I am happily home and cozy after being in Denver for a week of busy (NCTE) and, after Jeff came, walking. We clocked over 20,000 steps on Monday.
Today I am taking a day off before my family comes for Friday Thanksgiving. I wanted to take this opportunity to thank the poetry community, so wonderfully kind and generous. Some of you I hugged and talked to at NCTE. Others of you stop by this blog and give support through comments. Reflections on the Teche (pronounced Tesh) is my happy place because of you, my readers.
Today’s photo is a crochet-wrapped tree. I’m using a free verse form today following a prompt from Joyce Sidman after her book Dear Acorn, Love, Oak: a compliment, a question, and a wish.
A Tree that Grows in Denver
Single crochet,
double crochet,
cluster-hills & valleys,
green, pink, purple
blooming round
a tree that juts from concrete.
Your colors give warmth
when times are tough.
Will you twirl with me?
I hope your dancing colors
fill the gloom with bright
like a vine that’s lost control
and only seeks the light.
(Margaret Simon, draft)
If you are feeling the muse of this photo, leave a poem draft in the comments. Support other writers with your responses.
Reflections on the Teche 
Margaret, I’m so glad you had a great trip! This photo makes me feel the warmth!! I am so grateful for you!
Happy Thanksgiving and thanks for the photo and poem! Love the color and tiny lights. Here in the north we had rain, ice and then snow. So we are all cosy inside while the temperature outside feels like 16 degrees. Winter has arrived with the turkey!
What a delight! Happy Thanksgiving to one and all. Even though it’s a tough time to travel, it looked like the conference was a hit. I’m glad your hubby could join you and extend the time into some sight-seeing. I love that Denver Museum of Art! It’s big but not too big to enjoy on a weekend. What a lovely catalog of layers on the tree.
Love that yarn-bombing photo and your poem, Margaret. Happy Thanksgiving.
Lovely, Margaret. (Lovely Margaret.) Thanks for sharing Joyce’s prompt, too. My answer is always yes to twirling! xo
Sorry I missed seeing you, Margaret, but it sounds like you had quite a trip, NCTE, then all those steps! Finding yarn bombs is such fun, and I imagine whoever created this one would love your poem about it. That ending zings!
I thought of you often, especially in the art museum. There is a fabulous crochet exhibit with a hut that kids can walk into and touch. You may have seen it already. I hope I see you next time.
Wish I could have been with you! I will look for it, planning to go to their member sale in a week! I am glad your husband came in to join you for more adventures! Enjoy all the fun in December!
Margaret, there is so much joy in this poem, especially the “Will you twirl with me?” invitation. It, like the whole poem lifted me up! Thank you!!!
Love this crocheted vine of light, Margaret! Enjoy your holiday! I’ll be enjoying your poetry book this weekend – it arrived! Thank you!
Happy Friday Thanksgiving to you and yours! And yes to twirling with that lovely crocheted tree.
Thanks for the image and words that put a big smile on my face. I have never had the patience to crochet like that and am amused and delighted when I find a similar decoration.
Your colors give warmthwhen times are tough.
Perfect sentiment!
What a great photo. I’m glad your trip to Denver and NCTE was a good one.
Margaret, I am glad you enjoyed the conference and Denver with your husband. Isn’t cool how you can see the distant mountains around Denver? Our oldest daughter lives just outside of Denver. All of Joyce Sidman’s books are amazing! What a great photo of a wonderful idea! I love it! In your poem, I love how you call your single and “double crochet cluster hills and valleys/green, pink, purple/blooming around a tree/that juts from concrete.” Your question to twirl invites the reader into your poem — love that. Yes, to how you weaved colors into “your colors give warmth when times are tough.” And then “dancing colors fill the gloom with bright/like a vine that’s lost control/and only seeks the light.” Beautiful. Happy late Thanksgiving. Thank you for the gift of your words swirling bright colors and dancing colors and sharing your light.
Ooh, like a vine that’s lost control–love that. And so happy to see you (even briefly) at NCTE!
Beautiful poem Margaret, love these lines, “like a vine that’s lost control/and only seeks the light.” Thanks for your poem and for honoring our dear trees which give us so much, especially in winter when most color in colder climates is more scarce.
Thanks also for the copy of “Wood Duck Diary,” looks lovely and I’m enjoying reading your poems–and the kind acknowledgement in the front. My daughter was reading and enjoying it too on Thanksgiving, she appreciated seeing it in French and English. Hope it reaches many eyes!
I am thankful for YOU! Your friendship wraps me in warmth like the yarn-bomb wraps that tree!
Margaret, this line:
Will you twirl with me?
made me break into a smile.
I’m glad you had such a great trip to Denver!
Oh, I wish we would’ve connected in Denver! I was there SO briefly this year! But thank you for this beautiful, cozy poem 🙂