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Where do you live?
Is it a big city or a tiny town? Do you live on a farm or in a high-rise building? Do you live on a busy corner or high up a hill?
To continue celebrating National Poetry Month, let's write about our place.
Think about where you live. What do you like about it? What don't you like? What makes it different from any other place? How do you get there? By train, car, boat, bus, or elevator?
First write down some images that come to mind. Use all your 5 senses: what do you see, hear, smell, taste, touch in your mind when you think about the place where you live?
Include details that make your place unique.
Now take those details and images and put them into your poem, telling the reader--as only you can--about the place where you live.
I live on an island. Here's my poem.
An Island in the Morning
The ferry honks three times:
I'm coming in!
The heron lifts its wings:
I'm hungry!
The salt air stings the nose:
I smell like fish!
The dock stretches into the harbor:
Tie your boats up here!
The mountain shows off:
I'm a giant ice-cream cone!
The rocky beach makes walking hard:
I'm slippery and wet!
The grocery store opens its doors:
I hear the morning gossip!
A bus rumbles down the main street:
I take commuters to the ferry!
The ferry honks one time:
I'm going out!
What do you want to say about your place?
Tomorrow is Earth Day!
And we're still celebrating National Poetry Month.
Have you noticed, a lot of poems about nature or Earth are serious?
They don't have to be.
I'm mixing my love of nature with my love of silliness. Here's my silly poem about Earth (with thanks to the poet Joyce Kilmer, author of "Trees"--who was a guy, by the way).
I think that I shall never see
A poem as lovely as a tree.
I think that I shall never view
A poem as lovely as a gnu.
I think that I shall never spy
A poem as lovely as a fly.
I think that I shall never glimpse
A poem as lovely as two chimps.
I think I'll never scrutinize
A poem as lovely as the skies.
But now I'll end this poem, you see
Cause nothing's better than a tree!
How about your Earth Day poem?
Be silly, fun, and full of mirth
To celebrate our Planet Earth!
Not only is this National Poetry Month. It's also National Library Week.
Put the two together, and what do you get? No, not a mixed-up calendar. You get a poem about a library!
Do you have a library at school or in your town? What do you love about it? Is it the big windows? The shelves of books? The rows of computers? The helpful library workers? The storytimes?
We can celebrate our library with an acrostic poem. That's a poem in which the letters of a word (like "library") give us the first line.
Here's my library acrostic. Have fun creating your own!
Lots and lots and lots of
Interesting
Books.
Real stories and made-up stories
About animals, action, and adventure.
Read!
Your library has the perfect book to carry you away.
Happy National Poetry Month! All month long, we'll celebrate poems.
Even if you think you're not a poet, join in and try writing one.
Reading and writing poems lets us play with language.
We'll start out with imaginary pets. Do you have a real pet? Chances are it's a dog, cat, goldfish, or gerbil.
It's probably not a Nightlight Bird, like on the cover of this wonderful book by Richard Michelson.
Here's one of his imaginary pets:
Nightlight Bird
I used to need a nightlight
when it was time for bed
until we got a red-eyed
Nightlight Bird instead.
I don't need any batteries
or bulbs or plugs or sockets.
I just keep Nightlight Bird seed
in my pajama pockets.
My bird won't scare a burglar.
She's slow and pigeon-toed,
but if she senses danger
Bird blinks and sends Morse Code.
But best of all, when Nightlight
starts her late-night stare
the shadows in my room run
away and disappear.
Some other poems in this fun book are the Buscatcher, the Leftover Eater, and the Talkback Bat.
Your turn! What kind of imaginary pet would YOU love to have? Write a poem about it. It doesn't need to rhyme.
When you're done, add a drawing. The illustrations in Animals That Ought To Be are by the wonderful Leonard Baskin.
I bet your illustration will be just as wonderful.
Have fun creating and drawing your imaginary pet!
