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Poetry Friday: Over Blue Mountain

Posted in Gratitude, Photography, Poetry Friday, tagged Inklings, North Carolina, The Lost Lagoon on January 7, 2022| 17 Comments »

Poetry Friday is with Carol at Beyond Literacy Link.

This month’s Inkling challenge comes from Heidi. She invited us to “use the form” of the poem, The Lost Lagoon, by Emily Pauline Johnson (d. 1913) to build a “poem for children about a treasured place that you return to again and again.”

Most of our group had tackled this challenge early on. I thought I might not make it. After Christmas and a family trip, I had been away from writing for a few weeks. Often when I take a break like this, I feel I’ll never write another poem. I decided to take my head out of the sand and face it. On Sunday I opened The Lost Lagoon. I copied it into a document and went to work writing beside it. I didn’t follow the form exactly, but in many ways the exercise led me to say what I wanted to say.

One of my favorite photos from our family trip to North Carolina became my muse. The guys enjoyed making nightly fires in the fire pit outside our mountain house. The toddler boys enjoyed participating (at a safe distance) in blowing on the fire. My daughters captured the scene in two photographs.

Over Blue Mountain
See Sun set over blue mountain;
Dada builds fire to light the way
beneath a cloud-shining golden ray.
I twirl in steam of an ending day
and blow flames for a sparkling fountain.
In the dark, a song begins to bloom
and follows a cow’s mooing tune,
a howl of dogs under rising moon,
the logs of the fire crackle and croon
and gone is the nighttime gloom.
Oh, why can’t I stay out all night
to watch Cow jump over the moon
and feel the dawning sky too soon?
I dream I’m lifted like a balloon–
in Dada’s arms I’m safe and right.
Margaret Simon, 2022

Other Inkling poems:

Catherine Flynn at Reading to the Core
Linda Mitchell at A Word Edgewise
Heidi Mordhorst at My Juicy Little Universe
Molly Hogan at Nix the Comfort Zone
Mary Lee Hahn at A(nother) Year of Reading

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Poetry Friday: Holiday Card

Posted in Creativity, Photography, Poetry Friday, tagged art collage, Holiday cards, John Gibson, Linda Mitchell, pointillism on December 24, 2021| 10 Comments »

Exchanging Christmas cards is a tradition that I choose to hold on to. There are people in my life I haven’t seen or talked to in years, decades even, yet we still exchange cards every year. It’s a lifeline. A loveline. A way to connect beyond any reason. I don’t fault anyone who opts out. It’s a time consuming commitment.

We don’t send a long letter anymore. The most I can get out is a sticker for the back with the very basic information. But I do enjoy reading the long letters that arrive. I don’t even care if it’s braggy, braggy. I have a friend whose tradition is to open all the holiday cards at once on Christmas morning. I tend to savor each one as it comes.

Art cards express a dedication of time and creativity. This year I received a beautiful collage art card from friend and fellow Inkling, Linda Mitchell. She says she “dabbles” but this card, and other work I’ve seen by her recently, are placing her into a higher artist category. She has talent, and I appreciate and admire her work.

Christmas card collage by Linda Mitchell

My father, John Gibson, is an artist who created art cards for years. In 2013, I created poems to accompany each card and collected them into a small chapbook, Illuminate. Today, I am featuring one of these cards and its poem.

The Pointillist
She laid him in a manger because there was no room for them in the inn.
He sits at the drawing table,
taps the paper
as an instrument.
Music comes forth
in tones
dark and light.
Rhythm
from his heart
to his hand beats–
syncopated in time–
drumming out each dot
point by point
Image
emerges in focus
inviting the eye
I go with him
to the stable,
kneel next to the cow,
smell the light scent of hay,
listen to the breath
of a child,
adore with Mary.
Margaret Simon, all rights reserved
from Illuminate

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Poetry Friday: Little Gingerbread Houses

Posted in Gratitude, Poetry Friday, Teaching, Writing, tagged ee cummings, Karen Eastlund, The Slowdown, winter poem swap on December 17, 2021| 11 Comments »

Little Gingerbread House
The whole room smells
of graham crackers and icing,
sweet-scented as Christmas should be,
marked by twinkle lights and fingers
dipped in icing or glitter glue.
Santa’s in the hallway
listening to every child’s wish.
Teachers are tired, overwhelmed
by lists and sugary treats. Too much
time spent on planning, cooking, decorating.
But there’s the child with bright eyes
who opens her arms and says “I love you”.
You must open
your little gingerbread house
to all of it.
Margaret Simon, draft

I started my day listening to Ada Limón and The Slowdown. She talked about her grandmother’s kitchen and read the poem little tree by ee cummings. I played this episode for my students, and we wrote together. My poem above is true. I took the plunge and did gingerbread houses made out of graham crackers for the first (and most likely last) time. The success on Avalyn’s face and her insistence on telling me she loved me comforted my weary soul. She wrote a sweet story about her little gingerbread house on Fanschool here. (Spoiler alert: it includes a true story about a lizard rescue.)

Chloe wrote a poem side-by-side to ee cummings.

(after ee cummings little tree)
bright star
bright little North Star
you are so bright
you are more like a light
who found you behind Mars
and were you sad to lose hide and seek?
see I will comfort you
because you light up my Christmas tree.
i will hug your prickly sides
and swing you gently
as your mother would
so don’t run away
and my father and i will lift you up
and look at your shining stem
we’ll skip and sing
“Behold that Star”
Chloe Willis, 6th grade

This is the time of year for the Winter Poetry Swap. I exchanged with Karen Eastlund. She sent me the following poem (how cool that it’s in the shape of a Christmas tree) along with some delicious goodies and a hand sewn mini bin. Thanks, Karen.

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Poetry Friday: Hop to It Gratitude

Posted in Gratitude, Poetry Friday, Writing, tagged #gratitude, #poet-tree, Hop to It, Pomelo Books on December 10, 2021| 11 Comments »

Poetry Friday round-up is with Cathy at Merely Day by Day

Today is another gratitude post. I am so grateful to be a part of a wider world of poetry for children. Pomelo Books with NCTE Excellence in Poetry Winner Janet Wong along with her always enthusiastic poetry partner Sylvia Vardell were awarded Every Child a Reader Children’s Book Award for Hop to It. My poem Zen Tree is one of the 100 poems in this book. The award was for the best book of facts. For every poem, there is a side bar with factual information. I love that the facts next to Zen Tree include how trees communicate with each other through their root system. Congratulations to Janet and Sylvia and all of us jumping for Joy!

We are continuing daily gratitude poems in my classrooms. This week at both schools, there is a “Santa Store” set up in the library. Students can buy gifts for their families. There is such joy around buying gifts for others. My students and I expressed that joy in our poems this week.

As we quickly approach Christmas, I hope you are finding much to be grateful for. I am also grateful for you, my underground root system. Your support helps me to keep standing (and writing).

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Poetry Friday: Tricube Trying

Posted in Gratitude, Poetry Friday, Writing, tagged Inklings, poems about teaching, tricube on December 3, 2021| 14 Comments »

Poetry Friday round-up is with Michelle Kogan.

This month’s Inkling challenge is from Molly Hogan. She asked us to try a form we’ve been wanting to try. One of her form suggestions was a tricube. Matt Forrest Esenwine wrote about the form here. Matt said the form seems simple, yet it is challenging to say what you want to say in so few syllables. The form uses a mathematical sequence of three, cubed. 3 syllables, 3 lines, 3 stanzas. I wrote one here for my daughters after they treated me to a wonderful birthday weekend.

In my classroom, the gratitude poet-tree has been such a success that we decided to keep it going in December with a Christmas poet-tree. One of my students lost her beloved dog over the break, so I was thinking about how grateful I am for my walking companion Charlie. Charlie is 14 and has a heart murmur, but he still loves to go out for walks with me in the morning.

On Monday, my two students came in chatting about their break. They were talking about how their friend had left the school. Katie said she cried, but she would not admit that to anyone but me. She said, “You’re my closest teacher.” This made my heart swell. Trying to capture this emotion in a tricube.

You’re my Closest Teacher
Open door
to comfort,
welcoming.
Freely said,
“I’ll tell you”
words of truth.
Close teacher
listens well.
You matter.
Margaret Simon, draft for Katie

Linda: A Word Edgewise
Heidi: my juicy little universe
Catherine: Reading to the Core
Mary Lee: A(nother) Year of Reading

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Poetry Friday: Ode to Autumn

Posted in Poetry Friday, Writing, tagged #poemsofpresence, #Poetrypals, Autumn ode, odes on November 26, 2021| 14 Comments »

Poetry Friday round-up is with Ruth at There is No Such Thing as a Godforsaken Town.

Happy Black Friday, a day I am celebrating with another family gathering around our newest grandchild Stella. She is turning one on Tuesday. There will be the traditional day after Thanksgiving gumbo as well as cake and presents and lots of wildness from her toddler brother and cousin. The best kind of Black Friday ever.

In the meantime, I wrote a quick ode to join the Poetry Sisters challenge for this month.

Ode to Autumn
Something in the way you move
attracts the wandering eyes
of this watcher–
a tapestry of yellow and red
settles my wild mind.
Something in the way you move
blows a soft whisper
to my weathered cheek
not warm like a kiss
but tickles just the same.
Something in the way you move
stirs my soul to memory,
opens the stored-away box
of photos releasing a scent
of amber and wood.
You move quickly, Autumn,
dropping by with a basketful
of acorns and satsumas,
sweet sugarcane cigar,
then leave on a storm cloud.
Take my grief with your wind
and turn my heart to joy.
Margaret Simon, draft
For Molly, who lost her dear father on Thanksgiving Day

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Poetry Friday: Ode to the Letter M

Posted in Poetry Friday, Writing, tagged #gratitude, being grandmother, Margaret poems, ode on November 19, 2021| 8 Comments »

Poetry Friday round-up is with Carol at Beyond Literacy Link

This prompt came to me in an email from Poets & Writers, The Time is Now. When my Inklings saw this poem, Mary Lee thought the prompt was surely In Gratitude by Abigail Carroll which was featured on this episode of The Slowdown. I love how the universe is like that sometimes, synchronous, speaking to each other. I join the conversation with my own ode to a single letter.

Ode to Letter M
But I love the M, mountainous-
hill-valley-hill-valley
signed with 3 fingers hugging a thumb,
the way milk-full infant fingers
grip my thumb and hold on tight.

I love the M handed down on grandmother’s tea towels,
embroidered like the sign of the cross
on my forehead. I baptize you in the name of
Margaret.
I stand with the Roman numeral (M)
confident in her thousand mornings
musing on the mimicry
of a single mockingbird.
Scent of magnolia fills the room
from the lit candle, like a warm May breeze
that blows homemade cards,
memories, and a rainbow handprint
identifying me
as Mamère,
as someone to love.
Margaret Simon

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Poetry Friday: Reading with Poets Laureate #Gratitude

Posted in Gifted Education, Gratitude, Poetry Friday, Writing, tagged #gratitude, #poet-tree, Bayou Teche Museum, Smithsonian Water/ Ways Exhibit on November 12, 2021| 12 Comments »

Poetry Friday round-up is with Matt at Radio, Rhythm, & Rhyme

Three months ago I said, “Sure!” when my friend Stephanie asked me to participate in a poetry reading. I figured I had plenty of time. And here we are less than a week away. The poetry night is in conjunction with a Water/ Ways traveling Smithsonian exhibit. Stephanie, the assistant at the Bayou Teche Museum, wrote the grant and wanted to add arts into the presentations. I asked her, “Do you realize I write for children?”

The topic is water, so I plan to read from Bayou Song, a swimming poem from Rhymes and Rhythm, and two yet-to-be published poems from Swamp Song. There will be three poets laureate reading alongside me. I’m excited to meet the newest state poet laureate Mona Lisa Saloy. I’ve seen her present on Zoom, but this reading together will be in person.

Darrell Bourque is a mentor of mine. He was poet laureate in Louisiana from 2007-2011. And Jonathan Mayers is coming from Baton Rouge. He is the city’s poet laureate. Melissa and I have been friends since our writing group days in the 90’s. We will support each other as the two non-poets laureate.

In my classroom, the gratitude “Poet-Tree” is filling up with leaves of grateful poems. Yesterday a few teachers stopped by to tell me they were reading the poems and one even said she wanted to write her own and put it on our tree. Spreading poetry love!

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Poetry Friday: Percentage Poem

Posted in Poetry Friday, Writing, tagged Inklings, Maria Popova, percentage poem, The Marginalian on November 5, 2021| 26 Comments »

Poetry Friday round-up is with Mary Lee at A(n)other Year of Reading

The Inklings challenge this month comes from Linda Mitchell. She charged us with writing “a poem that includes the idea of percentage or percent. Percentages are all around us in recipes, prices, assessments, statistics. Include the idea of percentage in your poem in some way.”

I put off this challenge for a while until a muse slapped me in the face from Brain Pickings (which is now called The Marginalian). This article is beautifully written: Every Loss Reveals What We Are Made Of by Maria Popova. Incorporating inspiration from Maria Popova and a quote from Maria Mitchell, I crafted a poem container of loss, aging, and rebirth.

We Reach Forth
The way we stand at the mirror
and see strands of hair
overnight lose their color,
devoid of fresh light
gone gray in the way
a leaf loses the green of chlorophyll.
We lose our vigor.
The way I collapse on the sofa
after the grandchildren leave–
how it sags from years
of holding us.
The way, like branches, we reach forth
and strain every nerve,
but we seize only a bit of the curtain
that hides the infinite from us.*
How 96 percent of the universe
is dark matter
invisible to us, how can we know
what tomorrow will bring?
The way we shed more color,
fall to the ground,
crush into mulch,
then hatch from darkness
and find light
find light
find light.
*Maria Mitchell
Margaret Simon, draft

Below are links to my fellow Inklings and their responses to the % challenge:

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

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Poetry Friday: Metaphor Dice with Taylor Mali

Posted in Poetry Friday, Teaching, Writing, tagged memoir poem, metaphor dice, Taylor Mali on October 22, 2021| 15 Comments »

Poetry Friday round-up is with Jama at Jama’s Alphabet Soup.

Reading has begun for Cybils Round One. I am judging once again in the poetry category. This is such a treat, to read new poetry books and select my favorites. Stay tuned…

This week we had a special visitor in my 6th grade gifted classroom. One of those serendipitous things about blogging and connecting with authors is exposing my students to real authors doing the work. Taylor Mali joined us on Tuesday. Prior to the visit, he sent a package of create-your-own metaphor dice. Here’s a link to order some. We struggled with deciding which words to put on our own set of dice. We made lists in our notebooks of concepts, adjectives, and objects. I’m glad we had a little struggle because we could ask questions of the master.

Jaden asked, “What is the difference between a concept and an object? Isn’t “father” an object?” Taylor was quick with the answer. He explained that many people like to write about their fathers and mothers in a metaphorical way, more like a concept than an object. He went on to tell the story of a student of his who wrote about their father as shattered glass. “I can still see myself in the shattered pieces.”

We shared our own metaphor poems and he offered feedback. One of the things he noticed in my students’ poems was the absence of their own lives. He talked about how poetry should be beautiful language, yes, but also should be the truth. He suggested ways that they could put more of their own life experience into the poems they wrote.

I tried this idea myself with a roll of my own homemade metaphor dice. The roll I got was “The past is a soft wind.” I was pleased that Taylor’s advice to my kids resonated with me, and I tapped into a true story from my childhood.

The Past is a Soft Wind
blowing wind chimes
in the old cypress tree,
ringing like a distant train
that left the station years ago.
The year we drove to Morton, Mississippi
for Thanksgiving and gathered pecans
with great grandfather. We thought
he was 100 years old. He knew things–
How to crack pecans in the palm of his hand
and how many minutes from the engine
to the caboose. We stood together watching,
counting, waving to the conductor
who, as that red house rounded the curve,
always waved back.
Margaret Simon, draft