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Poetry Friday: Another Snow Day

Posted in Poetry Friday, Writing, tagged #poemsofpresence, Erica Johnson, Ethical ELA, open write on January 24, 2025| 22 Comments »

Poetry Friday is hosted today by Tabatha at The Opposite of Indifference.

This week has been weird. Weirdly wonderful. Here on the Gulf coast, we had a snowstorm that broke records all the way back to 1899. The snow fell all day on Tuesday and shut down the whole area for two days. Businesses opened up on Thursday, but we haven’t gone back to school. Our water systems are not built to handle this kind of weather and single digit temperatures, so water pipes have burst and water pressure is down. In Coteau, where one of my schools is located, they cut off water for 12 hours. But my students and my grandchildren have had a blast!

I can’t stop writing about it. On Tuesday, the Ethical ELA Open Write prompt was introduced by Erica Johnson. You can read the full prompt and lots of great poems here.

Enzo Blizzard 2025

It wasn’t until I walked in the snow
that I discovered
snow is wet. In the movies, actors
never seem bedraggled.

And now as a historic blizzard
pours down snow, I remember
my rain boots in the dusty box,
dig out the snap-on hood for the coat,
and place a towel by the back door.

And yet, snow is silent
surprising me with a steady
fluttering rhythm of soft white flakes.

I know this phenomenon is unreal,
ethereal, a moment I want to keep
in a photograph to cherish
and hold.

Margaret Simon, draft

The back of our house in the snow. photo by Maggie Simon LeBlanc.

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Poetry Friday: Shadorma One Little Word

Posted in Poetry Friday, Writing, tagged Kelly Bennett, One Little Word, Rose Cappelli, shadorma on January 17, 2025| 13 Comments »

Poetry Friday is being gathered today by Tricia at The Miss Rumphius Effect

Last week I read Rose Cappelli’s post. She decided to write a poem each month using her One Little Word. I have actually picked two words: Still and Believe. I’ve been determined to train my puppy Albert “Al-Bear”. He is an 11 month old miniature golden doodle with a lot of energy. He’s been developing some bad habits. One of them is barking at us when he wants to play. I bought a collar with a vibrator on it, so I can give him a little buzz (remote control) every time he barks at us. It’s working…slowly.

I receive a prompt each week from Kelly Bennet called News from the Fishbowl. Last week she introduced me to a form I hadn’t heard of, Shadorma. It’s from Spain. There are 6 lines with a syllable count of 3, 5, 3, 3, 7, 5. The topic can be anything, but usually the poem is all one sentence.

Puppy Training

I believe
this puppy can learn
to be still
to cuddle
warming my cold morning lap–
blending our perfume.

Margaret Simon, draft

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Poetry Friday: Sometimes Acrostic Form Works!

Posted in Poetry Friday, Writing, tagged acrostic poetry on January 10, 2025| 22 Comments »

Poetry Friday is hosted today by Kat Apel. with a fun poem about cats and dogs.

My students have gotten off with a rocking (and sometimes rocky) start to 2025. I have become re-committed to giving them notebooking time and prompts to consider. When they get to “poem-ish” on their notebook page, they often turn to the good-ole acrostic. In fact, I asked them yesterday to tell me why they like that form so much. “It’s a curse,” one student piped up. “Everybody’s got it.”

This response made me laugh. The curse of the acrostic. Perhaps it’s also a crutch, a form they can depend on. When I looked closer at some of the poems they had written, though, I found some thoughtfulness as well as expression of emotion. It may be a curse, but sometimes it works.

Avalyn chose a quote that used the word Glow and wrote the following poem in her notebook.

Get up and
Love your freedom,
or love someone.
Wisely understand that you are a free bird.
Ignite that flame of love.
Never let your wings be pierced,
Gone, broken, or enslaved.
Avalyn, 5th grade

Carson was responding to the photo (This Photo Wants to be a Poem: Winter Drive). All week we have been wearing heavy clothes because of the freezing temperatures.

Just started on a New Year
An arctic blast is happening
Nature makes trees bare
Under the weather limit
All of us have jackets
Runny noses
You are frozen. Everybody is frigid.
by Carson, 3rd grade

I presented Mary Lee’s poem from last week and wrote my own notebook page about the prompt “What wisdom do you yearn for?”

Where is wisdom hiding?
Illusive
Search for
Definitive understanding
Overcoming the overwhelming
Melancholy
Margaret Simon, draft

When you are looking for a way to enter your daily writing, try an acrostic. You may surprise yourself.

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Poetry Friday: Inklings Challenge

Posted in being mamére, Gratitude, Poetry Friday, Writing, tagged #poemsofpresence, Inklings challenge, Laughter on January 3, 2025| 20 Comments »

Poetry Friday is hosted by Mary Lee today at A(nother) Year of Reading.

Dear Poetry Friends,

I am posting on my phone because I’m having trouble connecting in a hotel room. I’m visiting my mother who is in the end stages of Alzheimer’s. This time is filled with hard and love, tears and joy.

Heidi challenged the Inklings this first Friday to choose a prompt from her Yule calendar. Since I spent last week in the company of my grandchildren, I was drawn to the prompt “Capture the sound of laughter in rhyme.”

I am taking delight in watching my grandchildren laugh. This poem is dedicated to my granddaughter, June, who was two on Dec. 21st.

De-Light

I taste a note of nutmeg
on my tongue, a slight burn
while I yearn
for sweetness,
and your song

“Happy Day Day”

your two-ness
of delight candles to blow
ribbons flow

twisting into this gift
of a child shifting,

becoming laughter.

Margaret Simon, draft

To see how other Inklings wrote to this challenge:

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

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Poetry Friday: On Love

Posted in Gratitude, Poetry Friday, Writing, tagged Amber Tamblyn, Lory Landry, The Isolation Journals on December 20, 2024| 11 Comments »

Poetry Friday is hosted this week by Jone MacCulloch

I have subscribed to The Isolation Journals for years and often read the prompts but don’t do them, usually because I read them at a time when I don’t have time to stop and write. They usually speak to me, but perhaps there is a little intimidation happening with me as well. I don’t know. I try to keep my doubt under control, but it’s not always that easy.

I tucked away a prompt from Amber Tamblyn. She used anaphora in a poem titled “This Living”. Her prompt suggested we use this same phrase, “It’s going to be”. As I was driving to school on a particularly foggy day, a phrase came to me, “I could fall in love with”. I played around with it in my Notes app. Autocorrect created the title.

On Love

I could fall in love
with someone
playing acoustic guitar
singing breathy tones.

I could fall in love
with a fog bow
reaching for a waning moon.

I could fall in love
with twinkling lights
blue, red, golden
on the tall Main Street
Christmas tree.

I could fall in love
with my own alto voice
rising in this small car
joining a choir
cantata.

I could fall in love
with darkness
coming so soon–
a winter solstice
Peace.

by Margaret Simon, draft

Peace has been my One Little Word for 2024. I’m grateful for the way “peace” showed up for me and for this poem. Have a wonderful holiday season!

Christmas tree on Main St. by Lory Landry

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Poetry Friday: Count on Me

Posted in Poetry Friday, Writing, tagged friendship, Golden Shovel, music mashup on December 13, 2024| 12 Comments »

Poetry Friday is hosted today by Linda Mitchell at A Word Edgewise.

Linda is hosting today with a mashup of songs and poems. This reminded me that we did a similar activity in my class. I asked the class what song about friendship do they like. Kailyn said, “Count on Me” by Bruno Mars.

I stole the line “I’ll sail the world to find you.” to create a golden shovel.

My friend, I’ll
tell you again that I will sail
through a turbulent storm, the
end of the world
as we know it to
rescue you, comfort you, to find
safety in this place with you.
Margaret Simon, draft

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Poetry Friday: My Place in the World

Posted in being mamére, Gifted Education, Poetry Friday, Writing, tagged "my place in the world" poem, #bayoulife, #beingmamére, student poetry on November 23, 2024| 11 Comments »

Poetry Friday is gathered by Ruth at There is no such thing as a God-forsaken town.

My students and I are reading Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse. In the book, there is a poem “On the Road with Arley” that begins with line “Here’s the way I figure it, my place in the world is at the piano.” It’s been fun to find music of the time period and write alongside it. My students worked hard to create poems using this beginning line. I asked them to use imagery to create a tone. I wrote a model poem about my place in the world.

In a Canoe

Here’s the way I figure it,
my place in the world is
on the bayou
lazing about in a canoe
with you.

I’m just a mamere
wanting the best time
to be outside
watching for eagles
slipping through slow current
listening for Mr. Owl
to cook-cook-for-you!

My place is in open toes
among cypress knees
sniffing catfish air
hearing cicadas buzz
when the sun goes down.

Here’s the way I figure it,
my place in the world
is in a canoe with you.

Margaret Simon, draft

Photo by Nitin Arya on Pexels.com

Here’s the way I figure it,
my place in the world is
out of it.

My place is in a different place,
far away from here.
In a mythical world,
or one that is crumbling
even more than mine is.

With my favorite characters
I venture
for escape.
Escape.
My feet will beat the ground,

in my head a pound,
and then I settle down.
In a bed or a chair,
I wind

wind

wind

down.

I read, and I am free.

Here’s the way I figure it,
my place in the world is
seeking distraction from it.

Adelyn, 6th grade

Where is your place in the world?

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Poetry Friday: Perspective

Posted in Poetry Friday, Teaching, Writing on November 15, 2024| 12 Comments »

Poetry Friday is hosted by Karen Edmisten.

With my students, I am using the recent Ethical ELA book 90 Ways of Community for writing prompts. This week we used two different prompts. The first was from Leilya Pitre about taking a break, a walk, and writing a narrative poem.

Veteran’s Day Walk

Finally, a chilly wind
blows my white hair
into my eyes
reminding me that winter
is on its way.

Leaves dapple the playground mulch
like confetti left over from a football game.
This is how fall is…
coming in on a wind
soothing my severed soul
into a peaceful,
place of presence.

Margaret Simon, draft

The second prompt I used was from Jodi Opager asking us to step into the shoes of another person or object. Avalyn has been exploring putting tone and emotion into her poems. She wrote from the POV of the TV. This poem she wrote breaks my heart for her, but she assures me that she is OK and handling things.

Broken Memories

I turn on again
watching the mom
and her daughter.

I remember it
as clear as day.

I remember how the daughter cried
because her mom was fussing
for the third time
that day.

I remember how the dad
stomped upstairs
packed his bags
and left

but everything was fuzzy
because now
I sit in the hallway
empty
dead
waiting to be fixed.

by Avalyn, 5th grade

My sister texted me this photo of my mother from the 70’s. I remember this photo and that my mother was pretending to sleep. My perspective writing is from her point of view with memories of a life full of love.

I remember holding Raggedy Ann
pretending to sleep
next to you
after story time.

I remember riding in the backseat
of the Delta 88 because you
got carsick through the curves
of Zion National Park.

I remember roses blooming
on the “island” alongside our cypress tree,
how your father sketched all day
watching our heron fishing.

I remember you
when you come,
I smile and say,
Thank you.

Margaret Simon, draft

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Poetry Friday: Ode to the Satsuma

Posted in Gratitude, Poetry, Poetry Friday, Teaching, tagged #poemsofpresence, Louisiana fruit, ode, satsumas on November 8, 2024| 16 Comments »

Poetry Friday is hosted today by Cathy at Merely Day by Day

With my fifth and sixth grade students, I am reading Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse. I’m amazed at the parallels of the Dust Bowl to our current climate crisis in Louisiana, but that is a post for another time. Today I am determined to focus on beauty.

The poem Apple Blossoms was our mentor text. I wrote alongside my students about our favorite fruits. Mine is currently overflowing on a tree in our backyard, the satsuma.

Ode to the Satsuma

after Karen Hesse “Apple Blossoms” Out of the Dust

Not just an orange,
you are the ultimate
citrus,
hanging like golden ornaments
on our tree near the fence
where butterflies play
and spiders web.

Your easy-to-peel goodness
makes anticipation grow
in fall, until by Halloween,
the tree is full, overflowing, drooping, dripping
inviting me to basket
a gift for you
to share juicy sweetness
and smile!

Margaret Simon, draft

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Spiritual Journey and Poetry Friday: World and Joy

Posted in Poetry Friday, Writing, tagged Evie Shockley, Golden Shovel, Inklings challenge, Joy Harjo on November 1, 2024| 20 Comments »

Hosted by Linda Mitchell at A Word Edgewise

Happy November! This is the first day and first Friday, so it’s time for a new challenge from the Inklings. This month Linda, who is also hosting Spiritual Thursday, selected a poem by Joy Harjo Fall Song. She asked us to respond in some way to the poem. I collected words that pleased me for their sounds: blue, you, divine, mind, behind. I was thinking of my mother’s blue eyes.

Her Eyes Blue like the Sky

(after Joy Harjo “Fall Song”)

All you leave behind
is blue–
blue lace wings–

tinted with night sky.
Your divine sign
forever will be a blue bird.

I cry for more–
more of your soft touch,

the gleam
of love
lighting

from your crystal blue eyes.
Margaret Simon, draft
Linda's One Little Word for 2024 is "World". She has been writing poems all year on a padlet using her word. I admire her dedication to this daily writing. Since she sent out the prompt for Spiritual Journey, I have been noticing that poets often use the word "world". 
I recently read Evie Shockley’s poem “job prescription ” and striked a line for a golden shovel: “poetry may not change the world, but might change you.” I believe in poetry. I want to believe that it could change the world, but I’m satisfied knowing that it has changed me. I am a better person, a better teacher, a better child of God because I breathe in poems every day.

What is poetry?
An acorn that may
or may not become an oak, change
leaves for the
next season of the world.
We read & write, but
are never sure which words might
sprout to change
and inspire the deepest you.
Margaret Simon, draft