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 