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Poetry Friday: Winter Poem Swap Continent to Continent

Posted in Poetry Friday, Writing, tagged Sally Murphy, winter poem swap on December 15, 2023| 16 Comments »

The yearly holiday poem swap is organized by Tabatha Yeatts. She graciously matches poet to poet. This year my exchange was with Sally Murphy , children’s book author living in Australia.

Imagine my surprise when shortly after Thanksgiving break, full of family and food with little time to think about poetry, I received Sally’s adorable verse novel Queen Narelle. Narelle is a queenly cat. I have one of those. Her name is Fancy which fits her well. I immediately connected with Narelle and Maddie, her girl.

Then there were cute koala sticky notes. And her card to me was a poem “My Country” by Dorothea MacKellar (1885-1968) that begins “The love of field and coppice” and ends with “My homing thoughts will fly.” Such a beautiful ode to Australia. You can read about Dorothea and see the handwritten poem here.

Sally’s poem for me:

Margaret

She notices beauty
even in the dark.
Shares it
to spread joy
or moments of peace
or a reminder
to breathe
be still
reflect.
Purposefully
nurturing herself
nurturing me
nurturing the world.
Sally Murphy

I hold this sweet poem in my hands and feel grateful for being seen in such a loving way. I wanted to respond to Sally by seeing her. I had not put together anything for her yet, so I took a look at her Instagram and found a post about how she could not close the cupboard for all the to-be-read books inside. She called it an “inevitable bookavalanche.”

For Sally

I found you
under a book avalanche
where you were happily
absorbing
word upon words
story upon stories
filling your cupboard
with timeless treasures.
Margaret Simon

Poetry Friday is hosted this week by Janice Scully at Salt City Verse.

Visit this link to WhisperShout magazine to read two of my students’ poems. Thanks, Heidi for selecting them for Issue #12.

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Poetry Friday: Luc Bat Inklings Challenge

Posted in Poetry Friday, Writing, tagged Ethical ELA, Inklings, luc bat poetry form on December 1, 2023| 19 Comments »

The Poetry Friday Roundup is with Anastasia Suen

The first day of December is here and it is raining, raining, raining. We’ve gone months without rain, so I guess it’s catch up time to meet our rainfall for the year. But I’m not happy about it.

Back in October I learned a new poem form, the luc bat, Vietnamese for six-eight. Wendy Everard posted a prompt on Ethical ELA. The form is quite easy in that each line alternates between 6 and 8 syllables. It’s free with no limit on the number of lines. However, there’s this twist of rhyme. The last syllable of the line of 6 becomes the rhyme for the 6th syllable in the line of 8. Then the word at the end of 8 becomes the next rhyme for 6:

xxxxxA
xxxxxAxB
xxxxxB
xxxxxBxC

Molly Hogan challenged the Inklings to write a luc bat for our December challenge. I’ve written a few of them now and I love how the internal rhyming is both challenging and satisfying.

I wrote a short luc bat for this week’s This Photo Wants to be a Poem. I also tried the form on a previous Photo post here: Ancient Door.

Today I am posting the poem I wrote in response to Wendy’s prompt. I used one of her lines to get started. This poem reflects on the process my husband and I went through during my illness this past summer. We’ve made it through and are stronger together for our resilience. “In sickness” is one of the hard places in a marriage.

When leaving words unsaid,
our shared trauma wed and silent,
fears become resilient.
Illness causes consistent stress,
silence under duress.
Feelings close off, repress our love.
Searching within, whereof
words we can speak with love to heal.
Find our way back to real and us.
Margaret Simon, with a line by Wendy Everard

If you want to read more amazing responses to this form, here are the links to my Inkling friends.

Linda Mitchell
Molly Hogan
Heidi Mordhorst
MaryLee Hahn
Catherine Flynn

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Poetry Friday: Bird Poem

Posted in Photography, Poetry Friday, tagged bird poem, Ethical ELA, Fran Haley on November 24, 2023| 18 Comments »

The Poetry Roundup is with Ruth at “There is no such thing as a God-forsaken town.”

This week was the Open Write for Ethical ELA. I love how this event once a month inspires me to sit each day and write. I’m often surprised by what comes out on the page.

Fran Haley prompted us to write a bird story. To see her wonderful model poem and the prompt, click here. It brought back a memory for me.

Everyone has a bird story

Remember the time we saw the eagle
atop the bridge to Seattle?
A few days later, you read
the eagle died, a car hit it.

Once we saw an eagle while canoeing,
elegantly soaring over our bayou–grand beauty
symbol of strength. Then you recalled
the Seattle eagle. That tragic death
hit us hard. He was “our” eagle.

How can we claim ownership of a wild thing?
Freedom is temporal.
The story remains.
Margaret Simon, draft

Fran is not only a wonderful poet, writer, teacher, she also supports other writers and me with lovely comments. I feel the comments that most resonate with me are ones in which the writer makes a heart to heart connection. This was what Fran wrote about my poem: “I’d have mourned long over this loss as well. I find, as I grow older, these things strike deeper than they ever used to. Yesterday I came through a crossroads where woods had long grown over an old farm and it’s all being bulldozed for building houses, I presume. I thought of the majestic hawks and “my” eagle and wanted to weep – how far will the birds have to go to find a new home? “How can we claim ownership of a wild thing?” Because the wild thing is connected to us, to our essence, in some deep way; as the wild thing goes, so go we. I cannot help thinking of the eagle in your verse in another way, as our national emblem, especially in these true and haunting lines:”Freedom is temporary. The story remains.”

May this holiday season bring you lots of small moments of great joy!

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Poetry Friday: Pantoum Practice

Posted in Gifted Education, Poetry Friday, Teaching, Writing, tagged Padreg O Tuama, pantoum on November 17, 2023| 9 Comments »

This week my students and I practiced writing pantoums using a prompt from Pádraig Ó Tuama of On Being. He guides us through line by line to write about an ordinary object. I used the prompts to write for This Photo Wants to be a Poem: Just a Rock.

I warned my kids who are 4th and 5th graders that this form would be a challenge. Not all of them were ready and willing and that’s OK when we are creating our own poems. I wanted to share a few because the prompted lines work in a unique way so that each student (and myself) felt a sense of a successful poem.

Kailyn loves candy and has written a fantasy story that takes place in Kind Candy Kingdom. This is her pantoum poem.

Yummy candy I see,
A candy shop is your home.
At the mall I beg my mom,
then my brother takes you from me : (

A candy shop home seems nice!
When you are with me I feel happiness and joy…
you being taken from me.
It tastes sweet but sometimes sour.

You fill me with joy and happiness,
the sounds of crinkling wrappers.
When I put you in my mouth, you are sweet and sour,
tingling on my tongue.

The crinkling wrappers from kids inside,
at the mall I beg my mom.
Tingling on my tongue,
Yummy candy I see.
Kailyn, 5th grade

In my classroom, I have a collection of Flair pens. My students are allowed to choose from them to write. When Avalyn’s mother gave me a gift card to Target, I bought a set of scented flairs. She wrote a pantoum praise poem for her scented pens.

Scented pens can squiggle on the page
In a poem in my notebook
These scented pens are extraordinary on the inside
If there is a blank page, these pens can make it colorful

In a poem in my notebook
When I make colorful marks on the page, it’s inspiring
If there is a blank page, these pens can make it colorful
But really these markers are flowers

When I make colorful marks on the page, it’s inspiring
O’ my non-smelly pens
But really these markers are flowers
As my hands hold the pen like an extraordinary trophy

O’ my non-smelly pens
These scented pens are extraordinary on the inside
As my hands hold the pen like an extraordinary trophy
Scented pens can squiggle on the page
Avalyn, 4th grade

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Poetry Friday: Lotus Flower

Posted in Poetry Friday, Spiritual Growth, tagged #haiku, #poemsofpresence, lotus flower on November 10, 2023| 18 Comments »

Karen Edmisten is gathering Poetry Friday posts here.

I am still riding the wave of a silent retreat last weekend. I wrote about it for Slice of Life and This Photo Wants to be a Poem. Our guide, my friend Susan, gave us a small notebook. The jottings I made are feeding my poetic soul while I busily prepare for NCTE next week.

One of the meditations took place around a lotus pond.

The Lotus Pond
The lotus is a flower that grows in muddy ponds and swamps. It is a symbol of spiritual growth and enlightenment. In the midst of difficult or chaotic circumstances, one can remain grounded and find inner peace and clarity.

photo by Margaret Simon, lotus flower in a sugar kettle.

Lotus Water

Mindful listening
gazing every moment-change
Nothing can be forced
Margaret Simon, draft

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Poetry Friday: With Prose and Poem of Praise for Poetry Friday

Posted in Poetry Friday, Writing, tagged Inklings challenge, prose to poetry, The Marginalian on November 3, 2023| 21 Comments »

Linda Mitchell challenged the Inklings this month to write a prose piece and use it to create a poem. I thought of how much the Poetry Friday community nurtures me and keeps me writing, so my prose and poem are in praise of you, my Poetry Friday peeps.

***We Are Starlings: Inside the Mesmerizing Magic of a Murmuration*** (*public library*) by writers Donna Jo Napoli and Robert Furrow, illustrated by artist Marc Martin. (Inspiration for the word murmurations came from The Marginalian. )

Because our kindred spirits meet each week, we read, internalize, explore words, thoughts and meanings from our virtual friends who write their hearts out, who transform small things into murmurations echoing through cyberspace.

In the sky of our world, words are offered up like kites in the wind, flipping to and fro, and sometimes taking flight, yet always tethered to its person– a human trying to make sense of the world, to take an ordinary day and make it shine like the sun or peek out from the clouds like the full moon.

I am honored by their presence inside my computer, by their comments that urge me onward or rest with me in grief. I cannot measure their worth with a single gesture. I can only take it all in as a gift, a surprise, or a nod that means everything will be fine. I am not alone. Hope is with me.

Kindred spirits meet
Move like a murmuration
Spreading cyber-hope.
Margaret Simon

To see how other Inklings approached this challenge, visit these sites:

Linda @A Word Edgewise
Heidi @my juicy little universe
Molly @Nix the Comfort Zone
Catherine @Reading to the Core
Mary Lee @A(nother) Year of Reading

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Poetry Friday: Phillis Wheatley Golden Shovel

Posted in Gifted Education, Poetry Friday, Writing, tagged #writeout, butterfly garden, Golden Shovel, Gulf Fritillary, Phillis Wheatley on October 27, 2023| 23 Comments »

Poetry Friday Round up is with Carol at The Apples in my Orchard.

The National Writing Project’s Write Out ended last Friday with the National Day on Writing. All the wonderful content is still available, and my students aren’t ready to stop writing. Yesterday we perused the site and found information about Phillis Wheatley from the Boston National Historic Park. When I was researching to write poems for my forthcoming book Were You There: Biography of Emma Wakefield Piallet, I used a line of Phillis Wheatley to write a golden shovel. I shared the mentor text with my students.

They were fascinated to try writing golden shovels, so we found a poem written by Phillis Wheatley on Poetry Foundation. We read “A Hymn to the Evening.”

A Hymn to the Evening

BY PHILLIS WHEATLEY

Soon as the sun forsook the eastern main
The pealing thunder shook the heav’nly plain;
Majestic grandeur! From the zephyr’s wing,
Exhales the incense of the blooming spring.
Soft purl the streams, the birds renew their notes,
And through the air their mingled music floats.
Through all the heav’ns what beauteous dies are spread!
But the west glories in the deepest red:
Phillis Wheatley, read the complete poem here.

Thursday was a special day in our small room. The butterfly whose chrysalis lay on the zipper finally emerged. We were excited because it meant we could finally open the enclosure to release them all. We had four that I had been feeding with mandarin oranges from the cafeteria.

We had the privilege of watching their daily antics and marveling at their beauty. The butterflies were Gulf fritillaries. And flit they did. This breed was less tame than the monarchs we have raised before. They did not light easily on a finger. We had some exciting moments trying to catch them all.
But we did and together released them into the butterfly garden. Luckily one of them hung around for a photo.

My mind and my golden shovel poem were both on this miracle of Mother Nature.

A Hymn for the Gulf Fritillary
after Phillis Wheatley
“A Hymn to the Evening”

Fritillary soft
petals purl
from enclosure to the
spread of wings, flitting over streams,
freedom like the
birds
who renew,
survive and thrive singing their
tender, sweet notes.
Margaret Simon, draft

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Poetry Friday: Juggling

Posted in Poetry Friday, tagged Inklings challenge, juggling, visual frameworks, zeno poem on October 6, 2023| 20 Comments »

Poetry Friday is hosted by Matt at Radio, Rhythm, and Rhyme celebrating a new book.

The first Friday of the month is reserved for the Inkling challenge. This month Mary Lee fascinated us with Visual Frameworks as a prompt for writing. You can see all the choices here.

With school, teaching, volunteering all get fully underway, I feel the sense of juggling lots of balls in the air. And at any time, one or more may fall, and mess with the balance I am currently trying to hold onto. I taught the zeno form to my students last week and featured it on This Photo, so I chose the form to juggle this challenge. I like how the rhythm of it creates the sense of juggling.

Juggling Zeno

A system complex and controlled
keeps all balls up–
motions
bold.
Ability
to thrust/
hold–
a blink of eye
plunges my
load.
Margaret Simon, draft

Other Inklings:
Mary Lee
Linda
Catherine
Molly
(Heidi is taking a blogging break.)

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Poetry Friday: Diminishing Verse

Posted in Poetry Friday on September 29, 2023| 11 Comments »

Jama has the roundup at Jama’s Alphabet Soup

Today is the last Friday of September. Time for the Poetry Sisters’ challenge. I was inspired this month to play around with their challenge to write a diminishing verse. The basic idea is to remove a letter from the end word with each line.

Layers
We are only stardust
holding on with unsteady trust
painting layers, repairing rust.
Margaret Simon, draft

My students wrote Zeno poems to This Photo. I was impressed with how well they tackled this difficult form. Kim Johnson wrote one, too, and is featuring it on her blog Common Threads today.