Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Archive for the ‘Poetry Friday’ Category

Poetry Friday: Self-Care

Posted in Poetry Friday, Writing, tagged , , , on October 30, 2026| 15 Comments »

Poetry Friday is being gathered today by Jone MacCulloch.

The Poetry Sisters challenged the Poetry Friday peeps to write a terzanelle. I wasn’t going to do it. Such a difficult form with all its rules and rhymes. Mary Lee and Heidi inspired me to give it a go.

Yesterday I practiced some self-care and treated myself to a massage. It led to a quite silly poem. If you’re interested in the form, hop onto Poetry Friday gathering by Jone today and read them all.

Self Care

After the massage, I felt like Jello
covered in a sauce of pleasure,
A Swedish massage of all my Jello.

Under a warm blanket wholly demure,
I gave into relaxation and slept
covered in a sauce of pleasure.

Massage for healing is not a new concept.
In ignorance of muscles and pressure points,
I gave into relaxation and slept.

I’ve heard at this age, I could lose my joints
challenging my daily resolve to survive.
In ignorance of muscles and pressure points,

I left rejuvenated and alive.
I took myself out into the world
challenging my daily resolve to survive—

Tender, vulnerable, sensitive, yet bold—
After the massage, feeling like Jello,
I took myself out into the world.
After the massage, I’m mellow as Jello.

Margaret Simon, draft

Collage created in my art class this week, another form of self-care.

Read Full Post »

Poetry Friday: Write Out Wishing

Posted in Poetry Friday, Writing, tagged , , , , on October 23, 2026| 11 Comments »

Poetry Friday is hosted by Tracey at Tangles and Tales.

As we finish the two wonderful weeks of #writeout with the National Writing Project and the National Parks, I offer two poems I wrote during the week. The first was inspired by Kim Douillard’s poem “Wishing”.

Wishing

On butterfly wings,
flutters around marigolds
while white chrysalises
line the doorway,
waiting.

Wishing on egret’s silhouette
for fresh water,
open, untouched
by empty styrofoam
and sinking plastic bags.

Wishing for a future
of ecological awareness,
more scout heroes,
preservation
of the wild ones
we love.

Margaret Simon, draft

I also wrote a poem to this photo on Substack here.

This second poem was inspired by a prompt from Audrey Gidman. I chose 6 words from a poetry book by my friend/ fellow Louisiana poet Liz Burk, “Learning to Love Louisiana.”

Look

In the window,
a reflection—
rippling golden light,
mossy dank threads
spun like crepe paper
careening haphazardly
over branches
building a scene
of an old steel mirror
of autumn’s grace.

Margaret Simon, draft

Read Full Post »

Poetry Friday: Write Out

Posted in Poetry Friday, Writing, tagged , , , , , , , on October 16, 2026| 14 Comments »

Poetry Friday is hosted today by Rose Cappelli at Imagine the Possibilities.

When I was teaching, my students and I looked forward to the National Writing Project’s Write Out. It’s a yearly event in cooperation with the National Parks. We would make special “Write Out” journals and spend more time writing outside. I miss those days, but I enjoy the luxury of a long walk through the park each morning. I enjoy having time with a cup of coffee and my notebook. I enjoy sharing coffee with a friend. Retirement is wonderful, but I miss writing in community.

Write Out leader Christina Cantrell has created a community online for us to share our writing in the NWP teacher studio. Every other day there is a prompt/ writing challenge. Kim Douillard of the San Diego Writing Project’s is posting on her blog. So I am finding a virtual community to write alongside.

Tuesday’s challenge was to write from kilo, a Hawaiian traditional practice of observation. You can see a short video here.

Kim suggested we share a Google doc of prompts. I have been reading Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer’s book The Wonderment. I added a prompt using her poem “For This I Walk Outside.” I love the conversational tone and accessible language of Rosemerry’s poetry. I borrowed a line from her poem as the title for mine.

Outside Everything is Teacher*

Setting into soil
a golden marigold,

I noticed a white chrysalis hanging 
on the edge of the pot.

I spoke to it in a whisper,
“Sorry to disturb your rest.”

As I gently placed the pot
near a metal pumpkin,

the chrysalis moved,
bent toward the edge

as if hiding,
curling into protection.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen a chrysalis move,
shape-shift, be alive.

Tomorrow I hope to witness
an emerging butterfly.

Proof that magic
still lives. 

Margaret Simon, draft
*line from Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer

Gulf fritillary chrysalis on a pot of marigolds

Read Full Post »

Poetry Friday: Harvest

Posted in nature, Photography, Poetry Friday, Writing, tagged , , , on October 9, 2026| 12 Comments »

Poetry Friday is hosted today by Jama at Jama’s Alphabet Soup.

On Saturday I attended Jone MacCulloch’s Poetry Pop-up Salon by Zoom. We were all familiar with each other through our poetry blogging and easily settled in to write. Something about writing in community creates magic. Everyone had a poem to share around Jone’s chosen word prompt, “harvest.”

At this time of year in New Iberia, sugarcane is being harvested and ground. Many people don’t like this season. The sugarcane trucks slow down traffic flow. The smoke from the mills and the burning of the fields aggravates allergies. And there’s the bagasse smell that makes you think you stepped in dog poop. But to me, it means fall. Cooler temperatures and sweet air.

Yesterday as the sun was going down, I was delivering food to a friend down the country roads, so I stopped to take some photos of the cane fields. I didn’t get a shot of the big dinosaur-like harvesters, and I was swatting at swarming gnats, but I loved the light of the autumn sun falling down the fields.

Sugarcane fields, New Iberia, LA

Harvest

Before humidity drops,
before leaves fall,
before the day lowers itself to comfort levels,
sugarcane harvesters gear up—
their dinosaur maws suck up
spit out husks of tall grass—
work once done by strong backs
and torn hands of Africans,
now mechanized and modern.

Soon fires will blaze
in plowed rows, smoke rising
like ancestral ghosts toward
an autumn sky.

Sweetness comes at a cost.
Harvester heaves and leaves behind
a field, fallow and fertile.

Margaret Simon, draft

Read Full Post »

Poetry Friday Roundup: Inklings Challenge

Posted in nature, Poetry, Poetry Friday, Writing, tagged , , on October 1, 2026| 14 Comments »

The Poetry Friday Roundup is here today.
Scroll down to add your links with Inlinkz.

Each first Friday of the month the Inklings write to a challenge from one of us. This month Linda Mitchell offered the challenge from a post she saw on Instagram: “‘Find a poem you like, or one you don’t like. Write the first 6 lines of the poem. Under each line write your own response. Delete the original lines, use what you have as a beginning for your poem.’ Tusiata Avia #30in30 writing prompt.”

Once I started doing this, I couldn’t stop. Recently I bought The Selected Poems of Wendell Berry. What a wonderful mentor, nature writer, poet. On Substack for “This Photo Wants to be a Poem,” I wrote after “To the Unseeable Animal” my side by side version “To the Shadow Moving.”

For Thursday’s Spiritual Journey post, I wrote beside James Crews.

The most satisfying thing about writing like this is you can remove the original poem because your new poem is unique to you.

To What Flies

(after To What Listens by Wendell Berry)

I see it again lonely 

and alone, the image of the heron 

opening his wings wide 

to fly to the other side, 

no mate will follow, 

no nest to call home. 

From WordPress Free Photo library

I subscribe to Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer’s daily poem. (I also highly recommend her new book Wonderment.) On Sept. 26, she sent out a poem “Sometimes When I am Stuck.”

Sometimes When I am Dwelling

When I feel as if my body
is slowly shutting down,
and my spirit is made of jelly,
when my feelings
go deep as if darkness
dwells within me,
that is when I awake
to an inner peace,
ever waiting my notice, my voice.
That peace is longing
as if whispering words.

Margaret Simon, draft (after Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer)

Please consider visiting other Inklings posts. Link to your own Poetry Friday posts using InLinkz below.

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

Read Full Post »

Poetry Friday: This is Just to Say

Posted in being mamére, Poetry Friday, Writing, tagged , , on September 25, 2026| 19 Comments »

Poetry Friday is being gathered today By Tricia Stohr-Hunt at The Miss Rumphius Effect.

At the end of every month, the Poetry Sisters put out a challenge for their group as well as any others who may want to give it a shot.

Today’s call came from Mary Lee Hahn. She borrowed the prompt from Colby Sharp’s collection The Creativity Project. “It was all my fault.”

There are hard things as well as joyful things when taking responsibility for a seven year old. My daughter is on a work trip, so I am responsible for getting Thomas up, fed, dressed, and to school by 7:35 sharp each morning. I wished I could have written a note to his teacher. “This is Just to say…”

Dearest First Grade Teacher,

This is just to say
it’s all my fault
he has no water bottle today,
his hair is misaligned,
his shirt untucked.

We were in a rush,
you see. The dogs needed feeding,
homework reading, and of course,
the nerf gun reloading.

Please forgive me
if he is a little off his rhythm.
We did text his mom “I love you”
and I pecked a kiss in carpool line.

We are both doing the best we can.

Sincerely,
Mamére

Thomas trying to remember what happened in school. Om!

Read Full Post »

Poetry Friday:

Posted in nature, Poetry Friday, Writing, tagged , , , , on September 18, 2026| 5 Comments »

Poetry Friday is being gathered today by Carol Varsalona at Beyond Literacy Link.

Today is the first day of Open Write at Ethical ELA. Today’s prompt was offered by Mo Daley.

Mo asks us to consider our place in the world, where we are, and who may have come before. I went to one of my favorite topics, the grandmother oak in my backyard.

I am also thinking about the upcoming Write Out from the National Writing Project in partnership with the National Parks. The theme this year is “Where We Stand”. Please consider writing outside this fall between Oct. 11-25, 2026. There are many student resources available.

Grandmother Oak

To enrich this earth,
I have planted my feet
in the solid arms
of grandmother oak planted
three hundred years ago.
Chitimacha women prayed over the sapling.

I do not wish to escape
her history
scarred into her flesh.

Let me feel it, stroke
her old skin worn
and strong—single survivor.

I praise her hold
of the sunrise
where I rise
to be blessed.

Grandmother oak with Bayou Teche beyond.

Read Full Post »

Poetry Friday: Artist Date

Posted in Creativity, Photography, Poetry Friday, Writing, tagged , on September 11, 2026| 12 Comments »

Poetry Friday roundup is with Linda at Teacher Dance

This week I am #beingmamére in New Orleans. My grandson, Thomas, is in first grade, and I have the duty of getting him to school on time and picking him up. What should I do with the time in between?

Yesterday I had tea with my cousin who teaches architecture at Tulane. He suggested that I visit the Ogden Museum to see a new show of contemporary Louisiana artists. Amazingly, traffic was minimal, so I was able to get there and park without too much anxiety. I also lucked out that the museum is free to Louisiana residents on Thursdays. Meant to be.

I happened upon a photograph by Jennifer Graycheck. Hey, I know her! She lives in New Iberia and teaches art at the school where my girls went. She also has an amazing sunflower farm with her husband who is a landscape architect. She took my author photos! And here she was in a juried show at the Ogden. What an amazing accomplishment!

Selfie with Jennifer’s photo.

As a poet, I was attracted to the artists’ statements. For today’s Poetry Friday, I am sharing an art piece called “Flamingos” alongside a found poem from the artist statement. And her name is Margaret!

Flamingos by Margaret Davis, Ogden Museum, New Orleans, LA.

Like flamingos,
girls embody grace
in uncertainty—
Flood water
a landscape of disaster,
gold emergency
sealed in physical
figures.

Margaret Simon, found poem

Junk journal page

Read Full Post »

Poetry Friday: Hawk Sighting

Posted in Poetry Friday, Writing, tagged , , , on September 4, 2026| 18 Comments »

Poetry Friday is being gathered today by Patricia Franz at Reverie.

Happy Poetry Friday! This is the first Friday of September, and my name came up on the spinner to offer a challenge for the Inklings. Honestly, I didn’t have an idea, so I gave it back to the group, and Molly said, “What about kennings?”

A kenning is a figurative compound word that takes the place of an ordinary noun.

I wrote a poem this week from a prompt from The Time is Now to use the line “There is always a ________ somewhere” after Marie Howe’s poem “Chainsaw”.

Hawk in oak tree. (Free image)

Hawk Sighting

There is always a hawk somewhere,
soaring low above the oaks,
hungry and hunting.

You wanted to show me.
You wanted to find the binoculars,
focus on the old oak
and show me the wild thing.

Almost every day I hear the high whistle
of a hawk echoing over the bayou.

There is grief in that piercing call-sound,
wailing for what feels like desperation.

Will you call to me like a hawk
or with a soft whisper-twitter
of a hummingbird?

However you make a call-sound,
I will answer with wonder.

Margaret Simon, draft

How other Inklings met the challenge:

Linda at Another Word Edgewise
Mary Lee at A (nother) Year of Reading

Molly at Nix the Comfort Zone

Heidi at my juicy little universe

Read Full Post »

Poetry Friday: Still Life (a haiku sonnet)

Posted in art, Poetry Friday, Writing, tagged , , on August 28, 2026| 17 Comments »

Poetry Friday is being gathered today by Mona Voelkel.

Last week I attended an artist roundup at the Acadiana Center for the Arts. It was a free event for any artist in the community. This roundup was centered around still life drawing. In the large gathering room, there were supplies and circles of chairs around a variety of still life models/set-ups. I chose to sit between two friends, so I could feel safe among so many different artists. I walked around the room to see what others had done, but the intent was an open space for creatives to meet and talk and practice, not to compare yourself to others.

I’ve been dabbling in watercolor. I was pleased with the vase of flowers, so I cut it out of the whole painting. I decided to use this experience to write a haiku sonnet with the Poetry Sisters.

Still Life by Margaret Simon

Each artist sees
with different eye-angles,
not one best view.

She paints in color
while another scratches
pastels or charcoal.

No ring leaders here.
A circle of practicing,
finding our flow.

I choose the vase
of dead flowers leaning,
colors faded depth.

Judgement left outside the door
open easy to joy-play.

Margaret Simon, draft

I encourage you to go to the Poetry Friday roundup to see how other poets wrote haiku sonnets. It’s a fun form to use.

Read Full Post »

Older Posts »