Label: Poetry
March 15, 2012
Guessing Game
Today, I am visiting Carl Sandburg Elementary School, in Springfield, Illinois. The most famous native of Springfield is President Abraham Lincoln, but this school is named after another Illinois native, the great poet Carl Sandburg.
Although it’s a sunny day today in Springfield, heading into Sandburg Elementary I am thinking about my favorite Carl Sandburg poem, called FOG.
FOG
The fog comes
on little cat feet.
It sits looking
over harbor and city
on silent haunches
and then, moves on.
Can you guess why this is my favorite Sandburg poem? Hint: What does he compare the fog to?
Posted by: Seymour Simon
January 31, 2012
Writing Wednesday: Stone and Water
Welcome to Writing Wednesday! Every Wednesday you can publish your own creative writing on the Seymour Science blog.
Writing Wednesday has two simple rules:
1. Give us the best you’ve got in 5 minutes. That’s right - five minutes of creative writing. Think of it as a word extravaganza to warm up your brain for the rest of the day!
2. Tell us your first name, the name of your school, and how old you are.
Ready? Let’s go!
The poet Mary Oliver wrote this in one of her poems:
It is the nature of stone
to be satisfied.
It is the nature of water
to want to be somewhere else.*
What do you think she is saying about the difference between stone and water? How would you describe the ways that stone and water are different? What do you like or dislike about each of them?
Click on the yellow "Comments" at the bottom of this post to enter your writing.
Happy Writing Wednesday!
*Excerpted from THE LEAF AND THE CLOUD, by Mary Oliver. Da Capo Press, 2001.
Photo: Russel Wills
Posted by: Liz Nealon
March 29, 2011
Student Poem: EARTHQUAKE
A 12-year-old sixth grader named Meeps, from Upper Saddle River, New Jersey, sent me this original poem after I Skyped with a class there. Hasn’t Meeps done a good job of capturing the feelings of numbness and loss that we have seen in the faces of people in photographs of the recent earthquakes in Japan and Christchurch, New Zealand? This is a very good piece of writing.
Photograph: Aftermath of 1989 earthquake in Loma Prieta, California courtesy of U.S. Geological Service/C.E. Meyer
Posted by: Seymour Simon
January 8, 2011
Velvet Shoes
We are snowed in today and the world is blanketed with heavy pillows of pristine snow. It makes me think of a poem by Elinor Wylie, called VELVET SHOES. It begins like this:
Why do you think she called the poem Velvet Shoes?
In the stanza above, she describes the snow as “veils of white lace.” What other images or metaphors can you come up with to describe the snow? If you want to write to me with your description of snow, or upload a photograph that you have taken of snow, you might be published in this blog for all the world to see!
You can read Elinor Wylie’s complete poem, Velvet Shoes, by clicking here, or you can find it in your library. Usually the name of the poem you’re looking for is not the name of the book that it is in, so ask your librarian if you’re not sure where to find it.
If you’re lucky enough to be
snowed in today, settle in with
a good book and enjoy the
“soundless space” around you.
- Seymour
Posted by: Seymour Simon
