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#NPM2018: Afternoon Light

Posted in Poetry, Writing, tagged ekphrastic poetry, John Gibson, National Poetry Month on April 10, 2018| 13 Comments »

National Poetry Month 2018

See more posts at Two Writing Teachers Slice of Life .

Afternoon Light by John Gibson

Sometimes it’s in the details of the day,
these spokes of wheel, pattern of brick, leaf fall.

Sometimes it’s the conversation you hear,
standing by, eavesdropping, that gossip-talk.

Sometimes it’s the way you walk to and fro,
wandering through tall grass and stepping into light.

“A poet needs to keep his wilderness alive inside him.” Stanley Kunitz

As I write a poem every day to my father’s incredible art, I feel unworthy, like a child waiting for a parent’s approval. When I wrote the poem above and many of the ones I’ve done this month, I hear the echo of a first line in my head. I go with it and follow it through the path to a poem. Sometimes I don’t think it’s really me writing. More like scribing. The Stanley Kunitz quote above speaks to this wilderness inside me where poems live. I’ve decided to trust this voice even when I don’t really understand her.

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#NPM2018: Raven

Posted in Poetry, Writing, tagged John Gibson, National Poetry Month, raven mythology, tanka on April 9, 2018| 1 Comment »

National Poetry Month 2018

Raven by John Gibson

Raven lights a fire
before dawning of sunrise,
forewarning of death,

calms darkness before released
hatred causes senseless grief.

Tanka: The Japanese tanka is a thirty-one-syllable poem, traditionally written in a single unbroken line. A form of waka, Japanese song or verse, tanka translates as “short song,” and is better known in its five-line, 5/7/5/7/7 syllable count form. From Poets.org

“The Irish goddess, Morrighan, had a number of different guises. In her aspect as bloodthirsty goddess of war, she was thought to be present on the battlefield in the form of a raven.” From Trees for Life, Mythology and Folklore.

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#NPM2018: Afternoon

Posted in Poetry, Writing, tagged ekphrastic poetry, John Gibson, PoemCrazy on April 4, 2018| 13 Comments »

National Poetry Month 2018

Afternoon by John Gibson

I come from an ocean of afternoons
where the sun hangs
onto the sky
splashing shadows long.

I pedal my bicycle
along the path
racing with the wind,
my hair flying like curly kite ribbons.

I come from this afternoon,
an open endless time
holding onto the handlebars,
then letting go…

Just to test my balance.

From PoemCrazy p.64: “Look for a place in a picture that feels like somewhere you’ve come from. Begin to write about where you feel you come from.”

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#NPM2018: Doves

Posted in Poetry, Slice of Life, Writing, tagged ekphrastic poetry, John Gibson, skinny poem on April 3, 2018| 14 Comments »

National Poetry Month 2018

See more posts at Two Writing Teachers Slice of Life .

For National Poetry Month, I am writing poems to art, ekphrastic poetry. My father has generously offered his art work for my project. He works in pen and ink, using a method called pointillism in which tiny dots create the image. The white spaces are defined by the dark.

Doves by John Gibson

Turtle doves are nesting
in
sanctified
altars,
hovering
in
holy
spaces.
Tranquility
in
nesting turtle doves.

Skinny Poetry Form: A Skinny is a short poem form that consists of eleven lines. The first and eleventh lines can be any length (although shorter lines are favored). The eleventh and last line must be repeated using the same words from the first and opening line (however, they can be rearranged). The second, sixth, and tenth lines must be identical. All the lines in this form, except for the first and last lines, must be comprised of ONLY one word. The Skinny was created by Truth Thomas in the Tony Medina Poetry Workshop at Howard University in 2005.

“Names are powerful. They influence our perception. The Chinese master Confucius believed all wisdom came from learning to call things by the right name.” PoemCrazy by Susan Goldsmith Wooldridge

The name turtle doves originates from the Hebrew word tor meaning twice, which became tur tur, transliterated into English as turtle dove. Thus turtle doves have nothing to do with turtles. They are referred to often in the Bible.

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#NPM2018: Dark Clouds

Posted in Poetry, Writing, tagged ekphrastic poetry, John Gibson on April 2, 2018| 9 Comments »

National Poetry Month 2018

Dark Clouds by John Gibson

I fade as light
brightens maple leaves
before they fall
to soft ground below.

Branches overshadow me
grip my confidence
and shun me.

I land without sound
without notice
without glee.

–Margaret Simon, (c) 2018

From Poem Crazy by Susan Goldsmith Wooldridge: “Writing poems using images can create an experience allowing others to feel what we feel. Perhaps more important, poems can put us in touch with our own often buried or unexpected feelings.”

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Slice Challenge #31: Celebrating Easter

Posted in Celebration Saturday, Poetry, Slice of Life, Spiritual Growth, Writing, tagged Good Friday, Mary Oliver, meditation, prayer on March 31, 2018| 15 Comments »

Two Writing Teachers Slice of Life March Challenge

Find more celebration posts at Ruth’s blog.

Holy Week always brings up for me a mixture of feelings. I feel a call to silent contemplation. Years ago I offered a Good Friday meditation. It originally came out of a prayer vigil from Maundy Thursday to Easter Sunday. I had signed up for the 6 AM time slot and was moved by the rising of the sun as I sat alone in the quiet church. We don’t have a vigil anymore, but the idea of sitting in quiet meditation early in the morning of Good Friday is still something I want to experience and share.

With four of us in the sanctuary, I read aloud Mary Oliver’s poem “I Happened to be Standing.” Mary Oliver is a favorite poet of mine. I love how simple and profound her poems are. I searched for this one. I remembered how it looked on the page, but I didn’t remember the title or which book it was published in. I located five of her books around my home, none of them placed together. Finally, A Thousand Mornings sang to me from the living room shelf, and there it was in all its humble glory.

I Happened to Be Standing

I don't know where prayers go,
     or what they do.
Do cats pray, while they sleep
     half-asleep in the sun?
Does the opossum pray as it
     crosses the street?
The sunflowers? The old black oak
     growing older every year?
I know I can walk through the world,
     along the shore or under the trees,
with my mind filled with things
     of little importance, in full
self-attendance. A condition I can't really
     call being alive
Is a prayer a gift, or a petition,
     or does it matter?
(Read and listen to the complete poem here.)

As I sat, I recalled Psalm 22 from the Maundy Thursday stripping of the altar. I wanted to respond to this psalm with my own psalm. I wrote:

Deus, Deus meus

My God, my God, why have you forgiven me?
The toll of the cardinal song
echoes You are my child.

Long ago, I carried a child in my own womb
felt her heart beat with mine,
felt the soft body roll inside.

Is this how you love me, God?

I held the hand of his father
as he passed into your light.
I let go of his quiet strength.

Is this how you love me, God?

When I think on these things,
I can know kindness.
I can hear stillness in the noise.
I can feel love in the bird’s song.

When you are near me, God,
My soul lives for you.

–Margaret Simon (c) 2018

Happy, Happy Easter! May you find joy in the quiet and love in the sounds of the birds!

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Slice Challenge #27: March Heart Map

Posted in Slice of Life, Writing, tagged art journal on March 27, 2018| 12 Comments »

Two Writing Teachers Slice of Life March Challenge

I started an art journal in January (a slice about it here) and decided to select a color for each month (March is yellow) and to collage a heart map for each month. Yesterday with some free spring break time I completed my heart map for March.

Perusing magazines is part of the fun. Cutting and pasting can be creative, relaxing work. This map captures snippets of March including Slice of Life blogging, our Plein Air guest artists, and Saturday’s march. Some messages are hidden, like the popping out sticky note “South Louisiana.” It’s hiding the title of my forthcoming poetry book. Still working on proofs. Cover reveal coming soon!

On Twitter, Leigh Anne posted this:

My table was not as covered as hers, but I took a few snippets for a quick poem in my art journal.

I’m still working with the line The Shadow Defines the Light. I’m trying it out in different poems. Sometimes you just find a great line. Copy, paste, make it yours.

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Slice Challenge #25: Marching

Posted in Writing on March 25, 2018| 21 Comments »

Two Writing Teachers Slice of Life March Challenge

Yesterday I joined March for our Lives in Lafayette, LA. It did not even come close to the numbers marching in other places. I would estimate 200 or so people. The message was clear, and the march was a peaceful walk around the park. We chatted with people we knew. We cheered for the kids who bravely stood and spoke on stage.

On the advice of fellow slicer, Elisabeth Ellington, I listened to an On Being podcast with Naomi Shihab Nye. She suggests writing three lines every day. The three lines I wrote in my notebook yesterday:

The violence of our times is unacceptable.
My faith tells me that the answer is love.
Not everyone is going to accept me. I need to accept this.

As I watched the video of kids speaking in DC and beyond, Emma Gonzales, Naomi Wadler, and Georgia VanDerwater, I was moved to tears. How could I be afraid when these kids were so brave?

As a teacher, I am afraid to stay quiet. I cannot stand by and watch young children frisked with a metal detector. I cannot stand by and accept teachers being armed. These actions are band-aids to a problem our politicians are afraid to address, gun regulations and the lack of mental health care.

Band-aids are being placed on a broken system, a system with empty counselors’ offices, a system without adequate response to children in trauma, a system stripped of the arts. Long term solutions are available if we are only willing to fight for them.

I will carry a sign. I will not carry a gun.

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Slice Challenge #24: Dear Spring Break

Posted in Slice of Life, Writing, tagged letter, spring break on March 24, 2018| 19 Comments »

Two Writing Teachers Slice of Life March Challenge

Dear Spring Break,
I am celebrating your arrival today.
You have entered my life like a soothing breeze.
When the birds call, I will be here to listen.
I will take long walks with Charlie. (First sight of the leash, and he is ready to go!)
I promise to read a book in your honor
and share it with my students when we return.
I hope you will invite me outside to explore.
I’d love to have lunch with a friend.
I promise to practice my ukulele, cook dinner more than once, and crochet in prayerful meditation.
But most of all, I promise to be grateful for every quiet moment you give me because I know that April and May are slippery slopes to summer.
Thanks for coming, spring break, you are a welcomed guest.
With love,
Margaret

Find more celebration posts at Ruth’s blog.

I borrowed this writing idea from Michelle Haseltine at One Grateful Teacher.

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Slice Challenge #23: Golden Shovels and Chalkabration

Posted in Poetry, Poetry Friday, Slice of Life, Teaching, Writing on March 23, 2018| 20 Comments »

Two Writing Teachers Slice of Life March Challenge

Poetry Friday round-up is with Laura at Writing the World for Kids.

This month’s Ditty Challenge on Michelle Barnes’ site is from Nikki Grimes. Nikki Grimes has made the golden shovel an infamous poetry form. I shared her book, One Last Word, with my students. Michelle worked with boys in a juvenile detention center. She posted Lil Fijjii’s poem blurred lines. This poem spoke to my students. They could relate to the strong emotion. To write golden shovel poems, each student chose a line to respond to. At first Faith placed her head in her hands. “This is too hard. I can’t do it.” I set the timer and said, “Just give it a shot.”

My students were pleased with the results. I’ve posted them on Michelle’s padlet. Scroll for Students from Mrs. Simon’s Class.

Spring is in the air here in South Louisiana and no one wants to stay inside, so I took my kids out for a chalkabration. View their poems in this slide show.

chalkabration