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I’ve been away from blogging at Wild Rose Reader for far too long. There have been many changes that took place in my life during the past few years. My attention has been diverted elsewhere. I haven’t even been writing much poetry. I’ve got to get my creative juices flowing once again.
For the first day of National Poetry Month, I thought I’d post the poem SKY from an unpublished poetry collection I wrote a few years ago titled Spring into Words: A Season in Acrostics.
Suddenly Earth’s blue dome springs to life, catches careening
Kites, fills with the face of a smiling sun, the music of
Young songbirds and geese honking homeward.
Click through to sign up for the National Poetry Month giveaway!
**Congratulations to Donna MacDonald, winner of Lee Wardlaw's WON TON, A CAT TALE TOLD IN HAIKU. Please contact Lee with your shipping address. **
Acrostic poems are written by taking the letters of a word or name and using them as the first letter of each line of the poem. I like to use acrostics in both in my writing and in my teaching, even outside the language arts classroom. In social studies for example, acrostic poetry can be a very useful way of exploring a topic. Sometimes I give students an exercise to write an acrostic poem about Canada. Most of them end up starting with the word “cold”!
After starting with this students have the makings of an essay outline with paragraphs about Canadian climate, vegetation, history, culture (we are known worldwide for saying “I’m sorry” a lot), political system, and a conclusion.
*A printed dictionary is essential for this exercise. All the more reason to do it. Kids should use dictionaries more often.*
Both in and out of language arts, there are several ways of approaching the writing of acrostic poetry. Say we wanted to write a poem about “Mothers”. We might write something like:
This is the simplest kind of acrostic – basically it’s just a list of adjectives that fit the word you choose. Another thing to do is to use short phrases or sentences instead of single words.
Make our breakfast
Open their hearts
Think of us first
Hold us tight
Enjoy our successes
Read to us
Say “I love you” to us every day.
Now we have a more detailed description of mothers. This poem talks about the things mothers do for us. But that’s not the end for acrostics. Another approach is to go back to single words, only this time all the words together make sentence about your word. Like this:
Now finally we can go back to our phrases and sentences. Only this time we can make them connected into one idea. Kind of like this:
Maybe we don’t appreciate that they’re the
Ones who make us who we are
They selflessly, carefully
Help us grow. To them
Every child is like a seed in a flower garden.
Rising up, our petals open in their
Sunlight
The great thing about using acrostic poetry in the classroom is that students can write about any topic that interests them, and at a level they are comfortable with. More advanced students can write with complete sentences while struggling students will get a sense of accomplishment from completing the simpler word list form.
Even within a topic, students can narrow their focus to suit their interests. Writing about Canada, some students might focus on sports:
While some might prefer to focus on wildlife.
Caribou
And moose
Narwhal
And seals
Ducks
And Canadian geese.
We’d all love to get more poetry into the classroom, as well as new ways of approaching curriculum materials in general and the development of writing skills in particular. Acrostic poetry is a great way of doing all these things.
As writers and poets acrostics can help us to get to know our characters or explore our themes. Certainly as a verse novelist, a simple acrostic can sometimes salvage an otherwise unproductive day.
And we all have those.
Gabrielle Prendergast is the writer of the feature film HILDEGARDE, starring Richard E Grant. HILDEGARDE was also published as a novel by Harper Collins Australia. She wrote for the cartoon series Gloria’s House and Fairy Tale Police Department and worked on the drama series White Collar Blue. Her middle grade novel, WICKET SEASON was published in the Spring of 2012 with Lorimer Publishers. AUDACIOUS and its sequel CAPRICIOUS will be published by Orca Books in 2013 and 2014 respectively.
Gabrielle is also a creative writing teacher and mentor specializing in helping gifted young writers (11-21), reluctant writers of all ages and pre-literate writers up to age 7.
One of my favorite sounds is that of crickets chirping on summer nights. I haven’t had the opportunity to listen to them lately because it has been so hot around here lately that we’ve had to run the air conditioner in our bedroom.
Here’s an acrostic poem I wrote some years ago about crickets strumming on summer evenings:
Chirping in the dark, their song
Resonates
In the still air. A
Chorus of summer night strummers in concert with
Katydids
Entertaining warm evenings with
Their
I feel as if I’ve fallen off the face of the kidlit blogging world. It’s difficult finding time to write book reviews and new poems to post at Wild Rose Reader when I’m away from home so much and so busy taking care of my granddaughter Julia—who will turn ten-months-old next week!
Today, I thought I’d post an acrostic poem about June…as this is the first day of the month.
Just as spring grows weary, Mother Nature
Ushers in a brand
New season of sun and fun.
Everyone cheers for summer and the end of school.
P.S. Julia LOVES blackberries!
***************
9 Comments on JUNE: An Original Acrostic Poem, last added: 6/2/2012
Me? I’m the month when spring is in full swing...when the sun batters up
And hits a home run nearly every day…when
You find summer in the bullpen warming up.
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REMINDER
Win a Poetry Book!
I’ve decided to extend National Poetry Month until May 5that Wild Rose Reader. That means if you leave a comment at any of my poetry posts (except for the Poetry Friday Roundup) that I publish from Sunday, April 29ththrough Saturday, May 5th—I’ll enter your name in the drawing to win a copy of I Am the Book—with poems selected by Lee Bennett Hopkinsand illustrations by Yayo.
7 Comments on MAY: An Original Acrostic, last added: 5/6/2012
With that old saying “April Showers bring May flowers" in mind—I wrote the following spring acrostic:
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?
Here's an original poem from my unpublished collection Spring into Words: A Season in Acrostics:
Suddenly Earth’s blue dome springs to life, catches careening
Kites, fills with the face of a smiling sun, the music of
Young songbirds and geese honking homeward.
The weather here in Massachusetts has been unbelievably warm this week. I’ve been wearing shorts and sleeveless tops and sitting out in the sun…and finally taking my granddaughter out for walks in her stroller. I really need the physical exercise! I have also been exercising my rewriting muscles and working on the final revisions for my Things to Do poetry collection.
Today, I thought I’d post a short poem from my unpublished collection Spring into Words: A Season in Acrostics. March is usually a gray, damp, and chilly month where I live. It rarely feels like spring until mid to late April around here. Spring arrived early this year. Everyone is celebrating!
Before I bust out of my winter clothes…before I
Unzip my snug green jacket, I’ll draw in a
Deep breath and dream of the warm spring days to come.
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A few proud grandma pictures that I took of Julia in the last two weeks
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2 Comments on BUD: An Original Acrostic, last added: 3/26/2012
I love autumn in New England! September and October are my favorite months. Here are a number of the poems that I’ve written about fall. I’ve posted some of them previously at
Wild Rose Reader or
Blue Rose Girls.
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One thing I miss most about autumn is the smell of burning leaves. When I was a kid, we used to rake leaves into a pile and burn them on the side of the street/road. The following poem, Autumn Fires, tells about a childhood memory of mine. I was raking leaves with two of my first cousins at the home of my maternal grandparents. My dzidzi (grandfather) set the leaves on fire and we cousins sat on wooden crates watching as the leaves burned and the smoke rose into the air.
AUTUMN FIRETwo tall maple trees growin front of my grandparents’ house.In late Octoberthey shed their golden crowns.When the fallen leavescurl up like little brown bear cubs,we rake them into a pileat the side of the street.As dusk arrivesDzidzi sets our harvest afirewith a single match.We sit on wooden cratesat the sidewalk’s edge,watch the brittle leavesblossom into golden flames,smell autumn’s pungent breath.From the pyre summer rises,a small gray ghost,and drifts awayinto the darkening sky.AUTUMN CELEBRATIONIn October, colored leavesFall from oak and maple trees…Bright confetti shaken downFrom their boughs. All over town
Trees are celebrating fall,Decorating every wall,Sidewalk, yard, and flowerbedWith pumpkin-orange, gold, and red.
We stand out in the falling leavesAnd catch confetti on our sl
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
I've been blogging "light" lately. I've had lots of things to do. Recently, I got a ton of wonderful children's books for a baby shower that my daughter Sara and I are going to on Sunday. Wednesday evening, my husband and I celebrated his birthday with Sara and her fiance. (We had Beijing duck, maki, tempura.) I went shopping and found a beautiful pink suit for my mother to wear to Sara's wedding. Yesterday, I picked up my mother-of-the-the bride dress. I also went to the bridal shop with my daughter last night when she got her gown "bustled." Later, Sara came to my house for dinner.
Here's the dress I'm wearing to Sara's wedding.
I got it in purple.
Here are the shoes I got at Macy's on sale recently.
I hope I can walk down the aisle
in them without spraining an ankle
or falling on my face!
***************
I haven't had much time for writing poetry book reviews or extensive posts about poetry--so here is another poem from my unpublished collection
Spring into Words: A Season in Acrostics:
Down here in the pond, I’ve waited for months…years,
Remained a nymph.
At last the season has come for me to
Grow wings, to shed the shell of childhood.
Onward and upward!
Now I’m ready to emerge
From my watery world, to
Look to the future…the blue sky above, to leave all my
Yesterdays behind.
The
Poetry Friday Roundup is over at
The Cazzy Files.
We had the most beautiful weather this past Memorial Day weekend. It was sunny, dry, and warm. I did yard work, sat outside on my back deck and read, and visited with one of my nieces on Saturday and Sunday. (My husband and my niece's family were up in Maine.) I brought dinner to my niece's both days. We couldn't sit outside on Saturday and eat the eggplant lasagna that my husband had made before he left because of the pesky mosquitoes. It was breezy on Sunday...so the little bloodsuckers weren't around to annoy us as we sipped mojitos and ate homemade lobster rolls. YUM!!!
Here's an acrostic to welcome the new month:
Just as spring grows weary, Mother Nature
Ushers in a brand
New season of sun and fun.
Everyone cheers for summer and the end of school.
I thought I’d attempt a two-word acrostic for my unpublished poetry collection
Spring into Words: A Season in Acrostics. The two-word acrostic,
Apple Tree, is also a mask poem.
I chose to post
Apple Tree today for my mother. Last year, we had to have the apple tree in her backyard cut down. That made her sad because my father and her father father had planted the tree there many years ago.
A cloud of
Pink blossoms rests in my branches.
Petals, like flakes of fallen snow,
Litter the
Earth below me. My new leaves flaunt their green.
Thousands of honeybees come to visit, flit
Round me, sip my nectar, powder their legs with my pollen.
Every year it’s the same when spring arrives in the orchard.
Every year I burst into bloom and buzz with life.Note: I’d like to thank all of you who left kind words for my mother and me at my
Poetry Friday posting on May 7th. This past week has been a bit easier than the previous week. My mom had a good Mother’s Day—with lots of visitors. She’s going through a period of adjustment now—as is our family. Fortunately, I’m not far from the facility where my mother is now living so I can visit with her often.
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Jama has the
Poetry Friday Roundup at
Alphabet Soup.
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?
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
Two weeks ago, I posted
March, an original poem from an unpublished collection of acrostics about spring. Today, I have the second poem in the collection for you. It’s about a mother bear sensing the arrival of a warmer season—and thinking about taking her cubs out into a world they’ve never seen.
How long have
I slept? How long has it
Been since I’ve
Eaten? I hear the river running again. I must
Rouse my cubs from their slumber
Now…open their eyes to the wonders of spring,
Awaken them to a new life. It is
Time to take my children out
Into the sunlight,
Out into a brighter world they’ve
Never known.
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I had the pleasure of being part of the round two judges for the 2009 Cybils Poetry Panel. I really enjoyed all five of the books we had to judge, including the winner. One of the books that made it to the final round was called African Acrostics: A Word in Edgeways with poems written [...]
I got a late start with my Poetry Friday plans. We had a wild wind and rainstorm here yesterday. I lost Internet access. Fortunately, I figured out how to get my wireless reconnected this morning by turning off all our computers, pulling out the connector to the router, and rebooting the modem. So relieved! I can't live without the Internet and email.
Now on to POETRY...
Last September, I was reading through all the acrostic poems that I had written. Several of them touched on the theme of spring. That gave me the idea to write a collection of spring acrostics that takes one through the season from March to June. The collection now contains twenty-one poems. It includes acrostics about the following subjects: hibernation, crocus, bud, sky, peeper, showers, puddles, mud, seeds, apple tree, pollen, nectar, and dragonfly. Some of the acrostics still need a bit of work.
As spring is waiting at the door and March is raring to go, I thought I’d post the first poem in the collection, which is tentatively titled Spring into Words: A Season in Acrostics.
Maybe I’ll
Arrive
Roaring like a lion and
Chase spring away with my frosty breath until I
Hear April purring in my ear.
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Jone has the Poetry Friday Roundup at Check It Out.
Mice have been characters in many memorable children's books--Leo Lionni's Frederick, Stuart Little, Beverly Cleary's The Mouse and the Motorcycle, and picture books by Kevin Henkes--including Owen, Chrysanthemum, Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse, and Julius, the Baby of the World.
With cute little literary rodents in mind, I give you the following acrostic that I wrote many years ago.
Mitten-footed forager
Out on a midnight adventure,
Unheard, unseen, in the whisper-soft dark,
Scurrying about the house,
Eking out a meal.
***************
At Blue Rose Girls, I have Winter Dusk by Walter de la Mare.
Mary Ann's got the Poetry Friday Round Up at Great Kid Books today.
Here are two of my original acrostic poems about summer—both acrostics begin with the letter C.
Claw-handed critter
Races sideways, skitters
Across the sea-washed land…
Beachcombing in the sand.
Chirping in the dark, their song
Resonates
In the still air. A
Chorus of summer night strummers in concert with
Katydids
Entertaining warm evenings with
Their
Symphony of wings.
For more summer acrostics, get a copy of Stephen Schnur’s Summer: An Alphabet Acrostic. The book is beautifully illustrated with hand-colored linoleum block prints by Leslie Evans. Art and text make a perfect pair in this poetry book that would be great to share with a child/children on a hot summer day--or a warm summer evening.
Summer: An Alphabet Acrostic
Written by Steven Schnur
Illustrated by Leslie Evans
Clarion, 2001
Here is Schnur’s acrostic poem for the letter C:
Close by
A glittering
Blue lake, high
In the mountains,
Nestles a fishing lodge.
Other acrostics in this collection include the following: awning, beach, daisy, hike, idle, mosquitos, picnic, tide, vegetables, and zodiac.
Click here to view some of the book’s interior pages.
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At Political Verses, I have a poem about the resignation speech of Alaska’s Governor entitled Sarah Palin’s Swan/Duck/Goose Song.
At Blue Rose Girls, I have a poem entitled Anniversary by Cecilia Woloch.
Jama Rattigan has the Poetry Friday Roundup this week.
I’ve been a bit “under the weather” for about a month—and therefore not posting as often here of late or at
Political Verses. I just started having acupuncture treatments this week—and they seem to be helping with my problem.
Here’s one of my acrostics for
Poetry Friday. Unfortunately, dawn arrived without a bright sunshiny face where I live this morning.
Dawn, dressed in a bright blue robe
And golden slippers,
Yawns awake. Stars scurry away.
Breaking into song, birds
Rouse the sun,
Eager to start
A new day. Morning bounds out of bed with delight,
Kicking off the dark cover of night.
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At
Blue Rose Girls, I have three poems for my daughter Sara. The poems were written by
Naomi Shihab Nye,
James Lenfestey, and
Margaret Atwood.
Well…I couldn’t let the last day of National Poetry Month pass without posting an original poem. Here’s an acrostic I wrote y-e-a-r-s ago.
Dagger-toothed demon
Roars its fiery breath, sets
Aflame a village,
Grips everyone in its claws
Of terror.
Now where is the knight in shining armor?
NOTE: I’ve changed the date of the last drawing for National Poetry Month. I’ve decided to hold the drawing on May 3rd instead of May 1st. Another change: Anyone who leaves a comment at any of my poetry posts dated April 29th-May 2nd will be eligible to win a copy of Wing Nuts: Screwy Haiku, which was written by Paul B. Janeczko and J. Patrick Lewis and illustrated by Tricia Tusa.
ANOTHER NOTE: I’ll be mailing out the winning books next week. If you’ve been named a winner in any of the drawings and haven’t emailed me your address yet, please do so by next Monday. Thanks!
From Jonathan Turley’s Blog (April 23, 2009): Report: Bill Nye “The Science Guy” Exposed as Godless, Soulless Blasphemer in Texas
There is an interesting account out of Waco, Texas where Bill Nye “The Science Guy” was booed for saying that the Moon does not generate it own light — in contradiction to the Bible. This will likely end any designs of Nye to open a new Bill Nye “The Religion Guy” line of products. The speech reportedly occurred in 2006 but the controversy was rekindled after critics cried foul at the removal of the story from the local newspaper’s online archive.
Nye ran afoul of the faithful by remarking that it is not true that the moon generates its own light as opposed to reflecting light. This contradicted Genesis 1:16, which says quite clearly (if only Nye bothered to read it) that “God made two great lights — the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars.”
You can read the rest here.
I hope I don’t run afoul of this particular group of the faithful with the following acrostic poem!
Mirror
Of the sun, bright
Orb in the evening sky, Earth’s
Nightlight.
Well, April is drawing to a close. Unfortunately, I haven’t followed through with many of the things I had planned for National Poetry Month this year at Wild Rose Reader. There have been a few things in my personal life that have focuesd my attention elsewhere. Fortunately, the four very talented poets that I had hoped to interview for my blog this month have been understanding and sympathetic. I will be interviewing these fine ladies in the coming weeks. I also had lots of ideas for poetry posts that I never got around to writing up. In time, I’ll get around to those, too.
ACROSTIC POEMS
For many years, I was not a fan of acrostic poems—finding most of the ones that I had read as too prosaic for my taste. Then, over a decade ago, I began attempting to write acrostics—and got hooked. I’ve written about three dozen acrostics—some of which rhyme. In addition, I have also have a number of acrostics that are still “in progress.” I’m not sure these poems will ever make it to the final draft stage.
Here are two of the “in-progress” acrostics from my unpublished collection that I thought I’d post today.
Cans of people,
Automobiles
Roaring down roads on
Silver-capped wheels
Outpost in a barren land,
A haven for weary travelers
Surrounded by stretches of desert,
Island of green washed by a
Sea of sand
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Write a COLOR POEM
Reminder: Joyce Sidman and I invited you to write and share a color poem. Check out the following Wild Rose Reader posts for further information and writing suggestions.
Red Sings from Treetops: A Book Review & An Invitation
Color Poems
Here are two poems on the subject of asteroids. The first is an acrostic; the second is a free verse poem, which you may interpret as you will.
A band of old buddies
Sticking together through the years.
Too small to be planets,
Each one a world apart,
Rocky and lifeless,
Orbiting
In unison,
Dancing a ring around the
Sun.
Asteroids
Tiny planets
together in a cosmic kindergarten
holding hands in a circle
playing ring around the sun
yearning to grow up
and have orbits of their own.
Both my husband and I are astronomy buffs. We sometimes take our large telescope on vacation with us. I thought I’d provide links to some websites and posts on the subject of space science. It seems most fitting since 2009 has been designated the International Year of Astronomy.
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Thanks for sharing with us today, Gabrielle. I love how many different directions you can take this. I could see this as a great tool for character study.
I love acrostic poems. You are so talented. I have my own poetry month celebration going on at my blog as part of A to Z Month.
Here is a link:
http://mary-anderingcreatively.blogspot.com/
Mary Hill
So perfect for National Poetry Month!