Posted in Poetry Friday, tagged Children's poetry, I spy poem, Poets and Writers on June 9, 2017| 13 Comments »
Poetry Friday is with Mary Lee at A Year of Reading.
“Write a poem inspired by I Spy, the guessing game popular with kids during car rides and other long periods of downtime, in which the spy offers descriptive clues that hint at a visible object for other players to guess.”
Poets&Writers poetry prompt
I Spy
in the dome of the sky
a face
full and bright.I spy
rising on the horizon
a sphere
of golden mightI spy
smiling through the trees
a force
moving the night.–Margaret Simon
Posted in Poetry, Slice of Life on June 6, 2017| 11 Comments »
Join the Two Writing Teachers blog for the Slice of Life Challenge.
Every year I judge a state writing contest, LA Writes! Teachers gather to choose finalists to send to author judges. I never judge the elementary entries since that is the level I teach. Laurie was reading a stack of 5th grade poems when she came to me and said, “I have to share this with you. It’s not a winning poem, but the first line is so hilarious that I was laughing so hard I had to take a puff of my inhaler!”
Then I noticed the title, “Lovely Owen Liles.” My cousin Andrew has a daughter named Owen, and they live in New Orleans. Wait! I turned over to find the entry blank and sure enough, the poem was written by my cousin Amos who is in fifth grade. Laurie was right, it wasn’t contest winning, but it certainly won my heart and made me laugh out loud!
Lovely Owen Lilesby Amos LilesYou make me laugh when you toot, and it smells like dead possum.Have I told you that you make me laugh when you make that facewhere you wrinkle your lips.Have I told you that you are so cute even a princesspuppy is not cute.Have I told you that you are so generous you get me alollipop everytime you go swimming.Have I told you that you are so fun like when you makeme laugh when I’m sad.You are the best.
My cousin Andrew Liles with his daughter Owen, the lovely Owen Liles.
Posted in Celebration Saturday, Digital Learning, Writing, tagged Anne Simon, Blood of the Believers, Into the Silence, John Gibson on June 4, 2017| 8 Comments »
Please use this button on your site for DigiLit Sunday posts
Find more celebration posts at Ruth’s blog.
Some weeks call for combination posts. Today I am celebrating story in my DigiLitSunday post.
I am privileged to be in a family of writers. After her retirement as a district judge, my mother-in-law started writing crime novels. In each of her books, she fictionalizes actual cases that came across her bench in the courtroom. Sunday I am hosting a book signing for her third book, Blood of the Believers.
In this book, Detective Ted D’Aquin is struggling with the disappearance of his wife. But after a year and a half of leave from the St. Martinville Sheriff’s office, he returns to investigate two homicides. I know from my mother-in-law, Anne Simon, the parts of the cases that are real and which ones she made up. Sometimes real life can be crazier than fiction.
Reading her latest book, I could hear her voice. Even though she was writing as a male character, some of her ways of saying things came through. The average reader may not recognize these idiosyncrasies that our family lovingly calls “Minga-isms.” (Minga is her grandmother name.)
My father has published his first novel, Into the Silence. He’s been writing this book since 1975 when I was still a young teen. I encouraged him to get it published with my friends at Border Press. He will have a book signing in my home town of Jackson, MS at Lemuria Books on June 16th at 5:00. Diane Moore wrote a glowing review on her blog, A Word’s Worth.
When I was home last weekend, I got one of the hot-off-the-presses copies. I read furiously, couldn’t put it down. The protagonist is Todd Sutherland, a cardiologist, but to me, he is my father. Dad admits that he wanted to be a cardiologist. He was a radiologist by profession. Interspersed in the story of how Todd falls in love with one of his patients and is faced with her certain death are parts of my father’s life story, the death of his own father to Parkinson’s and his intense study of shamanism, Greek literature, and theology. The fictional story is intriguing, but I will hold on to the parts of my dad that live on in this story.
Why do we write? For both my mother-in-law Anne and my father John, they write to reveal the deepest parts of themselves while creating a strong compelling story. I am blessed to be among such mentors.
If you have stories about stories, please leave a link below. Click to read more DigiLitSunday posts.
Posted in Poetry Friday, tagged summer on June 2, 2017| 21 Comments »
Poetry Friday is with Buffy today.
I don’t think of myself as any kind of poetry expert, but I do love poetry in many ways. When my Voxer friend, Dani Burtsfield, asked for help with writing a poem for her mother, I was honored and humbled. Yesterday she went for a walk in the mountains of Montana where she lives and sent me a message about the lilacs and how their blooming means summer. “I think I feel a poem coming on.”
Thus began our late night discussion of her poem. This is what poetry should be, a walk in the woods that leads to talk that then becomes a poem. Jane Hirshfield writes in her poem, Mathematics, “Does a poem enlarge the world/ or only our idea of the world?” I believe that poetry and your own expression of it does enlarge the world. We experience the experience in a new and loving way. Please go to Dani’s blog and read her poem, her first brave contribution to Poetry Friday.
Our discussion of summer made me think about how summer reveals itself differently in different parts of the world. For Dani, it’s in the lilacs. Here in South Louisiana, the landscape is different. My poem attempts to capture my own summer landscape.
Summer
Summer waits
like the rope swing
hanging
from the old oak.Summer welcomes
like sunflowers
opening
a morningSummer vibrates
like cicadas
buzzing
at twilight.Summer lingers
like the sun
hovering
the horizon.–Margaret Simon, all rights reserved
Our address on the Bayou Teche
Order on Amazon.
April 1 Linda Mitchell at A Word Edgewise
April 2 Tricia at The Miss Rumphius Effect
April 3 Robyn at Life on the Deckle Edge
April 4 Donna Smith at Mainely Write
April 5 Denise at https://mrsdkrebs.edublogs.org/
April 6 Buffy at http://www.buffysilverman.com/blog
April 7 Jone at https://www.jonerushmacculloch.com/
April 8 Janice Scully at Salt City Verse
April 9 Tabatha at https://tabathayeatts.blogspot.com/
April 10 Marcie at Marcie Flinchum Atkins
April 11 Rose at Imagine the Possibilities | Rose's Blog
April 12 Fran Haley at Lit Bits and Pieces
April 13 Cathy Stenquist
April 14 Janet Fagel at Mainly Write
April 15 Carol Varsalona at Beyond LiteracyLink
April 16 Amy Ludwig VanDerwater at The Poem Farm
April 17 Kim Johnson at Common Threads
April 18 Margaret at Reflections on the Teche
April 19 Ramona at Pleasures from the Page
April 20 Mary Lee at A(nother) Year of Reading
April 21 Tanita at TanitasDavis.com
April 22 Patricia Franz
April 23 Ruth at There's No Such Thing as a Godforsaken Town
April 24 Linda Kulp Trout at http://lindakulptrout.blogspot.com
April 25 Heidi Mordhorst at My Juicy Little Universe
April 26 Michelle Kogan at: https://moreart4all.wordpress.com/
April 27 Linda Baie at Teacher Dance
April 28 Pamela Ross at Words in Flight
April 29 Diane Davis at Starting Again in Poetry
April 30 April Halprin Wayland at Teaching Authors
Reflections on the Teche 