Posted in Slice of Life, Writing, tagged being mamére, pretend play on March 13, 2022| 9 Comments »
In Leo’s world,
a dog leash becomes
a mountain climber’s harness.
A mallet for the xylophone: his pickaxe.
A peg board
full of colorful pegs
is a birthday cake for you.
He sings “Happy Birthday to Momma.”
She smiles then blows.
We are all players
in Leo’s world.
Posted in Gifted Education, Poetry, Slice of Life, Writing, tagged Artspeak, Irene Latham, student poems, teaching poetry on March 12, 2022| 6 Comments »
On Fridays with my 6th grade gifted kids, we unpack a poem. We discuss everything from form to figurative language, assign tone and theme, and write a poem in response. This is my favorite lesson of the week. The Promethean Board with the annotation tool makes it even better.
Yesterday we focused on Irene Latham’s spring poems. She posts a video each week designed for homeschoolers, but it works for me, too. This week we watched this video:
Using Irene’s Art Speak Padlet, we located the poems she highlighted and selected one to unpack. My first group chose “because every day is a symphony in spring.” So many things to see, imagery, personification, word choice, rhyme…
When yellow rings,
green cannot await
its return.As white fades
in discord,yellow rings.
Once againas purple, pink
Jaden, 6th grade
orange, and red
splash the fields.
When green season
arrives,the rainbow comes out
from every direction
and all around
you.Red triangles grow with yellow spots
on green string,orange sky falls
and the orange sky rises.Yellow lights
shine through the heavy white marshmallows,green spikes
poke out of the ground.The sky’s blue
falling down in may,with purple and pink petals
that have been waiting for
this season.Green season,
Katie, 6th grade
green season,
full of delight
and color.
Posted in Poetry Friday, Slice of Life, Writing, tagged art collage, Linda Mitchell, Spark! on March 11, 2022| 16 Comments »
I signed up to do an exchange for Spark Art #50 with my friend Inkling Linda Mitchell. Linda creates wonderful collages, so I asked her to do the exchange with me. She sent me a collage and I sent her a poem. She was charged with creating a collage from my poem and me with creating a poem from her collage. Fun, right? It is fun when you are playing with a friend you know will be respectful of your work and who does good work herself.
The links to our exchange on the Spark website are here and here.
I am sharing my poem process that responded to this collage.
The first thing I noticed was the moon. I wrote the title first, “Moonlight Sonata” and played Beethovan’s Sonata for inspiration. I noticed the foreign words. I asked Linda about the flowers, but she didn’t know what they were. I decided they were edelweiss. I got stuck, though, and decided to use a poem I had written for Laura Shovan’s February project and combine it with the work I was doing on responding to the collage. I don’t usually do this, and it created a level of mystery to the poem. And I’m OK with that.
Moonlight Sonata
Moon, wild orb nightly shining
high above the oak trees.
Your pull breaks waves
and concrete where oak roots
rise like bread, yeast pressing
our foreign earth.
How can you feel sadness
if you’ve not known joy?
When the edelweiss blooms,
we breathe in sweet scent,
welcome Spring
and sing praise for your goodness, Moon.
We push on and on
until, like you, the flower, the oak
we find our light
and shine.
© Margaret Simon
There are only a few dates left for the Kidlit Progressive poem. Claim your day here.
Posted in Slice of Life, Writing, tagged coffee, flowers, grandson Thomas, Thankful Thursday on March 10, 2022| 18 Comments »
Waking up this early Thursday I didn’t know what I should write. Daily slicing is a good discipline, but I am not as motivated this year as I remember being in the past. Who knows why. Thank goodness this is a community full of ideas for writing, so after reading Elisabeth’s post which was inspired by Hannah, I decided to do Three Things I’m Thankful for Thursday.
2. Flowers on my morning walk: Azaleas are blooming. A sure sign of spring!
3. Sisters Text: Almost every day my three daughters and I exchange a text in a group. Last night we were talking about the upcoming wedding of my niece, their cousin. My youngest daughter was having dinner with my grandson, her nephew and sent this photo.
Posted in Slice of Life, Writing, tagged #poemsofpresence, #smallpoems, Clover, haiku, This Photo Wants to be a Poem on March 9, 2022| 32 Comments »
March is the season for clover. It’s popping up on lawns, in fields, everywhere. I love remembering my childhood in clover, sitting with friends and weaving long chains of clover flowers into crowns, necklaces, veils, anything a princess may need. Clover enhanced my play as a child growing up in Mississippi. I can still smell the freshly mown clover.
Kim Douillard wrote on her blog recently that a colleague of hers described haiku as “in one breath.” I love that thought and encourage you to try a breath of a haiku about clover, spring, childhood, whatever comes to mind. Leave a small poem in the comments and write encouraging responses to other writers.
Breath of fresh clover
Margaret Simon, draft
becomes a princess crown in
a field of wonder
Posted in Slice of Life, Writing, tagged being mamére, facetime on March 8, 2022| 9 Comments »
FaceTime with my grandchildren.
Dinnertime of salmon, rice, and beans.
Leo gives me a virtual taste of an animal cracker.
But the best gift of all was Stella (15 months) saying “Mamére!”
Posted in Poetry Friday, Slice of Life, Writing, tagged Madeleine L'Engle quote on March 4, 2022| 15 Comments »
Here we are again at another first Friday of the month. Since it’s Slice of Life Challenge month, this is a dual post. It was my turn to choose a challenge for my writing group, the Inklings. In my classroom, we are writing responses each day to a quote. I challenged my fellow Inklings to find a favorite quote and write a poem. Form was optional.
I am pulling a poem from the February project for Laura Shovan’s birthday. The prompt came from Ruth Lehrer who posted a video of Theo Janson’s Wind-Powered Sculptures. Fascinating. And the same day I saw a Madeleine L’Engle quote in my Instagram feed. I think there was also an influence of form from a poem-of-the-day, but I can’t remember which one. Muses, muses everywhere.
“Believing takes practice” Madeleine L’Engle
If believing takes practice
then wind plays
with swirling moss
hanging in the trees
practicing for inevitable storms
holding on for the ride to come.Tell yourself you believe
over & over again
like the Dutch artist who preserves
the beach by creating beach animals
walking believing
so when midnight comes
vacant empty of moon or stars,
you can reach out & touch
the heart of the lonely
and bring them back to love.©Margaret Simon
Other Inklings Poems:
Molly Hogan
Catherine Flynn
Heidi Mordhorst
Linda Mitchell
Mary Lee Hahn
There are still a few slots left for the KidLit Progressive Poem. If you’d like to participate, click here and leave me a comment.
Posted in Photography, Poetry, Slice of Life, Writing, tagged Explore, Leo, small poems, This Photo Wants to be a Poem on March 2, 2022| 48 Comments »
Welcome to This Photo Wants to be a Poem. If this is your first time here, let me explain. Originating with Laura Purdie Salas’s weekly writing prompt 15 Words or Less, This Photo is a weekly photo-inspired writing prompt. Each Wednesday I post a photo and invite you to write a small poem in response in the comments section. If you write a poem, please write encouraging comments to other poets by replying to their comments. This is a safe place to play with poetry. No worries. No critics.
This week I am posting a photo that my daughter Maggie took of her 3 year old, my grandson Leo as they were leaving a diner. That’s as much as I want to tell you because when I saw this picture, I thought there’s a story in this photo. You can write the story in your small poem. Have fun with it.
Did you have your coffee?
Margaret Simon, draft
Do you see the door?
I’m ready to explore.
Won’t you come with me?
Posted in Slice of Life, Travel, Writing, tagged beads, family, King Cake, Mardi Gras, New Orleans, SOLC 2022 on March 1, 2022| 12 Comments »
Today is the first day of the March Slice of Life Challenge sponsored by the Two Writing Teachers blog. A group of teacher-bloggers join in a community of writers to write each day of March. I’ve done this challenge for many years. I can’t remember how many. Nine, maybe 10? Every year I feel daunted by the idea of writing every day, but I also know at the end of the month, there is satisfaction in having written. And the writing builds community and connection.
Today is also Mardi Gras Day which in South Louisiana is a big deal. This year the celebration is back after a hiatus for the pandemic. We have the week off of school, so I am traveling and visiting family. This weekend I was in New Orleans with my daughter and her toddler son. Above, he’s curious about the beads hanging from the porch railing. Beads can be found everywhere, in the trees, on fences, and even on a fire hydrant.
My sister and I drove up to Jackson, MS to visit our parents. She brought a taste of New Orleans in a traditional King Cake. When she cut pieces for Mom and Dad, she said, “Watch out for the baby!” and sure enough, Dad got the baby. He is certainly royalty to us! You can read about the tradition of the king cake in this article.
Posted in Photography, Poetry, Writing, tagged chalkabration, rainbow, This Photo Wants to be a Poem on February 23, 2022| 39 Comments »
Welcome back to “This Photo Wants to be a Poem”. I took today’s photo on my morning walk. It was a quiet morning, but there was evidence that kids had been out playing with sidewalk chalk. Years ago I participated in a blog round-up with Betsy Hubbard of Two Writing Teachers. She called her idea “Chalkabration,” and every last Friday of the month, she encouraged teacher-bloggers to take their students outside to write chalk poems on the sidewalks. It was a favorite day for my students. I haven’t thought about it for a while, but I should definitely bring it back in the spring.
This photo qualifies as a Chalkabration. I love the simplicity of the sentence and how the child who drew it felt compelled to label the drawing. I hope you can find inspiration here, too. Write a small poem in the comments. Be sure to leave encouraging comments for other writers. Let’s have a Chalkabration!
This is a rainbow
Margaret Simon, draft 2022
that you can see, touch and tap
hop-scotch to the sky.
If you’d like to sign up for the Kidlit Progressive Poem happening in April, click here.
Our address on the Bayou Teche
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April 1 Linda Mitchell at A Word Edgewise
April 2 Tricia at The Miss Rumphius Effect
April 3 Robyn at Life on the Deckle Edge
April 4 Donna Smith at Mainely Write
April 5 Denise at https://mrsdkrebs.edublogs.org/
April 6 Buffy at http://www.buffysilverman.com/blog
April 7 Jone at https://www.jonerushmacculloch.com/
April 8 Janice Scully at Salt City Verse
April 9 Tabatha at https://tabathayeatts.blogspot.com/
April 10 Marcie at Marcie Flinchum Atkins
April 11 Rose at Imagine the Possibilities | Rose's Blog
April 12 Fran Haley at Lit Bits and Pieces
April 13 Cathy Stenquist
April 14 Janet Fagel at Mainly Write
April 15 Carol Varsalona at Beyond LiteracyLink
April 16 Amy Ludwig VanDerwater at The Poem Farm
April 17 Kim Johnson at Common Threads
April 18 Margaret at Reflections on the Teche
April 19 Ramona at Pleasures from the Page
April 20 Mary Lee at A(nother) Year of Reading
April 21 Tanita at TanitasDavis.com
April 22 Patricia Franz
April 23 Ruth at There's No Such Thing as a Godforsaken Town
April 24 Linda Kulp Trout at http://lindakulptrout.blogspot.com
April 25 Heidi Mordhorst at My Juicy Little Universe
April 26 Michelle Kogan at: https://moreart4all.wordpress.com/
April 27 Linda Baie at Teacher Dance
April 28 Pamela Ross at Words in Flight
April 29 Diane Davis at Starting Again in Poetry
April 30 April Halprin Wayland at Teaching Authors
Reflections on the Teche 