My internal critic is turned on high voltage. I take my journal in my backpack to school to school (I teach at two), and I turn the page and write some words, then a student needs me. I come back to the page focused, thinking, and another student has to share.
Here I am at home with Charlie and there’s nothing worth much in my journal. This is day 13 of my personal challenge to write a poem a day, and my personal critic thinks I can’t possibly keep this up.
Step one: upload a picture. Here’s another sky picture taken from my car with my phone.
Sky Sea
How to Stay a Poet (A synonym poem)
Attach a line to a thought
with a long string, maybe even wire
Fasten sprinkles of light,
a frosting of powdered sugar would taste good.
Unite clouds to sky to space,
an ethereal concept, I know.
Abide with your favorite poets,
savor their strength, their providence.
Linger over the page, make a statement,
scratch it out, start again.
Remain committed; don’t listen to the witch
in your head telling you to abandon all.
Keep on writing. Stay a poet.
Stay here.
–Margaret Simon
Process: After writing the title, I did a synonym search for “stay.” I used selected synonyms as the first word of each stanza. Creating rules for myself helped me get through writer’s block. This is not one of my finer poems, but it’s a poem. Let’s keep moving forward.
Follow the Progressive Poem to Teacher Dance
Reflections on the Teche 