FEATHERS!

Ben Franklin's pen,
hawk's flight,
a boa collar,
feather delight.

No matter what feather
catches the gleam,
may you soar
fulfilling your dreams.

   Summer is a great time for dreaming.  It is a time to think of the things you'd like to do and who you want to be.  Can you make a list of your dreams?  Can you turn the list into a poem?  Do have fun playing with this prompt.

   Do not be afraid.  Writing children's poetry can not hurt you. 

IDLE HOURS

I've wasted another day
looking out my window
watching the hawk
slowly spiral in circles
his wings stretched wide.
He's been out in the heat
working, drifting, floating.
I like to think he's searching
for that snake I almost 
stepped on this morning.

    Here the day is almost gone and I still have lots of work to do.  What was on your TO-DO list today?  Can you write a poem about one of the things on your list?  Have fun writing.

With Children's Poetry you can create the life you've always dreamed of.

Today I found a feather
lying on the rocks.
It had a silky texture
I think is was a hawk's.

   There are lots of birds around my house.  Mostly doves and quail.  There is a family of Coopers Hawks that fly by my kitchen windows each evening at dinner time.  I imagine they are out getting their dinner too.
This week I've seen a family of silver cardinals hanging around too.  Their proper name is Pyrrhuloxia.  I'll let you look that up if you want to know more.  Do you collect bird feather?  What would you do with feathers?  Can you write a feather poem today?  Have fun writing.

A bird's song is a poem to nature.

LIZARDS

One alligator lizard
resting in the sun
wonders where the others are
off having fun.

Two collard lizards
climbing on the wall
with long thin fingers
they don't fall.

Three whipped tail lizards
race around the mesquite tree
chasing each other's tail
they entertain me.

Four striped lizards
dash over rocks
find one to hide beneath
away from circling hawks.

THE GATHERING

Looking for a murder,
the weary crow
calls from atop a telephone pole
                     CAW!
CAW!                                CAW!

above circle hawks. 


     A murder is what a group of crows is called.  Do you know other group names like a school of fish?
What is the name for a group of paper clips?  A group of shoes?  A group of sandwiches? I'd give you the answer if I knew it, but I don't think there are answers.  This means you can make up your own word.  All you have to do is get other people to agree to your word and use it.  Or if just one other person uses the word, it can become your own secret code.
    I saw a crow this morning on my walk and it got me to thinking about this poem.  When I turned to walk home, I was hoping to see the crow again calling to me, but instead the hawk was there.  This got me to consider all the birds that have sat on the telephone pole.  I'm now thinking about writing a persona poem (your teacher might call it a mask poem) from the view point of a telephone pole.  Would you like to try a persona poem today too?
Perhaps you can make it a concrete poem (shape poem) or use interesting line breaks like I did in the poem above.
Have fun writing your poem. 

Monday Morning

Morning sun

cuts over the skyline.

At the top

of the tallest juniper

perches a hawk

scanning the sky,

eyeing a telephone wire

with four noisy starlings.

   Some days the poems just come out in free verse.  I tried to work this information into a haiku, I certainly felt an "ah-ha" moment when I looked up to see a hawk in the tall juniper, and then I realized why he was turning his head to scan his surroundings.  BUT, I had too much information to boil it down to a haiku.  I thought about a fib, but that wouldn't work either.  I'm just going to have to put more time into this poem if it is going to end up as something other than free verse.  I think free verse is a good place to start to shape poems.  So, your challenge for today is to spend a few moments just watching and listening.  Then quickly write down the information in short items.  Can you shape these into a poem so the reader can feel like they are in the same spot you are?  Have fun.

RED TAIL HAWK

Red tail hawk circles
blue skies overhead,
he flares his tail,
boy, it's red.

Making lazy loops
on this Saturday
is how I feel
as I go on my way.

     Happy Saturday.  I hope you are having a good day.  This poem really needs a better end line.  I'm going to have to work on that, but I did explain I'm feeling loopy-lay today--so that is how I wrote.  So many things to do today.  All the weekend chores are waiting for me.  I hope you can find time to write today.  Can you imagine what the picture for this poem will look like?  Now, go write your own poem and if you want to share it you can place your poem in the comments below.  I'd love to read it.

MOBBING

The hawk sat
upon his stump
being quite the grunch.
He was hungry
and looking around
for something
for his lunch.

Crows came acrobatic,
taunting,
teasing,
daring the hawk to fly.

I stood there watching
and wondering why
didn't those crows know
teasing that hawk
was simply
asking to die.

No, no, said my friend
the hawk knows
there are too many crows.
In this case the food chain
doesn't apply.

Those crows are keeping
the hawk from their nest--
protecting their wee small fry.
It is simply doing a job,
while they're flying--
a trick we call mobbing.

  I didn't know the term mobbing until my friend Andy Boyles, Science Editor for Highlights for Children, told me what the crows were doing. I thought those crows were crazy taunting the hawk because I knew the hawk was bigger, faster and ate other birds.  (Maybe hawks don't like eating crow, though.)  The crows were trying to protect their young.  Have you ever done something to protect another person?  I bet you have.  Can you write a poem about that today?  Have fun.

WATCHING BIRDS

Thrasher, 
tanager,
finch,
Cactus wren,
warbler, 
Gambel's quail,
white-winged dove,
Gila woodpecker,
phainopepla,
even a vireo
all know
my bird feeder
is the place to go.

And two hawks circle
float in the sky
making those birds
flutter and fly.


    The birds are having a grand time in my backyard today.  I've counted 10 white winged doves sitting on the fence in a row.  The music is wonderful from the small song birds.  The Gila woodpecker is a pest.  She lives in one of the holes in the Saguaro and dines at my house.  I wouldn't mind, but she keeps trying to drink from my hummingbird feeder and with her long this beak, she does a great job of it.  If you were a bird, what kind would you be?  Can you write a persona poem today in the voice of a bird?  Have fun.

Sunday

Today the sky is talking to me.
Here are some of the things I see:
Thin white feather clouds,
Contrail from an airplane,
A hawk swooping and soaring,
A humming bird zipping by,
And blue, blue, blue of sky
illuminated by the sun.


     Does your sky talk to you?  What is it saying today?  I hope you Sunday is as sunny as mine.  Can you find time to write your own poem today?  (I almost didn't have time!)  Have a great day.

WEDNESDAY WALK

High in the ocotillo
sits a small hummingbird,
cheery, singing, tiny fellow,
he calls out this happy word--
              CHEEP


      The birds are definitely becoming more active.  Besides all our desert doves, I saw several phainopepla this morning and a hawk swooped to sit on top of the telephone pole.  All the small birds scattered.  While I was eating my lunch yesterday, I heard a roadrunner.  My cactus wren is being quite noisy, too.   What is your favorite bird?  Can you write a poem about birds? 

haiku

a hawk, hear its cry

as a car whizzes by

a snake on the road

     Do you ever have days when you get stuck and can't think of anything to write about?  Look out your window.  What is the first thing you see?  Now look for something to move or listen for a noise.  So now you have two things to try writing a haiku about.  Try this and let me know what happens for you.  You are welcome to leave your poem in the comments below.  I'd like to read your poem.  Have a great day listening and observing.