Day #30: Final Poem!

Let's wind up our month of poetry writing with a poem about...

our month of poetry writing!

Consider an epistolary poem (letter form) writing to any of the following:

• your fellow poets
• your poems
• your notebook
• your heart
• your muse
• the chair you sit in when you write
• your inner critic

Mine is a sonnet that I wrote at the end of daily poetry writing last April. My intended audience was the people who wrote with me on Ethical ELA. As you'll see, I was inspired to bring the joy and learning of daily poetry writing to my students--which is how this 2021 project was born! Thank you for joining me this month. Write on!

From April one to thirty, close of day
I wrote a verse according to the plan.
“Just do the verb to be the noun,” they say–
I think, I think, I think, I think I can.
The Little Engine could, and so could I.
With fuel of gentle comments for my words
My willingness to share was magnified.
I chugged and chugged because my thoughts were heard.
How can I recreate what happened here?
How can this vision turn into a plan?
How can I help my students face their fear?
My LIttle Engine chugs: “I think I can.”
I think, I think, I think, therefore I am.
This Little Engline celebrates: iamb.

Day #29: If Walls Could Speak

You may have heard the expression "if walls could speak..." 

Today we will give voice to an object we love: 
What would your baseball glove say?
What would your old stuffed elephant say?
What would your fishing pole say?

First, think of several objects you cherish. Try to come up with five before choosing one to write about. (I chose the small black accordion I keep in the classroom.) 

Now, take on the persona of your object. Give it a voice! What would it say? Try to reveal the essence of the object through your word choice and the story you tell!

Black Ballerini

I was born in Italy
late 1940s
birthed with 5000 siblings
by quasi-artisans.

Shipped to America,
I landed between the hands
of a lazy child who
tried (not very)
to draw music from my
heaving (if small)
bellows.

Then:
the years on a shelf
were at first
relief–
then punishment
as must crept into mildew.

My joints grew tight
my wax grew soft
then hard and bitter.

Who knew I had life left
to give?

It was an EBay listing
coupled with New Year’s Eve optimism
landing me
between the pressing palms
of
(???)
an English teacher?

She adored me
yes.
But adoration does not
play an accordion.

I accepted fate:
I might not play music, but
I was at least uncloseted.

And then
–years later–
again at New Year’s Eve
she resolved
to play a song
with both hands.

We did it,
she and I.

I am now the classroom accordion.
Here in Room #408
I demand center stage.

Each week
I celebrate
Happy Birthday
–both hands–
for
blushing
smiling
students
while celebrating
my own
rebirth.

Day #28: The Connoisseur

 Have you heard of a connoisseur? Here is a definition from Merriam-Webster:

What are you an expert in? Begin today by brainstorming the little things you do well. Do you make the perfect grilled-cheese sandwich? Can you fold a fitted-sheet with dexterity?

Spend two minutes thinking of things you are adept at. Here is my list:

• #IowaSky (I try to notice the subtle differences each time I look up; I often post photos to twitter with this hashtag)
• Gravel runs (I've spent hundreds of hours running the same gravel roads)
• lines of memorized poems run in my head (they pop in unexpectedly)
• Macaroni salad (my signature dish)
• finding 4-leaf clovers (I'm really good at this!)

After you brainstorm, select one to explore in a poem. Remember how images and metaphors help readers experience your poem richly.

Here is mine:

My mind works like a
a top-loading Maytag
thoughts sudsing
in the wash cycle:
a tune from the radio
and pick up the rug at Servicemaster
rubbing up against
where did I put the chapstick
and Colin’s birthday is Wednesday.

Like so many beige towels and
gray t-shirts
impressions
churn to the top
then work their way
under again
with flashes of poems
–a red sock!–
startling my day.

Day #27: Who Do You Want to Become?

Yesterday's prompt asked you to write in a sequence: yesterday, today, tomorrow.

Today's prompt is another way to look at the future.

Who is the YOU you want to become?

What are they like? Can you reach for metaphors that can capture the self you want to be in your future? Is it a rocketship? a smooth pond? Mardi Gras beads?

I suggest making a list of aspects of yourself you'd like to foster. Can you come up with 10? Then create a metaphor for each (or as many as you can).

From there, select one metaphor for a deep dive, or a few to link together. 

------------------------

At 61, I think for the most part I have "become" the me I wanted to become. As I considered this prompt, I thought about how I'd like people to remember me after I die. This is the poem I wrote:

You know when
you’re digging through a drawer
looking for a AA battery
or a birthday candle
or a safety pin?

and your fingers
rub across
a salmoned tenpenny coin
from a trip to Ireland years ago?

In that moment
you see
the hedged roads
sheep grazing
hear the lilt
of memory
tinkling?

I don’t know what I can still become.

Perhaps my dear ones,
as their
fingers of thought
touch the
heft of battery
brief candle
pinprick
or smooth coin,
will think on me.

I will have become a memory;
may it be an Irish road.

Day #26: Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow

The challenge for this poem is to write in the past, present and future.

Think of "who you were" in the past.

Who are you now?

Who do you see yourself to be in the future?

Or focus on a specific aspect of yourself: how you used to play piano; how you play now; how you visualize your playing in the future.

I wrote my poem on Sunday and used yesterday/today/tomorrow literally as I wrote about April 24, 25, and 26th.

Yesterday
the washer quit
my brow was knit

the supper burned
my joke was spurned

my notes were flat
I smelled a rat

Today
I ran the trail
and answered mail

the sun was out
ate brussels sprout

I called my dad
felt not half bad

Tomorrow
I’ll greet each kid
ask what they did

read Shakespeare puns
and call my sons

before bedtime
I’ll write a rhyme

-----------------------

You may choose to write in rhyme, haiku, free verse, skinny poem, nonet, or any form that appeals to you!

Day #25: Snapshot Poem

Today's prompt is a photo. What photo? That's up to you!

You might choose an image off your phone, or one in a photo album. 

Maybe you'd like to browse through photos of icebergs or scuba diving and find one that captures your interest.

Then choose one of the two following approaches:

1) Try to describe as vividly as you can the image you see. Remember, as a poet you can use comparisons and metaphors as well as sensory detail to give your reader a strong experience while reading.

2) Write a poem that tells the story BEHIND the photo. What happened before the image was clicked? or what happened after? In telling a story, you are writing what is called a narrative poem.

I'm not sure if you will have success uploading your image in the comments. If it doesn't work, send me the image in an email and I can post it as the owner of the site.

Here is my poem:

Are the
bubbles
her family’s
blessings
descending

or
her
limpid
laughter
rising

My daughter Eloise and her husband John
April 19, 2019

Day #24: A Poem For...

Today you will write a poem about a person in your life.

The mentor text is titled "Abuelito Who."

Abuelito means grandpa. Notice how the poet uses anaphora by repeating

Abuelito who...

who...

who...

who...

with each "who" followed by a vivid description of the grandpa.

After you read Sandra Cisneros' poem, read mine. I wrote about a friend who died about six years ago.

As you write your own poem, think of vivid ways you can SHOW who your person is. Show your readers images of the person's actions or surroundings to help us see/smell/experience the person you are writing about.

---------------------------

Mentor Text: “Abuelito Who” by Sandra Cisneros

Abuelito who throws coins like rain
and asks who loves him
who is dough and feathers
who is a watch and glass of water
whose hair is made of fur
is too sad to come downstairs today
who tells me in Spanish you are my diamond
who tells me in English you are my sky
whose little eyes are string
can’t come out to play
sleeps in his little room all night and day
who used to laugh like the letter k
is sick
is a doorknob tied to a sour stick
is tired shut the door
doesn’t live here anymore
is hiding underneath the bed
who talks to me inside my head
is blankets and spoons and big brown shoes
who snores up and down up and down up and down again
is the rain on the room that falls like coins
asking who loves him
who loves him who?

-------------------------------

Judy Who

Judy who cackled like firecrackers
in the halls during class,
drawing wrath from teachers
demanding silence bell to bell:
no laughter
should compete
with lectures drear.

Judy who counseled
our most fragile and volatile
students toward
something resembling
warmth,
resembling survival.

Judy who after her divorce
built a country home with
a long driveway
and a 10-foot chicken sculpture
in the yard.
In the house, a suit of armor
and a porcelain phrenology head
she brought home from New Orleans
as her Delta carry-on.

Judy whose coral nails
and heavy Danish silver
defined her style:
sparkling eyes
great hair
faint breath of whiskey
under quality perfume.

Judy who tagged me
as a friend,
hosted raucous parties
culminating in hysterics
as we took turns shooting pumpkins
in her garden
with her varmint .22

Judy, Judy
who late on that blizardly February night
too drunk to be driving
made it home
but missed the driveway.
Stuck in a drift
she hoofed the hundred yards
toward her steel chicken
and what the previous fall had been
the pumpkin patch.

Judy who
did not survive
the trek
to warmth of hearth
whose body was was found
next morning
by her brother who
lived a mile across the section
and raised chickens for Campbell’s Soup.

Judy who
radiated warmth
died in
alcohol’s frozen embrace.

Day #23: Shakespeare's Birthday!

Good morning!

As you know, Shakespeare wrote in iambic pentameter. 

The iamb is the heartbeat rhythm: 

du-DAH, du-DAH, du-DAH, du-DAH, du-DAH

Because the iamb has two syllables and is repeated five times (PENTAmeter), it calls for 10 syllables in each line.

On the Bard's special day, let's try to use an aspect of a sonnet in our writing. Choose from ONE of the following:

1. Write a poem with 14 lines.
2. Write a poem with 10 syllables in each line.
3. Write in iambic rhythm.
4. Write in iambic pentameter.
5. Write with A-B-A-B rhyme.
6. Write a poem about love

Here is a Shakespearean sonnet to use as a mentor text.

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm’d;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance or nature’s changing course untrimm’d;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest;
Nor shall Death brag thou wander’st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou growest:
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this and this gives life to thee.

Here is a sonnet I wrote about teaching creative writing:

Sonnet 1, for my Creative Writing Students

By Allison Berryhill

 

I wanted for them each to find a muse

And push like Sisyphus against a thought--

To hear an inner voice and set it loose

And touch the place where soul with sound is wrought.

To give them tools to carve onto the page

The exquisite release of hidden self,

To gift them ways to transform joy and rage

To poem, essay, book upon a shelf.

But hour six too often slid away

With chattered scattered shot and little more

And what I’d hoped for them to learn each day?

Abandoned, crumpled drafts upon the floor.

Ah, did they learn the lesson of the pen?

Revise, revise, and let me try again.

Your turn!

Remember, you don't need to write an entire sonnet. Just choose one aspect to mirror.

Happy writing,

AB

Day #22: Flashbulb Memory

On Tuesday when the George Floyd murder conviction was announced, I was sitting in the nail salon. I glanced on my phone to see post after post from all the news feeds I follow, announcing the verdict. 

The verdict is being framed as an important step forward in addressing systemic racism in our country. Many people were waiting with high anxiety to see the jury's decision. When, where, and what they were doing may become a "flashbulb memory" for them. 

from Wikipedia



I have "flashbulb memories" from several occurrences:


1) My dad's hand on the doorknob of a closet that held my birthday present: a red wagon with a white bow.

2) Teaching in a classroom in Exira when a boy ran in to say the space shuttle Challenger had exploded.

3) Standing in the kitchen, holding the phone, when my sister told me her 4-year-old son had cancer.

4) Teaching journalism (as a sub) for Mrs. Mckay, who was out for maternity leave. The art teacher ran in and said, "Turn on your TV! A second plane just ran into the Twin Towers!"

----------------------------

A few days ago, Mr. Hallgren asked me what was my earliest "historical event" memory. I remembered it immediately. I was seven years old. (I'll let you "solve" my poem for yourself to determine the historical event.)

Childhood Memory

I saw Katy’s dad
crying. It was April 4
1968.

-------------------------------

Your poem challenge today is to think of a flashbulb memory YOU have. It may be related to an event in the news, or it may be a personal event that carried shock or surprise in a way it has set down roots in your visual/sensory memory. 

I like haiku form for this small, intense memory. It forces you to look at what aspect of the memory can capture the intensity. In my case, I'd never see a friend's FATHER cry. I knew something major had happened. 

If you need to write a series of haiku, or use another form, you certainly may! If you don't feel you have a flashbulb memory to write about, choose another strong childhood image/memory.

Happy writing!

AB

Thanks to Ethical ELA for many of the prompts I'm adapting for my students this month. 

Day #21: Duality Poem

Duality is the condition of containing two parts, often contrasting parts. Consider either/or dualities:

off/on

speaking/silent

laughing/crying

or consider both/and dualities when two :

nervous & excited

exhausted & satisfied

giddy & hopeful

-----------------------------

Today I challenge you to write a duality poem, examining two (or more) sides of something. Use what ever form calls to you!

Here is mine:

CONTRASTS

Melville wrote:

“There is no quality in this world that is not what it is merely by contrast.”

I tap my app
at the end
of a run;
it is the going
that gives the stopping
its rippling frisson.

I read the
closing lines
of a thousand-page book:
releasing and relief-ing
goodbye dear friend
my heart swells
and hurts.

Friday-night tired
pushes through my muscles
and settles in my bones;
ah, sublime hour
when the week
meets the weekend.

Day #20: Summer Poem

 

Good morning! 

Today's mentor poem is by Jacqualine Woodson's poem "Firefly." Look how she captures summer by focusing on an insect!

It’s almost May
and yesterday
I saw a firefly.

You don’t see
them a lot
in the city.

Sometimes
in the park
in the near dark

one comes out
you’ll hear
a little kid shout

Lightning bug! Firefly!

It’s almost May
and yesterday
I caught a firefly in my hand.

First firefly I
seen in a
long, long time.

Make a wish,
Miss Edna said.
Make a good one.

Firefly wishes always come true.

--------------------

The forecast for Atlantic today is cloudy with a miserable April high of 45 degrees. Together, let's direct our focus to SUMMER and craft imagistic, sensory poems that make us SEE, SMELL, TASTE, HEAR and FEEL.

Think of a specific moment or image that you want to capture. Use crisp words. Pay attention to the sounds of words next to each other. Give us a hot slice of summer pie with a dollop of ice cream on top!

----------------

Berryhill's Poem on the Deck

sparrow has transformed
the grill into her well-appointed
condo

wasp loops by
legs a-dangle,
then rests on my footstool
inches from my ankle

the glass at my elbow
is slippery cold
to my touch

breeze scatters
pistachio shells
across the deck

I turn the page
it is summer
all is well

Berryhill's summer view from her deck.

Miss Lipp's poem uses the nonet form, which you already know:

Summertime meant I was stranded on six Iowa acres.
Landlocked between cornfields, I fantasized of town life.
In my youth, I resented being isolated
but now I see its use:
exploration without hesitation — looking for
hidden kittens in hay,
defending stick castles,
naming each
star

Happy writing!

AB

Thanks to Ethical ELA for many of the prompts I'm adapting for my students this month.

Day #19: Wire Sculpture Poem

Good morning! On Day #19 we will try a Wire Sculpture poem! Take a look at these:





The wire sculptures above were made by Privet Design in Poland. Notice how they are crafted from a single piece of wire.

Your poem task today is to think about writing a poem as a wire sculpture. Begin with an image or an idea. Follow your mind as one word, phrase or image leads into the next. Like wire sculpture, your words/ideas might cross back on each other. Hopefully, by the end, you will have "arrived" at a place where the poem feels whole.

I began thinking about my son's dog, who knows no personal space. She is always right up in everyone's face! That spurred me to begin with an image of her on the bed in the morning, and that made me think about all the "morning smells" she smells!

As you read my poem, you'll see I used some unusual words. I've linked them to their definitions. 

the lab lies
between
their rustling forms

she is
doused in their
mingled breath;
she smells
the single
point on the number line
when sleep
becomes
wake

she inhales
the bouquet of
pandiculation:
flexed toes
and yawning axillae

pockets
of odor
puff forth
as muscles
creak
as eyelid
groin
and ear
release apocrine scent

her nose
knows
all smells
are good

Your turn! I look forward to seeing how you twist a string of words into the sculpture of a poem!

Happy writing,

AB

Thanks to Ethical ELA for many of the prompts I'm adapting for my students this month.


Thanks to Ethical ELA for many of the prompts I'm adapting for my students this month.

Day #18: Living Traits

Today's prompt sprouts from J. Ruth Gendler's “The Book of Qualities.”

Gendler personifies traits such as this:

“Anxiety is secretive. He does not trust anyone, not even his friends, Worry, Terror, Doubt and Panic … He likes to visit me late at night when I am alone and exhausted. I have never slept with him, but he kissed me on the forehead once, and I had a headache for two years …”

Here are lines from other traits she examines:

Despair has “stopped listening to music.”

Courage “looks you straight in the eye…knows first aid…is not afraid to weep…has made the journey from loneliness to solitude”

Beauty “will dance with anyone brave enough to ask her.”

Excitement wears orange socks.

Pain’s “voice is hoarse from crying and screaming…if you face him directly, he will give you a special ointment so your wounds don’t fester.”

Anger “sharpens kitchen knives at the local supermarket on the last Wednesday of the month.”

Blame “keeps a pharmacist’s scale at the corner of his desk.”

-----------------------

Your challenge is to personify a trait. You may write in prose-poem form or arrange your ideas on the page like a more traditional poem, as I did.  Here is a list of traits to choose from!

I chose "Strong."

Strong

You’ll meet Strong’s
public face first:
muscles in the gym
don’t mess with her.

Then you’ll meet her
softer side:
endurance through pain
speaking up
she’ll stand alone.

Then listen deeper
to hear
Strong’s silent self:
answering
to be
or not to be
with
Be.

Thanks to Ethical ELA for many of the prompts I'm adapting for my students this month.

Day #17: Question Poem

Today's prompt asks you to begin with a question you have heard or have asked yourself. The mentor text is by Nizar Qabbani and begins with this stanza and a question from his son. (You can read the entire poem by clicking on the link.)

A Lesson In Drawing
My son places his paint box in front of me
and asks me to draw a bird for him.
Into the color gray I dip the brush
and draw a square with locks and bars.
Astonishment fills his eyes:
"… But this is a prison, Father,
Don't you know, how to draw a bird?"
And I tell him: "Son, forgive me.
I've forgotten the shapes of birds."

.........

I decided to use the question Why not? which has driven a lot of my choices over the years. I have found that there are always plenty of reasons NOT to try something and plenty of people who want to hold me back--often with lots of reasons something is (in their eyes) not a great idea. My poem tries to capture how I feel when people want to hold me back.

Here is what I wrote:

Bones

not Why, but why not?
my thin bones
(pale bones
at my core)

push against
barbed wire cages
stone unclimbable walls

the fences of reason
fuel my fury
my voice
my bones

...................

Give it a try! Write a list of five questions, then choose one to use as the jumping-off point for your poem. The question may or may not actually appear in your poem!

Happy writing!

AB

Thanks to Ethical ELA for many of the prompts I'm adapting for my students this month.

Day #16: Poem Without a Title

Good morning! Your challenge today is to write a poem and save the TITLE for the end. Hopefully the title will change how the poem was first read. That is, it will ADD meaning to what came before.

Here is a sample: 

Don't be polite.
Bite in.
Pick it up with your fingers and lick the juice that

may run down your chin.
It is ready and ripe now, whenever you are.

You do not need a knife or fork or spoon
or plate or napkin or tablecloth.

For there is no core
or stem
or rind
or pit
or seed
or skin
to throw away.

----------

Think about that poem. What does it seem to be about?

Now scroll down and find the title. Does it change the meaning for you at all?

"How to Eat a Poem" by Eve Merriam

----------------------

Here is the poem I wrote, with its title at the end...

scratch of dry nib
misfired squib
drool on the bib

cheetos gone stale
no wind in the sail
a rusty bent nail

jarred mice mocking
brain cells balking
empty knocking

..................

Titled: "Writing a Poem on Day #15"
Do you see my poem in a new way when you read the title?

Here's your challenge. Choose a form, then write the poem. Think of a title. Go back through your poem and eliminate any DIRECT references to your title. Post your poem, and a few lines later, post your title!

Rock on! You're doing great! Today we are on the SECOND HALF of the month!

Thanks to Ethical ELA for many of the prompts I'm adapting for my students this month.

Day #15 - Hope Poem

Poet Emily Dickinson wrote:

“Hope” is the thing with feathers -

That perches in the soul -

And sings the tune without the words -

And never stops - at all -

You can read the entire poem here. 

Today's challenge is to think of a metaphor for hope. Dickinson used a bird (feathers, perches, sings).

I wrote in haiku form and used the COVID vaccine as my metaphor because I felt such a surge of hopefulness when I got my second dose and knew I could soon gather with my vaccinated family and friends. I then took the metaphor a step further and compared the needle prick to a bee sting. 

Vaccine

Little bee alights
Her stinger Moderna’s kiss
Hope buzzes my veins
-------------

What could be a new, fresh metaphor for hope? Try thinking of answers that could fill in this blank:

Hope is............

Try to think of at least five before you choose one to transform into a poem. You might do something rhyming in the model of Dickinson, or write in haiku form as I did. You also have several other forms in your repertoire to draw on: nonet, skinny poem, an epistolary (the letter-writing form) come to mind as forms that might work for this poem!

Happy writing!

AB

Thanks to Ethical ELA for many of the prompts I'm adapting for my students this month.

Day #14: Take and Taken

Usually when writing, we try to avoid repeating the same word unless we are using its repetition for a specific intent.

Today's prompt invites us to use words over and over again!

Take / Taken / Took

In a two-stanza poem, consider what you TAKE (from friends, parents, school, the world) alongside what has been TAKEN from you (by friends, parents, school, the world).
----------------------

While I began with this prompt, as I wrote, my poem morphed into a rhyming ditty about the precious time I TAKE with my morning coffee!

I look forward to seeing where this take/taken/took prompt TAKES you!

Coffee

I take the filter off the shelf
It takes five minutes brewing
I take a measure of myself
While coffee grounds are stewing.

I’ve taken time while waking up
I’ve taken morning lathers
I’ve taken stock then filled my cup
Now take on all that matters.

Thanks to Ethical ELA for many of the prompts I'm adapting for my students this month.

Day #13: That Memory

Today's prompt asks you to sift through memories of your past nine years of school.

Make a list.

Jot down 12 (I love that number!) images that come to mind when you think of grades K-now. 

Of the memories on your list, which calls out to you as hot, deserving your attention and reflection?

A memory that came to my mind was about swear words. Here's what came of it when I tried to think about all my senses in as I experimented saying cuss words aloud in the privacy of my bedroom when I was maybe 10 or 12. (Lemon button is a type of fern.)

Lesson

Even shut-up was forbidden in our house
so of course I
wanted to cuss

I craved the razor
burning against my tongue
in the privacy of my
blue bedroom
where at the window
a macrame noose held
a flourishing lemon button

Mere words
sparked sensations
spicier than Doritios and
richer than cream
green as the fern
in my pink mouth

Day #12: Day Poem

Here's a fun poem to try!

According to NationalToday.com, April 12 is National Grilled Cheese Day!

Think of a day that has special meaning to you, then search the site and discover what else is celebrated on that day.

Or work in reverse: Think of a hobby, interest, or item and search the site to see if there is a holiday for it!

If you can't find a day celebrating your love for juggling or skid loaders (I couldn't find either on the site, but via a Google search, I found that World Juggling Day was celebrated on June 20 last year.), designate your own day for your own desired celebration and write about that!

I chose to write about July 12. Read my poem and see if you can figure out the "National Days" associated with that date and then the reason I chose to write about it. (You can check the day here.)

July 12

It’s simple
as it should be
on National Simplicity Day:
Eat your jello
and pecan pie.
A good day for both.
Give Orangemen Day
a shudder,
since his mother
is from Belfast,
(though I’m loathe
to celebrate fires
of religious hate)
Wink at heterochromia;
pet a husky.

But keep it simple:
absorb the goodness of the sun
inhale the hydrangea
sing a verse of
lullaby.
My heart pumps little
puffs of joy
to know that
12,796 km
as the crow flies
safe in New Zealand
William Wolf Hoegh
turns one.

William Wolf on the day of his birth, July 12, 2020

Thanks to Ethical ELA for many of the prompts I'm adapting for my students this month.

Happy writing!

AB

Day #11: A Skinny Poem!

 Process

• A skinny poem has only 11 lines!
• The first and last lines are the only lines with multiple words.
•  Lines 2-10 are each one word only.
• Line 2, 6, and 10 are each the same word!
• Line 11 uses the same words as line 1, but it can be rearranged for your purposes.

I made a table to number my lines on one side and wrote my poem on the other. As you'll see, I wrote about watching a student who wasn't reading during reading time. The image stayed with me because I'm always trying to figure out how to help students sink into their books.

For ideas, consider moments in the past week that have lodged into your memory for some reason. Or an image of your pet. Or a moment from a holiday.

Consider the image you want to write about and describe the situation in the first line. From there, skinny it on out! You may link a series of skinny poems together for a longer poem.

Happy writing,

AB

Thanks to Ethical ELA for many of the prompts I'm adapting for my students this month.