Happy National Poetry Month! 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 to address a subject directly. My subject is, and will be all month-long, vernal pools. In Poems Are Teachers, Amy suggests revisiting a previously written mask or persona poem and perhaps flipping it to speak to your subject rather than as your subject. I did just that, taking my Fairy Shrimp mask poem and addressing this tiny creature directly in Can You See Me? My title comes from the final line in both poems.
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 see what happens next!
April
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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.
Great rhyme in your poem. I like the idea of being tiny and hiding. I wish I could do that more.
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So small, but significant. Love. Mark
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It’s fun to see how you flipped the original poem. What a great reminder to revisit “old” poems and consider dressing them up in a different form!
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That’s been a fun aspect to this month-long challenge. There were a few days when I didn’t have time to start something from scratch and was thrilled that I could revisit and reinvent something.
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