Friday, September 21, 2018

More Pandas {Poetry Friday}



in solitary
grunts and barks speak
leave me alone

recent discovery
during
mating season

rapid
pulsating
bleats
1 call - come hither

once endangered
now vulnerable
may there be hope

keep on bleating
keep mating
keep growing



I'm re-continuing my study of the book Poems are Teachers How Studying Poetry Strengthen Writing in All Genres by Amy Ludwig Vanderwater.   Each week I will let you know the technique of the week I've played with and a thought or two about the process.  

"Current news stories might make us angry or sad or joyful, and writing gives us a way to give our feelings and reactions form."  Amy Ludwig Vanderwater


This week was Respond to Current News and I knew right away I was going to have to read some news because it doesn't help my emotions so I often ignore it.  I opened up my NY Times app that Pam Allyn recommended as her favorite and began scrolling down the list of today's articles.  I keep scrolling until I found, Decoding Panda's Come Hither Calls.

As I read the article, I started jotting words used in the article.  I then used my dictionary app to find other words for that word meaning.  Then I began drafting my poem and found I needed to do a little research on the levels of extinction.  I did worry I was giving an account of the information and not sharing a reaction.  I tried to work in my reaction at the end.


      Thank you Erin at The Water's Edge for hosting Poetry Friday this week.

9 comments:

  1. Oh, your hopeful words spoken TO the pandas at the end is absolutely a reaction of hope and encouragement. I now want to find this article. So interesting, and I love how you get across some of the science with just a few carefully chosen words. xxxx

    ReplyDelete
  2. I love your journey into poetry using the book Poems Are Teachers. Take an article and turn it into poetry. Perfect!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Vidéo funbuzz gratuitement. Funbuzz video for free.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Nice way to distill a news story into something beautiful while helping yourself & the reader to understand it better. And I'm so glad you've been enjoying Amy's book, Erin - it's a tremendously helpful resource, even for those of us who contributed. I'm constantly discovering thing I'd not considered before!

    ReplyDelete
  5. I like how you read the article and jotted words. I feel your sense of hope. I need to get Amy’s book,

    ReplyDelete
  6. I feel so grateful that scientists are intent on not losing species from our one & only Earth,
    including the giant panda.
    Appreciations for "More Pandas," a welcome poem of hope.

    ReplyDelete
  7. What a wonderful exercise and poem. I understand how the news is touchy these days. I end up upset quite a bit. Then, I'm not in any kind of writing mood. But, this article ... what I can tell of it is interesting science and environment and hopeful in that maybe more pandas will be born? Nicely done.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Playing with poetry is so much fun, and such a great mind-stretching challenge! I skipped over the title of your post and ended up trying to guess throughout the poem what animal you were describing, which made it more fun to read! (I thought it was some kind of deer, from some of the onomatopoeia... plus we have lots of deer where I live, so it was surprising to find out that it was pandas! Fun!)

    ReplyDelete
  9. I loved that ending--and that you found hopeful news to share

    ReplyDelete