April | 2022 | Reflections on the Teche

Archive for April, 2022

This Photo Wants to be a Poem: Dandelion

Posted in Photography, Poetry, tagged #poemsofpresence, #smallpoems, #verselove, dandelion, Ethical ELA, Lory Landry, Mary Lee Hahn, This Photo Wants to be a Poem on April 6, 2022| 23 Comments »

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.

https://twitter.com/MaryLeeHahn/status/1511411818236985349

Wake up, dandelion!
Starbursts ready to fly.
Blow, spring wind, blow!
Margaret Simon, draft

The Progressive Poem is with Linda Mitchell today. Molly had a conflict, so Linda stepped up to add the next line. Thanks, Linda!

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Slice of Life: Jump Day

Posted in Poetry, Slice of Life, Teaching, tagged #techeproject, Bayou Teche, Jump Day!, student poetry, wood duck nesting box, wood ducks on April 5, 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.

Thirty-four days. Our wood duck hen sat for thirty-four days. We were losing hope, afraid the freeze back in March did it. On Sunday morning I got a text from a bayou neighbor, “Today is jump day for one of our houses!”

“Our duck has been sitting for 34 days. No hatching yet. I’m not sure we should keep waiting.”

“Mine sat for longer than usual.”

So I flipped over to our RIng app. Did I hear cheeping? Mother hen was eating a shell. They were hatching!

You probably want to know how many, but it’s nearly impossible to count when they are little blurry black blobs wiggling.

Monday was Jump Day. It was also a school/work day. We had to rely on the camera. Jeff set up a new Ring camera outside of the house in order to record the jump. Around 10:00, I checked the cameras. Gone. All the ducks had jumped. I missed it, but the camera did not.

As I showed the video to my student, Avalyn, she named the little ducklings. “Come on, Tiffany, you can do it!” she urged as one of the babies hesitated to jump. Avalyn also wrote a poem-song (impromptu) to celebrate Jump Day!

Wood duck, wood duck
open your shell.
Come out, come out, come out now!
Little duck, little duck,
quack with your snout.
Little duck little duck, little duck
don’t you frown
Come play in the bayou
and make no sound.
Avalyn, 2nd grade

Jump Day, 2022: Watch the lower right corner to see Momma Duck come back to get a wayward duckling.

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NPM #4: Literary Festival

Posted in Poetry, Teaching, Writing, tagged #verselove, Books along the Teche Literary Festival, Ethical ELA, National Poetry Month, Poem Portraits on April 4, 2022| 1 Comment »

What a full weekend! The Books along the Teche Literary Festival was held in New Iberia. On Saturday, my friend, artist Paul Schexnayder and I led a children’s workshop. He taught the art part and I led the poem part: Poem Portraits. The kids wrote a bio-poem and decorated a cardboard face with Picasso-esque facial designs.

Outside in Blue Dog Park, there was a children’s authors area, but I decided not to sit and sell books this year. I had a good time supporting my SCBWI friends, hanging out at their tables, chatting and selling their books.

It certainly helped that the weather was probably the best we’ve had all year.

Blue Dog Park was the location of the Children’s Author Tents

For Ethical ELA, Gae Polisner and Lori Landau led the prompt with a suggestion to choose a line from another writer’s poem and create your own poem. They called it Collaboration Inspiration and it was probably the most prolific day for writing so far. Pop over to read the amazing poetic responses and to be inspired yourself. I borrowed my first line from Stacy: “Yesterday I wore only a sweater.”

Yesterday I wore only a sweater
Cream-colored comfort
in the morning chill.
I left it on a folding chair
in the children’s authors’ tent
where we joyfully greeted
a couple from Ohio
who loved children
and storybooks
and the craft of illustration.
A book festival can be an inadequate space,
sitting for hours
no sales in sight
pondering imposter syndrome.
Yet on this April day
I dropped my sweater,
tossed my discomfort to sunshine
and a circle of writers
who fed my soul
and warmed my shoulders–
no sweater needed.
Margaret Simon, draft

Progressive Poem is with Mary Lee today.

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NPM #3: Core Memories

Posted in Poetry, Writing, tagged Ethical ELA, memory poem, National Poetry Month on April 3, 2022| 2 Comments »

I am participating in Ethical ELA VerseLove. On Saturday, the prompt was given by Emily Yamasaki, a teacher in San Diego. She led us to write a poem after things I have memorized by Maria Giesbrecht. To me, scent is a memory maker, so most of my lines center around smell.

Things I have Memorized (randomly ordered)
The smell of coffee and pancakes on Saturday morning
How many turns and stop signs in the circle drive from Beechcrest to Sedgewick
Hum-buzz of a hummer at the feeder
First words
Stench of our house after the flood
Sparkle of diamond
Scent of his cheek on the pillow
Honeysuckle, Sweet olive, and Aunt Alabel’s perfume
Recipe for cornbread dressing
My childhood phone number (956-2526)
The Lord’s Prayer, My Country ‘Tis of Thee, and Itsy Bitsy Spider
Margaret Simon, draft

Hummingbird at the feeder in my backyard. Taken August 30th. Photo by Margaret Simon

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National Poetry Month #1: The Thing Is…

Posted in Poetry Friday, Writing, tagged 2022 Kidlit Progressive Poem, Ellen Bass, Inklings challenge, National Poetry Month on April 1, 2022| 20 Comments »

Official Poster from Academy of American Poets

Today is Poetry Friday and April 1st and the first day of National Poetry Month. My Sunday writing critique group, the Inklings, take on a challenge each first Friday of the month. This month’s challenge comes from Mary Lee Hahn. She suggested that we write a poem like Ellen Bass The Thing Is. Another Inkling, Heidi has the round up this week.

My One Little Word 2022 is Enough. It surprises me how often enough appears in the poems I write. It’s happened again.

The Thing Is
after Ellen Bass
to become yourself, become you more fully
even if you don’t like what you see.
Even as the river dries, revealing cracks
in the surface, displaying a dump
of glass bottles as the only thing
binding you to this place.
You are who you are.
You have this one wild life
to live, no matter the manifest;
That face in the mirror is yours,
hold it with affection,
send it a kiss like the dew
on the womb of the morning*,
praising This is Good.
This self is enough.
You will love her more
and more every day.
* Psalm 110:3
Margaret Simon, draft