Category: Wax Poetic

On this first day of spring step outside, celebrate the blossoming and craft a haiku greeting.

How to craft haiku:

five syllables

s e v e n  s y l l a b l e s

five syllables

1. Haiku poems consist of a three-line stanza—16 to 18 syllables total—written in the following pattern:

Line 1: 5 syllables
Line 2: 7 syllables
Line 3: 5 syllables

*Slight variations in syllabication is appropriate as this helps the poet maintain “one thought in three lines”

2. Haiku poems are typically observations of nature (though the form welcomes other topics), often making reference to the seasons.

3. Haiku poems are tiny snapshots capturing moments in time.

So, a  “haiku moment” describes a scene that leads the reader to a feeling.

But, remember, your three lines should be woven to a single thought:

and I croon in the

scent of Spring’s dotted song, swoon

in her blossoming colors

In her book Walk Two Moons, Sharon Creech repeatedly uses the phrase “trying to catch fish in the air” to mean trying to achieve the impossible, when disillusionment is a much more likely situation. And as a writer with an idea, she doesn't just leave us there, no. Sharon Creech takes this concept of "trying to catch fish in the air" and gives it the form of a picture book (her first) in collaboration with the wonderful art of Chris Raschka. Inside the pages of Fishing in the Air, the world of imagination becomes a place where the similes and metaphors of memory are the storytellers of the mind's eye.  

Now let's write.

Visit our Pinterest Write it board and scroll through until you find a boy flying through the air on a shimmering orange fish. Start imaging. Where is the boy on the fish headed? What might his "fish in the air be"? What impossibility is he trying to make possible? Now, choose one of your personal "fish in the air" and describe it in a poem or vignette. What would happen if you actually caught one of those "fish in the air and rode" it where you pleased? Write about what would happen if you caught your singular fish in the air? What would happen if you caught five of your fish in the air? What kind of day would that be like?

Example:

Daydreaming

I usually think of it when I’m in line

usually somewhere in the steaming depths

of an amusement park in the summer,

somewhere in the crush of bodies slippery

with sweat and sunscreen. Or I think

of it somewhere in the musty belly

of the library basement, when I look up

from radio static of black words

on pallid page, into the one dim bulb

flickering like a sleepy eyelid.

When it’s been ten hours driving down

a straight road, and the car’s air

is a soup brought to a slow boil,

I shift in my place between the luggage

and the door, stare out the window

at particularly inviting cloud,

climb its towering pillar as my feet

make deep imprints in its soft stairs,

and perch on the very tip, where birds

pass each other with a faint rustle of wings.  

-Constance

Thanksgiving is a terrific time to connect with friends and family across the miles. But it’s also a perfect time to help young writers creatively communicate thankfullness. Visit our Pinterest page and let the writing begin:

Telephones come in all shapes and sizes.

Imagine a telephone.

Now, imagine a telephone made of cardboard.

Imagine someone trying to make a call, but the only telephone is a telephone of cardboard.

Does this person realize that the telephone is made out of cardboard? Does s/he want it to be made out of cardboard, instead of being fully functional? Why? Does the narrator know why this person is using a cardboard phone? Or is s/he just as confused as the reader? Or, what if the character in the story or poem happens upon the phone, picks up the receiver on a whim, and the cardboard telephone actually works? Who is on the other end? Is that person using a cardboard telephone too, or a standard phone?

Imagine the possibilities and then craft your ideas into a story or poem.

Example:

The Girl with The Cardboard Phone

There is a girl who talks on a cardboard phone

every day during recess.

Past the thwacking of jump rope

on cement, past the many grabbing hands

at the monkey bars, below the cracked tube

of the playground slide,

you’ll find her clutching the cardboard receiver,

stroking the thin fringe of its ripped edge

with a white finger. We used to wonder

what secret messages were being passed

into the thick brown strip, soggy with dew

and wet leaves, and whether

anyone was replying. We wondered

until one day, we wandered by and caught these words:

“I love you too”— accompanied by a smile

like a warm cup of tea on the greyest day.

-Constance

 Concrete poetry is not child's play but rather the intersection where typography and poetry meet to play. Sir Ken Robinson reminds us that “…imagination is the source of every form of human achievement.” Concrete poetry is an invitation to imagine possibility.

So how do you begin to craft a shape poem? Of course there are many wonderful resources online, but the best place to begin is to remember that what seperates all poetry from prose is, first and formost, its shape. Each and every poem has a very specific arrangement on the page because white space, to the poet, is an extension of punctuation, directing the reader's eye to pause, move, breathe. Concrete poetry takes shape a step further into the realm of representation. For example, if your poem is about a blooming garden, your poem might be flower shaped. If your poem is about sorrow, it might take the shape of a teardrop. What I love about Constance's poem below is that the simple window shape draws me, the reader, to come near, to peer through the panes and contemplate the complexities of thankfulness with each drop drop drop that fabricates the window frame. 

Concrete poetry is not child's play.

So here's my idea. This week, when I introduce shape poetry to my young writers, I'm going to begin by exploring Constance's poem with them—a single statement with repeated words to form a shape. I'll invite them to meet me at the intersection where typography and poetry play. And together we'll imagine the shape of thanksgiving. Imagine the possibilites.

Why not join the fun? After all, "…'tis the season to be thankful!" We'd love to hear from you. Feel free to post your poems in the comment section of this post.

                                     Thanksgiving

The first  rain of the year  announces its  presence by every thick

drop                                     drop                                            drop

drop                                     drop                                             drop

drop                                     drop                                             drop

drop                                     drop                                             drop

drop                                     drop                                             drop

drop                                     drop                                             drop

drop                                     drop                                             drop

drop                                     drop                                             drop

on the  glass  drum  of  our  kitchen  window:  a rain that, with kind

drops                                     drops                                         drops

drops                                     drops                                         drops

drops                                     drops                                         drops

drops                                     drops                                         drops

drops                                     drops                                         drops

drops                                     drops                                         drops

drops                                     drops                                         drops

drops                                     drops                                         drops

they say, is  mother to the  stale cracked  skin of godforsaken lands.

-Kim & Constance

Imagination is just the thing to inspire young writers.

To get started, visit our Pinterest: Snail of Orange

Juxtapose the grotesque and the delicious, the crude and the dainty by drawing inspiration from this snail—usually not considered the most beautiful or appealing creature-—created from an orange.

How can you create a beautiful concept out of something unexpected; something strange and slimy like a snail? Or vice versa?

Unexpected images are just the thing to quell writer’s block. Think .

Here’s another bit of fodder from Les Miserables: “One morning [Bishop D—] was in his garden, and thought himself alone, but his sister was walking behind him, unseen by him: suddenly he paused and gazed at something on the ground; it was a large, black, hairy, frightful spider. His sister heard him say:– ‘Poor beast! It is not its fault!’”

Example Haiku:

An Art Lesson

stamps of greasy lips

and fingertips on napkins are

unexpected flowers

-Constance