Tweetspeak Poetry

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

Make It: Poetry Hearts at the Table

By Callie Feyen 10 Comments

Hearts for Poetry Activity Callie Feyen
I bought milk in a glass jug—a charming, thick jug with no label except for the cap. The jug brought a comforting heftiness I felt when carrying it back to the fridge, a friendly clink and rattle when I twirled the cap back on.

“We should keep this jug after the milk’s gone,” my daughter Hadley said, scooping up the last of her Rice Chex, then lifting the bowl with both hands to slurp the rest of the milk.

I agreed. We needed to keep this jug.

“But what will we do with it?” my other daughter Harper asked. I told her I wasn’t sure, but something this delightful couldn’t be recycled just yet.

It was December when I rinsed the jug and placed it in the dishwasher; once it was clean and dry I placed it on a bookshelf, waiting for what would happen next.

The beginning of a new year is supposed to be an inspiring time for resolutions, goals, and intentions. But, to be frank, the newness I feel at this juncture is more stark, raw, like a tree branch that’s lost all its leaves. I don’t mind this feeling. I believe rebirth and growth will happen, but I’d like to spend a bit of time in the bareness of a new year.

So one afternoon, I took a walk around our backyard looking for sticks without leaves. I decided to fill the jug with fallen branches—a reminder that it’s okay to sit in the empty newness, enjoy its crispness, its vacancy, its silence.

The jug sat on our kitchen table holding the branches. The table is old and small, one my husband Jesse and I got 18 years ago. We’ve had Thanksgiving dinners on this table and lazy Sunday morning breakfasts. I wrote my first published essay on this table. It’s dented with marks from my pen, our daughters’ first attempts at scratching out letters on paper, accidental scrapes from a knife or fork.

One Friday long ago, Jesse had come home from work with a hankering to try a DIY project. “I’ll weather our table,” he said. He turned it on its side and rolled it to our balcony of the third floor condominium we were living in. All weekend he worked, sanding it and painting it white then sanding it again. It was a beautiful table before, but I love it more now because of what he turned it into. We can see the dents more clearly now, and there is fluorescent pink paint that won’t come off from an art project one of our daughters pursued on a rainy day. I am thankful for what this table shows, what it has held, and what it’s turned into.

Now the milk jug was holding bare branches at the edge of the table next to a window.

Making the Poetry Hearts

Making Poetry Hearts with Astonishments

1 • Choosing a line to copy

The last week of January had me thinking about making paper hearts and hanging them on the branches. The girls and I drew hearts with pink markers on computer paper. Harper’s art teacher taught her how to Zentangle, a phrase I think is fun just to say, but it’s equally fun to practice.

Harper showed Hadley and me how to fill up a space with a design, and as we worked, we did some talking. We discussed recess and soccer, art, and books, boys and friends, Maryland and Michigan, all while we tangled designs into our hearts. We slipped string through a punched hole, tied a knot, and hung about ten hearts from the bare branches.

The next morning, I pulled a stack of books from our shelves and told the girls I thought it would be fun to write phrases we liked on the back of the hearts. I showed them my Anna Kamienska poetry book, Astonishments, running my finger under lines I liked.

Hadley liked “Gratitude is a scattered/homeless love,” and wrote that on a heart. I think scattered is the sound the dead leaves make when the winter wind blows, freezing the leaves back into the earth, sinking them into something new.

Finished Poetry Heart

2 • Write It on Your Heart

Harper liked “I believe that radiance/spreads splendidly/on all things,” and wrote the words around the perimeter of her heart.

I said that the word radiance makes me feel warm as I spread cream cheese in thick swaths over our bagels.

“Mommy! Look out the window!” Harper stood, holding her Bear with one arm and pointing with the other. Hadley and I looked, and right away we knew what she was excited about—it was well before 8 a.m., and the sky was a fiery orange blasting away the dark and leading the sky to blue.

Poetry Hearts in Glass Jug

3 • Hearts Filled and Arranged

“Morning’s here,” Harper whispered. “Take a picture.”

I did, and the three of us returned to our kitchen table with the glass milk jug and winter branches. We ate our breakfast while we filled up our hearts.

Photo by jessicahtam, via Flickr. Post and inside photos by Callie R. Feyen.

 

__________________________

How to Read a Poem by Tania Runyan How to Read a Poem uses images like the mouse, the hive, the switch (from the Billy Collins poem)—to guide readers into new ways of understanding poems. Anthology included.

“This will be the main textbook for the poetry unit from now on.”

—Tom Hunley

Buy How to Read a Poem Now!

 

  • Author
  • Recent Posts
Callie Feyen
Callie Feyen
Callie Feyen likes Converse tennis shoes and colorful high heels, reading the poetry of Gerard Manley Hopkins, and the Twilight series. Her favorite outfit has always been a well-worn pair of jeans and a white T-shirt, but she wants hoop skirts with loads of tulle to come back into style. Her favorite line from literature comes from Sharon Creech’s Absolutely Normal Chaos: “I don’t know who I am yet. I’m still waiting to find out.” Feyen has served as the At-Risk Literacy Specialist in the Ypsilanti Public Schools and is the author of Twirl: my life with stories, writing & clothes and The Teacher Diaries: Romeo and Juliet.
Callie Feyen
Latest posts by Callie Feyen (see all)
  • Poetry Prompt: Courage to Follow - July 24, 2023
  • Poetry Prompt: Being a Pilgrim and a Martha Stewart Homemaker - July 10, 2023
  • Poetry Prompt: Monarch Butterfly’s Wildflower - June 19, 2023

Filed Under: Blog, Children's Activities, Make It Class or Home Activity, Valentine's Day

Try Every Day Poems...

About Callie Feyen

Callie Feyen likes Converse tennis shoes and colorful high heels, reading the poetry of Gerard Manley Hopkins, and the Twilight series. Her favorite outfit has always been a well-worn pair of jeans and a white T-shirt, but she wants hoop skirts with loads of tulle to come back into style. Her favorite line from literature comes from Sharon Creech’s Absolutely Normal Chaos: “I don’t know who I am yet. I’m still waiting to find out.” Feyen has served as the At-Risk Literacy Specialist in the Ypsilanti Public Schools and is the author of Twirl: my life with stories, writing & clothes and The Teacher Diaries: Romeo and Juliet.

Comments

  1. SimplyDarlene says

    February 10, 2017 at 11:14 am

    My favorite phrase of this piece are six words that read as poetry: “we tangled designs into our hearts.”

    (BTW, I’m a jug-n-jar junky… squatty pickle jars, slender necked wine carafes, miniature miso paste jars, apple cider jugs with handles, on and on they fill my cupboards.)

    Reply
    • Callie says

      February 10, 2017 at 12:17 pm

      Thank you, SimplyDarlene. I like that line as well. Often, the design that’s in my heart feels tangled, you know? It felt nice to find a way to articulate that.

      I’m glad to know someone else likes the “jug-n-jars” 🙂 I just filled another one this morning with flowers from Trader Joe’s. 🙂

      Reply
  2. Bethany Rohde says

    February 10, 2017 at 2:42 pm

    What a lovely way to reuse that jug, and the beautiful experience with your children—in writing something we can all share in.

    And what fabulous descriptions, I can hear the glass bottle now: “a friendly clink and rattle when I twirled the cap back on.”

    Reply
    • Callie says

      February 10, 2017 at 5:24 pm

      Thank you, Bethany! I had fun trying to describe why I love this milk jug so much. 🙂

      Reply
  3. Donna Falcone says

    February 10, 2017 at 4:36 pm

    What a wonderful visit you have allowed all of us! I loved the whole piece, and the poem hearts a treasure! My favorite part of the whole experience was this:
    “Morning’s here,” Harper whispered. “Take a picture.”
    So beautiful.

    Reply
    • Callie says

      February 10, 2017 at 5:25 pm

      Donna, thank you so much. My little Harper says the most beautiful things. I want to capture all of it. I’m so glad you liked this, and thank YOU for stopping by to visit! 🙂

      Reply
  4. Sandra Heska King says

    February 10, 2017 at 9:19 pm

    I loved this line: “it’s okay to sit in the empty newness, enjoy its crispness, its vacancy, its silence.” We’ve recently moved, and it reminds me there’s no hurry “find my place” here yet. I can just enjoy it. I’m writing this story on my heart. Thanks, Callie.

    Oh, and now I’m heading over to check out that book. I’m all into astonishments.

    Reply
    • Callie says

      February 11, 2017 at 6:30 pm

      Sandra, have you recently moved, too? So have we. I think that’s why I’m sensitive to the New Year Resolutions, goals, and intentions this year. I think I want to be ok enjoying a place without knowing what my role is in that space. So, I can enjoy a bare stick and an empty milk jug just because. 🙂

      I hope you enjoy Astonishments. That is one of my favorite poetry books.

      Reply
  5. Diana Trautwein says

    February 20, 2017 at 3:35 pm

    This is lovely. Thank you.

    Reply
    • Callie Feyen says

      February 20, 2017 at 6:40 pm

      I’m glad you liked it, Diana. Thank you for letting me know!

      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