Poetry Friday

Poetry Friday: Axolotl Poem Process

October 17, 2024 /
Matt at Radio, Rhythm & Rhyme is our host this week. Hop on over there for the roundup.
 

Axolotl Poem Process

 
I have a twelve-line poem titled “Axolotl” in Pomelo Books’ newest anthology, Clara’s Kooky Compendium of Thimblethoughts and Wonderfuzz. I’m personally always fascinated by how other poets get from blank page to a finished poem, so I thought I’d walk you through my process for this poem.
 
I am “team handwritten draft” for my poetry. I do so much scribbling, crossing out, and rewriting. There’s just something about writing by hand for me that works. I don’t always do this for other types of writing, but for poetry, I start in a notebook 99% of the time. I’m going to include some of those messy handwritten pages.
 
You are welcome to share these with students as I think it’s helpful to see that poems don’t always come out fully formed (at least for me). I do a lot of thinking on paper.
 

1) Ideas!

Sylvia and Janet asked contributors to come up with something that was interesting to them to write about. I made a list of things I was fascinated by. I ultimately chose three things: garden gnomes, axolotls, and cicadas.
 
Students at my school LOVE axolotls–they can’t get enough axolotl books.
 

2) Research

I first did some basic research on axolotls and wrote down some notes, questions that I have, and possibilities for facts I could incorporate into a poem.
 

3) Brainstorming

We were also asked to connect our poems to a skill that students learn in language arts. I chose silent letters, onomatopoeia, and homophones.
 
So I brainstormed some potential words with silent letters to go in an axolotl poems.
 
I also brainstormed some rhyming words.
 
 

4) Drafting

I wrote a first draft with lots of starts and stops using some of the words with silent letters.
 
 

5) Switching gears

 
My first draft and idea didn’t work like I’d hoped, so I tried something different. I brainstormed some homophones that I could use in another completely different draft.
 

 

6) New Draft

 
I drafted a completely different poem.
 
 

7) Revision

 
Finally, I typed up my draft with some changes. Then I read it aloud, scanned it (marked stressed and unstressed syllables) and then made more changes.
 
 

8) Final draft

 
This is the published version of the poem. The published book has amazing art by Frank Ramspott.
 

 

Haiku of the Week

 
in dry desert air
a disheveled redhead
takes center stage
 
Haiku & Photo © 2024 Marcie Flinchum Atkins
 
Photo Taken: October 5, 2024 at United States Botanic Garden
 
Haiku Written: October 11, 2024
 
 
 

Poem as Picture Book

 
By Debra Shumaker
Illustrated by Josée Bisaillon
Kids Can Press, 2024

This 279-word poem metaphorically describes wind.

Poetry Connections

  • Metaphor
  • Alliteration
  • Assonance
  • Consonance
  • Vivid verbs
  • Imagery

Links

 
 

Grow

Last week I talked about how I was working on a book stanza by stanza. I finally finished a draft of the book this week. It always is such a sigh of relief. I definitely subscribe to the “get it down, then fix it up” philosophy, but getting a first draft down for me is sometimes a slog.
 
Now I get to fix it up. That’s the fun part.

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