Reflections on the Teche

See more posts at Two Writing Teachers Slice of Life

The second Sunday of each month is reserved for a dancing date with my husband, Jeff.  Stop the Clock is our favorite band.  They play Texas Swing music that goes back to Bob Wills.  I found a video from October 2017 that shows Jeff and me dancing at around 2:16.  

Last night the crowd was bigger and even more diverse. I tried to capture it in a poem, but really you just had to be there.

Dancers at the Feed-n-Seed

Some people sit
around a circle table
out-of-towners enjoying the local scene.

Some people lean at the bar,
But most are on the dance floor.

Jitterbug!
Two-step!
East coast Swing!

New couples
Old couples
Dancers working on craft
and those who just don’t care–
Let’s move up, down, all around.

The musician tunes his ear to sound.
Mom dances with her son.
Sisters swing,
friends hug.
Hippies, Yuppies, and Cowboys.

Strangers are not strangers anymore
on the worn wooden Feed-n-Seed
dance floor.

(draft) Margaret Simon

Read Full Post »

See more posts at Two Writing Teachers Slice of Life

There is magic in a sleeping baby.  My grandson is 3 months old, and I had the opportunity to spend part of my day yesterday with him.  My daughter doesn’t ask me to babysit often, so when I do, I’m all in.  That is all I do.  When I arrived at her home, she said, “He’s sleepy, but he doesn’t want to be in his bed.”

So I took him in my arms and rocked him to sleep and just held him.  Life stood still.  There was no place I needed to be.  Nothing that needed doing.  I let go and felt the peace and warmth of a sleeping baby.

One of my friends is in the midst of a battle with cancer.  She told me a few weeks ago that she wanted to hold a baby.  The mother of four teenagers was aching for that calming simplicity of a newborn in her arms.  Because I was off yesterday, I picked up Leo from his sitter and brought him over to see her.  We marveled at how constant the work is with an infant.  Changing, feeding, holding…

As I was talking to my daughter on the phone saying, “He’s fussy, but he won’t take the bottle.”

She responded, “He’s probably just tired.”

And I looked over at Amy who was gently rocking and patting him to sleep.  Ah, the wonder of a sleeping baby.  I secretly pray he has healing powers, too.

Gentle calm of a sleeping baby

Read Full Post »

See more posts at Two Writing Teachers Slice of Life

Poetry Friday round-up is with Catherine at Reading to the Core.

Catherine Flynn is rounding up Poetry Friday with an invitation to write poems that honor women.  A few years ago Georgia Heard published an anthology of poetry entitled The Woman in this Poem.  For International Women’s Day, I wanted to honor all the women poets who have influenced and inspired me.  In the end pages of the book, Georgia lists all the first lines.  I used these lines to write an ode to women poets.

Ode to Women Poets

All the women in this poem
have written first lines

to draw me into their lives
offering me wafers of words

transcending deserts of time and place:

I don’t remember how it began
I must’ve looked like I’m confidant,

a reader all our life,

Woman to woman, poems lie
in our hands in crystals.

me and you be sisters listening
Who says a woman’s work isn’t high art?

We all sing the same song.
We know all the words.

We’ve sung them while rocking
As the divine sea rocks.

So much do we love.
We love and love and love.

Sometimes I hear the wind in the trees
and feel your presence

The people I love the best.

–Margaret Simon

First lines from these poets: Dorianne Laux, Patricia Kirkpatrick, Lisel Mueller, Lucille Clifton, Kate Farrell, Georgia Heard, Gabriela Mistral, Marge Piercy, Bronwen Wallace, Julia Alvarez, and Ruth Moose.

In searching for an image, I found this link to a lesson on women poets from Edutopia.

Read Full Post »

See more posts at Two Writing Teachers Slice of Life

Click the image to read Christie’s invitation.

Inspired by Christie Wyman at Wondering and Wandering, I decided to write a list of what is making me happy this week.  I have a sinus infection, so that is not on my list, but otherwise, I have much to be happy about.

• I have the week off for Mardi Gras break.
• My dog is snuggled up next to me on his blanket.
• I get daily texts from my daughter with pictures of my grandson, Leo, who is growing and getting cuter by the day. He’ll be 3 months old tomorrow.
• 
• The wood ducks have laid 5 eggs in the wood duck house.  I wrote about setting up the house on this slice. 
• 
• I had a wonderful time with family in New Orleans for Mardi Gras.  Here are two of my daughters ready for Mardi Gras Day.
• My husband is my best friend and lifelong dance partner.
• The azaleas are blooming.
• This sinus thing is giving me lie-on-the-sofa-reading-slices time.

If you are happy, join the party.  Grab Christie’s graphic and join in!

Read Full Post »

See more posts at Two Writing Teachers Slice of Life

I subscribe to Choice Literacy’s Big Fresh newsletter. This month Brenda Power writes about ambition versus aspiration.  She also opens with a Mary Oliver quote, “Joy is not made to be a crumb.”

Tricia Stohr-Hunt’s prompt on Laura Shovan’s February Poetry Project was a variety of birthday cakes. (This year we are writing about food.) I thought of a Facebook post I had seen of a baby eating his first birthday cake.  This is apparently a thing, first birthday cake smash.

Smashing all of those things together made a poem that I am pleased with, if only for the pleasure it evokes.

Joy is not a crumb;
it is the whole cake
eaten by a child
on his first birthday
digging with his cake-filled hand
bite by bite, grip by grip
until the cake and icing cover
every part of his head
seeping up into his nostrils.
That kind of joy is your Aspiration
Go for it!

(c) Margaret Simon, 2019

Photo by Susan Michelle Brisson.

Read Full Post »