2020 Post #18 -- I Am and I Am Not

by Linda Rief

COVID 19 has shut down many schools for the next few weeks, preventing so many of you from participating in those activities that make the school experience so important to you: athletics, drama, musicals, jazz band, orchestra, Mathcounts, Robotics, outdoor ed, community volunteer work, etc.

As you read the following excerpt think of the “Try This…” prompts in terms of what you are experiencing right now, at home or at school. You could start with the line “I am a… but…” or grab any one of the ideas and write as fast as you can, outrunning the censor in you that often stops the writing.

Read the poem out loud to yourself once. Then read the prompts underneath the excerpt, to see which one appeals to you the most. Then read the excerpt again, and write nonstop as quickly as you can for two to three minutes in response to any of the prompts. You are writing to find writing, trusting that the process will lead you to some surprises, some things you didn’t expect to write.

An Excerpt from Chapter 2 from The Running Dream (Van Draanen)

(from The Quickwrite Handbook, 2018, Heinemann)

I AM A RUNNER.

That’s what I do.

That’s who I am.

Running is all I know, or want, or care about.

It was a race around the soccer field in third grade that swept me into a real love of running.

Breathing the sweet smell of spring grass.

Sailing over dots of blooming clover.

Beating all the boys.

After that, I couldn’t stop. I ran everywhere. Raced everyone. I loved the wind across my cheeks, through my hair.

Running aired out my soul.

It made me feel alive.

And now?

I’m stuck in this bed, knowing I’ll never run again.



Try This (as quickly and as specifically as you can for 2-3 minutes):


Write out anything this excerpt brings to mind for you.

Borrow any line and write as fast as you can, letting the line lead your thinking.

Think about something you are passionate about (something that “airs out your soul,” “makes you feel alive”) and write down everything that makes this activity so important to you.

Start with the line “I AM A ___________ ", and fill in the blank, describing all that you do, think, feel, experience while doing this activity.

Change the line to “I am not a ____________", expanding on all the reasons why you are not whatever it is.

Her last two lines say she will never run again. What has stopped you, or has halted you temporarily, from doing something you love doing?


After finishing this one quickwrite, go back to see if there is a line or a phrase you want to slow down and develop. Write more. Or simply take some time to extend what you said in only two to three minutes.

Further Reading:

Linda left the classroom (reluctantly) last June (2019) after 40 years of learning from eighth graders. She misses their energy, their curiosity, and their desire to read and write. She is an instructor in the University of New Hampshire's Summer Literacy Institute and a national and international presenter on issues of adolescent literacy. Her latest two books are The Quickwrite Handbook (2018) and Read Write Teach (2014), both published through Heinemann. Her Twitter handle is @LindaMRief.

2020 Post #8 -- If

by Amy Ludwig VanDerwater

Sometimes the most difficult part of writing is revising. Sometimes the most difficult part of writing is feeling brave enough to share one’s own words with another. And sometimes the most difficult part of writing is getting started.

Try beginning a poem draft with one word -- the word "if." For when these two letters combine in this order -- i and then f -- worlds shift and change. We can lead with an if tied to a wonder...or an if clinging to a hope. We can write about our lived lives or imagined worlds. We can write about history or about today or about a future near or far from now. We can write about serious subjects and about lighthearted subjects. An if poem can include one if or many.


If you and I had never met…

If my mother was a koala bear…

If he found a rock and if the rock could talk…

If forgiveness was easy...

If someday our grandchildren live on the moon…

If you helped build the pyramids…


Starting a draft with this wee word, we can then choose to write in the first person (I or we), the second person (you), or the third person (he/she/they). Each choice matters.

The first three stanzas of Truth - from my newest book, WRITE! WRITE! WRITE!, beautifully illustrated by Ryan O’Rourke - leads with "if."

From Write, Write, Write! by Amy Ludwig VanDerwater, 2020, linked below. 

In my poem Like Windowpanes, I use the word only once, to invite a reader in.

In his famous poem titled "If," Rudyard Kipling repeats this gem of a word again and again, each time layering its meaning with more love and possibility, as the kinetic typography video below demonstrates well:

Read the whole poem HERE

It can be lovely to be handed a beginning. “Start here,” a friend says. And somehow, with a trusted soul holding this literary door for us, we do.

Further Reading: 

Amy Ludwig VanDerwater is author of several books for children including FOREST HAS A SONG, EVERY DAY BIRDS, READ! READ! READ!, DREAMING OF YOU, WITH MY HANDS: POEMS ABOUT MAKING THINGS, and her most recent WRITE! WRITE! WRITE! She is also author of the professional book POEMS ARE TEACHERS: HOW STUDYING POETRY STRENGTHENS WRITING IN ALL GENRES. Amy lives in an old farmhouse in Western New York, and blogs poetry and lessons at www.poemfarm.amylv.com.



P. S.
A GIVEAWAY!
Boyds Mills & Kane will generously offer a copy of Write, Write, Write! to a commenter on this post. Be sure to include your Twitter handle or email address so that Brett can contact you. Winner announced 3/24/20 on Twitter.