Alaska: Night Lights: a 50 State Poems Poem

Happy Poetry Friday! Here’s another poem from my latest 30 Painless Classroom Poems book, Wacky, Wild, and Wonderful: 50 State Poems.

Alaska: Night Lights

Note: The Northern Lights, or Aurora Borealis, are usually visible only in the far North. They can be many colors and shapes. Various Indian tribes in Alaska and Canada have at times believed that the Northern Lights were a bad omen or a predictor of violence. The lights appear because of the magnetic North Pole (although they sometimes are visible as far south as the northern United States). Magnetic storms on the sun upset the balance between the solar wind, which is constantly streaming past Earth, and the Earth’s atmosphere. During magnetic storms, the solar particles collide with the air instead of passing by, and the reaction gives off light. Aurora Australis, or Southern Lights, appear over the southernmost parts of the earth. [Acrostic]

A Note from the Poet:

I have never seen the Northern Lights, but I’ve looked at hundreds of pictures of them and watched a lot of videos. Someday, I hope to see the real thing! For this poem, I chose to do an acrostic because I love that form, and I wanted an unrhymed form with different line lengths to mimic the unexpected shapes and movements that Northern Lights make in the sky.

Here I am reading the poem:
[soundcloud url=“https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/187180360” params=“color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false” width=“100%” height=“166” iframe=“true” /]

 

Wacky, Wild, and Wonderful: 50 State Poems
Wacky, Wild, and Wonderful: 50 State Poems

 

Don’t miss the Poetry Friday Roundup at Tara Smith’s A Teaching Life! (Oh! Check out the gorgeous image on her blog header!)

36 Responses

    1. Thanks, Linda–I loved finding out (years ago for a writing assignment) what caused the Northern Lights.

    1. Thanks, Linda–I loved finding out (years ago for a writing assignment) what caused the Northern Lights.

    1. Thanks, Andrea! Though I do not like my voice and hate the thought of kids hearing it. But I try to ignore that, not stress, and just record my first take. Sigh.

    1. Thanks, Andrea! Though I do not like my voice and hate the thought of kids hearing it. But I try to ignore that, not stress, and just record my first take. Sigh.

  1. Laura, I lived in Alaska for about three years when I was a kid, and the Northern Lights were magical. I love “Leftover Radiance” — lovely!

  2. Laura, I lived in Alaska for about three years when I was a kid, and the Northern Lights were magical. I love “Leftover Radiance” — lovely!

  3. My goodness. Love it. Great imagery. You right some tight acrostics, Laura. I adore the Rainbow Acrostic in one of Sylvia and Janet’s Tagtime e‑anthologies

  4. My goodness. Love it. Great imagery. You right some tight acrostics, Laura. I adore the Rainbow Acrostic in one of Sylvia and Janet’s Tagtime e‑anthologies

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