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Sally Murphy, Australian author

Teacher Tuesday: My Shadow

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Welcome to the second edition of Teacher Tuesday for 2023.

Last week I shared a unit of work for teaching Worse Things in upper primary classrooms. This week  I wanted to share a favourite poem that you can share with classes of any age.

Choosing poetry for the classroom doesn’t have to be hard. There are lots and lots of wonderful collections and anthologies. But there are also a lot of poems in the public domain including one of my favourites: My Shadow, by Robert Louis Stevenson.

First, listen to it read, with pictures of my shadow enjoying my local beach.

Feel free to use this video in your classroom – I’d love to know what your students think of the poem, my reading – and my amazing beach.

If you’d like a copy of the words, here they are:

My Shadow

by Robert Louis Stevenson

I have a little shadow that goes in and out with me,
And what can be the use of him is more than I can see.
He is very, very like me from the heels up to the head;
And I see him jump before me, when I jump into my bed.

The funniest thing about him is the way he likes to grow—
Not at all like proper children, which is always very slow;
For he sometimes shoots up taller like an india-rubber ball,
And he sometimes gets so little that there’s none of him at all.

He hasn’t got a notion of how children ought to play,
And can only make a fool of me in every sort of way.
He stays so close beside me, he’s a coward you can see;
I’d think shame to stick to nursie as that shadow sticks to me!

One morning, very early, before the sun was up,
I rose and found the shining dew on every buttercup;
But my lazy little shadow, like an arrant sleepy-head,
Had stayed at home behind me and was fast asleep in bed.

What can you do with this poem? Lots of things! Read it aloud to your students – from the early years right through. It is a beautiful poem to read aloud, and fun to learn to recite, too.

But, after you’ve read it, why not link the poem to a science lesson – experimenting with the way that shadows are made by different light sources.  Find out why shadows are sometimes bigger or smaller than the person or object.  The Science Sparks website has some excellent ideas for classroom activities here.

Or, perhaps you want to use the poem as the inspiration for an art lesson. Have students draw around each other’s shadows, for a life size self-portrait.  Use a lamp to make shadows of different sized objects and draw around them. Or, go outside and search for shadows.

If you want more poems and poetry ideas, you might find these older posts of mine useful:

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If you’ve used My Shadow, or have another wonderful poem or poetry idea, feel free to tell me about it in the comments.  Otherwise, I’ll see you next Tuesday.

Poetry Friday: A Spam Poem

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It’s Poetry Friday and when I came to my website to decide what to post, the first thing I noticed was the number of spam comments waiting for my approval – or, in fact, my non-approval, because I really do not approve of spam comments, especially ones which I know are going to lead the reader to some nefarious website.

But, because I have been enjoying writing found poems, and especially black out poetry, lately, I  couldn’t resist a quick scan of some of these messages, looking for some gems to craft a found poem. So, here you have it – a found poem crafted from my spam messages – which have now been carefully deleted.

Spam

Watch movies

before anyone else

foreign movies

master movies

every day!

Nurturing campaigns

cheap auto insurance

private advancement:

a completely new marketplace.

Congratulations!

 

Not my best ever poem – but at least I found a use for some of that spam.

As I said, I’ve had a bit of fun with found poetry lately – and a future verse novel (slated for 2024 release, so there’s a bit of a wait) makes use of the form. I’ve also been writing found poems using words from some of my reading, and sharing them over on my  Instagram account. This one came from a page of the classic book Heidi.

A little more satisfying than spam, I’m sure you’ll agree.

You know what else is more satisfying than  spam?  A midnight feast of leftovers. Jama is hosting this week’s roundup, and sharing a fun thanksgiving poem, too.  Head over there to join in the feast.

 

 

Poetry Friday: We Will Remember

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It is Poetry Friday and it is also Remembrance Day.

If you have ever attended a Remembrance Day service or, if you’re Australian, an ANZAC Service, you will have heard, and perhaps even recited these words, as the Ode of Remembrance:

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them…

But you may not have realised these words come from a much longer poem, beautiful and poignant in its entirety. So, for today, I give you the full poem, read  as it should be read by  Sir John Gielgud:

 

I also wanted to share the war poem that had a profound impact on me as a teenager – The Ball Turret Gunner – shocking, brief and utterly devastating – but because it is not in the public domain, I’ll just share a link to where it is shared with permission. That last line is shocking, which is why it is so very powerful.

This Remembrance Day I’ll be thinking of those who have fought and died, but also of all those around the world who are still experiencing war – as participants or as innocent victims. And I’ll keep hoping that one day peace can be  a real, enduring thing.

Today’s Poetry Friday Roundup will be hosted by Buffy

Poetry Friday: Wordy 30s

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Last week, I smiled when I read Molly’s post, where she shared her efforts writing Wordy 30s, a poetic form shared with her by another Poetry Friday friend, Mary Lee Hahn, who found it, I believe, here.

In short, the form is simple: write a poem with exactly 30 letters.

Wait, that isn’t really simple – to share a complete thought in just 30 letters? And there’s one more rule. Every line must have exactly the same number of letters. So – 6 lines with letters each, or 5 lines with 6 letters each, or even three lines with ten letters each.   If you are a Wordle-devotee like me, you will possibly see that this is a bit like wordle-poetry – except instead of guessing the five letter word (or six, or whatever), you need to find a way to make the words say something. And, because it’s poetry, they should be considered, organised and, well, poetic.

It took me a while to get started, but eventually I came up with a 6 x 5 about the thing that has been most on my mind this week: my new furbaby George. And why wouldn’t he be front and centre on my mind, having been with me only since last Friday? Anyway, here’s what I came up with

George

brings

warmth

wisdom

gaiety.

  © Sally Murphy 2022)

But, once I’d written a 6 x 5, I knew almost straight away I had to try a 5 x 6. I  also (nor surprisingly) spent a great deal of this week thinking about poetry – and, wouldn’t you know, it – poetry has five letters.  And  poetry makes me feel as happy as this guy, so why wouldn’t I write about it?

Bug

Write

poems

share

poems

smile

relax.

 ( © Sally Murphy 2022)

Okay, job done. Except, just like Wordle, this form is a little addictive and I couldn’t stop. I started wondering whether it would work for a 10 x 3. Could I actually use 10 3 letters words in a row and still make sense? You can decide:

Top

hat

and

bow

tie.

Off

for

tea

and

jam.

(  © Sally Murphy 2022)

I dunno – but maybe this is someone setting off for a Poetry Friday tea party?

Not done yet, I figured I’d try a 3 x 10. I knew this one would be hard, but maybe my little bug friend was dancing in my brain my then because this is what I came up with (after scouring a list of 10 letter words, looking for connections:

 

Quicksteps

Hokeypokey

Joypopping!

(© Sally Murphy 2022)

And then, of course, my mind wandered to the final combination – 2 x 15. Possible? Again, I’m still not sure, because again, all I could do was scour a list of 15 letter words and look for connections. I found one in books:

Journalisations

bibliotherapies.

(  © Sally Murphy 2022)

Not sure it’s a poem – but it was good exercise.

Lastly, I knew there was one possible last way of doing this: to find a single 30 letter word, which spoke all by itself. A search found only 1 30 letter word. And it’s a medical term. So, the only way I could  try to make it poetic was to add a title, which I guess is cheating, but here goes:

1 Thing I Hope I Have not Inherited

Pseudopseudohypoparathyroidism

( © Sally Murphy 2022)

And of course, this search led me to consider just how long a word can be. According to Wikipedia – the answer to this question is ‘it depends’. It depends on whether we accept medical and technical words, or nonsense words. If we accept both, the longest word is – wait for it – 189,819 letters long. Which I can’t even fit into this post, let alone ever attempt to use in a poem.

Another thing to watch is all the other amazing posts for Poetry Friday. This week’s roundup is hosted by Matt. Head over to his blog later today to see the full list of Poetry Friday goodness. 

 

Oh, in late-breaking news, George has decided he wants to be part of Poetry Friday too. He’s posted a Georgeku on Instagram. Clever George!

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Guru George (@georgesguidetolife)

 

 

 

Black Out Poetry #1

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I’ve been thinking about this idea for a while, and it seems today is the day.

I used to write a lot of  book reviews – on my review site Aussiereviews. But as I’ve got busier and busier, I’ve found I just don’t have the time.   But I still love spreading the word about wonderful books I read – in my monthly round up here in my blog, by word of mouth, and through social media posts.

So, I wondered, could I bring together my love of poetry, my love of reading, and the quick tools of social media, to write in response to some of the books I read.

My idea was to scan a random page from a book I love, and use it  to write a black-out poem (sometimes called a Found Poem, though black out poetry is a particular type of found poem).

And, today, I finally had a go.

First, here’s the book I am reading:

Beautiful cover for a beautiful book!

Next, the page I chose – page 138 – and my black-out effort:

And lastly, tidied up, to make it easier to read, here is the poem:

I plan to do more of these – as the mood hits me, and the book hits me.  I’ll post them on Instagram first  and then might post them here in a separate post, or else will add to them my monthly reading roundup. Not sure yet.

Either way, I hope you enjoy them – and that this one inspires you to read Evie and Rhino.  I’m off to finish reading it 🙂

Poetry Friday: Welcome Spring!

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The days are getting longer and a teensy bit warmer. My daffodils are flowering and  there’s a spring  in my step.

That’s right – spring is here!  And yesterday, the first official day of spring in Australia, I found a poem bubbling up from the midst of my joy.

Come in!

Welcome Spring!

Come on in!

Let warmer sunny days begin.

Let daffies trumpet to the sky

That Spring is here

And Summer nigh.

 

Welcome Spring!

So glad you’re here

Let balmy blue-skied days appear.

Let flowers, bees and birds proclaim

How glad we feel

Because you came.

 

Welcome Spring,

My dear old friend!

You herald dreary Winter’s end

Such delight and joy you bring

As we welcome

Welcome

Welcome

SPRING!

 

(Sally Murphy, 2022)

 

And it’s not only Spring, but it’s also Poetry Friday. Imagine my giggle when I saw that today’s host, Linda at TeacherDance, has titled her own post Welcome September. Of course September is a little different in her part of the world, so it’s wonderful to think we are each able to celebrate such different beginnings.

Happy Spring! Happy September! And (shhhhhhhh) happy birthday to me 🙂

 

 

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