50 State Tour: Wisconsin, Part II

We're visiting with Wisconsin Poet Laureate, Marilyn L. Taylor.

Marilyn, how has the region you live in affected your poetry?

Well, to put it very frankly, I'm not sure that it has. I simply can't claim that there is a distinctive Wisconsin "voice" or a typically Wisconsin supply of subject matter for poetry -- although I suppose there are a certain number of poets in this state who have indeed written about cheese and cows and the Green Bay Packers.

But for those of us who take our poetry very seriously and who publish both here and elsewhere, I would say that "regionalism" is a secondary element in our work.

Speaking for myself, I'd much rather write a poem about, say, the unpredictability of human nature than one about bucolic rural Wisconsin scenery. It's more a matter of the individual poet's motivations, I think -- and less a matter of where that poet lives.

Does Wisconsin have a poet-in-the-schools program?

Although many communities and organizations in Wisconsin support programs that bring poets to their schools, I am not aware of a state-wide Poet-in-the-Schools Program.

 Thanks for joining us on the 50 State Tour, Marilyn. You're a great ambassador for poetry!

Here is Marilyn L. Taylor's sonnet, "Reading the Obituaries." If you work in schools, you've thought about the issue Marilyn raises in the poem -- the death of once-popular names.

Reading the Obituaries

by  Marilyn L. Taylor

Now the Barbaras have begun to die,
trailing their older sisters to the grave,
the Helens, Margies, Nans -- who said goodbye
just days ago, it seems, taking their leave
a step or two behind the hooded girls
who bloomed and withered with the century --
the Dorotheas, Eleanors and Pearls
now swaying on the edge of memory.
Soon, soon, the scythe will sweep for Jeanne
and Angela, Patricia and Diane --
pause and return for Karen and Christine
while Susan spends a sleepless night again.
     Ah, Debra, how can you be growing old?
     Jennifer, Michelle, your hands are cold.

 Posted with permission of the author.

What a chilling final line. My gratitude to Marilyn L. Taylor for sharing such powerful sonnet with us.

California, here we come! You're up next on the 50 State Tour of poets laureate.

Two Great Tastes That Go Great Together

Bonus when my students write food/imagery poems -- free recipes.

Yesterday, one third grader wrote about his family's Halloween morning tradition. Hold onto your taste buds...

Cinnamon buns baked with candy corn on top. Are you seeing the melted yellow and orange candy dripping over the sides of the bun? Can you taste the earthy cinnamon and sweet, melted candy? Mmmm.

A marriage made in culinary heaven.

Last time, I shared some main course imagery written by the Northfield third graders. Now, it's time for dessert.

I love how Ilsa's attention to detail in this poem makes me feel that she's enjoying every bite of this delicious dessert.

Poet: Ilsa M.

Ice Cream Today is my birthday I hurry to the door I hurry to the shop When I get there… I can smell the cold air rush to my nose. I can hear the freezer’s noise trying to Get the ice cream cold. I can see the orange color so bright Like the sun shining. I can touch it with my spoon and no Bumps come in my way. I can taste the cold mango flavor In my mouth melting. I quickly find a spot right next to the Window. I slowly put [a spoonful] in my mouth. Its taste is so fresh and so real. I love mango ice cream. We've been talking about how food can conjure up memories of people and places. For Meghan, making a dish with her grandmother is what makes the food special.

Poet: Meghan M. Berry Biscuits A nice summer day my gramma And I are picking berries to make Berry biscuits. We go in to the kitchen squish Squish we’re smashing the berries. Looking at the smashed berries Looking gooey. Clink! Clink! Hearing the mixing Spoon clank against the bowl. Make it into dough. Pre-heating the Oven. Ding! It’s ready. Cutting the dough into circles. Put the biscuits in for 15 minutes. Put some sugar on the berries. Mmm! Ding! The biscuits are ready. Now time to cut them open. Slice! Put the berries In. We’re finally done.

Next up...some smelly sneakers take center stage as the Northfield third graders write odes.

Audubon Poetic Resources

I know posted a goodbye to Frere Flamingo, but it's hard to let go. In December and January, we travelled to six classrooms together! He's one popular bird.

Matthew Smith, one of the other poets working on "Totally Ekphrastic: Picturing America through Poetry," recommended some grown-up poetry related to John James Audubon's work.

Claudia Emerson's book Late Wife includes an Audubon poem. Robert Penn Warren has a book entitled "Audubon: A Vision." I'm sure there are more Audubon related books and poems out there (please comment with any you know.) What a fascinating person.

I'll be reading poetry related to Audubon, because it's hard to let go.

Here is a selection from the Warren book:

Love and Knowledge

Their footless dance

Is of the beautiful liability of their nature.

Their eyes are round, boldly convex, bright as a jewel,

And merciless. They do not know

Compassion, and if they did,

We should not be worthy of it. They fly

In air that glitters like fluent crystal

Read the rest of the poem here.

Trust me, it's worth following the link. Kids are fascinated that Audubon killed his subjects in order to study, then pose them. You'll be amazed at what Warren does with this fact in his poem.

Amok in Odes, Part 2

A middle school lesson on writing odes.

I sent Keats’ “Ode on Grecian Urn” ahead for Janene Sharbaugh at Bonnie Branch Middle to discuss with students.

Since the language is so dense in Keats’ ode, I also sent an online image of a Grecian Urn, so kids would know what Keats was describing.

Ms. Sharbaugh admitted that the kids struggled with Keats, but some fell in love with the imagery of people frozen in time, forever chasing after a kiss, always young.

We started the lesson talking about Keats’ elevated language. “But what if we used that same language for everyday objects?” I asked. Pablo Neruda’s “Odes to Simple Things” include odes to a tomato, his socks, and laziness.

Now we are ready to talk about Gary Soto's modern "Ode to Pablo's Tennis Shoes." The students noticed that the character of Pablo isn’t described directly in Soto’s poem. We get our information about him through his beaten-up, grass-stained shoes.

He wants to be Like his shoes, A little dirty From the road… For me, these conjure mythological American heroes – the cowboy, “Easy Rider” traveling cross country by motorcycle.

The class liked that Soto doesn’t judge Pablo for not being studious. He’d rather run through his days in those almost-magical sneakers because "his eyes sting...from long words in books." It’s as if Pablo can’t be a rambunctious, active kid without those shoes to get him through the day.

On the board, we brainstormed for an imagined ode to the floor. It gets stepped on all day. We band and stomp, but it never complains. It holds up the walls. It’s versatile – carpet, wood, linoleum.

Lots of hands were going up – a signal that the students had the idea and were ready to write. We did a short reading at the end of the period.

One of my favorite responses was an ode to a spoon, which tasted food alongside the poet, then enjoyed a cleansing shower in the dishwasher. Another was “Ode to an Exit Sign” (talk about an overlooked object). One of the lines described the sign, “Guiding us to freedom.”

Writers will appreciate one boy’s “Ode to a Pencil.” He called his pencil, “Wand of the mind.”

It’s exciting for me – and the classroom teacher – when kids get the idea like this. I can’t wait to see their finished odes.

Writing Exercise: Paying Attention with Everyday Odes

Recommended for: advanced elementary through adult

Choose an object that you would normally overlook or take for granted. Take a few moments to brainstorm what role that object plays in your life.

Could you live without it?

What does it do for you?

What makes it wonderful?

Describe your object in an ode.

Poetry Craft Alert! If you’re working on “Ode to Pablo’s Tennis Shoes” with elementary and middle schoolers, here’s a craft idea. It was recommended by my friend, super-crafter Amy Vittori (check out her blog!)

Materials: pre-cut card stock in the shape of a sneaker, whatever crafts bits and pieces you have.

Give every child a sneaker. Like Pablo in the poem, these shoes are a way for kids to describe themselves. Have kids decorate their shoes with clues about things and activities they like.

A child who has a dog might add dog hair (pieces of yarn) to his sneaker. A girl whose basketball team color is purple might have purple laces or her jersey number. Kids who love being outside can add green crayon for grass stains, like Pablo.

I haven’t tried this craft. If you use this idea in your classroom or home/school, let me know how it goes. I'd love to see some pix.

Poetry Friday: Wrestling The Beast

Two things on my mind these days.

The poet in me is all about teaching ekphrastic poetry for the Maryland Humanities Council. (I did my first -- and the program's first -- workshop yesterday. A photo from my class is up on the MHC home page. So cool!)

As a mom, I’m coping with wrestling season. Holiday shopping will have to wait. Unless you’d like a Vipers Wrestling t-shirt.

Our eleven-year-old son began wrestling in second grade. We signed him up because he needed to do something and it was only $50 for a season of clinic! He fell in love with the sport. You’ll get a sense of why if you check out my article on kids’ contact sports in SI Focus Magazine.

I love using Arnold Adoff’s book “Sports Pages” with 5th grade and older students. The book has a poem for just about every sport kids do. Adoff’s style is sensory and playful.

Here’s the beginning of his wrestling poem:

Wrestling The Beast

This guy is an animal. A pig? Squealing sinus breathing. A bear? Hair on his fat arms. A dog? No, not biting, but his chin digging into my collar Bone. A dragon. Easy. Dragon breath. An anaconda snake. His mistake: Choke hold around my neck.

The poem turns (along with the match) in the last stanza. Check out "Sports Pages" to find out what happens. I'm sure the kid's mom is biting her nails.

DJRobMan is wrestling for a travel team this year. Last weekend was his first competitive tournament. He lost in a single elimination round. It was a major achievement to make it to the end of the match without getting pinned.

As for me, I’ll be recommending “Sports Pages” as an extension for my “Totally Ekphrastic! Picturing America Through Poetry” workshop on Thomas Eakins’ image of an athlete: “John Biglin in a Single Scull.”

Kids love writing about the activities they do, whether it’s riding horses, gymnastics, art classes, or practicing trombone. Eakins’ watercolor is sensory in its own way – I hope it will be a great jumping off point for some active poetry.

I’ll let you know how the lesson goes. Today, I’m off to a much-needed writing retreat with our SCBWI Asst. Regional Adviser, Edie Hemingway & hope to write some poetry of my own.

Speaking of favorite books, this week’s Poetry Friday Round Up is at Mommy’s Favorite Children’s Books.

More Poetry Pockets

My third graders at Norwood Elementary had a great time creating their poetry pockets yesterday and today.

Our model poem is "Eliza's Jacket" by Calef Brown. We borrow the first two lines of Brown's poem, then let our imaginations take flight.

Cherie Lurz's morning class came up with this group poem:

I have a jacket,

a jacket made of pockets.

In pocket #29, I have snowy days.

I take one out

when I'm getting hot,

so I can get cold

and play in the snow.

I take one out

whenever I'm bored,

so I can have a snowball fight

or make a snowman,

or sled down a hill.

I take one out

whenever I want a day off

from school,

to curl up by the fire

with hot cocoa

and read a book.

(The last stanza suggested by an under-the-weather Ms. Lurz!)

Julia Kerner's class has had dinosaurs on the brain since I gave them a dino "Grow-Creature" to be their poetry mascot. (It is pink. Its name is Waffles the Dinosaur.)

Here is their group effort:

I have a jacket,

a jacket made of pockets.

In pocket 26 I have a dinosaur egg.

It cracks open

and a triceratops comes out.

I collect fruit for it to eat,

so when it grows it can give me

rides around town.

The neighbors would pass out!

Miss Flanigan's class was hungry:

In pocket 32,

I have my own McDonald's.

I'd get chocolate milk shakes

and salty fries and a Big Mac

whenever I wanted.

I would smell delicious.

And a handful of Ms. Lurz's students sat down with me today to compose this wildly imaginative poem:

I have a jacket,

a jacket made of pockets.

In pocket 5,000,003

I have an elephant,

so I can take showers

instead of baths.

In pocket 100,

I have a monster

with a green face,

purple hair and black teeth,

and a furry body,

to help me

scare away bullies.

The monster and the elephant fight

because the elephant tries

to spray the monster's teeth

to clean them,

so in pocket #506

I have a brick wall

to separate them all.

I love how this last poem begins to veer into narrative.

Hope your students had fun with their pocket poems, too. Again, if you'd like full instructions on the lesson and craft, visit http://www.mrspoems.com/.

Tomorrow, I'll be in a celebratory mood -- working on Odes with students at Ellicott City, MD's Bonnie Branch Middle.

Amok in Third Grade, Day 5

When it’s Revision Day with elementary schoolers, I loan every student a pair of re-vision sunglasses. We’re going to look at our poems again, pretending we've never seen them before. I’m learning, too. During last year's residency at Norwood, I tried to cram everything in on Revision Day. “Did you use any onomatopoeia? What about a simile? If you’re changing ideas, remember to leave a space to show a new stanza.” The kids were overwhelmed. I realized that elementary schoolers can tackle one thing during this lesson. Most important to me and their teachers: making their poems look like poems. Sounds simple, right? Not when your teacher has been telling you “fill the paper” with writing for three months. Not when you’ve written (horrid shudder) dozens of BCRs before your 9th birthday, faithfully filling up those little lined boxes with topic sentence, supporting details, and explaining how the text relates to yourself. Their first drafts tend to look like a blob of words. If the paper runs out on the word “a” – that’s the end of the poetic line. Choosing *not* to write to the very edge of the paper is a big hurdle for third graders. Here’s how we take the leap: 1. I borrow a very blobby first draft from a student and put it on the document display. (If the school only has overheads, I arrange with the student and teacher in advance to make an overhead copy.) 2. The whole class goes through the poem phrase by phrase. I mark a back-slash every time we see a new idea or feel we should start a new line. I explain that the / mark is a poet’s symbol for “new idea, skip down!, start a new line” and that this draft is like a map for our rewrite. Some students get this right away and are excited to contribute. They see where the lines breaks should go. However, the class poet has the last word. 3. If we see simple errors like spelling, punctuation and dropped words, we fix them. 4. I get fresh paper (best to have the same kind the students use) and rewrite the first several lines. Now the poem is beginning to look like a poem! 5. The teacher and I walk around the room. Some kids will recopy their poems, writing to the end of the line, dutifully copying the slash marks onto the new draft. We explain and start again. 6. Throughout the workshop, I am putting work on display. If Josh is getting the hang of line breaks, I’ll show the whole class his rough draft with the “skip down” symbols, then his new draft. It looks like a poem. What an exhilarating moment that is for young kids (and their teachers). Sometimes, the children even see how a poetic line emphasizes words and ideas, making them more powerful. Whew! That was hard, important work. The students are beginning to absorb the idea that poetry is a different type of writing, with special rules that set it apart. By now, I'm glad that we've planned a fun lesson for the last workshop. More on that tomorrow.

Writing Exercise: Animal Similes

Recommended for: Everyone

Perfect for: Elementary Schoolers 

Many poets-in-the-schools do a version of this lesson, in which we compare animals to emotions. The poems I get are powerful, sometimes frightening because the emotions are so raw. That’s a good thing. Children can be reluctant or even unable to write about what they're feeling. When we ask them to focus their writing on animals, it allows children to step away from their emotions and look at them objectively. 

Prompt: “When I feel ______, I am like a _____.” 

I ask that all poems begin with this line. The rest of the poem can list a variety of things: how does the animal behave in ways that fit your feeling; is there anything about the animal’s looks or body that matches well with your feeling; when you feel this way, how are you and the animal similar? We brainstorm by listing emotions on the board.

Over the years, my students have stepped beyond the typical happy/sad feelings. They’ve written poems about feeling brave, triumphant, lonely, lazy, anxious. I choose one for the topic of our group poem.

For some children, it’s helpful to match a color to the emotion before we pick an animal. In one of my Norwood classes (Ms. Kerner or Ms. Lurz – sorry I didn’t keep track!), we chose “Mad” for the feeling and brainstormed red, gray and black for the colors. Then we thought of an animal for each color. We ended up with a mad red crab, a mad gray elephant, and a mad black wolf. Here is the class poem:

When I am Mad


When I am mad, I am like a gray elephant. 
I stomp on the ground.
I want to smoosh the person who made me mad.
I want to hit the person with my trunk and throw them.
I’d yell with my trunk.


I read a few more samples from past students, and the poets are ready to write. For a recent book of animal poems, check out Laura Salas’ “A Fuzzy-Fast Blur: Poems about Pets.” She blogged about it recently at: http://laurasalas.livejournal.com/107169.html 

 This workshop is useful for adult fiction writers, too. Susan Gray of GottaWrite Girl came to my summer SCBWI workshop on using animal totems to build character. She wrote about it for her 10/8/08 post. Children’s author Sarah Maury Swan was at the same workshop. She wrote a nice article about it. Adding an animal to a story she was working on helped Sarah add depth to the protagonist’s experiences. You can read Sarah’s article in our regional SCBWI newsletter, click on Fall 2008.

 Happy writing, everyone! Being a full-time writer and arts educator is one of the things I'm most thankful for.

Amok in Third Grade, Day 3

It’s Poetry Friday…

and it’s Opposites Day with my third graders!

Teachers love this lesson because it teaches kids how/why to use stanzas. (Aside #1 – “stanza” is the Italian word for “room.” I ask students to imagine that reading a poem with several stanzas is like walking into the different rooms of a house.)

Kids love it, too. Opposites – hey, we get that!

The model poem was given to me by MSAC poet-in-the-schools Roseanne Singer. She was my mentor poet.

(Aside #2 – artists coming into the MD State Arts Council school residency program student teach. We accompany an artist on one residency, observing first and picking up classes throughout the week.)

Swift Things Are Beautiful Swift things are beautiful: Swallows and deer, And lightning that falls Bright-veined and clear, Rivers and meteors, Wind in the wheat, The strong-withered horse, The runner’s sure feet. And slow things are beautiful: The closing of day, The pause of the wave That curves downward to spray, The ember that crumbles, The opening flower, And the ox that moves on In the quiet of power. Elizabeth Coatsworth

(Aside #3 – Coatsworth wrote “The Cat Who Went to Heaven,” 1931 Newbery winner.) Students love to pick out their favorite lines in this poem. We look at our hands and say, “Veins really do look like lightning!” We pat ourselves on the back between the shoulders because that’s where our withers would be if we were horses. Someone always brings up the wonderful last two lines. Because our culture equates power with speed, talking about that slow, powerful ox creates a great discussion. By now, we’ve already generated a list of opposites on the board for kids to choose from. Basically, this is a two-topic list poem. I remind them several times, “Leave a space between your opposites!” Often, we’ll write a class poem together before I send kids off to write on their own. When one of the students suggested “Sit/Stand” for the class poem, Ms. Kerner and I raised our eyebrows at each other. Sounds kind of limited – not much for a list. But we decided to go for it. Here is what the third graders came up with: Sit/Stand When I am sitting I can Play video games and PSP, Roll on my skateboard – scoot! Calmly listen to my MP3 player. Swing on a swing – whoosh! When I am standing I can Play freeze tag, Do a kick flip on my skateboard, Dance to Hannah Montana music. Ride on a merry-go-round – scream! The teacher, Ms. Kerner, noticed that we had a pattern going. It happened kind of magically and by the end of the poem became intentional – line 2 “play,” line 3 “skateboard,” line four “music,” line five “on the playground.” Ah, we really are poets. The next lesson – animal similes.

The Poetry Friday Round Up is at Brimstone Soup today. Visit http://brimstonesoup.blogspot.com/ for some poetry you can sink your teeth into.

Amok in Third Grade, Day 2

It's Poetry Friday!

I'll be in residence at Norwood Elementary in Baltimore for another week and a half. Our second workshop session was onomatopoeia.

The lesson begins with kids volunteering sound words: bam! pop! shh, crash, zoom, whisper. They know onomatopoeia has something to do with sounds but -- what a cool idea -- these words actually make the sound they are describing!

Before I introduce the model poem, Eve Merriam's "Weather," the kids and I create a rainstorm in the classroom. They follow me as we tap the desks, snap our fingers, clap our hands, slap the desktops. It actually sounds like a rainstorm in their classroom. The children love making noise and moving their bodies.

We write down all of the rain sounds we made: rumble, tap, snap, drop.

It's especially fun when it rains the day after we do the "rain dance." Kids look at me and say, "Mrs. Shovan, we made it rain."

That's a nice segue into the Merriam poem,

Weather by Eve Merriam

Dot a dot dot dot a dot dot Spotting the windowpane.

Spack a spack speck flick a flack fleck Freckling the windowpane.

A spatter a scatter a wet cat a clatter A splatter a rumble outside.

The rest, here: http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15415

Not only is "Weather" filled with onomatopoeia, it has a hidden surprise that's great to share with kids.

Merriam never uses the words "he," "she," "boy," or "girl," but there is a person in the poem. It's easy to miss him/her on the first reading (I did) because we focus on the juicy sounds.

I love walking through the stanzas of "Weather," one by one, with children. Together, we figure out what the person in the poem is doing. It's enough to make me splosh in a mud puddle.

Last, we write.

Writing Exercise (All Ages)

A sound riddle.

Using mostly sounds, describe a place (the school cafeteria, your house in the morning, a diner), or activity (a sport you do, riding bikes in your neighborhood). See if your readers can guess where you are and what you are doing.

Yat-Yee Chong is hosting Poetry Friday today. You'll find more poetry at http://yatyeechong.blogspot.com/

Amok in Third Grade

This is why I love teaching poetry...

Yesterday, I was working with a third grade in Dundalk, Maryland. We were writing "Grow/Shrink Poems."

My model poem for this lesson is Stephanie Izarek's deceptively simple, "Under the Sky Is." The poem begins in the great big sky. In a few short lines Izarek takes us to a place where things are so small, "we can never see" them. You can read the poem here: http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=1558

It's a wonderful first day poem. Kids love the repetition (each object in the model poem is "under" the object from the previous line). Their job is to start with a big object (the sky) and end somewhere small. Or, they can begin small (a seed) and grow the poem (outer space). Even first graders can use language and ideas creatively with a structured form like this.

One boy sitting in front was stuck. No ideas. I asked, "What are you interested in?" Shrug. "What do you like to do after school?" Shrug. "Do you know if you want to grow or shrink?" Shrug.

I noticed he was fiddling with a small, round magnet, about the size of a washer. I asked him, "Can we start with your magnet?" No shrug! A glimmer of hope.

"What do you see around you that the magnet could attract? Start small." He looked around the classroom (a trailer).

A desk, he told me. I scribed. A blackboard. Then, "The City of Gold."

Wow. Did I just witness a huge leap of the imagination? Okay, he was inspired by the second "National Treasure" movie. But how did we get from a blackboard to a city of gold? Amazing.

The reluctant poet proudly volunteered to read his work to the class at the end of the lesson!