February | 2022 | Reflections on the Teche

Archive for February, 2022

Slice of Life: Dancers

Posted in Photography, Poetry, Slice of Life, Writing, tagged Acadiana Center for the Arts, art collage, dancing, Linda Mitchell on February 8, 2022| 6 Comments »

Thank you to Two Writing Teachers for creating an amazing community of writers and a safe, welcoming space to write and share.

This month I am participating in Laura Shovan’s February poetry project on Facebook. The theme this year is Time. This beautiful collage made by Linda Mitchell was our prompt on Monday. So much to write about, but I focused on the couple dancing. This weekend my husband and I were dancing to one of our favorite bands, Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys at an event at the Acadiana Center for the Arts. Opportunities to dance have been few during the pandemic. We were a little rusty, but so happy to be out there again. A nearby friend captured a photo of us on the dance floor.

Time in a Picture Frame
The photographer shutters the moment
mid-glide of a waltz.
You were smiling at him
in the way a person whose known someone for a long time-
familiarity mixed with joy.
In your mind’s eye, the planets spin an orbit of protection.
No matter what,
the photo
will always show joy.
You do not know when loss
will reveal something else hidden there-
a child looking on
or the tail of an astronaut’s lifeline.
Today it is enough
to smile.
(c) Margaret Simon draft

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Poetry Friday: Winter Chrysalis

Posted in Poetry Friday, Writing, tagged Inklings, monarchs, nonet on February 4, 2022| 17 Comments »

Poetry Friday is with Elisabeth at Unexpected Intersections

Inklings Challenge from Catherine this month: “Write a mathematical poem, such as a fib, pi poem, nonet, etc.” I forgot all about it, so this poem is a bit of a LaMiPoFri* poem. I wanted to try a nonet. I remembered Janet and Sylvia’s advice to write about what you know. I’ve been tending monarch caterpillars in my kitchen for weeks. There have been some losses, but today I am happy to report 9 healthy looking chrysalises and another caterpillar in J formation. I still have 4 free roaming caterpillars on very little milkweed and butternut squash.

Our country once again is in the midst of severe cold storms that bring ice and snow. Here in South Louisiana we are expecting freezing temperatures in the wee hours of the morning. We will not get snow or ice, the meteorologist predicts. All of that came together in this draft of a nonet. I used Canva to make it look all pretty. Thanks for reading.

For other Inkling responses to the challenge:

Linda Mitchell
Molly Hogan
Catherine Flynn
Heidi Mordhorst
MaryLee Hahn

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Spiritual Thursday: Heart

Posted in Creativity, Gratitude, Spiritual Growth, Writing, tagged collage, concrete poem, flowers, spiritual journey on February 3, 2022| 17 Comments »

Today’s Round-up for Spiritual Thursday posts is at Linda Mitchell’s site, A Word Edgewise.

I like to buy flowers. When I go to the grocery store, I often put a bouquet of flowers in my basket. I consider it rescuing them from certain death. Sometimes I find someone to give them to and other times, I cut them and place them in a vase for my husband and me to enjoy. Flowers just make life better.

The other day my neighbor shouted from her doorway, “Don’t go! I want to show you something.”

She brought out the amaryllis bulb I had place on her doorstep around Christmas time. It was blooming, a beautiful white double blossom.

“Isn’t it beautiful?” she cried. “Do you want it back?”

“Of course not. It’s meant for you to enjoy.”

“I do love flowers, you know.”

What is in your heart today? Love, gratitude, grief? It’s all there. Take time today to hold your own heart with compassion. Buy yourself flowers.

To end this post, I want to share Avalyn’s heart poem. This was not my doing. She saw it in a book (Sharon Creech’s Love That Dog) that you can make a poem into a shape, so she wanted to try it. I showed her a quick YouTube video, and she created her own.

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This Photo Wants to be a Poem: Adventurers

Posted in Photography, Poetry, Writing, tagged #smallpoems, grandchildren, Janet Fagel, This Photo Wants to be a Poem on February 2, 2022| 23 Comments »

This week’s photo comes from Janet Fagel’s daughter-in-law who captured a special moment when her children, Janet’s grandchildren, were walking at Washington Crossing Park in New Jersey.

Out for a brisk walk with their wonderful mom, the kids ask: Can we be adventurers today? Her answer? Absolutely!!!
Janet Fagel

On Facebook, a friend responded “The first photo reminds me of this photo by W. Eugene Smith. It is on the last page of the book The Family of Man.”

I’m loving this line as a striking line for a poem.

We walk a
step & another into a magical world
side by side, brother to
sister we’ll always be.
We were born born
for this adventure under
a canopy of trees, your
refuge the sound of our footsteps.
Margaret Simon, draft

Please write your own small poem in the comments or on your blog. Leave encouraging comments for other writers. Most of all, have fun!

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Slice Of Life: Art Journal

Posted in Creativity, Gifted Education, Gratitude, Slice of Life, Writing, tagged #100DaysofNotebooking, art journal, collage, Margaret Alvarez, The Network for Grateful Living on February 1, 2022| 5 Comments »

I filled the last page of my notebook, the one I use every day as I write alongside my students. We use marbleized composition books. With decorative paper, magazines, and other things, we collage covers for our notebooks. The last few days I have been stealing a few minutes here or there to work on my new notebook. Here are my completed covers. I tend to be pretty critical of my own collage work, but I like these.

One of the elements on the front cover came from an ArtSpark postcard exchange with Jone MacCulloch and Amy Souza. I cut the quotes on the back from a 2021 calendar.

May the space between where I am and where I want to be inspire me.
Tracee Ellis Ross

This week I am sharing videos from Margaret Alvarez about gratitude art journaling that I discovered in an email from The Network for Grateful Living. We’ve enjoying playing with these easy, yet creative ideas in my classroom. Day one was “Life is a gift” using watercolor shapes and sharpie designs. Day two we did string art. My students have been highly motivated by art journaling. These ideas are simple enough for my second graders while creative enough for my 6th graders. And it’s fun!