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Viewing: Blog Posts Tagged with: National Poetry Month 2010, Most Recent at Top [Help]
Results 1 - 25 of 31
1. May 2, 2010: And the Winner Is...

So sorry to be a day late in announcing the winner of Wild Rose Reader's final poetry book giveaway in celebration of National Poetry Month 2010. We had a family medical emergency yesterday.

Joan (the reading specialist) is the winner of Stampede!: Poems to Celebrate the Wild Side of School, which was written by Laura Purdie Salas and illustrated by Steven Salerno.




Congratulations, Joan! Email me your address so I can send you your poetry prize.

NOTE to Jama, Amy LV, and Joan: I had hoped to mail out all your poetry books tomorrow. There may be a little delay.

0 Comments on May 2, 2010: And the Winner Is... as of 1/1/1900
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2. Final Days of National Poetry Month (April 29-30) in Review


Poetry Makers at the Miss Rumphius Effect
April 29—Bruce Lansky
April 30—X. J. Kennedy

Thirty Poets Thirty Days at Gotta Book
April 29—Liz Garton Scanlon—Reflecting
April 30—Walter Dean Myers—Walking

Poetry Tag at Poetry for Children
April 29—Douglas Florian is IT
April 30—Jack Prelutsky is IT

Poetry Potluck at Jama Rattigan’s Alphabet Soup
April 29—counting chips with miss rumphius, tricia stohr-hunt
April 30—friday feast: topping it off with our surprise guest, joyce sidman (and a giveaway)!

Haiga (Haiku & Photographs) at A Wrung Sponge
April 29—fence haiku
April 30—weed seed haiku

Haiku at Liz in Ink
April 29—Haiku 28
April 29—Haiku 29

Mary Lee’s Original Poem-a-Day About Teaching Or Learning at A Year of Reading
April 29—Poem #29—Newspaper Blackout Poem
April 30—Poem #30—Looking Inside (and Poetry Friday)

Wild Rose Reader
April 29—Fourth Week of National Poetry Month (April 22-28) in Review
April 29—Weather Report: A Book Spine Poem
April 30—Apostrophe: Poems of Address

Other Bloggers Who Posted Original Poems during National Poetry Month
Susan Taylor Brown
Jone MacCulloch
Elizabeth Moore
April Halprin Wayland
Amy Ludwig VanDerwater
1 Comments on Final Days of National Poetry Month (April 29-30) in Review, last added: 5/2/2010
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3. Apostrophe: Poems of Address


I’ve done a number of posts for Wild Rose Reader about mask poems—which I love to write. My elementary school students enjoyed writing them too. My students also enjoyed writing poems of address in which they’d speak to the sun or moon or a planet…to a tree…or to different kinds of animals.

For the last Poetry Friday of National Poetry Month, I’d thought I’d turn to my attention to apostrophe—or poems of address.

Following is a poem of address that I wrote a couple of years ago for my unpublished collection entitled Docile Fossil—which contains poems about extinct animals, fossils, the La Brea Tar Pits, and dinosaur dung. In How Come? I’m talking to a woolly mammoth in hopes of finding out how the huge prehistoric mammal became extinct.

How Come?

Woolly mammoth,
Big
Behemoth
Prehistoric pachyderm,
What did you in,
You hairy hulk?
A teeny tiny
Infinitesimal
Microscopic
Deadly germ?
A minuscule bacterium?
Hmmm?

Elephant is still extant…
Hippo, rhino, tiny ant,
Kinkajou and caribou…
Gnat and gnu are living, too.

How come YOU
And mastodon
Are D-E-A-D
Dead and gone?



And here’s a poem of address in which I talk to a honeybee:

Bee,
busying yourself
in a bright pink peony,
save a sip of nectar
for me.


I originally wrote the following poem, Talking to Giraffe, as a point-of-view/mask poem. I kept tinkering with it—but it didn’t work no matter how much I tweaked it. So, this week, I tried rewriting it as a poem of address. I think the poem's more successful with my speaking to the giraffe rather than my speaking in the voice of the giraffe.
Talking to Giraffe
You are taller than tall.
You’re the tallest of all
The creatures that live on the land.

You can nibble the leaves
From the tip-tops of trees.
Don’t you think being tallest is grand?

Why, your head is so high
That it touches the sky.
You can wink at the birds as they go flying by.

You can you nuzzle the clouds,
Drink the first drops of rain.
You must have a great view from your lofty domain.

Do you like being tall…
The tallest of all
The creatures that live on the land?

With your head at that height
The whole world is in sight!
You MUST think being tallest is grand!


Here’s my Things to Do If You Are a Pencil list poem rewritten as a p

16 Comments on Apostrophe: Poems of Address, last added: 5/2/2010
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4. April 29, 2010: And the Winner Is...

Amy Ludwig Vanderwater is the winner of Every Second Something Happens: Poems for the Mind and Seasons—with poems selected by Christine San Jose and Bill Johnson and illustrations by Melanie Hall.

Congratulations, Amy! Email me your address so I can send you your poetry prize.

Win a Poetry Book!
Every week during April, I’ve been giving away a children’s poetry book at Wild Rose Reader. If you leave a comment at one of my poetry posts during the final two days of NaPoMo (April 29-30), I’ll enter your name in the drawing to win a copy of Stampede!: Poems to Celebrate the Wild Side of School. The book was written by Laura Purdie Salas and illustrated by Steven Salerno. (Note: If you leave comments at two of my poetry posts, I'll enter your name twice...and so on.)


Book Giveaway Schedule
Final Days of National Poetry Month: April 29-30 (Winner announced on May 1st)

1 Comments on April 29, 2010: And the Winner Is..., last added: 4/29/2010
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5. Weather Report: A Book Spine Poem


The Book Spine Poem that Mary Lee Hahn posted yesterday inspired me to create one myself.

WEATHER REPORT
A Book Spine Poem
by
Elaine Magliaro
Thanks for the inspiration, Mary Lee!

5 Comments on Weather Report: A Book Spine Poem, last added: 4/30/2010
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6. Fourth Week of National Poetry Month (April 22-28) in Review


Poetry Makers at the Miss Rumphius Effect
April 22—Ron Koertge
April 23—April Halprin Wayland
April 23—Michael J. Rosen
April 24—Hope Anita Smith
April 25—Carmen Bernier-Grand
April 26—Jenny Whitehead
April 27—Brod Bagert
April 28—Kalli Dakos

Thirty Poets Thirty Days at Gotta Book
April 22—Heidi Mordhorst—Smaller Than I Thought
April 23—Charles R. Smith, Jr.—I Speak
April 24—Georgia Heard—Ars Poetica
April 25—George Ella Lyon—Trying to Get Out of My Tree
April 26—Jacqueline Woodson—One of the Many Stories
April 27—Graham Denton—Sounds Delightful
April 28—Francisco X. Alaracon—Listen/Escucha

Poetry Tag at Poetry for Children
April 22—George Ella Lyon is IT
April 23—Marie Bradby is IT
April 24—Nikki Grimes is IT
April 25—Tracie Vaughn Zimmer is IT
April 26—Janet Wong is IT
April 27—Betsy Franco is IT
April 28—Bobbi Katz is IT

Poetry Potluck at Jama Rattigan’s Alphabet Soup
April 22—a word of caution from greg pincus
April 23—friday feast: douglas florian’s french boast
April 24— 0 Comments on Fourth Week of National Poetry Month (April 22-28) in Review as of 1/1/1900
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7. UBIQUITOUS by Joyce Sidman & Beckie Prange: A Poetry Book Review


Poetry and science are two of my passions. When I was an elementary teacher, I loved connecting poetry with the different science units I taught. I was always looking for poems to integrate with my units on trees and soils, astronomy, animals, and the life cycle of butterflies. I suppose that’s one of the reasons why Joyce Sidman is one of my favorite children’s poets. She is able to weave her knowledge of nature and science seamlessly into her extraordinary poetry.
I was thrilled when I heard that Joyce was publishing a collection entitled Ubiquitous: Celebrating Nature’s Survivors this year—especially after I watched the trailer for the book.





Ubiquitous: Celebrating Nature’s Survivors
Written by Joyce Sidman
Illustrated by
Beckie Prange
Houghton Mifflin, 2010




Joyce Sidman explains how her book Ubiquitous started at her Web site:

My sister is a biologist who works with insects. One day, on an impromptu nature walk, she snagged a beetle, held it in her hand, and remarked about how successful beetles are--how many species there are in the world. She went on to explain that they had mutated from flies; their forewings had become hardened and armored, allowing them to survive better than flies under extreme conditions. This discussion started me thinking about what allows one group of organisms to stick it out here on earth, while others become extinct. Boy, was it ever interesting to find out! I did more research for this book than any other; but I learned more, too--I basically ended up studying evolutionary history.


I emailed Joyce to ask if she could give me further information about the book. I wrote: “I also saw in your book's acknowledgments all the different scientists you thanked. I was wondering if you'd care to provide me with any other information about the time it took you to complete this book and/or how much research you had to do in evolutionary history.”

Joyce responded: This book took a long, long time to write, because I really had to feel my way. I am not a scientist, and the further I dug into research, the more science seemed to be involved. I started thinking about the idea about eight years ago. I thought it would be fun to find lots of "survivor" organisms to wri

5 Comments on UBIQUITOUS by Joyce Sidman & Beckie Prange: A Poetry Book Review, last added: 4/30/2010
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8. Here & There: April 24, 2010

From the National Council of Teachers of English—TYCA National Poetry Month Celebration
From the website: A new poem will be added to this page each day of April to celebrate National Poetry Month. We hope you come back each day to enjoy the poems we post, all original works by community and two-year college English faculty. If you are a poet, we hope you will consider submitting your work for consideration. While we hope to publish at least four poems from each of the TYCA regions, we will be accepting submissions until further notice from all regions.

From the Indiana Humanities Council’s Think. Read. Talk.—National Poetry Month

From the Academy of American Poets—Poem-A-Day Archive for National Poetry Month

From the Poetry Foundation—What Can Poetry Do for Parents? by Elliott Vansilke
Excerpt from the article: Poetry offers other benefits for the beleaguered parent. A large part of parenting consists of mindless repetition—changing diapers again, cutting pancakes into triangles again, saying, “How do we ask for things nicely?” again. But poetry uses repetition to sound new depths of meaning and find nuance in sameness. Think of the way the repeating lines of a villanelle take on new shape and significance with each stanza or the way different echoes emerge from “And miles to go before I sleep” at the end of Frost’s “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening.”

From the Poetry Foundation—Lunchbox Poems by Julie Danielson & Eisha Prather

From Squidoo—Best Websites for Kids Poems

From School Library Journal—Natalie Merchant, Ghost Ghost: Setting Poems to Music by Rocco Satino (4/19/2010)

From Teaching Authors—Patterns in Poetry! How I Wrote This Poem—A Poetry Writing Workout posted by April Halprin Wayland (4/23/2010)

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9. More, More, More...Mask Poems!

Recently, I did an extensive post about how much I enjoy writing animal mask poems. Click here to read it.

You don’t have limit yourself only to “animal talk” when you write mask poems though. You can speak in the voices of many different things: a tree, a flower, the ocean, the sky, the sun, the moon, stars, a volcano, a river, a hurricane or tornado, elements of nature. Even inanimate objects like scissors, a pencil, an automobile, garbage truck, kite, or toaster make great subjects for mask poems.

Here’s Sole Music, a mask poem I wrote for Tricia’s Monday Poetry Stretch--Shoes at The Miss Rumphius Effect this week.

********************
Sole Music

We’re the well-worn soles of shoes
reading all the sidewalk news.
As we go along our way
we broadcast headlines of the day:
intermittent
dots of rain
wad of bubblegum
bright stain
of cherry popsicle
that bled
its sticky sweetness
cool and red
concrete cracked
by root of tree
telltale clue
of injured knee
ghost of ant
whose remnants lie
flattened from a passerby
OH NO!
PEW!
Our bugaboo!
We just stepped in doggy do!

********************
I thought I’d take some of my “things to do” poems that I had posted previously at Wild Rose Reader and rewrite them as mask poems for my Poetry Friday post this week.
Things to Do If You Are a Bell

Ride on a reindeer’s harness.
Tinkle in the icy air.
Jingle across the milk-white snow.
Sing with a silver tongue.


Rewritten as a mask poem:
I ride on a reindeer’s harness.
I tinkle in the icy air
And jingle across the milk-white snow.
Listen to me sing with a silver tongue.


********************
Things to Do If You Are a Pencil
Be sharp.
Wear a slick yellow suit
and a pink top hat.
Tap your toes on the tabletop,
listen for the right rhythm,
then dance a poem
across the page.

Rewritten as a mask poem:

I’m sharp!
I wear a slick yellow suit
and a pink top hat.
I tap my toes on the tabletop,
listen for the right rhythm,
and then dance a poem
across the page.

11 Comments on More, More, More...Mask Poems!, last added: 4/26/2010
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10. April 22, 2010: And the Winner Is...

Jama of Jama Rattigan's Alphabet Soup is the winner of The Underwear Salesman and Other Jobs for Better or Verse, a collection of humorous verse written by J. Patrick Lewis and illustrated by Serge Bloch.


Congratulations, Jama! Email me your name and address and I'll send the poetry book off to you.



Win a Poetry Book!
Every week during April, I’m giving away a children’s poetry book at Wild Rose Reader. If you leave a comment at one of my poetry posts during the fourth week of NaPoMo (April 22-28), I’ll enter your name in the drawing to win a copy of Every Second Something Happens: Poems for the Mind and Seasons—with poems selected by Christine San Jose and Bill Johnson and illustrations by Melanie Hall. (Note: If you leave comments at two of my poetry posts, I'll enter your name twice...and so on.)
Book Giveaway Schedule
Fourth Week of National Poetry Month: April 22-28 (Winner announced on April 29)
Final Days of National Poetry Month: April 29-30 (Winner announced on May 1st)

1 Comments on April 22, 2010: And the Winner Is..., last added: 4/23/2010
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11. SHOWERS: An Original Acrostic for Spring

My contribution for the 21st day of National Poetry Month is Showers, a poem from my unpublished collection Spring into Words: A Season in Acrostics.



Softly, raindrops come to call. Can you
Hear them gently tap-tapping
On the
Windowpane, on the roof with an
Even, steady beat…
Repeating the song that April loves to
Sing?

1 Comments on SHOWERS: An Original Acrostic for Spring, last added: 4/22/2010
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12. The Princess Speaks to the Frog Prince in Condescending Language: An Original Fairy Tale Poem


Sorry that I'm posting so late today. At this time, my list of "things to do" has gotten very long.

Here's another poem from my unpublished poetry collection entitled Excerpts from the Fairy Tale Files. In the poem, an exasperated princess speaks to the "still a frog" prince while they're eating dinner.


The Princess Speaks to the Frog Prince in Condescending Language
by Elaine Magliaro

Amphibian, you’re slimy, green…
The most repulsive thing I’ve seen.

Oh, woe is me! Is this my fate—
To have you hop around my plate…
The golden plate I got from Papa?
You’re leaving footprints in my supper!
And while the minstrel sings a ballad,
You flop your webbed feet through my salad.
I know you fetched my golden ball,
But you should follow protocol
And dine out in the kitchen where
The servants do. You’ll fit in there.
You’re sooooo disgusting, little frog.
I think I’ll feed YOU to my dog.

2 Comments on The Princess Speaks to the Frog Prince in Condescending Language: An Original Fairy Tale Poem, last added: 4/22/2010
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13. IT'S RAINING: An Original Poem & Repetition in Poetry

I wrote the following poem a couple of weeks ago—inspired by a long period of rainy days. It just kept raining and raining and raining…and sometimes pouring. It seemed as if the rain would never stop. In my poem, I tried to capture the thoughts of a child who feels his/her world has been inundated with rain.

It’s Raining

It’s raining…
Raining all around.
It’s raining puddles
On the ground.
It’s raining
On my booted feet.
It’s raining
Rivers in the street.
It’s raining cats.
It’s raining dogs.
It’s raining ponds
For polliwogs.
It’s raining
Drop by drop by drop…
A billion trillion—
It won’t stop!
It’s raining buckets
From the sky.
Don’t think the earth
Will EVER dry.

You can see that I repeated the words “It’s raining” many times in my poem. I’m sure you can figure out why—to emphasize the point that it’s raining…a lot!

You will see that Mary Ann Hoberman repeated the word “snow” many times in the following poem:

SNOW

Snow
Snow
Lots of snow
Everywhere we look and everywhere we go
Snow on the sandbox
Snow on the slide
Snow on the bicycle
Left outside
Snow on the steps
And snow on my feet
Snow on the sidewalk
Snow on the sidewalk
Snow on the sidewalk
Down the street.



Here’s a poem I posted previously at Wild Rose Reader. I use the same sentence as the first line of every stanza of my poem I Am Lion. Repetition doesn’t serve the same purpose in this poem as it did in the previous two poems.

Do you think I Am Lion would have been a better poem if I hadn't used repetition? Let’s see.

I AM LION

I am lion.
See my mane?
I am king
And here I reign
On the Serengeti Plain.

I am lion.
See my paws
With their sharp
And pointy claws?
See my teeth and mighty jaws?

I am lion.
Hear my roar?
I’m a cat
Of legend…lore.
I’m a fearsome predator!

I am lion.
Who are you?
You’re my prey!
How do you do?
You look plump…and juicy, too.

I am lion,
Royal beast.
Sorry that you’re
Now deceased.
You were
one delicious feast!


Let’s eliminate the first line in four of the stanzas and see how the poem reads.

I am lion.
See my mane?
I am king
And here I reign
On the Serengeti Plain.

See my paws
With their sharp
And pointy claws?
See my teeth and mighty jaws?

Hear my roar?
I’m a cat
Of legend…lore.
I’m a fearsome predator!

Who are you?
You’re my prey!
How do

3 Comments on IT'S RAINING: An Original Poem & Repetition in Poetry, last added: 4/19/2010
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14. Fun Rhymes to Read Aloud

One of the rewards of a finding a great rhyme is that you don't have to be good at reading aloud to make it sing.


Think about the last time you read Shel Silverstein or Jack Prelutsky. Chances are you didn't need to gear up to read the lines. The poems did a lot of the work for you.


Linked and spaced in a clever way, the words seemed to add their own inflection and enthusiasm to your voice as you read.


In celebration of National Poetry Month this April, I've spotlighted four new books of poems that are sure to put a hop and a skip into your reading voice.


In fact, some of the poems are so fun to say aloud, you might just hear them repeated back by the listener in your lap or snuggled up beside you.


To help round out your library, I've followed the four reviews with a list of six more books of poems that rise above the stacks.

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15. Chick Chatter: An Original Animal Mask Poem

The mask poem below, Chick Chatter, made its debut at Jama Rattigan’s blog Alphabet Soup. It was the first poem she posted in her Poetry Potluck Series celebrating National Poetry Month 2010.

Click here to read her post peck peck, peep peep, yum yum: here's elaine magliaro!

As I wrote in an earlier Wild Rose Reader post, I really love writing animal mask poems. I enjoy pretending to be a lion or a grizzly bear or a blue whale or a snake or a snail or a monarch caterpillar—any kind of creature—and taking on their personalities...in poems.


In Chick Chatter, I tried to imagine what an unhatched chick might be thinking and saying to itself as it was trying to break out of its shell.


CHICK CHATTER

I’m pecking, pecking
On this dome.
I’m cramped inside
My little home.
Can’t spread my wings,
Can’t run…or walk.
Can’t see the sun.
Can barely talk!
Oh, I’ve been pecking
Since last night.
This shell is really
Really tight!
I just can’t stand it
Anymore!
Oh where? Oh, where
Is my front door?!


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16. Things to Do If You Are King Kong: An Original List Poem at GottaBook


Gregory Pincus is featuring my list poem Things to Do If You Are King Kong over at GottaBook today. I am honored to be one of the writers who was asked to participate in Gregory's Thirty Poets Thirty Days project for National Poetry Month this year.



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17. Second Week of National Poetry Month (April 8-14) in Review


Poetry Makers at the Miss Rumphius Effect
April 8—Nikki Giovanni
April 9—Charles Ghigna (Father Goose)
April 10—JonArno Lawson
April 11—Patricia Hubbell
April 12—Kurt Cyrus
April 13—David Harrison
April 14—Juanita Havill

Thirty Poets Thirty Days at Gotta Book
April 8—Ralph Fletcher
April 9—Alan Katz
April 10—Carmen T. Bernier-Grand
April 11—Charles Waters
April 12—Kathi Appelt
April 13—Kurt Cyrus
April 14—Arthur A. Levine

Poetry Tag at Poetry for Children
April 8—Joyce Sidman is IT
April 9—Marilyn Singer is IT
April 10—Kristine O’Connell George is IT
April 11—Alice Schertle is IT
April 12—Jane Yolen is IT
April 13—Heidi Stemple is IT
April 14— Lesléa Newman

Poetry Potluck at Jama Rattigan’s Alphabet Soup
April 8—a tail of tubby tabbies with j. patrick lewis
April 9—friday feast: julie larios spices things up
April 12—kelly polark turns up the volume
April 13—sara lewis holmes and her biscuit boys
April 14—kristy dempsey goes to the dogs

2 Comments on Second Week of National Poetry Month (April 8-14) in Review, last added: 4/15/2010
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18. Poetry from A to Z...Not!


I once toyed with the idea of writing a collection of poems about the letters of the alphabet. That poetry project fell by the wayside—after I wrote quatrains for the letters A and Z. I had forgotten all about the project until I went looking through my “miscellaneous poems” folder this morning. I have a number of other projects moldering away in literary limbo.
Have any of you ever abandoned a writing project in its infancy—or at any other stage of development?

Without any fanfare, I present A and Z:

A’s in charge and doing fine…
Gets the alphabet in line,
Shouts marching orders, takes the lead.
“Attention, Letters, let’s proceed.”

Z’s the one that’s always last,
Waits till
A through Y have passed.
Then from the end zone out it zooms.
“Well, that’s all, folks!” Z loudly booms.

6 Comments on Poetry from A to Z...Not!, last added: 4/14/2010
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19. Brand New Day: An Original Poem


I worked on a number of different versions of the following poem last week. One version has five more stanzas. I decided I liked the four-stanza version best.

Brand New Day
by Elaine Magliaro

The sun arose. The stars all fled.
A sleepy moon slipped off to bed.

The dark sky paled to baby blue
As nighttime disappeared from view.

Then dawn put on her yellow gown
And danced a jig all over town.

Loud roosters crowed, mourning doves cooed:
“It’s a brand new day. Our world’s renewed.”


3 Comments on Brand New Day: An Original Poem, last added: 4/13/2010
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20. Here & There: April 11, 2010


From Scholastic: 18 Books for Poetry Month

From School Library Journal (3/16/2010) Exploring Nature through Poetry by Joy Fleishhacker

From Crayola: National Poetry Month—April 2010

11 Ways to Celebrate National Poetry Month With The New York Times
By Shannon Doyne and Holly Epstein Ojalvo

From the Academy of American Poets: 30 Ways to Celebrate Poetry

From Readimg Rockets: National Poetry Month

From Time for Kids: Three Poems from An Egret’s Day by Jane Yolen

***************
Poetry Videos
Click here to see videos of five children's poets (Mary Ann Hoberman, Ashley Bryan, Janet Wong, Nikki Grimes, and Eve Bunting) talking about poetry.

Click here to see the Spring Flower & Poetry Video I posted earlier today.

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21. A List Poem & A Concrete Poem


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.”

Here’s a link to Martha’s “tadpoling” post: http://marthacalderaro.wordpress.com/2010/04/05/tadpoling/

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22. TULIP: An Original Poem

I took some pictures of the tulip plant that one of my my nieces gave me for Easter. When I examined the flower in the photograph I posted below, I thought the petals looked a little like tongues. That's what gave me the idea for my tulip poem.

TULIP
It poked its pink head up
looking for spring,
stood watching while clouds passed by,
waited till warm yellow rays

showered down...
then lapped up sunlight
with its silky tongues.



2 Comments on TULIP: An Original Poem, last added: 4/8/2010
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23. DANDELION: An Original Poem


I thought I'd stay with the flower theme--and the color yellow. I've already posted poems about daffodils, the daisy, and forsythias. Yesterday, when I went outside with my camera to take photographs of flowers that might provide me with inspiration for writing poems, I found one lonely dandelion growing near my Rose of Sharon bush. Here's one of the pictures I took of it:

And here is an early draft of the poem I wrote about that dandelion:

DANDELION

A feathered sun
growing in a sky of green,
its spiky corona radiating gold—
one bright star
lighting up our lawn


2 Comments on DANDELION: An Original Poem, last added: 4/7/2010
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24. FORSYTHIAS: An Original Poem


There is so much “poetry goodness” going on in the kidlitosphere this month! I can’t keep up with all of the wonderful poetry postings. I’m not as organized as many of the other bloggers. I didn’t make any grand plans for April. I’m just kind of "poetry-ing" it by the seat of my pants this year.

I have been working on original poems to post here during National Poetry Month. Some of the poems I post may not be in their final draft stage. I’ve already written and posted a poem about daffodils and a daisy acrostic this April. Today, I thought I’d stay with a flower theme. Here’s an early draft of a poem about forsythias.


Forsythias
by Elaine Magliaro

One morning
they unexpectedly
burst into bloom
and sprouted gold.
April used her Midas touch
and turned a gray day
into a surprise celebration
for spring.

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One of my favorite blogs is Andromeda Jazmon’s A Wrung Sponge. Andi takes beautiful photographs and writes lovely haiku. She will be posting a "haiga" (haiku and photo) there every day in April.

In April of 2007, Andi was kind enough to give me permission to post some of her photographs at Wild Rose Reader. Her pictures had inspired me to write several haiku. Click here to see that haiku post.

4 Comments on FORSYTHIAS: An Original Poem, last added: 4/7/2010
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25. DAISY: An Original Acrostic

I love daisies. They seem unpretentious flowers to me. I also love how the name for the daisy comes from the term "day's eye." That is what gave me the idea for the following acrostic.

Day’s eye, wide
Awake, standing
In a meadow
Staring at the sky—its bright
Yellow face turned toward the sun.


Photograph by Ian Britton

4 Comments on DAISY: An Original Acrostic, last added: 4/6/2010
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