Poetry | Reflections on the Teche

Archive for the ‘Poetry’ Category

NPM16: #25 Ode to April

Posted in Photography, Poetry, tagged Kim Douillard, nature poem, odes on April 25, 2016| 3 Comments »

Magnolia

Heading outside for some well-needed Vitamin N; Kim Douillard posted about this necessary vitamin here, and invited us to post photos from our outings. So this post with be a photo ode as well as a poetic one.

To the tune of the lawnmower
and the cardinal at the birdbath,
April harmonizes
and paints the air
with buzzing bees
and wispy contrails.

Yesterday, today, and tomorrow flowers

April celebrates Cathy’s birthday;
She shows me how to
stop and smell the flowers.
She names them for me:
“Yesterday, today, and tomorrow
is deep purple yesterday,
violet today,
and white tomorrow.”

pineapple guava

April holds a pineapple guava
ripe with red nectar
while the cashmere bouquet
hides its treasure
beneath wing-like leaves.

cashmere bouquet

April rains make a gentle waterfall
of a mere coulee, a watering hole
for passing dogs in the park.

April is as I imagine heaven,
bright with new light,
flowing on the breeze
a kite with strings
made of flowers.

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NPM16 #23 Celebrating Celebrations

Posted in Celebration Saturday, Chalk-a-bration, Poetry, Writing, tagged chalk poetry, Earth Day, Poetry Slam, Reading Rocket, Shakespeare on April 23, 2016| 9 Comments »

Ruth Ayres invites us the celebrate each week. Click over to her site Discover. Play. Build. to read more celebrations.

At the beginning of the week, someone noticed that we had filled the reading rocket chart. I put this on the bulletin board way back in August. The goal seemed so high then, 175 books! Each square on the rocket counted for 5 books. Every time a student had read 5 books, he/she could cut out a square and place it on the chart. And here we are with 20 days left of the school year, and the chart is full! This called for a celebration, so I bought Halos and powdered donuts and we had a feast.

My oldest student, Kielan, decided we should have a poetry slam to end our month of poetry. (Next week is testing week.) We watched two videos with appropriate poetry performances. I told them that usually performance poets tackle a social issue. Then I let them go. They formed groups, collaborated, practiced, and performed their poems on Friday. I even got into the act by collaborating with Emily and performing with her. I videoed their performances and plan to make each a DVD to keep. The only person invited to watch was the janitor, and she was so honored to be there.

This is Tobie and Kaiden’s poem. Everyone was so impressed with these boys that we are encouraging them to enter the talent show.

Eracism

Get up out your chair
you have the power to
do something in this
society

You have the power to
Eracism
Stop the racism start
Eracism
Lower society’s bar try to
Eracism
Laws are changed just because you’re different, try
Eracism
You have the power to
Eracism

Stop
the
Racism
Just because you’re different
Doesn’t mean you should be treated differently
lets try to
ERACISM

Tobie and Kaiden

Friday was also Earth Day, so we grabbed our journals and chalk and wrote Earth Day poems on the sidewalk.

Today is Shakespeare’s 452nd birthday. In celebration, Michelle Barnes is hosting 5 for Friday on her blog here.

Here’s my Little Shakespearean 5 word ditty:

The Course of True Love

begins
when the eyes
see

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NPM16 #21 Rejuvenation

Posted in Poetry, Spiritual Growth, tagged spiritual journey, spring poems on April 21, 2016| 5 Comments »

Join the Spiritual Thursday round up at Reading, Teaching, Learning.

I love the surprises of spring. Every year some flower that I don’t expect appears and delights me. This year there is a clump of iris in my front flower bed. I don’t remember so many of them blooming at once. On the back deck, a shasta daisy has popped up out of a pot. Spring surprises.

Holly tweeted a call for Spiritual Journey topics. She chose the word “rejuvenation.” We were suggesting words like renew and rebirth. All of these words speak to these new surprises in my yard. A synonym poem seemed in order. I also wanted to play with a repeated word, “there,” because I feel like I am pointing to these sweet surprises of new life. Look, over there, see what I see.

There the renewal of light in trees
illuminates tones of green.
Outside the store, a sign
“Spring colors are in”

There a refreshing scent
Rain hangs heavy on
jasmine, sweet olive

There renovating time–early rising–
that expectant darkness
when prayers are silent.

There restoring my soul
from under the heavy blankets
listening to the music
spill in from the window.

–Margaret Simon

Jan is adding a line to the Progressive Poem today. Click the image.

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NPM16: #20 A Tree Grows…

Posted in Poetry, tagged #imagepoems, Amy Ludwig Vanderwater, Catherine Flynn, National Poetry Month, Poem a Day on April 20, 2016| 4 Comments »

Yesterday, my student Lani was featured on Today’s Little Ditty with a reverso poem inspired by the book Water Rolls, Water Rises by Pat Mora.

Amy Ludwig VanDerwater is writing a poem a day about daily Wonders on Wonderopolis. I love how her website speaks directly to students about the writing process. On Monday, Amy wrote, “I began thinking about the value of sharing our stories, the sad ones as well as the happy ones.” Her poem was a before/after poem that held universal truths about the sadness of broken marriages.

There’s a sadness weighing on my mind. It’s not my loss, but even when others suffer a loss, we grieve. It’s the way of the world.

My writing friend, Catherine Flynn wrote a poem about Crystal Rapids in the Grand Canyon, but the poem was about so much more. This stanza speaks to that deep grief that comes back over and over.

“The path is altered,
a chasm opens.
Never fully healed,
full of fissures that can crack
without warning,
bringing us to our knees.” (Catherine Flynn)

Sometimes writing poetry is about diving into the sadness, entering in, and letting it all go. Inspired by Amy’s and Catherine’s poetic honesty, I wrote this poem for B. She’s probably not ready to read it. But I needed to write it.

A Tree Grows near the Pier

Before
when the sun rose,
so did he,
fishing pole in hand,
tackle in a box.
His heart full of hope.
His mind full of lures.

After
the boat lost him,
so did we,
as a tree grows
near his tackle box;
Its branches open wide
for resurrection fern.

–Margaret Simon

Ruth has the Progressive Poem today.

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NPM16: #19 The Trouble with Poetry

Posted in Poetry, Slice of Life, Teaching, Writing, tagged teaching poetry on April 19, 2016| 8 Comments »

During this monthlong survey of poetry, there is trouble.

So many decisions to make.

What should I teach today?
Line breaks,
literary elements,
limericks?

I want to say stop to
sing-song rhymes
and simple forms.

Then one turns to another and says,
“Let’s write a rap abecedarian.”

Like the messiness of art class,
the instructor must allow
for paint splatters and stains,
for stalled-out cinquains
and skip-to-my-loos.

Poetry is hard.
Poetry is easy.
There are rules in poetry.
There are no rules:
Let the poem find its way.
This is the trouble with poetry.
This is the joy of poetry.

–Margaret Simon

Follow the Progressive Poem to Charles Waters.

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NPM16: #18 Flowering Fibs

Posted in Poetry, Writing, tagged African iris, fibonacci poem, nature poetry on April 18, 2016| 5 Comments »

One thing that helps me during this month of poetry discipline is forms. When I have something to say, words to use, form can help me with a placement that sometimes leads to wisdom or a nice image. Amy Rudd linked up to DigiLit Sunday yesterday reminding me of the Fib poem. This form is based on the mathematical Fibonacci sequence which begins with 1,1,2,3,5,8.

I came home from a quick weekend trip to find African iris blooming in the courtyard. I did not plant these. The prior owners did, so they delight and surprise me each year. I gathered words from a Google search and wrote two fibs.

African Iris Fibs

Sword
Leaves
Flowers
Delicate
Open only a day
Walk across the garden to you.

New
blooms
daily
butterfly
wings, African grace
welcome me to this rainforest.

Follow the Progressive Poem to Irene’s site Live your Poem.

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NPM16 #16 Celebrating Reverso Poetry

Posted in Celebration Saturday, Photography, Poetry, Teaching, tagged Marilyn Singer, Michelle Heidenrich Barnes, Reverso poem, Today's Little Ditty on April 16, 2016| 13 Comments »

Ruth Ayres invites us the celebrate each week. Click over to her site Discover. Play. Build. to read more celebrations.

Marilyn Singer is a master poet. At NCTE in the fall, I had the pleasure of meeting her. I was also a lucky participant who won a copy of Follow, Follow. Marilyn invented the reverso poem and has published 3 books of them, two based on fairy tales and her latest Echo, Echo based on mythology.

On Today’s Little Ditty, Michelle Heindenrich Barnes interviewed Marilyn Singer and offered a ditty challenge to use the word echo in relation to a poem. I was determined to try the reverso form.

With my students as cheerleaders, I worked hard and produced something worthy of being called a reverso poem. The process began when we watched this video together.

I asked my students to select an insect to be in a mask (or persona) poem. I selected this image to inspire my writing.

screenshot from the film Microcosmos by Jacque Perrin.

Then I did some caterpillar research. I wrote “zig zag stitch” and then discovered that caterpillars excrete a silk line as they crawl in addition to using the silk to create a chrysalis.

Creepy crawly caterpillar
munch munch
munching milkweed
at tremendous speed.

Life changes
slowly
creeping, crawling
leaf to leaf.

Sunlight glimmers
on fuzzy bristles.
I zig-zag stitch
a silkthread path
leaf to leaf.

Leaf to leaf
a silkthread path
I zig-zag stitch
on fuzzy bristles.

Sunlight glimmers
leaf to leaf.
Creeping crawling
slowly.

Life changes
at tremendous speed.
Munching milkweed
Munch, munch
creepy, crawly caterpillar.

This is a tough form to get just right. I don’t think mine successfully creates a different meaning in reverse. But my students liked it, so I am celebrating it none the less.

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NPM16 #14 Students Dig Deeper

Posted in Gifted Education, Poetry, Spiritual Growth, Writing, tagged found poem, serious poems, student writing on April 14, 2016| 3 Comments »

Join the Spiritual Thursday round up at Reading, Teaching, Learning.

On Wednesday, I was out of the classroom at an enrichment day for 6th graders. While I was away, my students were still writing poems. At the beginning of this National Poetry Month, I told them that they would write a poem each day. I have provided some kind of prompt activity (video, music, other poems), but this day they just chose to write. I checked our Kidblog site and found new poems. These poems were not sing-songy rhyme poems. They were serious poems about real life.

Poetry can be serious. Poetry can be spiritual, but I’ve not told my students about this aspect. However, writing in poems can bring out deep feelings even in the youngest of poets. In an effort to capture this move to deep thinking, I have found a poem in the poetry of my students.

Secrets are hidden,
the rain doesn’t care;
It’s still pouring down.

Life
shining like a precious jewel
is waiting for us.

Many don’t
know the comfort
of last words and hopes.

Rest is impossible
with all this wonder.

A found poem by Margaret Simon from poems by Lani, Tobie, Kaiden, and Erin

Follow the Progressive Poem to Deo Writer with Jone.

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NPM16 #13 Turning off the Critic

Posted in Poetry, Writing, tagged #imagepoems, NaPoWriMo, National Poetry Month, Poem a Day, writer's block on April 13, 2016| 15 Comments »

My internal critic is turned on high voltage. I take my journal in my backpack to school to school (I teach at two), and I turn the page and write some words, then a student needs me. I come back to the page focused, thinking, and another student has to share.

Here I am at home with Charlie and there’s nothing worth much in my journal. This is day 13 of my personal challenge to write a poem a day, and my personal critic thinks I can’t possibly keep this up.

Step one: upload a picture. Here’s another sky picture taken from my car with my phone.

Sky Sea

How to Stay a Poet (A synonym poem)

Attach a line to a thought
with a long string, maybe even wire

Fasten sprinkles of light,
a frosting of powdered sugar would taste good.

Unite clouds to sky to space,
an ethereal concept, I know.

Abide with your favorite poets,
savor their strength, their providence.

Linger over the page, make a statement,
scratch it out, start again.

Remain committed; don’t listen to the witch
in your head telling you to abandon all.

Keep on writing. Stay a poet.
Stay here.

–Margaret Simon

Process: After writing the title, I did a synonym search for “stay.” I used selected synonyms as the first word of each stanza. Creating rules for myself helped me get through writer’s block. This is not one of my finer poems, but it’s a poem. Let’s keep moving forward.

Follow the Progressive Poem to Teacher Dance

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NPM16 #12 Dancing with a Paintbrush

Posted in Poetry, Slice of Life, Teaching, Writing, tagged #imagepoems, music poems, NaPoWriMo, National Poetry Month, Poem a Day on April 12, 2016| 6 Comments »

Join the Two Writing Teachers blog for March Slice of Life Challenge.

We brought out the paintbrushes and watercolor paints. Each table had a stack of white paper. I turned on the music. Painting flowed in time with the beat.

This is dancing with a paintbrush. When the music stops, we title the piece of art and list three words that come to mind. This continues for three rounds. The songs are all instrumental, one sounds oriental, another symphonic, and another Irish.

Following this painting activity, we write.

Freedom of expression, playing with words, making associations with music and poetry, the resulting poems went in all kinds of directions. (My students share their poems on Kidblog.)

In reading Tara Smith’s book review of Writing with Mentors, I pulled out this piece of advice: “Mentors Show Students How to Play: In order to grow as writers, students need safe places to play with writing – places that aren’t assessed or evaluated or given a grade. They need places where their work can be messy, where thinking outside the box and being wild with ideas is encouraged.”

When I was struggling to write a poem with my painting, I turned to a favorite author, Mary Oliver. From A Thousand Mornings, “Poem of the One World” begins “This morning/ the beautiful white heron/ was floating along above the water.”

Writing beside this master poet helped me to follow the rhythm that my own words wanted to take.

This longing
the beautiful white egret
wanders from known to unknown waters

And then
onto the shore of this
one stream we all swim in

where everyone
is part of the blue vein
where we can throw a stone in

which thought made me feel
for a small moment
welcomed home.

–Margaret Simon, after Mary Oliver