Poetry Friday | Reflections on the Teche

Archive for the ‘Poetry Friday’ Category

Playing with Words

Posted in clmooc, Poetry Friday, Writing, tagged #clmooc, Apples to Apples, Word play on July 10, 2015| 12 Comments »

Poetry Friday round up is at The Logonauts.

Have you ever played Apples to Apples? It’s a game my gifted students enjoy, especially the highly verbal ones. There are two sets of cards, green and red. The green cards are adjectives. The red ones, nouns. The players each hold 5 red cards. The judge for the round (rotates from player to player) places a green card in the middle. Everyone plays a red card. The judge chooses the best noun that fits with the adjective. Simple, right?

I like simple. I have been reading posts by the intelligent group of teachers participating in the CLMOOC, a collaborative learning community sponsored by the National Writing Project. I have associated with NWP for 20 years now, and I am constantly challenged to think beyond the borders. But with this make cycle, game design, much of the process and thinking has traveled well above my head. I’m hanging in, though. I decided to take what I know and just remake it to something I love.

I know Apples to Apples and I love poetry. There you go…a new game. I chose 3 sets of cards to play around with myself and then took pictures of 3 more sets for others to play with. I have added a few sets and invite you to play a little bit today. Follow the link to Google slides. Have fun!

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1MkeeS6tn1XSnBGSrWB8MHZzWmw0a4NllG74aOb1ayiw/edit?usp=sharing

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Poetry and CLmooc

Posted in clmooc, Digital Learning, Photography, Poetry Friday, Writing, tagged #clmooc, #untro, name poem, poetry on June 26, 2015| 14 Comments »

Poetry Friday round up is hosted by Carol.

I have joined the summer PD of CLMooc. Feeling my way through, I have found that poetry inspires many. Poetry is a way we can express our identity. The first make cycle prompted us to “unintroduce” ourselves. Some have taken the prompt to unidentify yourself and made poetry. One participant made a black out poem of the initial email. Another instigated a poem in response to Charleston. This community is responsive, reflective, and real.

Michelle Stein posted this prompt:
“Please follow this link and add your verse if you feel so inclined. My unmake follows these steps. Please do the same when adding your verse.
1. Randomly choose a word for each letter in your name.
2. Add a verse to this narrative poem, using each word you have chosen as the focus of a sentence.
3. Revel in the awesomesauce that is CLMOOC.”

Being one who is attracted to poetic prompts, I gave this one a try. I made a private deal with myself that I would use the first word that came to mind. This created a random word list.

Margaret

Mystic
Appetite (I must be hungry, as usual.)
Reservoir
Give
Astrology
Ring
Even
Trial

In the mystical distance,
an appetite for goodness makes
the reservoir of kindness grow.
Give your heart to life.

Astrology tells us that stars are wise.
Those rings of Saturn resonate light.
Even the universe proclaims pure joy.
No matter the trial, I show up. Ready.

Image made on LunaPic with pixabay free graphic of Saturn.

Image made on LunaPic with free graphic of Saturn.

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I am a Watcher

Posted in Poetry, Poetry Friday, tagged deer, nature poem, watching, wisdom on June 19, 2015| 9 Comments »

Poetry Friday round up is hosted by Mary Lee.

June Sunset on the lake

The slow down days of June give me the gift of time. Time to watch and be present. I am visiting my parents at the lake. There are always things to watch at the lake. Now as I sit on the back porch, I see a turtle on the small island sticking his little head out to taste the breeze. I see a mallard floating on the waves the breeze has mustered up.

Observation is the seed to creativity. Earlier I took a walk and ran into a deer on the road. Here is a draft of the poem I wrote upon returning. I didn’t have a camera with me. But I don’t think I could have captured this moment with a lens. I capture it now in words.

The Doe

Walking
Dover Lane,
She stands near my path
like a statue someone placed there.

Still,
quiet,
looking,
our eyes greet,
speak of love.

She’s the first to move,
scurries into the brush.
I pause as I pass
to watch
the shadows of three deer–
her family.

We are mothers
eye to eye
holding in a moment
nature’s promise.

–Margaret Simon

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Sparking Haiku

Posted in Poetry Friday, Teaching, Writing, tagged haiku, Linda Baie, writing camp on June 12, 2015| 19 Comments »

Poetry Friday round up is hosted by Jama.

In this wacky wonderful world of the Kidlitosphere, I have met so many awesome writers and teachers and teacher/writers. It becomes an even richer experience when we work together to teach and inspire students. When Leigh Anne Eck tweeted me about Skyping with her summer writing camp, I agreed, of course. I was actually flattered. As the day got closer, I worried that I didn’t have what I needed to adequately teach this workshop. We had a quick email exchange and decided to do haiku. All my books are packed away at school, so I turned to another online friend, Linda Baie. She had written a haiku every day in April and made a catalog of them all on her site. How perfect and convenient! Thanks, Linda!

These were the poems I selected and a few things we talked about.

snow shadows again
blossoms tighten their hold
no open window

(Note the use of the word shadows. Why do blossoms tighten? What does the last line tell you?)

That little boy
digs into warm earth –
wiggle in his hand

(What is in his hand? How do you know? Poets can tell you that it’s a worm without using the word.)

from snow to puddles
mother nature’s pasttime –
trees drink deeply

(What is happening? How do you know? Note the personification of trees. What is a pasttime?)

Following our discussion, we looked at this image from National Geographic. First we collected words and phrases that the students shared. Together we wrote this haiku.

Three pairs of flip-flops.
Shadows of three kids playing.
Puddle reflection.

We pulled up a Google image search of “summer days.” Each student chose their own image to write from. Sacred writing time for about 7 minutes. Then some wonderful sharing time. I had such a good time teaching from my living room, even if it was early in the morning. (two time zones)

I wrote a haiku to an image of daisies. Teachers write, too, during workshop. I borrowed a line from Linda, “no open window,” and made it “open your window.” I talked about how poets get ideas from other poets.

Open your window
Summer daisies are here.
Golden sunshine smiles.
–Margaret Simon

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Words from the Healer

Posted in Poetry Friday, Writing, tagged creole healing, Rebecca Henry, traiteurs, Vermilionville on June 5, 2015| 8 Comments »

Poetry Friday round up is hosted by Buffy today.

Elderberry growing in the healer’s garden.

Last weekend I attended a presentation at Vermilionville, a historic Cajun/Creole Village. The speaker was a Creole traiteur or healer, Rebecca Henry. I created this poem from my notes.

Advice from a healer:

Always think positive.
Eat an odd number of pumpkin seeds, 3, 5, 7 for back ache.
Don’t search for roots if you don’t know them.

We had our own names for stuff.
We were never poor.
We had a momma, a daddy, our brothers, our sisters.
We had everything we needed.

Every leaf, every plant, every flower is for food.
For croup, wear the flannel collar soaked in goose grease until Easter.
Use mud from the mud dauber nest for diaper rash.
Those mud daubers know the best dirt.

We never measure.
Treat the whole person.
Clean out in August.
Grease your machine real good.

Say why not me instead of why me.
If you believe, you will be healed.

Lizard’s Tail: “You put some lizard’s tail to soak in water, and you make the little baby drink it.”

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Ideas Grow

Posted in Poetry Friday, tagged #DigiPoetry, Facebook poetry on May 29, 2015| 30 Comments »

Round up is here today!

Don’t you love how small ideas can grow into big ideas with the strength of social media? Some ideas you can hardly trace back to the original owner. Take Poetry Friday, for example. How did it get started? Does anyone know?

On Facebook this week, I was tagged in a post, “For the love of poetry, let’s scatter poems all over Facebook.” I jumped in and tagged a few more people and now they are posting and tagging. How long will this go on? Ideas grow.

Last Sunday, I didn’t know what to write about for DigiLit Sunday, a round up of digital literacy posts that I started. I was about to give up. The last week of school was over, and I was bone dry. On a whim, I posted a digital challenge. Check it out here. I feel it was a huge success because there were a few people who joined in that I didn’t know. I’ll be posting another challenge this Sunday. Tune in. Here’s the Pinterest board full of digital images and poems.

Amy Ludwig VanDerwater was given a push by Kimberley Moran to have a Try This section on Sharing our Notebooks. Amy invited bloggers to send her ideas and her page is now full of 40+ Try This ideas. Wow!

Today Michelle Hendrick Barnes is posting her gallery of free verse word poems inspired by Nikki Grimes. I don’t always take part, but I did this month. There is something so satisfying about participating in a community. And sharing poetry.

In this digital world, poetry is available and accessible to anyone. Welcome to the Poetry Friday Parade. Jump in line anytime or just stand on the side and wave. It’s all good.

Leave the link to your post with inLinkZ. The button sends you to another page to post or read. Thanks for joining in!

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Early Chalkabration

Posted in Chalk-a-bration, Poetry Friday, Writing, tagged Betsy Hubbard, chalkabration, space poems on May 22, 2015| 8 Comments »

Matt is hosting today at Radio, Rhythm, & Rhyme.

Yesterday was our last day of school. I decided what better way to celebrate and send off the year than to write chalk poems. I only could round up three of my students (all boys). We started as usual by discussing a theme. Here is where my students always surprise me. I’m thinking the usual topics such as summer, end of school, May. Well, not these guys. They had outer space on their minds. So outer space it was. We each chose a topic out loud: black holes, Mars, galaxies, and stars. I couldn’t find paper (all packed up), so I pulled out sticky notes and some pens from my purse. We wrote, shared, then headed outside to chalk it up!

And to top it off, it was Betsy Hubbard’s birthday! Do you know who she is? She’s the inventor of Chalkabration. So my students added a birthday wish. Betsy usually posts a roundup of Chalkabration on the last day of the month. We’re early, but it was the last day. Check out her site on May 31st.

Galaxies by Tyler
Never ending
billions of stars
lighting up the night
different styles
amaze mankind.

Stars by Mrs. Simon

Mars by Jacob Mars is red And the only red planet Red planet Super cold!

Why did God create
this destructive force
that eats galaxies?
Why did God create
black holes?
by Matthew

Creating chalkabration
We appreciate that a lot
Happy B-day,
Mrs. Betsy!

More Poetry Goodness:

Amy Ludwig VanDerwater is gathering notebook ideas for summer. I sent in two, one from me here, and the other from my student Tyler here.

Michelle Hendrick Barnes put out a ditty challenge from Nikki Grimes. My poem was featured here.

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Sometimes on the Lake

Posted in Poetry Friday, tagged lake, Mississippi, poetry on May 15, 2015| 18 Comments »

Sometimes on the lake in June
white pelicans fly in together
and you get out the camera.
Then they turn as a drumline in step,
swim away swiftly in a cloud.

Sometimes on the lake in June
a lone blue heron fishes.
Sly step, long beak held high,
drinking in the sunlight.
A small boat passes by
lines thrown out,
catching nothing.

Sometimes on the lake in June,
I wake before dawn,
put the coffee on,
Sometimes Dad will join me
silent, reading the daily news.
Mom comes in pleased to have fresh coffee.
We sit on the porch, quiet
content to be together
on the lake in June.

My parents live on a lake in Mississippi. I am anticipating my annual visit in June. This poetry exercise can be found in Kate Messner’s 59 Reasons to Write.

Diane is hosting today at Random Noodling.

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Trying on Other Poets’ Clothes

Posted in Gifted Education, Poetry, Poetry Friday, Writing, tagged Georgia Heard, List poems, Naomi Shihab Nye on May 8, 2015| 9 Comments »

Michelle is hosting today at Today’s Little Ditty!

Poets are some of my favorite people. I want to be one, so sometimes I try on their clothes. I shared this confession with my students. One of my poet-heroes, Laura Shovan, tried on Naomi Shihab Nye’s list poem, Words in my Pillow, that you can find in Georgia Heard’s collection Falling Down the Page. I shared Naomi’s poem as well as Laura’s with my students.

My students are smart kids who are really stubborn about wanting to break the mold, but I told them, “This is the form we are trying on today.” When the third student asked about breaking the form, I turned to them and said, “What did I say?”

“We are trying this one on today!” Sometimes when you try on another poet’s form, it is confining and doesn’t fit at all. Not this one. I was surprised at how well this poem fit.

Words in my Bathroom

I keep words in my bathroom,
Words that keep me clean.

SOAP
TOWEL
SHAMPOO

No one sees them
Until I put them on,
But I know they’re there.

BATHROBE
FACE CREAM
BODY WASH
HAND SOAP
LEFTOVER CLOTHING
TOILET PAPER

TOILET is in there.
BATHTUB is in there.

The words wish they were something else
When I’m not looking.
This TOWEL and that RACK
like being together.
CANDLES brighten up my bathroom
TOILET yells NO
in my bathroom.

My friends the words
know better than I do
what makes me feel good.
–Tobie

Words under the Couch Cushions

I keep words under the couch cushions.
Words that make me cool.

HANDSOME
BLACK
STYLISH

No one sees them until
I put them on.
But I know what’s in there.

REMOTE
TOYS
PAPER
FEATHERS

WHITE SOCK is in there.
GOOGLY EYES are in there.

The words make a PUPPET
when I am not looking.

TISSUE
GUM
CARD

My friends the words know how to fluff a cushion
better than I do.
But I love them.
–Jacob

Words in my Closet

There are words in my closet that say “you’re chic!”
OLD NAVY
GAP
JUSTICE
“No one sees them until I put them on, but I know what’s in there–”
SILK
SPARKELS
POLKA-DOTS
RHINESTONES
“DENIM”
FLOWERS
SHOES are in there.
EXTRA LACES are in there.
The words choose my outfits.
I’m just not around when they do.
This SHIRT those SHORTS Already pieced together.

NEON colors brighten up my closet.
LSU shirts shout “GO TIGERS” in my closet.

My friends the words
know me the best.
–Emily

Words in my Journal

I keep words in my journal.
Words that dance from
my thoughts to the page.

BUZZY
PATIENCE
BOUQUETS

No one sees them
like LOVE LETTERS I hide in a box,
but I know what’s in there.

PURPLE
SKY
VICTORY
UMBRELLA

STARLINGS flit in there.
Even DILLY-DALLY trots a page.

The words make poems together
when I’m not looking.

LAKE
MAZE
WONDER
RUSH

My friends the words know better than I do
how to sing songs.

–Margaret Simon

This form fit reluctant poets as well as confident ones. Laura Shovan is posting student poems, too, from a writer in residence program. Check them out here.

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Chalkabration Cinco Style

Posted in Chalk-a-bration, Poetry Friday, Teaching, Writing, tagged chalk poetry, cinquain, Read Write Think on May 1, 2015| 8 Comments »

Join the roundup at Space City Scribes

Join the Chalk-a-bration at Betsy Hubbard’s site Teaching Young Writers.

What is Chalk-a-bration? The brain child of Betsy Hubbard of the Two Writing Teachers. The last day of the month is dedicated to chalking poems. And what better way to end National Poetry Month! My students have been looking forward to this day for months. (We were on spring break for the last day of March.) Now it is May Day, and we decided to celebrate Cinco de Mayo early with cinquain poems.

Read, Write, Think is a go-to site for me for all sorts of literacy lessons and fabulous student interactives. We pulled up the Theme Poems student interactive. Together as a class, we chose a shape, brainstormed words, and wrote a cinquain. Then it was outside time, playing with words, shapes, chalk, and shadows. Enjoy!