This is Just to Say: NPM24 Day 26

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We learned about William Carlos Williams earlier this week and wrote our own 16 word poems (I wrote about it here). Today we returned to WCW and studied his apology poem: This is Just to Say. I also read a few poems from Joyce Sidman’s collection of the same name. Even though the first graders in my class have been writing poems all month, stretching to write a poem of apology was challenging for many of them. They definitely knew how to say they were sorry–but that “tongue in cheek” sort of “sorry not sorry” approach eluded many of them.

With some coaching, we started to get there. Here are a couple of examples:

B wrote to his mom.

For Mom

This is just to say

I’m sorry I didn’t want to play in the baseball game

I just was as tired as a bear in winter

But it was fun playing baseball

Please forgive me mom

And this student wrote to her sister

I am sorry I came on your bed

and gave it a caterpillar look

I just wanted to give you a hug

like two bears in a cuddle

It might make me feel better

Another wrote to basketball

For Basketball

This is just to say

I’m sorry I haven’t made a shot yet.

Today stuff kept getting in my head

and I couldn’t get it out

It was like a milkshake was getting in my head

My mind said “you can do this” but

my head said I’m a brick

My own attempt was related to our first grade performance at this morning’s assembly where students sang Jimmy Buffett’s Cheeseburger in Paradise.

For Jimmy Buffett

This is just to say

I’m sorry our singing

was a bit off key

We were excited and nervous

twitching like hiccups

dressed in our cheeseburger hats and guitars

Your songs are so catchy

so fun and filled with energy

We just had to dance

and shout out with glee!

From Black Sage: NPM24 Day 25

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Some days less is more–and this is one of those days for me. #Verselove suggested a where I’m from poem, but at the end of a long day, a where I’m from Haiku is where I found myself. (Inspired by the black sage in full bloom on campus right now)

Where I’m From

My nose knows black sage

fragrant, earthy purple blooms

marks this place as home

Writing the Night Sky: NPM24 Day 24

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The night sky was the inspiration that Kevin offered the writers at #verselove today. He shared Ada Limon’s poem, In Praise of Mystery: A Poem for Europa and it was the line, “still, there are mysteries below our sky” that caught my attention and sent me to my beloved ocean. I found myself remembering wandering the night beach and oohing and aahing as the waves crashed with the florescent light of bioluminescence, creating a private fireworks show right in the sea.

Rewrite the Ocean

Oceans conjure

sunny skies, umbrella drinks, coconut body oils

and a hint of salt as you lick your upper lip

When the sky drops

and orange and red dances across the horizon

darkness descends

In the black of night

the magic of living chemistry

millions of microscopic creatures

light up the sea

Each crashing wave

a sliver of bioluminescent day

in brilliant greens and turquoises

Night sky rewrites the ocean

slows time with dramatic pauses

as it paints the inky seas

with light

Day is for sunbathers

vacationers

swimmers and beachcombers

Night is for dreamers

igniting wonder

deeper than earth’s vast

waters

Small Poems: NPM24 Day 23

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I love small poems. Those deceptively simple compositions that are packed with possibilities of layered meaning. I also love that they invite my young students into their mystery.

Today we read 16 Words William Carlos Williams & “The Red Wheelbarrow” by Lisa Rogers & Chuck Groenink and learned about this well-known poet and his famous short poem. We studied The Red Wheelbarrow and students were ready with their noticings. They counted those words carefully–yes there were 16 (at least the way it was written). They noticed the four stanzas and that each stanza had four words. They noticed the color words and felt that the line “glazed with rain water” was a bit metaphorical. (It also brought to mind donuts–got to love the literal interpretations from first graders!)

I handed out post it notes–it worked last week–small paper for small poems. And they set off with a mere five minutes before they needed to head off to their reading groups. We came back to our poems after lunch. Some students wrote several (I have plenty of post-its!) and all wrote at least one.

Here’s the one inspired by donuts

a sweet donut

with raining sprinkles

is waiting for someone

to pick it up

chomp

Many of my students continued to be inspired by sports

balls flying

like blue birds

flying in

the air

flies into a brown

kids glove

And the one I fell in love with (I’m sure I didn’t write like this when I was in first grade!)

little bits

of sky fall

down on my

face giving

it a small

cool nature shower

And my own poem is trying to conjure spring. There are hints here and there, but the pervasive marine layer is back–something that brings out the complaining in us Southern Californians!

spring wildflowers pop

yellow

when the sun

shines

after many rainy

days

my heart sings

joyfully

Earth Day: NPM24 Day 22

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It’s Earth Day, a perfect day to celebrate the earth and nature and our connections to them. Donnetta at #verselove suggested crafting a poem that honors Mother Earth in some way. Abigail, part of the #writeout team from the National Writing Project shared a recoding of Ada Limon reading the Mary Oliver poem Can You Imagine?

After a day spent with first graders talking and learning about all the reasons and ways we can and should honor and care for our planet, I found myself thinking about the ever-present tall palm tree that has been a constant on our playground for longer than I can remember. This is the tree that inspired my poem for today.

Tree-by-the-Sea

Can you imagine

standing tall and still

a constant

playground companion

for generations of children

Watching wall ball games evolve

casting a skinny shadow

a line of shade

connecting

play and nature and trees and kids and learning

Can you imagine

the stories

our sentinel palm

can tell

of friendships forged

lives linked

in a school-by-the-sea

Toes tucked in deep

green crown with a priceless view

if you listen to the rustle

you might hear your childhood

in the leaves of a tall

tree-by-the-sea

The Joy of the Ordinary: NPM24 Day 21

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Some prompts are meant to be transformed and that’s what happened with Stacey’s prompt over at #verselove for me today. Her prompt was about memories from mama’s kitchen, but instead I picked up on her “I’ve been writing this since…” line.

When I think of kitchens, I think of my husband. He’s the resident chef in our family and the one who makes food happen for me and our extended family. But I didn’t really write about food or the kitchen, instead that refrain conjured the power of the ordinary and its translation into love.

The Joy of the Ordinary

I’ve been writing this

since the day you walked into my life

making conversation easy for once

as we talked through that entire first evening

everyone and everything disappeared

but you

I’ve been writing this

for decades

through our youth and childrearing

sickness and health

frustration and excitement

boredom and change

learning from each other, with each other

embracing the inevitable messiness that life serves up

I’ve been writing this

as I’ve learned to value the ordinary

daily dependability

Love

I taste in the meals you make day in and day out

Love

I hear in days that start and end with I love you

Love

I smell in freshly mown grass or the flowers you decided I needed just because

Love

I see in your attention to detail about all things family

Love

I feel in the warm hugs that defy distance

packed in a text, a phone call, a note in my lunchbox

a whisper in my ear

I’ll be writing this

forever

spending a lifetime

with you

Conversation with the Sea: NPM24 Day 20

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Today’s #verselove prompt from Susan was about communications. She focused on notes from the past. But with Earth Day on Monday, I am thinking about communications with our planet, with nature–how we can build a symbiosis between humans and our planet.

Prewriting and walking–they go together for me. As I walked the beach today in the cool spring sunshine, poetry began to form. What I haven’t learned yet is how to capture those fleeting thoughts while I am in motion. By the time i get home with my notebook, specifics have flown…I have to reach back in my mind to reconstruct, rethink, revive, and revise the nascent poetics.

Conversation with the Sea

I hear her whisper

hush shush

hush shush

an echo of my own heartbeat

a lullaby

lifting the weariness of the workweek

Shorebirds whistle

collaborators

“on your right” and “I have your back”

singing as they run and fly in unison

Sandy squelches

a give and take of my feet

and the wet sand

we play cat and mouse

who can catch who

Seagulls squawk

complaining

wanting more

impatient

annoyed and annoying

this is our beach

they squawk

She whispers

and I hear history

and her story

hush shush

hush shush

the sound of wombs, of new life

ancients, primordial

salty tears of the planet

Letters in the sand

message in a bottle

whispers and echoes

I’m listening

Apple Tree Quatrain: NPM24 Day 19

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I’m lucky enough to work at a school that has fruit trees growing throughout our campus. I had noticed the blossoms on the apple trees a couple of weeks ago, but today when I went to pick my students up from PE I had to double back and capture a photo of the explosion of tiny fruit that is now growing.

The #verselove prompt today was a complex one. Stefani introduced an Irish quatrain with both a syllable count and a rhyme scheme. At the end of a long week, I did cheat a bit with my ending!

Fruit babies

scarlet orbs, lunch snack maybe?

will the crows get to them first?

worst!

(case scenario)

Do it for You: NPM24 Day 18

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Today’s #verselove prompt was offered by Shaun who introduced a Bukowski poem that was all about you taking care of you–or at least that was what I took away from it. It led me to thinking about all the ways we, as teachers, often do not take care of ourselves, which then led me to think about how little things can make a big difference.

So, here goes!

Do it for You

On days that feel like weeks and months

it’s the little things that matter

an early morning walk dodging snails and letting dew drops

give you that magical sparkle

even when it’s hard to get out of bed

a stop by the local coffee shop on the way home

for that expensive coffee (decaf of course)

that transports you to a place that is quiet and calm

and just the right kind of warm, the kind that feels like a hug

go out back and breathe in purple

soft lavender smells that tickles your nose

with memories of summer, of time unstructured

a momentary vacation

Take time

make time

invent time

imagine time

just for you

Do it for you