March | 2024 | Reflections on the Teche

Archive for March, 2024

Slice of Life: Junk Drawer

Posted in Writing on March 21, 2024| 6 Comments »

The Open Write for Ethical ELA is happening this week and Tuesday was the first day I had time to attend. The prompt came from Rex. He asked us to write about our junk drawers. I opened the response box and typed, skipping the notebook and revision. A quick write, just.do.it response. This is what I got.

Junk Drawer

I forgot another password
so I turned to the all knowing
drawer of junk to locate
the secret notebook.

My hand got stuck on
the safety scissors, not so safe,
and ruffled a roll of tape,
plastic container of paper clips.

Where did all this stuff come from?
We’ve stuffed it full and fuller
until whole hours are lost
in Emory boards, stapler, and hole punch.

The password itself brought a tear
of grief for my sweet Charlie.
(I’ve heard you shouldn’t use pet names.)
Buried in the junk is the purest love.

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

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This Photo Wants to be a Poem: Chicken

Posted in Slice of Life, This Photo Wants to be a Poem, tagged cherita, chickens, This Photo Wants to be a Poem on March 20, 2024| 37 Comments »

I wrote a book years ago about a girl who loved a chicken. Her name was Blessen. Blessen still lives in my heart. I don’t know her, but I know her because I created her. Here is a child I don’t know. She is hugging a chicken. I love the image and I borrowed it from Facebook. I don’t have permission to publish it, so please do not take it.

Can you create a character in a poem today? A child who loves chickens or all animals? Who is she? Explore her with a fictional poem. Today I am choosing the form of cherita which is a 6-lined poem broken into 3 stanzas. (stanza 1: one line; stanza 2: 2 lines; stanza 3: 3 lines.) Cherita means story, so the poem should tell a story. An example from Mary Lee is here.

Curly locks and black feathers

hold on to each other–
friend to friend

Cherishing a moment
before the parade
when black feathers will fly.
Margaret Simon, draft

There is a weird tradition here in South Louisiana at Mardi Gras when country folks chase a chicken for a gumbo. It’s a drunken, barbaric affair that I struggle with. Many believe it is harmless fun.

Leave your own poem (cherita or other small poem) in the comments. Give encouraging responses to other writers.

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Slice of Life: Word Play

Posted in Poetry, Slice of Life, Writing, tagged definito, Heidi Mordhorst, Nikki Grimes, Pi-ku, wandering word poem, Word play poetry forms on March 19, 2024| 7 Comments »

Leigh Anne Eck has invited Slicers to come to a blog party about words. Where would poets be without words? I am not a word nerd, but I am a word collector. I love to play with sounds in poetry, especially alliteration. I subscribe to two word-of-the-day emails, and work with gifted students on how words are created and carry different meanings. Words are fun for me.

Here are some suggestions for activities to do with students around word play.

Definito poem: My friend and fellow Inkling (writing group) created this form. The poem form is 8-12 lines written for children that defines a word. The defined word appears in the last line. I wrote a definito last year during National Poetry Month around the word shenanigans.

2. Wandering Word Poem: I first learned about this word exploration form from Nikki Grimes in this Today’s Little Ditty post. Take a word for a walk, exploring all the ways it can be used, literally and figuratively.

3. Pi-ku: On Pi Day each year (3/14) we write pi-ku which is a poem with the syllable count of pi: 3.14159…

I played with the sounds of p-words.

P-popping
words
popularly
drop
perpetuity
Margaret Simon, pi-ku

How do you “play” with words in your writing? If you work with students, I hope you can use the forms I’ve shared here and just let them play with poetry.

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Slice of Life: Dinner Party

Posted in Gratitude, Slice of Life, Writing, tagged dinner party on March 17, 2024| 7 Comments »

Who doesn’t love a party?

Actually…me.

I’m an introvert and some parties (mostly the idea of a party) overwhelm me.

Last night we hosted a dinner party for 10 people.

My husband Jeff did the cooking. Weeks ago he tried a new crepe recipe with mushrooms, leeks, and asparagus. When we tried them, he said, “We could serve this to our friends.” We looked at the calendar and found an open Saturday. I texted our friends. His instructions were “fill our table.”

Each one asked what they could bring, so I doled out the appetizers, wine, and dessert. All I had to do was the salad and cleaning. In honesty, both of us worked hard on getting everything just right.

At some point in the afternoon, Janita left a gorgeous bougainvillea on our front porch. I hung it out on the back deck. The weather was a perfect 70 something, no rain. We decided to have the meal outside. I texted the group that dinner would be casual and outside.

After we ate, the mosquitoes forced us inside. Our friends from different slices of our life gathered and started telling stories. The party continued.

Maya Angelou wisely said, “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”

I will forget what we served. I’ll forget the stories told. But I will never forget the feeling of comfort and joy with people I care about.

I think we may do this again…next year.

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Slice of Life: You can Always Bring Me Flowers

Posted in Slice of Life, tagged En Plein Air, Farmer's Market flowers, Keith Burgess, The Shadows on the Teche on March 16, 2024| 13 Comments »

All this week we have been hosting an artist from north Georgia. When we volunteered to host, we had no idea who would be coming. There’s always a risk. This morning “our artist” Keith Burgess brought me flowers from the Farmer’s Market. You can always win my heart with flowers.

Keith has been painting for the Shadows on the Teche Plein Air Art Competition. It’s a juried competition which means a working, teaching artist is chosen as judge and he/ she chooses who can come and compete. This year was Keith’s first year to compete. He has said to me all week that he was just honored to be selected. He didn’t expect any awards.

Keith painting in our driveway.

Last night at the awards ceremony, Keith won the Parish President’s Choice Award for a painting he did on our dock of the Bayou Teche. He was over-the-moon excited. He grabbed my arm as he saw them taking it off the wall. I could feel him shaking. I’m so happy for him. It’s been a rough week as he had off and on car trouble. We are happy he will think back on this week with joy.

Keith Burgess with Iberia Parish President Larry Richard.

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Slice of Life/Poetry Friday: Three Pecans

Posted in Poetry Friday, Progressive poem, Writing, tagged Cane River Pecan Company, Mahmoud Darwish, ode, Poetry Foundation on March 15, 2024| 16 Comments »

Poetry Friday is hosted today by Tanita at (fiction instead of lies)

This week I met with two local poets, one a former student who is nearing 14, and the other a visiting musician from Argentina who is 26 (I think). We met at a local coffee shop to write poetry together. I brought a poem I received from the Poetry Foundation, To Our Land by Mahmoud Darwish.

To our land,
and it is the one near the word of god,
a ceiling of clouds

To our land,
and it is the one far from the adjectives of nouns,
the map of absence

To our land,
and it is the one tiny as a sesame seed,
a heavenly horizon … and a hidden chasm
Mahmoud Darwish, read the rest of the poem here.

We talked about what we noticed. The anaphora of To our Land became our prompt for writing “To Our _______”.

Our discussion was surprisingly sophisticated, so truly engaged in the words, the feelings, and how each of us responded differently. Fran said, “We must do this again next week.” A writing group was formed.

I said, “We need to have a name.”

Kaia looked up at the pecans surrounding us (we were in the Pie Bar of a pecan company.) “What about three pecans?”

To Our Poets
after Mahmoud Darwish

To our poets
speaking with their pens
pencils tearing the page.

To our poets,
and he is the one grieving his land
a prize of war,
a jewel that glimmers for the far upon the far.

To our poets,
and she praises the birds, the imagination
calling to us announcing our place
in a family of things.

To our poets,
the ones who gives themselves permission
to be poets, folding pages of a notebook
that unfold their untold secrets.

And for us
who listen
and find fresh air to breathe.
Margaret Simon, draft

Click here to sign up for a day to add a line to April’s Progressive Poem.

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Slice of Life: The Same, not the same

Posted in Photography, Slice of Life, Writing, tagged #bayoulife, #nature, Kim Douillard on March 14, 2024| 6 Comments »

I love it when I read something someone else writes and begin to contemplate the same thing in my own life. Do we walk parallel lines? Kim Douillard lives on the west coast. I live on the southern Gulf coast. She wrote, “The experience of taking the same photo over and over echoes what it means to be a teacher. Each day is filled with sameness.”

When I read her blog post, I was sitting on my back deck on the same day we shut down schools 4 years ago, listening to the same birdsong, the same train whistle, and watching the same sun slowly disappear. I took a picture of the same view I had then and still have today, but I am different. We all are. We drew a line in the sand of before and after. Who would have predicted that day (March 13, 2020) the trials we would experience? The illness that would take so many lives and send us into a tailspin of doubt and despair.

But in many ways, I remember that time fondly. My oldest daughter called me while I was sitting on the deck avoiding people to tell me she was pregnant. She didn’t know then if the baby would survive. It was the early scary days of new pregnancy. And now we have an adorable, smart, and hilarious 3 year old.

I spent that spring writing poetry, making what I could out of the strangeness of the world. Today I looked back into my media file and found two other pictures of this place in my world. Same but different.

Our students still grapple with the change of things. The educational system hasn’t figured out how to move forward. Have any of us?

Buddhist wisdom says that change is the only constant. My view comforts me. To see this old cypress sprout its bright green needles year by year holds hope. Nature shows us that things can change and be alive and well again. We can’t always see the movement, but it’s there, letting us know that God is here.

“We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts, we make the world.” –Buddha

Thoughts
climb out
on a branch
spilling a seed droplet
Budding
Margaret Simon, elfchen of the day

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This Photo Wants to be a Poem: Foggy Sunrise

Posted in This Photo Wants to be a Poem, tagged #haiku, #sunrise, Antoine de Saint-Exupery, Marshall Ramsey on March 13, 2024| 60 Comments »

Sunrise through the fog, photo by Marshall Ramsey.

When winter turns to spring, we often have fog. Fog can be dangerous, but it is also quite beautiful and intriguing. What is really there that we cannot see?

I found this photo on Instagram from Marshall Ramsey who is a cartoonist living in Mississippi. His cartoons are often published in the Clarion-Ledger of Jackson, MS.

I was also intrigued by this quote that Georgia Heard posted.

In my classroom, we collect good and thought-provoking quotes. Quotes can lead us to our own thoughts. Take some time for yourself, the poet in you, to think on all these things: the photo, the quote, what is currently happening in your life. Let’s write together. Post your small poems in the comments, and encourage other writers with your words.

I seek a portal
to new possibility
slow reveal of me
Margaret Simon, draft

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Slice of Life: I am a Poet

Posted in Slice of Life, Writing, tagged #poet, #sunset, John Warner Smith on March 12, 2024| 14 Comments »

I was bold.

I introduced myself as a poet.

I said my name…twice.

Then he took out his phone to type me in.

A former poet laureate of the state.

He’s offered to come to workshop with my students, even though he’s never taught elementary before. Can I make this happen? Yes, I will.

Last night I was at a dinner party for artists who are visiting our town for The Shadows on the Teche Plein Air Competition. We are hosting an artist in our home. The evening was beautiful, violinist, food, wine, and a sun setting over the bayou. The director of the Shadows is John Warner Smith. He served as state poet laureate from 2019-2021, so he talked about how “Covid hit” and all workshops moved to Zoom. He gave me his card and said, “Get in touch. We can do something.”

My students already have a heightened admiration of me because I often introduce them to poets I’ve met, but wait until they meet Mr. Smith, a living poet laureate. I’ll have to teach them what poet laureate means. I hope he’s as good a teacher as he is a dinner party conversationalist.

I was bold.

I said I am a poet.

Do you tell others that you are a writer?

Artist dinner party sunset (photo by Margaret Simon)

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Slice of Life: Lucky Day

Posted in Slice of Life, Teaching, Writing, tagged Alpha Delta Kappa, daily elfchen, Padreg O Tuama, The Isolation Journals on March 10, 2024| 15 Comments »

What is luck? The right place, the right time or something we can put an effort toward? In Pádraig Ó Tuama’s weekly newsletter, he writes about the contronym of the word want. Want can be a wish or a lack of. He asks what word are you thinking about this week? For me, it’s luck.

I attended my sorority’s state convention yesterday (Alpha Delta Kappa for educators), and I felt lucky four times. I was a first timer, so I went up to get a little prize. I had received a classroom grant, a certificate. I won a door prize. And I raised the most funds for the International Altruistic Foundation, the Alzheimer’s Association, another certificate. A combination of luck and hard work.

Door prize, lemon tea towel and scented hand soap and lotion.

I have to admit I was overwhelmed by the attention. It was all so unexpected. I know we teachers work hard to make the best experiences we can for our students. We don’t do this for recognition. We do it because we care about kids.

My Friday was a rough day. My students were tired from the week of holding all the expectations that are placed on gifted kids. All they really needed was a brain break. I need to remember this and lay a more gentle hand on them and on myself.

Do you know about the junk bug? Another weekly newsletter I receive is Suleika Jaouad’s Isolation Journals.

Rhonda Willers writes about the junk bug, how it carries the carcasses of its prey on its back and transforms into a lacewing.

The sensation of fear is a reminder not to stop, but instead to be aware, slow down, to notice more.
Rhonda Willers

Maybe this slice is going all over the place, but my mind feels like this at the moment, a strange combination of luck (blessings) and fear. Standing on a line between, balancing and hoping to stay stable, calm, and okay.