Writing | Reflections on the Teche

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God is not prejudiced

Posted in Spiritual Growth, Writing, tagged prejudice, spiritual journey, Zydeco on August 21, 2014| 7 Comments »

Click here to read more #spiritualjourney posts. Thanks Holly for hosting this roundup!

My dance instructor, Lou, dances with legendary Zydeco Joe.

I have been maddened, saddened, and frustrated by the happenings in Ferguson, Missouri. Could this happen in my own home town?

I asked this question to the line of people at Solomon House on Tuesday morning. Solomon House is an outreach mission that distributes groceries once a week to the poor in our community. I go every Tuesday morning around 7 AM and greet the clients. This Tuesday our Executive Director was out of town. She usually gives the devotional. I was asked to do it in her absence.

Clients wait for Brown Bag give out at Solomon House.

I was a bit emotional and nervous to address this mixed crowd. As I looked at the group, I saw white men and women as well as black men and women, young and old. Poverty does not know race. Neither does God.

I continued with my talk.

My husband and I love to Zydeco dance. We are two white people who didn’t know how to dance until we started taking lessons three or so years ago. Now we enjoy going out to dance. Zydeco dancers come in all colors. There are black men dancing with white women, old dancing with young, and women dancing with women. God wants us to be like Zydeco dancers. He wants us all to dance together no matter how old we are or what color we are.

I am also a teacher. I teach young elementary students. In the cafeteria yesterday, as the kindergarten students are getting accustomed to school, I asked an older student to take a kindergarten student to class. They held hands without hesitation, a black child and a white child. Children do not know prejudice.

Let us be like Zydeco dancers and like children. Let us hold hands and dance together.

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Celebrating Thirty-two Years

Posted in Celebration Saturday, Writing, tagged anniversary, Napoleon House, New Orleans, Travel on August 9, 2014| 9 Comments »

Ruth Ayres invites us the celebrate each week. Click over to her site Discover. Play. Build. to read more celebrations.

August 7, 1982

On August 7, 1982, I was not even 21 yet. But I made a very wise and wonderful decision to marry my best friend. We celebrated 32 years by dancing to our favorite Zydeco band, Geno Delafose and the French Rockin Boogie. They were playing in New Orleans at the Rock N Bowl. Yes, you read that right, Rock and Bowl. Only in New Orleans can you bowl and dance to Zydeco. Read about the interesting history of the place here.

I thought the band started at 7 PM. I don’t know why I thought that and having not verified it, we showed up at the Rock n Bowl at five minutes to 7. With our hands stamped, we were told that the music started at 8:30. Jeff and I walked next door to another longtime New Orleans establishment, Ye Ole College Inn. I’ve never had a bad meal there. We had a delicious meal and a drink (or two), so we were ready for dancing the night away. Geno has more stamina than we do, so we rarely see the tip of his hat and his farewell. But we made it until 11:30, dancing our last dance to “Make the Dust Fly.”

We took our time getting up on Friday morning. We had a nice lunch and visit with my cousin and his wife. They are renovating an old four-plex in Uptown making it into a single family home. My cousin is an architect. I am fascinated by his choices. The door to the back porch is an automatic garage door. He has salvaged tin from an old shed to make a tin wall. He is also using an old gurney to make a rolling island in the kitchen. Regretfully, I didn’t take any pictures. I just listened to him talk passionately about keeping the integrity of the materials he is using. I celebrate his endeavor.

One of our favorite bars is The Napoleon House, known for its Pim’s Cup, a delicious refreshing gin-based drink. When we were dating long ago at LSU, we would drive to NOLA after a game and hang out at The Napoleon House, a unique bar/restaurant with crumbling concrete walls, cheerful male waiters most of whom have a handle-bar mustache, and loud classical music.

Our celebration continues today.

Napoleon House

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Chasing the Horizon

Posted in Poetry, Poetry Friday, Spiritual Growth, Writing, tagged #sdawpphotovoices, horizon, nature poem, spiritual journey on August 8, 2014| 11 Comments »

Join the Poetry Friday Round-up at A Year of Reading with Mary Lee.

Follow this link to read more spiritual journey posts.

This post is serving dual purposes. Since it is Friday, it serves as my Poetry Friday post, an original poem I wrote this week after a typical trip to the grocery store. The second purpose is for Spiritual Journey Thursday. Holly started this blog roundup a few months ago. Her theme this week is wonder and awe. I was filled with wonder and awe at this sunburst in the sky. Holly’s post is about her mission trip to the Czech Republic. It is worth a read.

Yesterday was a wonderfully busy day filled with school orientation, seeing my students, and our anniversary. Jeff and I danced the night away to our favorite zydeco band, Geno Delafose and the French Rockin Boogie. Thirty-two years and we’re still having fun! (Sorry, Holly, for ignoring your tweets, but I was a little ~~dizzy~~ busy.)

Chasing the Horizon

Driving from an evening grocery stop,
I chase the dramatic horizon
drawing me home.

The cats look forlorn
at my passing car,
oblivious to the sun I seek.

I drive to the cul-de-sac
snapping images with my phone
that fail to capture
the brilliance.

Setting sun peers over
white-tipped clouds
bursting with blue water.

I stop my car,
jump out to the field
as to pursue an escaped kite.

The only bystander watches her dog
as he marks every bush and cluster of weeds.
She talks loudly on her cell phone.

I want to shout, “Look up at the glorious sky!”

But I stay silent,
climb back into my car,
turn toward home,
satisfied that God
just handed me
a daisy.

— Margaret Simon

Images informing writing: Join the photo-a-day challenge.

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Setting Informs Character

Posted in Slice of Life, Teachers Write, Writing, tagged character, image writing, iphonography, Kim Douillard, place-based writing, setting on August 5, 2014| 13 Comments »

Join the Two Writing Teachers Slice of Life Challenge.

I have been thinking a lot about images and writing lately. An image helps me focus and informs my writing. When working with an image, I can be more specific in sensory details.

Over at Teachers Write camp, the focus has been on character and dialogue and how the setting can be used to guide the dialogue rather than using tags. Megan Frazer Blakemore has a number of tips for writing dialogue.

I am using setting to inform my characters’ actions. In the sequel to Blessen that I am working on, I wanted to put in this tree. It is located on the grounds of a former Catholic girls’ school, and my husband tells me it is called “The Boob Tree.” Can you see why?

My former student/ middle school Beta reader advised that I change it. She said if my book was going to be read aloud in 3rd-4th grade classrooms, Boob Tree was way too embarrassing. So I took her advice and changed the tree to The Angel Tree. The tree becomes an important character and gets intricately involved in the plot.

I want the setting of South Louisiana to come through strongly. This morning while I was walking in the park, I came upon a nutria. Nutria are aquatic rodents. They are not too fearful of people (perhaps not too smart), so I got a good close up shot. A nutria makes an appearance in Sunshine (the working title of Blessen’s sequel.)

Something jumps beside the boat. A fish? A snake? An alligator? I paddle faster. It doesn’t help. The boat spins around. I try paddling on the other side. I spin back. I just stop, put the paddle inside the boat, and wait. Breathe.

Then I see it. A baby nutria with its tiny head sticking out above the water. He skims the surface, joining his family in a grove of cypress knees. I am mesmerized. They chatter together. Nutria language, foreign to me. Mother and baby look my way. I whisper hello. Mother nudges baby back into the water and they skim off together into the dark spaces between the trees.

Nutria are large rodents, a glorified rat. But I think they are cute, especially the curious babies. They are as big as a beaver, but their tails are long and skinny. My uncle, who we call Big Brother, used to hunt them for fun. He made me a string necklace once with two shiny orange teeth. He told me they were a nuisance, imported to Louisiana for their fur, but no one really wants a rat for a coat. They have multiplied and taken over.

A few years ago, Momma thought it’d be funny to feed us nutria spaghetti. She didn’t tell us what it was until we all had eaten. You should have seen my Pawpee’s face. He laughed so hard and said, “Cher, Deanie, you make the best nutria spaghetti around.”
–Margaret Simon, all rights reserved

How are you using setting to inform your writing?

Kim Douillard invites us to take a Photo-a-Day in August, trying to capture the unexpected. Both of the above images qualify as unexpected in nature. I am piggybacking on her challenge and asking you to write a scene, description, poem to accompany your image. The list is as follows:

So August’s challenge is to look for the unexpected as you enjoy the last of the long light and warm days (at least in the northern hemisphere). And to help you look, here are some prompts—one per day—to focus your attention and spur your thinking.

1. People

2. Place

3. Nature

4. Plants

5. Animals

6. Horizon

7. Food

8. Transportation

9. Light

10. Home

11. Smell

12. Sound

13. Garden

14. Inside

15. Thing

16. Drink

17. Sky

18. Outside

19. Neighborhood

20. Weather

21. Early

22. Texture

23. Words

24. Interaction

25. Walk

26. Arrangement

27. Trash (#Litterati)

28. Architecture

29. Close up (Macro)

30. Landscape

31. Pleasure

Once you find the unexpected and capture a photo of it, post a photo each day with the hashtag #sdawpphotovoices to Twitter, Instagram, Flicker, Google+ and/or Facebook (the more the better!), so that we can all enjoy the posts.”

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Celebrating Comments

Posted in Blessen, Celebration Saturday, Teachers Write, Writing, tagged authentic voice, Avi, Gae Polisner, Teachers Write on August 2, 2014| 8 Comments »

Ruth Ayres invites us the celebrate each week. Click over to her site Discover. Play. Build. to read more celebrations.

Today I am celebrating comments. I am admitting how important comments are to me. They drive me to write more. They give me confidence. Comments are like attention from a close friend; they wrap me up in warmth.

Every Friday of Kate Messner’s Teachers Write Camp, Gae Polisner hosts a Friday Feedback on her site with a guest author each week. A week ago, the guest was Avi. Yes, the one and only. If you are steeped into the kidlit world of middle grade books, you know Avi well for books like Crispin and The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle and many more. I was a bit star struck when I saw this and hesitated to post anything, but I got my courage up and posted this little piece of Sunshine, the sequel to Blessen.

On the porch hidden by the screen door, I think I see a child. All I can see are eyes, big and round like white marbles, staring out at me. Still, I am startled by the voice.

“Hi, there! Whatcha’ doin? Swinging?”

A little black girl swirls off the porch and flies like a raven to my side. She wears a tattered pink dress that’s too short for her long skinny legs. Her hair is plaited in braids close to her scalp. Her skin is as dark as a moonless night. She runs around me and pushes me forward on the rope.

I swing higher and squeal. Holding tighter to the rope, I ask the girl, “Who are you? Where did you come from?”

“My name is Harmony, Harmony, Harmony.” Harmony sings her name higher and higher on the scale. “Who are you, you, you?”

Holding tightly to the thick rope, I unwrap my legs and stand.

“I’m Blessen. I live right there in that double-wide with my momma, Miss Gardenia LaFleur. Are you living here now?”

“Oh, well, it’s all just temporary. We’ll see, we’ll see. Will you swing me high?”

And from Avi, “Dear Margaret,
Not much to add, because this seems to work as is. Good job!. I assume there is more, and would like to read.”

And this week from Gae herself, “Margaret, I’d offer constructive criticism if I had it. But your writing is really stellar and compelling. Just beautiful. Keep going!”

How can I not keep going with support like this from successful authors like Avi and Gae. A huge THANKS to Kate Messner and Gae Polisner and all the other amazing authors who are devoting their time and energy to nurturing struggling teacher-writers like me.

I am trying to trust my authentic voice. Comments strengthen this voice and make me feel worthy! Totally selfish and totally true!

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Deception Pass

Posted in Poetry, Poetry Friday, Spiritual Growth, Writing, tagged beach, nature poetry, spiritual reflection, Whitbey Island on July 31, 2014| 39 Comments »

Poetry Friday Round-up is here today!

This summer I have been thinking a lot about images, how images can fuel writing and creativity. I made a six-image memoir in response to a prompt by Kevin Hodgson on the Make Learning Connected site. Kim Douillard’s posts on Thinking Through my Lens make me think about the images I take responding to a theme. This week, Kim wrote about water, “Like water, there is power in writing. Power to connect, to heal, to think and reflect. We sometimes forget that writing in unexpected places creates new urgency and agency for our writing. So go outside, find a place by a river, on the curb, under a tree, or even sit on the car bumper and see what writing comes when you change your lens.”

I climbed the high rock on the beach at Deception Pass on Whitbey Island, Washington on Tuesday. I took my notebook with me, a little pocket-sized one. Here is my journal entry:

You have to know the tides. Deception is easy looking off at the horizon reflecting on blue water, showing Mt. Baker–snowtopped snowball. The rocky beach offers smooth stones for your collection, stones of every color & size. We don’t have rocks like these at home in the south where the beaches are sand & shells, Gulf, not Pacific. Yet, I can close my eyes & breathe in the salty air, listen to the soft hum of the waves.
Beaches are like this–offering to us along with a sense of adventure, danger, of deception, the feeling of comfort, peace, of all being right with the world. I have my place on top of this huge jutting black rock. I can see Canada from here. I taste the seaweed & salt.
God wants us to marvel every day, to be alert, pay attention. Be still and know. I am grateful for this gift of sea, air, smooth stones, and a space to sit, reflect, write, and know that even though I am a mere speck of sand or a single stone, I have a name.

This entry became a poem for Carol Varsalona’s Gallery Collection “Reflect with Me Summer Serenity.” This is only draft three, so you can offer revision suggestions.

Deception Pass, Whidbey Island, July, 2014

The clouds always keep us guessing,
so you have to know the tides.

Deception is easy, looking only
at the horizon line. Sometimes masked as a cloud,

the snow-topped mountain in the distance
deceives us, too.

The rocky beach becomes my foot hold,
a path of colorful stones washed smooth

by the constant lapping of the water.
I close my eyes to the salty air, listen

to the hum-swish of waves crashing the shore,
hear in them the possibility of danger.

Guided by the presence of the moon,
the sea gives and takes.

In the grit on my tongue, I can taste
the unleavened bread of sacrifice.

Be still and know is all I must do.
Marvel at the wonders of rock and air and sea.

Margaret Simon, all rights reserved

Join in the Poetry Friday fun with your link. Use Mr. Linky. Don’t forget to come back and check out the links. I hope to comment to everyone (at least that is my goal.)