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Where One Word Leads to…

Posted in Poetry Friday, Writing, tagged Bonny McDonald, poetry, student writing, word association on January 17, 2014| 12 Comments »

Another and another…
This week my students and I wrote word association poems after a movement exercise I learned from Bonny McDonald. See the post about that activity here.

I found it interesting (and so did they) where their original word led them. I wanted to make word clouds with them but am having some technical difficulty.

Apple
A fruit
Has cousins
like banana,
orange and
pear
which bloom
in Spring
with cousins
like Fall,
Winter and
Summer
Fall has
red, yellow
orange and
brown leaves
falling everywhere
Winter has
ice and
is cold
Summer is
hot and
dry with
people swimming
at the
beach with
sand flying
everywhere
people surfing
and having
fun all
from the
word apple.
by Tyler

Brooklyn chose a word that she didn’t like.

Storm
rain
thunder
lightning

Storm
crash
loud
dark
scary

Storm
cold
wet
shelter

Storm
watch
alone
together

Storm
afraid
lose

Storm
don’t
continue
won’t
stop

Storm

Join the Poetry Friday Round up at Keri Recommends. Happy Birthday to Keri!

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Strength through Art and Writing

Posted in Writing on January 10, 2014| 9 Comments »

Every time I make the effort to go to Acadiana Wordlab on Saturday afternoon, I am not sorry. The group changes weekly. The presenter is someone different each week. Yet the process remains the same: prompt, write, share, repeat. This process usually works for me. Last week I did not know the presenter or more than half of the dozen people there. But I was inspired.

The presenter was not a writer, but a graphic artist, Denise Gallagher. She told us her story of becoming who she is today. She was happy in her job as a graphic designer but felt compelled to go back to her first love, drawing. She told us how she began a online challenge to draw an illustration once a week. Through the practice, she developed her skills and honored her own passion for art. Today, her work is shown in L.A. and New York. Her drawings are full of juxtapositions. You can see her work on her website: Denise Gallagher Design.

Denise did not tell us the stories of her images. She was interested in hearing our interpretations first. I wrote to an image she titled “Strength.” I was writing from a perspective of caring for someone with cancer. Denise’s mother died in 2010 from a brain tumor that first had taken her mother’s sight. I didn’t know this and was touched when my poem made her cry. We shared after the workshop, one of those amazing connections made through art and writing.

Strength by Denise Gallagher

Strength

When the wolf came,
she was blind,
eyes covered,
a bandage
protecting her
from its bite.

Hair flowed like seaweed above her head.
Its paw, the wolf’s, held her down,
energy entered a major artery
to the heart, burdened
by invasion,
interruption,
a total turn of events.

Now, with wolf-blessing upon her,
she will find courage,
gather strength to fight the invasion.
Her blinder will be removed.
I’ll comb her hair away from her eyes.
I will look upon this enemy
with grace
and forgive.

–Margaret Simon, all rights reserved

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Celebrate Eighteen, Eleven, Seven, Two

Posted in Celebration Saturday, Writing, tagged family, Geno Delafose, New Year on January 4, 2014| 14 Comments »

Join the Celebration round up at Ruth Ayres’ blog Discover. Play. Build.

Eighteen, eleven, seven, two…
This week started with eighteen people, cousins, sisters, a brother, some boyfriends, all celebrating the holiday season and my father’s eightieth year. We ate, drank, laughed, and hugged.

Gibson Cousination

Eleven gathered at my mother-in-law’s table on Sunday evening, another Christmas. My brother-in-law had something sneaky up his sleeve. I opened a Confederate soldier’s hat. My husband opened Swiss chocolate, and my mother-in-law opened Jamaican rum and Irish whiskey. Scott loves researching genealogy. He gathered information about each of our families and created binders for us. What a labor of love! He discovered that one of my ancestry lines leads to Scottish royalty. The reason for the Confederate hat? He told a story of a family who lost a father and son within days of each other in the Civil War. This is the kind of gift that keeps on giving as I learn my family history.

Seven left for another meal, my daughters, one boyfriend, one husband, and one mother-in-law. We gathered left overs. I made tortilla soup. My daughter made lemon squares. Once again good food, laughter, and hugs.

Two of us for New Year’s Eve. We took a selfie before we went out in the cold rain to dance the night away to our favorite Zydeco band, Geno Delafose and the French Rockin Boogie.

I hope you enjoyed family and each other this holiday season. I am leaving you with a video of Geno. Do a little jitterbug to celebrate!

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Seeing Life in Poems

Posted in Poetry Friday, Writing, tagged egrets, Mary Oliver, nature poetry, New Castle Lake on January 3, 2014| 17 Comments »

Join the Poetry Friday Round up at I think in Poems hosted by Betsy.

My handmade book of poems

One thing I enjoy about a long break is the time to be creative. I learned how to make a book recently and tried it out on Christmas Day using some paper my daughter gave me as a gift, covering mat-board, sewing pages together, and binding with colorful duct tape. Inside, I have glued copies of the poems I have written this winter break.

I challenged myself to write 10 poems over 2 weeks. I’m up to seven and have 3 more days. This challenge makes me look at life as a poet, finding poems everywhere. I wish I could live like this everyday, but most days the stresses of life get in the way.

Between Christmas and New Year’s Day, I spent some time with my family in Mississippi. My sister took some pictures of the lake. I borrowed this one of two white egrets wading and wrote a poem to the image. I cannot seem to write a poem about nature without mentioning the Great Creator. I also grabbed some inspiration from this site, The Heron and Egret Society, that includes Mary Oliver poems about egrets. I borrowed the word scumbled and began, as Mary Oliver did, with the phrase, “Where the”

Photo by Beth Saxena

Egrets

Where the shoreline turns
hiding among the scumbled weeds,
two white egrets
take stealthy steps on stick-like legs.

The wind passes them by.
The canopy of orange maple leaves
ignore this lightning flash of beauty.

I observe them from a safe distance,
not sure if a prayer is waiting,
I release a breath: “Ah, me!”

I can pay attention, say grace,
and praise you,
twin brush strokes of God.

–Margaret Simon

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Chalking Out the Old Year

Posted in Blogging, Chalk-a-bration, Writing, tagged chalkabration, haiku, New Year on December 31, 2013| 3 Comments »

Join the Chalk-a-bration over at Teaching Young Writers

My students did not want to miss the Dec. 31st year end Chalk-a-bration, so on the last day of classes on Friday, Dec. 20th, we wrote year end poems. Some of them became too long for chalking, so they posted on our kidblog. I tried out a chalkboard app. Not sure if it is the best chalkboard app, but it was free.

Tyler borrowed a line from Naomi Shihab Nye to start his poem and drew it on our chalkboard contact paper.

“Goodbye 2013” by Tyler with a line from “Burning the Old Year,” by Naomi Shihab Nye

Year End Haiku by Margaret Simon

Where we have grown has disappeared
nothing is impossible
anything can happen
12 days till New Years
12 days of Christmas
12 months of Chalkabration
going by too fast
but slowly
every second counts
its all happening
nothing stops
running on a non stop trail of a timeline
crossing the border by the second of the clock

by Vannisa

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One Little Word

Posted in Slice of Life, Writing, tagged Digital Bonnie, New Year, One Little Word on December 31, 2013| 14 Comments »

Join the Tuesday Slice of Life!

As 2013 ends and 2014 begins, I am thinking about a One Little Word for the new year. Last year I was suffering with ankle pain (tendonitis) and walking in a boot. I chose the word acceptance for a few reasons. I wanted to give myself the patience I needed to recover, and I was looking for self-acceptance of my writing voice. My ankle recovered. It took six months, so I definitely made use of my OLW. I published a poetry book. Somehow I feel less intimidated by this because my poems were surrounded by my father’s loving art. Acceptance presided, along with bravery and perseverance.

On one of our drives during the holidays, I decided on the word OPEN for 2014. I am now loving this choice as I worked on this poem.

Open by Margaret Simon, all rights reserved

For today’s special year end Slice of Life, fellow blogger Bonnie has made a video compiling photos from the world of bloggers, including me! It’s an awesome celebration of life! Thanks, Bonnie!

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Celebrating Family

Posted in Celebration Saturday, Gratitude, Writing, tagged Christmas, family, Hunter Gibson on December 28, 2013| 5 Comments »

Christmas changes as the children grow. This year, my oldest daughter traveled with her boyfriend to Wyoming to spend Christmas with his family. He has a 2 year-old niece, so everyone marveled over her first understanding of Christmas. Maggie sent pictures and called through facetime, so we connected. But it was not the same. Christmas Day was quieter, but still wonderful. Jeff made the obligatory pancakes, even though he had to make a run for milk and syrup. My mother’s dressing recipe turned out great, and we enjoyed the time with our two other daughters and my mother-in-law. Not to mention the delight of the dogs with their new toys and treats.

This weekend our family has grown. We are all together in Jackson to celebrate Christmas with my family. We are 18 all together. Each of my daughters has a boyfriend with her, so our five grew to 8. This is a first for us. Last night the eight of us went out to a restaurant to eat and hear my brother play. What fun! The sisters requested “Sidney Elf,” a Christmas song Hunter wrote when they were younger. We all sang along when up pops Sidney, Hi de doo!

Tonight the 18 of us will get together to celebrate my father’s 80th birthday. We are all so grateful to be together and to know my parents are happy and healthy. We have much to be grateful for and to celebrate!

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City Lights

Posted in Poetry Friday, Writing, tagged city lights, Michelle ZImmerman on December 27, 2013| 5 Comments »

See more of Poetry Friday at A Year of Reading with Mary Lee Hahn

Before the Christmas break, I sat down with my students and asked them to set a goal for reading and writing over the break. I set one along with them and challenged myself to write 10 poems over the break. So far I have written four. And since we have a week to go, I may be able to meet my goal.

Images tend to send me into a more creative mood. My friend, Michelle Zimmerman, is a great photographer. I often take her photos from Facebook (with her permission) to use for writing prompts. On Christmas Day, she posted this image.

If you would like to write a poem to this image, you can post it in the comments or email it to me, and I’ll add it to the post. (margaretsmn at gmail dot com)

Downtown Seattle. Photo by Michelle Zimmerman

City lights
climb the trees,
sit atop lampposts,
shine in the shape of a star.
Wherever you are,
darkness surrounds you
while the lights
of the city streets
tell you the time,
stop cars and buses,
send out the message:
You are not alone.
We are here to
light your way.

Dec. 25, 2013
Margaret Simon

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Celebrate a Holy Mess

Posted in Celebration Saturday, Spiritual Growth, Writing, tagged Bishop Jake Owensby, haiga, John Gibson, moon haiku, Pelican Anglican on December 21, 2013| 8 Comments »

Morning Light, photo by John Gibson

I temporarily forgot it was Saturday, Celebration Saturday. I was only thinking about the break. Whew! Here it is, two weeks off! I scheduled a facial this morning using a gift card my husband gave me for my birthday in August. I am Celebrating me today!

Celebrate imperfection and embrace holiness: Bishop Jake’s message touched me this morning. He always has some wonderful wisdom to offer. Today he tells us that we are not called to be perfect. We are born imperfect, and we will always be that way. This week my daughter, Martha, is home from Chicago. Celebrating her! She went to the eye doctor for the first time in probably more than 10 years. (Pass the guilt knife over.) She discovered not only that she is far-sighted like her mother, she also has a congenital defect in her optic nerve. The defect, Thank God, is harmless. Her amazing blue eyes are not perfect, but they are still lovely.

I spend a lot of time trying to be perfect. I would guess many of us do. It was refreshing to hear that I am not perfect and never will be. However, I am holy. This comes with a huge responsibility. To fully be holy, I need to accept others with open arms. I need to connect daily. I need to love fully. For more inspiration, read Pelican Anglican.

God did not make us to be perfect. He made us to be holy, to live into his image. God is love, and so love is the point of human life. And just in case you haven’t noticed, love is messy. God didn’t come to clean up the mess. He came to make it holy. To make it the holy mess he had in mind in the first place.
–Bishop Jake Owensby

Celebrating connections: I posted a full moon photo on Wednesday. My father posted one too, from his home in Mississippi. I wrote a haiku and have placed it over his photo to create a haiga. I learned about haiga from my Poetry Friday friend, Diane Mayr. She posted window haiga this week. Mine is a moon haiga.

Photo by John Gibson. Haiku by Margaret Simon, all rights reserved.

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Winter Poetry Swap

Posted in Poetry Friday, Writing, tagged Daine Mayr, Littlebat's Halloween Story, Tabatha Yeatts, winter poetry swap on December 20, 2013| 10 Comments »

Tabatha Yeatts connects poets all year long. I signed up for her winter poetry swap and received a package from Diane Mayr this week. Diane doesn’t know me in person. We’ve never spoken on the phone, but she took the time to read my blog and even researched Louisiana. I was so delighted by her poem for me that I wanted to share it with you. She also sent a copy of her book Littlebat’s Halloween Story. It’s a precious children’s book told from the point of view of Littlebat as he looks in at a library from the attic. This bat loves stories and wants to stay awake to hear them. Clever story and amazing illustrations. Thanks so much, Diane, for your generous, creative spirit. Diane writes a blog at Random Noodling.