Category: Constance Levy

Posted on by cindyindigo

Children’s Poetry Day

Although today is the first day of SPRING, it has been rather rainy around these parts–as you can tell from Holly’s attire.

Today is also CHILDREN’S POETRY DAY. So I’ve found a spring poem and activity to accompany it. Since we’ve seen more rain than sunshine this spring, the poem I’ ve selected is A RAIN SONG by Evaleen Stein (1863-1923), a poet from Indiana. To learn more about Ms. Stein, click on this link sponsored by Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana: http://www.bsu.edu/ourlandourlit/Literature/Authors/authors_rd3/steine.html

A RAIN SONG
by Evaleen Stein

Tinkle, tinkle,
Lightly fall
On the peach buds, pink and small;
Tip the tiny grass, and twinkle
On the clover, green and tall.

Tinkle, tinkle,–
Faster now,
Little rain-drops, smite and sprinkle
Cherry-bloom and apple-bough!
Pelt the elms, and show them how
You can dash!
And splash! splash! splash!
While the thunder rolls and mutters,
And the lightnings flash and flash!
Then eddy into curls
Of a million misty swirls,
And thread the air with silver, and embroider it with pearls!

To read the entire poem, click on this link at DLTK’S CRAFTS FOR KIDS: http://www.dltk-holidays.com/spring/poem/mstein-rainsong.htm

And for a fun craft, try this bunny all dressed for the rainy spring weather–also from DLTK: http://www.dltk-kids.com/animals/bunny/mbunny-spring.htm

For more rainy day poems, I suggest Candice Leby’s book, SPLASH!: POEMS OF OUR WATERY WORLD. She has a great poem using the same theme as Ms. Stein’s above but with a very different feel called RAIN, DANCE!

Happy Spring!

Posted on by cindyindigo

A Morning with Constance Levy, Poet Extraordinaire

I had the great fortune to attend a workshop today given by Constance Levy, St. Louis’ own children’s poet guru. She spoke to OASIS reading tutors for the Rockwood School District on ways to interact with children using poetry.
“Poems don’t have to rhyme,” she said. “But they do need to flow and to have rhythm.” She explained that children should be encouraged to “write in a natural way.” She cautioned that teachers and tutors shouldn’t “squeeze the juice out of creativity” by restricting children’s poetry to a set subject or style.
“William Stafford (another Midwest poet) said a poem was ‘talk with a little luck in it’,” Ms. Levy said. She suggested reading several poems to children and asking them which one they liked best and why. Discuss with the children “who is talking in this poem, and who are they speaking to?”
Ms. Levy encouraged the OASIS tutors to help children take chances in poetry by using wild and crazy words–to have fun. And for elementary students, she talked about helping them learn “to break lines.” At school children are taught to write sentences and fill up each line, only breaking for paragraphs. But when writing poetry, the children must be re-taught to listen for phrasing and how to construct a poem.
Ms. Levy had all of us brainstorm for a few minutes on FOG, jotting down words and phrases which came to our minds. We were encouraged to be inventive, to think in colors and metaphors. To be open to the senses. Later after briefly discussing haikus, we were encouraged to try one–but not necessarily strictly limited to the 5, 7, 5 syllables in each of the three lines if that didn’t quite work for our poem.
Here is my morning haiku created with help from the earlier brainstorming session
FOG
A shrouded ghost mist
swallows me up as I walk
into its mystery.
Give yourself a treat and visit your local library where you’ll find copies of Constance Levy’s poetry books: A TREE PLACE,
WHEN WHALES EXHALE
A CRACK IN THE CLOUDS
SPLASH!
I’M GOING TO PET A WORM TODAY
THE STORY OF RED RUBBER BALL
To find out more about Ms. Levy, you may visit this biography link at Pennsylvania State University, compiled by Pam Goldberg. http://pabook.libraries.psu.edu/palitmap/bios/Levy__Constance.html