Dragonfly Tree/Poems about Objects

Hip, hip, hooray! It's Poetry Friday! Thanks for stopping by today, and be sure to visit Amy at The Poem Farm. She's gathering up all the poetry seeds today!

One of my favorite things to write about is the very old elm tree in my back yard. I included a picture of it in my poem today. Isn't it a beauty? I call it the Dragonfly Tree because every fall I see a swarm of dragonflies at the very tip top.

So many inspirations for writing grow from this ancient tree. I love to watch it change throughout the seasons. Each time I write about it, I discover new things to say. It's so much fun to play with poems, especially when they are about something I care about and write about often. So whenever I finish a poem about a topic I write about frequently, I know that I can return to that poem again with fresh eyes.

Sometimes I don't always feel settled on the way a poem turns out, so it's a relief to me to know that I can always go back and change it up. The poem I am sharing today is certainly a great example of how this happens for me. In my "Dragonfly Tree" poem, I knew that I wanted to include lots of repetition and rhyming to mimic the flight and sound of swarming dragonflies. After I had written the poem, I put it to the side for awhile and then reread it. That's when I started to get an itch to play with it. I began to wonder if there were other rhyming or near-rhyming words that I might like better than the ones I had originally chosen. I admit, I was a little overwhelmed by all the choices I had. Then I remembered that it's okay to feel that way. Since I know that I' ll be writing about the Dragonfly Tree again someday, I can revise the poem a bit and move on.

So while this is where I landed with this particular poem, you can bet I'll be writing some other poems to share with you about my favorite tree!  

You can learn more about the dragonfly HERE.

Invitation to Write:

Think about some of your magnet topics. These topics are usually things you are drawn to writing about. They might include people, places, or objects. Pick one and write a poem about it, or choose a poem you have already written. Reread your poem and then put it aside. Take a walk or do something else for a little bit just to create some space from what you have written. Then come back to your poem and reread it again with fresh eyes. Think about your poem in a new way. What do you notice? Do you see any places that you might want to spend some more time trying out your other options? Try plugging a few things in and see what you get. You'll know when it's time to move on, but have fun with it until then. It's poetry playtime!