Posted in Poetry, tagged #haikuforhope, Creativity, Smack Dab in the Middle on December 20, 2018| 2 Comments »
Over at Smack Dab in the Middle, the authors are sharing gifts. Nancy Cavanaugh wants to give the gift of wasteful time. Recently, I’ve seen more written about how when we let ourselves play around, be present, waste time, we become more creative and are better able to handle difficult problem solving. As time draws nearer to the holiday break, I am craving this down time.
I want open space
place for wasteful squandering
permission to be…(c) Margaret Simon
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 Poetry, Slice of Life, Writing, tagged #haikuforhope, Bob Raczka, Santa Clauses on December 18, 2018| 5 Comments »
See more posts at Two Writing Teachers Slice of Life .
Yesterday I read aloud the book Santa Clauses to my students. Written by Bob Raczka and illustrated by Chuck Groenink, Santa Clauses is a book of haiku for every day in December up to Christmas Day.
I read the opening author’s note: “Santa is a man of many talents. He’s a toymaker, a reindeer trainer, a sleigh pilot, and a world traveler. But did you know he is a poet?”
Chloe, 3rd grade, said Santa must’ve written the haiku and sent them to Bob Raczka to publish. I agreed that seemed like a reasonable idea. (I love having believers in my classroom.)
Of course, in response, we had to write our own Santa clauses. Here are a few:
So warm at nighttime
I love eating my cookies
with tasty milk cups.
by Breighlynn, 3rd grade
Paper, ribbons, bows
wrapping love in a package
Open carefully.
Margaret Simon
Rudolf is happy
that history is alive
He will tell Santa.
by Chloe, 3rd grade
I am participating in #haikuforhope along with others on Twitter. My poem today was made in Word Swag from an Instagram photo from my friend Jen Gray.
Posted in Poetry, tagged #haikuforhope, inspirational quotes on December 17, 2018| 4 Comments »
Each day, a student selects a quote from the 365 Days of Wonder. Today, the quote for December 17th was the quote above. (We don’t always use the one for the day.) The word wisdom struck me, and I wrote a heart-hopeful haiku.
Wisdom lies inside
the heart, whether or not
we open it up.(c) Margaret Simon
I also wrote one on my morning walk. In winter, camellias bloom. I thought of how they have to open their blossoms to the chilly air, and how I do not always want to open my heart. There may be chilly air about.
Being inside a bud
feels safe and warm, protected
Blooming can wait.
(c) Margaret Simon
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 Poetry, tagged Teach this Poem on December 15, 2018| 1 Comment »
On Friday, my students and I read a poem by William Carlos Williams, “Approach of Winter.” I subscribe to a lesson email from Poets.org that is designed for middle and high school, but occasionally the lesson works for my kids, too. You can sign up for the weekly emails here.
To get in the right mindset to write about the coming of winter, we walked outside. The plan was to go to the garden, but heavy rain the night before left multiple puddles to navigate, and then it started to misty rain, so we ran back inside. This didn’t lead into much amazing writing, but I later wrote a small poem about that misty rain.
Approach of Winter
after William Carlos WilliamsThe mist
like wet dust
tickles my nose
while clouds
hover
in grey sadness
dewdrops
of icy speckles
tasting
of coming cold.(c) Margaret Simon
In keeping with the December haiku-a-day challenge, I turned thoughts to creating a shorter poem about coming winter.
Stratus clouds hover
yellow billows bending
Sweet sugar promise(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 Poetry, tagged #haikuforhope, dancing, Stop the Clock on December 11, 2018| 3 Comments »
Stop the Clock
When it’s time to dance,
you offer your hand, lead
me to step back spin.(c) Margaret Simon
Posted in Poetry, tagged #haikuforhope, advent, Christmas hymns, Spiritual poetry on December 9, 2018| Leave a Comment »
You shine in glory
lighten my discontent
with the balm of love(c) Margaret Simon
Christmas hymn found haiku
Posted in Poetry, tagged #haikuforhope on December 9, 2018| 5 Comments »
One of the poets I am following for this month of daily haiku is Mary Lee Hahn. She posted this poem today with a link to an article Are we really all made of stardust? Fascinated both by this physics and my new grandson, I offer this #haikuforhope.
Nothing but hope
heart of a heavenly star
born as a child
(c) Margaret Simon
April 1 Tabatha Yeatts at The Opposite of Indifference
April 2 Cathy Stenquist at A Little Bit of This and That
April 3 Patricia Franz at Reverie
April 4 Donna Smith at Mainely Write
April 5 Janice Scully at Salt City Verse
April 6 Denise Krebs at Dare to Care
April 7 Ruth Hersey at There is no such thing as a God-forsaken town
April 8 Rose Cappelli at Imagine the Possibilities
April 9 Margaret Simon at Reflections on the Teche
April 10 Janet Clare Fagel at Reflections on the Teche
April 11 Diane Davis at Starting Again in Poetry
April 12 Linda Baie at Teacher Dance
April 13 Linda Mitchell at Another Word Edgewise
April 14 Jone MacCulloch at Poetry Rocks
April 15 Joyce Uglow at Storied Ink
April 16 Carol Varsalona at Beyond Literacy Link
April 17 Robyn Hood Black at Life on the Deckle Edge
April 18 Michele Kogan at More Art for All
April 19 Kim Johnson at Common Threads
April 20 Buffy Silverman
April 21 Irene Latham at Live Your Poem
April 22 Karen Edmisten
April 23 Heidi Mordhorst at my juicy little universe
April 24 Mary Lee Hahn at A(nother) Year of Reading
April 25 Tanita Davis at Fiction, instead of Lies
April 26 Sharon Roy at Pedaling Poet
April 27 Tracey Kiff-Judson at Tangles and Tails
April 28
April 29
April 30
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Our address on the Bayou Teche
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April 1 Linda Mitchell at A Word Edgewise
April 2 Tricia at The Miss Rumphius Effect
April 3 Robyn at Life on the Deckle Edge
April 4 Donna Smith at Mainely Write
April 5 Denise at https://mrsdkrebs.edublogs.org/
April 6 Buffy at http://www.buffysilverman.com/blog
April 7 Jone at https://www.jonerushmacculloch.com/
April 8 Janice Scully at Salt City Verse
April 9 Tabatha at https://tabathayeatts.blogspot.com/
April 10 Marcie at Marcie Flinchum Atkins
April 11 Rose at Imagine the Possibilities | Rose's Blog
April 12 Fran Haley at Lit Bits and Pieces
April 13 Cathy Stenquist
April 14 Janet Fagel at Mainly Write
April 15 Carol Varsalona at Beyond LiteracyLink
April 16 Amy Ludwig VanDerwater at The Poem Farm
April 17 Kim Johnson at Common Threads
April 18 Margaret at Reflections on the Teche
April 19 Ramona at Pleasures from the Page
April 20 Mary Lee at A(nother) Year of Reading
April 21 Tanita at TanitasDavis.com
April 22 Patricia Franz
April 23 Ruth at There's No Such Thing as a Godforsaken Town
April 24 Linda Kulp Trout at http://lindakulptrout.blogspot.com
April 25 Heidi Mordhorst at My Juicy Little Universe
April 26 Michelle Kogan at: https://moreart4all.wordpress.com/
April 27 Linda Baie at Teacher Dance
April 28 Pamela Ross at Words in Flight
April 29 Diane Davis at Starting Again in Poetry
April 30 April Halprin Wayland at Teaching Authors
Reflections on the Teche 