Poetry | Reflections on the Teche

Archive for the ‘Poetry’ Category

I want to stay

Posted in Poetry, Slice of Life, Writing, tagged meditation, relax, teaching, yoga on March 13, 2014| 9 Comments »

Slice of Life Day 13. Join the Two Writing Teachers Slice of Life Challenge.

I want to stay here
in deep meditation
focusing on one word,
letting light dance in my eyes,
letting go of stress.
Let me stay a little longer.

I want to stay here
in this warm shower
with scents of fresh herbs, a hint of rose
rubbing my itching scalp.
Steam wraps me in comfort.
Let me stay a little longer.

I want to stay here
reading in my teacher chair
while kids are spotted all around
with noses in their books.
I stop to read a favorite line.
Can I stay here a little longer?

I want to stay here
in shavasana, toes pointing to heaven,
holding my color focal point
melting away the day,
bowing in namaste,
Please let me stay.

photo by Pierce Martin, labeled for reuse on Flickr

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Ten Things Right Now

Posted in Books, Gratitude, Poetry, Slice of Life, Writing, tagged flowers, spring, ten things on March 11, 2014| 15 Comments »

Slice of Life Day 11. Join the Two Writing Teachers Slice of Life Challenge.

Faced with another Slice, I turned to the Two Writing Teachers blog for inspiration. Never fails. On March 8th, they featured an idea used by blogger Mandy Robek “10 Things Right Now.”

1. My friend, James Edmunds (Poor Clio) posted on Facebook “loved today’s March watercolor sunshine.”

2. Reading poetry by Barbara Crooker.

each day, we climb
a few more inches
up the ladder of light,
and grackles and redwings
return, bringing postcards
of tropical sun.

3. Started A Snicker of Magic: Felicity Juniper Pickle collects words:

Popsicle
Paper star
Poppy-seed muffin

4. Tulips on the kitchen table.

5. Remembering my Uncle Stu. His funeral was yesterday in Georgia. I wasn’t there. My mother wasn’t there. I thought of my cousins all day long. My uncle always hated to say goodbye.

6. My husband has been cancer free for 8 years! Here’s a picture of his new running shoes. Aren’t they cool? St. Patrick’s Day green!

Jeff’s new running shoes

7. Meditating for two weeks. Here is a sample from my journal:

Meditation on the words from Emily Dickinson, “Love is the furniture.”
The chair holds me, all my thoughts I brush away with a word.
I sit again and again
in silence, waiting for angel’s wings,
symbols of love.
No words, no thought.
Just light
twisted, jeweled light
wrapping me up in love.

–Margaret Simon

8. The return of my former student to Slice with us. I have missed her voice. This is a small sample of a poem she wrote about Mother Nature. Our class blog is here.

Her feelings come and go
As quickly as leaves fall
In the brisk autumn months.
Her heart will always be with the earth.
If you are quiet, you can hear her heart thumping, thumping,
Dancing to the beat of the cicada song,

9. Cooking with my daughter: The menu is shrimp tacos with mango salsa.

10. Supportive principals: School #1, I got permission to take my 5 gifted students to a local fast food restaurant to solicit donations for an upcoming community service project. School #2, One of my third graders wants to raise funds and food for the local Humane Society. She wrote out notes of her plan and presented it to the principal at recess. She got the go ahead.

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Stormy Weather

Posted in Poetry, Slice of Life, Writing, tagged Author Amok, color poems, Laura Shovan, metaphor, Pantone colors, weather on March 4, 2014| 7 Comments »

Slice of Life Day 4. Join the Two Writing Teachers Slice of Life Challenge.

Today must be “Opposite Day.” While yesterday I posted a joyful Mardi Gras celebration video, today I am sitting in bed with a glass of tea, a decongestant that hasn’t started working yet, watching the cold rain mixed with sleet come down. If we didn’t already have the day off for Mardi Gras, I would have called in sick or the superintendant would have cancelled school due to icy bridges. The bayou is steaming. The flowers are drooping and saying, “Hey, what gives?”

While I was driving to New Orleans on Sunday, the clouds were billowing, a warning of this day to come, I suppose. As I watched the clouds, I was struck by a metaphor of a bridal gown. Who knows why. I looked up some bridal gown terms and wrote a poem. Laura Shovan has been doing a poetry writing challenge at her blog, Author Amok. She posts Pantone colors every day, and we are invited to write a poem and submit it to her. This has been great practice for me. Her colors for today include Stormy Weather, how appropriate.

http://pixabay.com/en/clouds-sky-storm-rain-thunderstorm-56788/

Partly Cloudy

The bride was dressed in billowing waves,
blue-grey Chantilly lace layered
over a white-topped empire waist.
Her scalloped neckline accented by rays
of sunlight peering through a cathedral train.
Her attendants, those high Mississippi kites,
flew with utmost grace
announcing her imminent arrival.

–Margaret Simon

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Celebration Saturday is Here!

Posted in Celebration Saturday, Gifted Education, Gratitude, Poetry, tagged Author Amok, Azalea Estates, Laura Shovan, New Iberia on February 22, 2014| 4 Comments »

Each week I join in with other teacher-bloggers in celebrating our week. The celebration is hosted by Ruth Ayres at Discover. Play. Build. I hope I can stop sneezing long enough to write. Spring is coming and trees are blooming. My allergies tell me so. Today is a gorgeous day in South Louisiana. The sun is shining. The birds are singing. The air is crispy cool at 57 degrees. I celebrate starting my day with a walk. Minga is back to health, so we took our dogs Petey and Charlie to the park. Celebration was prevalent as old friends greeted her, happy to see her out and looking great.

I want to celebrate our 6th grade gifted students. We took them on a field trip this week as part of our WOW (Way out Wednesdays) enrichment program. First stop was Azalea Estates assisted living facility. There the students played games with and interviewed the residents. The room was full of energy. Everyone enjoyed themselves.

Brooklyn interviews Montez about her life for a Legacy project.

Next we went to downtown New Iberia to meet with various entities about our community service project plan. The students were met with respect by the head of the Chamber of Commerce as well as the mayor and city department heads. They did a wonderful job presenting their plans. I overheard one student say to another, “I like feeling special.” I celebrate their specialness and the opportunity to work with a great group of teachers and students.

I also want to take a moment to celebrate a fellow poet and cyber-friend, Laura Shovan. Laura is doing a birthday project at her site Author Amok. She is asking other poets to join in by writing to color prompts. This week I hit a hard spot. I wanted to write to the color Dubarry. I struggled after researching Madame duBarry. I tried a number of times to write something and the results were ~~crap~~, let’s say less than desirable. I told Laura of my trouble and she sent me a prompt through email. “Wear it: Imagine you are putting on an article of clothing in this color. What happens when you walk out your front door?” I was getting ready for bed when a poem with the color Orange Pepper came to me. I wrote it on a sticky note in the bathroom, then sent it to her immediately. She posted it the next day. My confidence is back. Thanks, Laura, for making me feel special.

I bought a tangerine purse–
orange pepper for my shoulder.
My daughter said I looked like I was carrying a satsuma.
The mailman asked if I had anything toxic or potentially hazardous.
But you said,
“Hey, I see sunshine on your shoulder.
Let’s walk together.”

by Margaret Simon

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Celebrating Love

Posted in Celebration Saturday, Poetry, tagged Betsy Snyder, haiku, love poetry, Valentine's Day on February 15, 2014| 6 Comments »

This was a week of feeling the love. and spreading love. Here’s how we did it.

1. Valentines for the elderly: I co-sponsor a leadership group at my base school, Paw Pride. These students decided last week that they wanted to make Valentines for the elderly, so we had two recess crafting sessions, created original Valentines, and delivered them after school on Thursday to a local subsidized housing facility for elderly. The students who came were filled with love and joy as they talked with the residents. A few of them expressed to me how surprised they were at the fun they had. They want to go back at Easter.

Emily’s haiku to the moon

2. Writing Love Haiku: On Friday, I decided to forego a math lesson with my youngest group of students and teach them about haiku. (I guess you could argue that counting syllables is math.) I read to them Betsy Snyder’s precious book, I Haiku You. This was their first experience with haiku. In the 10 minute writing time, a few of them wrote up to 4 haiku poems. Then they illustrated them. The feeling of pride and joy in their writing was heartwarming.

3. Love Poetry Night: Not a huge crowd, less than 20, listened to love poetry Friday night. I read my own poem and a Jane Hirschfeld poem, For What Binds Us, and choked up at the end. “how the black cord makes of them a single fabric/ that nothing can tear or mend.”
Jim recited Rumi. Phanat sang us a French love song. Clare and Bonny both made us tear up with their touching poems. Love is just like that sometimes, touches the heart.

I hope you were touched by some love this week. Join the celebration over at Ruth’s blog, Discover.Play.Build.

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Love Poetry

Posted in Poetry, Poetry Friday, Writing, tagged Bonny McDonald, Clare Martin, love poetry on February 14, 2014| 18 Comments »

It’s Poetry Friday and Love Poetry Night. Tonight at A&E Gallery in New Iberia, we will gather and love poets and poetry. The event begins at 6:00 PM with open mic. The featured poets are Clare Martin and Bonny McDonald.

I’ll be reading this poem during Open Mic, dedicated to my one true love.

The Kiss

I can remember where I put my keys,
How many eggs are left in the refrigerator.
I can remember the dance step
we practiced over and over.

I cannot remember the line in the poem
The one after the knees in the desert.
I can’t remember what you said
before you went to sleep.

I do remember the kiss,
not that particular kiss but every kiss,
gentle on my cheek,
telling me you are near. You are here,
We are here—remember.

Margaret Simon

Find more poetry at the Poetry Friday Roundup hosted by Linda Baie at Teacher Dance.

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Nerdlution Week #3

Posted in Blogging, Poetry, Writing, tagged Chubby Carrier, journal, Laura Purdie Salas, nerdlution, Vermilionville, Zydeco on February 13, 2014| 1 Comment »

Michelle Haseltine is gathering the Nerdlution round-up at her site, One Grateful Teacher.

I am a total nerd and am embracing this nerdlution for 50 days. So how many days has it been? Eighteen, I think. I’ve had to cut my goal of exercise every day to exercise 5 days a week and I’m counting dancing as exercise. My husband and I invited some friends out for Zydeco dancing to Chubby Carrier on Sunday afternoon at Vermilionville. We love these Sunday afternoon gigs. One hour of jitterbug, waltz, and Whiskey River, and I checked off exercise for the weekend.

flickr image by Wally Gobetz

My second goal, writing every day, has gone OK, too, if I don’t worry about word counts. I have been journaling more and not really writing anything that anyone else will read, but practice is the important thing, right?

Staying Open, my One Little Word, is easier than I thought it would be. New things are available and happening all the time. On Saturday, I learned the art of Centering Prayer. I wrote about it on Tuesday for Slice of Life. I have kept up the practice every morning. The only downfall is that I resist the gotta-get-something-done mode. I get so calm and zoned-out that I want to stay in that moment. How many of you would love to live on a yoga mat? I know, it’s not very practical.

I got an appropriate fortune in my fortune cookie last night. “Don’t ask. Don’t say. Everything lies in silence.”

Laura Purdie Salas posts a 15 Words or Less poetry prompt every Thursday. This morning I wrote “Snow Cloud.” To see other poems in response to her picture prompt, visit her site.

Snow Cloud

Each time you
open yourself
to the world,
miracles happen
like snow from
boiling water.

My 15 word journal, a gift from my husband.

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Nerdlution Check-in

Posted in Poetry, Writing, tagged exercise, Illuminate, Laura Shovan, nerdlution, poetry, yoga, Zydeco on February 6, 2014| 4 Comments »

Another week into the nerdlution and I’m falling behind in one of my promises to myself. Exercise! Ugh! It’s always a challenge for me to fit. it. in. And the cold weather hasn’t helped. But this week has been better; I made it to Curves Monday and Wednesday mornings, Yoga class on Tuesday, and Zydeco dance lessons on Wednesday night. I’m even feeling a little sore. Learning to do the alligator walk does a job on your calves.

My attention to my OLW Open is working out pretty well. I try to attend the Acadiana Wordlab each week. On Saturday, the workshop leaders were two young actresses from an Improvisation Group, Silverbacks Improv Theatre. These girls were amazing actresses! We played the craziest games. In one of the games, we each added a line to a story; In another, we could only add one word. I participated even though I felt absolutely ridiculous and totally out of my comfort zone. As always in Wordlab, the writing was unique to the writer and wonderful.

And that leads me to my third nerdlution: writing every day. This has been easy with Laura Shovan’s daily color prompts. At her site, Author Amok, she is posting different color swatches from Pantone colors to prompt poetry. If we send her our poems, she posts them the next day. I have been feeling so famous all week as she daily posts one of my poems and tags me on Twitter and Facebook. Some other blog-friends are playing along, too. (Linda Baie and Diane Mayr) Please take a look at her post for today as it features one of my poems from my book Illuminate.

Let the nerdlution continue. Thanks to Michelle Haseltine for hosting the nerdlution round up every Thursday. Click here to read more.

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Colors in my World

Posted in Poetry, Writing, tagged Author Amok, Laura Shovan, Pantone colors, Poetry prompts on February 4, 2014| 14 Comments »

A new button for the Two Writing Teachers Slice of Life Challenge!

Being a part of this community of bloggers introduces me to new challenges every day, in a good way, like exercise. At Laura Shovan’s site Author Amok, she is working on her birthday challenge by writing poems to Pantone colors. Each day in February, she posts colors to prompt her own writing as well as those of us readers who want to give it a shot.

I started a poem from the color bronze mist while looking out at the bayou on a foggy morning. That led me to the sun bursting the horizon into color. Thanks, Laura, for prompting and challenging me as a writer. Laura also found this beautiful photograph by Kevin Fleming to illustrate my poem.

the homecoming by Kevin Fleming at Wild Delmarva

The bronze mist lingers over the morning bayou.
A great blue heron,
hidden in the fog, wades
boastful in his grey cloak.
He takes flight–winged warrior–
rising into a cosmic sky.
The sun breaks
the horizon into petals
of sugar coral, that perfect pink
silk tulip drops into an earthen vase
calling for spring.

So far, I’ve been able to write a poem each day. Not sure how long that will continue, but hope on over to Laura’s site and check out the colorful poetry wheel.

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Meditation on Empty

Posted in Poetry, Slice of Life, tagged meditation, poetry, words, writing groups on January 21, 2014| 10 Comments »

Meditation on Empty

In that gentle space above his left eyebrow,
I focus on the emptiness,
how emptiness is not empty.

I fill my empty cup with ginger-mint tea.
Cut yellow roses for the empty vase.
Invite friends to fill the empty table.

My hand opens, then closes slightly
holding your pinky finger, tiny and delicate.
I’ll rock you until this pain subsides.

We sit together like lotus, open hands
to the Abba Father, breathe the warm
body scents that fill the empty room.
–Margaret Simon, all rights reserved

I brought yellow roses to the writing retreat because I looked up colors of roses and their meanings, and yellow roses are for friendship and new beginnings. Then among writing friends, I polished this poem and read it for our sharing time. I’m not sure if you need to know what the poem means. It will mean what you need at the moment. For me, it’s about friends and opening myself up to being filled every day.