For the first day of April, I’d like to share a list poem for spring that I wrote for my Things to Do poetry collection--a collection that takes a child through a day in her life. Things to Do If You Are a Window was supposed to be the first poem in the book—but then I decided it didn’t fit. Eliminating poems from manuscripts is something that I often do as I get a better sense of where I’m going with the collection…what I hope to achieve with it…how I want the poems fit together as a cohesive whole.
I continue to work on revisions for my
Things to Do poetry manuscript. I'm hoping I'll be done in a few weeks.
I had forgotten that some time ago I got the idea of writing an entire collection of "things to do" poems about animals. I had already written several and thought it might be a good execrise for me. I even read through some of the other animal poems--including mask poems--that I had written over the years and tried rewriting them as "things to do" poems. Here is the first draft of one of them:
Things to Do If You Are a GiraffeHave long lanky legs,
Spotted hair, knobby knees.
Nibble the leaves
From the tip-tops of trees.
Be quiet and shy.
Stretch your neck up so high
You can wink at the birds
As they go flying by.
I’ve been so busy lately that I have had little time to post at Wild Rose Reader or at Blue Rose Girls—or to stop by other blogs and leave comments. I hope to adapt to my new life rhythm and to be able to set aside more time for blogging—especially during National Poetry Month.
Recently, I hosted a family birthday party for my mother. She turned ninety-four on February 24
th. It was fun having four generations of my family together to celebrate and toast my mother.
We had two birthday cakes. One was for my daughter Sara
who also had a birthday in February.
Julia wearing her special flower headpiece
that my daughter made for her.
A Family Picture
My granddaughter Julia has been growing up so fast!
She has been sitting up, rolling over, and eating solid food for quite some time.
Julia at Six Months
My Little Love on Valentine's Day
Running late on the Poetry Push today. Sorry!
Here's today Poetry Push for List Poems. It's a great way to warm-up your poetic muscles for the day. This is just a warm-up, so don't spend a lot of time on it, five to ten minutes to create a list poem inspired by the Poetry Push card below. If you want to read more about list poems, check out the original post.
What does this prompt make you think of? Brainstorm a list first. What's puzzling to you right now? What are the pieces you need to complete something? Or maybe go off in a completely different way. This is just a warm-up, so don't spend a lot of time on it, five to ten minutes to create a list poem inspired by the Poetry Push card above. For some examples from previous weeks, click on the poetry push tag at the bottom of this post.
Make sure to add your name to the poem when you post it.
Here's today Poetry Push for List Poems. It's a great way to warm-up your poetic muscles for the day. If you want to read more about list poems, check out the original post.
What does this prompt make you think of? Brainstorm a list first. What's puzzling to you right now? What are the pieces you need to complete something? Or maybe go off in a completely different way. This is just a warm-up, so don't spend a lot of time on it, five to ten minutes to create a list poem inspired by the Poetry Push card above. For some examples from previous weeks, click on the poetry push tag at the bottom of this post.
Make sure to add your name to the poem when you post it.
Have fun!
Here's today Poetry Push for List Poems. It's a great way to warm-up your poetic muscles for the day. This is just a warm-up, so don't spend a lot of time on it, five to ten minutes to create a list poem inspired by the Poetry Push card below. If you want to read more about list poems, check out the original post.
Please leave your list poem in the comments and make sure to leave your name.
Have fun!
Here's today Poetry Push for List Poems. It's a great way to warm-up your poetic muscles for the day. This is just a warm-up, so don't spend a lot of time on it, five to ten minutes to create a list poem inspired by the Poetry Push card below. If you want to read more about list poems,
check out the original post.Please leave your list poem in the comments and make sure to leave your name.
Have fun!
This Tuesday I started a new poetry prompt series that will appear each Tuesday on my blog. The idea is to create list poems from the prompts I post. Here are this week's poems.
GIVE BACK
I want to GIVE BACK all the times my father told me I would never amount to anything.
I want to GIVE BACK all the tears I shed when my Mother told me I could not play the games that my brother and sisters played.
I want to GIVE BACK all the times in the playground when the kids laughed at me because I was different from them.
I want to GIVE BACK all the hurt I felt when I could not go places and do the things other kids did because they were impossible for me even though they looked fun.
I want to GIVE BACK all the loneliness I felt in my heart because nobody ever really took the time to understand me and so left me out of most things.
All of these collectively made me who I am today
So I want these people to GIVE BACK all the confidence and the self esteem, they stole from me.
I can then go on with my life and be the person I can be, the person I should be.
If only people GIVE BACK.
- Anne Mckenna
Give Me Back…
Knees that don’t creak
Ankles less weak
Arms that don’t flag
Stomach sans sag
But please let me keep…
Football I played
Nights of charades
Daughters I bore*
Every last Skor
* And by bore I mean gave birth too, not make them drowsy with ennui:>)
--Laura Purdie Salas, all rights reserved
Give Back
Give In
Give Out
Give Off
Give Up
Give Away
Give It
Give It Up
Give Me Five
Give to a Good Cause
Give at The Office
Give Some More
Give Til It Hurts
What Gives?
Give The Order, The Finger, Your First Born
Give Blood
Give a Toast
Give Consent
Give Your Hand
Give up the Ghost
Give Your All, Your Word, Your Right Arm
Give Thanks
Give a Damn
Kellye Crocker
Give Back?
silver mirror
black chair
silver comb
black hair
see it curl
down my spine
below my waist--
it's all mine!
silver shears
shoulder shove
quick snip for
locks of love
--Emily Jiang
I no longer have her
in my life
give back
the one
you took away.
Janet
Give back
Shreds of tinsel
Ticket stubs
Seashells
Dried flowers
Strands of Easter grass
Bicentennial quarters
Chunks of fool's gold
All the bits
I scattered through your house
& thought I didn't need.
--Jennifer R. Hubbard
You took
my self-esteem
my laughter
my pride in how I dress
my ability to trust
and to see the good in most people
You took
my dog, my cat
my good credit rating and almost,
my car
You took
my trust
my friends
my music
You gave back
a broken heart
a shattered dream
and finally, freedom.
--- Susan Taylor Brown, all rights reserved
Dori Reads has the Poetry Friday round-up for us all today. Pour a cup of your favorite beverage and poke around at some of the great poetry that's being shared today.
Today starts a new weekly feature on my blog, a little Poetry Push to help you warm-up your poetic muscles for the day. This also gives me the chance to share one of my favorite poetry lessons that I use when I teach - LIST POEMS!
It started when I was teaching poetry to teens in detention facilities. I learned early on that it was good for me to have a few extra poetry lessons in my pocket for days when things didn't go quite the way I wanted them to. So I cut some phrases out of magazines, taped them to some index cards, and handed them out as poetry prompts for list poems. The kids soon learned that we would warm-up every session with a quick list poem. Sometimes we did them individually and sometimes we did them as a group on the board. It was a great warm-up for the class and once the students got to know how to do them, I could just pass out a card and they could go to work. This came in handy for kids coming in late or one of those days when I needed something to fill the last 10 minutes of the class.
The only trouble with the index cards was that the kids like to bend them and tear them so I made some larger cards that I decorated and then laminated and they are much more durable. (And for all you people who like to recylce, instead of index cards, I used those magazine subscription cards that fall out of magazines. I painted one side and glued construction paper on the other side. Then I glued the magazine phrase on the construction paper, drew some doodles, and laminated them.You can see more pictures here.)
Every Tuesday I'll post one of my cards which I hope you will use as a prompt to create a list poem in the comments, just like
laurasalas does with her
15 Words or Less Poems on Thursdays. Please sign your name with your poem so I can point to them all in the round-up for Poetry Friday.
And hey, if you are not a poet or don't want to play with poetry, you could consider this a simple creative writing prompt. Give yourself 10 minutes and see where it takes you.
List poems are so much fun to write and even the most reluctant poet can usually manage to get some words down on the page. I usually tell the students to start by brainstorming a list of everything thing they can around the given topic. From there they try to expand with more poetic language, metaphors, and try to evoke a feeling from the reader.
List poems itemize things or events. They can be short or long, rhymed or not.
Falling Down the Page by Georgia Heard is a great book of list poems. Some online examples can be found
here. A longer one is
Fear by Dorianne Laux.
Ready to play? Here's today's List Poem Poetry Push.
Have fun. Start with a list that comes to mind when you read the prompt and see where it takes you. I'm looking forward to reading
The Inspiration for My "Things to Do" Poems
Last week, poet
Heidi Mordhorst left a couple of questions for me in the comments section of one of my Poetry Friday posts.
Her questions:- Where can I see more of your Things to Do poems?
- How did you get started with that?
And Looking for the Write Words left the following comment: You know how much I love your poems so my contribution is modeled after many of your Things to Do poems.
I thought it might be a good time to explain how I got started on writing “things to do” poems.
The process began in 1995...I think. I was trying to come up with new ideas for writing poems with my second grade students. I was looking through Paul Janeczko’s book Poetry from A to Z: A Guide for Young Writers when I read a list poem by Bobbi Katz titled "Things to Do If You Are the Rain.” That jogged my memory. I went to my bookcase and pulled out Upside Down and Inside Out: Poems for All Your Pockets, a collection of poems written by Bobbi. In the middle of the book, I found six "things to do" poems—
- Things to Do If You Are a Subway
- Things to Do If You Are a Flower
- Things to Do If You Are the Snow
- Things to Do If You Are a Pizza
- Things to Do If You Are a Cold
- Things to Do If You Are a Star
Bobbi's “subway” poem begins like this…
Pretend you are a dragon.
Live in underground caves.
Roar about underneath the city.
The “snow” poems ends like this…
Perch on the branches of all the trees—
Sparkle when the sun shines—
Quiet the city.
Close the schools.
I really liked the idea of writing list poems using this type of format. I went into school one day shortly thereafter and wrote some collaborative poems with my students.
Here is one of the collaborative class poems I wrote with my students a couple of years later. (Sorry I can’t find the collaborative class poems I wrote with my students in 1995 at the moment.)
Things to Do If You Are a Witch
Wake up at midnight.
Fly around the moon
on your magic broom.
Zoom around a haunted house.
Swoop
Well, I’m nearly finished with my Things to Do poetry collection. At the moment, the collection includes twenty-seven poems. I’m thinking of adding one or two more. As I mentioned in a previous post, I’ve changed the manuscript a lot in recent months. I’ve eliminated several of the original poems and added fourteen new ones. The Things to Do collection now takes a young child through a school day from dawn to bedtime. I believe it is a more cohesive collection of poems now. I’m hoping to submit it to a publisher by summer’s end.
I want to acknowledge three individuals for giving me invaluable advice on this writing project:
- Grace Lin helped me to look at my Things to Do collection with new eyes. Grace gave me the suggestion for changing the focus of the manuscript. That suggestion renewed my energy for working on the poetry project again. It inspired me to write lots of new poems.
- Janet Wong read through my manuscript and carefully critiqued it. She suggested eliminating particular poems and gave me topic suggestions for new poems. Janet’s suggestions helped me to provide better “poetry” transitions throughout the collection.
- Brad Bennett sat with me as we went through each poem with a fine-tooth comb a few days ago. I can always count on Brad to help me with the tiniest details. (Brad is a teacher and published poet. You can read three of Brad’s list poems here.)
********************
Here is one of the “things to do” poems that is no longer included in the collection. I was thinking of my daughter and her new husband when I selected the following poem. They recently returned from their honeymoon in Ireland--where they visited lots of castles.
THINGS TO DO IF YOU ARE A CASTLE
Stand on a stony cliff
overlooking the sea.
Wear a thick wall of armor.
Sprout tall turrets.
Be a haven.
Drop your drawbridge
for damsels in distress.
Shelter proud steeds,
brave knights who do good deeds.
Be a fortress, a bulwark.
Grow strong and stout.
Keep the evil invaders out.
********************
At Blue Rose Girls, I have a sonnet by Mary Meriam titled The Romance of Middle Age.
The Poetry Friday Roundup is at Live. Love. Explore!
As some of you may have noticed I’ve been blogging “light” in recent months. I haven’t posted a book review in a long time. Now that my mother is settled in her new residence and my daughter’s wedding is in the past—maybe my life will return to normal once again. I’m hoping I’ll get myself back into my regular blogging groove soon.
I always try to post on Poetry Fridays. For this week, I selected another one of my “things to do” list poems that I’ve scrubbed from my Things to Do collection.
THINGS TO DO IF YOU ARE A MOUNTAIN
Wear a snow-white cap
and a thick coat of evergreens.
Scratch your stony back with glaciers.
Tower over the tops of other mountains.
Let the sun sparkle on your summit.
Hide drowsing bears
in your deep brown pockets.
At night
poke your head above the clouds
and peek at the stars.
********************
*****
Happy Poetry Friday! Poem and Writing Workout below.
Today I’m continuing the topic of a writer’s conference I’d recommend…and why.
In the first class I ever took in the UCLA Extension Writers Program in about 1984, my teacher, the late Terry Dunahoo (who I call the Johnny Appleseed of Southern California children's book writers), told us to join the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrator (SCBWI) and to attend the annual international conference which, luckily for us, was in Los Angeles.
Like a good solider (or a well-trained little sister), I did what my teacher told us to do, and boy, am I glad I did. I swear that the classes I took through the UCLA Extension Writers Program and my membership in SCBWI made me the writer I am today. I've been going every summer since then.
From this West Coaster’s point of view, SCBWI’s annual conference in Century City, California is a fabulous trip-to-New-York-in-a-box. Editors, authors and web gurus that we’d never EVER get an appointment to see if we flew to New York on our own, show up in LA to teach us, inspire us, critique our manuscripts and party with us.
Come if you possibly can. Really. But here’s the great news! If you can’t come to my home state, you can follow conference action on the SCBWI Blog, which has already begun posting preconference interviews.
How cool is that?
Here's a list poem about the conference:
EVERY AUGUST IN LOS ANGELES
by April Halprin Wayland
I join 800, sometimes 900
kith and kin,
blood and family,
clansmen and women
as we sing our
anxious,
frightened,
excited,
inspired,
ways through
this galaxy, this most amazing writing world
in solidarity
in fellowship
in unity...
in hope.
And if you DO come to the conference, please find me and tell me you’re a TeachingAuthors reader! This will be my eighth year of critiquing picture book manuscripts. Is that cool or what?
Writing WorkoutWhen I was a marketing manager at Pacific Bell lo, these many long years ago, I was pretty much a round peg in a square hole. I knew the corporate world wasn't the right one for me....but I wasn’t sure where I belonged.
Every once in a while managers were sent to seminars on business and leadership topics. One of these changed my life.
I remember sitting on the floor in this particular one-day workshop taking notes and wearing jeans and shoes that were not high-heels. My feet felt wonderful. This seminar was about goal setting and specifically about the power of affirmations.
We were taught to write three to five affirmations on a 3 x 5 card and keep it in our wallets. Affirmations, we were told, are in the present tense, as if whatever our goal is had
already come true. We were told to focus on our affirmations every day in three ways:
1. Say the affirmation aloud.
2. Visualize it.
3. Feel i
Last year, my husband bought one of those old-fashioned push mowers. Recently, I decided to take over the chore of mowing our lawn. I had never liked the gas-powered mower we had years ago—and I had trouble with our electric mower’s cord always getting in my way. But I love cutting the grass with the push mower. It’s great exercise for me--and much less boring than pumping on my exercycle while lifting weights. I do the front lawn one day—and the back yard the next day. I'm a bit obsessive about the way I cut and trim the grass...but our lawn has never
looked better!
With grass on my mind, I give you two original poems—a “things to do” list poem and an acrostic—as well as a favorite poem on the subject by the great Valerie Worth.
THINGS TO DO IF YOU ARE GRASS
Live on a hillside meadow.
Grow tall
and golden as summer sun.
Hide fluffy field mice
and a symphony of crickets.
Welcome wildflowers,
honeybees, and butterflies.
Drink the fallen rain.
Bend and sway
to the rhythm
of the wind
and dance.
Green carpets the ground,
Reaches over the hills, blankets the broad valley,
And across the wide prairie, stalks of tall golden grain
Sway in the wind
Singing the song of the plain.
grass
by Valerie Worth
Grass on the lawn
Says nothing:
Clipped, empty,
Quiet.
Grass in the fields
Whistles, slides,
casts up a foam
Of seeds,
Tangles itself
With leaves: hides
Whole rustling schools
Of mice.
Book Recommendation
All the Small Poems and Fourteen More
Written by Valerie Worth
Illustrated by Natalie Babbitt
This wonderful poetry classic is a compilation of four of Worth’s earlier collections—
Small Poems,
More Small Poems,
Still More Small Poems, and
7 Comments on POETRY FRIDAY: The Subject Is Grass, last added: 6/14/2010
Lucky me!
I was one of thirteen guest Illinois children’s books authors, illustrators and storytellers invited to participate in the
36th Annual Illinois Young Authors Conference held May 15 at Illinois State University in Normal.
Co-sponsored each May by the
Illinois State Board of Education, the
Illinois Language and Literacy Council and
The Illinois Reading Council, the event celebrates and honors exceptional writing by students in grades K through 8. More than 500 students and their families traveled up and down and across Illinois to participate.
A pre-conference informal Friday night gathering at the Illinois State University Barnes & Noble Bookstore featured a panel discussion and book sale.
Saturday’s sessions are the true treasure.
Young writers from similar grade levels meet in small groups facilitated by parent and teacher volunteers. The students read aloud their manuscripts, share their writing process, then connect, writer-to-writer, with their assigned children’s book author.
Beth Vest of Lacon and Andrea Miracle of Edwardsville proved invaluable during my three sessions with third and fourth graders, overseeing my materials, clocking my talk and furiously copying the quickly-crafted original wording of each session’s group-written
List Poem verse that appears, complete, at the end of this posting.
The day ended with an Awards Ceremony during which each participating Young Author received a certificate and autographed book from his or her ses
Last week, in my
“great list poem” post, I extended an invitation to blog readers to write and submit their own list poems to
Wild Rose Reader.
Amy Ludwig VanDerwater submitted
Word Blanket—a lovely poem that I think poets and other writers will truly appreciate. Amy is a published poet and writes for her own blog,
Poem Farm. Two of Amy's poems are included in
Lee Bennett Hopkins’s exceptional new anthology
Sharing the Seasons, which was beautifully illustrated by
David Diaz.
Word Blanket by Amy Ludwig VanDerwater
I cover myself with a blanket of words.
Miracle
Lullaby
Storm
I quilted each consonant into this cloth.
Each vowel is keeping me warm.
Butterfly
Evergreen
Whispering
Hope
Words to remember
Read
Write.
I’m pulling my word blanket up to my chin.
I’m sleeping with words.
Good night.
**********
Martha Calderaro wrote me to me to tell me that she had attempted to write a list poem BUT ended up with a concrete poem instead. She based her poem on pond adventures her daughter and her friends had over the weekend. Martha said: “It started as a list poem, then just went in another direction. So it goes sometimes.”
Sometimes the beginning lines of a poem just pop into my head. There’s no advanced warning. I haven’t prepared the way for them. They just come—and I’m always happy to welcome them.
The first few lines of the following list poem about April arrived without an invitation. I hadn’t thought: I’ll sit down now and write a list poem about April. Let’s see—I’ll speak to my muse and get her advice. No, I just listened to the words whispering in my mind and let the poem take me where it wanted to go.
April: A List Poem
April is showers
and blossoming flowers…
their fragrant perfume.
It’s fruit trees in bloom.
It’s cold days adjourning
and robins returning
and swift rivers running…
my dog outside sunning.
April is warmer,
a springtime performer...
delivers bright days
when forsythia blaze
and I hear the sun say:
“You can go out and play—
No wool coat required.”
'Cause winter’s retired.
Here are two more list poems that I posted previously at Wild Rose Reader (I’ve made a couple of small changes in April.) These poems didn't just "pop" into my head. You’ll notice that the spring poem is an also acrostic.
APRIL
Days crackle with sunlight.
Tree buds burst tight jackets,
Stretch awake.
Jaunty daffodils announce
Spring’s return.
Birds string themselves
Like beads along branches.
Windows yawn open
And houses breathe deep
Warm green air.
Soft, scented breezes, kite-catching winds, the
Pitter patter of warm rain on the
Roof, daffodils and daisies and lilacs
In bloom, apple trees wearing snow-white crowns.
Now the sun lingers at the edge of day and
Green…lovely green…has come home to stay.
***************
Last Sunday, I met with my good friend Brad. Brad also writes and has a passion for poetry. He is a master of haiku. He also loves list poems. I asked if he’d be willing to share some of his original list poems with us. He was most accommodating.
Here are three list poems written by Brad Bennett.
(Each Animal Knew One Word, Vocations, and Spelling List © Brad Bennett. All rights reserved.)
Each Animal Knew One Word
mouse: nibble
rat: gnaw
crow: quibble
bear: thaw
seal: bask
buffalo: wallow
chameleon: mask
python: swallow
eagle: soar
butterfly: flit
squirrel: store
Here’s a poem from one of my unpublished poetry collections titled Things to Do—a manuscript that has received two rejections to date. I thought Things to Do If You Are a Bell would be an appropriate poem for posting on this Poetry Friday a week before Christmas.
Things to Do If You Are a Bell
Ride on a reindeer’s harness.
Tinkle in the icy air.
Jingle across milk-white snow.
Sing with a silver tongue.
Jack & Rudy
Season’s Greetings from Jack & Rudy
(Jack is my daughter’s yellow lab and Rudy is the cat she got last Christmas.)
Jack loves Christmas. Woof! Woof! Woof!
Rudy loves it too. Mew! Mew! Mew!
Can’t wait to get their presents—
Some biscuits and a bone,
Some catnip and a ball of yarn,
Some meat-scented cologne.
Jack and Rudy love their tree—
Its ornaments and lights,
The gold star at its tippy-top
Glistening and bright.
Woof! Woof! Woof!
Mew! Mew! Mew!!
They're sending season's greetings
To every one of you.
I will now interpret
What they REALLY want to say:
Have a tailwagging purrfect
Merry Christmas Day!
Click on the following links to read reviews of books of Christmas poetry and Christmas stories in verse from
Wild Rose Reader and
Blue Rose Girls:
Poetry Book Reviews: Under the Kissletoe & Hanukkah HaikuPoetry for Christmas (A review of Aileen Fisher’s book
Do Rabbits Have Christmas?
7 Comments on Things to Do If You Are a Bell...and More Poetry for Christmas, last added: 12/21/2009
By:
Administrator,
on 12/2/2009
Blog:
Margo Dill's Read These Books and Use Them!
(
Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags:
poetry,
Young Adult Novels,
Georgia Heard,
Eileen Spinelli,
Wacky Wednesday,
list poems,
Creative Writing activities,
Elementary Educators,
six traits of writing,
Preschool to 1st grade teachers,
Shared Writing,
Writing Skills,
High School Teachers,
Heard Georgia,
Falling Down the Page,
lesson plans for poetry,
teaching poetry to kids,
Add a tag
photo by Irargerich www.flickr.com
It seems on Wacky Wednesdays that I am on a bit of a poetry kick. Last week, I discussed acrostic poems and how they can be useful tools in the classroom for creative writing skills and assessing subject matter knowledge. This week, I have found this wonderful book at my public library, and I just have to share it and some lesson ideas for poetry with you. Teaching poetry to kids is not always easy. When we find tools, we must share them!
Falling Down the Page is a new book of list poems, edited by Georgia Heard. In her introduction, Ms. Heard shares with the reader that she has compiled a book of list poems, and “the list or catalog poem is one of the oldest and most accessible of poetic forms.” She mentions a famous list poem most of us adults know–”Song of Myself” by Walt Whitman. She also discusses how these poems connect to one another and how list poems can take on many forms; so when teaching poetry to kids, these are important concepts to point out. Georgia Heard also suggests some lesson plans for poems: “After you read a few of these poems, I bet you’ll feel inspired to write one of your own. Think about your day. Jot down what you notice. And let your (list of) words fall down the page.”
Students will love these list poems that you read while teaching poetry to kids. Take for example the very first poem in the book, “Good-byes” by Eileen Spinelli. In her poem, she is discussing how hard it is to say good-bye to summer, and her list in her poem includes, “castles rising from the sand,” “Annie’s caramel popcorn stand,” and “matinees and indoor games.” OR How about Rebecca Kai Dotlich’s list poem, “On the Menu For School Today”?
-an excerpt
“Label planets
in our sky.
Learn how numbers
multiply.
Count coins.
String beads.
Shake bells.
Plant seeds.”
Once you share this book with students during your lesson plans for poems, then allow them to write some of their own list poems as Georgia Heard suggests. They could start with an actual list or a word web to brainstorm ideas, and then put these ideas into poetry form. One thing you will want to do when teaching poetry to kids is point out how these list poems are not simply a list, such as a grocery list, but the poets have chosen their words carefully and put their ideas in a poetic form–there is a reason for each word being where it is. Of course, students will not perfect this in a day or two, but it will be fun trying!
Falling Down the Page: A Book of List Poems
Edited by Georgia Heard
Roaring Brook Press, 2009
Review from School Library Journal
Gr 2-5
The surprises begin with the cover of this long, narrow book that opens from the top, sporting a title tumbling down with assorted objects-a feather, a squirrel, a pencil, a sock. Inside is a wide variety of list or catalogue poems, which Heard describes in her introduction as "the oldest and most accessible of poetic forms." Many focus on the ordinary: Marilyn Singer's selection opens, "I like to hold in my hand/a baseball,/a shell,/a fistful of sand,/a feather,/a letter,/a red rubber band." Others, like Elaine Magliaro's "Things to Do If You're a Pencil" and Bobbi Katz's "Things to Do If You Are the Sun," encourage readers to think about familiar items in new ways, and kids will enjoy writing their own "Things to do..." poems. Still others urge youngsters to think more abstractly: Lee Bennett Hopkins's entry asks, "Why poetry?/Why?/Why sunsets?/Why trees?/Why birds?/Why seas?/Why you?/Why me?" David Harrison's humorous "Chorus of Four Frogs" will be hilarious to perform. It's a given that alert teachers will use this volume to encourage the enjoyment and writing of poetry. A winner.-Lee Bock, Glenbrook Elementary School, Pulaski, WI
I quote from this SLJ review of Falling Down the Page: …and kids will enjoy writing their own "Things to do..." poems.
I can vouch for the statement above written by Lee Bock, the book’s reviewer. My elementary students wrote a lot of poetry in my classroom. Many of them liked the format of the “Things to do…” poems. To prove my point—I have some of my former students’ poems for you as examples.
Writing “Things to Do” poems made for an excellent language arts exercise. I had my students focus on the use of strong verbs in the poems they wrote about animals that they had done research on and written reports about. When my students finished the rough drafts of their poems, I’d discuss the poems with each child individually. I’d often ask if they could find a “better” verb to use in place of one that was weak or “generic.” I’d tell them to picture their animals in action—and to try to capture those pictures using the “action” words best suited to their animals. We’d then discuss different words that could be used in place of the ones they had written in their poems. In this way, I was often able to elicit from my students words that were in their vocabulary—but not on the tips of their tongues…or pencils, if you will.
I would often start the whole process of writing this type of list poem with a collaborative class poem to model the process. Here’s a collaborative class poem I wrote with my second graders at the Bell School in Marblehead, Massachusetts, in October of 1997:
Things to Do If You Are a Witch
Wake up at midnight.
Fly around the moon
on your magic broom.
Zoom around a haunted house.
Swoop out of the dark sky
and scare children.
Have a huge purple wart
on the tip of your long, pointy nose
and skin as green as grass.
Wear a tall black hat
pointed as a thumbtack.
Make yucky snake skin potions
in your kettle.
Cast nasty spells on princes
and turn them into toads.
Eat vulture leg stew, bat wings,
and frog eyes for lunch.
Throw bat noses into the air
and catch them in your mouth.
Go to sleep in a graveyard
before the sun comes up.
Things to Do…Animal Poems
1996
Things to Do If You Are a Butterfly
By Phoebe G.
Be beautiful.
Flutter in the sky
And show off your rainbow scales.
Find a yellow rose
And settle on a soft petal.
Put your little straw tongue
Into the flower
And sip up the sweet drops of nectar.
Be beautiful.
Things to Do If You Are a Vampire Bat
By Zack H.
Lap up the blood
of sleeping horses.
Slip through small spaces
into dark attics.
Visit Dracula at midnight.
Hang upside down
in caves and castles.
Swoop down
out of a black sky
and terrorize people.
Things to Do If You Are a Kitten
By Sam L.
Pounce on people’s feet.
Tear couches apart with your sharp claws.
Fight with other kittens.
Climb up dining room curtains.
Fiddle with a piece of string.
Hide under blankets.
Curl up and sleep on a bed.
Things to Do If You Are a Rattlesnake
By Steven M.
Slither through the grass
Like an S.
Stick out your long forked tongue.
Rattle your tail at a rat.
Show your knife-sharp fangs.
Bite your prey.
Swallow it whole.
Slip under a rock.
Coil yourself up and sleep.
Things to Do If You Are a Kitten
By Leo S.
Tear up couches.
Pounce on a furry mouse.
Rocket out an open window
and climb up a tree.
Watch flitting butterflies.
Shoot up and catch one.
Sharpen your claws on tree bark.
Watch a snake slide across the yard
and under a shed.
Go play with a catnip mouse.
Things to Do If You Are a Shark
By Jack S.
Glide across the water like a whale.
Bite holes in fishing boats
And sink them.
Gobble up sting rays.
Sneak up on people
And scare them out of their wits.
1997
Things to Do If You Are a Penguin
By Michael B.
Dive deep down
into the icy cold water.
Speed through the freezing sea
like a bullet.
Dart away from enemies.
Catch slippery silver fish
for your chick.
Waddle around
with your penguin friends
on the sparkling snow.
Things to Do If You Are a Dolphin
Billy E.
Dive for whiskery catfish
and eat them.
Fly out of the water
like a bullet.
Do cool jumps.
Attack BIG sharks
with your friends.
Jet through the warm seas.
Look like a shiny blue cloud
floating in the ocean.
Things to Do If You Are a Manatee
By Adam K.
Swim along the bottom of the sea.
Nibble yummy water weeds.
Nuzzle a friend.
Play in your warm water world.
Lie on your back,
Fold up your flippers,
Close your eyes,
And go off into dreamland.
Things to Do If You Are a Koala
By Jason K.
Climb to the top
of the world.
Sleep all day
high up in the trees.
At night get drunk
on eucalyptus leaves.
Glide from tree to tree.
Give your joey a ride
in your warm pouch.
Look like a fluffy teddy bear.
Things to Do If You Are a Bald Eagle
By Nick P.
Soar through the air like a rocket.
Feel the wind on your wings.
Swoop down to the river.
Catch silvery fish with your sharp talons.
Teach your children to fly and hunt.
Be the symbol of the United States.
********************
At
Political Verses, I have a parody of Shakespeare’s “Double double toil and trouble” bit from Macbeth, Act IV, Scene 1. It’s a potent political pottage…a
Macbethian mélange…
Pelosi’s pot-
au-pooh-
poohers.
The
Poetry Friday Roundup is at
Carol’s Corner this week.
Lovely -- sun melting the stars!
Wonderful bookcase, Elaine. Happy to see Pooh there among all those great books. Julia has excellent taste already, choosing Dumpling Days! :)
Your granddaughter is a voracious reader already -- yay! I especially like the same line that Jama mentioned, those melting stars :-)
Your SUN poem "warmed" me. And your granddaughter is one lucky girl to be surrounded by so many books! Too funny that a novel is her current favorite. =)
Glad to see Julia with the books, Elaine. You are clever to have composed that poem "in the air'. Nice to have companion poems! You've given me an idea!
Jama, Tabatha, Bridget, & Linda,
Thanks for your comments. It's such fun being a grandmother...and being able to help hook my granddaughter on books!
Love those melting stars...and watching the rising sun of your life (Julia!!) become a reader!
I'm crushing on your shelves...so true that you can never have too many!!
Lovely photographs - Julia will need book cases like yours very soon. She looks like someone who will have a library of her very own.
I can see that you are a expert at your weblog! I am beginning a website soon, and your tips can be really ideal for me. Thank you for your complete help and looking everybody your achievement with your business. branded apparel
Oh my goodness Elaine, Julia has gotten to be such a big little girl. OF COURSE she loves to read, how could she not. Beautiful bookcases! I never catch up on blogs, as much as I'd love to but something on facebook made me think to read yours tonight. I'm glad I did!
Rebecca
Jobs at your Home, Internet Online Jobs like data entry, copy pasting, Form Filling, Facebook Sharing Jobs, Clicking Jobs, Web Surfing, Google Jobs and Much More Earning Systems Online
www.jobzcorner.com