurping leftover
Batter off fingers
From the mixing bowl
We're Grandma's
Little bakers

~ Jessica Bigi


Matt Forrest Esenwine finds himself transported by engrained marketing slogans, and it works, by golly!

Maxwell’s Kitchen

I sipped away
as time ticked by;
the Last Drop, though,
is growing nigh.

© 2016 Matt Forrest Esenwine, all rights reserved

Catherine Flynn writes: "I recently read Lisa Randall's Dark Matter and the Dinosaurs: The Astounding Interconnectedness of the Universe, and this poem is definitely under the influence of Randall's fascinating (although at times over my head) book."

Rings of sediment
line this mug of stone.
Remnants of cocoa
chart the history
of this poem.

Thin layers mark
many quick sips,
moments of confusion
or distraction.

Thicker layers tell
a tale of clarity,
ideas growing,
words flowing.

In the unfinished drops
at the bottom
I try to read the future,
and divine the fate
of the universe.

© Catherine Flynn

Laura also (in a phenomenon that I'm going to call "quantum entanglement," after Albert Einstein, but which I'm pretty sure has a different name when it's not about particle) connects the coffee in the mug to the surface of the Moon in a haiku:

La Luna flashes
her cappuccino craters
in my coffee mug

(c) Laura Shovan

And Mary Lee Hahn carries us far from the chill of this snowy morn, the strata of this half-empty cup:

Dregs

It's late summer.
All that's left of Bijou Creek
is a sinuous path of green
between low eroded hills.

In the cutbank of a gully we find
fossilized fragments of turtle shell,
and a Paleocene tree trunk
buried in its upright, growing position.


                                                                                    ©Mary Lee Hahn, 2016

We do enjoy hearing how others' poems come to be, so Mary Lee shares her process notes here.

I myself intended a similarly thoughtful poem of time and strata, layers and decumulation; I even titled the photo both "Caffeinocene Era" and "Capuccinocene Era".  But, being the photographer, I know what was really going on during the drinking of this cappucino a few Saturdays ago...


Weekly Planning

See that warm cinnamon foam
at the bottom? I drank my capuccino upside down;
I mean I planned my week of second grade upside down.
I came to the frothy, spicy cinnamon layer last
even though it was topmost when I took my giant overflowing cup
from the baristo.  I was the one who liberally sprinkled the cinnamon,
for heaven's sake.  I was the one who poured in the raw brown sugar
crystals, the sweetness.

And then I plunged in--
new marking period, new topics, good stuff! technology and tools,
observing the moon, change over time, measurement
in inches and centimeters, distinguishing
fact and opinion.  How to compile it all together
into a coherent whole?  How to layer the concepts
by period of the day, so that "social studies and information
literacy inquiry project" might also link with "well-constructed
investigation" and "justifying mathematical approach logically"?
Relishing the challenge and the time to tackle it, I
sat in that noisy food court cafe and I
planned the bejeesus out of Week 1.

And then last--
I mean actually last, I thought about our morning meeting,
a new greeting for a new quarter, personal sharing.  Last
I thought about the topmost layer, first things first,
the spicy cinnamon "hello I see you," the frothy foamy
"you have a life outside of school, it sounds like
you had fun," the liberally sprinkled "you belong here
in this class, in this family" of e pluribus unum, every color
from the espresso of Mali to the milky froth of Scotland + Belarus
to the cinnamon of Indonesia to the raw sugar of El Salvador

and as we know
technologytoolsmoonchangeinchescentimeters 
factopinionconceptsliteracymathematicalapproach
all that caffeinated coherent curriculum
none of it will happen
without the spicy cinnamon foam on top,
the sweet greeting, the "hello I see you,"
the "you belong here" of
"January, February, March April May--
I choose YOU. What do you say?"
 
(c)  Heidi Mordhorst 2016


Well, it would appear that I have met a goal of mine without intending to...could this be my first slam poetry composition?

Diane Mayr has come by to remark, "I took what I thought was the obvious path, but, I guess it was only obvious to me. The variety of subjects amazes me!"

On the Seconds Table

Clay in his hands
I had spun--rising,
molded--into a vessel.

I'd been transformed
into soft stone by
fire, yet I was
still vulnerable.

He covers me now
with silica and
oxides--knowing my
potential. I have
good lines.

The warmth of a coat
is augmented by fire.

Like the Wicked Witch
I feel I am melting.
Melting, melting...

I stand strong.
Turn incandescent.

Then cool. Ping! Ping!

At first glance [Ping!]
I am a beauty.

Ping! Ping!

Crazed! In a word,
imperfect--but,
inside...inside,
I remain stone.

I survived. And, I,
still have purpose.

© Diane Mayr

And here's Buffy Silverman, firing on her second cup of the morning:

Cuppa Joe

Inhaling the scent of morning,
cold fingers curl
around a steaming mug.

She takes a sip
and stops to savor

the jolt of caffeine
the warmth of routine
the start of a new day.

© Buffy Silverman

Carol Varsalona has fashioned a digital composition for us...I think I can share it "wholecloth"...



So, at 7:30 9:30 pm, it would seem that that's all the entries for today. there are still three more to post!  Welcome to Julieanne!

Stainworthy

The lip curls
just
so
it can carry
warmth
toward its early morning partner.

The solid presence
reassures
and softens the light,
and lifts the spirit.

Left alone
it bears
a stain of worthy use.
Waiting for tomorrow.

© Julieanne Harmatz 2016

Charles joins in today too, with this tribute to one who fills the cup:

HOT CHOCOLATE

My once ivory coffee cup

now has hot chocolate

rings, reminding me of

the warm beverage that

thawed out my insides

minutes ago.

As trees shiver-sneeze

outside my window,

Grandma pours another

cup of love into my mug,

dunks in a marshmallow

 then says, “Be thankful for

what you have.”

(c) Charles Waters 2016

And here's Linda Baie, our hands-on finale:

A Cupful of Story

Beginnings:
A cupful of hands,
dug the clay,
formed it round,
to finish in the kiln.
Meanwhile:
Another cupful of hands
harvested the pods,
gathered the cocoa beans,
shipped them off to the world.
Next:
A cupful of hands
ground the beans,
prepared the cocoa,
to sell at a grocery.
Finally:
Your cupful of hands
brought the cocoa home,
heated the milk,
stirred in the chocolate,
touched the cup to the lips.
smelled and sipped.

Hmmm
This cup remembers hands.

Linda Baie ©All Rights Reserved

And, for the final finale, Donna's little sip, with a lovely title:

Time in a Cup

Like tree rings and
Layers of rock,
A chocolate trail
Records time
In a cup.

©2016, Donna JT Smith, all rights reserved

Jone joins late, and if I'm not mistaken, has the chance to feel an influence  from all the previous poems to create hers:

Morning Mocha
 
Chocolate moon craters
lava steam

Use the mug
as a hand warmer

before morning work
starts

before students
arrive

daily ritual

© 2016 Jone Rush MacCulloch all rights reserved

Thanks to all who participated today and most especially to Laura for chivvying us all along in this most inspirational way!

*****************************************
*Laura's new book is The Last Fifth Grade of Emerson Elementary and it's due out from Wendy Lamb Books on April 12.  The book is enjoying a thrilling amount of pre-publicity, so pre-order now to make sure it's in your hands as soon as possible!