Poetry | Reflections on the Teche

Archive for the ‘Poetry’ Category

Slice of Life: Dancers

Posted in Photography, Poetry, Slice of Life, Writing, tagged Acadiana Center for the Arts, art collage, dancing, Linda Mitchell on February 8, 2022| 6 Comments »

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

This month I am participating in Laura Shovan’s February poetry project on Facebook. The theme this year is Time. This beautiful collage made by Linda Mitchell was our prompt on Monday. So much to write about, but I focused on the couple dancing. This weekend my husband and I were dancing to one of our favorite bands, Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys at an event at the Acadiana Center for the Arts. Opportunities to dance have been few during the pandemic. We were a little rusty, but so happy to be out there again. A nearby friend captured a photo of us on the dance floor.

Time in a Picture Frame
The photographer shutters the moment
mid-glide of a waltz.
You were smiling at him
in the way a person whose known someone for a long time-
familiarity mixed with joy.
In your mind’s eye, the planets spin an orbit of protection.
No matter what,
the photo
will always show joy.
You do not know when loss
will reveal something else hidden there-
a child looking on
or the tail of an astronaut’s lifeline.
Today it is enough
to smile.
(c) Margaret Simon draft

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This Photo Wants to be a Poem: Adventurers

Posted in Photography, Poetry, Writing, tagged #smallpoems, grandchildren, Janet Fagel, This Photo Wants to be a Poem on February 2, 2022| 23 Comments »

This week’s photo comes from Janet Fagel’s daughter-in-law who captured a special moment when her children, Janet’s grandchildren, were walking at Washington Crossing Park in New Jersey.

Out for a brisk walk with their wonderful mom, the kids ask: Can we be adventurers today? Her answer? Absolutely!!!
Janet Fagel

On Facebook, a friend responded “The first photo reminds me of this photo by W. Eugene Smith. It is on the last page of the book The Family of Man.”

I’m loving this line as a striking line for a poem.

We walk a
step & another into a magical world
side by side, brother to
sister we’ll always be.
We were born born
for this adventure under
a canopy of trees, your
refuge the sound of our footsteps.
Margaret Simon, draft

Please write your own small poem in the comments or on your blog. Leave encouraging comments for other writers. Most of all, have fun!

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This Photo Wants to be a Poem: Riches

Posted in Photography, Poetry, Writing, tagged Amy Ludwig Vanderwater, Mary Lee Hahn, Poems are Teachers, This Photo Wants to be a Poem on January 26, 2022| 72 Comments »

Last Wednesday I invited Mary Lee Hahn to teach my class. She is a retired 5th grade teacher in Ohio. Her poem Riches is the first poem in Amy Ludwig VanDerwater’s invaluable teacher resource Poems are Teachers. I wanted to share Mary Lee’s poem with my students and when I emailed her, she agreed to meet with my students. The marvel of technology makes author visits reasonable, practical, and possible.

Mary Lee wrote Riches about a photograph. She told us that the bird bath had frozen over with a myriad of leaves in it. Her husband removed the slab of ice and placed it in the sun, and she photograph it. The play of light in the ice attracted her eye and her poetic self.

Mary Lee talked to my students about all the things that she thought about when she wrote the poem. She included thoughts from a book she was reading as well as loving thoughts about her husband, how he sees things that she doesn’t notice.

Today, I invite you to sit with all that is in your head alongside this photo. What surfaces for you? Write a small poem in the comments or on Facebook or on your own blog (or all three!). Be sure to encourage other writers with comments.

My student Avalyn (2nd grade) came to class today and performed for me a poem she had heard on TicTok. At first I wasn’t really paying attention, but as she spoke on, I was drawn in. She memorized Brown Eyes by Nadia McGhee. The line that was in my head when I composed my poem is “Your eyes carry earthquakes that bring mountains to their knees.”

Your eyes
like the brown of a leaf in winter
glimmer in the sunlight
and smile at me
when you say,
“I love this poem!”
Margaret Simon, draft

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Slice of Life: The Slide of Life

Posted in Poetry, Slice of Life, Writing, tagged being grandmother, haiku, monarch caterpillars on January 25, 2022| 15 Comments »

I try not to complain. I try to see the good in each day. Really, there is good in each day. But yesterday I got this haiku from a friend in Facebook Messenger.

It made me laugh, and I couldn’t resist playing along.

Haiku of my life at 5:00 on Monday.
My ribs are bruised
Coffee has lost its sweetness
Raindrops in my hair.
Margaret Simon

Sliding with “Tuffy”, age 60 and age 28 months.

This photo gives a clue to my injury. See that rather thick siding on the slide, just thick enough to bruise a rib on the way down. Can’t a Mamère have any fun!?

But I will not leave this post without hope. I am currently nurturing about 20 monarch caterpillars in my kitchen. Last week before a hard freeze, I got a text from Jennie who tends the garden at a local school: “There’s a bunch of monarchs at Sugarland. Do you have any desire to bring them in from cold? Thank you, Caterpillar hero!” On my way home I stopped by the school, found an open gate, and cut lots of milkweed with caterpillars feasting. I’m posting updates periodically on Instragram.

My January Kitchen
A net enclosure
holds milkweed to feed
future beauty-wings
Margaret Simon, (c) January 2022

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This Photo Wants to be a Poem: Snowgirl

Posted in Photography, Poetry, Writing, tagged #smallpoems, Molly Hogan, snowgirl, This Photo Wants to be a Poem on January 19, 2022| 55 Comments »

Winter is here and in many places around the US, mounds of snow. In the deep south, we are expecting an Arctic blast later this week that may (accent on the word may) bring a mix of winter precipitation. The last time I was able to build any semblance of a snowman was in March of 1988. This is not true for my friend Molly in Maine. She posted a most amazing snowgirl that her daughter, Lydia, had created using old garden leftovers to accessorize. Let’s entertain our child-muse today and write a small poem about her. Feel free to give her a name.

Betty White
Blonde pom-pom poofs
fool you into thinking
this girl is ditsy.
Don’t
underestimate a girl
with sunlight
in her hair. She’s a star
in her own galaxy.
Margaret Simon, draft

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This Photo Wants to be a Poem: Frost Flowers

Posted in Photography, Poetry, Writing, tagged #poemsofpresence, #smallpoems, Frost flowers, natural beauty, Susan H. Edmunds, This Photo Wants to be a Poem on January 12, 2022| 27 Comments »

January has so far given us temperatures as high as 80 degrees and as low as 29. I’ve brought plants in (and back out and back in). I’ve gathered milkweed with monarch caterpillars. I’ve worn a heavy coat and shorts. Winter in South Louisiana has gotten weird. The Japanese magnolias are in full bloom. The sunrise and sunset are bright red. Since the New Year, I’ve released three monarch butterflies. And everywhere, Omicron Covid is on the steep rise. Nature is speaking. Is anyone listening?

Last night I had chosen a sunset photo from my phone; however, a sweep through Facebook revealed an amazing natural phenomenon from my friend and naturalist Susan H. Edmunds. She granted creative permission, so today I give you a rabbit hole you could choose to go down: frost flowers.

Frost flowers! When the temperature quickly drops, as it did last night in rural St. Martin Parish, sap remaining in the plants’ stems begin to freeze and crack the stem. When this liquid exudes through the minute cracks, it freezes and forms beautifully delicate frost flowers that vanish when the sun’s golden rays touch them. Isn’t nature just grand?
Susan H. Edmunds, Facebook Jan. 11, 2022

Golden light on frost
illuminates, melts away
cold morning moment.
Margaret Simon, draft

Write your own small poem in the comments. Leave encouraging comments for other writers.

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Spiritual First Thursday 2022: One Little Word

Posted in Gratitude, Poetry, Spiritual Growth, Writing, tagged enough, Glennon Doyle, Jess Keating, One Little Word, spiritual journey on January 6, 2022| 21 Comments »

Dear Spiritual Thursday Friends,

We are gathering again for the first Thursday of each month. This is an open invitation to any blogger who would like to join us. We post on the first Thursday of the month. Each month is hosted by a different blogger. We do not adhere to any specific religious affiliation. We are here to express our thoughts about how our spiritual lives are going. Let me know in the comments or by email if you’d like to be on the list of participants.

Blessings,
Margaret

I’ve been choosing a One Little Word to guide my year for many years now. I have a collection of MudLove bracelets that express my different words. I’ve even begun a practice of gifting little words to some of my friends. It’s probably against the OLW policy to assign someone a word, but the friends who receive one seem to like the idea. At an NCTE conference sometime around 2014, I was given a MudLove bracelet. I love wearing my word.

My word came to me while I was reading Jess Keating’s Epic Email.

Everything you need is inside you. The tough stuff alchemizes to create the good stuff. Your story is enough. What you value is enough. Your desire is enough.
Jess Keating, Epic Email

Today I listened to Glennon Doyle’s podcast We Can Do Hard Things. She said that January branding has got it all wrong with New year, New you. “It suggests we hate ourselves. It’s insulting.”

At our core, in our soul, we are who we are. And to quote Popeye, “I yam what I yam.” Who I am is enough. I do not need to change myself. Of course, I could exercise more or cook more often or get more involved in social activism. But who I am at 60 is the same me as I was at 50, 40, 30, 20, 10… Embracing my inner self gives me safety to open up for new experiences that enrich me. And if a challenge comes along, I am ready. I am enough.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!Click here to enter

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This Photo Wants to be a Poem: Blue Ridge Mountains

Posted in Photography, Poetry, Spiritual Growth, Writing, tagged #poemsofpresence, #smallpoems, Blue Ridge Mountains, This Photo Wants to be a Poem on January 5, 2022| 29 Comments »

This week it’s snowing in the Blue Ridge Mountains, but last week the weather was mild. Cool enough to set a fire outside in the fire pit, yet warm enough to run and play without a jacket on. Our family vacation the week after Christmas was as good as it gets. I wrote about it here for Slice of Life.

Today’s photo was one I took in the late afternoon as the sun was setting over the hills beyond our mountain house. This photo captures the peaceful magic of time to do nothing much. As the weather has turned to winter storms and cold temperatures this week, I hope this photo brings a peaceful moment of warmth. Write with me. Leave your small poem in the comments and come back to respond to other writers. Happy new year of writing.

Muse in the magic
of a smoking fire
freeing your soul
to rest
on God’s roof.
Margaret Simon, draft

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This Photo Wants to be a Poem: Frozen Bubbles

Posted in Photography, Poetry, Writing, tagged Molly Hogan, skinny poem, This Photo Wants to be a Poem on December 22, 2021| 7 Comments »

Today I am nursing an upper respiratory virus. I am boosted and tested negative for both Covid and flu, but this cough is nagging, and the low grade fever has me curled up with hot tea watching Christmas movies. It should be much better by Christmas, let’s hope. Next week I’ll be traveling with my family, so I will take the week off from blogging. I’ll be back with a new photo on Jan. 5, 2022. Thank you for supporting this weekly photo prompt by writing, reading, and commenting. You have made my one little word “Inspire” glow with purpose and meaning.

This week I have taken a photo from Molly Hogan’s Facebook post. She is forever curious and explores with her camera. When I asked her about this photo, she told me her husband thought she was nuts leaning over a bucket of ice. In Maine, temperatures have turned to winter, and she captured the beauty and mystery of winter in this photo.

Frozen in fundamental shape
this
world
inside
rises
this
speck
becomes
seen
this
fundamental shape is frozen.
Margaret Simon, draft
Skinny form

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This Photo Wants to be a Poem: Museum Dancers

Posted in Photography, Poetry, Writing, tagged #smallpoems, Christmas poems, Hilliard Museum, The Nutcracker, This Photo Wants to be a Poem on December 15, 2021| 22 Comments »

When taking photographs, you don’t always get the one you planned. We recently took my grandchildren to a local art museum. There were dancers in the gallery advertising an upcoming performance of The Nutcracker. I wanted my grandson Leo to take a picture with them. Well, he’s 3 and he was afraid of the dancers, so he kept his distance. I took this photo anyway. Now I look at it as a potential poem prompt.

The Nutcracker is as traditional in the United States as Christmas caroling. We all know the story. We can conjure the iconic music in our heads. It’s been years since I attended a performance of the ballet, but I have fond memories of going as a child. Play a bit of the music while musing on this photo, and place a small poem in the comments.