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Summer Poem Swap

Posted in Poetry, Poetry Friday, tagged Doraine Bennett, Summer Poetry Swap on June 24, 2016| 12 Comments »

Poetry Friday round-up is with Diane at Random Noodling.

summer poetry swap (2)

Receiving a gift is exciting, and Tabatha Yeatts knows this. Each summer she organizes a poetry swap. She sends each participant a list of names and addresses, dates, and prompts. Then the fun begins.

This week I received a gift from Doraine Bennett of Dori Reads. Her poem gift was an original recipe for summer break. In the poem-recipe, she mentions blowing bubbles, a good book, and a cup of tea, so her gift included these goodies: a selection of teas, a bubble blowing kit, and an old book, The Poet’s Homecoming by George MacDonald. She collects MacDonald’s books. “George MacDonald is one of my favorite authors. He has a remarkable ability to impart the love of God through fiction. I’ve collected all of his books over the years and given many away.” The original publication date is 1887. What a thoughtful gift!

Recipe for Summer Break

Take one blue sky.
Place yourself gently
underneath the grand expanse.
Allow the azure to settle like goose down.
Watch it shift from moonstone to sapphire
and soften to a light cornflower haze.
Add a good book. One by an author
who knows what he knows and kneads
his wisdom with gentle, but sure hands.
Simmer with the scent of water,
pink orchids, and wisteria.
Sprinkle with long walks, quiet
conversations, and bird song.
Reserve some time to listen
to the one who knows you best.
Blow bubbles.
Find a puddle,
splash until done.
Heap with grace.
Enjoy with a strong cup of tea.

–Doraine Bennett, all rights reserved.

Summer Poetry Swap gift from Dori.

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What Nature Knows

Posted in Photography, Poetry Friday, Writing, tagged mbuntu, nature poem, New Castle Lake on June 17, 2016| 8 Comments »

Poetry Friday round-up is with Carol at Carol’s Corner.

Deer in woods near New Castle Lake.

I’m feeling a little guilty sitting on the porch on the lake in Mississippi surrounded by my loving family and a blanket of warmth (highs already reaching upper 90’s). There is so much happening in the world that feels out of control, out of my reach of consciousness. And yet I look at nature and see the connections.

On my drive here to my parents’ house, I listened to podcasts. On the TED radio hour episode titled Becoming Wise, I heard the word mbuntu. In this story, South African Boyd Varty speaks about how animals already know this concept, that I am because we are.

I think we all need more mbuntu in our lives. We need to turn our focus on each other to be fully who we are.

The kayaker doesn’t look up
to see me watching him,
seeing how his body,
his paddle,
the water are one.
Stroke right, stroke left
sends a ripple from the water
to the trees,
where light dances like fine feathers.

Branches spread from bald cypress
to shade the grass,
hide the tree frog,
nest the swallow.
A bird calls
Here-a-here-a-here.
Cicadas buzz
like maracas at a Spanish festival.
The sun rises
to the sound of Samba.

–Margaret Simon

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Poetry with Allan Wolf

Posted in Celebration Saturday, Poetry Friday, tagged Allan Wolf, Iberia Parish Library, poetry performance on June 11, 2016| 16 Comments »

Poetry Friday round-up is with Carol at Beyond LiteracyLink.

Allan Wolf…
Just like the animal
Allan Wolf…
Just like the animal

We chanted these words back and forth in a delightful performance at the Lydia library. Allan Wolf performs and teaches about poetry with pizazz. He makes poems sing, shake, and shine.

I invited my students to join me in seeing Allan Wolf’s performance at the library. Four of them came. I loved seeing them and catching up on what they are reading and doing this summer.

Allan Wolf engages the audience. Through singing and dancing, he demonstrates how poems are musical. We all wiggled, made sound effects, and echoed to participate in the fun of poetry.

In this video he is showing kids how nursery rhymes are our first exposure to poetry, and they work because they rhyme. But mostly, the kids are just enjoying his humor when he gets the words wrong.

My students write a lot during the school year and for Poetry Month, they write a poem every day. Kaiden wanted to share his favorite poem “Wonder” with Allan Wolf. After the performance, Allan continued to engage with my students. Erin told him about our Slice of Life challenge and how she hates having to write an SOL every day.

Allan turned to a box on the table that he hadn’t used in the performance. He was sharing a secret with just us. He opened it to show two vials, one looked like water, the other thick syrup. He explained the process of getting syrup out of the tree sap. The sap must be boiled down. Then he showed them a gallon jug of tree sap. “It takes this much sap to make that much syrup.” That’s how writing is. You have to write and write to get the best, sweetest writing.

Allan Wolf did more in that metaphor moment to bridge the summer to next school year than any summer program could. His performance was fun, but the time he took to interact with my students and me afterwards was invaluable. Authors are my heroes.

At the beginning of his performance, Allan points to words on a makeshift clothesline to introduce himself. When he talks about the word “author”, he pronounces it with two gestures: “Aw” with sweet eyes and soft voice, and “Thor” with a raised arm as if he is holding a torch and a strong voice. Because authors are both sensitive and brave. Allen Wolf is a true “Aw-Thor”!

A selfie with Allan Wolf and Sami Sion, the best librarian ever!

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Poetry Friday: Joy

Posted in Photography, Poetry Friday, Writing, tagged joy, Kim Douillard, nature poem on May 27, 2016| 9 Comments »

Poetry Friday round-up is with Julie at The Drift Record

Photo by Kim Douillard

The Butterfly

touched my outstretched hand
for only a millisecond,
yet left behind
a tingle

on my sensitive,
scarred skin.
I kept my arm
outstretched
waiting,

watching
this fluttering yellow kite
dart through the goldenrod
Daddy grew from seed.

How could he have known
when he sowed and watered
that at this moment
when I needed it most

A butterfly would
leave Joy
on my outstretched hand?

Margaret Simon, all rights reserved

Reflection: Yesterday, I wrote about touch. I saw this amazing photograph on Kim Douillard’s post this morning. All day the gift of touch has been on my mind. Even the slightest touch of a butterfly can wrap us in a moment of Joy. What else is there?

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Poetry Friday Round-up

Posted in Poetry Friday, tagged drum, Jack, Laura Shovan, Michelle Heidenrich Barnes, Penny Parker Klostermann, persona poem on May 19, 2016| 30 Comments »

Poetry Friday round-up is here today!

photo by Margaret Gibson Simon enhanced on Picmonkey

Revisiting Presence, my 2016 One Little Word, makes me think of poetry. Poetry is about presence. We capture a moment, a thought, an image in a single verse and sit with it in the presence of the poem.

This month’s Ditty challenge on Michelle’s blog, Today’s Little Ditty, is a persona poem, suggested by Laura Shovan.

A persona poem makes the poet (then the reader) see the world through the eyes of another person. Today, I am a featured poet on Penny Parker Klostermann’s blog. She has a series “A Great Nephew and a Great Aunt” in which she shares a poem after her nephew’s art. She also invites other poets to participate. I volunteered to write a poem from my nephew’s drum riff.

My nephew Jack, 11 years old, has been playing drums all his life. He owns his own drum set and is taking private lessons. He selected percussion as his instrument for band next year in middle school.

Jack and I, along with my sister Beth, had a Google hangout. I asked Jack to create his own drum riff, and I would write a poem to go with it. When Beth sent me the video, I was inspired to write a poem in Jack’s persona. I am sharing the poem here, but please click over to Penny’s blog to see the video of Jack on the drums.

The beat
starts in my toes,
startles my legs,
up-down
up-down!
My fingers feel the groove
until the tingling,
spine-riveting jolt,
budda-bump-bum
budda-bump-bump-bum,
is more than I can stand.
I must
I must
beat the drum!
by Margaret Simon, all rights reserved

Jack’s first drum set

I am hosting the Poetry Friday round-up today. Please leave your link by clicking the button below.

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Poetry Friday: Making Masks, Making Poems

Posted in Creativity, Gifted Education, Poetry Friday, Writing, tagged Gifted by Nature Day, mask poems on May 13, 2016| 11 Comments »

Poetry Friday round-up with Violet. Click here to read more posts.

The end of the school year is coming to a close. One fun day that our gifted students look forward to every year is Gifted by Nature Day. We hold it in City Park and all the elementary gifted students in our parish attend. The day is full of games, art, and writing.

This year middle school gifted students (who fondly remember their own Gifted by Nature Days) led this year’s art activity. They presented a skit about endangered animals. Then our kids were encouraged to freely create their own favorite animal, real or imaginary.

I led a poetry writing activity as a response to the mask activity. And what better poetic form to use than a mask poem? The directions were simple: Write a poem from the point of view of your mask. Use your creature’s name as the title. Use I statements. We read a few mentor poems from Irene Latham”s Dear Wandering Wildebeest and Patricia MacLachlan’s Cat Talk.

The students were primed for creative thinking after making their masks. I am sharing some of the masks and poems here.

This is Erin as a narwhal, of course.

Call me watercat.
I am guard.
I am smart and curious.
I run very quickly through
prickly vines.
I am big.
I am blue.
I am sneaky.
I am fluffy.
I am strong.
I am a watercat.
by Madison, 2nd grade

How adorable is this puppy mask with a bow on its chin!

Dis-Grace
I am a disgrace.
I am a mess of an animal.
I am rainbow.
I have three sets of ears.
My mouth stays open.
My nose is green.
People come around me and say “whoo.”
They must hate me.
Then I hear people say, “That’s cool.”
Maybe I’m not a Dis-Grace after all.
by Emily, 5th grade

Shadow, by Jacob, 2nd grade

I was born in a magic cloud.
Then I flew all day.
I made a lot of friends
and we played in the Milky Way.
Then we found a top hat,
black and a very light gray.
I put it on and then I had the power
to always save the day. Jaci, 5th grade

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Poetry Friday: Beannacht

Posted in Gratitude, Poetry Friday, tagged John O'Donohue on May 6, 2016| 12 Comments »

Poetry Friday round-up with Sylvia at Poetry for Children. Click here.

Whatever it was that led me back to the poem Beannacht by John O’Donohue, I must thank the Universe. The world has only to listen to his dear Gaelic voice to feel at peace and to know all will be well.

I strive to look for the blessings of a day.

Black-eyed Susans line the drive-thru at CC’s….

The cardinal will not stop tweeting!

My fingers are full of paint.
The classroom floor has paint splatters.
Even my blow dryer is splattered with paint.
I’m painting end-of-the year projects with messy kids.

My daughter is outside reading a magazine
soaking up sun, Vitamin D and Vitamin R (relaxing).

Along with John O’Donohue, I bless you.

May the nourishment of the earth be yours,
may the clarity of light be yours,
may the fluency of the ocean be yours,
may the protection of the ancestors be yours.
And so may a slow
wind work these words
of love around you,
an invisible cloak
to mind your life.

Happy Friday!
Happy Spring!
Happy May!

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NPM16 #29: Words

Posted in Poetry, Poetry Friday, Teaching, Writing, tagged #imagepoems, Mary Oliver, nature poem, Rumi, steal like an artist, word groups on April 29, 2016| 11 Comments »

Poetry Friday round-up at Buffy’s Blog.

Where do you find words? I am always in search of the right words, whether I am writing a poem or a blog post or a Facebook message. The right words in the right order.

As I sat next to Vannisa while she revised a poem to enter into a 4-H poetry contest, she and I stared at the screen. She was looking for the last stanza, the inner thinking, that punch of an ending. Where were the words she need?

I pulled out a precious Mary Oliver book from the shelf, A Thousand Mornings. Vanissa swept her hand over the cover. She knows it feels soft, like silk. I read aloud the last lines of some of Mary Oliver’s poems. I was teaching Vannisa how to “steal like an artist.”

This is the list we made:

earth-praise
temple
my heart
angels singing

I can’t share her final draft because we’ve sent it in. Maybe she will win. But we both won when we sat together with the master Mary Oliver and celebrated the right words.

As I continue to write a poem a day (Just one more day, folks!), I decided to use these stolen words in a poem of my own.

Melody

The male cardinal
wakes us every morning
with his earth-praise–
monotone,
happy tone
morning music making.

I nudge the cat
to move off my foot
stretch out of bed
while you stay, softly snoring.

Coffee brews.
The day wakes.
My body is still tired.

But this cardinal
is determined in his glory-making.
He persists
until I turn and see
angels

singing along
in his tree-temple
making melody
of the morning.

–Margaret Simon

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NPM16 #22 Palindrome Poem

Posted in Poetry Friday, tagged palindrome poem, student poetry on April 22, 2016| 8 Comments »

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

This week we brainstormed all the poetry forms we know. The list included reverso, zeno, haiku, concrete, abecedarian, and so on. But one form that we didn’t have on the list was the palindrome poem. That’s because Kielan made it up. This is what she wrote in her post:

The first, third, and fifth lines are free verse. The second and fourth sentences are palindromic sentences. You can have more than 5 lines, though. Below is an example.

Would you rather
Borrow or rob
My best friend, Bob?
Yo, banana boy!
Leave him alone.

–Kielan

Try to write your own Palindrome.

To write a palindrome poem, you first may need to look at a list of palindromes. We found this one.

I gave it a try.

The doggone day I slipped in
dumb mud,
I cursed the blooming
lid off a daffodil.
My mom washed my mouth out with soap.

–Margaret Simon

Jacob was writing this one beginning with the palindrome “Do Geese See God?” Then he told me that he is afraid of dogs. I replied “I wonder if God is afraid of dogs?” Warning: this poem contains a putrid word.

Sometimes I wonder
Do geese see God?
I always tell my dog
“Dog! no poop on God!”
Is God scared of dogs?

–Jacob

Now it’s your turn. Can you write a palindrome poem? My students and I want to know. Write it in the comments or send to me by email and I will add it to this post.

Robyn is adding a line to the Progressive Poem today. Click the image.

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NPM16 #15 Poetry Friday

Posted in Poetry Friday, Teaching, Writing, tagged abecedarian, Amy Ludwig Vanderwater on April 15, 2016| 12 Comments »

Poetry Friday round-up with Michelle at Today’s Little Ditty

This month as I go through poetry every day with my students, inevitably favorite forms emerge. From her blog, Amy Ludwig VanDerwater introduced my students (and me) to the abecedarian form. One by one my students are trying this out. I have said it’s a very challenging form. Some rise to a challenge.

Kaiden has risen to this challenge not only using the form, but also repeating the word wonder. When he got stuck on a letter, he searched a list of Shakespeare words.

All the time wondering
Batty in the night for wonder
Can’t get any sleep from wondering
Dying to quench my thirst for wonder
Enclosing myself in books of wonder
Fascinated by wonder
Going insane from wonder
How did it become this way
I have no idea
Judged because of my wild hair from wondering too much
Kindling the fire of wonder
Loving every drop of wonder
Mourning without wonder
Not having any time for doing work because of wonder
Oblivious of all my dirty and messy ways
Prowling the library for wonder
Quivering without wonder
Rest is impossible with all this wonder
Sleep I can’t
Tearing up books
Unfortunately, I am addicted to wonder
Vigorously turning pages
Withering with out wonder
Xhaling because my wonder is filled
Zzz’s I can finally catch

–Kaiden, 5th grade

Earlier in the week we danced with paintbrushes, making watercolor abstract paintings while listening to music. One selection led some of us artist/poets to think of water (rain). It’s been raining every morning for the last few days. I wrote a more playful poem while my 5th grader, Tobie, is thinking deeply and writing serious poems.

Tobie’s painting of water

As I sit intently
listening to the music that played
I thought of how there were many others
much more
than you could even imagine

Before you think
of planets in space
imagine drops of water in a sea
grains of sand on a beach
every blade of grass in a lawn
every second before dawn

–Tobie, 5th grade

Rainy Day

Rainy Day by Margaret Simon

Popping in puddles
painting balloons.
Sprinkles bubble.
Wet air
Wet hair.
I don’t care.
Let’s play anyway.

–Margaret Simon