The first Friday of each month is reserved for the Inklings challenge. This month Catherine tuned us in to Ada Limon’s project You are Here. Her question is What would you write in response to the landscape around you?
Last month I participated in Ethical ELA’s Open Write. Mo Daley prompted us to write a type of found poem called “X Marks the Spot.” The idea was to take any text and draw an x across the page, then use the words to make a new poem.
I look forward to trying this prompt with my students soon. Having a bank of words to use in a poem can be just the push you need. “You are here” is often marked by an X. I used a poem found in the American Scholar magazine titled “The Bougainvillea Line” by Ange Mlinko.
This summer our landscape has been saturated by rain. This is better than drought, to be sure, and my garden has loved it. This poetry exercise stretched me to find a new place to land. The found words are in italics.
Summer Soaked in Rain
Driving the back roads which
pass by train tracks which carve ditches
of untended weeds, we breathe the familiar
lime-lit gravel there
swarming with wild volunteers.Illuminated porches bark with fervor,
tomatoes once sweet, pock-marked
by bird beaks.I think of my own garden
full and overgrown, untrained vine
of bougainvillea stretching underfoot
with poor allegiance
to the government of gardens
dissolving in rained-on glory.Margaret Simon, draft
To see how other Inklings responded to this prompt, go to these links:
Linda @A Word Edgewise
Catherine @Reading to the Core
Molly @Nix the Comfort Zone
Mary Lee @Another Year of Reading
Heidi @my juicy little universe
Reflections on the Teche 
Well done, Margaret. I love that you used the X-marks-the-spot prompt for this poem. I look forward to using that prompt with students this school-year. Today is the last weekday of my summer “break.” On Monday, I’ll be back at school getting ready for students and staff. My summer hiatus has been wonderful and rich. I will be sharing my Inkling poems when I get back. “dissolving in rained-on glory” is such a striking image. Lovely.
Whoa, nelly! That was striking throughout (breathing the gravel, porches barking) but wow, when I reached the ending:
with poor allegiance
to the government of gardens
dissolving in rained-on glory
you took my breath away. Wishing you a smooth start to your year!
I wrote this poem a few weeks ago and really didn’t like it. Grabbing it for this post gave me a new perspective. Thanks for your praise. It means a lot.
I love “with poor allegiance/ to the government of gardens.” So many wonderful sensory details. You capture in your poem the wildness that gardens become, even more so in the South. Your flowers are beautiful and I see zinnias, which I especially love.
My friend gave me a few zinnias and they have multiplied. The butterflies love them. All the rain has made everything multiply.
Sounds like an intriguing, meandering garden Margaret, love your last stanza, and last line, which gives allegiance to nature, “dissolving in rained-on glory.” Wonderful weaving of these two challenges, I’d like to try them both, thanks for sharing them and your poem!
Margaret, I am driving alongside you and loving the ride. The ending is marvelous. You brought the backroads into a vivid arena of delightful sights. I think I should try the X marks the spot poem format just for fun while I am on my family beach vacation.
Wow–poor allegiance to the government of gardens–that’s fabulous, Margaret. I love the beautiful unruliness of the scene you paint for us!
Margaret, I was surprised to see you wrote this earlier and didn’t like it.I am enjoying imagining the “Illuminated porches bark[ing] with fervor” and like others said, I love that this garden holds a “poor allegiance to the government of gardens.” I actually think all gardens should be so rebellious.
[…] with this prompt, click on their links:Linda A Word EdgewiseCatherine Reading to the CoreMargaret Reflections on the TecheMary Lee Another Year of ReadingHeidi my juicy little […]
That ending is perfect! I love that you’re celebrating your garden’s rebellion 🙂 That takes a generosity of spirit and just the right lens! I also love that you returned to your poem and looked at it with a new lens as well.
My pollinator garden is “full and overgrown” too, thanks to our abundant rain. I love your closing lines. Nature will do what it wants to!
More praise for your last stanza! WOW! The way you positioned allegiance, government, and rain/reign was powerful.
There were fun surprises all the way through. The scent of “lime-lit gravel” took me right back to the dusty smell of country roads back home. The tomatoes “pock-marked / by bird beaks” — another surprise that’s so fun to say out loud, those K and B sounds. And then the way you brought it all home to your garden and the bougainvillea there. This poem is one of your best!
Thanks for such a specific response. I often do not recognize the elements I use until someone points them out.