Poetry | Reflections on the Teche

Archive for the ‘Poetry’ Category

Wisteria Lament

Posted in Poetry, Slice of Life, tagged Louisiana, Nature poems, wisteria on March 25, 2013| 7 Comments »

Slice of Life Challenge Day 25

This is a clogyrnach, a Welsh poetry form inspired by Paul at birds and trees of the mind. This wisteria blooms each spring outside my bedroom window. I think I write a poem about it every year.

Lavender locks lighten the sky.
In bloom, wisteria curls cry
sweet nectar of tears,
purple popcorn tears.
Bumblebees lick them dry.

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Immersed: A Book Spine Poem

Posted in Poetry, Poetry Friday, Slice of Life, tagged Book Spine Poetry on March 24, 2013| 8 Comments »

Slice of Life Challenge Day 24

On Friday, Poetry Friday, Elsie shared this call: Travis Jonkers, from 100 Scope Notes (http://100scopenotes.com/) puts a call out each year for your (yes, you) spine poetry. He said, “If you do give it a go, take a picture and post it to your blog, or send it my way via email (scopenotes (at) gmail (dot) com). On Tuesday, April 2nd I’ll be posting a gallery with all your work, and continue to add to it for the entire month.” Click here to go to a page of hints and examples of spine poetry.

On Friday, I gathered some books in my classroom to create this book spine poem. This is fun for kids, too, but makes a mess of your library…creative chaos.

The beautiful stories of life
immersed in verse
inside out & back again
live writing
a river of words

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Farmer’s Namaste

Posted in Poetry, Slice of Life, Spiritual Growth, tagged Episcopal Relief and Development, honey, Lent, meditation on March 23, 2013| 11 Comments »

Slice of Life Challenge Day 23

For Lent, I signed up to receive a daily email meditation from Episcopal Relief and Development. The other day, the meditation was written by Sister Catherine Grace. She quoted from a prayer from the spring equinox service, “Let us be honey to each other.” That line jumped out at me and I wrote a poem. At school on Friday, a student showed up with this bottle of honey for the ice cream sundae party. This is the kind of honey we should be, home-grown and bottled in a hug-able teddy bear.

The Farmer’s Namaste

Let us be honey for each other,
Sweet on the tongue
tasting natural and real
lasting a long time.

Let us be a cup of tea for each other,
spreading comfort and warmth,
close to the heart
shared with conversation.

Let us be bread for each other
kneaded and risen,
nourishing the body and soul,
broken yet making whole.

Let us be namaste to each other,
see the One in you
as you see in me.
Look straight into my eyes;
find only love.
–Margaret Simon

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Maybe this is a Poem

Posted in Poetry, Slice of Life, tagged found poetry on March 20, 2013| 5 Comments »

Slice of Life Challenge Day 20

On Sunday, I posted a poem I created using lines I read on Facebook, emails, and in blogs. I tried it again. I’ve actually been working on this one for three days. I keep coming back to it, moving lines around. I’m not totally pleased with it yet. When you use other people’s words, trying to keep the integrity of the quotes while making it fit into a poem carrying can be like building a puzzle out of mismatched pieces. Maybe a piece is missing. Maybe I put one in the wrong place, and it kinda fits but not quite. Whatever the result, I do enjoy the challenge.

Maybe it’s not too late for sugar cubes
and slotted spoons and green fairy sips
traveling throughout the body offering love,
acceptance, and gratitude.

I am perfection.
I am healthy.
I am strong.

We believe in categories and think they’re true.
Our visions will become clear when
our words are as good as our actions.

Hymns are bigger than any mistakes;
you fumble, turn the page, sing the wrong words
yet the room fills with song,
and the hymn expands.

I sing.
You sing.
We sing.

Look into your own heart.
Sometimes the cliché photograph
tells the real truth.

Created with words from wise poets: Carl Jung, Anne Lamott, Oprah Winfrey, Philip Gould, James McDowell, and Paul, an English teacher from Alberta.

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15 Lines Talking to Me Today

Posted in Poetry, Slice of Life, tagged craft, Poets and Writers on March 17, 2013| 10 Comments »

Slice of Life Challenge Day 17

The Poets and Writers prompt for poetry this week was this: “There are 15 lines presenting themselves to you today. Use them to craft a poem.”

So I grabbed some lines while I checked email, blogs, and Facebook. This poem reflects a weird collection of what I read.

15 Lines Talking to Me Today

Words are swimming in my head like little nuggets of time;
words of wisdom, words of observation, words of passers by.
I trust this wisdom is full of magic.
The simple things are the most extraordinary
if only we could see them.
Make a choice with one hand on your heart.
Look for sheep and the shepherd will care for you.
When a pigeon is nesting in the eaves, open the window.
The chicken is innocent though the pile of feathers is telling.
We can make our lives easier if we just listen.

Take these words and make them inchworms,
the caterpillars of geometer moths.
Let’s kench (laugh loudly) together.
You should know, no matter what else,
you are my sunshine.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day from my dog Charlie. We went to a dog walk in the park yesterday to support our local Humane Society. He’s all kerchiefed and ready to walk.

My schnoodle, Charlie, says “Happy St. Patrick’s Day!”

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Ways of Seeing

Posted in Poetry, Slice of Life, Teaching, tagged 10 ways poem, crystal, glass apple on March 14, 2013| 5 Comments »

Slice of Life Challenge Day 14

At the wordlab this weekend, our leader used a poetry prompt called “Object Lesson.” I wrote about it here. Today, I tried the prompt with my students. I collected objects from around the classroom. I was amazed at the range of things I had to choose from; a crystal, a sunflower frame, a glass apple paperweight to name a few. The instructions were to write 10 stanzas, three lines each, with each stanza acting as a small picture of your object from a different point of view.
Due to the comment challenge for classroom slices, you may have already read some of these. My class is blogging at kidblogs.

This was such a successful prompt I wanted to share it with you along with a few of the resulting poems.

Ten Ways to Look into a Glass Apple
by Kaylie (6th grade)

Formed in the hottest fires
cooled down in the Nile River
an Egyptian artifact.

Bubbles trapped inside of it
waiting to be belched
into the world.

A paperweight
slightly dusty, from 10 years
sitting on an old scholar’s shelf.

A glass snack
waiting
for a glass automaton.

Slightly nicked
on one side
by the paws of a curious cat.

A fortune teller
looking into the orb
full of voodoo magic.

A gift,
wrapped nicely
in pink tissue paper.

A game of hide-and-seek antique
started by a grandmother
ended by a toddler.

A secret
curled up and hiding
for you to decipher.

A writing prompt
held in a young girl’s hand
who just finished sharing her poem.

10 Ways of Looking at a Crystal
by Emily (2nd grade)

1. Shining
So
Brightly

2. Pointing
Up into
The sky

3. Sparkling
Like a star
At night

4. The prettiest
I’ve ever
Seen

5. Your beautiful
Pointed
Shape

6. So nice
And
Smooth

7.The Beautiful
Marks inside
Of you

8. When you’re
In Light you
Shine like the sun

9.You have
the perfect
Former glory

10.Clear as
Water white
As snow

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Azaleas Popping

Posted in Poetry, Slice of Life, tagged azaleas, haiku on March 12, 2013| 5 Comments »

Azaleas in my front yard

Sunday night it rained all night. And I slept poorly between the gutters clanking and my storm-scared dog barking. But when I drove home from school on Monday afteroon, the sun was shining, the breeze was blowing, and the azaleas were bright all over town. I think this calls for a spring haiku.

Azaleas popping
sun-drenched pinkness bounces on
green bushy balloons.

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Inner Faces

Posted in Poetry, Slice of Life, tagged butterfly, Cathy Mills, ekphrasis, poetry on March 11, 2013| 11 Comments »

Slice of Life Challenge Day 11

A few weeks ago I ran in to an old friend at an art show. She was showing a new body of work. We talked, and I told her of my love of writing ekphrastic poetry. On Saturday, she sent me by email a number of her paintings. Here is my experiment with the first.

Inner Faces by Cathy Mills

Inner Faces

If only I could see you in double,
inside and out,
transformed
like the wings of a butterfly
opening, welcoming,
letting me in.

If only you could know my desire
to be your only mother,
the one who loves you most,
maybe you would honor me
with your presence
and let me in.

If only our lives were connected
by a strong abdomen
we could share more than a name,
a recognition of two faces
mirrored and aware,
letting me in.

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Ten Ways of Looking at a Candle

Posted in Poetry, Slice of Life, tagged Acadiana Wordlab, candle, pysanky making on March 10, 2013| 12 Comments »

Slice of Life Challenge Day 10

The candle

At the Acadiana Wordlab yesterday, Kelly Clayton put ordinary objects on the table. Actually, some of the objects were quite weird, like the two orange plastic Neanderthal men. She called this prompt “Object Lesson.” I think she got it from Writing Alone and with Others by Pat Schneider. We had to select an object and write 10 stanzas of three lines each. It reminded me of Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird by Wallace Stevens. My photo above is not the greatest, but you can see some of the other objects in the background.

I. Candle on a string
once you were two
and dipped.

II. White wax
nondescript
unscented
waiting to be lit.

III. Standing in a circle
side by side
sisters pass you around,
an ancient ritual.

IV. Set in a wreath,
counting the days
until a Savior’s birth.

V. Darkness is not dark
unless the light
knows it.

VI. Melted and scripted
with a kistka* and a steady hand,
dying reveals patterns.

VII. I will tuck you away
in my purse
in case the lights go out.

VIII. Tasting with a lick,
smooth and waxy,
reminds me of waxed lips.

IX. Wedged in a bottle
adorned with drippings,
you light our Italian meal.

X. The slight wind
created by your flame
can lift a whole balloon.

Pysanky making

*After the wordlab, I attended Art Walk and met a Slavic woman who had a show of her Pysanky eggs. Her husband was demonstrating the process using a stylus called a kistka. I had to add that to my poem. Pysanky is the ancient Eastern European art of egg decorating. The name comes from the verb to write, as you use a stylus (called a kistka) to write with wax on the egg shell. The process is similar to batik.

Pysanky egg by Nicole Holcombe

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Moonlit Rondelet

Posted in Poetry, Slice of Life, tagged rondelet on March 6, 2013| 12 Comments »

Serendipity from the Slice of Life Challenge is learning about new poetry forms. At Birds and Trees of the Mind, Paul is trying different poetry forms. He posted a rondelet recently. Rondelet is a French poetry form derived from a word meaning small circle. The poem circles. The syllable pattern is 4A /8b /repeat line 1/8a/8b/8b/repeat line 1.

From Creative Commons

Into the night
Crescent moon rises up singing
into the night
reflections through the leaves alight
wind swept silences, chimes ringing
Tomcat prowls, his proud catch bringing
into the night.

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