Tweetspeak Poetry

  • Home
  • FREE prompts
  • Earth Song
  • Every Day Poems—Subscribe! ✨
  • Teaching Tools
  • Books, Etc.
  • Patron Love

Poetry Classroom: Something to Amaze

By Julie L. Moore 9 Comments

Birches Poetry

Welcome to this month’s poetry classroom, with poet and professor Julie L. Moore. We invite you to respond to the poems we’ll share here—their forms, images, sounds, meanings, surprises—ask questions of Julie and each other, and write your own poems along the way.



Something to Amaze

There is one advantage
in not knowing everything,
in walking through fields
time and time again, still finding
something to amaze—
like these three birches
huddling together, feet
wedged in ice, snow
sifting through their arms.
And the shiver in those arms.
Their silent torsos
thick with acquiescence.

Photo by Lady Dragonfly CC Spring in Michigan. Creative Commons, via Flickr. Poem by Julie L. Moore, author of Particular Scandals

_____

Discussion Questions:

1. The poet says there is one advantage in not knowing everything, yet never states what that advantage is. In your opinion, how does this decision help or hinder the poem?

2. Note the repetition of “in” at the beginning of lines 2 & 3 and the repetition of “arms” at the end of lines 9 & 10. This is a catalog technique. What if the poet had pushed cataloging just a bit further? How might that have changed the poem?

Or, consider the visual effect of these repetitions placed and spaced the way they are; even if the poet did not do this consciously, it can have a slight effect on meaning at the subliminal level. What kind of an effect, in your opinion?

3. Do you hear the repetition of “s” sounds in the last five lines? What kind of feeling does that sound give you? How would this feeling change if, say, the poem repeated a lot of “k” sounds here instead?

Browse poets and poems
Browse more attentiveness poems
Browse more nature poems

  • Author
  • Recent Posts
Julie L. Moore
Latest posts by Julie L. Moore (see all)
  • Journey into Poetry: Julie L. Moore - October 16, 2013
  • Poetry Classroom: Nuthatch - July 29, 2013
  • Poetry Classroom: Universe - July 22, 2013

Filed Under: Attentiveness Poems, Blog, Catalog Poems, Nature Poems, Poems, poetry, Poetry Classroom, poetry teaching resources, Short Poems, Weather Poems

Try Every Day Poems...

Comments

  1. Tania Runyan says

    July 8, 2013 at 10:19 am

    The “s” sound not only goes with the iciness and snow in the poem; it suggests, to my ears, a whisper. While a “k” would have a cut-off, “crunchy” sound to it, suggesting some finality, the “s” here sort of sneaks and slithers (in a good way) into our souls, like this beautiful and haunting image discovered on a snowy walk.

    Reply
    • L.L. Barkat says

      July 8, 2013 at 11:00 am

      i hadn’t thought about it that way, but *yes.* A “k” sound contains finality.

      My daughter and I were discussing language the other day, and how it sounds very different from region to region. We were wondering how language may or may not reflect the dominant sounds of a region’s environment as well as the general experience of that environment (would there, for instance, be more “k” sounds in the languages that are in harsh conditions?)

      I liked the “s” sounds in this poem. Made me long for the peaceful kind of winter day that is all beauty and wonder.

      Reply
  2. Jon Lewis says

    July 8, 2013 at 12:18 pm

    I enjoy the use of the sylibant hush of s’s, I can feel the slippery soft s’s in the
    hushed sounds of snow over the limbs
    hushed wind againt trees skins
    hushes shivering of the trees
    I can almost hear their teeth
    chattering/errant flaps of thin
    parchment skin
    rustling

    I would disagree here regarding the advantage to not knowing everything. Which is very clear to me. If one knows everything one cannot therefore be surprised by anything. There could be amazement in discovery.

    I like the repetition. I typically use it in 3’s though. 2 is never enough for me and well 4 is just plain silly.

    Reply
    • Elizabeth W. Marshall says

      July 8, 2013 at 5:13 pm

      Jon, interesting I think I tend to use the repetition you reference in three’s also. I wonder why three feels just right….to me as well.

      Reply
  3. Elizabeth W. Marshall says

    July 8, 2013 at 5:10 pm

    The ‘In’s” draw the reader into the poem, as does the statement that there is “one advantage”. You proceed into the poem, as a maze/puzzle seeking the way in or out. And the s gives you a circuitous route through the poem, the path winds with the sound of s. To me the one advantage is that there is always discovery. Always unknowns, always newness, findings and unveilings along the route. The feet, arms, torso give the trees a humanity/human quality. While the verb huddle is primarily associated with antimate objects. There is something cold and haunting about birch bark and that comes through in the word choices in the last two lines.

    Reply
  4. Bonnie Lee says

    July 9, 2013 at 8:40 pm

    The advantage of not knowing everything is the advantage of child-like wonder. If we can find joy in the natural world then we have the advantage over those who might look at the world through a jaded lens. Or perhaps the advantage is the incentive to keep learning about our world.

    Reply
  5. Julie L. Moore says

    July 10, 2013 at 2:54 pm

    Thanks for all these wonderful comments. Yes, amazement, child-like wonder, discovery. Acquiescence can have both positive and negative connotations. How might this poem be trying to exploit both of those connotations at once? And what does the juxtaposition of the shivering limbs with the silent trunk make you think of?

    Reply
  6. Elizabeth W. Marshall says

    July 11, 2013 at 9:14 am

    Julie, upon reading this again. I am struck by the silence and shivering word choices. They speak of fear and vulnerability. But they bring to mind a quiet and silent knowing. A trusting because of the rootedness.

    I also think of the Trinity when I hear the threes. And certainly there are unknown mysteries and a trusting in a walking out of faith.

    Snow sifting through the arms is a picture of what is carried for us, a taking on of burdens by another. Allowing us to not be buried under….were it not for the sifting.

    Reply
  7. Julie L. Moore says

    July 11, 2013 at 9:33 am

    Oh my, that is so beautifully interpreted, Elizabeth. Thanks so much.

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Take How to Read a Poem

Get the Introduction, the Billy Collins poem, and Chapter 1

get the sample now

Welcome to Tweetspeak

New to Tweetspeak Poetry? Start here, in The Mischief Café. You're a regular? Check out our May Menu

Patron Love

❤️

Welcome a little patron love, when you help keep the world poetic.

The Graphic Novel

"Stunning, heartbreaking, and relevant illustrations"

Callie Feyen, teacher

read a summary of The Yellow Wallpaper

meet The Yellow Wallpaper characters

How to Write Poetry

Your Comments

  • Glynn on World War II Had Its Poets, Too
  • Sandra Fox Murphy on World War II Had Its Poets, Too
  • Glynn on Poets and Poems: Kelly Belmonte and “The Mother of All Words”
  • Bethany R. on Poets and Poems: Kelly Belmonte and “The Mother of All Words”

Featured In

We're happy to have been featured in...

The Huffington Post

The Paris Review

The New York Observer

Tumblr Book News

Stay in Touch With Us

Categories

Learn to Write Form Poems

How to Write an Acrostic

How to Write a Ballad

How to Write a Catalog Poem

How to Write a Ghazal

How to Write a Haiku

How to Write an Ode

How to Write a Pantoum

How to Write a Rondeau

How to Write a Sestina

How to Write a Sonnet

How to Write a Villanelle

5 FREE POETRY PROMPTS

Get 5 FREE inbox poetry prompts from the popular book How to Write a Poem

Shakespeare Resources

Poetry Classroom: Sonnet 18

Common Core Picture Poems: Sonnet 73

Sonnet 104 Annotated

Sonnet 116 Annotated

Character Analysis: Romeo and Juliet

Character Analysis: Was Hamlet Sane or Insane?

Why Does Hamlet Wait to Kill the King?

10 Fun Shakespeare Resources

About Shakespeare: Poet and Playwright

Top 10 Shakespeare Sonnets

See all 154 Shakespeare sonnets in our Shakespeare Library!

Explore Work From Black Poets

About Us

  • • A Blessing for Writers
  • • Our Story
  • • Meet Our Team
  • • Literary Citizenship
  • • Poet Laura
  • • Poetry for Life: The 5 Vital Approaches
  • • T. S. Poetry Press – All Books
  • • Contact Us

Write With Us

  • • 5 FREE Poetry Prompts-Inbox Delivery
  • • 30 Days to Richer Writing Workshop
  • • Poetry Prompts
  • • Submissions
  • • The Write to Poetry

Read With Us

  • • All Our Books
  • • Book Club
  • • Every Day Poems—Subscribe! ✨
  • • Literacy Extras
  • • Poems to Listen By: Audio Series
  • • Poet-a-Day
  • • Poets and Poems
  • • 50 States Projects
  • • Charlotte Perkins Gilman Poems Library
  • • Edgar Allan Poe Poems Arts & Experience Library
  • • William Blake Poems Arts & Experience Library
  • • William Shakespeare Sonnet Library

Celebrate With Us

  • • Poem on Your Pillow Day
  • • Poetic Earth Month
  • • Poet in a Cupcake Day
  • • Poetry at Work Day
  • • Random Acts of Poetry Day
  • • Take Your Poet to School Week
  • • Take Your Poet to Work Day

Gift Ideas

  • • Every Day Poems
  • • Our Shop
  • • Everybody Loves a Book!

Connect

  • • Donate
  • • Blog Buttons
  • • By Heart
  • • Shop for Tweetspeak Fun Stuff

Copyright © 2025 Tweetspeak Poetry · FAQ, Disclosure & Privacy Policy