[poetry friday] “Shades of Red” – a Poem Starter

1) Monday will begin National Poetry Month, and there will be all sorts on kidlitosphere poetry fun! I hope to feature a Poem Starter daily, with poems by lots of my favorite poets!

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.2222)   2) This week, my poem is “Shades of Red,” from my book  Flashy, Clashy, and Oh-So Splashy: Poems about Color (Poetry series) (A+ Books: Poetry)

Shades of Red

coral, tomato
crimson, and rose

those are some reds
my paintbox shows

red as a cherry
whose stem you pluck

red as a gleaming
new fire truck

red as an overblown
runny nose

these are the reds
that everyone knows!

–by Laura Purdie Salas, all rights reserved

Teachers, if you’re looking for a poetry idea and want to share a reading of this poem and a poem starter with your class, here’s the video.

Color Names_Shades of Red

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Poem Starter: Listen to the poem “Shades of Red,” by Laura Purdie Salas, and then write a poem about your favorite color. Use a crayon box or a thesaurus to help you brainstorm lots of different shades of your color, and use three different shades/names in your poem. 

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Mary Lee Hahn (did you catch her beautiful poems in this year’s March Madness Poetry?) at A Year of Reading has today’s Poetry Friday roundup – enjoy!

[poetry friday] “I Am Fog” — a Poem Starter

1) If you’re a published poet with an in-print children’s poetry collection available in a printed version, and you’re interested in having a poem used in my Poem Starter series, please see my post from Tuesday!

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2) March Madness Poetry continues, and today, voting is live on the Sweet Sixteen matchups. Only eight pairs of poems to read and vote on, and if you look closely, you’ll see some kidlitosphere friends, like Mary Lee Hahn, Renee LaTulippe, Laura Shovan, and Buffy Silverman. Read! Love! Vote!

3) This week, my poem is “I Am Fog,” from my book Seed Sower, Hat Thrower: Poems about Weather (A+ Books)
(Capstone, 2008).

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I Am Fog   

I gulp headlights
blanket bridges
seep under your skin

until slices of sun
sizzle me away

–by Laura Purdie Salas, all rights reserved

Teachers, if you’re looking for a poetry idea and want to share a reading of this poem and a poem starter with your class, here’s the video.

Alliteration

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Poem Starter: Listen to the poem “I am Fog,” by Laura Purdie Salas, and then write a poem using alliteration, where you put several words close together that start with the same consonant sound.

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Greg at Gotta Book (ahem, alliteration?) has today’s Poetry Friday roundup – enjoy!

MMP Round Two: Can My Dragon Catch a Grape Thief?

I’m in Round Two of March Madness Poetry, and my matchup is live now. Voting goes through Monday evening, 8:30 p.m. Central Time.

My “Dragon Dreams” was an interesting one to write. I was out all day Sunday doing family stuff, so I brainstormed rhyming words during my nephew’s basketball game (congratulations, Logan!) and wrote the rough draft during the Spinz + Beats drumline and color guard show! Talk about writing on the go and under any circumstances!

M.M. Socks’ grape thief is whupping my dragon’s tail right now, but, you know, that’s the beauty of this cool event. Readers choose! I hope you’ll go visit my matchup and vote for your favorite poem. And then check out all the Round Two matchups. You’ll recognize lots of folks from the kidlitosphere, and lots of fine poems from both established poets and total strangers. Long live poetry!

 

[poetry friday] “Blow It Up, Pufferfish” — My March Madness Poetry Poem

There’s a crazy poetry battle going on, and it’s March Madness Poetry, created by Ed DeCaria! I had to use the word “fickle” in my poem, and I decided to write about the shape-shifting pufferfish (aka blowfish). I’m battling it out in Round One right now, and voting ends this afternoon at 3 p.m. U.S. Central Time.

Here’s my poem:

Blow It Up, Pufferfish!

Pufferfish, thin fickle fish,
you slimly, slowly swim.
But here come
FINS and NEEDLE-GRIN!
Dinner could be…grim.

To read the rest of the poem and vote for your favorite, click here. Don’t forget to check out the rest of the tournament, too. You’ll see lots of Poetry Friday friends there:>)

Jone, librarian extraordinaire at Check It Out, has today’s Poetry Friday roundup – enjoy!

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[poetry friday] “Ordinary” — a Poem Starter

This week, my poem is “Ordinary,” a cinquain from my book Do Buses Eat Kids? Poems About School (Capstone, 2008).

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Ordinary

Pencil
Black tube hiding
Inside yellow wrapping
Leaves grey trail of letters, stories,
Magic

–by Laura Purdie Salas, all rights reserved

Teachers, if you’re looking for a poetry idea and want to share a reading of this poem and a poem starter with your class, here’s the video.

Hiding Inside

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Poem Starter: Listen to the poem “Ordinary,” by Laura Purdie Salas, and then write a poem about what you think is hiding inside an ordinary object.

Heidi, the lovely poet of My Juicy Little Universe, has today’s Poetry Friday roundup – enjoy!

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[poetry friday] “Say Yes” — a Poem Starter

I’m trying something new–poem starters!

I’ve been trying to figure out what I can offer of value to teachers and young writers, and poem starters seems to be something lots of them are looking for. So I’m going to give it a try. I’ll be trying some different options in the coming months, and once I figure out what works best, I’ll settling into a nice routine (I hope!) and also be able to start featuring poems by other poets!

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This week, my poem is “Say Yes,” from A Fuzzy-Fast Blur: Poems about Pets (A+ Books: Poetry).

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Say Yes
You said no to the orca
Our bathtub’s too small
And no to the stallion
He needs his own stall

You said no to the spider
Those long hairy legs!
And no to the tortoise
She digs to lay eggs

You said no to the tiger
He eats bloody meat
And no to the skunk
She smells like old feet!

But this elephant’s perfect!
He’s easy to groom
I’ll clean up his mess
He can live in my room…

Pleeeeeeeeeaaaaaase?
–by Laura Purdie Salas, all rights reserved

Teachers, if you’re looking for a poetry idea and want to share a reading of this poem and a poem starter with your class, here’s the video. By the way, have I mentioned that I stink at video? But I’m hoping to get better!

Unusual Pet

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..Julie Poem

Poem Starter: Listen to the poem “Say Yes,” by Laura Purdie Salas, and then write a poem about an unusual pet you would like to have.

Julie at The Drift Record has today’s Poetry Friday roundup – enjoy!

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[Good News] “Winter Window”

I’m excited to have a poem in Cricket Magazine. It’s one I wrote a number of years ago, back when we had old double-paned windows with bad seals. Every winter, the hot air from the house would meet the cold air outside and, between the two panes, condense into moisture, freeze into frost particles and make the most beautiful designs. We finally bit the bullet and replaced all our windows 2 years ago. I don’t miss the draughtiness of the old windows, but I do miss the feather-fine paintings by Jack Frost! Here’s the poem.

It was great to get my contributor copies–I want to keep submitting poems to magazines in 2013, but it’s hard staying on top of that. So it’s motivating to hold the results in my hands!

[My Writing Life] I’m In the Journal of Children’s Literature!

I don’t think I ever had a chance to share this last fall. The NCTE‘s Journal of Children’s Literature featured one of my poems!

I was so excited that they wanted to share a poem from BookSpeak!

Part of what made it even more pleasing was that the other poem shared in that issue was by U.S. Children’s Poet Laureate, J. Patrick Lewis! It’s from Pat’s brand new book, When Thunder Comes: Poems for Civil Rights Leaders (Chronicle, 2012). That’s a fantastic, powerful book, and I’ll share a poem from it on a Poetry Friday after I work through the CYBILS Finalists.

Just knowing that my poem had the privilege of being put in front of so many educators was such a blast–and in such excellent company, too!

[Poetry Play] A Careerhyme Challenge

I miss taking part in poetry challenges and games, and I’m going to try to do better in 2013. At David Harrison’s blog, J. Pat Lewis has a Careerhymes challenge up. Go read the hysterical examples and try your own! Here’s mine:

Why You Can Never Reach a Teacher
If you need to chat with teacher,
Do not call; you’ll never reach her.
She’s sparking thoughts, engaging kids.
Ignoring parents who’ve flipped their lids.
Email/voicemail never finds
the teacher busy shaping minds.
–Laura Purdie Salas, all rights reserved

P.S. There are so many wonderful male teachers, too, but “reach him” doesn’t rhyme with “teacher.” Sorry:>)

[Poetry Friday] Icicles, Cold and Waiting (by Laura Purdie Salas)

I’m sharing a poem today on the theme of light. Recent news events have been so sad and scary. I sometimes feel guilty that I don’t follow them more closely, but I find my best way to combat them, to try to change the world, is by focusing on the light. By finding joy, one friend, one poem, one kindness to a stranger at a time. When today’s Poetry Friday host, Heidi Mordhorst at My Juicy Little Universe, invited me to post a poem about light, I decided to do a take-off on a triolet. I thought about icicles–I love them, and I think they’re gorgeous. But, really, they are kind of empty and alone. It’s the play of light and colors upon them, from other sources, that give them their beauty. (Photo by Steven Pavlov)

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Icicles, Cold and Waiting

The roof drips daggers—icy, clear,
dark, shadowed stories devoid of light.
They long for dazzling points of cheer.
The roof drips daggers—icy, clear.
Candles, stars greet newborn year.
Icy blades beg, “Make me bright!”
The roof drips daggers—icy, clear, 
with points turned stories, spilling light.
–Laura Purdie Salas, all rights reserved

Happy Holidays! And don’t forget to check out the Poetry Friday roundup!