Poetry Friday round-up is with Tabatha at The Opposite of Indifference.
Today I am the featured poet on Laura Shovan’s #WaterPoemProject. My prompt comes from a tanka that appears in my book Bayou Song. Hop over to Laura’s blog to see the prompt.
On Wednesday I scheduled a Zoom meeting with my students. About half of them came. I shared my prompt, and we wrote a tanka together.
Rylee started us off with an idea about see what she thought was a treasure chest in her pond.
Treasure chest mirage
Blue cotton candy clouds float
Frosty reflectionBlueberry snowball freezing
Mrs. Simon’s Sea Collaborative Poem
Rylee’s lovely winter pond.
I need to finish up the schedule for the 2020 Progressive Poem. If you’d like to sign up, comment on this post. There are still spots open.
Reflections on the Teche 
Mmmmm. Cotton candy clouds sound delicious!
I hadn’t heard of tanka poems before. Thanks for teaching me something new today. I love the idea of collaboratively writing poetry with your students during distance learning. I think we’re all learning to appreciate and become better observers and poetry is a perfect and accessible way for all of us to do this right now. Thanks for sharing Rylee’s treasure chest and your collaborative writing with us today.
You should try to write one. You can post it in the comments on Laura’s site.
What a lovely poem, just paints a perfect picture. I hadn’t heard of tanka poems either!
What fun to share your prompt with your own students, Margaret. “Treasure chest mirage” is such an inviting first line.
That is great to share your prompt with your students, Margaret. Ingrid & Imogene will start doing work with their classes next week, have had meetings with them via Zoom this week. I love Rylee’s “Blueberry snowball freezing”! Thanks, & best wishes to you & the family to stay healthy!
How special to spend this time at home writing poetry together! Thank you for taking me on a field trip to Rylee’s lovely winter pond.
Margaret, I am always pleasantly surprised by what your students write. The group tanka is a great example of collaboration. Off to try a tanka with one of my water photos.
Wonderful, Margaret! Thanks for sharing. I am off to check out Laura’s blog.
“Blueberry snowball freezing” – such fun. You know, my kids and I are struggling a little at home – it’s hard to keep them focused & focus on my students each day. Stacy wrote about writing with her daughter yesterday; you wrote with your students today. I think my boys & I might need to hit reboot & start our mornings with writing next week. Now, to find my copy of your book by Monday as we unpack. Ah… goals!
I’m struggling, too. Only half of my students showed up for the Zoom meeting and then a few were knocked off by tech issues. I get the feeling that we are all just flailing about trying to do the best we can with an impossible situation. Give yourself some slack.
I like imagining opening a treasure chest and there is yummy stuff in there! Cotton candy and snowballs! That would be a truly magical treasure chest. Too bad it’s a mirage…
There is so much in the surface of water! All kinds of treasures. Thanks for sharing your student’s images.
I can’t wait to see my students on Monday (we’ve been on spring break). Thanks for your prompt on Laura’s water poem project. It was great to see and hear you!
Oh the idea of tanka and your prompt are wonderful. I love (and sometimes hate) forms but it is a great exercise and often I am very happy with the result. It is time to play and maybe after the tenth version you find a golden one. Thanks for sharing all of this, Margaret. I wish all teachers and parents and children good days as we continue through this unreal new reality. In the end think of what we will have learned and yet, so many who will have suffered. But that quote about what doesn’t get you, makes you stronger. Probably bad to use it right now for all the sorrow, but in a way those who manage to survive this have the opportunity to do our utmost to fix it the best we we can. Peace to all.
I got behind on my Water poems – but I’m not worried. The prompts are still there! It will be fun to play catch-up. (Though I have to confess, your taste tanka is tripping me up! I need a bit more headspace before I go at it again.)
I love all the water poems and prompts. Your students found treasure indeed in writing together.
Rylee did a great job with her tanka. I love those “blue cotton candy clouds.”
What a welcome treat for so many senses! Thank you and Rylee for sharing. :0)