Posted in Photography, Slice of Life, Writing, tagged #techeproject, Bayou Teche, canoeing, sunsets on March 15, 2021| 9 Comments »
Saturday brought warmer winds and time. My husband suggested a paddle on the bayou. Living on the Bayou Teche, we try to take opportunities to go out in the canoe. We know that too often we are too busy, or it’s too hot, or too cold, or too ___ fill-in-the-blank.
Our paddle to the East–
soft breeze,
flock of yellow-crown night herons,
waves to friends on their back porch.
Stop for a beer break, turn back toward the sunset.
sun majestic on the water,
an Eagle sighting,
simple beauty.
Posted in Poetry Friday, Slice of Life, Writing, tagged brain poem, February Poetry Project: Body, Laura Shovan on March 12, 2021| 20 Comments »
In February I joined an amazing group of poets writing everyday to prompts about The Body on a Facebook group organized by Laura Shovan. Laura has posted all the marvelous prompts on her website.
Most days it was tough to get one poem written and some days I didn’t write, but one day I wrote two poems. The prompt was about the beautiful brain. On Facebook I posted a Golden Shovel from Emily Dickinson’s line “The brain is deeper than the sea.” But in searching my notebook for something to post today, I found a different poem. I didn’t like it when I wrote it, but now I kinda do.
Posted in #sosmagic, Gratitude, Slice of Life, Writing, tagged grandchildren on March 11, 2021| 10 Comments »
The phone rings blinking Facetime, and I know who’s calling, but this time he greets me differently.
“How a doin?”
Leo, 27 months learns a new phrase almost daily. This one was his latest. He was so excited to say it.
“Hey, Leo. I’ve been sick.”
In the background, Maggie says, “Ma mère‘s tummy hurts.”
“Hold you, Ma mère!” Leo exclaims with a concerned expression that melts my heart.
“Oh, I wish I could hold you.”
“Tummy. Kiss it. Better.” He leans forward and kisses the screen.
Leo kisses make everything better.
Posted in Photography, Poetry, Slice of Life, Writing, tagged Clover, spring, This Photo Wants to be a Poem on March 10, 2021| 20 Comments »
This photo was an impulse photo, like an impulse buy in the grocery store at the check out line. I was walking in the cold of the early morning and making a wish for warmer days. I know I’ll get my wish soon enough, but 41 degrees is chilly, and frankly, I’m tired of having to put on layers for my walk. I almost tripped over this patch of clover.
Where did it come from? How does it know it’s time to bloom? When everything else is still brown? So I stopped, grabbed my phone with my stinging cold fingers and took a picture. I think my wish worked because the day warmed up to 70 without a cloud in the sky. Spring is coming slowly but surely.
Secret starbursts proud
Margaret Simon, draft
emerging from a green cloud
Harbinger of spring.
The way this works: Look at the photo for inspiration and write a small poem in the comments. Leave encouraging comments to other writers by replying to their poems. Let your mind wander. No pressure.
Posted in Poetry, Slice of Life, Writing, tagged erasure poetry, Jennifer Sinor, The American Scholar on March 8, 2021| 8 Comments »
I was fascinated by the article in The American Scholar by Jennifer Sinor, “Every Letter is a Love Letter.” She wrote of how Georgia O’Keefe wrote letters for years to her husband. The thing that drew me in was the language, the words in the article expressing the space that letters provide. There is the space of time between the writing and the receiving. In this day when a message can be sent before you even check the spelling, words can fly across vast spaces in a millisecond. I wanted to capture this idea somehow, so I thought of using erasure poetry.
The frustration for me was erasing the other words. So many artists do it in a way that somehow preserves the words behind the erasure. I tried different things so I ended up with a layered look that I don’t hate. I’ve typed the words I kept into poem form below:
Every Letter
we find those spaces void
you see canyons
empty spaces reveal vastness
Time in life’s work
experience of being in art
we fit ourselves
I wrote to my husband
Before long He left quiet communion,
heart of prayer, easy, difficult love letters.
You take your wounds handwritten
to be unrecognizable.
A letter is time–
rest in the gapacross space
binding us
to moment
to everyone–
Margaret Simon, erasure poem
Posted in Poetry Friday, Slice of Life, Writing, tagged Amanda Gorman, Book Scavenger Hunt Poem, Read Across America Week on March 5, 2021| 23 Comments »
In January I was looking for everything about Amanda Gorman, the inaugural poet and National Youth Poet Laureate, and I found a poetry prompt video from April, the beginning of the pandemic. The program was done by the 826 National Network called #agoodtimetowrite. Amanda called it a book scavenger hunt.
It’s a quick writing prompt. Everyone usually has a book nearby to grab. Select 3 random pages and one word from each page. List those words, then write for 5 minutes. I’ve done it a few times, and the results can be really fun, so I challenged my Sunday night Swaggers to try it out.
This week was Read Across America Week which is still called Dr. Seuss Week at my school. Every day was a different dress up day. On Thursday, we dressed as our favorite characters. Lots of Cats-in-the-hat and Things 1 & 2. One of my students was Cindy Lou Who.
With this fun-filled week and words from a nearby book (LifeBoat by Susan Hood), I selected the words movie star, peaches, and tantalizing. This is my original draft:
Mouthwatering delight
Margaret Simon, draft
the movie star of flavors–
pour Skittles into an open palm–
tantalizing
irresistible
like bacon in the frying pan
or syrup on pancakes
or melted chocolate
inside a s’mores,
peachy pink bubble
satisfied my sweet tooth,
gift from a girl
dressed like Cindy Lou Who
on the playground.
See how my Poetry Swagger friends met the challenge:
Heidi Mordhorst
Catherine Flynn
Linda Mitchell
Molly Hogan
If you would like to sign up to participate in the 2021 National Poetry Month Progressive Poem, go to this post.
Posted in Slice of Life, Spiritual Growth, Writing, tagged magazine collage, notebooks, spiritual journey on March 4, 2021| 11 Comments »
Today is day 4 of the Slice of Life Story Challenge and Spiritual Journey (first) Thursday.
A group of bloggers commit to writing a post on the first Thursday of the month around a topic. I am rounding up the posts today. (Place your link in the InLinkz at the end of this page.) The topic I chose was March Spirit Wind. The lioness of March winds roared through here on Monday bringing a new cold front. March weather is fickle. One day may be sunny and 70’s and the next rainy and 40’s. In this topsy turvy weather, I long to find quiet time.
Learn to get in touch with the silence within yourself
Elisabeth Kubler-Ross
and know that everything in this life has a purpose.
Lately I have been using magazine collage to explore creativity. I am finding that it leads to inspiration for writing. The process of design, finding images I love, cutting, placing, gluing bring my mind to a place of rest where creativity can flow.
Linda Mitchell sent me some poem seeds that I carry with me in a ziplock bag along with pens, scissors, glue. I tossed out some seeds and this poem fell out.
Perhaps the most important thing we bring to another person is the silence in us, not the sort of silence that is filled with unspoken criticism or hard withdrawal. The sort of silence that is a place of refuge, of rest, of acceptance of someone as they are. We are all hungry for this other silence.
Rachel Naomi Remen, gratefulness.org
I hope you can take some time to be quiet and let the Spirit Wind wash over you. Sacred moments can be found when we take time to rest and be open.
You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!Click here to enter
Posted in Poetry, Slice of Life, Teaching, Writing, tagged #sol21, southerner, torn paper collage art on March 2, 2021| 14 Comments »
I teach multiple grade levels, so in one given day I’ll read a social justice poem, an article about invertebrates, a picture book about water protectors, and student slices. But all reading roads lead to writing in one way, shape, or form. We write every day.
Today’s notebook collage is a sea of invertebrates, including a thesaurus page with the heading word specimen. But it was the words that led to my thoughts. We all have a story to tell. I may not have a story about significant environmental issues or roots in injustice, but it is a story, a history worth noting in a poem.
In the Natural Rhythm of Memory
While she may speak of rivers,
Margaret Simon, draft
and he speaks for the trees, the poet
speaks for mollusks, snails, and anemones.
Who do I represent?
Neither drums of nature, nor blood
of brothers tell my story.
Not poor or tortured;
My river runs from Mississippi
to Texas, through veins of magnolias
and spray of Gulf waves–
my history is a southern drawl
spoken over the telephone,
sweet as maple syrup,
white as cornbread,
and golden as the morning sun.
Posted in #sosmagic, Slice of Life, Writing, tagged #100DaysofNotebooking, #SOLC2021, #sosmagic on March 1, 2021| 19 Comments »
A friend sent me an article suggestion from The Atlantic. “Ode to Low Expectations” by James Parker. Here’s a quote to start off my Slice of Life March Madness:
We’re half-finished down here, always building and collapsing, rigging up this and that, dropped hammers and flapping tarps everywhere. Revise your expectations downward. Extend forgiveness to your idiot self. Make it a practice. Come to rest in actuality.
James Parker, The Atlantic March 2021
I needed to read this before committing to a month long writing challenge. I need to lower my expectations and be myself on this page. Who else is any better or worse? Who else could I even try to be?
I’m testing my creativity every day. If I place my hands on the keys and get something written, then I’m ahead of the game. I’m just warning you, if you are a reader of my blog. Every day is a risk. Every day is scary. But I am here. Will you join me?
Posted in Poetry Friday, Writing, tagged Kat Apel, Lamipofri on February 26, 2021| 9 Comments »
As I peer through bleary eyes at the end of a long week after a week off, I am remiss to find a proper poem to post, but Alas! Kat Apel has saved the day. She created a form just right for this occasion.
What is a lamipofri? It’s a poetry snapshot that’s quickly scribed, to give people an insight into the world around you at a given point in time – that point being the last minute as you’re scrambling for a Poetry Friday poem to post! Hence the name: LAst MInute of a POetry FRIday!
Kat Apel
A single moment
sky beckons
softness of a peachA day begins
Margaret Simon, draft
click,
capture,
send.
April 1 Tabatha Yeatts at The Opposite of Indifference
April 2 Cathy Stenquist at A Little Bit of This and That
April 3 Patricia Franz at Reverie
April 4 Donna Smith at Mainely Write
April 5 Janice Scully at Salt City Verse
April 6 Denise Krebs at Dare to Care
April 7 Ruth Hersey at There is no such thing as a God-forsaken town
April 8 Rose Cappelli at Imagine the Possibilities
April 9 Margaret Simon at Reflections on the Teche
April 10 Janet Clare Fagel at Reflections on the Teche
April 11 Diane Davis at Starting Again in Poetry
April 12 Linda Baie at Teacher Dance
April 13 Linda Mitchell at Another Word Edgewise
April 14 Jone MacCulloch at Poetry Rocks
April 15 Joyce Uglow at Storied Ink
April 16 Carol Varsalona at Beyond Literacy Link
April 17 Robyn Hood Black at Life on the Deckle Edge
April 18 Michele Kogan at More Art for All
April 19 Kim Johnson at Common Threads
April 20 Buffy Silverman
April 21 Irene Latham at Live Your Poem
April 22 Karen Edmisten
April 23 Heidi Mordhorst at my juicy little universe
April 24 Mary Lee Hahn at A(nother) Year of Reading
April 25 Tanita Davis at Fiction, instead of Lies
April 26 Sharon Roy at Pedaling Poet
April 27 Tracey Kiff-Judson at Tangles and Tails
April 28
April 29
April 30
Our address on the Bayou Teche
Order on Amazon.
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 