Amanda Potts on Instagram is @persistenceandpedagogy. She’s become quite the photographer on her daily walks in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. She posted this one last week of an open pod of milkweed seeds. I am waiting for my milkweed to sprout, but I’m worried that the freeze killed it.
Amanda’s photo stirred an emotion in me. Look for the light. These seeds seem to be glowing from the center. They have places to go, places to land, places to nurture our most precious monarch caterpillars.
Write a small poem inspired by this photo and leave it in the comments. Please encourage other writers with your responses.
Parachute on wind
Margaret Simon, draft
gentle flight for precious gems
whirl to wake the world.
That IS an awesome photo that looks like the seeds are bursting with light with potential for inspiring some great poetry. :)
an amazing close up!
seeds burst;
whispery wings
transport them,
plant them
like hope.
-Jane Heitman Healy, draft
Planting hope!
wings of hope (sigh!)
Oh those whispery wings. Lovely, Jane.
whispery wings is beautiful–and hooray for ending with hope!
Janet, “whispery wings” is beautiful. Like hope goes straight to my heart.
Two student responses:
Like a fluff waiting to fall blown,
and ‘Gone in The Wind’
“You can never catch me!” shouted
The small fluff waiting to be food for a butterfly
Avalyn, 4th grade
oh little seeds
please sing to me
as you grow as you know
you just keep on moving
providing life to all of our flying friends
only to fall back to earth
and release you
but younger and repeat
John-Robert, 6th grade
Both of these poems have a sophisticated, yet child-like quality about them.
Two poems that incorporate lovely visuals and science. Keep on writing John-Robert and Avalyn. Poems can enlighten all of us.
John-Robert’s poem feels like a song to me! And I love that Avalyn gives the fluff a voice.
These are both just beautiful, Margaret, poetic and imaginative.
Love the alliteration of “whirl to wake the world”
shimmering seeds
rupture like rockets
silky threads of life
Ah, Rose, I love rupture like rockets. And those silky threads of life bring so many thoughts to me. You have chosen some captivating alliteration and images.
I love the sound of shimmering seeds.
“rupture like rockets”–great sound and image!
Rose, these three lines are music!
Lovely photo and I love all the poems. I have been working on drawing milkweed pods. So this photo was great to see. The light just pops out at you like the seeds.
drawing milkweed pods
seeds pop out at you
while you both float away
I love ekphrastic poems. I never thought about trying to draw these beautiful milkweed seeds and silks…..and art can really make us float away!
Lovely connection between artist and seeds!
Joanne, I like how you captured the floating effect of your drawing and the seeds
So much poetic goodness here: whirl to wake the world…whispery winds…rupture like rockets…small fluff… sing to me. All great lines! Thanks for this photo, Margaret.
Glowing filaments
Spring from dark seeds
A whisper of wind brings
Liftoff!
draft, Karen E
Ah Karen,
A whisper of wind, I love how this leads to liftoff for the silk of milkweed. All the lines here that you mention could be borrowed to create a new poem using the cento form, defined as making a collage or a quilt from other poems. I think we have something to consider this week.
Hooray for liftoff!
Love the whisper of wind, and ending with liftoff!
Karen, I adore a whisper of wind brings liftoff. Liftoff is so clever!
Gorgeous, Karen, and full of action, from “Glowing filaments” all the way to “Liftoff!”
Threads of light
Trying for take off
Ineffectual yet
Determined
To land way off yonder.
(What an amazing photo!)
Determined. Nature is so solid so much of the time, determined helps us feel that. Love: Threads of light, would that the true light of the world would beam everywhere.
Celia, I love threads of light!
Putting determined on a line by itself gives it so much oomph!
Celia, “threads of light” is a beautiful metaphor for the photo! I love your ending to land way off yonder.
Celia, I love “threads of light” and the message of perseverance.
Illumination
veiled in whispery mist
silent fog mutes the world
horns blare a warning
clarity creeps in
Janet Clare F. draft
I have trouble with the spacing. Illumination is the title.
Love how the phrase”whispery winds” sounds.
Love the whispery mist, the silent fog.
This poem is full of delicious sounds, Janet. “clarity creeps in” is interesting to me.
For Margaret. Oh how we need our milkweed for the monarch caterpillars. Lovely reminder. “gentle flight for precious gems” is so apt.
Summer’s Whisper
Silken pappus finds a breeze
to lift its dangling milkweed seeds.
Floating, spinning, cargo drifts
unburdened by its royal gifts.
–Buffy Silverman
This sounds like another picture book. So beautiful.
Thanks, Margaret–I saw it only as a pair of couplets for your lovely photo, but maybe I will take another look!
Beautiful, Buffy!
Thank you, Rose!
Buffy, I love your title, it hooked me, and I love the sounds. I agree it sounds like a good PB or a good song. In fact, I can picture young children dancing making gestures of your images.
Beautiful rhyme, rhythm, and language, Buffy!
Margaret, what a beautiful photo Amanda took! Clever using parachute as a verb; they do look like parachutes. I keep reading “gentle flight for precious gems” over and over and over. “Whirl to wake the world” went straight to my heart. Nice alliteration.
closing my eyes
I feel silky soft hairs
become fairy wings
Gail Aldous draft
Thank you, Margaret and Amanda for your inspiration.
This is just lovely, Buffy. I so agree with Margaret and the other comments. “Royal gifts” so cleverly done……breeze, seeds lovely rhyme (though not a surprise coming from you!) Dangling! Pappus was new to me and the definition including tufts….a nice little education for me this am.
For Gail,
Oh those fairy wings……the monarch transformation with eyes closed. Nice! I imagine you have seen the caterpillar turn into the Monarch. I love the green chrysalis stage with those square golden lights shine. It sort of bogles the mind…..when I ponder it……truly nature is magnificent. (Though violent tornadoes and tsunamis and volcanic eruptions are tough on some humans, still a magnificent earth we have. Always good to be reminded of every aspect, right?)
“fairy wings”!! Love it, Gail
Thank you, Jane.
Thank you, Jane.
Hi again, I commented to Rose, Janet F., and Buffy but the comments flew off to cyber space. I tried again to reply to Janet and include my comment on her poem 2x, but who know where they landed. Hopefully, this will make the blog.
Margaret, in response to your draft, wow–with beautiful images, you packed an important ecology/biology lesson into those 3 lines!