National Poetry Month...with a wildlife twist

<span style="font-family: inherit;">April is National Poetry Month! From the Poets.org website: "Inaugurated by the Academy of American Poets in 1996, National Poetry Month is now held every April, when publishers, booksellers, literary organizations, libraries, schools and poets around the country band together to celebrate poetry and its vital place in American culture. Thousands of businesses and non-profit organizations participate through readings, festivals, book displays, workshops, and other events."</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;">Poetry has held a place in many cultures for thousands of years.  The Japanese consider it an art, European authors have expressed political and cultural messages and feeling though poetry for centuries.  And, in America, many naturalists have used peotry to convey the beauty of the American landscape for generations.  Some examples include:</span><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><strong><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><em>Low-Anchored Cloud</em></span></strong></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><em></em></span></div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilY3-855Wwd2GvQAYQhkjxdap-hjAeG3PbzHbBZnok8HkMxRzJoFwya6Ahf9Qq-DjGRC3uB8bHEEmkRajNnfsP3cyWMDhfp0NU2grwSBYml6d6gDtociPy7kBBaKq7CYbXIsC247NUOIyD/s1600/images.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="cssfloat: right; height: 139px; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; width: 309px;"><img border="0" height="133" qda="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilY3-855Wwd2GvQAYQhkjxdap-hjAeG3PbzHbBZnok8HkMxRzJoFwya6Ahf9Qq-DjGRC3uB8bHEEmkRajNnfsP3cyWMDhfp0NU2grwSBYml6d6gDtociPy7kBBaKq7CYbXIsC247NUOIyD/s200/images.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><em>Low-anchored cloud, </em></span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><em>Newfoundland air, </em></span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><em>Fountain-head and source of rivers, </em></span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><em>Dew-cloth, dream-drapery, </em></span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><em>And napkin spread by fays; </em></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><em>Drifting meadow of the air, </em></span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><em>Where bloom the daisied banks and violets, </em></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><em>And in whose fenny labyrinth </em></span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><em>The bittern booms and heron wades; </em></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><em>Spirit of lakes and seas and rivers, </em></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><em>Bear only perfumes and the scent </em></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><em>Of healing herbs to just men's fields!</em></span> </div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: center;"><strong><em>by Henry David Thoreau</em></strong></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><em><strong>The Dalliance of the Eagles</strong></em></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><em></em></span></div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibhgJO3DkRrqbr3CqaNwrVwYfM3tEeW05kthb2nuP1Pxp5cetvWEkHaahvlcXbhNGIfAyN81rol5B0IXVBmko8xmID66jISoS3e7kjd53HBLwehwAVva-shLEJh5k9-_-Q2N5HWC59yVV7/s1600/imagesCAE0M8C3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="158" qda="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibhgJO3DkRrqbr3CqaNwrVwYfM3tEeW05kthb2nuP1Pxp5cetvWEkHaahvlcXbhNGIfAyN81rol5B0IXVBmko8xmID66jISoS3e7kjd53HBLwehwAVva-shLEJh5k9-_-Q2N5HWC59yVV7/s200/imagesCAE0M8C3.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><em>Skirting the river road, (my forenoon walk, my rest,) </em></span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><em>Skyward in air a sudden muffled sound, the dalliance of the eagles, </em></span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><em>The rushing amorous contact high in space together, </em></span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><em>The clinching interlocking claws, a living, fierce, gyrating wheel, </em></span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><em>Four beating wings, two beaks, a swirling mass tight grappling, </em></span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><em>In tumbling turning clustering loops, straight downward falling </em></span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><em>Till o'er the river pois'd, the twain yet one, a moment's lull, </em></span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><em>A motionless still balance in the air, then parting, talons loosing, </em></span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><em>Upward again on slow-firm pinions slanting, their separate diverse flight, </em></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><em>She hers, he his, pursuing. </em></span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><strong><em>by Walt Whitman</em></strong></span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"></div><br /><br /><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Writing and poetry are fantastic ways to help kids learn more about nature and wildlife.  And, as you can see in the above examples, poetry allows for beauty and expressiveness that can often be left out of regular narrative writing.  </span></div><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;">One exercise that we've often done with students and adults is the Project WILD activity Animal Poetry.  <em> </em>The objective of this activity is to help students recognize and experience the inspirational value of wildlife through poetry.  The students spend time outside and imagine themselves as animals, then write poems about that experience.  </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;">Some suggested poem formats include Haiku, which is a Japanese lyric verse form that has three unryhmed lines that have 5, 7 and 5 syllables.  Haiku traditionally and ideally presents a pair of contrasting images: one suggestive of time and place, the other a vivid but fleeting observation.  When they work together, the poem evokes mood and emotion.  An example follows: </span><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><em><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">The hawk soared over</span></em></div><div style="text-align: center;"><em><span style="font-family: Georgia;">Spirit bird in my living</span></em></div><div style="text-align: center;"><em><span style="font-family: Georgia;">Guide to harmony</span></em></div> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDp7F4E-6ppjmI5cR7yZOHhlKTEN6P-4E2agb3n6cd6HkmDL7F0MUss24wzm0BM1b-Phi8VIM4q9Cn81GiDFdR0YrD7xfo4cqjIFHUYniKQwNLEPn0KJSdPsxoEUXOD8xg_DEjS9AgB6v-/s1600/imagesCASYON3N.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="146" qda="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDp7F4E-6ppjmI5cR7yZOHhlKTEN6P-4E2agb3n6cd6HkmDL7F0MUss24wzm0BM1b-Phi8VIM4q9Cn81GiDFdR0YrD7xfo4cqjIFHUYniKQwNLEPn0KJSdPsxoEUXOD8xg_DEjS9AgB6v-/s200/imagesCASYON3N.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Any guesses on what species of hawk this is?</td></tr></tbody></table> <span style="font-family: inherit;">Another suggested format is Cinquain.  This is an American derived format that is comprised of five unrhyming lines of, respectively, two, four, six, eight and two syllables or words.  Each line has a purpose and number of syllables or words as follows: line 1 is a title of two syllables (words), line 2 is a description of the title in 4 syllables (words), line 3 is a descriptive action in 6 syllables (words), line 4 is a description of a feeling in 8 syllables (words) , and line 5 is another word for the title in two syllables or words.  An example follows:</span><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><em>Bobcat</em></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><em>Vital, quiet</em></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><em>Moving swiftly to live</em></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><em>Endangered by human patterns</em></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><em>Near lost</em></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsEwQd7R-B8B241EpKD5QTEaQ5kEnOKDmXI5ntFA9S5amlx3CzTk8Bqf1ZR-JBpqKdUXqWd9HLJ0ltWAkslB7gR892zIP_lTaOgJEK-oI-eNH1uDtFDgMkd9sZl7pUDyEAJoy6NZZenx_V/s1600/imagesCA5XCJ7V.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="149" qda="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsEwQd7R-B8B241EpKD5QTEaQ5kEnOKDmXI5ntFA9S5amlx3CzTk8Bqf1ZR-JBpqKdUXqWd9HLJ0ltWAkslB7gR892zIP_lTaOgJEK-oI-eNH1uDtFDgMkd9sZl7pUDyEAJoy6NZZenx_V/s200/imagesCA5XCJ7V.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;">And finally, Diamante is a poem that can be used with students.  It is a poem shaped in the form of a diamond.  It can be used to show that words are related through shades of meaning from one extreme to an opposite extreme, following a pattern of parts of speech like this:</span><br /><br /><div align="center"><span style="font-family: inherit;">noun</span></div><div align="center"><span style="font-family: inherit;">adjective  adjective</span></div><div align="center"><span style="font-family: inherit;">participle  participle  participle</span></div><div align="center"><span style="font-family: inherit;">noun  noun  noun  noun</span></div><div align="center"><span style="font-family: inherit;">participle  participle  participle</span></div><div align="center"><span style="font-family: inherit;">adjective  adjective</span></div><div align="center"><span style="font-family: inherit;">noun</span></div><div align="center"><br /></div><div align="left" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">If you are having trouble remembering what a participle is, it is word that functions as a verb, but ends in ing or ed.  So you might be "carrying" something, carrying is a participle.  An example of a Diamante follows:</span></div><div align="left" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br /></div><div align="center" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><em><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">egg</span></em></div><div align="center" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><em><span style="font-family: Georgia;">light bright</span></em></div><div align="center" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><em><span style="font-family: Georgia;">living stretching growing</span></em></div><div align="center" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><em><span style="font-family: Georgia;">bird beak wing flight</span></em></div><div align="center" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><em><span style="font-family: Georgia;">soaring seeing seeking</span></em></div><div align="center" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><em><span style="font-family: Georgia;">feathered fluid</span></em></div><div align="center" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><em><span style="font-family: Georgia;">crow</span></em></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwxatD1QXQ4HiiS-WiqZn7v3X5m8M97xW4_OtMkfmEYAYhqd9NBrHMeGXz3LOvCJGcDB2px-XckQg-Who-pol08H0R6Cr7QpNX3y9Kmf1i2UV7mzCQEhhi0hUcM507xmssgZcSRAzItcGt/s1600/imagesCAK1PMNO.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" qda="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwxatD1QXQ4HiiS-WiqZn7v3X5m8M97xW4_OtMkfmEYAYhqd9NBrHMeGXz3LOvCJGcDB2px-XckQg-Who-pol08H0R6Cr7QpNX3y9Kmf1i2UV7mzCQEhhi0hUcM507xmssgZcSRAzItcGt/s200/imagesCAK1PMNO.jpg" width="133" /></a></div><div align="center" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br /></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Students can take their completed poems and type them or print them neatly and then display them with their focus animal, either illustrated or with a photograph.  Some follow-up questions to ask the students after their lesson could be a discussion on why some people say they would not want to live in a world without animals, would they want to live in a world without animals, what kinds of wildlife would they want to see regularly, and why.</span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">So, enjoy April as National Poetry Month. And take your kids outside to find all that nature has to offer for inspiration.  There is no shortage no matter where you are.  You just have to look for it!</span></div><br /><em><br /></em><br /><em><br /></em><br /><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><em><br /></em></div><em><br /></em><br /><em><br /></em><br /><em><br /></em><br /><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><em><br /></em></div><em><br /></em>

National Poetry Month...with a wildlife twist

April is National Poetry Month! From the Poets.org website: "Inaugurated by the Academy of American Poets in 1996, National Poetry Mont...

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