Posted in Photography, Poetry, tagged #haikuforhope, Cindy Voorhies Jordan, Instagram, Japanese maple on December 20, 2018| 1 Comment »
As I perused Instagram, I found this amazing image of a Japanese maple tree posted by Cindy Voorhies Jordan, @sugarmaglafayette. We have these trees around, but I have not seen one with such a full spray of red. Cindy’s comment inspired this haiku: “The Japanese maples are ablaze this morning.”
Posted in Photography, Poetry, tagged #haikuforhope, Molly Hogan on December 17, 2018| 1 Comment »
Photo by Molly Hogan.
Can I move beyond
my blindness, blink of darkness
and see His light?
(c) Margaret Simon
Posted in Photography, Poetry, tagged #haikuforhope, Chere' Coen on December 12, 2018| 1 Comment »
My friend, Chere’ Coen is a travel writer. She posted some pictures this morning of a sunrise in Bay St. Louis, MS. My dear friend Nettie loved Bay St. Louis. She visited often and took me there once when we made a wrong turn on I10 and ended up going east instead of west. I remember the sense of peace we both felt as we walked the beach looking for driftwood. I still have that piece I picked up that day. Nettie died in October after a battle with colon cancer. Chere’s photograph made me miss her more and yet, feel at peace.
photo by Chere’ Coen
Posted in Photography, Poetry, Poetry Friday, tagged #haikuforhope, sandpiper murmuration on November 30, 2018| 5 Comments »
Poetry Friday round-up is with Carol at Carol’s Corner.
My mother-in-law just returned from a trip to Whidbey Island in Washington where she did some amazing bird watching with her second son’s family. I was most intrigued by her description of the western sandpiper’s murmuration. I’ve only seen murmurations on video. I’d love to see one is real life. Breathtaking!
Laura Purdie Salas posts an image on Thursday for a weekly poetry writing prompt, “15 words or less.” This week she had a picture of a sculpture in the Houston Convention Center that I probably passed by numerous times and didn’t take notice. The art piece looked like a flock of birds. My mind went to sandpiper murmurations. (My sister-in-law sent me this video. It’s mesmerizing.)
Dunlin sandpiper migration
high wind murmuration
frosty sunrise creation
bird watchers’ salvation(c) Margaret Simon
If you read my poem on Laura’s site (we post them in the comments), you may notice a correction in the breed of bird from sandhill crane to dunlin sandpiper. I did some fact checking.
Mary Lee Hahn invited us to join her in a December haiku-a-day project. I’ve started early. When I returned from my morning walk, I took this picture of grandmother oak, but what I noticed was the color of the cypress tree behind her. I don’t usually see this color. Most of the time, the cypress trees quickly shed their needles. I wonder why they are holding on longer this fall.
photo by Margaret Simon
Bronze cypress needles
cling as a child on rope swing
resist winter’s grip#haikuforhope
(c) Margaret Simon
Posted in Photography, Poetry, Poetry Friday, Travel, Writing, tagged New Orleans City Park, Sydney and Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden on November 23, 2018| 13 Comments »
Poetry Friday round-up is with Irene at Live Your Poem.
Spending some time in New Orleans filled me with inspiration, especially in the Syndey and Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden at the New Orleans Museum of Art. I took pictures and found a poem. My friend, Dani Burtsfield from Montana, walked with me and found her own poem. The two compliment each other like we do as friends.
Posted in Photography, Poetry, Poetry Friday, tagged Abundant Autumn, Bayou Teche, blue heron, nature poem on November 2, 2018| 14 Comments »
Poetry Friday round-up is with Jama at Jama’s Alphabet Soup.
Autumn takes its time coming to South Louisiana. It comes in small, unnoticeable ways like the browning of cypress trees, or in larger, violent ways as in a storm leading a cold front. So here we are on the second day of November and temperatures have dropped to the 50’s, a pleasant change from the 80’s to 90’s of the previous six months. I so envy the images of orange and red fall leaves filling the trees.
Since we have not changed our clocks quite yet, the sun is coming up later each morning, and I’ve noticed a heron on the bayou sitting right in the direct ray of the rising sun. I tried to capture him with my telephoto lens, but he heard me and flew off. No matter. I can still write him into a poem.
Carol Varsalona curates a gallery at her blog site for every season. Currently she is collecting images and poems for Abundant Autumn. I borrowed a photograph of a heron at the beach from fellow poet (and better photographer than me) Wendi Romero to use as a backdrop to my poem. I love how the challenges of Poetry Friday peeps push me to spread my writing wings.
Posted in Photography, Poetry, Writing, tagged National Geographic, photo poems on October 12, 2018| 9 Comments »
Poetry Friday round-up is with Laura at Writing the World for Kids.
I love writing from photographs. There are many different perspectives to take, as an observer, as someone in the photo, or as description. I shared the National Geographic photo archives with my students. I asked them to select a photo to write about. We gathered information first in a T-chart. “What I see, What I think, What I wonder, What I know, What I feel.” I found this idea in Amy Ludwig VanDerwater’s book, Poems are Teachers.
I was attracted to a photo of a lioness in water carrying a cub in her mouth. Your Shot photographer Connie Bowen said, “We were in awe of her mothering and tolerance.” I used this as a repeated line in my poem.
Chloe also chose this photo to write about, without knowing I had selected it, too. Madison is a budding young artist. She is taking art classes. She wanted to raise some money to get a laptop so she can do more with her art. I commissioned her to draw the photograph.
Maternal Instincts
We were in awe of her mothering,
how she gently yet firmly
held the cub in her jaws
hanging loosely, trusting.
We were in awe of her grace,
as she swept through the water
knowing her cubs would follow
in her wake, head up, alert to mother’s gait.
We were in awe of her tolerance,
lioness in African grass, patience
in her eyes, confidence in stride.
Mother nature teaches us tolerant, mothering grace.
–Margaret Simon, (c) 2018
A Likely Loving Lioness
by Chloe
A likely loving lioness
loves her cubs with a smile.
And when they’re sad
she makes them glad
by playing with them all day.
Here is a link to Chloe’s poem on Kidblog if you’d like to comment to her directly.
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