Friday, August 16, 2019

Pencil Poem for Poetry Friday


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Hello and Happy Poetry Friday! Be sure to visit for Christie and Wondering and Wandering for Roundup, where there just might be a theme of trees!

Hmmm... does a pencil fit with the theme? Maybe? A little? :) Sorry I missed that memo, because I do love writing about trees! I look forward to reading everyone's offerings.

It's been HOT down here in the southlands... and I have been in a revision bubble, trying to get these novel edits accomplished and back to the editor... slow going. But good! Yes, I am feeling happy about my progress. And I've also got a new idea rattling around in my head, so that's kind of exhilarating... and I wrote a new poem, about a pencil! Read on!

For 2019 I'm running a year-long series on my blog in which I share my responses to the writing assignment prompts found in THE BUTTERLY HOURS by Patty Dann.

I welcome you to join me, if you like! I've divided the prompts by month, and the plan is to respond to 3 (or so) a week. For some of these I may write poems, for others prose. The important thing is to mine my memory. Who knows where this exploration will lead?

For links to the prompts I've written on so far this year, please click on The Butterfly Hours tab above.

This month's prompts are notebook, October, office, pajamas, paper, party, pencil, perfume, phone book, photograph, pictures.

PENCIL

My mind goes instantly to Mrs. Frizzle In the MAGIC TREE HOUSE books and the pencil in her hair! I did not encounter her until I had kids of my own, of course. Another adult memory is watching my mom use colored pencils to color in one of those beautiful adult coloring books while she was in the hospital recovering from knee replacement surgery. I did LOTS of coloring as a kid, and loved using colored pencils, because they are so much more precise than crayons...

Pencils also have been an important part of my musical life through the years... how many times have I watched a music teacher write something in pencil on the pieces I was learning? And now, as a cellist-in-training, I rely heavily on the pencil to help me note fingerings and to circle repeat signs and make conductors' corrections... one must be able to erase, because these things can change as you find new and better ways to make the sound you want (or the sound the conductor wants!).

Once I even wrote a picture book manuscript about a pencil! And here's a poem in the voice of a pencil:
photo by Aizhan Sagu - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=46335617


A (Simple) Message from Your Pencil

I am simple,
it's true –
I wear a slim yellow skirt,
one rubber boot
and a number 2 tattoo.

You can doodle with me,
scribble or print –
If you make a mistake,
I can take it . . .
and you can erase it!

I am simple,
it's true –
I am here
                  simply
to help you!
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- Irene Latham

Thank you so much for reading! xo






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14 comments:

  1. OOOOOOOOOH !! LOVE your poem about the pencil. I am sharing this with my teacher friends. They are going to love sharing this with their students, Irene. It can be used as a poetry starter mentor poem. Just perfect for young ( and older) writers. LOVE. Is your picture book heading to a publisher? Are you really taking cello lessons? I LOVE that, too. I am going to restart my piano playing with lessons in the fall. I also have the book but that has to wait a tad longer. Maybe I will start on my vacation in Maine where I will have time to write for sure. Thank you, Irene!!
    Janet F.

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  2. Loved the pencil's "point" of view!

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  3. Love the yellow skirt, the rubber boot, and the tattoo!

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  4. I also love the clothing that your pencil is wearing and the tattoo is clever. Your pencil is a sensitive one that has kindness in its leaden roots.

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  5. I agree with Buffy. Oh, that yellow skirt, rubber boot, and the number 2 tattoo! Perfect!

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  6. Love your pencil voice poem Irene! Dear pencil's so taken for granted and yet so dear to many of us–especially me I go through so many with writing and drawing. Good luck with your revisions, thanks xo.

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  7. Pencils are profound little helpers and although I might be wrong, are they not a product of trees?

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  8. Love this poem. Will use with students. And it is about trees and they’re by-products :-)

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  9. The slim skirt and the number two tatoo make me smile! What a wonderful poem voice, the pencil. Do I have permission to use this poem in a poetry pandemonium activity with my students?

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  10. That number two tattoo is perfect, and I don't think it's a stretch at all to say this post is about trees :)

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  11. What Buffy said! Exactly those words!

    I love pencils. They are so accommodating, so friendly, so flexible (in spite of their seeming rigidity)!

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  12. So sweet and helpful, this little pencil! :) I, too, especially love your description of the outfit. It's got me thinking Halloween costumes!

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  13. Really awesome work, So I want to share this great converter with you;

    Super File Converter

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