Bluebirds and Let’s Go For A Walk #NationalPoetryMonth #NaPoWriMo #PoetryFriday

Happy Poetry Friday and National Poetry Month! Many thanks to Tabatha Yeatts for hosting our weekly get together today over at The Opposite of Indifference. She’s celebrating the release of IMPERFECT:  poems about mistakes: an anthology for middle schoolers. Thinking back on the hairdo (hairdon’t, really!) I had in middle school, that is THE time to be imperfect in your life. It’s all good!

Let’s kick things off with a bit of haiku inspired by a sweet bluebird who appeared during my well-filling walk Wednesday morning.

tiny bluebird you can’t hide/blue wave lengths of light/reveal your flight plan

Isn’t he sweet? We played a little hide and seek (or was it cat and mouse?) for a bit. What a joy! And I think it’s fascinating that blue feathers aren’t actually blue at all. Click here for the science behind that factoid!

This month I am tagging along with poet/author Amy Ludwig VanDerwater during what has become her annual NPM Project. You can click here to learn more about this straight from Amy! This year she is writing and sharing a new poem every day, each highlighting a different poetic technique, but keeping the same subject. Her challenge, 1 Subject 30 Ways, is also a bit of an informal book study and master class, as she’s using her fall 2017 release Poems Are Teachers (Heinemann) as her guide. Join us!

Today’s poetic technique chosen by Amy is a back and forth structure. My subject is, and will be all month-long, vernal pools. In the beginning of the month, I collected ideas from my Kindergarten students, vernal pool experts, for my writing. One of the conversations had been about what they thought the animals in the forest thought of our visits and what they might be thinking and possibly saying to us as we approach them at the vernal pool.

From these ideas, scribbled in my notebook, came today’s poem. It follows the back and forth structure and features comments and thoughts from both my Kindergarten scientists and the creatures we like to visit. Sometimes the animals respond, sometimes their comments are independent. It ends with a joint Earth Day-ish message for all.

I hope you’ve been following along the journey of the 2018 KidLitosphere Progressive Poem, a fun annual collaborative project lovingly begun in 2012 by poet/author Irene Latham. This poem has magically, and quite literally this year, been growing right before our eyes daily during the month of April. This year we are following along the journey of Jasmine, a seed, and her companions Moon and Owl. Jasmine, from a long line of poet’s jasmine, began is beginning to make her way in the world and find her poetic voice. The process has been fascinating to follow and I was excited to dive in for the first time with line eighteen. I hope you will follow Jasmine’s journey for the remainder of our Progressive Poem month by clicking on the blogs in the list below.  I can’t wait to hear what she says!

April

1 Liz at Elizabeth Steinglass

2 Jane at Raincity Librarian

3 Laura at Writing the World for Kids

4 Michelle at Today’s Little Ditty

5 Jan at bookseedstudio

6 Irene at Live Your Poem

7 Linda at TeacherDance

8 Janet F. at Live Your Poem

9 Ramona at Pleasures from the Page

10 Matt at Radio, Rhythm and Rhyme

11 Brenda at Friendly Fairy Tales

12 Carol at Beyond LiteracyLink

13 Linda at A Word Edgewise

14 Heidi at my juicy little universe

15 Donna at Mainely Write

16 Sarah at Sarah Grace Tuttle

17 Ruth at There is no such thing as a Godforsaken town

18 Christie at Wondering and Wandering

19 Michelle at Michelle Kogan

20 Linda at Write Time

21 Robyn at Life on the Deckle Edge

22 Tabatha at The Opposite of Indifference

23 Amy at The Poem Farm

24 Mary Lee at A Year of Reading

25 Kiesha at Whispers from the Ridge

26 Renee at No Water River

27 Buffy at Buffy’s Blog

28 Kat at Kat’s Whiskers

29 April at Teaching Authors

30 Doraine at Dori Reads

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This post is part of my personal National Poetry Month celebration. I hope you’ll join me in sharing your favorite poetic gems throughout the month of April whether they are written by you, your students, or another poet.