Poetry Friday Picnic

We're counting days (9) until school is over. I even made a waiting chain for my kids.

It's a momentous season for us. My son is heading to Calvert Hall College High School, and my daughter is moving up to our local middle school.

That means the next two weeks are packed with final band concerts, celebrations, ceremonies and class picnics.

Miss J on clarinet.

Today, I'll join the fifth graders at Centennial Lake for their picnic. There will be kickball, a walk around the lake, watermelons, and snowballs (the Maryland version). To share the celebratory mood, here is Gregory Djanikian's poem, "Immigrant Picnic."

Immigrant Picnic

Gregory Djanikian

It's the Fourth of July, the flags

are painting the town,

the plastic forks and knives

are laid out like a parade.

And I'm grilling, I've got my apron,

I've got potato salad, macaroni, relish,

I've got a hat shaped   

like the state of Pennsylvania.

I ask my father what's his pleasure

and he says, "Hot dog, medium rare,"

and then, "Hamburger, sure,   

what's the big difference,"   

as if he's really asking.

I put on hamburgers and hot dogs,   

slice up the sour pickles and Bermudas,

uncap the condiments. The paper napkins   

are fluttering away like lost messages.

"You're running around," my mother says,   

"like a chicken with its head loose."

"Ma," I say, "you mean cut off,

loose and cut off   being as far apart   

as, say, son and daughter."

She gives me a quizzical look as though   

I've been caught in some impropriety.

"I love you and your sister just the same,"

Read the rest at the Poetry Foundation.


The diversity in our local schools has been a gift. At the elementary school's International Night, we learned that dozens -- plural -- of languages are spoken by the school's families.

Tonight, I will be working the photo booth at the 8th grade celebration. My son will be sporting a black suit, bow-tie, black high-tops with neon green laces and shades. Some of the girls bought their dresses in February. We put my cool customer's ensemble together yesterday.

Join the poetry part at Picture Book of the Day. Anastasia is hosting Poetry Friday!

Poetry Celebration

Get your tea and biscuits ready. Today, my intern Alissa and I get to visit with our Northfield poets for the last time. It's the third grade Poets Tea.

The children will read their poems for an audience of parents and other visitors. But they also have a chance to travel to other homerooms. There, they will read poems by classmates with whom they don't typically share writing time.

It's often an eye-opening experience for kids. Through poetry, they see a different side of their peers. This is one of my favorite aspects of being a poet-in-residence -- helping the children expand their view of one another as whole people.

Last week, I posted several of the children's persona poems. I saved two more for our celebration. Both of these poems are portraits, but they also have that elusive element... tone.

Hanna's poem reminded me of a poem from A Child's Garden of Verses, by Robert Louis Stevenson.

The Swing of Trips 
By Hanna, Grade 3

Up through the air,

she flies in the sky.

She comes over the

grass and comes

back down. She pretends

it’s an airplane

flying and landing

and again fly and

land. Now it’s Florida,

then Wyoming to see

the buffalo. Now

it’s bed till tomorrow.

Where is

she going to

tomorrow?

Hanna captures the flight of the swing, but also how a swing's meditative motion can be a jumping off point for imagination.

Chloe's poem captures a moment. I like how this little poem expresses the happiness we can find in slowing down and appreciating simple things.

Good Thoughts

by Chloe Y., Grade 3

The Happy lady looks out the window.

She thinks what a beautiful day.

Sitting on the bench outside,

Looking up and listening to the birds.

She stands up and picks some flowers,

Then goes inside and gets a vase.

She sniffs the flowers

and thinks good thoughts.

Congratulations, Northfielders. You outdid yourselves with these poems! Thank you for inviting me back again this year. I hope your summers are filled with fun, poet and good thoughts.

Thanks to Kerry at Picture Books and Pirouettes for my Irresistibly Sweet Blog award!

Interning with a Poet: Guest Post

"I wish I could go back in time and store some of my third grade creativity in a jar." After spending time with the third graders at Northfield Elementary, this thought engraved itself in my head for days.

My name is Alissa Bennett and I am a student at St. Paul’s School for Girls in Brooklandville, Maryland. At my school, the senior class participates in Senior Projects. The Senior Project program gives seniors the opportunity to intern with someone whose field of work they find interesting. For my Senior Project I chose to work with Mrs. Shovan because I enjoy creative writing and one of my favorite ways to express myself is through poetry.

The time spent at Northfield Elementary this past week has been a wonderful experience for me. It was nice to see the students’ excitement when it came to writing poems and learning new information about poetry they did not know before. [Note from L.S. -- this poetry residency was sponsored by the Maryland State Arts Council and Northfield's PTA.]

My favorite lesson was when the students looked at a photo and painting. [Full lesson description is here.] Mrs. Shovan would display the image and ask the students to first state only the facts about the portrait. Then they would imagine what might be happening in the portrait. I loved hearing all of the students’ creative ideas, ranging from alien abduction to dangerous escape stories.

I taught one of these lessons also. Though it was my first time teaching, and I was really nervous, I absolutely loved it! Being able to communicate with students as a teacher is a memory that I will value forever.

The poems that the students wrote were a delight to read, too. One poem that sticks out in my mind was written by Daniel Y. The poem that he wrote was during a lesson on opposites, which I was not there for. Luckily, I got the chance to read a lot of the students’ opposite poems.

Daniel’s poem sticks out in my mind because quite a few of the opposite poems I read were about what they students liked opposed to what they didn’t like. Daniel chose to write about big beautiful things opposed to small beautiful things.

I loved all of the examples and imagery that Daniel used in his poem. The diction that he used also was nothing less than beautiful itself. His poem reads as follows:

Big Things are Beautiful
by Daniel Y.
Grade 3

 Big things are beautiful,
like the dark, deep universe.
The ocean that waves,
and the Earth that spins.
The beautiful redwood tree that
stands with me.


Small things are beautiful,
like a bright green leaf.
A seed that grows,
and a pencil that writes,
A grain of sand that I play with at
the beach.

Read the lesson description and link to model poem here.

Thank you, Alissa, for the post. And thanks again to Northfield E.S. for including Alissa in this residency, and for giving us permission to share the students' work.