What makes a poem a poem?
Walt Whitman’s use of free verse became appreciated by composers seeking a more fluid approach to setting text. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
What is a poem? Some may think a poem has to rhyme. (I disagree.) Others believe the syllables must be counted, or that a poem must be stuffed full of alliterative language. But what about free verse? What makes a block of words, a sentence chopped up onto several lines, a poem, rather than a mere chopped-up sentence or a paragraph scattered over several lines?
To me, writing a poem is about capturing a moment. It could be a feeling, a natural occurrence, or a quick glimpse into the life of one person. Most of my poetry describes just one, very small moment. These moments might last only a few seconds, or as long as several minutes. Rarely does the poem capture more than a very short block of time. (more…)
Another poem for National Poetry Month: Love Long Distance
I want magnetic words like this so I can carry poems on my car with me wherever I go. | Poetry (Photo credit: Kimli)
It’s funny how I write a lot of poetry when I’ve been reading a lot of poetry. I don’t really read much of it at all, unless I have to for school. But this month, several of the blogs I follow have been posting poems as part of the Poem-a-Day Challenge. So, here I am, popping out poems when I should be working on my novel. But I guess I could use the distraction. Who knows, maybe my prose will be the better for it.
Here’s my latest:
Love Long Distance
Have you
ever noticed (more…)
National Poetry Month: First Day Budding
Spring has sprung, and I wish I had a cherry tree. | Cherry blossoms at POSTECH (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
April is National Poetry Month. So, I thought I would attempt to scratch out at least one new poem this month as my contribution. With that said, today I am sharing an original poem inspired by spring:
First Day Budding
A blush of white on trees
on the way
to work.
Ice?
Not when it’s raining
like this.
Pink tinged,
as though every tree
on Earth
is about to burst forth
with cherry blossoms.
Tomorrow,
the whole world
will be green.
By Amanda L. Webster (more…)
Blogs you should follow, if you’re so inclined
This is me, reading your blog. Only replace the book with a smartphone. (Ha Ha, just kidding. The pickin’s are slim on Zemanta these days. Seriously, what is going on this picture?) | Reader of novels (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Hopefully none of you are depending on me for regular blog content this semester. But just in case you are, let me share a few of my favorite blogs with you… something to keep you busy until after I graduate in May. Hopefully after that, I’ll have more time for blogging. I don’t want either of my subscribers to get bored. I’m talking to you, Ryan. You and that other guy. I don’t know his name. (more…)
When we were kids, we bounced
We weren’t afraid to fall.
We Bounced
When we were kids,
we were made of rubber.
We just bounced when we hit the floor.
The harder we hit,
the higher we bounced.
We fall down now,
and we just break.
By Mandy Webster (more…)
Poetry Friday: Miss Kitty
This is Zelda. Don’t worry, I don’t let her roam about outside unsupervised. She just likes to hang out on the patio with me while I sit in my comfy chair and read.
It’s been some time since I’ve posted for Poetry Friday, but inspiration struck a moment ago, so I decided to pounce. Is it too soon to hope I’ve finally recovered from my bout with writer’s block?
Today’s poem is inspired by my kitten, Zelda, who is turning out to have quite the personality:
Miss Kitty
My cat thinks I’m her prey.
She stalks me through the house,
Crouching on the stairs
Or behind a curtain,
Just waiting for me to pass
So she can pounce.
~By Amanda L. Webster (more…)
Wednesday Writing Prompt: Are you a real writer?
Do you consider yourself a "real" writer? | "Writing", 22 November 2008 (Photo credit: dr_ed_needs_a_bicycle)
Yesterday I promised that I was going to begin to share a writing prompt on Wednesdays here on my blog. So, without further ado, here is today’s prompt:
Do you consider yourself a “real” writer? Why or why not? What makes a writer?
For today, I chose a topic that will likely make a better essay or blog post than a short story. However, I think it’s a topic we should all be considering if we take our writing seriously. (more…)
You gotta know when to walk away… and when to run
What do you do if your man thinks you're repulsive when you're pregnant? | A pregnant woman (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Yesterday, I was listening to the Connie and Curtis morning show on my drive to school. It was Saturday, so of course the show was a replay… in other words, there was no way for me to call in and comment on the topic they were discussing. And of course, it was one of those topics I wanted so much to comment on. As usual, I decided to turn my response into a blog post instead.
Anyway, Connie and Curtis were discussing the plight of a woman whose husband had told her he didn’t want to have any more kids with her because she’s not attractive when she’s pregnant. And apparently, according to him, all of his friends thought she was repulsive as well. He sounds like a winner, right?
Let me just start by saying that my own EX-husband (emphasis on the EX) used to make similar remarks about me on a regular basis. So of course, my gut reaction was that she should leave him. This poor woman’s husband is showing his true colors. This is who he is. Either she accepts him as he is, or she doesn’t truly love him. As far as I can tell, she has two choices: love him as he is, or leave him in the past where he belongs. (more…)
Corbin’s poems about Far North
Cover of Far North
Earlier this week, my 12-year-old came home from school with a booklet of poems he’d written for his English class. They’d read the book, Far North, by Will Hobbs, and had to write several poems about the book in a variety of forms.
I was more than just a little impressed with some of the poems my son had written, so I asked him if I could share one on my blog for Poetry Friday, which is sponsored this week by Random Noodling. This is the poem he chose for me to share:
Clint (a name poem)
Could you see that plane fly by
Like a bird
In the sky
Now the plane is going down
The bush pilot Clint was never found
~By Corbin DesJardins
And I wanted to share one more. This place poem was one of my favorites in Corbin’s collection: (more…)
April is National Poetry Month
Write poetry this month, even if it's a few magnetic words on a car. | Poetry (Photo credit: Kimli)
It’s April. The poetic vibes fill the air as our collective minds turn themselves to poetry for National Poetry Month. I haven’t shared anything for Poetry Friday in several weeks, but I’d like to get back in the habit, at least for this month.
I wrote a lot of poetry last fall while taking a course in writing poetry for children and young adults, but I haven’t written much since. I’ve noticed that if I’m reading poetry regularly, the poems flow from my pen (or keyboard) with little effort. But, when I’m not reading poetry regularly, I just get the occasional snippet. And if I don’t sit down right away and work that snippet into a full poem, it just sits in my pretty poetry notebook and goes to waste. (more…)
Poetry Friday: Church on Time
Image via Wikipedia
For this week’s Poetry Friday, hosted by Writing the World for Kids, I am sharing another original poem. This is a rough draft I think could use some revisions, so I would love to hear any feedback you might have on how to make it better. I am especially having some problems with the rhythm in a couple of these lines. Please post your feedback in the comments below.
Church on Time
Red painted church marm in a
white Grand Prix
squeals around the corner and
glares at me. (more…)
Poetry Friday: Insomnia
Image via Wikipedia
I wrote this poem in the middle of the night. I’m sure you can deduce what I was doing at the time from the poem.
Dear Brain
Poetry Friday: Saturday Scratch-off
Image via Wikipedia
For this week’s Poetry Friday, hosted by Hey, Jim Hill!, I am sharing an original poem about a little girl and her grandmother:
Saturday Scratch-off
Come on, Grandma! Catch up!
I scamper ahead on
ice-slicked concrete. I am
impatient. She’s slower
than wiggly gummy worms
that will slither down my
throat on the way home from
the Stop-n-Go. (more…)
Poetry Friday: Tackling teenage pregnancy
Image by Nic's events via Flickr
For today’s Poetry Friday, sponsored this week by Wild Rose Reader, comes from real-life. I remember how “everyone” in my 8th grade class talked about the girl who had a baby over the summer, and I also remember wondering if I was the only person who didn’t judge her. I only wish I’d had the guts to speak up for her. (more…)
Poetry Friday: Solitary Muse
Image via Wikipedia
For this week’s Poetry Friday, sponsored by A Teaching Life, I am sharing a poem about writing. This poem is written in the Triolet format which is structured as follows:
- ABaAabAB rhyme scheme.
- Often all lines are in iambic tetrameter: the first, fourth and seventh lines are identical, as are the second and final lines, thereby making the initial and final couplets identical as well.
Solitary Muse (more…)
Poetry Friday: Like Waves
Image via Wikipedia
For today’s Poetry Friday, hosted this week by Dori Reads, I’m sharing an original poem, written by moi:
Like Waves
Like waves, we lap
upon the shore,
licking the
bare feet
of life. (more…)
The writing process: A reflection
Image by mySAPL via Flickr
Today marks the first day of the last week of the fall semester. I just finished grading a huge stack of essay booklets from my written communications course and will be grading research papers next weekend. I also just submitted my final poem of the semester for the course I’m taking on writing poetry for children and young adults. And now, it’s time to write my final reflection paper of the semester. The topic for this paper is the writing process.
So, what have I learned about my writing process? For one thing, I can now boil it all down to a few simple steps: (more…)
Poetry Friday: The Cinquain
Image by juliejordanscott via Flickr
In my poetry class this semester, we have discussed several different poetry forms, and I even attempted a few different forms myself. I’d like to to approach this week’s Poetry Friday with a discussion of the Cinquain form.
In researching this form, I found that there are a few different acceptable approaches to writing the Cinquain, each with its own benefits and challenges. For my poetry assignment, I researched the various types and wrote three different poems using Cinquain patterns found on the Teacher Webspace website. The following is an explanation of each individual Cinquain pattern, paired with an original poem by myself: (more…)
Pondering a lost sock on Poetry Friday
I’ll be out of the office this Poetry Friday, so I’m scheduling my weekly post a few days in advance. I’m keeping it short and sweet this week and am sharing an original poem:
Lost Sock
Here lies a sock some kid kicked off.
Imagine when she lost this sock –
In jogging stroller seat she rode,
bouncing feet while mommy strode. (more…)
Revisions for Poetry Friday
Image via Wikipedia
Every good writer, poet or not, knows that good writers spend the majority of their time on revising and editing. Some experts say it’s 20% writing/80% revising, while others go so far as to spend 90% of their work time in revisions. For this week’s Poetry Friday (sponsored by Tabatha Yeatts: The Opposite of Indifference,) I decided to share a revised version of a poem I wrote a few weeks ago for my poetry class. (more…)
Jump City and other favorites for Poetry Friday
Image via Wikipedia
Still too busy with NaNoWriMo to do much else, so for this Poetry Friday, I am sharing two final favorites from I Feel a Little Jumpy Around You: A Book of Her Poems & His Poems Collected in Pairs, collected by Naomi Shihab Nye and Paul B Janeczko. I finally finished the entire collection and must now get it back to the library!
The first poem is the title poem from the collection and was written by Harryette Mullen, pictured at right.
Jump City
I feel a little jumpy around you.
Like when I think a house has
roaches, and I watch everything
out the corner of my eye to see
if it crawls away.
By Harryette Mullen
And here’s poem #2 by Paul B Janeczko. It’s about a daughter, but I feel it applies also to sons (of which I have 2.) (more…)
Emily Dickinson’s To-Do List on Poetry Friday
Image via Wikipedia
I’m crazy right now with NaNoWriMo, so for today’s Poetry Friday, I’ll be sharing a quick poem by Andrea Carlisle from I Feel a Little Jumpy Around You: A Book of Her Poems & His Poems Collected in Pairs, collected by Naomi Shihab Nye and Paul B Janeczko.
Emily Dickinson‘s To-Do List
Monday
Figure out what to wear—white dress?
Put hair in bun
Bake gingerbread for Sue
Peer out window at passersby
Write poem
Hide poem
Tuesday
White dress? Off-white dress?
Feed cats
Chat with Lavinia
Work in garden
Letter to T.W.H. (more…)
The writer’s life on Poetry Friday
Image via Wikipedia
9:47 a.m.
This is this writer’s life today on this beautiful Poetry Friday:
- Kids dressed and fed and off to wherever it is they need to be today: Check
- Morning walk and shower: Check
- Breakfast and coffee: Check
- E-mail reviewed and inbox somewhat emptied: Check
- Facebook caught up on for the moment: Check (BTW, go check out my Facebook Fan Page and like me.)
- Morning pages written: Check
- Write a poem for my poetry class and get it done quick enough to share on Poetry Friday, hosted today by Random Noodling, thus killing two birds with one stone.
- Write and post this blog post, which will not be complete until I have that poem ready to add. (more…)
Poetry Friday: “Rules for the Dance”
Cover via Amazon
This week’s KidLitoSphere’s Poetry Friday Round-up is brought to you by Jama’s Alphabet Soup.
11:37 a.m.
Friday rolls around once more, and once more, I am attempting to participate in KitLitoSphere’s Poetry Round-up. If only I had a poem ready to share this week. But alas, I have yet to look at my homework for my kids and YA poetry class. I did just check out my syllabus, and it looks like I need to read pages 87-99 in Mary Oliver‘s Rules for the Dance: A Handbook for Writing and Reading Metrical Verse. So, I think I’ll talk about this for now instead of trying to pop out an off-the-cuff poem that will likely just fizzle and flop.
In addition to Rules of the Dance, we are also reading Mary Oliver’s A Poetry Handbook. Each week, we must read a selection from one or both of these books, and then write a poem based on the reading. For example, last week I had to write a metered poem (didn’t go so well, in case you’re wondering.) This week’s reading will require even more metrical verse, and this is why I’m not in a hurry to try to pop out my poem for the week. This is going to take some time and thought. (more…)
