Welcome to Poetry Month 2018 at No Water River!
Please take a moment to peruse the how-to below, and then dive in! Happy writing — and thank you for helping to build our collection(s)!
Remember: The Community Collections are open indefinitely, so you can visit each post at your leisure to add your poem!
Today’s Guest…
is a busy keynote speaker who spends a large amount of her time helping teachers and librarians share the wonders of poetry with their students. Please welcome poet and educator …
GEORGIA HEARD
THE POEM
THE PROMPT
Find a Found Poem
Pick up a scrap of paper off the floor or read a sign at a gas station or look at graffiti on the subway and find poetry in these words. Found poems are like a word collage where you take existing text, reorder and refashion it, and present it as a poem.
Try It:
Scan the world and find poems hiding in a variety of sources: newspaper and magazine articles; the back of a cereal box; signs on a classroom or school wall; a dictionary; among many other places.
Read more found poems for inspiration in The Arrow Finds Its Mark: A Book of Found Poems by Georgia Heard (Roaring Brook Press/Macmillan).
COMMUNITY COLLECTION 16: FOUND POEMS
WANT TO ADD YOUR POEM?
1. Paste it into the comment section below. I will gather the poems and add them to this post. OR
2. Email it to me at renee@reneelatulippe.com and I will add it to this post (graphics welcome)!
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THE POET
Georgia Heard is a founding member of the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project in New York City. She received her M.F.A. in Poetry from Columbia University. Currently, she is a frequent keynote speaker at conferences and in schools around the United States and the world.
She is the author of numerous books on writing including: Awakening the Heart: Exploring Poetry in Elementary and Middle School which was chosen by Instructor Magazine as one of the “12 Books Every Teacher Should Read,” and her most recent book Heart Maps: Helping Students Create and Craft Authentic Student Writing.
She has published several children’s poetry books including Creatures of Earth, Sea and Sky: Animal Poems (Wordsong/Boyds Mills Press), Falling Down the Page: A Book of List Poems (Roaring Brook/Macmillan), The Arrow Finds Its Mark: A Book of Found Poems (Roaring Brook/Macmillan — CCBC Choice (Univ. of WI), Bank Street Best Children’s Book of the Year), and a forthcoming collection entitled Boom! Bellow! Bleat!: Animal Poems for Two or More Voices (Wordsong/Boyds Mills Press).
Georgia lives in South Florida where she finds poems everywhere.
Discover more about the author and her books at www.GeorgiaHeard.com.
THE BOOKS
HEART MAPS: HELPING STUDENTS CREATE AND CRAFT AUTHENTIC WRITING
How do we get students to “ache with caring” about their writing instead of mechanically stringing words together? We spend a lot of time teaching the craft of writing but we also need to devote time to helping students write with purpose and meaning. For decades, Georgia Heard has guided students into more authentic writing experiences by using heart maps to explore what we all hold inside: feelings, passions, vulnerabilities, and wonderings. In Heart Maps, Georgia shares 20 unique, multi-genre heart maps to help your students write from the heart, such as the First Time Heart Map, Family Quilt Heart Map, and People I Admire Heart Map. You’ll also find extensive support for using heart maps, including:
- tips for getting started with heart maps
- writing ideas to jumpstart student writing in multiple genres from heart maps
- suggested mentor texts to provide additional inspiration (from the author’s website)
THE ARROW FINDS ITS MARK: A BOOK OF FOUND POEMS
Imagine finding poetry on a scrap of paper tossed on the floor, or on a sign at the gas station, or in graffiti scrawled on the subway wall. This is the found poem: taking existing words, phrases, and sentences from the unlikeliest of places and refashioning them as poetry. Georgia Heard invited 30+ of the best contemporary children’s poets to “find” poems in ordinary places. (from the author’s website)
THE WOMAN IN THIS POEM: WOMEN’S VOICES IN POETRY (ADULT)
edited by Georgia Heard
The Woman in This Poem features the work of both classic and contemporary women poets and is organized into five thematic sections, centered on the topics of love, motherhood, work, family and friends, and balance. From the outstanding to the unexpected, this essential collection of poetry will put a lump in your throat, set your soul on fire, and remind you of who you are and how you want to live your life. (from the author’s website)
Don’t miss a prompt! Save this calendar to your desktop.
CALENDAR OF POETS ~ APRIL 2018
“Find a Poem” and prompt copyright © by Georgia Heard.
Copyright on community collection poems held by authors indicated. All rights reserved.
Other post content © 2018 Renée M. LaTulippe or as indicated. All rights reserved.
Bookshelves by Janko Ferlic via Pexels (no attribution required)
Georgia Heard is always an inspiration!
I love your poem, Molly. Just think … inspiration in rhubarb! <3 😀
Thanks, Renee. I was so inspired that I even wrote another poem about rhubarb! Who knew? lol
Hi Georgia and Renee, I took your advice, Georgia, a cereal box yields some poetic pleasure when looking long! Searching for profundity in my breakfast was a nice surprise!
I think I found my niche! I love this type of poetry. All around us! Thanks for an inspirational post!
Oh I love this exercise! I think even early learners can engage in an activity like this. I can’t wait to do this in class. Love this! Great work here!
I love to collect words when I’m on vacation and turn them into found poem-like collages. Great prompt for me today!
Wonderful poem prompt challenge, thanks Georgia! I’m particularly fond of your anthology “Falling Down the Page!” Hope to meet up with you one day at a workshop. Thanks Renée for sharing Georgia with us!
This looks fun. I’ve got to try it. Thanks for the inspirations.
Time to get back to basics and find the fun in writing poetry! I’ve been struggling to find the time to write to prompts this month, but this is one I think I can handle. 🙂
Ooh, I hope so, Michelle! Would love to see one from you. 🙂
I love your found poem, Georgia, and look forward to reading your books! Such a fun exercise…now where to look?
I took a friend’s essay in our recently published anthology and turned it into a poem. We did this exercise at Highlights last year with a chapter from The Hate You Give, boiling the chapter down to its emotional chord.
Dinner Date
“Tell me all about the guest speaker at school today,” I say.
He starts at the beginning.
“You’re probably wondering why…”
He reads my expression and responds.
I tear up, listening.
He pauses occasionally, searching for words,
no siblings there to interrupt, lose patience,
sigh their sighs.
Just the two of us and a story.
Oh, to go back these 14 years,
to the day of his NICU diagnosis,
show my devastated younger self this moment.
“He is nothing you should fear.”
“You are going to be okay.”
And then his question:
“Mom, am I going to be okay?”
I no longer measure his life
by typical milestones.
“Are you fine now?”
“Yeah, I’m fine now.”
“Then you’ll always be fine.”
I have never been so sure.
I forgot to add the name of the anthology: “She’s Got This! Essays on Standing Strong and Moving On,” editors Mary Claire Hill and Joanne Hartman