1 You hike along a path one morning. You see ferns under tall trees. The ferns hold water droplets. Your leg brushes against one. Your leg gets wet. You keep walking. There is so much to see on the path.
2 Maybe you need to go shopping. You pull into a parking space. You see a sparrow land in the parking lot. Someone left some fast food on the ground. The bird spies the food. It hops over to get a bite to eat. You turn and walk into the store.
3 You can turn those two events into poetry. Two examples follow. Both were written in the "Have You Seen" form of poetry.
Have you seen
the spring green fern
dripping with dew
nodding in the breeze
Have you seen?
Have you seen
the small dark bird
hopping across the parking lot
pecking at a french fry
Have you seen?
4 What do you notice about these poems? First, you may notice that they begin and end with the same line. When you write a Have-You-Seen poem, you already know what the first and last lines will be!
5 Next, you see that this type of poetry doesn't rhyme. That makes it easier to compose. Compose [kuhm-POHZ] is another word for write.
Paragraphs 6 to 14:
For the complete story with questions: click here for printable
