It’s Poetry Friday, and I don’t have a post prepared.
I followed links to CLMOOC, a summer gathering of writing project folks to stretch their thinking. Kevin Hodgson writes:
Here in CLMOOC, we’ve always actively pushed back on the “massive”. While MOOCs often were built to scale large, CLMOOC has often comfortably settled into the small. So, this July and August, we invite you to look closer at the world, to find balance with the small scale of things around you.
Kevin Hodgson
Kevin introduced a new term to me, feldgang. A feldgang is slowing down to notice something in a new or different way. This idea fascinates me. Poetry lends itself to feldganging (not sure if that is a real word.)
This morning I am combining feldgang with greenbelt writing, that writing that is wild and unpredictable and possibly of no real worth at all. A first draft of a poem while looking out my kitchen window:
The chickadees come to the feeder
chick-a-dee-dee-deeing.
They flitter their tiny bodies
in the trees, and try to stay unnoticed,
like butterflies to a bright flower.I notice them
and think of this simple act
of feeding the birds,
a small plastic feeder,
some seed from a plastic bag.I invite these small visitors
Margaret Simon, draft, 2019
to my kitchen window.
I laugh at their tiny tweets.
Begin my day with a lighter step.
Reflections on the Teche 
I just discovered the term, feldgang, via a Robert Macfarlane tweet and added it to my writing notebook. I love how you took the word and “ran” with it to create this lovely poem. I’m definitely going to visit the link you shared and dig around a bit more. There’s so much to be said for finding “balance with the small scale of things around you.” I’m ever thankful for the birds who help me “begin my day with a lighter step.”
It may be a first draft — it is also beautiful. There is a distinct feeling of slowing down to notice. This reminds me of the monks at an abbey near where I grew up spoke and wrote. They would find something small and find the beauty in it. What a wonderful mindfulness exercise in the middle of busy life. Thank you for the lesson. I love it.
Feldgang is a new word for me. Thank you! And I love your poem. Ruth, thereisnosuchthingasagodforsakentown.blogspot.com
I learned a new word today and read a lovely poem. You made me feel like I was right there with you and the chickadees.
Watching and listening to birds does help us begin our “day with a lighter step,” doesn’t it? Your poem is wonderful, Margaret! And thank you for introducing me to the word feldgang!
It’s rare to see them, but I hear those chickadees, as you wrote, “flitter their tiny bodies/in the trees” each morning. I think we wrote about similar things this week, and love learning the word “feldgang”, Margaret. Your poem is lovely, that ending, just perfect!
Thank you for your poem and for teaching us about ‘feldgang’. These days when I go walking with my two year old grandchildren (one at a time) we live it. Not only is our walking pace slow, we are continuously stopping to admire everything along the way. There is no such thing as just a rock to a toddler!
I look forward to walks with Leo. He’s only 6 months and already the keeper of my heart.
Feldgang is a new word for me to, but I like it a lot! And I love how you bring us to your kitchen window. My step is lighter for having read your playful poem! Thank you!
Terry Elliott has long been teaching us in CLMOOC about Feldgang – and I love that the term can wander around, too, as the concept implies. Your poem is a perfect rendering of the idea of the pause, to look close, to capture with artistic elements. Thanks (as always) for adding to the mix, and extending things out further.
Greenbelt Writing — a term I am not familiar with until now …
Kevin
Green belt writing is from Ralph Fletcher.
Thank you for teaching me a new word–feldgang. I think I will try it out this week, along with more green belt writing. I enjoyed the glimpse out your kitchen window as you slowed down to look more closely.
Feldgang with greenbelt writing is like yin and yang in your capable hands, Margaret. Thank you for introducing me to TWO new terms/concepts today, and those tiny tweets at your kitchen window too.
Always fun to start the day with birds, I love watching and listening to them, thanks for sharing your view of them Margaret!