Remembering a Tree...Happy Poetry Friday!

Happy Poetry Friday!
Jama Rattigan's hosting Poetry Friday at Alphabet Soup ~ thanks, Jama!
And here's the upcoming Poetry Friday Schedule.

Raise your hand if you knew that the United Nations proclaimed May 22 International Day for Biological Diversity..and that 2011 is International Year of Forests.  Me neither!  To get you in the mood, watch the UN's beautiful 30-second video, Forests In Our Everyday Lives, created by "an adolescent" (I can't find out who this teen is...if you can, let me know...):

All this got me thinking--what forests do I know personally?  Well...I've known some pretty wonderful trees in my time. So, naturally, I wrote a poem.

THE UBBERY TREE
by April Halprin Wayland

I wish I could FaceBook our old avocado.  

She held out her arms for us to climb

when I was nine.

My sister dubbed her The Ubbery Tree;

we knighted my sister our Ubbery Queen—

her crown was green.

We stepped in the middle of our tree tent,

crunched on brown leaves and sticks and dirt,

we smelled raw earth.

We searched for her fruit, climbed her scaly branches,

rode her dragon-grey trunk, holding on tight

in filtered light.

We crushed glossy leaves between our fingers,

then breathed her spicy, licorice perfume

in our leafy room.

I wish I could FaceBook our old avocado tree.

She held out her arms for us to climb
when I was nine.x
(c) 2011 April Halprin Wayland, all rights reserved
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photo by Amanda Wray

WRITING WORKOUT: Remembering A Special Tree

1) Read tree poems.  You might read some of these.
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2) Close your eyes.  Breathe.  Think back; remember a tree.
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3) Jot down as many memories about the tree as you can.  Scribble wildly about the smells, about each sense.
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4) You're looking for real details.  The ants.  The nest.  A little dead hatchling under the tree. Fruit-juice dribbling down your chin.
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5) If you can find a similar tree, go to it now.  Lie under it and look up, run your fingers along its branches, crush and smell its leaves, climb it.
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6) I couldn't go back to my tree, so I went to Google images and typed in various combinations of the words, avocado tree, trunk, branches, climb.  I found the terrific photo of the squirrel in the avocado this way (and met generous Amanda Wray when I asked if I could use her photo.)  This photo brought back my tree and helped me remember more details.
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7) Even young children will have a favorite tree.
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8) If they cannot remember a tree--or if they live in an urban area and have no connection to trees, ask them to write about NOT having a tree memory...perhaps how it makes them feel, or what kind of tree they wish they had.  The key here is honesty...and to stay away from cliches. So if they're writing about an imagined tree, ask them to do research--go outside or go online.  Little, true details make all the difference.

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9) Okay.  So now you have the raw material.  Now what?  I didn't know either.  I finally decided to write three-lined stanzas in which the last two lines rhymed.  In the end, the rhythm of each third line is the same. Try this...or find another poem you love and imitate the structure of that. Enjoy your tree memories!

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I'd love to hear what tree you or your students chose to write about!

In the end, it's the specifics, the details that make a poem.
poem and drawing (c) April Halprin Wayland.  All rights reserved.

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P.S: Remember to enter our Blogiversary critique give-away!--you have until 11 pm (CST) Tuesday, May 17, 2011!

P.P.S: A 28-minute cable TV interview when I was Out and About recently. (If only I'd cut my bangs!)

Arbor Day + National Poetry Month = Tree Poems

I’ve so enjoyed the poetry activities this National Poetry Month that I’m sorry to see it end. (April, are you ready for a break?) I spoke about poetry this month to elementary school students from prekindergarten to sixth grade and worked with young poets in Merrill, Marshall, and Winneconne, Wisconsin—and I loved every minute of every visit! Hello and thanks to all the helpful teachers, librarians, and PTO organizers!

Today is Arbor Day (read about it here), so I’m including a shape poem I wrote about trees and my own writer’s dilemma.

To celebrate Arbor Day and National Poetry Month, read some tree poems! Kristine O’Connell George’s Old Elm Speaks: Tree Poems is one of my all-time favorite collections. Poetrees is a new collection by Douglas Florian.

Writing Workout: Write a Shape Poem

A shape poem is also called a concrete poem or a spatial poem. You can find them in collections such as Doodle Dandies: Poems that Take Shape by J. Patrick Lewis, Splish Splash and Flicker Flash: Poems by Joan Bransfield Graham,  and A Poke in the I: A Collection of Concrete Poems, edited by Paul B. Janeczko.

To write a shape poem, choose a concrete object so you have a shape to work with. Write the poem first. Then fit it into its form. I used the WordArt feature in Microsoft® Office Word to create the poem above. Have fun!

Don't forget to join us in our first anniversary celebration and enter to win a critique of your work! Your first entry must say how you follow us—via Google, Networked blogs, or e-mail. You must post a separate comment for a second entry—this makes tracking entries much easier. Entry deadline is 11 p.m. (CST) Tuesday, May 4, 2010.Good luck!