Father, We Thank Thee by Ralph Waldo Emerson

Since it is spring in my little part of the world, I wanted to share this poem with you as I can't get National Poetry Month out of my head. As I read it to my children, it seemed to fit so well.

Father, We Thank Thee
By Ralph Waldo Emerson

For flowers that bloom about our feet,
Father, we thank Thee.
For tender grass so fresh, so sweet,
Father, we thank Thee.
For the song of bird and hum of bee,
For all things fair we hear or see,
Father in heaven, we thank Thee.

For blue of stream and blue of sky,
Father, we thank Thee.
For pleasant shade of branches high,
Father, we thank Thee.
For fragrant air and cooling breeze,
For beauty of the blooming trees,
Father in heaven, we thank Thee.

For this new morning with its light,
Father, we thank Thee.
For rest and shelter of the night,
Father, we thank Thee
For health and food, for love and friends,
For everything Thy goodness sends,
Father in heaven, we thank Thee.

National Poetry Month- William Shakespeare

I hope everyone enjoyed National Poetry Month. I found this poem and I thought it was a perfect ending to National Poetry Month and the first day of May.

When Daffodils Begin to Peer
By William Shakespeare
When daffodils begin to peer, --
With hey! The doxy over the dale, --
Why, then comes in the sweet o’ the year;
For the red blood reigns in the winter’s pale.

The white sheet bleaching on the hedge, --
With hey! the sweet birds, O, how they sing! --
Doth set my pugging tooth on edge;
For a quart of ale is a dish for a king.

The lark, that tirra-lirra chants, --
With hey! with hey! the thrush and the jay, --
Are summer songs for me and for my aunts,
While we lie tumbling in the hay.

National Poetry Month- Thomas Wyatt and Adrienne Rich

National Poetry Month is almost over. There is only ONE more day! Here are some poems and if there are any poems that you would like, there could be a poem party tomorrow.

Thomas Wyatt
What Should I Say

What should I say,
Since faith is dead,
And truth away
From you is fled?
Should I be led
With doubleness?
Nay, nay, mistress!

I promised you,
And you promised me,
To be as true
As I would be.
But since I see
Your double heart,
Farewell my part!

Though for to take
It is not my mind,
But to forsake
I am not blind
And as I find,
So will I trust:
Farewell, unjust!

Can ye say nay?
But you said
That I alway
Should be obeyed?
And thus betrayed
Or that I wist--
Farewell, unkissed.

Adrienne Rich
Aunt Jennifer's Tigers

Aunt Jennifer's tigers prance across a screen,
Bright topaz denizens of a world of green.
They do not fear the men beneath the tree;
They pace in sleek chivalric certainty.
Aunt Jennifer's fingers fluttering through her wool
Find even the ivory needle hard to pull.
The massive weight of Uncle's wedding band
Sits heavily upon Aunt Jennifer's hand.
When Aunt is dead, her terrified hands will lie
Still ringed with ordeals she was mastered by.
The tigers in the panel that she made
Will go on prancing, proud and unafraid.

Anonymous Lyric
Now Go’th Sun Under Wood
Nou goth sonne under wode-
Me reweth, Marie, thi faire rode
Nou goth sonne under tre-
Me reweth, Marie, thi sone and the.

National Poetry Month- Children's poems

I hope everyone is has been enjoying National Poetry Month. I thought everyone would enjoy some poems for children.

At the Seaside
By Robert Louis Stevenson
When I was down beside the sea
A wooden spade they gave to me
To dig the sandy shore.
My holes were empty like a cup,
In every hole the sea came up,
Till it could come no more

The Field Mouse
By Cecil Frances Alexander
Where the acorn tumbles down,
Where the ash tree sheds its berry,
With your fur so soft and brown,
With your eye so round and merry,
Scarcely moving the long grass,
Fieldmouse, I can see you pass.
Little thing, in what dark den,
Lie you all the winter sleeping?
Till warm weather comes again,
Then once more I see you peeping
Round about the tall tree roots,
Nibbling at their fallen fruits.
Fieldmouse, fieldmouse, do not go,
Where the farmer stacks his treasure,
Find the nut that falls below,
Eat the acorn at your pleasure,
But you must not steal the grain
He has stacked with so much pain.
Make your hole where mosses spring,
Underneath the tall oak's shadow,
Pretty, quiet harmless thing,
Play about the sunny meadow.
Keep away from corn and house,
None will harm you, little mouse.

There was a Little Girl
By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
There was a little girl
Who had a little curl
Right in the middle of her forehead.
When she was good
She was very good indeed,
But when she was bad she was horrid.

I hope you enjoyed these poems. Do you have any favorites?

National Poetry Month- Sir Walter Ralegh

I hope everyone has been reading and writing a lot of poems during National Poetry Month. Today I am going to feature Sir Walter Ralegh (Raleigh).

I am sure that many of you know that Sir Walter Ralegh tried and failed to establish two colonies on Roanoke Island in America, but he was also a poet. And on a side note he also introduced the potato to Ireland and tobacco to Europe. He lived from 1552-1618 when he was at Whitehall for treachery. Enjoy these two poems.

[On the Life of Man]
What is our life? a play of passion;
Our mirth the music of division;
Our mothers’ wombs the tiring-houses be
Where we are dressed for this short comedy.
Heaven the judicious sharp spectator is,
That sits and marks still who doth act amiss;
Our graves that hide us from the searching sun
Are like drawn curtains when the play is done.
Thus march we, playing, to our latest rest,
Only we die in earnest-that’s no jest.

[Sir Walter Ralegh to His Son]
Three things there be that prosper up apace
And flourish, whilst they grow asunder far,
But on a day, they meet all in one place,
And when they meet, they one another mar;
And they be these: the wood, the weed, the wag.
The wood is that which makes the gallow tree;
The weed is that which strings the hangman’s bag;
The wag, my pretty knave, betokeneth thee.
Mark well, dear boy, whilst these assemble not,
Green springs the tree, hemp grows, the wag is wild,
But when they meet, it makes the timber rot;
It frets the halter, and it chokes the child.
Then bless thee, and beware, and let us pray
We part not with thee at this meeting day.

National Poetry Month- autobiographical poem

Today in honor of National Poetry Month I am going to do an autobiographical poem base on the form below, by pretending that I am someone else. I will be skipping line 11.

Line 1: My name
Line 2: 3 personal characteristics or physical traits
Line 3: Brother or sister of or son/daughter of or husband/wife of
Line 4: I love 3 people, things, ideas
Line 5: I feels 1 emotion about 1 thing
Line 6: I need 3 things
Line 7: I share these 3 things
Line 8: I fear these three things
Line 9: I would like to see 1 place, or person
Line 10: I dream about 1 item or idea
Line 11: A student in my school or teacher's name
Line 12: My nickname or my first name

Eve
Woman, gullible, clothed
Wife of Adam
I love God, Adam and free will
I feel sad about eating the fruit
I need God, my husband, my food
I share consequences, a rib and Love
I fear God, pain and loss
I would like to see my grandchildren
I dream about the Garden of Eden
Eve

I hope you enjoyed learning about an autobiographical poem during National Poetry Month.

What is a Color Poem?

As National Poetry Month continues, we learn about a new type of poem. A color poem is about a single color by using analogies, similes or list nouns about that color. When writing a color poem the author can also use the five senses. Below is a poem I have written using the five senses.

Blue is all

Blue is a Rocky Mountain Bluebird in flight.
Blue is the sound a sunny day makes.
Blue smells like a blueberry.
Blue tastes like Blue Moon ice cream.
Blue feels like a hammock ready to swing in during the summer.
Blue is the color of love in my husband’s eyes.
Blue is a blue merle collie barking on a foggy spring morning.
Blue feels snug like my jeans.
Blue is the lid of peanut butter for the kids’ breakfast.
Blue is a pen I like to write with.
Blue is a robin’s eggs and the promise of new life.
Blue rose bushes are the promise of summer to come.
Blue is the passion when giving and receiving a blue diamond.
Blue is the ocean as big as God’s love.
Blue is the lonesome sound of a steam engine
Blue is the bluebells, delicate as life itself.
Blue tastes like mint, my toothpaste when I go to bed.

What is a Cinquain

In honor of National Poetry Month I am going to describe and show examples of different poetry. Today the form featured is cinquain.

In the early 1900’s Adelaide Crapsy read different tanka and haiku and so influenced she developed her own poetic system she called a cinquain. These poems consisted of twenty-two syllables distributed as 2, 4, 6, 8,2 in five lines.

The most famous of her cinquains from her book The Complete Poems is:
TRIAD
These be
Three silent things:
The falling snow... the hour
Before the dawn... the mouth of one
Just dead.

The cinquain I am doing today has this form:
Cinquains have five lines
Line 1: Title (noun) - 1 word
Line 2: Description - 2 words
Line 3: Action - 3 words
Line 4: Feeling (phrase) - 4 words
Line 5: Title (synonym for the title) - 1 word

Jon
Good, helpful
Plays with kids
Calm, loves his children
Father

If you want to create a cinquain tale on line click here.
If you want to a cinquain activity for you or your students click here.

A poem in Honor of National Poetry Month and Easter

Palm Sunday
It was a great day today
bluebirds and robins singing, clear sky.
It shows Easter is near.
Oh for that day,
Kenwood Park Presbyterian Church bells ringing
and from inside, sounds of rejoicing.
I love that holy day,
when Jesus died for my sins
and arose into heaven to be with the Father.

National Poetry Month

Did you know April was National Poetry Month? National Poetry Month was founded in 1996 by the Academy of American poets and has been celebrated annually. It has been celebrated in Canada since 1999. Let's celebrate this month.

• Poetry comes from the Greek word, poiesis.
• The oldest surviving poem is the Epic of Gilgamesh.
• American poet Emily Dickinson only published seven poems while alive.
• William Shakespeare wrote 154 sonnets and two narrative poems.
• John Keats was not popular while he lived. Now he is considered one of the best poets of the English Romantic movement.
• The Academy of American Poetry has a list of 30 ways to celebrate National Poetry Month. Please visit their website, www.poets.org for more information.
• Nostradamus wrote his prophecies in quatrains.
• Writer's Digest is having a poetry contest and has a special blog for National Poetry Month. Please go to here to learn more.

I hope you have enjoyed learning more about National Poetry month. I would enjoy hearing some of your poetry.