March | 2013 | Reflections on the Teche

Archive for March, 2013

My Little Town

Posted in Slice of Life, tagged CNN, downtown, Louisiana, New Iberia, small town, tourism on March 21, 2013| 10 Comments »

Slice of Life Challenge Day 21

Driving home from school today with spring in the air, I took notice of my little town. Recently, New Iberia was recognized as one of CNN’s American Best Small Town Comebacks.
(If you scroll to the picture of New Iberia Main Street, you can see what very well may be my red Camry turning at the light.)

First Stop: Evangeline Theater, now known as The Sliman with The Bayou Teche Museum on its right. These restored buildings offer places to mingle with friends at a fundraising event or performance and a great field trip destination for students and adults to learn about the history of the area.

Main Street, New Iberia

Next Stop: Church Alley, not a pleasing site, yet. A group of young activists have plans to spruce up the place and create a mini-park. This alley historically connected the convent across the bridge to St. Peters Catholic Church. In South Louisiana, towns built up around the church.

Church alley

Third Stop: The Essanee Theater, now home to IPAL (Iberia Performing Arts League). On Sunday, I attended the current performance, Man of La Mancha. It was better than Broadway. The final performances are this weekend. You really shouldn’t miss it. New Iberia is home to many talented folks.

Essanee Theater, home to IPAL

Last Stop: A&E Gallery. My friend and colleague, Paul Schexnayder opened this gallery a few years ago. Many artisans have joined to show and sell their work. Paul opens his doors for poetry readings, too. The next poetry night will be Saturday, April 20th at 6:30 featuring Louisiana’s former poet laureate Darrell Bourque whose new book of poetry chronicles the original Cajun people who settled the Acadiana area.

A and E Gallery

Each of these places occupies a historical space. You can feel the ancestors speaking to you. You can hear their words, “Welcome Home.”

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Maybe this is a Poem

Posted in Poetry, Slice of Life, tagged found poetry on March 20, 2013| 5 Comments »

Slice of Life Challenge Day 20

On Sunday, I posted a poem I created using lines I read on Facebook, emails, and in blogs. I tried it again. I’ve actually been working on this one for three days. I keep coming back to it, moving lines around. I’m not totally pleased with it yet. When you use other people’s words, trying to keep the integrity of the quotes while making it fit into a poem carrying can be like building a puzzle out of mismatched pieces. Maybe a piece is missing. Maybe I put one in the wrong place, and it kinda fits but not quite. Whatever the result, I do enjoy the challenge.

Maybe it’s not too late for sugar cubes
and slotted spoons and green fairy sips
traveling throughout the body offering love,
acceptance, and gratitude.

I am perfection.
I am healthy.
I am strong.

We believe in categories and think they’re true.
Our visions will become clear when
our words are as good as our actions.

Hymns are bigger than any mistakes;
you fumble, turn the page, sing the wrong words
yet the room fills with song,
and the hymn expands.

I sing.
You sing.
We sing.

Look into your own heart.
Sometimes the cliché photograph
tells the real truth.

Created with words from wise poets: Carl Jung, Anne Lamott, Oprah Winfrey, Philip Gould, James McDowell, and Paul, an English teacher from Alberta.

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Gardening is Not for Me

Posted in Slice of Life, tagged gardening, spring on March 19, 2013| 5 Comments »

Slice of Life Challenge Day 19

I think gardening is one of those things, like painting or writing, that can become a passion, but it must be in your blood first. Gardening did not get into my genes. I do not descend from farmers. That is my excuse and I am sticking to it. Gardening is just not for me.

Recently at a wordlab, we were asked to write a lie on a cute little 2×3 note decorated with a little sketch of a bee. Maybe the bee led me to think of this, but my lie was “I love gardening. The sensual feeling I get when digging comforts me.” Believable, right? We put our little lies in a hat and picked someone else’s lie to write about.

The irony of this dread of gardening is that I am surrounded by beauty. Luckily, we bought an older house that already had established landscaping. So when springs comes, I can cut bridal lace and azaleas from my yard. In the fall, we harvest satsumas. In the winter, camellias. But when summer comes, the growth is abundant. Weeds, weeds, and their nasty companions, wasps.

My daughter says maybe I should take a class. But can a class get into my blood and change me into someone who loves dirt and weeds and sweat? I don’t think so. Gardening is just not for me.

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Gator Tossing

Posted in Slice of Life, tagged alligator farming, Louisiana, swamp on March 18, 2013| 2 Comments »

Slice of Life Challenge Day 18

One year old alligators wait to be tossed into the wild swamp.

When you live in South Louisiana, you have to get used to eating crawfish (love them!) and boudin (haven’t developed a taste for this one.) We live near bayous, not rivers. We dance to Cajun and Zydeco music. And we wrestle with alligators! Not really. In fact, I’ve lived on the Bayou Teche for more than 8 years, and I have not seen one anywhere close to our yard. Nevertheless, the alligator is an important and sometimes frightful reptile around here.

When I was scrolling through Facebook yesterday, I enjoyed the pictures and video of one of my daughter’s friends, Lizzy. She and her mom had gone out that morning to a rice farm near Abbeville to help release baby alligators back into the wild. The farmers harvest the eggs and incubate them. In the spring, they hatch them. I recall years ago when these same farmers showed up in the parking lot of our school hauling crates of dead grass. When the crates were opened, we could see soft white eggs popping up from the grass bed. When the farmer handed an egg to a student, he instructed them to rub the eggs and the tiny alligator began to emerge. The stimulation helped them hatch out of the egg. Of course, in the wild, the momma gator rubs her eggs when the time comes. The kids were so thrilled to be hatching the little gators. I even did it, as scared as I am of reptiles.

The first gator to be tossed. Behind notice all the bags. Each holds 1-2 baby alligators.

Lizzy and her mom, Lisa were invited to help release some of the baby alligators that were hatched last year. They were tossing them into the swamp. According to Lizzy, the eggs had been harvested, incubated, and hatched a year ago. Because of the policies of Wildlife and Fisheries, a percentage of the hatch has to be returned to the wild. This is the way they do it. A grand celebration of lively gator tossing.

From Lizzy: ” It was fun to handle baby alligators (in a safe environment with skilled professionals). It was a bit scary when the animals wiggled around (I am a person who does not like the company of snakes because of their serpentine movements) since the motion is a bit creepy to me. I often forgot that their mouths were banded (before we tossed them), so when I would grab them from the sack/ground, my natural reaction was always to flinch each time the alligator lifted its head in defense. Overall, it was a lively and entertaining experience.”

This video shows Lizzy’s mom, Lisa, tossing a gator.

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15 Lines Talking to Me Today

Posted in Poetry, Slice of Life, tagged craft, Poets and Writers on March 17, 2013| 10 Comments »

Slice of Life Challenge Day 17

The Poets and Writers prompt for poetry this week was this: “There are 15 lines presenting themselves to you today. Use them to craft a poem.”

So I grabbed some lines while I checked email, blogs, and Facebook. This poem reflects a weird collection of what I read.

15 Lines Talking to Me Today

Words are swimming in my head like little nuggets of time;
words of wisdom, words of observation, words of passers by.
I trust this wisdom is full of magic.
The simple things are the most extraordinary
if only we could see them.
Make a choice with one hand on your heart.
Look for sheep and the shepherd will care for you.
When a pigeon is nesting in the eaves, open the window.
The chicken is innocent though the pile of feathers is telling.
We can make our lives easier if we just listen.

Take these words and make them inchworms,
the caterpillars of geometer moths.
Let’s kench (laugh loudly) together.
You should know, no matter what else,
you are my sunshine.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day from my dog Charlie. We went to a dog walk in the park yesterday to support our local Humane Society. He’s all kerchiefed and ready to walk.

My schnoodle, Charlie, says “Happy St. Patrick’s Day!”

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Sharon Creech was Here!

Posted in Slice of Life, Teaching, tagged Bloomability, book characters, Sharon Creech on March 16, 2013| 10 Comments »

Slice of Life Challenge Day 16

I have been doing the Slice of Life Challenge with my students for the last two weeks. It has been so heartwarming to watch them rush in to class and beg to be able to use the computer to write their slices. This is what writing class should be like every day.

This week we had a special visitor to our blog, Sharon Creech. If you don’t know who Sharon Creech is, then you don’t spend any time reading middle grade fiction: Walk Two Moons, Heartbeat, Bloomability, Love that Dog, Love that Cat, and more. In my classroom, I have a Sharon Creech bucket of books. My 5th grade student, Brooklyn, chose to read Bloomability.

When Brooklyn was reading Bloomability, she was writing reader responses. It was fun to read about Dinnie’s adventures and Brooklyn’s thinking about the book. She finished it over the weekend. She told me she wouldn’t put it down until she finished. She almost walked into a wall reading the book. Here is part of her Slice of Life post when she finished the book.

No, no, no it has not ended. I have not just finished the book. This was an amazing book titled Bloomability by Sharon Creech. It gave you a feeling that no matter how shy, scared, worried, or nervous you are, you can bloom. As I was reading the last few words my words were “No, stop, another page will appear, and this is not over.” I felt as if as soon as I read them, I would depart all of the characters, or as if they were stranded there in the story, in that intense moment, or as if the rest of their lives are mysteries, and they are going on and living it without us knowing.

Have you ever felt this way when you finished a book, as if the character lives on?

Then this quote appeared on the Two Writing Teachers blog: “I love the way that each book — any book — is its own journey. You open it, and off you go. You are changed in some way, large or small, by having traveled with those characters.”
― Sharon Creech

So I posted this prompt for my students, “Has a character ever stayed with you even after you finished the book?”

This week, Brooklyn responded to that prompt. “My favorite character in a book was probably Dinnie. She was the main character in the book Bloomability by Sharon Creech. Dinnie helped me notice that to be able to have an adventure and opportunities I had to expand my bubble or maybe even pop it. I had to open up to the world and adapt to changes.”

I read Brooklyn’s post the same evening I got an email from Sharon Creech’s blog, Words We Say. So I took a chance and made a comment on her blog post directing her to Brooklyn’s Slice of Life post. Guess what? Sharon Creech responded! I couldn’t wait to tell Brooklyn. I even got teary-eyed when I told her.

She was so excited that her next blog post was this:

OMG!!! Sharon Creech had commented on my post about my favorite character. I owe it all to Mrs. Simon. She is my favorite author. I recommend all of Sharon Creech’s books, especially Bloomability.

To see Brooklyn’s Slice of Life blog, click here. If you comment, I cannot guarantee you will get the reaction that Sharon Creech did, but Brooklyn will appreciate it nonetheless.

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Jump Start a Poem

Posted in Poetry Friday, Slice of Life on March 15, 2013| 12 Comments »

Slice of Life Challenge Day 15

Sometimes when I need a little inspiration for writing, I read some of my favorite poets. Sometimes I use one of their lines to jump start a poem. I shared this with my students. I said they could find any line from a book they were reading or from a poetry book. I explained if they used the actual line, they should give credit to the author. But sometimes the borrowed line goes away and leaves an original poem behind.

Nikki Giovanni helped me write the following poem. From her book Acolytes, I read a line from her poem I am Now my Own Grandmother. The line read “Old lace handkerchiefs as delicate as a spider web.” Once I jump started into the writing, this line no longer fit.

Evening Ritual

A screen door creaks.
The earth moves.
The sun drops down and tops
the trees with vanilla ice cream.
The dog delivers his ball.
The cat rubs against a wooden post.
Tires make tracks in the gravel driveway.
A refrigerator hums.
Ice clanks into the tray.
Women move in their kitchens
alone, making miracles
out of vegetable scraps
and a stone, the ending
of a busy day
standing still,
bone-tired,
still
standing.

Visit Check it Out for more Poetry Friday posts

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Ways of Seeing

Posted in Poetry, Slice of Life, Teaching, tagged 10 ways poem, crystal, glass apple on March 14, 2013| 5 Comments »

Slice of Life Challenge Day 14

At the wordlab this weekend, our leader used a poetry prompt called “Object Lesson.” I wrote about it here. Today, I tried the prompt with my students. I collected objects from around the classroom. I was amazed at the range of things I had to choose from; a crystal, a sunflower frame, a glass apple paperweight to name a few. The instructions were to write 10 stanzas, three lines each, with each stanza acting as a small picture of your object from a different point of view.
Due to the comment challenge for classroom slices, you may have already read some of these. My class is blogging at kidblogs.

This was such a successful prompt I wanted to share it with you along with a few of the resulting poems.

Ten Ways to Look into a Glass Apple
by Kaylie (6th grade)

Formed in the hottest fires
cooled down in the Nile River
an Egyptian artifact.

Bubbles trapped inside of it
waiting to be belched
into the world.

A paperweight
slightly dusty, from 10 years
sitting on an old scholar’s shelf.

A glass snack
waiting
for a glass automaton.

Slightly nicked
on one side
by the paws of a curious cat.

A fortune teller
looking into the orb
full of voodoo magic.

A gift,
wrapped nicely
in pink tissue paper.

A game of hide-and-seek antique
started by a grandmother
ended by a toddler.

A secret
curled up and hiding
for you to decipher.

A writing prompt
held in a young girl’s hand
who just finished sharing her poem.

10 Ways of Looking at a Crystal
by Emily (2nd grade)

1. Shining
So
Brightly

2. Pointing
Up into
The sky

3. Sparkling
Like a star
At night

4. The prettiest
I’ve ever
Seen

5. Your beautiful
Pointed
Shape

6. So nice
And
Smooth

7.The Beautiful
Marks inside
Of you

8. When you’re
In Light you
Shine like the sun

9.You have
the perfect
Former glory

10.Clear as
Water white
As snow

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Puppy Watching

Posted in Slice of Life, tagged explore puppy cam, great danes, service dogs on March 13, 2013| 9 Comments »

Slice of Life Challenge Day 13

I am a sucker for a cute puppy. It runs in my family. We are all dog and cat lovers. So when a fellow blogger (I can’t remember who) turned me on to the webcam at explore.org, I was hooked. After Christmas, there were new golden lab puppies to watch. I’ve watched them go from squirmy little squids to full-of-energy-and-puppy-badness pups. There are only a few left. I now follow the Warrior Canine Connection on Facebook. I get updates daily about Misty’s pups.

One of Misty’s pups from the Warrior Canine Connection

A few weeks ago, while I was watching Misty’s puppies destroy their puppy lair, I switched over to see what was going on with the Great Dane Service Project and was excited to watch a Great Dane having puppies. That Saturday night I watched a few appear. Then when I got up the next morning, she was still giving birth, so I saw a couple more come into this world. Over the weekend, Olive had 11 puppies. One was stillborn. I knew something wasn’t right when they whisked that one away quickly and the attendants had sad faces. But then she had one more lively puppy. Ten healthy puppies. Wow! That’s a bunch of mouths to feed. I check on Olive’s puppies, lovingly nicknamed Pimentos, daily. Today, their eyes are opening and they can stand on all fours for a few seconds. Mostly they just sleep, but even that is meditative and calming to watch. Be careful, it’s addictive. I put the puppycam on on my Ipad and prop it next to my computer while I write. Obsessive, right?

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Azaleas Popping

Posted in Poetry, Slice of Life, tagged azaleas, haiku on March 12, 2013| 5 Comments »

Azaleas in my front yard

Sunday night it rained all night. And I slept poorly between the gutters clanking and my storm-scared dog barking. But when I drove home from school on Monday afteroon, the sun was shining, the breeze was blowing, and the azaleas were bright all over town. I think this calls for a spring haiku.