I am participating in the March Slice of Life Story Challenge. Thanks to the co-authors of Two Writing Teachers for creating this supportive community.
The Assignment (from Jo Knowles in 59 Reasons to Write): Create a poem using your phone number.
The How-to: Pick a theme, then write your phone number down the length of the page. Each number represents how many words you should have on that line. A zero is a wild card so you can choose as many words as you like for that line.
The Poem:
Friends
6 Friends are treasures in our lives
1 Constant
0 Loyal
3 Ready to help
3 Ready to listen
1 Always
6 Friends are treasures in our lives
3 Don’t forget them
8 Time and distance can’t make memories fade away
5 True friends hold our hearts
The Reflection: I had fun with this poetry exercise. There was freedom yet structure within the constraint of number of words, and of course I got to pick my topic. Since friendship is a broad topic, I started by asking myself what I wanted to say about it. I started thinking about a couple of old friends who I don’t see often, but when we get together it’s like we were never apart.
What are you doing up so early on a Saturday morning?
Love this structure, Rose. I must try it out. I’m running out of ideas for blogging. Thanks for sharing yours.
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Thanks for the inspiration! I will try it.
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Oh, I had forgotten about this one. Thanks for the reminder to go back and read Kate’s 59 Reasons to Write. Yours is beautiful, Rose. Thanks for sharing your reflection as well. Always learning from you!
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Thank you Paula! Kate’s book is great for ideas.
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What a wonderful format. Thank you for the idea – I must try. More importantly you captured the need and joy of having good friends in so few words!
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You definitely nailed it! Friendship is all those things. I like your format. 🙂
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I have not shifted to poetry yet this month and I never thought of using Kate’s book. So far the topics keep coming – maybe that is because my life is a bit chaotic right now . I am saving the poetry ideas in case I give Poetry Friday a try in April again this year. Beautiful poem — I loved the line: Time and distance can’t make memories fade away. It works for kids who are growing and preparing to move away. My life!
Clare
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I love this idea… and had flagged a few things in Kate’s book, but not this one. Your poem is powerful.
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Love your poem, Rose! I will have to try this format!
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Great idea, especially for kids! I love your thoughts on “time and distance” – #truth
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Great thoughts on friends! Interesting structure, but I wonder how many phone calls you will get now. 🙂
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Good point. But it could be fake news. 😉
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A great idea, Rose! Love the theme of friendship too. Like Elsie, I wonder how many extra phone calls you’ll get too! 😉 All from good friends, of course!
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Feel free to give me a call!
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Another great idea for someone who is stuck during one of the 31 days of this challenge. Love it!
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I am so excited that I fell upon your post from another slicer, Laurie Pandorf. This is a wonderful activity, Rose. I am going to try it out next week. Your poem flowed on a topic that I hold dear to my heart.
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I am creating a phone poem for tomorrow’s slice, Rose, thanks to you and Laurie Pandorf.
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This is great, Rose. I love the structure. It’s not one I’ve seen before. Ma have to try it before this challenge is over.
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Hank you for sharing your process. I’ve heard of this type of poem but was stumped how to approach it. Thanks!
https://wordsmithing2017.wordpress.com
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Oh, my this is great! I read about it on “The Author’s Purpose” blog. Thank you for sharing.
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Wow, Rose, I love this! Just jotted it down in my notebook to try!
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Nice. I’ll have to try it sometime. You could use your zip code, too! Yay for 0!
http://mainelywrite.blogspot.com/2017/03/a-jealousy-post.htmlhttp://mainelywrite.blogspot.com
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You chose a great theme and structure. I have to try it soon. The reflection was also helpful. Thanks
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I love this! I’m totally going to steal the idea for my Creative Writing class during our poetry unit next month. Thanks!
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Rose (and Jo): I love this! Oh…I’m going to play around with this tomorrow in my writing. 🙂
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Rose, I love this format. I will definitely be trying it. I can see where my students would like it too.
ritadicarne.com
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A fun idea. Margaret on Poetry Friday shared a math form she & her students created from fractals. I love the math forms! Thanks for sharing!
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It’s try a different poetry structure month with TWT. This is a fun one, and your poem–the thoughts in it, the images, the rhythm–is beautiful.
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What a fun way to structure a poem. I like the idea of choosing the theme and then using the number to dictate the number of words in a line. Your theme came through loud and clear. Thanks for the slice.
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Yesterday March 19), I posted a phone poem for my slice. (Thanks to your directions.) Today, my first-grade students used the format on Day 1 of poetry writing. It was so fun so thank you again for sharing that wonderful idea.
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I’m so glad it worked out for you and your students! Thanks for letting me know.
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