Writing | Reflections on the Teche

Archive for the ‘Writing’ Category

The Day

Posted in Poetry, Writing, tagged morning glory, poetry, rope swing, Teachers Write on July 6, 2012| 1 Comment »

In the Teacher’s Write Online Writing Camp, I wrote a poem. The prompt came from guest author D. Dina Friedman, whose titles include ESCAPING INTO THE NIGHT and PLAYING DAD’S SONG. Dina grew up in New York City and can be found online at http://ddinafriedman.com/.

Her prompt was one I use often to jump start my own writing and my students’ writing. I call it “stealing a line.” Thumbing through a book of poetry, you find a line that jumps out and wants you to write about it. My post Fallen Oak came about when I borrowed a Mary Oliver line. The line I used today was Richard Hugo’s ” The day is a woman who loves you.” Here’s my poem.

The day is a woman who loves you.
Like the grandmother oak who
stretches her arms wide
offering a rope swing
for your very own pleasure.

Jump on and sway
or pump your legs until they ache.

This day offers you this kind of joy,
the joy of an open blossom–
morning glory blue
as deep as the Aegean Sea, the color
of your mother’s eyes.

She looks at you now,
hoping you will notice
her loving glance
and embrace this new day
as a gift.

Read Full Post »

Fallen Oak

Posted in Poetry, Slice of Life, Writing, tagged death, Mary Oliver, nature, oak tree on June 19, 2012| 14 Comments »

Join the Tuesday Slice of Life

Ever since this old oak fell more than a week ago, I knew it had a poem to give me. I have learned and continue to learn to wait for writing. First, I walked down to the empty lot where it lay and took pictures. I played with Instagram for the one here. Then I sat with a favorite poet, Mary Oliver. Mary doesn’t fail me. I felt like we were writing side by side. I opened her book, Red Bird, to the poem Night Herons, and one line jumped off the page, “what do we know/ except that death/ is so everywhere and so entire–” Using her form of four lines per stanza and borrowing this line, I wrote a poem about the tree.

An oak tree
fell in the night
while we were sleeping,
unknowing.

Its body broken
by invisible flames,
trunk separated
from leaves, from life.

Happy resurrection fern
clings, even as
clouds form
rain again.

This keeper of stories,
survivor of hurricanes,
fell in a summer storm,
just tired, I guess.

That was the end of growing
as we know it, yet
what do we know
except that death

is so everywhere and so entire–
culling and clearing,
sometimes taking
an old friend.

One strike, one boom,
and the lot fills up
with sprawling branches.
How long

will we walk by
and watch the decomposing?
How long until the chainsaw
destroys?

Until then, I will stay
pray to this sacred sculpture
and to its sculptor:
Rise and sow again.

Read Full Post »

On the Lake

Posted in Poetry, Slice of Life, Writing, tagged fishing, lake, nature, writing on June 12, 2012| 7 Comments »

Join the Tuesday Slice of Life

I spent the weekend on New Castle Lake with my parents. I never get tired of this place. Every night the sun set is new and beautiful. There is a great blue heron that hangs out on the peer fishing and guarding. Canada Geese, an unwelcome invasion, litter the far side of the lake while a mother duck swims by with her brood of five in a perfect line behind her. This place is inspiration for relaxing, reading, sleeping, and writing.

Because I was at home for a book signing at Jackson’s landmark independent bookstore Lemuria, conversation often turned to writing.

At lunch on Sunday, my father offered this wisdom, “When you don’t know what to write, WRITE.”

Mom echoed that Hemingway said there is no such thing as writer’s block.

Minka, their friend and priest, said, “I sometimes have to write, ‘Stay, Minka.'”

We all value the time and commitment writing takes.

At church, I was asked by a former high school classmate, “What possessed you to write a book?” I had to laugh out loud at the question. As though to be a writer one must be possessed.

I am possessed by a love of language.
I am possessed by the belief that a teacher of writing should be a writer.
I am possessed by the story, the poem, the words that want to be written.
So, yes, I guess I am possessed.

The great blue heron guards this lake
standing on wrought-iron legs firm and tall
while his blue-grey wings fan the breeze.

Mother mallard leads her paddling through
the canal, picking at the grassy border,
feeding class for the day.

At sunset, I fish with my brother.
His casts are smooth and long,
Mine awkward and clumsy.

Cast on this side
Don’t release your thumb until you swing,
Fishing class on the dockside.

In the distance, a boat anchored with a father and son
creates a silhouette on the horizon.
We cast and draw in silence.

It has taken this long life to learn
fishing is not about catching fish.

Read Full Post »

Poetic Walk

Posted in Poetry, Writing, tagged nature poem, resurrection fern, sunflowers on June 7, 2012| Leave a Comment »

On my early morning walk today, I was alone. My cell phone came along to track my mileage and pace, but it ended up recording my poem. Later when I checked the text, I discovered some funny misinterpretations. “High in the sky” became “Pie-in-the-sky.” “Workday” became “birthday.” The words didn’t really work with the poem I was trying to speak-write, but I had to smile at the idiosyncrasies of language.
After I worked on it, the poem became a grossblank, 12 lines with 12 syllables.

If you want to study the skeletons of frogs,
take a walk after the storm when the sun comes up.
Listen to the mockingbird song, high-pitched grating
like fingernails on the chalkboard. I walk the path
of the fallen limbs and clustered puddles of leaves.
We are washed yet still unclean. New day sun breaks
deepening the green, solid, and strong earth. Red spots
glitter after I glance at the spotlight. God’s eyes
peak through the ghost of a waning moon. Wren gathers
twigs for nesting, flutters off like a thief with goods.
No need for imagination here; all life breathes.
The beat of my footsteps become my prayer.

After a storm, resurrection fern fluffs up and becomes a green blanket on the live oaks.

Read Full Post »

Delicious Research

Posted in Slice of Life, Writing, tagged farmers' market, goat cheese, writing on June 5, 2012| 2 Comments »

Here I go on another writing adventure with teacher bloggers. Today’s prompt was to write about a place, then go there and add details from what you experience. What was suppose to be a quick writing exercise took me all afternoon. I wrote about The Goat Lady’s Farm in St. Martinville.

On the way there, I stopped by the Farmers’ Market downtown, visited with a few people I knew, and bought a bunch of veggies: eggplant, snap beans, tomatoes, bell pepper, and cucumber. All for $6, such a bargain.

I traveled about 15 minutes down Highway 31 to Belle Ecorce Farms. I can never remember the name, so I just call it The Goat Lady’s Farm. I think I like taking field trips for writing. Here is my short piece:

Nestled down a gravel road off the Main Highway is a farm of sorts, an exotic farm, not the usual run of the mill pig, cow, and sheep farm. A South Louisiana farm down by the Bayou Teche, the goat lady’s farm where goats gather on an old tire to rest in the shade. A visitor is greeted by the Amazon Parrot who calls out, “Hello” with his head cocked upside down. The crown of yellow shines above his lime green feathers. “Hello,” I answer. He gurgles out something that sounds like, “Whatcha’ doin?”

Wanda Barras, the owner and head caretaker, shouts to a couple walking from the barn with a small goat, “If you have any more questions, just call me.” She turns to me as I write under the canopy of draping oak trees, “I’ll be right with you.”

I sit a while longer listening to the background sound of the country music and the trickle of a nearby fountain. In this small piece of heaven, Wanda makes God’s goat cheese, smooth as silk. She flavors it with herbs that grow in pots near her little shop. I’m thinking I may have to come back for some more research on another day. Wanda tells me, “Next time, bring some friends and we can pull out the table cloth and have a picnic.”

Read Full Post »

Morning Song

Posted in Poetry, Writing, tagged cardinal song, mindfulness, Poets & Writers on June 1, 2012| 2 Comments »

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Northern_Cardinal_-_bird_%28Cardinalis_cardinalis%29.JPG

I get a weekly writing prompt from Poets and Writers called The Time is Now. This week’s nonfiction prompt was as follows: “In Bird by Bird (Pantheon, 1994), Anne Lamott’s classic instructional treatise on writing and life, the author writes: “Writing a first draft is very much like watching a Polaroid develop. You can’t–and, in fact, you’re not supposed to–know exactly what the picture is going to look like until it has finished developing.” Keeping this in mind, write the beginnings of an essay whose direction and ending you don’t yet know. Start small, focusing closely on a single place, person, or incident, without thinking ahead. Then keep going: Allow the writing tell the story, and see what develops.”

This morning was a beautiful summer morning. After walking my dog, I sat on the back deck eating my breakfast and drinking coffee. A cardinal hopped into a nearby tree and starting singing loudly. I wrote as I listened.

The red bird calls
from the crape myrtle branch
while the cat prowls,
Tee who, tee who, tee
who, who, who, who

He flutters higher into the cypress tree.
The cat jumps in, crouches
in the valley of trunk and branch.
The cardinal call is echoed across the water–
a conversation for soul mates
staccato notes in harmony
with the rising song of cicadas

As the breeze blows, the wind chime
joins the tune. I am the audience only
writing alone while
June rises with the sun
dancing with patterns on the bayou.
Cerulean sky domes the shapes of trees,
a horizon to this landscape.

Thich Nhat Hanh tells me to be mindful of the moment,
to tune in to my breath, in and out.
This moment of mindfulness
full of sounds, the cardinal and his mate,
makes me wonder
of the Almighty Hand
who created my world and guides my breath.
How am I so privileged to be here?
I hear this song so clearly;
I feel the breeze so softly,
an embrace from God,
my everlasting mother.

Audio of Morning Song

Read Full Post »

Altered Books

Posted in Poetry, Teaching, Writing on May 25, 2012| 2 Comments »

Seriously,
What do you want to do?
Today.
Be ridiculous.
Just try.
Write my own story.

I took a workshop this year on creating altered books. The process is fairly simple but a little time consuming. You take a discarded, old book. Tear out pages, glue together some of the pages to add thickness, and prepare the surface with gesso. I started mine at the workshop and then left it on the shelf to come back to later. I found some old discarded books for my students and introduced the idea. I offered them this option when they were doing poetry projects near the end of the year. A few of my students took this option and spent the time to create their poetry books. I decided to save them for next year, so they can add to them.

As I was cleaning my classroom this week with no more gifted services for my students, I pulled out my altered book. I decided to use it to gather the poems I had written alongside my students during the year. I would gesso a page, then work on something else, come back and paint the page, then glue on the printed poem. What fun to add a little interest to these last boring, chore-filled days. Students came in and out to talk, play on the computer, or join me in painting. A satisfying, creative end to the school year.

Cloud Watching Haiku
Cloud mountains float by
Making storybook pictures
Sun a background glow.
Glowing moon crescent
Above the grandmother oak
Through the branches winks.
Wink at the window,
Flicker of lightning startles.
Spring storm showers come.

Read Full Post »

The Big Weekend

Posted in Blessen, Slice of Life, Writing, tagged Blessen, reading, summer break, writing on May 22, 2012| 5 Comments »

Join the Tuesday Slice of Life

Summer break was dubbed as “The Big Weekend” by my husband many years ago. Yes, he was and is jealous of this break in routine, time-to-hang-out-and-do-nothing time of year. I look forward to the summer slowed-down pace. I can wake up a little later, drink my coffee a little slower, and stay in grubby clothes all day long. But after a few days, this gets old. So I am making a mental to-do list.

1. Lunch with a friend. What a luxury! I usually eat lunch in a rush in the teachers’ lounge or on the road from one school to another. I never have the time to have a leisurely lunch with a friend. I have some dates set already and relish in the idea of catching up with a few long losts.

2. Get organized: Realistically, this will probably not happen, but I always put it on my list hoping that at least a little more organization will come my way.

3. My “book tour”: This is another one of my husband’s tongue-in-cheek expressions, but I do have a few book signings scheduled and hope to schedule more.

4. Writing: Many students and friends have asked me if Blessen will have a sequel. I bought a book “The 90 Day Novel” by Alan Watt. Why not give it a shot? One thing that Blessen has taught me is to not be afraid to write. It took me a long time to learn this. I now have the courage that I longed for all my life. I am feeling like a Nike athlete…”Just do it.”

5. Exercise: I’ve bought new walking shoes and sports socks. I am ready for daily walking with Charlie and whoever may want to join us. I am committing to 7 AM.

6. Teaching: Two writing camps and an art camp will give me three weeks with kids. I miss my students so much when we are out of school. The camps are hard work and lots of fun. There are still openings in all camps if you are interested.

7. Family: I want to relish this time with my youngest daughter who will be leaving in September for graduate school in Chicago. We have planned a family trip to Chicago at the end of June. I’ve never been. People tell me it’s a great city.

8. Reading and Renewing: One of the reasons God created summer break was for us teachers to remember why we became teachers. I want to do some recreational reading, but I will also read a few professional books to renew my practice and to remember why I teach.

Happy Summer!

Read Full Post »

On Becoming an Author

Posted in Blessen, Slice of Life, Writing, tagged Bayou Teche, Slice, young readers on April 24, 2012| 6 Comments »

Read other Slice of Life writers at The Two Writing Teachers

For a long time, I have wanted to be a writer. I recently found my teenage diary and in it I had written some really bad rhyming poetry. But at the bottom of the page I found this.

"I would love to be a writer if only someone would give me confidence!"

When do we let go of our dreams? The summer following this diary entry, I volunteered for a program called “Operation Life Enrichment.” The program was designed to enrich the lives of underprivileged children who had difficulty with reading. That experience led me to a path of becoming a teacher. The writer in me did not go away, but she was buried deep within.

In 1995, I had the privilege of being selected for the National Writing Project’s Summer Institute. We were a group of fellow teachers writing about our lives and learning from each other. The motto of the NWP, “A teacher of writing is a writer,” went straight to my heart.

One of my favorite writing project events has been an annual “writing marathon” in New Orleans led by the Southeastern Writing Project. For three days, teacher-writers gather to be practicing writers. In the summer of 2009, the focus was on fiction. I spent the days with two other women. We wrote, read, revised, and each created a fiction short story. I began to feel like a fiction writer.

Not long after the New Orleans writing marathon, I attended a fiction workshop with Sharon Arms Doucet, author of Fiddle Fever and Alligator Sue. The workshop took place an hour away. As I drove Highway 31 along the Bayou Teche, the story of Blessen began in my mind. I passed True Friend Road. I saw a row of crape myrtle trees.

From where I stand next to the chicken coop, I can see Pawpee’s old house and the two rows of crape myrtles in full bloom lining the gravel driveway. Pawpee still trims those trees every fall with a cherry picker from his wheelchair. He says he’s topping the trees to make the blossoms fan out like a fiery bouquet.

While at the workshop, I wrote the first chapter. On our lunch break, the owner of the restaurant retold a story that became the Piggly Wiggly scene for Chapter 2.

Fiction is born of real life, the stories we hear and the ones we imagine. Over the years, I grew to know and love Blessen. When I listened, she told me about her life. I believe in her story. I am so proud to have her come alive in my first young readers novel. I hope one day you will come to know and love her, too.

Link to Blessen’s Facebook page.

Read Full Post »

Full Moon Alert

Posted in Slice of Life, Uncategorized, Writing, tagged full moon alert, naturalist on March 31, 2012| 2 Comments »

Read other Slice of Life writers at The Two Writing Teachers

Happy Birthday to my naturalist friend, Jim Foret. You keep me on the alert for full moons, endangered trees, and nesting birds. You inspire everyone you know to be more alert. Here’s a little poem for you: