A friend posted a video on Facebook. You may have seen it, too, of the elapsed time photos of flowers blooming. I was inspired to write short poems, haiku-type, about the different flowers. For each one, I googled the flower and used facts in the creation of the poem. For example, a gladiola is also known as a sword lily. Then I found creative commons photos, uploaded to Tapestry, and wrote a poem. I would like to include more poems in my Thinglink video creation, so if you would like to add a poem, please write one in the comments. Or you can do it in Tapestry and send me the link. I’ll post the link for the final video on Sunday on my DigiLit Sunday post. Also, on Sunday I’ll have an offer code from Thinglink for early access to Thinglink for video.
I do not remember who introduced me to the poetry of Barbara Crooker, but I want to thank you. I am reading Line Dance published in 2008 by Word Press. Barbara Crooker speaks to me. She writes with rich imagery and real life events, touching my heart and my inner poet. She is also a very nice person. When I decided to review her book here on my blog, I wrote her an email from the contact information on her website. Imagine my excitement when, not 24 hours later, she had written me back!
I had a hard time deciding which poem to feature because they are all so good. In the title poem, the lines dance literally on the page as Barbara connects the people she loves in a dance at her daughter’s wedding. “everyone I’ve ever loved/ is here today, even the dead, raising a glass/ and dancing, circling around the bride/ in her frothy gown, bubbles rising/ in a fluted glass, spilling out, running over.”
The collection begins in winter when her father dies “through the narrow window, the cold sky/ stretched blameless, white and blue, behind him.” We are taken on a journey through grief, but not without hope. “this old blue world will keep on spinning, without you.” from Blues for Karen. And then comes Valentine’s Day when she strings hearts in all the windows. “The heart wants and wants and wants some more. Spring so far in the distance.”
Our hearts break with hers and are put back together with the puzzle pieces of her words.
Listen,
I want to tell you something. This morning
is bright after all the steady rain, and every iris,
peony, rose, opens its mouth, rejoicing.
I want to say, wake up, open your eyes, there’s
a snow-covered road ahead, a field of blankness,
a sheet of paper, an empty screen. Even
the smallest insects are singing, vibrating
their entire bodies, tiny violins of longing
and desire. We were made for song.
I can’t tell you what prayer is, but I can take
the breath of the meadow into my mouth,
and I can release it for the leaves’ green need.
I want to tell you your life is a blue coal, a slice
of orange in the mouth, cut hay in the nostrils.
The cardinals’ red song dances in your blood.
Look, every month the moon blossoms
into a peony, then shrinks to a sliver of garlic.
And then it blooms again.
— Barbara Crooker, from Line Dance, all rights reserved.
The natural world sings in Barbara Crooker’s poetry. In Peony, “Imagine the hard knot of its bud,/ all that pink possibility.” Her poem, One Song (after Rumi), sounds like a concert of birds, beginning with a cardinal in all its red, then a chickadee adds percussion. The sun even comes out to join the chorus. And ends with “All the world breathes in, breathes out./ It hums, it throbs, it improvises./ So many voices. Only one song.”
So many voices. Only one song. Thank you, Barbara, for allowing me to be witness to your song. What a joy!
Thanks to Tabatha Yeatts for organizing the Summer Poem Swap.
My own poem written for Robyn Hood Black for the Summer Poetry Swap is featured on Robyn’s site today.
Follow this link to read more spiritual journey posts.
I love the connections I have made through blogging. One of these wonderful bloggers is Holly Mueller. She wrote last week on Thursday about wanting to start a link-up, round-up, meme thing for Thursdays on the theme of the spiritual journey. I told her I was in, so here we are, another writing adventure. Please go to her blogspot using the link above and read.
Heron in flight by Beth Gibson Saxena
I am at the lake. My parents moved here 24 years ago. It is not where I grew up, but they are here, so it is another home for me. When I come, I am immediately soothed by the calmness of water and the love my parents have for each other and for me.
Listen
to the banter of the birds.
They chatter and flutter for the feeder Mom sets out and tends to with her mothering hands. This morning, a red-headed woodpecker squished his long body up and stuck his pecker beak into the mesh of the finch feeder. Mom says he comes every day. “No finch has ever come to that feeder.” The sparrow waited its turn while Mr. Woody wriggled his beak in and out for a tasty treat. I watched and listened to the other birds. I love this sound, symphonic, syncopated, soothing. Silence is never really silent. I could close my eyes to meditate here and listen for the joy in my heart. It’s there waiting to be heard, like the laughter of my mother as she talks to an old friend on the phone.
We are called to be listeners. We should not chatter like the birds wanting to be heard. We need to listen. Listen to the wisdom of fathers. Listen to the song of the wind. Whatever is there…listen.
Sometimes we get so deeply involved with our own thoughts, worries, concerns to listen to others. We practice our own counter-story rather than listen to our friend’s story. On this spiritual journey, I vow to be a better listener. Then I may become a better hearer. In the silence of my heart, God speaks.
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Please join in this meme designed to share our digital learning and challenges. Just as a teacher of writing needs to be a writer, a teacher of digital literacy needs to be a digital learner. Use this button on your blog post and leave a link with Mr. Linky. Please read and comment on other posts. That’s how connectedness and collaboration begin.
Reflection is another means to apply the Connected Learning principles of being Interest-Powered and Production Centered by considering what you’re making and interests are now, and what your orientation is for the immediate future. –Chris Butts, CLMOOC team
I have jumped right in to the waters of two digital challenges: The Thinglink Teacher Challenge and National Writing Project’s Making Learning Connected, a.k.a. #clmooc.
Yesterday’s email from the CLMOOC team asked us to make a list of three things and to reflect on two questions.
1. What I’ve made so far…
How to pick blueberries: Thinglink
Self avatar: Bitstrip
Poster about writing in Canva: This is a higher learning curve than other apps I tried this week. I struggled and gave up. But I am determined to try again and conquer this!
3. What I want to work on:
Prezi is a presentation site that I am daunted by. I have seen others do great things with it, and I’m sure my students would love it.
Reflections:
What did you learn from what you’ve already made? I learned to be more confident in my digital self. The Thinglink challenge for this week was to make a digital self. I thought I had to draw something. I started working on my ipad with a new stylus and became quickly annoyed. Then I googled avatar and low and behold, there’s an app for that! I was surprised how easy it was. So many online apps can make you feel stupid, but some, like Bitstrips, made me feel smart.
What do you see as the purpose of making this week? The purpose for me always goes back to my teaching and being able to support my students in their digital learning. However, I also discovered that making was fun, and I was compelled to share (and show off). I want to invite you to take the plunge. Jump in the deep end because there are lots of supportive floatie people out there.
I wanted to make a blog icon for the Connected Learning values, so after writing this post, I tried Canva again. It worked better for this purpose. You should try it.
Join the Poetry Friday round-up at Jone’s site: Check it Out.
Revision? Ugh! If you are a writer, revision is a necessary evil. Maybe not evil, but definitely necessary. If I am going to urge my students to revise, I must experience it myself.
I have a copy of Kate Messner’s Real Revision in my stack of professional books for the summer. It’s already dog-eared, written in, and sticky-noted. Each chapter ends with a section “Meet Mentor Author…” I decided for this post that I would take one piece of advice and apply it to an old draft of a poem. However, when I got started, I went in a different direction.
I’ve “met” Jeannine Atkins through Poetry Friday. Her exercise in Real Revision begins, “Try It: Jeannine Atkins tries to use concrete nouns- specific, precise words- and verbs that really suggest action.”
I pulled out my poem “Singing the Blues” that I wrote in a wordlab setting. I liked it but felt that it needed work. Jeannine’s exercise helped me attack the challenge, but once I started pinpointing precise words, I also made other changes. This is a good lesson for my work with students. A revision strategy such as this one by Jeannine can be a starting point, but I also should encourage other changes. Jump in with finding precise words, then move on to confirming the theme, changing the order, or adding in senses, metaphor, etc. Revision can be endless. We should teach our students that it can also be fun and satisfying when your writing takes shape and looks like a bird that may fly.
My mother sang blues in rhythm with her cleaning,
mopped on out to the shade of the oak tree
to cool off and cool down. That Mississippi sun
shone like Jupiter on a summer night.
We played with fire.
The front yard burned.
Smoke rose to the gods,
Chatty Cathy and a set of Lincoln Logs—ashes.
Mom cried when she saw her begonias
seared like sausage on a stick.
I buried my Barbies in the flowerbed, knelt
beside the snake of Eden—I am a sinner. I Guess that’s Why They Call it the Blues
echoes from the microphone.
Brother now plays the keyboard,
sways his Elton John head
above the noise of a crowded bar.
Does he remember?
We were only children, for God’s sake!
What did we know about heat and rage then?
Our phoenix rose long ago.
Over at Today’s Little Ditty, Michelle H Barnes is hosting a poem movie challenge issued by her guests Sylvia Vardell and Janet Wong of the Poetry Friday Anthology of Science. I love a creative challenge and since I am trying to be OPEN in the year 2014, I need to learn new things. I knew nothing about using iMovie, but I have it on my computer, so I gave it a try. This is a user friendly program. If I can do it, anyone can.
I pulled out a poem I wrote for Laura Shovan’s Pantome poem project and uploaded pictures I had in my files. I must have recorded my reading 5 times or more. That was the hardest part. What is it about doing something like this that makes you feel so smart and accomplished? I will definitely try this with my students next year. Thanks, Michelle, Sylvia, and Janet for the motivation to try something new.
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Photo from Mind, Body, Fitness
The balance poses in yoga are a kind of test for me. If the balance pose is tough, and I teeter and fall, I know there is something not quite right. If I can stand tall and balance with focus, I feel complete. When we talk about Digital Literacy both in our own lives and in the lives of our students, I think balance is essential.
Each day I begin my morning checking email, Facebook, and reading blog posts. The more people I connect with in this digital environment, the more time this takes. I could so easily get stuck at the computer, and sometimes I do. I have to remember my nondigital life, the one in which the pets live, and my family, and my face-to-face friends.
In my classroom, the computers are tools. They stand ready for students to publish writing, to research, and to create a presentation. They do not and will not replace the face-to-face discussion of ideas, the pen-to-paper of the journal entry, or the shelves of books. Balance.
How do you balance your digital life with your real life?
I am a follower of Peter Reynolds. He is the creator of Dot, Ish, and most recently Going Places. His artwork as well as his ideas are inspiring. I would love to print out all his posters and decorate my classroom with them. This one shows the 5 Cs of 21st Century Education: Creativity, Collaboration, Communication, and Critical Thinking with the addition of a very important C, Compassion.
Click on the image to download this poster.
As 21st Century educators, we can so easily get on overload. We can get caught up in the technology, social media, and the continuous flow of online apps. However, we need to remember balance, keep a focal point, and lead our students into the world of the 5Cs with or without technology.
Add your DigiLit Sunday post to Mr. Linky. Next Sunday I will not be posting. (My youngest daughter is graduating from graduate school. Woo Hoo! If you want to take on the round-up next Sunday, let me know in the comments or by email.
Join the Two Writing Teachers Slice of Life Challenge.
On Sunday in the middle of a downpour, my husband, my hero, was outside digging a trench to re-route water away from the front walk. He ended up in the last few minutes placing a piece of plywood over the growing puddle and covering it with industrial rugs from his office. He saved the day. People began arriving.
They came to greet the newest author in our family, Anne L. Simon, my mother-in-law. Following a degree from Wellesley, law school at Yale, a move to Louisiana, a law degree from LSU, practicing law with her husband, raising three smart children, running a successful campaign for judge, acting as a district judge, teaching at LSU law school, and serving as an ad-hoc judge for the Louisiana Supreme Court, Anne decided she wanted to be an author. Through grit and determination, not to mention high intelligence and a gift for writing, she published her first crime novel, Blood in the Cane Field.
Anne Simon signs copies of Blood in the Cane Field
Those of you from Louisiana will love this book for its fine attention to the Louisiana landscape. You may even recognize a few of the characters. Others will enjoy the details of the process of law. And others will enjoy the relationship between John Clark, the protagonist and public defender for a mixed race boy in the wrong place at the wrong time, and Medley Butterfield, a Mississippi girl down on her luck. Whatever your reason for reading, you will not be disappointed.
The book release party was a success. Minga, our grandmother name for Anne, sold and signed over 40 books. Of course, as she says, “These were my nears and dears. They had to buy it.” My prediction is that word will spread beyond the nears and dears, beyond the bayou, and even beyond the Mississippi River. The best part of this success is that she has nearly completed book 2, Blood in the Lake. So if you get hooked on Anne Simon’s writing, there will be more. In her 80th decade, this lawyer/mother/judge/author is not close to stopping.
I was proud to greet soggy people at my door and say, “Food is to your left. The author is to your right.”
Click the image to find the book on Amazon.
Judge Lori Landry says Blood in the Cane Field is a great beach read!
Head over to Teach Mentor Texts with Jen Vincent to read more reviews from the Kidlitosphere.
I made a commitment to myself and ultimately to my students to read middle grade novels this summer. I want to channel Donalyn Miller and become a Wild reader. I am reading her second book Reading in the Wild. This is what she says about her own reading life.
I cannot imagine a day without reading in it. I am a better teacher because I read. I pass books into my students’ hands and talk with them about what they read. I model what a reading life looks like and show my students how reading enriches my life and can enrich theirs, too. –Donalyn Miller, Reading in the Wild
The Lightning Dreamer by Margarita Engle: I first met Margarita when she was featured on Caroline Starr Rose’s blog and had a bookmark giveaway. Shortly after, I received a sweet email from her asking the names of my students and sent us all a personally signed bookmark. I felt guilty, thought, because I had not read any of her books. Now I am remedying that. The Lightning Dreamer is a verse novel in the voice of Gertrudis Gomez de Avellaneda, known as Tula. Interspersed are verses from her dedicated brother and cook, her disappointed and misguided mother, and the nuns who value her independent spirit. I am intrigued that a novel written in so few words can carry along a plot and work deeply on theme. The Lightning Dreamer was full of heart and soul. It is this heart and soul that makes you feel how Gertrudis felt and come to truly understand the oppression of women and the world of slavery in Cuba in the early 1800s.
Here is a recent interview with Margarita Engle on Author Turf.
Click image for Margarita Engle’s website
Renee LaTulippe of No Water River featured selections from the novel. No Water River continues to be a wealth of poetry goodness.
Link to Irene Latham’s blog site: Live Your Poem
The Sky Between Us by Irene Latham: Irene generously contacted me to trade poetry books. I was so honored that she would want to do this. She is another wonderful cyberfriend. The connections I have made through joining this kidlit blogging world are amazingly generous and supportive.
The Sky Between Us is a collection of poems that began as a manuscript for young readers inspired by the National Park Systems Historic Places collection. From there it grew into an adult collection of Irene’s perspective on her One Little Word for 2013, “sky.” This is a collection I will share with my middle grade students. The poems are written in short free verse stanzas often using enjambment to lead the reader through the words like a canoe on a winding river.
Irene has a gift for language that makes her words roll over your tongue and into your mind where you breathe out, “Ah!” Her observance of nature resonates with me and leads me to a deeper understanding of the world and creation. I will visit her poems again and again.
I’m not sure if this is fair or not, today I am combining posts for Chalk-a-bration and Celebration. (I can’t help but love the alliteration!) I let my students (the three who attended) chalk the sidewalks on the last day of school a week ago and saved the pictures to post today. Betsy Hubbard leads this fun blogtivity at the end of each month. We wrote lunes, a short poetry form that uses a 5, 3, 5 syllable count. And the theme, of course, was summer.
Matthew writes about his passion for magic: Magic is my life life is magic do impossible
Go play on the beach Come with us We want you with us. by Tyler
Vannisa’s poem did not turn out well in the photograph.
In the sun we play
until night
takes the place of day.
–Vannisa
slow lazy days summer sun too hot to think –Margaret Simon
This week has been a week of slow days. I’ve committed myself to three things this summer, exercise daily (I have the sore muscles to prove it!), writing (Thursday I spent hours writing this sestina for Maya Angelou), and reading (I’ve read or listened to 6 books for Donalyn Miller’s #bookaday challenge). I’m glad there wasn’t much else going on this week, so I could establish this routine. Happy Summer!
Margaret Simon lives on the Bayou Teche in New Iberia, Louisiana. She is a retired elementary gifted teacher who writes poetry and children's books. Welcome to a space of peace, poetry, and personal reflection. Walk in kindness.
