If you are here for the first time, this post is a weekly photo poetry prompt originated by Laura Purdie Salas as Fifteen Words or Less. This is a place to play with words and interact with other poets. On Ethical ELA this week there were two different Verse Love prompts in which the writer took inspiration from another writer, a word or a line traveled from poet to poet.
Let’s play with this idea of poems communicating with each other. I will start us off. The first person here can take a word or line from me. As always, you may choose to go your own way. That’s fine, too.
Today’s photo is from my friend, first grade teacher Lory Landry. When she isn’t teaching, she is taking photographs. I loved the intimate perspective of this one.
Mary Lee Hahn is writing a poem each day about the climate crisis. I loved her poem about dandelions.
Wake up, dandelion!
Margaret Simon, draft
Starbursts ready to fly.
Blow, spring wind, blow!
The Progressive Poem is with Linda Mitchell today. Molly had a conflict, so Linda stepped up to add the next line. Thanks, Linda!
Reflections on the Teche 
As always, thank you, Margaret and also to Mary Lee for her stunning poem. I got to write this am. Maybe I need to learn to live on less sleep and arise at 4 am on a regular basis. Hmmm I wonder how my poetry would work in a dream state!! (Not thinking it would be good!)
Drunk, But Not Inebriated on Dandelion Wine
Wispy feathers of cloud,
fringed beauty
a lens to look at the world.
Such comfort in softness,
such hope found in little puffs;
we dare to dream of sweetness,
of love.
Janet Clare Fagal, 2022
(c) all rights reserved
Thank you, Janet. Let’s be so daring to dream of such things!
‘Such hope found in little puffs’ makes me smile!
“comfort in softness” is a lovely phrase.
Thank you all, I loved this image and thankfully the brain cooperated early today! Oh how I pray for sanity, courage, goodness, God and love for one another no matter who we are or where. What is there in the human spirit that can be so incredibly inhumane and disgusting. As you can guess I was referring to a variety of senses of love and caring and the lack there of…….
Janet
“fringed beauty” is such a great descriptor, Janet. I have loved dandelions since I was a child.
I accept your challenge, Margaret!
Blow, spring wind, blow!
Scatter wishes far and wide,
Wishes for peace,
Wishes for joy,
And if the wishes spread high enough
To reach the ear of God,
Let them become prayers,
Prayers for peace,
Prayers for joy.
~Jane Heitman Healy, draft, 2022
Love the idea of wishes and prayers. I’ll borrow that thought for my poem.Thanks, Jane.
I love the progression from wishes to prayer.
YES YES YES, Jane, a million times yes. Let’s organize a spread the dandelion love around the world day!!! My favorite? To reach the ear of God. May he listen and help us all, especially those innocents in Ukraine.
Lovely idea, Margaret. Borrowing from Jane:
prayers for peace and joy
scatter like dandelion seeds
hoping to take root
I loved the prayers line, too, and how you have it scattering to take root. Thanks for playing along.
Beautiful! I hope they take root, too!
I pray that your seeds take root and bring forth so much peace and joy! A lovely haiku to start the day, Rose.
Hoping to take root is such a lovely thought, Rose.
I had to post Avalyn’s response to this prompt. I am so privileged to teach this young poet.
A wishing flower?
Great come to me!
You look like a spider web… but it doesn’t bother me.
You can make anything come true.
And that is why everyone loves you!
Dear Avalyn,
Your poem spoke to me on a couple of levels. First I saw spider webs but did not write about them in my poem. And second, I love that we can believe in the power of a wishing flower! When I was a little girl my mother was a young woman and I was her first baby. She spent a lot of time nurturing me. One thing she did was teach me to love poetry. Another thing she told me was that I could do or be anything I wanted to do or be, if I wanted it badly enough. That I was capable to make these things come true. So while I loved to wish for things and that is fun and sometimes nice and easy, my mom’s advice and belief in me has stayed as a beacon of light to me throughout my life. I hope you have lots to love in your life right now and that many wonderful new things will evolve for you in time. Believe in yourself, believe in possibility, believe in dreams!!!
Janet Clare F.
that is the sweetest!
dandelion fluff
waits for spring wind
and wishes
–Buffy Silverman
Oh, lovely, and true. I love how we can make wishes and then we need to figure out how to make it come true!
Spring has a lot of both wind and wishes, and I will think of that when I finally see dandelion fluff, Buffy!
We have the spring wind, Buffy, but the rains accompany it. I have not seen the dandelions yet but do so love blowing wishes with then.
[…] a poem I wrote yesterday for Margaret Simons prompt from her post This Photo Wants to be a Poem, –wish I could have joined in… The image was from the poofy parts of dandelions. Margaret […]