Reflections on the Teche

We made it to May 1st, and I’m pleased to announce the Progressive Poem has reached a celebratory ending. Thanks to all the poets who participated and took their turns without any prodding or reminding from me. My job as coordinator this year was made easy because we are a community that works ( and plays) well together. See the completed poem here.

This month my Poetry Swaggers group is sharing epistolary poems. I have to admit that when Molly Hogan suggested this form, I didn’t know what it was. Basically this is a letter poem with a fancy name. My poem is written to my notebook, a constant companion these days.

Dear Notebook,

From the time I was a teenager
with a diary that locked,
I’ve written word by word.
Some days the pen scribbles nonsense
or a secret I will not share.
Other days, the blank page
inspires–my words play on your stage.

Whether you are lined or graphed or solid white,
I love the magic of empty pages
filling you with scrolled loops
and curved letters.
When I hold you near, I smell
the scent of flair pens,
washi tape, glue stick– a writer’s incense.

I can be whoever I want to be
in my own little corner
in my own little notebook. 

Margaret Simon, draft

To see more epistolary poems, visit these Swaggers’ sites:

Heidi Mordhorst–My Juicy Little Universe
Catherine Flynn–Reading to the Core
Molly Hogan–Nix the Comfort Zone
Linda Mitchell–A Word Edgewise

In other news, I am the Reader’s Spotlight over at Michelle Barnes’ site Today’s Little Ditty. Thanks, Michelle, for all you do to promote poets and encourage writers.

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I subscribe to Poets & Writers The Time is Now writing prompt email each week. This week, the poetry prompt here asked writers to watch a video of a dance in which their movements were stilted rather than flowing. The prompt was to write a poem of one syllable words. I want this to be a new form: single-syllable song.

My dog in many ways is the perfect dog, schnoodle (schnauzer/ poodle mix) so no shedding. He always wants to please. He’s incredibly patient with kittens and babies. However, he is afraid of storms.

Last night a storm rumbled around 11:30 PM. Charlie barked. His bark is more of a squeal. Like a baby’s cry of fear. I got up and held him in my lap for a while until he was calm enough to sleep. That’s where my mind went to write this poem. I like how placing each word on its own line helps bring out the tone of fear and release.

Storm Song
One
step
forth
leads
me
through
dark
halls
when
he
cries
he
pulls
my
heart
grabs
me
in
a
hug
we
fall
to
sleep
dream
of
a
new
way
to
feel.

(c) Margaret Simon, draft

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Have you heard of the Zeno form? It’s one of my favorites that I’d forgotten about until I made a “Poetry on the Bayou” episode on my YouTube channel. I’ve been recording myself sitting outside on the back deck overlooking the Bayou Teche. I’m reading poems from my book Bayou Song.

This week I read a Zeno about cypress knees, a strange phenomenon for the bald cypress trees which are prolific around the shores of the bayou. Some people cut the cypress knees and use them to carve decorations or paint on. There is no solid research on how or why the cypress trees make their knees. And my husband, aka the yard man, curses how they interrupt his mowing flow.

A zeno follows a mathematical sequence for a syllable count of 8,4,2,1,4,2,1,4,2,1. J. Patrick Lewis originated the form and added that the 1 syllable lines should rhyme.

With students, I enjoyed adding the element of a “zine” to create a “Zeno-Zine.” You can see a previous posts about making Zeno-Zines for Dot Day and in Summer Poetry Swap.

Today I released a monarch butterfly that I had sheltered in a habitat for two weeks. The caterpillar came as “lagniappe” on a milkweed plant I bought nearly three weeks ago. The caterpillar made its chrysalis on a leaf. I wanted to plant the milkweed in the garden, so I taped the leaf to the top of the butterfly net, only to have the tape release, and the chrysalis end up falling to the floor. I had luckily taken precaution and placed bubble wrap on the floor. Once it fell, I realized that the tape was sticking too well to the bubble wrap, so I just decided to leave it alone. I really wasn’t sure if it would develop. Call it the miracle of nature or the resilience of monarchs, but the butterfly emerged yesterday, full and complete. This calls for celebration in a Zeno poem.

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I am so happy to be here today! The Progressive Poem has always brought me joy, despite sometimes offering my line with a bit or more of trepidation. This year is no different. I am able to participate thanks to Margaret’s generous offer to host me here at Reflections on the Teche.  For most of the years of the Progressive Poem’s existence, Irene has taken blog-less me under her wing. I am grateful to both poets and friends. 

While my participation at Poetry Friday ebbs and flows, I am always captivated and inspired by the community I have come to feel so a part of. I look forward to your creative, enriching new works and words. I am intrigued by the newest project or offering. And your books. Oh how I love to read and share them with children. I love when I have the time to devote to joining in. And I am beyond thrilled to have met so many of you in person. You are my people and I feel at home here.  Thank you for your continued friendship and inspiration. It really means the world to me.

My friend Donna has started us in a lovely way. Besides swaying daffodils and violets, I am a proponent of choice for children (I taught for 41 years and still sub!) so I like this. Perhaps a little less pressure, I don’t know, but I feel our poem has thus far developed with flair and wonder.  And perhaps a metaphor for the times we are living in; our path may be lonely, but there is light and water, music and nature surrounding us. To me that is hope.

Thanks to my friend Matt at Radio, Rhythm and Rhyme I had two lovely lines to choose from. 

Sweet violets shimmy, daffodils sway
along the wiregrass path to the lake.
I carry a rucksack of tasty cakes
and a banjo passed down from my gram.

I follow the tracks of deer and raccoon
and echo the call of a wandering loon.
A whispering breeze joins in our song.
and night melts into a rose gold dawn.

Deep into nature’s embrace, I fold.
Promise of spring helps shake the cold

 Next I hand the poem to Linda Mitchell’s pen to see where we go:

Hints of sun lightly dapple the trees   (choice A)

I whistle, then whisper a snippet of poem  (choice B)

Janet Fagal aka Janet Clare F. or Janet F. (Long story how this came to be, but I am too low tech to really change now.) On Facebook I am Janet Clare and I love new friends. My favorite name is Grandma.

A bit about me:
Besides teaching and being Grandma to two sweeties ages 4 and 1, I consider myself to be a poetry advocate for children. I visit classrooms and fill the hours with poetry books piled on desks for children to read and share poems to learn by heart. I have always been met with warm enthusiasm from the children. It is the poetry not me! 

I have poems published in various places. My biggest thrill was being asked by my mentor and friend, Lee Bennett Hopkins, to write for the last anthology published in his lifetime, I AM SOMEONE ELSE: POEMS ABOUT PRETENDING which has my poem about wanting to be a mermaid. I have a poem in Pomelo Publishing’s Great Morning!, Best of Today’s Little Ditty 2014-2015, several in books, magazines, and online for the National League of American Pen Women (NLAPW.org), and most recently Clare Songbirds Press’s The Brave.

Here’s where you can find all the contributors to this year’s Progressive Poem. It’s a fine journey and I hope you will leave a comment or two along the way. It is always nice to hear from readers and other poets:

.
1 Donna Smith at Mainely Write

2 Irene Latham at Live Your Poem

3 Jone MacCulloch, at deo writer

4 Liz Steinglass at Elizabeth Steinglass

5 Buffy Silverman at Buffy Silverman Children’s Author

6 Kay McGriff at A Journey Through The Pages

7 Catherine Flynn at Reading to the Core

8 Tara Smith at Going to Walden

9 Carol Varsalona at Beyond Literacy Link

10 Matt Forrest Esenwine at Radio, Rhythm, and Rhyme

11 Janet Fagal hosted at Reflections on the Teche

12 Linda Mitchell at A Word Edgewise

13 Kat Apel at Kat Whiskers

14 Margaret at Reflections on the Teche

15 Leigh Anne Eck at A Day in the Life

16 Linda Baie at Teacher Dance

17 Heidi Mordhorst at My Juicy Little Universe

18 Mary Lee Hahn at A Year of Reading

19 Tabatha at Opposite of Indifference

20 Rose Cappelli at Imagine the Possibilities

21 Janice Scully at Salt City Verse

22 Julieanne Harmatz at To Read, To Write, To Be

23 Ruth, There is no such thing as a God-forsaken town

24 Christie Wyman at Wondering and Wandering

25 Amy at The Poem Farm

26 Dani Burtsfield at Doing the Work That Matters
27 Robyn Hood Black at Life on the Deckle Edge

28 Jessica Big at TBD
29 Fran Haley at lit bits and pieces
30 Michelle Kogan at Michelle Kogan

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