Poetry Friday: Poetry Postcard 29

Greetings, poets and postcards lovers. It's Poetry Friday. Today, Linda Baie is hosting the blog roll at Teacher Dance. Linda has been a huge supporter of my poetry postcard project, even donating the lovely vintage Valentine postcard you see at the top of this post.

Not my Valentine. But he is here for a reason. Read on.

I have a new postcard poem today (#29 in the 44 Postcard Project) and a craft!

I am taking a poetry road trip this weekend, but not with a Yeti.

Last March, three poets from North Carolina visited us here in Maryland. We had readings, a workshop, and one fabulous meal at a Greek restaurant. (You can the NC poets' work on my blog: Richard Krawiec, Debra Kaufman and Stephanie Levin.)

Now, it's our turn to travel south. Poet Fred Foote and fiction authors Danuta Hinc and Jen Grow -- all Little Patuxent Review staffers -- are joining me in the mommy van known to my kids as The Mars Rover.

We leave around lunchtime, so please forgive any delays posting your comments. We'll be leading some workshops and an evening reading (details here). If you're near Cary, NC on Saturday, I hope you'll drop by.

We'll be stopping for at least one meal along the way, I  hope it's not here:

Bit of Sweden, 9051 Sunset Blvd.
Hollywood, Cal.

"The World's Most Unique Restaurant"

World's most unique restaurant,  you say? I can only guess what's on the menu.

The World’s Most Unique Restaurant

Starters

Fingernails of white lipped snails
baked in their tangy goo.

Underwater salad dressed

with phytoplankton stew.

Main Course

Fractal cauliflower over
gojiberry mash.

Yeti-hair spaghetti with
green pollen – just a dash.

            Desserts

Rubber bark and lemon shark,
our chef’s signature pie.

Layer cake with scale of snake

frosted with phorid fly.

            From the Owner

Come brave our culinary treats,

from gorsebush wine to pickled meats!

We are unique down to our seats.
It is our joy to serve you.

Laura Shovan

Did you spot the Yeti?

Imagining what is served at the world's most unique restaurant was too delicious a challenge to turn down.

Try the prompt with your students. What do they think might be served at the world's most unique restaurant? I promise, they will never forget the definition of "unique" after trying this prompt.

On to the craft. What to do with all of those Valentine cards you received yesterday? After a grace period -- we don't want to break any loving hearts -- we can make postcards from them.

This is a great project for recyclers. Take an old card,

Here's an interesting card I've been saving.

I can always save the note inside.

 cut off the front, the part with the picture.

Now I have two pieces.

Use a postcard you already have to help you trim the front of the card to postcard size.

I used a standard postcard as a guide.

Voila! Postcard. Add it to your collection or send to a friend. Remember, postcards stamps just went up to thirty-three cents.

Poetry Postcard #29 Information:

Back:

Bit of Sweden

9051 Sunset Blvd.

Hollywood, Cal.

Phone: Bradshaw 2-2800

The World’s Most Unique Restaurant Featuring the largest Smorgasboard, fine foods and liqueurs.

A “Colourpicture” Publication, Boston 15, Mass., L.S. Office 2143 So. Alsace

Poetry Friday Flash Mob Instructions

It's a very happy Poetry Friday this week. The Baltimore Book Festival begins this evening!

The Children's Bookstore always has great authors in their tent. I'm excited to hear Libba Bray (will get Going Bovine signed for the teen) tonight. My 'tween is coming with me to  hear Tom Angleberger, and have her copy of Origami Yoda signed tomorrow.

Of course, there are many poetry events going on throughout the weekend.

I am most excited about hosting the Living Poetry Flash Mob (tomorrow at 12.)

Think Magnetic Poetry, but with people in tee-shirts. We wanted to do something to promote family literacy for the global 100 Thousand Poets for Change event. Saturday will see 650 events, 450 cities, in 95 countries putting on poetry events. You can read my interview with organizer Michael Rothenberg here.

Poet Virginia Crawford and I are "moderating," which may turn out to be controlling the chaos. We figure, even if it's a disaster, it will be fun.

If you'd like to try a Living Poetry Flash Mob in your classroom, here's how:

Materials:

• one plain tee shirt per child (white or light colors -- old tees turned inside out would work)
• fabric markers
• a favorite poem (for elementary schoolers, something like Shel Silverstein's "Adventures of a Frisbee" would work, we are using Lucille Clifton's "Blessing the Boats" at BBF)

Procedure:

1. Give each student 1-2 words

Beforehand, you will need to either type up your poem in a BIG font and cut each word out or hand-write the individual words on index cards.

2. Get crafty

Have each student write his or her word/s on the front (second word on back, if you're doing two words each) of the tee shirt. Bling is okay. Decorations are great, as long as others can read the word.

3. Take turns

Choose two or three students, or two sets of partners, to be the poets. These students will organize their classmates into a short poem. Take a photo of the living poem or write it on the board. Then choose another set of poets.

4. Another option

You could also have the poets create phrases, rather than a complete poem, then ask the whole class to organize the phrases into a poem.

This should be fun for your visual learners, as well as your body-kinesthetic kids. If you try it, let me know how the poetry lesson goes.

I hope you make it to a 100 TPC event near you. Meanwhile, enjoy more poetry posts with Anastasia Suen at Picture Book of the Day.