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Friday, May 1, 2015

Poems, Animals, and Animal Poems

I’m sorry to see National Poetry Month end. Mine went out with a bang, though, in a wonderful Family Literacy Night celebration at an elementary school in Green Bay, Wisconsin. Happily, the date coincided with Poem in Your Pocket Day.

What fun to see students so excited about poetry! To watch them proudly pull out and unfold their handwritten index cards. To hear them bravely recite their favorite poems.

I was able to narrow my own favorite poems down to eleven—quite an achievement, I think! I brought five copies of each to hand out in case anyone forgot theirs. I’m glad to say that I came home with only three poems and that many of the ones I handed out went to parents. I hope they’ll keep sharing.

On to May! For this Teaching Authors series, we’re writing about animals. Bobbi began with some favorite animal books.

For all of April (National Poetry Month), I wrote a haiku a day. (You can see the April archive on my blog.) I looked back through the poems and found that 13 of the 30 addressed animals, mostly birds. Here in Wisconsin, we see a lot of birds migrating through to summer homes at this time of year, so that seems logical. One thing I loved about the daily haiku practice is that this year, I noticed.

Here’s one more haiku from this morning. I can’t seem to stop!


Squirrel winds her way
from limb to limb, encumbered
mouth full of dry leaves

The Poetry Friday Roundup is at A Year of Reading, at least for now. Enjoy!

JoAnn Early Macken

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5 comments:

  1. AnonymousMay 1, 2015 at 1:02 PM

    Your haiku reminds me of some squirrels I saw yesterday on my way to work. They are quite the acrobats!

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  2. Linda BMay 1, 2015 at 1:48 PM

    JoAnn, I will have to look, but I suspect I wrote mostly about birds, too. Writing haiku made me notice things I don't think I ever would have before. I'm going to need to make a goal of more each week. I love that you added one more & caught the squirrel with leaves! Happy May!

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  3. Mary LeeMay 3, 2015 at 8:38 AM

    I agree with Linda -- writing haiku makes me look and feel more closely than other forms.

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  4. JoAnn Early MackenMay 3, 2015 at 7:36 PM

    Happy May to everyone! Summer arrived in Wisconsin for the weekend (for a change), so I've been outside soaking up inspiration from all the flowers blooming & birds passing through. I miss the daily haiku practice already--will have to sneak a few more in! Hope you're enjoying the weather, too!

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  5. Bobbi MillerMay 4, 2015 at 8:41 AM

    I love this! I love watching the squirrels in my backyard. So do my cats, probably for different reasons. Thank you for this celebration!

    ReplyDelete

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