An Interlude and a Must-Read Article

I have finally finished a four-part series on books and poems for studying animal adaptations. You should see my desk. Oh, wait! You CAN'T SEE my desk, because it's covered with books! Alas, I love doing these lists, but now I'm left with a mess that I must address. I'd better do it soon, as I have class this afternoon!

If you want to check out the finished series, here are the entries.

• Animal Adaptations (Introduction)
• Animals on the Move (Migration)
• Dreaming the Winter Away (Hibernation)
• Hidden in Plain Sight (Camouflage)

While I take a brief interlude to straighten my world, I highly recommend that all my readers interested in teaching and/or science read last week's news from the NSF.
Back to School: Five Myths about Girls and Science

Hidden in Plain Sight

When I was young I often wished for clothing that resembled the woods around my home, largely because I wanted to win at hide and seek. I so wanted to be the last person found. Blending in with one's environment can come in handy, particularly when someone wants to make a meal of you. Camouflage is nature's way of hiding animals in plain sight. While those stripes may make a tiger stand out in his/her zoo home, they allow him/her to vanish in that stand of tall grass in the wild.

Whether it's zebra stripes, a body shaped like a stick, or fur that changes color with the seasons, an animal's ability to camouflage itself is an amazing adaptation. In this list you will find some books that will help you uncover the mysteries of this art of disguise.

• Claws, Coats, and Camouflage: The Way Animals Fit Into Their World by Susan Goodman - Using photographs and questions to get kids thinking scientifically, this informative text looks at all the different adaptations animals use to adapt to their surroundings, stay safe, get food, and reproduce.
  

• The amazing Ruth Heller wrote a series of books that examined camouflage across the animal kingdom. Titles in this series include:
  
• How to Hide a Butterfly and Other Insects
• How to Hide a Crocodile and Other Reptiles
• How To Hide a Meadow Frog and Other Amphibians
  
• How to Hide an Octopus and Other Sea Creatures
  
• How to Hide a Polar Bear and Other Mammals
  

• What Color is Camouflage? by Carolyn Otto - This book in the Let's Read-and-Find-Out Science series examines camouflage as an animal defense. It also looks at how camouflage helps the predator.
  

• I See Animals Hiding by Jim Arnosky - With watercolor paintings that demonstrate what is described in the text, this book shows readers how protective coloration, body shape, and seasonal changes in fur help animals survive.

• Where in the Wild? Camouflaged Creatures Concealed . . . and Revealed by David Schwartz - I'm crazy about the work of David Schwartz, so I was thrilled when this new title came across my desk. In it, ten photographs hold artfully camouflaged creatures. Can you find them? Lift the gatefold to find out. These amazing images are accompanied by poems that offer clues to each animal's identity and whereabouts.
  

• The Rainbow Tiger by Gayle Nordholm - When a tiger spies a peacock and wishes to be more beautiful, she magically turns a rainbow color. What will happen she loses her ability to disappear in the bushes?
  

• Swimmy by Leo Lionni - This wonderful tale describes what happens when a little black fish in a school of red fish figures out a unique way to use camouflage to protect the group.
  

• We Hide, You Seek by Jose Aruego and Ariane Dewey - The animals in this story have convinced rhino to play hide and seek. Now, he must find them camouflaged in their natural habitats.
  

• Searchin' Safari: Looking for Camouflaged Creatures by Marc Nadel - Kids will love this book as they head out on safari and journey around the world to search for animals camouflaged in their natural environments.
  

• Hidden Animals by Valerie Guidoux - This title from the Explore Your World series introduces and explains seasonal changes in animal color, fish and insects that look like plants, animals, insects and fish that can quickly change color, and how animals hide in plain sight.
  

• Clever Chameleon by Alison Lodge - Written in rhyme, this story follows a group of animals as they play hide and seek. As the story unfolds, readers will learn how animals hide and disguise themselves in different surroundings. Children will also love trying to find the clever chameleon hiding in each scene.
  

• Several books in the Animals Wise series (Picture Window Books) discuss camouflage. Written by Patricia Stockland, appropriate titles include:
• Pointy, Long, or Round: A Book About Animal Shapes
• Red Eyes or Blue Feathers: A Book About Animal Colors
• Stripes, Spots, or Diamonds: A Book About Animal Patterns
  

• Douglas Florian has produced many poetry books about animals, with some of these poems focused on camouflage. In lizards, frogs, and polliwogs you will find a poem called The Chameleon. In insectlopedia you will find two poems. One is The Io Moth, the other is The Walkingstick.

The Walkingstick
The walkingstick is thin, not thick,
and has a disappearing trick:
By looking like a twig or stalk,
It lives another day to walk.

This wraps up a lengthy series on animal adaptations. I hope you find some useful resources here. If I've missed any of your favorites, please let me know. I'd be happy to add them to the list.

Dreaming the Winter Away

For those animals that do not migrate to warmer climates in the winter months, hibernation is one way to cope with the harsh realities of colder weather. It is an effective strategy that enables animals to live in places where food is not abundant year round. While we tend to think about bears when we hear the word hibernation, snakes, frogs, turtles, woodchucks, ground squirrels and bats also hibernate in winter. To learn more about hibernation, check out these terrific resources.

• Bear on the Train by Julie Lawson - When a bear follows his nose, he ends up climbing in the hopper car of train, munching on grain, and hibernating in a rather unusual place.

• Do Not Disturb: The Mysteries of Animal Hibernation and Sleep by Margery Facklam - Though out of print, this is one of the most thorough and well-written books about hibernation that I have read. It discusses the three types of hibernation (deep sleep, light sleep, and daily dormancy) as well as estivation.

• Every Autumn Comes the Bear by Jim Arnosky - This beautifully illustrated book describes what happens in fall as a black bear looks for a suitable den in which to spend the winter.

• Moon Glowing by Elizabeth Partridge - A terrific selection for younger readers, or nice poetic example for older students, this book shows how a squirrel, bat, beaver, and bear prepare for colder weather.

• Animals Hibernating: How Animals Survive Extreme Conditions by Pamela Hickman - Realistic drawings accompanied by engaging text provide an introduction to true hibernators, deep sleepers, and estivators. This title also includes ideas for some easy science activities.

• Do Polar Bears Snooze in Hollow Trees? A Book About Animal Hibernation by Laura Purdie Salas - Do you know who burrows in the mud and who hangs from a ceiling while sleeping the winter away? In engaging question and answer format, this book answers these questions and more while looking at where different animals hibernate.

• Lewis Cardinal's First Winter/El Primer Invierno de Luis, el Cardenal by Amy Crane Johnson - Lewis Cardinal is confused as his woodland friends get ready for winter, but his friend Solomon Raven explains hibernation and migration in an effort to help him understand. This bilingual book is one in a series of four.

In addition to the books listed above, there are others that look generally at what happens to animals in winter.

• When Winter Comes by Nancy Can Laan - In rhyming question and answer format, a child asks where leaves, flowers, caterpillars, songbirds, field mice, deer, and fish go when the winter comes.

• Animals in Winter by Henrietta Bancroft - This Let's Read-and-Find-Out Science book looks at how various animals prepare for winter, with some migrating, some hibernating, and other collecting and storing food.

Here are a few poems about hibernation that I like.

• Into the Mud by Joyce Sidman, in Song of the Water Boatman & Other Pond Poems.
  
  Sun
  slants low,
  chill seeps into black
  water. No more days of bugs
  and basking. Last breath, last sight


• Baby Bear Moon by Joseph Bruchac and Jonathan London in Thirteen Moons on Turtle's Back.
  
  Long ago a small child
  was lost in the snow.
  We thought she had frozen,
  but when spring came again
  she was seen with a mother bear
  and her small cubs.

• The Bear by Douglas Florian, in mammalabilia.
  
  Come Septem-bear
  I sleep, I slum-bear,
  Till winter lum-bears
  Into spring.
• The Wood Frog by Douglas Florian, in lizards, frogs, and polliwogs.
  
  
  I am a frozen frogsicle.
  I froze beneath a logsicle.
  My mind is a fogsicle
  Inside this icy bogsicle.
• Timber Rattlesnake by Marilyn Singer, in Turtle in July.


Soon September stones
Chill bones
Chill blood
Stiff shall I grow
And so below I'll slide


• Where Do Fish Go in Winter? by Amy Goldman Koss in Where Fish Go in Winter And Answers to Other Great Mysteries
  
  
  When lakes turn to ice
  And are covered with snow,
  What becomes of the fish
  Who are living below?

Finally, I highly recommend the following picture books as just plain fun for younger readers studying hibernation, though not particularly scientific.

• Karma Wilson has a wonderful series of books featuring a bear and his woodland friends. A few of these touch on some aspects of hibernation. In an effort to be inclusive of all students, I have left off the Christmas title (you can find it easily), but will mention these two:
• Bear Snores On
• Bear Wants More

• Time to Sleep by Denise Fleming - In this warmly illustrated book, bear smells winter in the air and gets ready to hibernate, but must first tell his friends.

Please let me know if I've missed any of your favorites.

Monday Poetry Stretch - Acrostic

With the beginning of school underway for most of the teaching world, I thought this would be a good time to work on a form familiar to many. An acrostic is a poem in which the first letter of the lines, read downwards, form a word. I know it's Labor Day, but this shouldn't be much work at all.

ReadWriteThink has an acrostic poem generator you can try, as well as a whole selection of lesson plans about them. Bruce Lansky has a nice page for kids on how to write acrostic poems. For a more academic treatment of this form, read the Wikipedia entry.

For the last few months I have been working on a series of poems called animal collectives. Inspired by James Lipton's (yes, THAT James Lipton) book, An Exaltation of Larks, I began thinking how much fun it would be to write poems about these groups of animals. After a bit of experimentation, the form these poems took was acrostic. Here are two. Can you guess what kinds of animals are being described?

Lazing on sun-splashed rocks
Outstretched to warm their scaly skin--
Until danger approaches--when they
Nervously run for cover
Gliding, running, climbing, clinging
Escaping the light of day

Seas of spindled legs move
Through tidal flats, mangrove swamps
Awash in crimson, vermilion, pink
Noisily stretching, stepping, wading
Dancing on webbed feet

So, do you want to play? What kind of acrostic poem will you write? Pick a word that moves you and write away. Post your creation(s) on your blog and then leave a link in the comments. Once we have some poems, I'll link them all here.

Animals on the Move

Following the seasonal movements of animals was one of the ways we marked the changing of the seasons where I grew up. Even though we tend to think about birds when we hear the word migration, many different types of animals migrate, including insects, fish, and mammals. While many animals fly these annual treks, others must walk or swim to reach their destinations. The books on this list highlight the wonders of migration in all its forms.

First, let's begin with general books about migration and animals other than birds.

• Animals on the Move by Allan Fowler - This Rookie Read-About-Science selection presents the migration of salmon, whales, zebras, caribou and many different types of birds for the youngest readers.
  

• The Journey: Stories of Migration by Cynthia Rylant - This book provides readers with a series of narratives relating the migratory habits of the American silver eel, the Arctic tern, the blue whale, the caribou, the desert locust and the monarch butterfly.
  

• Seymour Simon, a prolific and extraordinary writer of science books, has three titles that should be in any collection about migration. They are:
• Ride the Wind: Airborne Journeys of Animals and Plants
• They Swim the Seas: The Mystery of Animal Migration
• They Walk the Earth: The Extraordinary Travels of Animals on Land

• Animals Migrating: How, When, Where and Why Animals Migrate by Etta Kaner - Realistic drawings accompanied by engaging text provide an introduction to migratory animals and the patterns they follow. Included here are Arctic terns, gray whales, lemmings, army ants and more.

• Home at Last: A Song of Migration by April Pulley Sayre - This book describes nine different animals and their migration patterns.
  

• Do Lobsters Leap Waterfalls? A Book About Animal Migration by Laura Purdie Salas - In question and answer format, this book looks at where migrating animals go when the weather changes.
  

• Being Caribou: Five Months on Foot with a Caribou Herd by Karsten Heuer - This book documents the trip of a wildlife biologist and his wife who travelled on foot with a herd of caribou across the tundra to the shores of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, where the calves were born.
  

• Hurry and the Monarch by Antoine Flatharta - A migrating butterfly meets a tortoise in Texas and teaches him about the Monarch's life cycle and long migration.
  

• Wings of Light: The Migration of the Yellow Butterfly by Stephen Swinburne - This book, complete with map, describes the one way trip some yellow butterflies make from the Yucatán rain forest to the northern states in the eastern United States.

• Moon of the Monarch Butterflies by Jean Craighead George - One of the books in the 13 moons series, this title describes a female Monarch butterfly’s solitary flight from Arkansas to Michigan as she lays the eggs that will hatch and repeat her life cycle.
  

• Marcelo, the Bat/Marcelo, el Murciélago by Laura Navarro Juan Sebastián - This bilingual storybook tells the story of Marcelo, a little bat who is confused about his family's winter migration from the U.S. to Mexico.

• Adelina's Whales by Richard Sobol - As gray whales migrate down the Pacific Coast to their winter home, many end up off the coast of Baja, California. This lovely photoessay follows Adelina and others in her small Baja fishing village as they see and hear the returning whales, first from the shore and then from small boats.
  

• Adventures of Riley--Survival of the Salmon by Amanda Lumry - Two adventurers, Riley and Alice, visit Southeast Alaska in order to solve a puzzling salmon migration mystery.

• The Magic School Bus Goes Upstream: A Book About Salmon Migration by Joanna Cole - Though I'm not particularly fond of the books written specifically for the television series, this one does a nice job of introducing salmon migration.

In this section you will find some outstanding resources for studying bird migration.

• Flute's Journey: The Life of a Wood Thrush by Lynne Cherry - In this fictional account, readers learn about the first year of a wood thrush's life, from its hatching in a forest in Maryland to its migration across the Gulf of Mexico to the Costa Rican rain forest and back again.
  

• How Do Birds Find Their Way? by Roma Gans - This entry in the Let's Read-and-Find-Out Science series describes what ornithologists know about migration patterns and presents some of their theories about how birds know when to fly and their different means of navigation.
  

• Red Knot: A Shorebird's Incredible Journey by Nancy Carol Willis - This amazing book follows the migration of a red knot shore bird as she makes her way north, beginning in Tierra del Fuego at the tip of South America, continuing through Brazil, along Delaware Bay and St. James Bay, and ending at the bird's arctic nesting grounds in Canada's Northwest Territories. A detailed map is included.
  

• Welcome, Brown Bird by Mary Lyn Ray - In this story, two boys living in different countries share a common desire to protect the small brown wood thrush that migrates between their homes each year.
  

• Flight of the Golden Plover: The Amazing Migration Between Hawaii and Alaska by Debbie S. Miller - Learn about the animals of Hawaii and Alaska as the transoceanic trek of the Pacific Golden Plover is described. This one is accompanied by beautiful, realistic watercolors.
  

• The Flight of the Snow Geese by Deborah King - This book follows a group of snow geese from their breeding grounds in the far north to New Mexico. The text is poetic and would make a terrific read aloud.
  

• The Far-Flung Adventures of Homer the Hummer by Cynthia Furlong Reynolds - This fictional account of the migration of a ruby-throated hummingbird describes Homer's flight from the Costa Rican cloud forest to the eastern United States.
  

Finally, here are some poems touching on the theme of migration to round out your study. I have included the first few lines of each, along with a reference to the book where you can find the poems in their entirety.

• Migration by Georgia Heard, in Creatures of Earth, Sea, and Sky.


In the winter, we say good-bye
to the feathered compasses in the sky.



• Canada Goose by Marilyn Singer, in Turtle in July.


Did I tell you?
I should tell you
Going home
We're going home
Are you coming?



• The Monarch Butterfly by Douglas Florian, in insectlopedia.


He is a monarch.
He is a king.
He flies great migrations.
Past nations he wings.

Those Amazing Animals!

Studying animal adaptations is a part of the elementary science curriculum in VA in both second and third grade. Students study hibernation, migration, camouflage and more. One of the things that kids find most fascinating (teachers too!) are the interesting and outrageous way some animals take the art of adaptation to the extreme. The books listed below are wonderful resources for examining the many ways animals adapt to their environments.

• What Do You Do With a Tail Like This? written by Robin Page and illustrated by Steve Jenkins - Beautifully illustrated with cut paper collage, this book explores the amazing things animals can do with their eyes, ears, noses, mouth, feet and tails.

• What Do You Do When Someone Wants to Eat You? by Steve Jenkins - This book, also illustrated with Jenkins' signature cut paper collages, describes how various animals, including an octopus, a bombadier beetle, a puff adder, and a gliding frog, escape danger.

• Exploding Ants: Amazing Facts About How Animals Adapt by Joanne Settle - Who can resist a book with chapter titles like fooled ya, invasion of the body snatchers, and sucking blood? Learn about frogs that use their eyeballs to help swallow their food, caterpillars that look like animal droppings, worms that live in a dog's nose mucus, and many other approaches to survival.

• Extreme Animals: The Toughest Creatures on Earth by Nicola Davies - On double-page spreads with cartoon illustrations, students can learn about the ways in which animals survive in some of the most inhospitable places on Earth.

• Picture Window Books has two terrific nonfiction series. The first, called Animal Wise, was awarded a Distinguished Achievement Award from the Association of Educational Publishers. Written by Patricia Stockland and published in 2005, this series includes the following titles:
• Pointy, Long, or Round: A Book About Animal Shapes
• Red Eyes or Blue Feathers: A Book About Animal Colors
• Sand, Leaf, or Coral Reef: A Book About Animal Habitats
• Strange Dances and Long Flights: A Book About Animal Behaviors
• Stripes, Spots, or Diamonds: A Book About Animal Patterns
• Swing, Slither, or Swim: A Book About Animal Movement

The second is called Animal Extremes. Written by Michael Dahl and published in 2006, this series includes the following titles:

• Cold, Colder, Coldest: Animals That Adapt to Cold Weather
• Deep, Deeper, Deepest: Animals That Go to Great Depths
• Fast, Faster, Fastest: Animals That Move at Great Speeds
• High, Higher, Highest: Animals That Go to Great Heights
• Hot, Hotter, Hottest: Animals That Adapt to Great Heat
• Old, Older, Oldest: Animals That Live Long Lives


• Claws, Coats and Camouflage by Susan Goodman - Using photographs and questions to get kids thinking scientifically, this informative text looks at all the different adaptations animals use to adapt to their surroundings, stay safe, get food, and reproduce.

• Fur, Feathers and Flippers: How Animals Live Where They Do by Patricia Lauber - This photo-essay explores the seas of Antarctica, the grasslands of East Africa, the forests of New England, the desert of the southwestern U.S., and the tundra of the Far North while showing how animals adapt to living in these places.
  

The books on this list provide a good introduction to a myriad of adaptations. Since the topics of migration, hibernation and camouflage are topics unto themselves, they will be tackled in later posts.

Graphic Poetry

I am scouring the web today, looking for great new resources for my secondary teachers. I have six in history (social studies), one English, one Spanish, and one double majoring in Physics and Latin. I seem to be striking it rich in English today. Here's another great site.

What do you get when you combine the feel of comic strip panels with photographs and text that floats among the images? Absolutely amazing, thoughtful and thought-provoking graphic poetry. Do visit and ponder the work of W. C. Pelon.

Free Stories and Poems at Lit2Go

I found Lit2Go today while searching iTunes for some Jane Austen. Lit2Go is a free online collection of stories and poems in MP3 (audiobook) format. You can visit the web site and browse by author or title or search the database. You can also go directly to iTunes and download from the audiobook library.

Files are available for grades K-12. You will also find a few selections in Spanish. At the primary level you will find nursery rhymes and poems. In upper elementary grades you will find Alice in Wonderland (5th), The Secret Garden (4th), plus fables and fairy tales. At the high school level you will find many of the "traditional" classics, as well as some odd titles, such as Deductive Logic, The History of Modern Mathematics and Spherical Trigonometry. Phew! I love math, but I'd need to see it when I read it. The narrators are, for the most part, pleasant and easy to listen to, though a few read a bit quickly. I listened to the beginning of Beowulf, but had a hard time following without the text in front of me.

I can see great promise for some of these files in the classroom. For example, the page for A Was An Apple Pie has links to the MP3 file, a downloadable PDF of the text, and a list of the related Sunshine State Standards. Even though these are FL curriculum standards, they do map pretty closely to the language arts/English standards in most states.

I will point out one major problem I noted in looking at the grade level audio files. In this day and age, how could developers think it was appropriate to provide resources for the nursery rhyme Ten Little Indians? Perhaps I'm naive, but I'd like to believe that teachers know better than to use this degrading piece in their classrooms. Given the fact that these materials are available on the web and likely to be used by teachers all over the country (world?), I would like to see more attention given to the inclusion of materials appropriate for ALL children, regardless of their race, gender, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, etc. This means the exclusion of time-honored favorites that do nothing more than perpetuate unacceptable stereotypes.

Okay, I've shared my thoughts. Take a look at these new resources and let me know what you think.

Poetry Friday - End of Summer

After spending the day at the beach yesterday, wondering where summer had gone, I thought it appropriate to end with this poem by Rachel Hadas.

The End of Summer
by Rachel Hadas

Sweet smell of phlox drifting across the lawn—
an early warning of the end of summer.
August is fading fast, and by September
the little purple flowers will all be gone.

Season, project, and vacation done.
One more year in everybody’s life.
Add a notch to the old hunting knife
Time keeps testing with a horny thumb.

Read the rest of the poem here.

The round up today is being hosted at Mentor Texts, Read Alouds & More. Stop by and check out all the great poetry. If you want even more, you can take in the results of the most recent poetry stretch. Here's wishing you all a great Poetry Friday and happy end to summer.

Poetry Stretch Results - List Poems

List poems seemed to inspire lots of folks to write this week. Here are some of the pieces.

Heather at 20's Going on Spinster with Cats shares the poem Let Me Hug You.

Cloudscome shares her To Do List over at a wrung sponge.

Bonnie Jacobs shares an untitled poem over at Words From a Wordsmith.

Over at Little Cool Shallows, Cath shares Comm: ment.

Terrell at Alone on a Limb pays homage to some of his favorite bloggers with It's a Stretch.

Elaine at Wild Rose Reader has a fun little list poem entitled Backpack.

I wrote a list poem about my Mom.

I would also like to point you to some very fine lunes written by Elaine at Wild Rose Reader. She may be a week behind, but these pieces were worth the wait.

Another List Poem

Since this week's stretch was a list poem, and since I've been writing to do lists and thinking this way in recent days, here's another list poem. I think it's much better than my last.

She
She talks to herself while washing the dishes.
     And thinks we don't hear her.
She laughs at my jokes.
She talks loudly in church.
     Even when she means to whisper.
She likes to gossip.
     And gets all the good dirt.
She take time to write notes.
     And puts newspaper clippings inside.
She forgets what she's saying mid-sentence.
     And she laughs at herself.
She gives the greatest hugs.
She used to be tall.
     But now she's shrinking.
She came to see me defend my dissertation.
     And smiled through it all.
She bakes the best Christmas cookies.
     And sends them in a care package every year.
She tells the greatest stories.
She keeps a photo of her mother and me on her dresser.
She secretly sends money.
     And tells me to spend it on myself.
She is fond of odd phrases and sayings.
If she read this she'd say
     "Who is She? The cat's mother?"
She is my mom.

Lots of folks are playing this week. Do you want to join them? Post your creation(s) on your blog and then leave a link in the comments. A bit later this week, I'll link them all here.

Monday Poetry Stretch - List Poem

I read Leaves of Grass in college and fell in love with Whitman. In much of this work, Whitman uses lists. Since I've been re-reading some of these poems, list poems have been on my mind. Therefore, today's poetry stretch takes the form of the list poem.

A list poem can take many forms. It could be a list of:

• things or events
• a person's traits or qualities (also called a blazon)
• a series of events or activities

List poems can any length, rhymed or unrhymed.
(Adapted from The Teachers & Writers Handbook of Poetic Forms.)

Bruce Lansky has some ideas for encouraging kids to write list poems. You can try writing an instant list poem or read these instructive notes. However, the best example I've read lately is the amazing piece by Sara Lewis Holmes entitled 39 Reasons to Write.

Here is the list poem I wrote this morning.

The Chorus of Dawn
It begins with the
TAP, TAP, TAP
of the woodpecker raising
the conductor's baton and
calling all to life.

Next comes the
RUSTLE, RUSTLE, RUSTLE
of the leaves,
as scurrying squirrels begin
their daily quest for food.

They are joined by the
WHISTLE, WHISTLE, WHISTLE
of myriad songbirds
calling for a mate.

The sound crescendos
but is broken by the noisy
BARK, BARK, BARK
of the neighborhood dogs,
calling out to one another.

Silence again.

The calm is broken by the
SHUSH, SHUSH, SHUSH
of the wind through the trees,
ushering in a new kind of music.

It is followed by the
PLOP, PLOP, PLOP
of the cooling rain,
bringing water to the
thirsty ground.

I can hear the flowers
SIGH, SIGH, SIGH
and
SLURP, SLURP, SLURP
as they drink until full.

I open my eyes to a new day,
already revealed in
morning song.

So, do you want to play? What kind of list poem will you write? Post your creation(s) on your blog and then leave a link in the comments. Once we have some poems, I'll link them all here.

Letter to My Mom

In a few short days I'll be celebrating another birthday. These have always been low-key affairs in my life, largely because I hate parties. Don't get me wrong, there are times when I love to be center of attention, but my birthday is not one of those occasions.

My parents threw me a birthday party just before I entered first grade. It was a miserable experience, so I made my family promise never to have one again. They made good on their promise. In the years that followed, my birthday was happily spent back-to-school shopping and lunching with my Mom. Sometimes we ate dinner out, and other times we just did something simple at home. These days were pure heaven.

When I became a teenager we still kept to this tradition, though my outlook on the day changed. As an adopted child, my birthday became a private celebration of family. I found myself spending a great deal of time reflecting on the amazing people who took me in and made me their own. I often felt that my birthday should be about celebrating their gift to me, though I never told them this. I still feel this way today, and each year try to find some way to tell them all how amazing they are.

When I was home a few weeks ago, my mother called me Fredericka, something she does when she thinks I'm acting like my Dad. It happens quite often, actually. She said, "Not one of you kids are anything like me. You're all like your father." I've thought about this a lot since then, and know without a doubt that she is wrong. I am like her in ways she'll never know.

In response to her statement, I have decided that this year I will celebrate my Mom. Since she will be in the hospital having surgery on my day, I want to share my thoughts a bit early.

Dear Mom,
You say I'm nothing like you,
but no words are
farther from the truth.
Because of you I know the
meaning of love,
the tenderness of a kiss,
and the joy of a hug.
From you I've learned
the gift of forgiveness,
the value of charity,
and the meaning of faith.
Because of your example
I am
generous in spirit,
kind of heart,
and accepting of others.
Like you I am quick with a smile,
fond of laughter,
and a friend to all I meet.
I share your love of children,
but wish I had your patience.
I know you see Dad in me,
but you're there too.
You may not see it,
but I hope others do,
for I see you
in the best parts of me.
Love,
Tricia

Poetry Friday - Tea

I love all things related to tea. Even though I did not have a tea set as a child and therefore, did not throw tea parties, the thought of this one makes me smile. Tudor Jenks has described the very party I might have thrown.

Small and Early
by Tudor Jenks

When Dorothy and I took tea, we sat upon the floor;
No matter how much tea I drank, she always gave me more;
Our table was the scarlet box in which her tea-set came;
Our guests, an armless one-eyed doll, a wooden horse gone lame.
She poured out nothing, very fast,—the tea-pot tipped on high,—
And in the bowl found sugar lumps unseen by my dull eye.
She added rich (pretended) cream—it seemed a wilful waste,
For though she overflowed the cup, it did not change the taste.
She asked, “Take milk?” or “Sugar?” and though I answered, “No,”
She put them in, and told me that I “must take it so!”
She ’d say “Another cup, Papa?” and I, “No, thank you, Ma’am,”
But then I had to take it—her courtesy was sham.
Still, being neither green, nor black, nor English-breakfast tea,
It did not give her guests the “nerves”—whatever those may be.
Though often I upset my cup, she only minded when
I would mistake the empty cups for those she ’d filled again.
She tasted my cup gingerly, for fear I ’d burn my tongue;
Indeed, she really hurt my pride—she made me feel so young.
I must have drunk some two score cups, and Dorothy sixteen,
Allowing only needful time to pour them, in between.
We stirred with massive pewter spoons, and sipped in courtly ease,
With all the ceremony of the stately Japanese.
At length she put the cups away. “Goodnight, Papa,” she said;
And I went to a real tea, and Dorothy to bed.

This poem comes from An American Anthology.

John Mutford is hosting the round up this week is at The Book Mine Set. Please stop by and check out all the great posts. Happy poetry Friday, all!

On Scrabble and Poetry

I have been playing Scrabble ever since I was a little girl. When I was young I played with my Mom and grandmother. My grandmother always won, but she also cheated. We all knew it, but no one was ever brave enough to dispute her invented words or creative arithmetic. Whenever I visit with my Mom now, we play at least one or two games every night. For a while, the games were very one-sided. (I hate to lose and for several years, I rarely lost. I'm sure I was no fun to play with!) Now that my Mom has become a Jumble expert, I lose as often as I win.

Why write about Scrabble and poetry? Lately, I see a lot of connections between the two, particularly when the right words just don't come. At least once during every Scrabble game I find a word in my tile rack that I can't let go of. That one word is all I see no matter how I rearrange the letters. Usually this occurs when there is simply no place to position it on the board. It seems to take forever to find another to play when that one pesky word is burned in my brain. The same thing happens when I write poetry. Sometimes I cannot find just the right word to express the image I want to convey, yet once I've chosen a word--the wrong word--I can't get past it. Does this happen to you?

The other day I was reading the dictionary (yes, you heard me) when my husband asked what I was doing. "Searching for new words," I said. I have now started a list of words with interesting meanings and sounds. Perhaps I should take this new obsession even farther and emulate Max in Max's Words, cutting words from newspapers and magazines and sorting them into categories. After all, this will not only leave me with an expanded pool of words for poems, but also a collection of new words for Scrabble.

Poetry Stretch Results - Centos and Lunes

First, last week's form, the cento, was particularly challenging. However, two folks recently posted centos that are superb. Please do take some time to read them.

Jules at Seven Imp offered up a cento for Eisha's birthday. Instead of lines from other poems, her cento is composed entirely of lines from songs.

The fabulously talented Elaine over at Wild Rose Reader wrote a cento on writing. It's beautifully done and fully captures the essence of writing a rough draft.

This week's form seems to have inspired a number of bloggers. Here are the folks who took up the challenge of writing a lune. You can read the rules here.

Terrell at Alone on a Limb shares several lunes accompanied by photos.

Joan at Daddy's Roses also shares several inspired poems. As a former middle school science teacher, I relate particularly well to the one about adolescent angst.

MotherReader shares a lune about the end of summer.

Still want to play? Try your hand at writing a few lunes and then leave me a comment. I'll post a link to your efforts here.

Monday Department Retreat

The first Monday back before the fall semester is always reserved for a department retreat. We generally meet in our conference room for several hours before sharing a potluck lunch and celebrating the start of the new year.

This year we tried a new location for our retreat, escaping to the eastern shore. When we arrived, we took a quick walk on the beach. Here are some of the things we saw.








The water was warm, the shells plentiful, and the number of blue crabs washed up on the sand was surprising. After our time on this wild and nearly deserted beach, we went inside for lunch and then got down to business. Inspired by our surroundings, we actually accomplished quite a bit. It was a good day.

Monday Poetry Stretch - Lune

One can find many variations on haiku these days. Often these forms attempt to find a syllabic pattern that is more appropriate to English than Japanese. Today's poetry stretch takes the form of one of these variations in the lune.

The lune is a haiku variation invented and named by poet Robert Kelly. The lune, so called because of how the right edge is bowed like a crescent moon, is a thirteen syllable form arranged in three lines of 5 / 3/ 5 respectively.
(Adapted from The Teachers & Writers Handbook of Poetic Forms.)

You can try your hand at writing an instant lune or read some examples by Robert Kelly here.

Here are two lunes I wrote when I woke up this morning.

Lune #1
wings beating, whirring
you float there
sipping sweet nectar

Can you guess what I was watching when I wrote this?

Lune #2
watermelon days
rush headlong
toward pencils, books, desks

I suppose none of us can escape this one. I, for one, can't wait!

So, do you want to play? What kind of lunes will you write? Post your creation(s) on your blog and then leave a link in the comments. Once we have some poems, I'll link them all here.

Poetry Friday - Morning

I was awake for several hours last night as a thunderstorm rolled through. My six year old son and nine year old dog joined me in the bed, stealing the best bits of pillow, blanket and bed while complaining loudly about the din. Their presence was a testament to the power of the storm. Once they settled in, I listened and thought. This is the poem that came out of my wakeful hours.

Morning
Fading
moon, rising sun
reveal day's beginning
joined by chorusers on the wing
Sing! Sing!

Sweet bird
friendly flower
oh visit me as the
quiet hour of dewy morn
awakes

Kelly has the round up today at Writing and Ruminating. Do drop by and take in the pieces that others have shared. Happy poetry Friday, all!

Poetry Stretch Results - Centos

It appears my second stretch was a bit of a challenge. I promise to go easy on you next week.

Only Terrell at Alone on a Limb was brave enough to give this one a try. Check out his cento entitled A Breath of Wind.

Would you like to try your own cento? Read the rules and my example here. Then leave me a comment about your poem and I'll include it on the list.