Crocus Poems: Variations on a Theme

Sometimes, I like to write different types of poems on the same subject. Today, my subject is crocuses. I posted three of these poems previously at Wild Rose Reader--the acrostic, haiku, and tanka. I just wrote rough drafts of the cinquain and mask poems this morning.

Acrostic

Coming up, I’m coming up,
Reaching through the softening soil, poking my petals
Out of the earth,
Collecting sunlight in my purple cup.
Up, I’m coming up.
Spring is on the way!

Haiku

Look! A starting line
of crocuses ready
to sprint into spring

Tanka (3/5/3/5/5)

Crocuses
pierce the softening
soil, push up
purple periscopes,
search for spring’s warm face.

Cinquain (Rough Draft)

Crocus
Can’t wait for spring,
Pokes its purple head out
Of the ground. Showers in sunshine
All day.


Crocus Mask Poem (Rough Draft)

I poked my head up.
What I found:
A snow quilt
Covering the ground.
Still,
I think I’ll stick around.

********************

At Blue Rose Girls, I have Silkworm Cocoon & Pupa Poems: Variations on a Theme.

The Poetry Friday Roundup is at A Year of Reading.

Early Drafts of Two End-of Winter Poems

I write a lot of poetry. I've completed several poetry collections. Yet, I rarely submit my manuscripts to publishers. Why is that? I'm one of those writers who thinks she's never finished with a poem...who thinks she can always make a poem better. It's a good thing I don't have to support myself with my writing. Then again, maybe I'd send out more of my work if I needed money!

What I like about having a blog is being able to post rough drafts of poems...or poems that haven't been polished yet.

Here are two end-of-winter poems I began work on this week. The first one was inspired by a grimy patch of snow in my front yard.

In Our Yard

Winter left behind…
one patch of snow,
littered with leaves
and crusted with grime.
It’s only time
before it melts into the past.
It will not last.
Spring arrived here yesterday
and frightened old Jack Frost away.

Untitled

Winter’s fading fast.
Winter’s tuckered out.
It packed its bags. It’s leaving town.
It heard Spring’s boist’rous shout:
“Make way for me, old man…
And take your ice and snow.
Now it’s my turn to rule the land…
And time for you to go.”

**********

At Blue Rose Girls, I have an original list poem titled Things to Do If You Are the Ocean.

At Political Verses, you'll find Scott and Dot--a feminist nursery rhyme written by J.Patrick Lewis.

The Poetry Friday Roundup is over at A Wrung Sponge.

An Original End-of-Winter Poem

It certainly doesn’t feel like spring is nearly here. Today, it’s gray and damp and cold around these parts. Still, I hold out hope the season will arrive before the end of April!!!

Here’s an end-of-winter poem that I wrote a couple of weeks ago. I don’t have a title for it yet.

Frozen earth thaws,
Pond ice recedes,
Icicles weep,
Snowmen bleed
As mountain brooks begin to sing.
Winter’s melting into spring!

********************

The Poetry Friday Roundup is at Liz in Ink.

At Blue Rose Girls, I have an original cinquain.

Untitled Winter Sun Poem

Sun sears a winter sky
sets it afire
flares in the west
before it settles down
for the night

A Winter Poetry Tidbit

bent low
with snow
bushes bow to winter

Shadows on Snow: Revisiting an Old Poem

Years ago I wrote the following haiku. It was included in the children’s book Robert’s Snowflakes.

A snowman shadow
paints himself in blue upon
a cold white canvas.

Note: I had originally written the poem about a tree—not a snowman.

Yesterday, I was looking down from my bedroom window at shadows on the snow in my yard. I opened a window and shot some pictures. Then I decided to re-envision the snowman haiku as a “tree” poem once again. I've posted my first draft of the poem below.

a pine
dips its bristles
in a bowl of sky
brushes blue
on a winter white canvas
paints a self portrait

Here are links to some of the other poetry & pictures posts I’ve done recently:
It Snowed and Snowed: An Original Poem
It’s Snowing Again!: An Original Poem
An Icicle Shape Poem
To Catch a Setting Sun: Rough Draft of an Original Poem
A Snowstorm Poem Three Ways

********************

The Poetry Friday Roundup is at Dori Reads.

It Snowed and Snowed: An Original Poem

Well...the storms just keep on a comin' and a comin' this winter. I don't get out much these days. Yesterday, it snowed again. Today we had another storm, which started out as an ice storm...then it changed to rain...and then to snow. I think it will be June before all the white stuff around here melts!

Being snowbound has had a bright side for me though. I've be taking lots of pictures of snow and icicles and sunsets and have been inspired to write poetry again. That's a relief because I've had writer's block for months.

Here are some pictures that I took this morning and a poem that I wrote this afternoon:




It Snowed and Snowed

It snowed all day.
It snowed all night.
It snowed and snowed.
Two feet of white
covered everything in sight.
Our yard,
our deck,
our walk,
the road
don’t look the same
because it snowed...
and snowed
and snowed
and snowed
and snowed.
I dress up in my winter wear
and step out in the frosty air.
I look around and what I see
is a marshmallow world
waiting for me!

Here are links to some of the other poems I've written recently:

It's Snowing Again!

An Icicle Shape Poem

To Catch a Setting Sun

A Snowstorm Poem Three Ways

It's Snowing Again!: An Original Poem

Well, we had yet another big snowstorm here yesterday! There is NO place to put any more shoveled snow. Here’s the first draft of a “snow” poem that I was inspired to write this week.

It’s Snowing Again!

It’s snowing again.
It’s blowing again.
It’s snowing and blowing.
The traffic is slowing.
The drifts keep on growing and growing and growing.
It just keeps on snowing
and snowing and snowing.
I don’t think it’s
EVER
going
to end.

I'm doing the Poetry Friday Roundup at Wild Rose Reader this week.

NOTE: Click here for the link to my ROUNDUP post.

A Snowstorm Poem Three Ways

I'm living in a world of white. We've had a lot of snow here recently. I took these pictures during our snow/rain/sleet storm on Tuesday and this morning.

I was inspired to write a poem about the snow/a snowstorm on Wednesday. Then I remembered the beginning of a snowstorm poem that I had written decades ago. I composed a new poem in my head using what I could recall of the old poem while I was taking a shower that morning. Later, I looked through my folders and found Lion in Winter, the poem that I had written so many years ago. In that poem, I compared a winter storm to the king of beasts. Here it is:

Lion in Winter

The winter storm will

rage and roar,

scratch its cold claws on the door,

race around on frosty feet,

snap at autos in the street,

shake its snowy mane and growl--

A silver lion on the prowl

that bites your face with bitter chill

and preys upon the land until

the last of autumn's blazing gold

is quelled beneath its icy hold.

And here is the poem that I wrote on Wednesday morning:

This Winter Storm (I)

This winter storm will rage a roar,
Scratch its cold claws on our door,
Race around on frosty feet,
Howl at autos in the street,
Prowl around outside all day.
I’ll have to stay inside and play.

But I won’t have to go to school.
This winter storm is REALLY cool!

Question: Which version of my snow poem do you like better?

***************

It's snowing here again today...so I decided to write another version of This Winter Storm.

This Winter Storm (II)

This winter storm will rage and roar,
Pile up snow drifts by our door,
Howl and growl with all its might,
Bury everything in white,
Bend the branches of our trees,
Snap electric lines with ease,
Slow car traffic,
Close all schools.
Hip, hip, hooray!
This snowstorm rules!!!

********************

Tara has the Poetry Friday Roundup at A Teaching Life.

At Blue Rose Girls, I have an original fairy tale poem titled For Sale.

APPLE TREE: An Original Acrostic

I thought I’d attempt a two-word acrostic for my unpublished poetry collection Spring into Words: A Season in Acrostics. The two-word acrostic, Apple Tree, is also a mask poem.

I chose to post Apple Tree today for my mother. Last year, we had to have the apple tree in her backyard cut down. That made her sad because my father and her father had planted the tree there many years ago.


A cloud of
Pink blossoms rests in my branches.
Petals, like flakes of fallen snow,
Litter the
Earth below me. My new leaves flaunt their green.

Thousands of honeybees come to visit, flit
Round me, sip my nectar, powder their legs with my pollen.
Every year it’s the same when spring arrives in the orchard.
Every year I burst into bloom and buzz with life.



Note: I’d like to thank all of you who left kind words for my mother and me at my Poetry Friday posting on May 7th. This past week has been a bit easier than the previous week. My mom had a good Mother’s Day—with lots of visitors. She’s going through a period of adjustment now—as is our family. Fortunately, I’m not far from the facility where my mother is now living so I can visit with her often.

********************

Jama has the Poetry Friday Roundup at Alphabet Soup.

Spring Sings with Yellow: Two Original Poems

I was trying to figure out what my poetry post would be today. I’ve been really busy lately with a couple of writing projects, making arrangements for our reading council’s spring dinner meeting in mid May, and with plans for my daughter’s upcoming bridal shower and her wedding this summer.

I went looking through my poetry manuscripts to see if I could find a “bright” spring poem. It’s really gray and chilly where I live today. Spring seems to be in hiding…again. I decided to post a poem that would brighten my day. I selected POLLEN from my unpublished collection Spring into Words: A Season in Acrostics. Reading POLLEN inspired to me to write another “yellow” poem for the season. My new “yellow” poem is still in its rough draft stage.

Powder

Of life. Yellow…

Like lantern light,

Like butter on bread, like the yolk of an

Egg, like a nugget of gold…or a

New star born of cosmic dust.

Spring sings with yellow—
Daffodils trumpet the color in a world growing green
Forsythia bushes explode into golden clouds
Dandelions light our lawn like little suns
Daisies flaunt their pollen-powdered faces…
Everywhere I look
Yellow is singing out its bright song.

MUD: An Original Acrostic for Spring

I'm posting a little late again today. I have lots of things on my list of things to do lately!

Here is another apoem from my unpublished collection Spring into Words: A Season in Acrsotics:

**********

Messy, mushy, mucky

Ucky, oozy, wonderful, wet

Dark chocolate dirt perfect for pie making

**********

Here's a picture of my daughter's Yellow Lab Jack. Jack LOVES mud!!!

Jack says:

Rolling in mud is the bestest fun there is!

I don't know about you--but I LOVED making mud pies when I was little.

SHOWERS: An Original Acrostic for Spring

My contribution for the 21st day of National Poetry Month is Showers, a poem from my unpublished collection Spring into Words: A Season in Acrostics.

Softly, raindrops come to call. Can you
Hear them gently tap-tapping
On the
Windowpane, on the roof with an
Even, steady beat…
Repeating the song that April loves to
Sing?

Poetry Books about Winter

It's still winter--that's for sure. Here are some short reviews of poetry books about winter activities and winter weather...in case you're looking for some poems about the coldest season to share with children.

Winter Eyes
Written & illustrated by Douglas Florian
Greenwillow, 1999

Winter Eyes is one of my favorite Douglas Florian books. It was also a poetry favorite in my elementary school library. The collection contains twenty-eight poems about all kinds of wintertime subjects—sledding, icicles, ice fishing, animal tracks in the snow, sugaring time, ice skating, animals in underground burrows, and cabin fever. It includes concrete and list poems. Most of the poems are short, rhyming, rhythmic..

The first poem in the book, Winter Eyes, begins this way:

Look at winter
With winter eyes,
As smoke curls from rooftops
To clear cobalt skies.


In The Winter Sun, Florian personifies the star of our solar system. The sun’s “a grumpy guy” who “doesn’t speak.”

He hovers near the naked trees,
His blanket from the sky’s big freeze,
And barely dares to lift his head
Before he’s ordered back to bed.

Winter Eyes is a poetry book that's fun reading from cover to cover.

Winter: An Alphabet Acrostic
Written by Steven Schnur
Illustrated by Leslie Evans

This is the last in Schnur’s series of seasonal acrostic books. Both Schnur's poems and Evans' hand-colored linoleum block print illustrations evoke the chill of winter out of doors and the warmth and coziness of sitting by a fire or snuggling on a couch under a blanket indoors in winter. The book opens with a poem about the beginning of a new day:

At dawn, a thick
White frost covers the lawn
As the steaming
Kettle whistles
Everyone up.

Outside it’s C-O-L-D!

Crystals
Of ice as delicate as
Lace ring the
Duck pond.

The poems gives readers a good overview of the winter season.There are acrostics about deer in an orchard, a flurry of snowflakes, a father gathering kindling, hibernating animals, pine trees in moonlight, ice skating, and boiling vats of maple sap. The collection closes with a few poems about the end of winter and coming of spring.

You can view three of the interior illustrations from the book here.

Winter Poems

Selected by Barbara Rogasky

Illustrated by Trina Schart Hyman

You can read my 2007 review of Winter Poems here: POETRY FRIDAY: Winter in Poems & Paintings

Snow, Snow: Winter Poems for Children
Written by Jane Yolen
Photographs by Jason Stemple

Pictures of snow that her son Jason Stemple took in Colorado served as Yolen’s inspiration for the thirteen poems in this book. The collection begins with the poem What’s Left of Fall and a picture of fallen leaves covered with snow crystals. Here are the first six lines of the poem:

Crisp leaf litter
Under snowy glitter;

Crumpled and brown
Letters thrown down;

The last bit of shade
From autumn’s parade

Subjects of other poems in the book include a skiing, snow on the trees, a snowmobile, footprints in the snow, and a river wrapped in “ermine robes.”

Snow, Snow closes with A Cold Finger—the finger being the “mittenless” branch of a tree that is pointing the way toward spring.

Once Upon Ice and Other Frozen Poems
Selected by Jane Yolen
Photographs by Jason Stemple

For this anthology, Jane Yolen asked a number of poets “to look at Jason Stemple’s eerily wonderful photographs of ice formations and write whatever the photos inspired." Poets whose works you’ll find in this book include Kathi Appelt, X. J. Kennedy, Mary Ann Hoberman, Ann Turner, Lee Bennett Hopkins, J. Patrick Lewis, Nancy Willard, and Jane Yolen. The poems are written in a variety of styles. Some are filled with imagery; some are rhythmic and rhyming—like Mary Ann Hoberman’s poem Ice Cycle:

I’ve always thought it rather nice
That water freezes into ice.
I’m also pleased that it is true
That ice melts back to water too.
But even so I find it strange
The way that ice and water change
And how a single water drop
Can fathom when it’s time to stop
Its downward drip and go ahead
And start an icicle instead.

Jason Stemple's photographs are sure to send chills down readers' spines. The book is a lovely pairing of poetry and pictures.

********************

At Political Verses, I have a kind of anti-valentine poem titled Look at the Man: A Poem Explaining Why Women with Mates Gain Weight.

At Blue Rose Girls, I have a humorous poem by Ogden Nash titled Common Cold.

Lee Wind has the Poetry Friday Roundup at I’m Here. I’m Queer. What the Hell Do I Read?

Winter Wonderland

I've been suffering from an advanced case of writer's block in recent weeks. I haven't been able to focus on much of anything--on writing original poems or writing book reviews for this blog. Yesterday, as I was driving to my mother's house, snow was falling gently. As soon as flakes touched the pavement, they melted. I was inspired. I made up a rough draft of a poem in my head. I forgot to write it down when I returned home. It wasn't a great poem--but it felt good to have my creative juices flowing again.

The poem went something like this:

Snowflakes falling like fairy dust...

I turn my face to the sky,

Cold white kisses

Melting on my cheeks

I took the photographs posted here in December.

I awoke one morning to find a wonderland of white

outside my bedroom window--

so I got my camera and took some pictures.

I may be old--

but I still like winter.

I love to look at the beauty of new-fallen snow.

***************

Speaking of snow and poetry--

I often shared Dorothy Aldis's poem

On a Snowy Day

with my elementary students.

I liked the imagery she used in it:

Fence posts wearing marsmallow hats...

Bushes in nightgowns kneeling down to pray...

Trees spreading out snowy skirts

I'd also recite Mary Louise Allen's poem First Snow.

Here are the first two lines:

Snow makes whiteness where it falls.

The bushes look like popcorn balls.

Two of my favorite snow poems are mask poems

in which snow speaks to us:

The Snowflake

by Walter de la Mare

Here's how it begins:

Before I melt,

Come look at me!

This lovely icy filigree!

Of a great forest

In one night

I make a wildreness of white...

and

a poem by Karla Kuskin that ends:

I can make anything

Everything

Beautiful.

What I touch,

Where I blow,

Even a dump filled with garbage

looks lovely

After I've fallen there.

I am the snow.

I'll close this post with an original acrostic:

Wrapped

In a robe of white

Numbed with cold

The weary

Earth

Rests

********************

At Blue Rose Girls, I have Winter-Time by Robert Louis Stevenson.

Anastasia Suen has the Poetry Friday Roundup at Picture Book of the Day.

Winter Poems

We've had quite a lot of snow so far this year up in my neck of the woods. I'm in winter mode. Here are some of my original poems about the season. Many have been posted at Wild Rose Reader before.

Haiku

After the blizzard
snowmen are sprouting up
like winter wildflowers

Sleet tap-dances
on my roof, clicks its icy heels
on my windowpane

Snowflakes fluttering
from a wintry sky…a flock
of white butterflies

With his frosty feet
little mouse prints a message
in the snow: Hello!

Like stars shaken from
The sky, snowflakes whirling down
In white galaxies

A snowman shadow

paints himself in blue upon

a cold white canvas

Two Quatrains


Snow dropped by…
and here am I
catching flakes
of falling sky!


While I slumbered
Through the night
Winter turned
My whole world white.


More Winter Poems


Winter Ballet

It’s white snow,
Bright snow,
Soft-as-feathers light snow…
Tiny ballerinas there
Pirouetting through the air
With their shiny crystal shoes
In their winter dance debuts.



Pond in Winter

The meadow pond lies silent, still…
Sealed in tight by winter’s chill.
A downy quilt of fallen snow
Hides a cold, dark world below.
I wonder all the winter through:
“What do fish and turtles do?”


Winter White
(Inspired by Joyce Sidman's Red Sings from Treetops.)

Winter White
whirls in the wind,
waltzes down from clouds,
alights with feathered feet.
It pillows the ground,
muffling the sound of footsteps
on the walk.
Winter White
wraps the rhododendron
in a fluffy shawl,
lays a feathered quilt
over the frozen pond.
Winter White
etches windowpaneswith frosty fingertips.
It whispers through icy lips,
sounds like a ghost
shivering in cold blue shadows.


Bedtime in Winter


Dark comes early.
Night is long.
Mommy sings
A bedtime song.
I am snuggled
Down and deep
Beneath soft covers.
While I sleep,
I have my teddy bear
To hold.
He keeps me warm
When nights are cold.


Untitled
(I have written many different versions of this poem over the years. I'm not sure I've got it right yet.)

Snow whisperd down so soft and light
I didn't hear it come last night.
A white coat covers everything--
The porch, the walk, my tire swing.

My yard looks like a polar bear
Wrapped up in her creamy hair...
All snuggled warm inside her skin

That will not let the winter in.

********************

At Blue Rose Girls I have a poem by Sarah Orne Jewett titled A Country Boy in Winter.

Tricia has the Poetry Friday Roundup at The Miss Rumphius Effect.

Fall-Themed Picture Books & Poetry

Picture Book Lists & Book Reviews
Just Fall Picture Books from Your Friendly Librarian (9/11/09)
Autumn Days from Through the Looking Glass Book Review
Autumn Books for Children from Johnson County Library, Kansas
Fall into Autumn from McNally Robinson Booksellers
Harvest Mood by Lee Bock (School Library Journal, 10/1/2008)
Fall Recommended Reading-Kids Books for Autumn (Apples 4 the Teacher)
Autumn Celebrations: Recommended Books for Fall (The Holiday Zone)
Thematic Book List--Fall (The Miss Rumphius Effect, 10/25/2007)
Change Is in the Air (Reading Rockets)
Autumn Book Bunch: Leaves, Leaves, Leaves! from Wild Rose Reader(9/29/08)
Look What I Did with a Leaf! from Wild Rose Reader(9/22/08)
Fall into Poetry from Wild Rose Reader (9/19/08)


Autumn Poetry from Wild Rose Reader
Poetry Friday: Autumn Acrostics
MAPLE: An Autumn Acrostic
Poetry Friday: An Autumn List Poem
Poetry Friday: Autumn Leaves
Poetry Friday: Autumn Fires
LUNES (Includes a quartet of lunes about September)

Autumn Crafts and Activities
Fall Crafts, Decorations, and Printouts from Enchanted Learning
Autumn Lesson Plans and Ideas from Scholastic
Autumn Leaf Crafts & Activities from Wild Rose Reader (9/25/08)

Summer Rain Poem

This month has been the dampest, rainiest June that I can recall. I don’t think we’ve had more than five full days of sunshine so far—and today is the 29th! I usually appreciate a day of gentle rain in the midst of steamy, humid, blazing summer heat—but the weather here is getting on my nerves. It’s been one day of gray after another.

Today, I decided to post an old summer rain poem—one that I had written more than twenty years ago for a collection of seasonal poetry that I never published called Tasting the Sun.


Summer Rain Poem
by Elaine Magliaro

I like a quiet summer day
when clouds above are oyster gray
and rain falls softer than a sigh.
I stand out in the melting sky
cool water washing over me.
I’m a pearl all shimmery,
rough shell unhinged and opened wide
letting all the sea inside.


I’m hoping we’ll have some fair weather for the Fourth of July weekend!


Check out Tricia’s Poetry Stretch this week at The Miss Rumphius Effect: Monday Poetry Stretch - Acrostics.

Two Puddle Poems & Some Poetry for Spring

I’m certainly hoping that April showers will bring May flowers. We’ve had so much rain here lately I’m keeping my fingers crossed it's nature's way of telling me that I’ll be seeing a bounty of blossoms blooming around here next month.

But…what would spring be without rain showers? I loved to stomp in puddles when I was little. Here are two of my original spring puddle poems for you today—as well as a list of links to some of my previous posts about poetry for spring.

PUDDLE MUDDLE

I’m in the middle of a puddle…
in the middle…
in a muddle.
The puddle’s much too deep.
It spilled
into my boots.
Now they’re filled
with muddy water
to the brim.
I hope my feet
know how to swim!

GOING UP!

I’m stomping in a puddle,
Making drops of water fly.
I’m
Splashing them
Splashing them
Splashing them SO high.
I’m sending the raindrops
Back into the sky!


More Spring Poetry

Acrostic Poems for Spring
How to Bring Spring: An Original Poem
Welcoming Spring...with Poetry
POETRY FRIDAY: Spring Is...
A Poem a Day #13: My Spring Haiku & Cloudscome’s Photographs
A Poem a Day #22: Spring Rain
A Poem a Day #26: Yellow Days
A Poem a Day #28: April

Acrostic Poems for Spring

It’s the first day of National Poetry Month! I’m posting some of my original acrostic poems about spring. The first poem below, Nest, is one that I haven’t posted here previously.


Nestled in a basket on a bough,

Eager to eat, itty-bitty birds

Singing for their supper,

Trilling and filling a tree with song



And now, spring settles in,

Pitches her green tent.

Robins return, fruit trees burst

Into bloom, and the sun

Lays her warm yellow hands over the earth.



Soft, scented breezes, kite-catching winds, the

Pitter patter of warm rain on the

Roof, daffodils and daisies and lilacs

In bloom, apple trees wearing snow-white crowns.

Now the sun lingers at the edge of day and

Green…lovely green…has come home to stay.



Coming up, I’m coming up,

Reaching through the softening soil, poking my petals

Out of the earth,

Collecting sunlight in my purple cup.

Up, I’m coming up.

Spring is on the way!

********************

Here’s a link to a super list of resources that I compiled for National Poetry Month:
Resources for National Poetry Month 2009

The following blogs have big plans for National Poetry Month. You’ll want to visit them often during the month of April:

• The Miss Rumphius Effect
• GottaBook
• Poetry For Children
• Pencil Talk
• Check it Out
  

Win a Poetry Book!
Every week during April, I’ll be giving away children’s poetry books at Wild Rose Reader and books of light verse at Political Verses. If you leave a comment at one of my poetry posts this week, I’ll enter your name in the drawing for a poetry book. If you leave comments at two post, I'll enter your name twice...and so on.

This week’s prize from Wild Rose Reader will be a copy of Falling Down the Page: A Book of List Poems edited by Georgia Heard.

This week’s Prize from Political Verses will be The Underwear Salesman and Other Jobs for Better or Verse, which was written by J. Patrick Lewis and illustrated by Serge Bloch.

The drawings for the poetry book prizes for this week will be held on Sunday, April 5th.