Writing | Reflections on the Teche

Archive for the ‘Writing’ Category

Slice of Life: New Puppy

Posted in Slice of Life, Writing, tagged #minigoldendoodle, Albert, new puppy on July 9, 2024| 9 Comments »

Thank you to Two Writing Teachers for creating an amazing community of writers and a safe, welcoming space to write and share.

Once you’ve had the perfect dog, it’s hard to decide to do it all again. We lost Charlie in September. He was 16 years old. He had been the best dog ever. And we’ve had our share. Charlie was a mix of schnauzer and poodle, a schnoodle. One thing we knew for sure is that we wanted a poodle mix.

We started looking at rescue sites, but my husband thought it best to get a puppy that you knew the history of. We found a breeder of miniature golden doodles within driving distance and set out two weeks ago on an adventure. The girl with the auburn fur was the one we thought we wanted, but, of course, our qualifications for a calm puppy were utmost. She was a wild child. We asked about other pups from the litter. When we held the little black male, we knew he was the one.

Finding a name was another matter altogether. We each had our own ideas. I made a list of P-names: Prince, Pippin, Paco, Pax, Puck, Pepper, Pablo. Nothing felt quite right. I posted a photo on Facebook with the message that we were still trying to name him. My friend Mary wrote “He’s got that Albert (Einstein) look. You could call him Al.” Then Susan responded, “if you’ll be my bodyguard…you can call me Al. Total Jeff Simon vibe.” It made me laugh like this new puppy has made me laugh. So we landed on Albert, but we are using the French pronunciation “Al-Bear”.

Albert is asleep on my lap as I write this post, exactly as he should be.

Albert looks out toward the bayou contemplating the buzzing of cicadas.

Of course, a new puppy has its moments of frustration. Potty training is at the top of that list right now. But this will come with time and consistency on our part. Today will be his first grooming. I wish I could bottle the puppy smell for you. There is nothing quite like it.

Albert with a pacifier chew toy he loves because it squeaks and bounces.

Read Full Post »

Poetry Friday: Blessing for Travel

Posted in Poetry Friday, Writing, tagged Beannacht, blessing poem, John O'Donohue, postcard poem on July 5, 2024| 15 Comments »

Poetry Friday is hosted today by Jan at Bookseed Studio

July is a popular travel month. Heidi challenged the Inklings to write a postcard poem for this first Friday. “Write a short postcard poem with choice details of your vacation/holiday/getaway/escape location and activities. Conclude with “Wish you were here” or some variation!”

Unfortunately, we had to cancel a Europe trip due to my husband’s injury. I have been perusing social media and pondering the travel of my friends. This is not a healthy situation. I’m having bouts of travel envy.

A friend recommended John O’Donohue’s interview on the On Being podcast. O’Donohue died young in 2008. His interview with Krista Tippett was inspiring. I was especially attracted to his poem “Beannacht” found in his final book: To Bless the Space Between Us: A Book of Blessings and used it as a mentor poem for my poem “Blessing for Travel”

Links to Inklings:

Linda @A Word Edgewise
Catherine @Reading to the Core
Molly @Nix the Comfort Zone
Mary Lee @Another Year of Reading
Heidi @my juicy little universe

Read Full Post »

This Photo Wants to be a Poem: Spiral Stair

Posted in This Photo Wants to be a Poem, Writing, tagged Bayou Landing, fibonacci poem, photo poem, spiral staircase on July 3, 2024| 20 Comments »

My grandson Thomas “Tuffy” (age 4.5) is visiting. I took him to get ice cream at a shopping center near the bayou. There is a gazebo that has a bayou lookout up a small metal spiral staircase. I was worried about going up and coming down, but Tuffy and I did it. Tuffy did it over and over, coming carefully down by sitting on each stair.

I had my phone out to take pictures. When I gave it to him, he knew exactly what to do. Some of the shots were selfies of his face in different expressions. But one of them missed his head altogether and became an intriguing photo of the spiral stair. This made me think of the Fibonacci sequence (1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13…) that mathematically makes a spiral. Today I am echoing Langston Hughes’ line “Life is no crystal stair.”

Life
can
be a
spiral stair
anchored gracefully
to solid ground–imagining
a future full of open sky, pathway to purpose.
Margaret Simon, draft

Please respond with your own small poem. You can use the Fib form if you choose. Leave encouraging comments to other writers.

Read Full Post »

Poetry Friday: A Cascade of Peonies

Posted in Poetry Friday, Writing, tagged cascade poem, flower poems, Rose Cappelli, summer poem swap, swamp hibiscus on June 28, 2024| 18 Comments »

Poetry Friday is being hosted by Tricia Stohr Hunt at The Miss Rumphius Effect.

The annual Summer Poetry Swap is coordinated by Tabatha Yeatts.

This week I received my first poetry swap poem from Rose Cappelli. Rose sent a dreamy note tablet, a Mary Oliver poem, and a cascade poem about peonies. As Rose explained, in a cascade poem, each line from the first stanza repeats as the final line of each subsequent stanza. Rose does this seamlessly.

Thank you, Rose, for the lovely cascade poem.

My mind has been on the flowers, prompted by Mary Oliver, Rose, and Maggie Smith. I subscribe to Maggie Smith’s Substack newsletter. This week she wrote about naming things.

“I love when I can accurately identify things when I see (or hear) them: a bird, a tree, a flower, a constellation, a kind of nest. (As the poet Pattiann Rogers once said in an interview, ‘naming is a form of honoring something.’)”

Maggie also writes about not knowing the name of something and how that can lead to wonder and discovery. I found a flower in my mother-in-law’s collection of pots that she nor I could identify. We could tell it was a type of hibiscus. I began by writing a list of metaphors. I am still playing with how to insert the not knowing, but wanted to share the small poem that I wrote in my notebook.

Hibiscus Moment

You are Love’s red lace,
blooming beet-red bow
on a woman’s flowing gown.

You open only for a day
flirting like a spool of yarn
to a kitten, taunting us

to feel unhinged with marvel.
So much bravery
in your fleeting face.
(Margaret Simon, draft)

Swamp Hibiscus or Rose Mallow by Margaret Simon

Read Full Post »

This Photo Wants to be a Poem: Heron Horizon

Posted in Photography, Poetry, This Photo Wants to be a Poem, Writing, tagged #imagepoems, #poemsofpresence, haiku, John Gibson, poems of nature, purple creek, small poems on June 26, 2024| 31 Comments »

Great Blue Heron on Purple Creek, Ridgeland, Ms. by Margaret Simon

On a recent visit to Mississippi, I caught this flight of a great blue heron on my phone camera. The wingspan of these birds amazes me. They fly low across the water and perch near the water’s edge to forage for minnows and other small aquatics. This photo reminds me of a drawing my father did of a heron over the water.

I invite you to write today using these photos as inspiration. Leave a small poem in the comments and support other writers with your responses.

The Flight of the Great Blue Heron

Poised dawn glider
Horizon solitude
Regal wave to God

Margaret Simon, draft

Read Full Post »

Slice of Life: The Last Baby Duck

Posted in Slice of Life, Writing, tagged bayou life, black-bellied whistling ducks, nesting box, wildlife rescue on June 25, 2024| 7 Comments »

On Saturday morning, my husband and I set out on an adventure to buy a puppy. The previous day, Friday, the eggs in our wood duck house began to hatch. This year we did not have a wood duck, though. The sitting mother hen was a black-bellied whistling duck. We have a Ring doorbell camera mounted in the nesting box near the bayou. We’d been watching the comings and goings of this hen for 30+ days.

Black-bellied whistling duck from Creative Commons

Wood ducks hatch on one day and jump from the nesting box on the next day, Jump Day. So do whistlers. Because we were on the road, we were watching the jump from my phone. I became distressed when I realized one of the babies had not jumped. He was jumping and flipping, but not toward the metal mesh that serves as a ladder. Time passed, so I was convinced the mother and the other 14 babies were well on their way down the bayou. What should we do?

Call Ric, of course. I tried Ric and his wife as well as my neighbor Shirley. All became concerned. And the next time I checked the camera, the baby was gone. At first I assumed he had finally made the leap. Then I got a call from Ric’s wife, Svitlana. She is well known for rescuing animals, cats, dogs, and owls. (Here is a link to the owl story.) She had the baby duck and was researching what to feed it.

On Saturday, we successfully found a new puppy. He is settling in and bringing us joy. We walked over to visit the baby duckling. He is also settling in and bringing joy. His (or her) little life was saved. Ric and Svitlana will keep him safe until he’s big enough to fly. Whistlers are migratory birds, so they have an instinct to leave. The owl has not left the area. He still calls across the bayou every evening to remind us that wild animals can be saved.

“Utochka” Ukranian for little duck.
Baby Black-bellied whistling duckling- take a look at those big feet!

Read Full Post »

Poetry Friday: Monster Truck

Posted in Poetry Friday, Writing, tagged #Peace, free verse poem, Inklings challenge, Padreg O Tuama on June 7, 2024| 12 Comments »

Poetry Friday is hosted today by Tracey Kiff-Judson at Tangles & Tails.

Here we are again with a monthly Inkling challenge. This month Molly challenged us with a prompt from Pádraig Ó Tuama who said “A poem is a word-event going in many directions at once. Sometimes the “you” of a poem is a specific person, at other times it’s the poet, or a general audience, and at times there’s no you at all so the poem addresses itself to the world.”

Molly asked us to write a narrative poem that includes observations about the world and explores the craft of address, the you of a poem. On a recent morning walk, I spoke two observations into my notes app. I felt invaded upon when a truck high up on oversized wheels revved its engine at me as it passed. The other observation was not connected at all. I saw oak tree arms leaning on electric wires. We’ve had a number of sudden storms this summer, and each one is frightening. That’s all to say that poetry is a place where I can vent; I can let steam rise and fall. I address this poem to the you of a random monster truck.

You disturb my peace.

You! with your hot wheels
rumbling down the road,
motor revving, disrupt
this peace of mind I’m in
writing a poem
in my head
about birds singing.

Birds sing as you pass,
your rolled-up windows
beat-boxing,
shaking a rhythm

of my walking, heart pumping
brow sweating. I’m in this groove
you move your hard edge
against.

My poem wants
to be kind, but I cannot wash
away your harsh sound
that erases the wind
heaving a heavy sigh

like the old oak arms
leaning on electric wires
holding heavy vibration–
a lightning bolt I cry

to be saved from.
Margaret Simon, draft

Take a look at how my Inkling friends approached this challenge:

Linda @A Word Edgewise
Catherine @Reading to the Core
Molly @Nix the Comfort Zone
Mary Lee @Another Year of Reading
Heidi @my juicy little universe

Read Full Post »

Spiritual Thursday: It is Well

Posted in Poetry, Spiritual Growth, Writing, tagged #haiku, #Peace, #poemsifpresence, Audrey Assad, spiritual journey on June 6, 2024| 9 Comments »

This month’s Spiritual Journey is being gathered by Karen Eastlund.

In these first few weeks of summer, I find myself lingering. Taking my time on my morning walk to stop and take a picture, visit with a neighbor, enjoy the bird songs. I linger over morning coffee. I know this is how it should be, but there’s this little mouse in my brain that thinks I should accomplish things. I sing to myself “It is Well”.

When peace like a river, attendeth my way
When sorrows like sea billows roll
Whatever my lot, thou hast taught me to say
It is well, it is well, with my soul

It is well
With my soul
It is well, it is well with my soul
Audrey Assad

Peace is my one little word for 2024, so I pay attention. Peace comes to me in songs, in the sounds of the birds, in the slowing down of summer.

When I stopped to take pictures in my neighbor’s garden, she said, “Now write a haiku.” She laughed, but that is what I did. Haiku is a perfect form for peaceful nature noticing.

Canopy of oak arms
reaching, tossing tumbling light–
peace attends my soul.
*photo and haiku by Margaret Simon*

Freckled lily blossom
Lonely lighthouse beacon
Pool of goldfish beams
*photo and haiku by Margaret Simon*

Read Full Post »

This Photo Wants to be a Poem: Sunflower Fib

Posted in Photography, Poetry, This Photo Wants to be a Poem, Writing, tagged fibonacci poem, Petite Anse Farms, sunflowers on June 5, 2024| 39 Comments »

On Memorial Day, I visited a sunflower farm out in the country with my family. I brought a bucket load home and made 5 vases full. It was fun to give them away to neighbors. I kept this large one for myself. It made its happy face known in my kitchen. Since the sunflower seed head is a fibonacci sequence, I decided to write a fib poem. A fib poem is 20 syllables as each line follows the sequence, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8.

Face
it!
I glow
yellowbright
on tables, in fields–
Happiness grows if you let it.
Margaret Simon, draft

Please leave your own poem in the comments and encourage other writers with responses. Happy Summer!

Read Full Post »

Slice of Life: Exquisite Corpse

Posted in Slice of Life, Writing, tagged exquisite corpse on June 4, 2024| 6 Comments »

On Friday evening, Francisco invited me to dinner. At the time, I didn’t know who would be attending. Fran has been visiting from Argentina, and we’ve been meeting weekly for a few months now. We usually meet in a coffee shop with one of my former students to read and write poetry. Corrine is hosting Fran and suggested that they cook a meal for a few friends. I was delighted to see Carolyn was there.

Carolyn and I taught together years ago and have stayed friends, but we don’t see each other often, especially during the busy school year. We are on summer break and maybe that made us giddy, or maybe it was the wine, but we were laughing a lot.

Fran suggested we play “Exquisite Corpse.” I kind of knew what it was; I think I’ve done it with students, but I didn’t think of it as a common party game or a very reliable way to write a poem. Fran insisted this would be good. “It’s making new art–authentic,” he said.

I didn’t take it as seriously. Especially when Carolyn added the line “two left feet.” I laughed so hard.

Exquisite Corpse is a game that inspires creativity. As a sheet of paper is passed around, each person writes a line and folds the paper so the line is hidden for the next writer. After we wrote a few very rough verses, Fran and Daniel put the words to music. I believe good musicians can make anything sound good, even the words, “two left feet.”