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 popular presenter, tireless literacy advocate, and the founder of El día de los niños, El día de los libros/Children’s Day, Book Day (Día), which takes place every April 30 to promote and celebrate literacy and what Pat calls bookjoy. Please welcome beloved poet …
PAT MORA
THE POEM
THE PROMPT
How do you make a poem?
COMMUNITY COLLECTION 7: MAKING 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)!
*****
To Make a Poem
To make a poem
feel a phrase carry you
out of your space
to a place that’s, with meaning,
abundant.
To make a poem
wander and wonder
solo
alone
without expectation
or judgment.
To make a poem
lower yourself
into memory’s well.
Rise up,
overflowing
and then
dump the bucket.
© 2018 Heather Kinser
The Voice
He knocks in common time.
He knocks in couplets coupled up
In rhythm and in rhyme.
He knocks because he needs you
How do you make a poem?
When he knocks,
You let him in.
(c) PJ Henry
How to Plant a Poem
A prompt, a sight is all you need.
A simple thought becomes the seed.
It quickly sprouts within your mind,
its fibers reaching, trying to find
the nutrients to help it grow –
the words and phrases apropos –
to bring it to its final stage,
where it can blossom on the page.
Colleen Murphy © 2018
Mornings I Write
Awake early,
Clear-headed,
Intelligent,
Confident.
After sunset
Tired from the day,
Sleepy,
Muddle-brain.
Morning rituals:
Coffee,
Wood walks,
Serenity,
Silence,
God.
Darkness is gone!
Light comes!
Awakens my soul
To creative flow.
Ideas come
Like a conduit.
Thoughts flow,
Something to show.
Writing process is mystery.
© Yvona Fast
How to Make a Poem
From My Heart to Yours
an image,
a feeling,
a thought,
a mood,
with strong verbs,
beautiful sounds:
set them free
to find a rhythm,
to paint a portrait
from your heart.(C) Sherry Howard
How to Make a Poem
Pull words from a hat.
Abracadabra!
Make them disappear, now reappear —
doubled in number with adornments of
emotion, rhythm, and fanciful description.
Saw it in half.
The last perfect rhyme is pulled from behind the ear.
Ta Da!
Gasp!
How did she do it?
It’s all an illusion.
© Judy Sobanski
How to Make a Poem
© 2018 Gabi Snyder
Tippy-Top Sandhill
Poem-Making
A Poem Inside of You
© 2018 Shelley Smithson
How to Make a Poem
© 2018 Kirstine Call
The Poet’s Process
© 2018 Kate Talbot
Recipe for My Poem
how I make a poem.
I guess the answer is
the poem makes me.
© 2018 Robyn Campbell
THE POET
Pat Mora is the author of dozens of books for children, teens, and adults. Forthcoming in 2018 are her seventh adult poetry collection, Encantado: Desert Monologues, and a new children’s poetry collection, Bookjoy, Wordjoy.
A literacy advocate excited about sharing what she calls “bookjoy,” Pat founded Children’s Day, Book Day, in Spanish, El día de los niños, El día de los libros, “Día.” Pat and her partners, including the American Library Association and First Book, nationally promote this year-long initiative of creatively linking all children and families to books and establishing annual April Children’s Day, Book Day celebrations. Pat’s Book Fiesta captures this bookjoy spirit. April 30, 2018 is the 22nd anniversary of this initiative.
Among Pat’s awards are Honorary Doctorates from North Carolina State University and SUNY Buffalo, a Life-time Achievement Award from the Texas Institute of Letters, a Virginia Hamilton Literary Award, an Honorary Membership in the American Library Association, a Life-time Membership in USBBY, a Civitella Ranieri Fellowship to write in Umbria, Italy, and a Distinguished Alumni Award from the University of Texas at El Paso. She was a recipient and judge of a Poetry Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts and a recipient and advisor of the Kellogg National Leadership Fellowships.
Born in El Paso to a loving, bilingual family, Pat lives in Santa Fe. A former teacher, university administrator, museum director, and consultant, Pat is a popular speaker about creativity, inclusivity and bookjoy. She is always working on new books.
Discover more about the author and her books at www.PatMora.com.
(adapted from the author’s website)
THE BOOKS
DOÑA FLOR: A Tall Tale About a Giant Woman with a Great Big Heart
DOÑA FLOR: Un Cuento de una Mujer Gigante con un Grande Corazón
Doña Flor is a giant lady who lives in a tiny village in the American Southwest. Popular with her neighbors, she lets the children use her flowers as trumpets and her leftover tortillas as rafts. Flor loves to read, too, and she can often be found reading aloud to the children. One day, all the villagers hear a terrifying noise: it sounds like a huge animal bellowing just outside their village. Everyone is afraid, but not Flor. She wants to protect her beloved neighbors, so with the help of her animal friends, she sets off for the highest mesa to find the creature. Soon enough, though, the joke is on Flor and her friends, who come to rescue her, as she discovers the small secret behind that great big noise.
The creators of TOMÁS AND THE LIBRARY LADY, Pat Mora and Raul Colón, have once again joined together. This time they present a heartwarming and humorous original tall tale-peppered with Spanish words and phrases about a giant lady with a great big heart. (from the author’s website)
I PLEDGE ALLEGIANCE (with Libby Martinez)
Libby’s great aunt, Lobo, is from Mexico, but the United States has been her home for many years, and she wants to become a U.S. citizen. At the end of the week, Lobo will say the Pledge of Allegiance at a special ceremony. Libby is also learning the Pledge this week, at school—at the end of the week, she will stand up in front of everyone and lead the class in the Pledge. Libby and Lobo practice together—asking questions and sharing stories and memories—until they both stand tall and proud, with their hands over their hearts. (from the author’s website)
A collection of fifty poems about love: Shared and unrequited. Lasting a moment and lasting a lifetime. Love for a pet, a sport, music. And love for a boyfriend or girlfriend, family, our world.
Each poem features a different teen narrator sharing unique thoughts, moments, sadness, or heart’s desire: the girl who loves swimming, plunging into the water that creates her own world; the guy who leaves flowers on the windshield of the girl he likes. These teens will be recognizable to the reader as the universal emotions, ideas, impressions, and beliefs float across the pages in these gracefully told verses.
Also included are the author’s footnotes on the various types of poetic forms used throughout to help demystify poetry and showcase its accessibility, which makes this a perfect classroom tool for teachers as well as an inspiration to readers who may wish to try their own hand at writing. (from the Amazon.com)
Don’t miss a prompt! Save this calendar to your desktop.
CALENDAR OF POETS ~ APRIL 2018
“One Blue Door” and prompts copyright © by Pat Mora, from This Big Sky (Scholastic, 1998)
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.
Blue door photo by Fancycrave via Pexels (no attribution required).
I love this poem….and I love the bright loving spirit of Pat Mora! At the moment I am reading her book ZING! Thank you for this post and for all you always do for poetry all year long here at No Water River! xxxx
such beautiful poems here from everyone, all touch our hearts and inspire us to write our own.
What a wonderful poem! Yay, Pat!
What a gorgeous, gorgeous poem….which leads to a beautiful prompt. Thank you Pat Mora for being you that inspire so many of us.
I’m a fan of Pat Mora’s I have her book “Donna Flor” and have shared it with my Picture Book Illustration class since it came out–wonderfully rich story; as is your poem here “One Blue Door,” Thanks for all your writing and all else you do for inspiring children and writers! Thanks Renée for sharing Pat Mora and this rich review.
I made sure that I had a blue door at my former home of many years, your poem is very special, holds that thought of every day opening a new path! Thanks Renee and Pat.
I love this poem. That blue door might appear anywhere and lead to the most surprising adventures!
Definitely going to play with the prompt. I love the idea of making a poem instructions.