Three Poetry-Writing Titles for Your Bookshelf (and a Poem Inspired by Them)

Happy Poetry Friday! I share an original poem at the end of this post, along with a link to this week's terrific poetry-related Wednesday Writing Workout from Kimberly Hutmacher, in case you missed it. (The post includes a giveaway of Kimberly's nonfiction book Your Nose Never Stops Growing and Other Cool Human Body Facts (Capstone Press).

Today I'd like to share three poetry-writing titles for your reference. I was inspired by Esther's post last Friday, in which she shared five new titles of interest to aspiring writers of all ages, but especially young writers. While the books I'll discuss today are not new releases, two of them are new to me.

I mentioned last August that I've been reading and writing poetry as I work on my own poetry project. I've also been reading books on poetry writing. I started out by rereading Ralph Fletcher's Poetry Matters: Writing a Poem from the Inside Out (HarperCollins). Even though the book is intended for grades 5-9, I find it helpful for my own writing, and I find the examples from young poets quite inspiring.

I read a second book that approaches poetry "from the inside out:" Sandford Lyne's Writing Poetry from the Inside Out: Finding Your Voice through the Craft of Poetry (Sourcebooks). While the book's focus is poetry-writing, I think it would benefit all sorts of writers. This is not a book that addresses rhyme, meter, or form. Instead, it's about how to open our awareness to the world around us. As Lyne says:

"Writing poetry is about seeing patterns, seeing resemblances, seeing symbols and metaphors; it is about seeing connections. Writing poetry is about a deeper appreciation and deeper discernment, about respecting our own individuality and the individuality of others. Writing poetry is about economy, about bringing order out of chaos, about fine-tuning the aesthetic sense; it is about nurturing our sensitivity to beauty and preserving the beauty of the world."

After reading the book, I researched Lyne to see what else he'd written and was very sad to learn that he died in 2007, the same year this book was published. I found a lovely tribute to him online that talks of how he shared his delight in poetry with thousands of children and teachers. He compiled two anthologies of poems by some of the children he taught: Soft Hay Will Catch You: Poems by Young People (Simon & Schuster, 2004) and Ten- Second Rainshowers: Poems by Young People (Simon & Schuster, 1996). He used some of those poems as examples in Writing Poetry from the Inside Out, too.
 
Lyne's book includes a writing exercise called poem-sketching that's been helping me develop my poetry muscles. The poem I share below came out of that process.

The poetry-writing book I'm currently reading, The Poetry Home Repair Manual: Practical Advice for Beginning Poets (University of Nebraska Press) by Ted Kooser, was included in the list of "Suggested Reading" in Lyne's book. Although it was published in 2005, Kooser's book is new to me. I'm finding it both inspiring and, as the subtitle says, filled with lots of practical advice.

Kooser says:

"What is most difficult for a poet is to find the time to read and write when there are so many distractions, like making a living and caring for others. But the time set aside for being a poet, even if only for a few moments each day, can be wonderfully happy, full of joyous, solitary discovery."

I've been experiencing some truly "joyous" moments playing with poetry the last few months. As I mentioned above, the poem I'm sharing today was inspired by Lyne's poem-sketching process. (You can read more about the process here and here.) The word group that prompted my poem consisted of "poems, flock, wings, fly."

Inspired by April's willingness to share her poetry-writing process, I give you first an early draft of the poem:

        Flocking Poems 

     Poems flock to me
     like migrating birds.
     Their wings rustle
     in the distance.
     I wait, smiling,
     expectant,
     as they fly nearer and nearer.
     Finally,
     they alight on this table
     waiting to be heard
     and fed.
  Copyright 2019 Carmela A. Martino 

Image by Gerhard Gellinger from Pixabay

You can see I used all the words in the initial draft, but some were edited out in the revision process. Here's the current, much shorter, version.

       Flocking Poems 

     Poems flock to me
     like migrating birds.
     They alight on the page
     waiting to be heard.
  Copyright 2019 Carmela A. Martino 

Not sure I'm satisfied with this one yet. I'd love to know your thoughts on both poems. I plan to include this post in this week's Poetry Friday round-up over at Elizabeth Steinglass's blog. When you're done there, don't forget to read Kimberly Hutmacher's poetry-related Wednesday Writing Workout and enter our giveaway of her nonfiction book Your Nose Never Stops Growing and Other Cool Human Body Facts (Capstone Press).

Remember to always Write with Joy!
Carmela

My End of Summer Workspace and a Related Poem

We TeachingAuthors have been sharing pictures of the view from, or of, our workspace, so let me start with this one:

This photo isn't exactly the view from my workspace. I took it while on my afternoon walk through the neighborhood. The tree caught my attention because its leaves are already starting to change colors. Can you tell? As beautiful as it is, for me, the tree is a sad reminder that summer is winding down, at least here in North America.

I'd been hoping to get away for a writing retreat this month, to spend several days focused on my current work-in-progress. And I'd planned to have pictures to share from that retreat. Sadly, I didn't manage to get away. Instead, I've been setting aside days at home devoted to the project. The following photo was taken in my office, and it will give you some clues about my project.

As you've probably guessed, I've been spending time reading and writing poetry. Of course, if you subscribe to my Creativity Newsletter, you already knew that. I shared a draft of a just-for-fun poem in my last newsletter and you can read it online here. (If you'd like to subscribe to the newsletter, which I send out every other month, you can do so here.)

In addition to reading and writing poetry, I've been listening to it, too, thanks to the Daily Poem podcast. That's where I recently heard Jane Kenyon's Three Songs at the End of Summer.   
Here's an excerpt from the poem:

Three Songs at the End of Summer (excerpt)
            by Jane Kenyon

A second crop of hay lies cut  
and turned. Five gleaming crows  
search and peck between the rows.
They make a low, companionable squawk,  
and like midwives and undertakers  
possess a weird authority.

Crickets leap from the stubble,  
parting before me like the Red Sea.  
The garden sprawls and spoils.

Across the lake the campers have learned  
to water ski. They have, or they haven’t.  
Sounds of the instructor’s megaphone  
suffuse the hazy air. “Relax! Relax!”

Cloud shadows rush over drying hay,  
fences, dusty lane, and railroad ravine.  
The first yellowing fronds of goldenrod  
brighten the margins of the woods.

Schoolbooks, carpools, pleated skirts;  
water, silver-still, and a vee of geese. . . .

       Copyright © 2005 by the Estate of Jane Kenyon. 

Read all of “Three Songs at the End of Summer” at the Poetry Foundation website.

I'm looking forward to reading lots more great poetry today via the Poetry Friday roundup, which is hosted this week by Australian author and poet Kathryn Apel.

Remember to always Write with Joy! 
Carmela

The Deadly Twelve, or Let's Get Specific: Wednesday Workout

 

    Here in the South, there is an all purpose word that drives me nuts. The word? "Nice." Depending on the tone of voice, "That's nice" can mean something really wonderful, or truly venomous.  It's a phrase that doesn't translate well in print. You have to hear the tone of voice that goes with the statement.

     "Nice" is just an example of any number of words that sound perfectly fine spoken aloud, but are rendered meaningless on the page. Here are my Top Ten Useless Words in Writing. 1. Nice  2. Very

3. Cute  4. Sweet  5. OK  6. Cool  7. Good  8. Bad  9.  Fun  10.  Sad/happy (I cheated...that's really eleven words).  There are a lot more, but these are the ones that show up the most often in my students' work, and the ones that set my teeth on edge.

    All of these words work fine  in conversation, both spoken and written. As descriptors, they leave a lot to be desired. They are junk food words. They just lounge around your writing, doing the least amount of work possible. So how do you get those words off the couch to carry their share of your writing?  

    For today's workout, I turn to one of my all-time favorite craft books, Craft Lessons: Teaching Writing K-8  (2nd edition) by Ralph Fletcher and JoAnn Portalupi.  This is an exercise that can be adapted for any age student, or for your own writing. For the purpose of today's lesson, I will pretend I am working with first or second graders.

1.  Have the students write a short description of a person. Let's say, little Courtney has chosen to describe her best friend, Emma.  Here is what Courtney writes.

     I like my best friend Emma. She is fun. We like the same things. (Uh oh...I just hit word number 12..."thing").

  2.  Ask Courtney to close her eyes. "Courtney," you say. "What makes Emma fun?" Closing the eyes is the important part of the exercise. For some reason, if you look a student in the eye and ask the same question, you will get a defensive "I dunno. She's just fun." (Subtext; what's wrong with you, Adult Person? Don't you understand the word fun?)

3.  Hopefully, with her eyes closed, Courtney can see Emma doing fun things; she snorts when she laughs, she only eats the icing off her cupcake, she can do cartwheels. If Courtney really gets into her description, she may go on to describe fun things that she and Emma have done together; gone to Six Flags and gotten soaked on the Log Flume Ride, bake cupcakes (but only eat the icing), ice skate.

4. Now have Courtney re-write her description using some of her new fun details. Maybe it will read something like this:

     Emma is my best friend. She snorts when she laughs, and that makes me laugh, too.  We like doing the same things like ice skating and baking. Emma makes the best cupcakes, but she will only eat the icing.  I don't mind, because I like to eat the leftover cake part.

   5.  Ask Courtney to compare her first and second versions of her description of Emma.  Which one would make her want to know more about Emma (that is if she didn't already know Emma?) Cross your fingers that she picks version two. 

     In my writing workshops, I go so far as to forbid the use of the Deadly Twelve Do-Nothing Words, unless they are being said by a character in dialog.  It can be a laborious task to get even older writers to give up their "comfort words".  But after practice (lots of practice), one fine day your writers will discover that they have written a whole page without using any of the Deadly Twelve.  They don't need their training wheel words any more.

Posted by Mary Ann Rodman

Writing Craftily

     Asking me about my favorite writing books is like asking me about my favorite movie. I mean really, how can one have a favorite movie? I probably see as many movies as Roger Ebert.  I have to categorize my favs: war/adventure: The Great Escape; comedy: Annie Hall, Airplane, Blazing Saddles; musical: Cabaret, All That Jazz: too bloody to fit in a category: Godfathers I & II, Donnie Brasco, Good Fellas, Pulp Fiction. Also anything with Tom Hanks, Meryl Streep or Johnny Depp. (Yes, I paid money to see Joe and the Volcano in a theater.)

   When it comes to my favorite writing books, I pare it down to three categories of one or two books. (Aren't you relieved?)

   Inspirational books. Marcia Golub is a woman I would love to have as a next-door neighbor. Anyone who can write a book called I'd Rather Be Writing about how those of us without nannies, housekeepers and writing retreats in the Caribbean manage to write anyway, is someone who has my number. Lesson taken away from Marcia' book:  if you have a family and a writing career, you're always going to feel conflicted. Get over it. Oh and don't bother also trying to live the Martha Stewart life (even Martha Stewart doesn't live the Martha life without a platoon of assistants.) Alas, Marcia's book is out of print. I'd loan you mine...but then I don't loan books. (I never get them back.)

   If you have been following this blog for awhile, you probably know that my favorite book after Charlotte's Web is Anne Lamott's Bird by Bird. I re-read Bird by Bird on a continual basis. (All right...I keep it in the bathroom for moment of "unavoidable delay.") Anne is funny and profane (for those of you who object to the occasional profanity in your how-to books, this might not be for you.) Anne taught me two important lessons: 1) first drafts are always crappy. That's why there are second, fourth and seventy-fourth drafts. You aren't going to get it right the first time. 2) You don't sit down to write with an entire story arc in place, any more than you would sit down to eat one of those 64-ounce-steak joints (finish it and it's free....and you have probably just had a coronary so the point is moot). The title Bird by Bird is Anne's shorthand for writing only what you see before you right this minute. Don't worry about that elusive center section, or that fuzzy ending. Write what you see clearly now.

     Craft books.  Darcy Pattison's Paper Lightning: Pre-Writing Activities That Spark Creativity and Help Students Write Effectively was written with the middle school writer in mind. Therefore, it is perfect for me, when I find myself with big story problems I can't solve myself.  There are exercises here for developing characters, settings, plots, dull language....you name it, Darcy and Paper Lightning can solve it. I have always wanted to teach a full-year class just to have the pleasure of sharing all of Darcy's common-sense suggestions and solutions. However, since I am currently relegated to teaching six session workshops, Paper Lightening is my atlas to writing sanity.

     Craft books for kids:  The classic book I hand a student who wants a book "that tells me how to write a book" is Marion Dane Bauer's What's Your Story: A Young Person's Guide to Writing Fiction.
Although this is geared to a slightly younger crowd than Paper Lightening, it was my fiction writing bible in the Vermont College MFA program (and not just because Marion Dane Bauer was one of my four mentors.)  Unlike Paper Lightning, which is designed to be a textbook, Bauer's book can be read and understood without teacher assistance.

    My six-session workshops can be problematic. It is not reasonable to expect any student, adult or child (and I teach both) to complete more than a rough draft in such a short time. I focus on writing exercises that are fun and have the possibility of  "growing" into a larger work. Ralph Fletcher has written more books on writing with kids than I can count, but my favorite is the one he has written for teachers, Craft Lessons. Fletcher takes students Pre-K through middle school through the components of fiction writing. The exercises and lessons can be used as stand-alone lessons. Each exercise is tailored to the skills and understanding of that particular age. My kids' workshops are for grades 4-8, so this is perfect for me. And if you like this book, check out the rest of the Ralph Fletcher bookshelf; you won't be sorry.

    Tune in Wednesday when I share my favorite writing exercise that I did not learn from any of my favorite writing books!

Posted by Mary Ann Rodman

Revving Up to Write or Curing Brain Freeze

     When I was a student back in the last century, there were three things you could count on happening the first day of school;  somebody would throw up, the PA system issued a stream of incomprehensible directives ("First lunch students will eat during second lunch...").  While my teacher figured out the intricacies of her Delaney Book seating chart, there would be our first assignment on the chalkboard, right under "Hello, my name is Mrs. (Fill in the Blank). 99 per cent of the time it was "What I Did on My Summer Vacation." Sometimes this was followed by the threat "Spelling and punctuation count. Must be at least 250 words."

      This assignment was so predictable that after second grade, I started wrting the essay in advance, so I could read a library book instead. The kids who went to the Wisconsin Dells or some place truly exotic like Disneyland had no problem. Kids who stayed home and spent the summer running through the lawn sprinkler or worse, in summer school, (the equivalent of a stint in Sing Sing) stared at their three ring binders, and sweated bullets.  Five minutes into the school year, and the threat of next year's summer school was already nipping at their heels.

     Somewhere between my school days and my daughter's, the "What I Did..." essay had gone the way of the dodo bird. Instead, every morning, she was expected to write in a "journal" for five to ten minutes, using a writing prompt on the white board. I am not a fan of writing prompts. It's hard to come up with a hundred and eighty or so age-appropriate writing prompts, year after year. The kids knew that what they wrote didn't matter, just that they wrote something. Their grade came from the teaching flipping through the journals looking for blank pages or suspiciously short essays.

    Whoever came up with the journal idea had good intentions. Being able to write English fluently is always a handy skill. Unfortunately, journals turn an awful lot of kids off. I wouldn't be a writer today if I had been expected to write on a narrowly defined topic, first thing in the morning. Every morning. By middle school, these journals were used in every class (except P.E.). Six or seven prompts a day would give me brain freeze.

     OK teachers, I am going to give you a writer's workout that will cause you to roll your eyes, gnash your teeth, and call me nasty names (hopefully, not in front of your class.) And yes, it will take more time (in the beginning). Ready?  Let's rev up that creative part of the brain that has probably lain dormant all summer.

Writer's Workout

(This is adapted from Writing Workshop: The Essential Guide by Ralph Fletcher and JoAnn Portalupi.)

   Equipment needed:  Teacher:  A timer, a small legal pad, and writing instrument. Students; the same,minus the timer.

    Plan plenty of time for this exercise; the more students you have, the more time you'll need. Don't plan on multitasking. Your students will need your full attention.

    First, share a couple of your own (short) ancedotes. This serves several purposes. One, students seem more open to learning if they know a little something about you. Something interesting to them.  For instance, second graders are probably not going to care that you like gardening, have two grandchildren and your cat got stuck in a tree last week.

   They may be interested that your grandmother helped you plant your first vegetable garden (and you hated picking worms off the tomatoes).  Or that one of your grandchildren plays hockey and the other wants to be a beekeeper.  As for the cat in the tree (and this is from personal experience), you can't coax them down with their favorite food (they can't smell from that far away), and that a hook-and-ladder truck is useless if the tree is in a fenced yard.

   Now, tell the students to write something "they know a lot about." The only restrictions are they can't use the topics you just used; and it can't be a synopsis of a book, TV show or movie. This is not a made up story; this is a story about something that happened to you, or something you know a lot about.

    Partner each student and give them each a minute to tell the other what they are going to write about.
(I love my old-fashioned egg timer...you can't argue with a loud "ping"!) Announce that you will have
a "writer's conference" with each of them, preferably in a comfortable, private environment, like a "reader's corner."  You will need your timer (keep it short. You'll need the extra time for those suffering from Brain Freeze.)Those who seem to be on the right track should be given a quick thumbs up and sent on their way.

    If this is new territory for you, you might want to have a cheat sheet of potential topics.  Teachers get Brain Freeze, too! Now on to those stuck in Popsicle mode.

  The conversation might go something like this. Student reluctantly shows you blank or nearly blank paper. You: Courtney, it looks like you're having a little trouble thinking of something to write about. Let's think together (I have a personal dislike of the term "brainstorm")

Here are some topics you might have on your cheat sheet.

Who is your favorite relative? Why?

Have you ever had to move? How did that feel? Did you have to leave a best friend? How did that feel?

Do you play a sport? Do you like it? Or do you play because all your other friends play? Who is your favorite team or player? Why?

If you could go anywhere in the world, where would it be? Why?

If you could meet any person in the world (living or dead) who would it be? Why? What would you ask them? What you want to share with them?

Do you (play an instrument, chess, computer games, go to dance class or gymnastics) You need to be specific, because I have discovered that a lot of kids do not know the meaning of  "hobby" or "pastime".
Asking "what do you do for fun?" may result in some-stories-that-should-not-be-shared!

Are you the oldest, youngest, middle, or only child in your family? What's good about that? What's not so good about that?

Do you have a pet? If you could have one, what would you pick and why?

Do you collect stuff? How did you decide on this item to collect?

(These are just examples. I would prepare as many as there are students. You can never have too many back up questions.)

    Hopefully, the student will respond to at least one or more of your suggestions. When they do, write the cue word ("soccer", "Lady Gaga", "Madagascar") on your small legal pad.  Hopefully, your little Popsicle has shown interest in at least three topics. When you get to three or four, give them your small sheet and send the student back to consider their choices. (Small legal notepads are less intimidating than the full-sized ones.

    Points to emphasize: no one has to "share" if they don't want to (once things get rolling, usually everybody wants to share). Don't worry about spelling and punctuation. That's what revision is for
(and that's another topic.)

    Not only does this exercise take away the pressure of committing words to paper (graphophobia--I looked it up) but you and your students will know a little more about each other than they did an hour ago.

By the way, it costs way more than you want to know to retrieve a cat from a thirty foot pine tree.

Posted by Mary Ann Rodman

How to Encourage Young Writers, Part Deux

     This is a terrific topic, Derin.  I have had experience on both sides of this issue. I was a young writer looking...and not finding...guidance, and I am now a writer interested in encouraging young writers. I feel strongly about this, since I was a young writer, out there on her own.
    I am always amused when students and teachers ask me "Who encouraged you to write?" The answer? Absolutely nobody! My parents thought it was nice that I wrote little stories, but were terrified that I would grow up to be a "starving writer". My parents "encouraged" me to become a librarian, so "at least you can eat and pay the rent."
    My teachers did not encourage me, because "creative writing" was not part of the "curriculum." In my school, if you wanted to be creative, you could take art or join the marching band. Period. I had to find other ways to keep writing. So I did.
    Whenever possible, I turned school assignments (even essay test questions) into fact-based creative writing events. I volunteered to be the school reporter for the local newspaper, a job I held all the way through high school. I entered every creative writing contest I could find. (I won some, too.)
     As a young writer I would have been thrilled to take a creative writing class, or join a young writers group. Alas, these opportunities are still hard to find. I have been blessed to work with the Young Writers programs at the Margaret Mitchell House, here in Atlanta. I just finished my fall class last weekend, with five of the most amazing writers, ages 9-13. They were all ready to take on a new session, starting next Saturday, but there won't be another session until sometime next spring. Since the writers in this particular group all live in the same part of town, I suggested that they get together on their own to write and share until then.
     For those of you young writers who don't live in a town with an arts center or other learning center that offers writing classes, there is the self-help route. When I began to write, there were no books just for young writers. I read the magazine The Writer (which is still published), and later Writer's Digest.  They offered easy-to-read, practical advice on all sorts of topics related to writing and publishing.
     Today there is Marion Dane Bauer's book What's Your Story (recommended in the previous post), as well as the books of Ralph Fletcher. Ralph Fletcher is another writer who teaches. His books A Writer's Notebook, How Writers Work, Poetry Matters and Live Writing are useful for both beginning writers and their teachers.
    Another handy little volume is A Teen's Guide to Getting Published by Jessica and Danielle Dunn. The Dunns were fifteen-year-old sisters when they wrote the first edition in 1996. It was recently re-issued in an updated version. Not only do they include all the advice I give (keep a journal, read, read, read, write, write, write, etc) but they include sources where young writers can actually publish their work (sometimes for money!!) They also include a list of websites, writing camps, other writing books, courses, and on and on. This book was re-issued in 2006, so there is a possibility that some of the information may be dated. I still recommend the book as being one of the most complete, all-in-one-book, young writer's guide book.
     And speaking of books....I have had a wild two weeks, that have not left me a lot of reading time. The one book I did read was YA fiction, Food, Girls and Other Things I Can't Have by Allen Zadoff.

Mary Ann