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This is my playground for poetry written for children with ideas and inspiration for writing your own poems. Come on in. Sit for a spell, have a cup of words to swirl around and make your own cup of poetry. I'm so glad you are here. I hope you'll find the Kingdom of Poetry a fun place to be.

Saturday, May 16, 2015

SEQUOIA II

 Yesterday, for THE FRIDAY POETRY ROUND UP, I posted a poem about Sequoia.  The poem was one I'd written from a challenge posted by Michelle H. Barnes on her blog, Today's Little Ditty. Earlier in the month Michelle interviewed Nikki Grimes and Nikki posed 10 words and asked us to write poems for one of the words.  My poem started with the word leaf and ended up at talking leaves with Sequoia. Then yesterday, Tabatha Yeatts on her blog, The Opposite of Indifference, presented a Biography poem.  She used Langston Hughes' poem Helen Keller as a mentor poem for form to write her own poem Louis Pasteur.  You can find these poems on her blog here.  I love biography poems and told Tabatha I'd try putting my Sequoia information into the format she used for her poem--12 lines!  So, here is my attempt.  What do you think?

SEQUOIA
by Joy Acey

He
developed script
for writing Cherokee,
a language they could see.
He,
a teacher,
gave Indians tools
for writing and reading mastery.
He left behind a newspaper
full of talking leaves,
a message so strong
they named, after him, redwood trees.

    Using 12 lines can you write a bio poem about yourself or someone you admire?  Have fun writing.

8 comments:

  1. Sequoia sounds like a fascinating person! Great choice for a bio poem. Thanks for joining me!

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    1. Thanks for the inspiration, Tabatha. This was fun. Sorry for the glitch with the posting. This was supposed to happen at 12 midnight, not noon. Oh well, the fact that we can post at all is amazing to me. The fact I can read your amazing poems and posts is fantastic. Thank you.

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  2. Joy,
    I still like #1 better. It seems more specific, more personable. I'm not sure what else to say. Don't throw away #1 yet. Think on it some more.

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    1. Ah, Linda
      I see them as two separate poems with two different purposes. This poem is less kid friendly because I've gotten rid of the daughter and it has fewer details--you're right about that.
      Thank you for your insight.

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  3. I missed yesterday, just came home from a school trip. This is beautiful, Joy, as is the first one. You're right, two different approaches, leaning hard on one idea of each. I love the "talking leaves".

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    1. The word was Sequoia's. The Indians thought there was magic in the written word and were scared of it. Sequoia's wife is rumored to have burned his first attempts at devising an alphabet because she thought it was evil voodoo.
      I also like the personification of the leaves on the trees being able to talk to us and tell us their story.
      I'm looking forward to hearing about your trip.

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  4. Replies
    1. Thanks, Michelle.

      I got here with your inspiration and Tabatha Yeatts' road map.

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