Thank you to Two Writing Teachers for creating an amazing community of writers and a safe, welcoming space to write and share.
Monday was Earth Day and the weather could not have been more perfect. A cool front came through, so our temps were in the 60’s. I took each group of students outside for writing time. I opened the Merlin app and we talked about the birds’ songs we heard. It was a good day for listening, teaching, and writing. State testing starts Wednesday, so I was happy for the opportunity to sit outside and forget our worries.
Kailyn’s notebook page
Earth Day is also my father’s death day. He loved double numbers; his birthday was 11/11/33. He passed away on 4/22/22. Ethical ELA’s prompt gave me the space I needed to write about him and his love of trees.
Dark Clouds by John Gibson
Earth Day Dedication
My father’s compass pointed to the trees, how the branches bent and blocked light shadows dotting landscape.
Once he told me trees grounded him in the present, reliable– long standing safety for Mother Earth’s children.
Yesterday I heard the “kow-kow-kow” of a yellow-billed cuckoo stopping in our tree from its journey across the Gulf.
The journey of life, as the cuckoo calls, is hard and easy. Some days you find rest, take a breath, sigh for Mother Earth and sing loud. (Margaret Simon, draft)
Janet Fagel has the Kidlit Progressive Poem today here.
Thank you again to Margaret, friend and host, all the poets growing this poem day by day and Irene who began it long ago. Where will our two go from here? Head to Mary Lee’s tomorrow (whom I happily get to see this coming weekend in Ohio!) I love the Poetry Friday community even when I am away. Inspiration, creativity, poetry and friendship stemming from our devotion to children and their growth. I recognize so many friends participating and am happy to be a part of this.
cradled in stars, our planet sleeps, clinging to tender dreams of peace sister moon watches from afar, singing lunar lullabies of hope.
almost dawn, I walk with others, keeping close, my little brother. hand in hand, we carry courage escaping closer to the border
My feet are lightning; My heart is thunder. Our pace draws us closer to a new land of wonder.
I bristle against rough brush— poppies ahead brighten the browns. Morning light won’t stay away— hearts jump at every sound.
I hum my own little song like ripples in a stream Humming Mami’s lullaby reminds me I have her letter
My fingers linger on well-worn creases, shielding an address, a name, a promise– Sister Moon will find always us surrounding us with beams of kindness
But last night as we rested in the dusty field, worries crept in about matters back home. I huddled close to my brother. Tears revealed the no-choice need to escape. I feel grown.
Leaving all I’ve ever known the tender, heavy, harsh of home. On to maybes, on to dreams, on to whispers we hope could be.
But I don’t want to whisper! I squeeze Manu’s hand. “¡Más cerca ahora!” Our feet pound the sand. We race, we pant, we lean on each other I open my canteen and drink gratefully
Thirst is slaked, but I know we’ll need more than water to achieve our dreams. Nights pass slowly, but days call for speed through the highs and the lows, we live with extremes
We enter a village the one from Mami’s letter, We find the steeple; food, kindly people, and shelter.
For Poem in Your Pocket Day, I invited Marcie Flinchum Atkins to join my students by Zoom. We were able to get a small 30 minute window of time while she could visit. What a treat!
Marcie is a master at haiku, and no wonder, she writes one every day. She usually writes in a small notebook to photos that she has taken. Beautiful photos!
Her easy-going way led to a comfortable, safe environment for writing. My students wrote. I wrote. Like Marcie, I wanted to use a photo and Canva to design my haiku for publication. Maybe one day I’ll send them out on postcards.
At one of my schools, we are rejuvenating the butterfly garden. The purple salvia has come back after winter and is thick and covered with blossoms. We’ve been spending recess time there among these flowers, tilling and planting new feeding plants. Avalyn, my garden partner, wrote a haiku and asked me to put it on Canva like mine.
The Kidlit Progressive Poem is with Catherine Flynn today. Check on our little immigrant hero.
Kidlit Progressive Poem is moving along with apprehension and worry for our two refugees. See the latest line at Opposite of Indifference with Tabatha Yeats.
We’ve started getting the school butterfly garden ready for spring. I was a bit overwhelmed and excited to see all the plants that survived the winter. I was particularly taken by the purple salvia which last year was a small percentage of planter box space and now is practically taking over. But it’s so beautiful.
A closeup of purple salvia
Yesterday on Ethical ELA, the prompt from Dave Wooly was a new form to me: Kwansaba, a praise poem based on #7. Seven lines, seven words, seven or fewer letters each word. The letter count stumped me because I wanted to write about the butterfly garden. Butterfly is 9 letters long, off limits. I felt like I was putting together a complicated puzzle where the pieces wouldn’t fit together. I’m sharing my effort, however, along with my garden partner Avalyn’s garden celebration.
Purple Salvia Kwansaba
In our school garden, spring rises in purple salvia opening with violet nectar.
Beauty abounds here, left after winter’s freeze bidding hummers, bees, moths, pollen seekers come.
I want to plant a home garden– enrich, connect place to place where life, a sense of hope, comes richly back to us.
by Margaret Simon
Avalyn’s Garden Kwansaba
Garden
Such a pretty flower, dancing flowers behold. The wind cannot uproot even in storms. You are such beauty I cannot explain. You are the scent I want to smell. You stand for happy, so much color! Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet A praise poem to all the flowers.
How are the flower gardens doing in your part of the world? Please consider writing a small poem in the comments and encouraging other writers with your comments. Happy Spring!
Thank you to Two Writing Teachers for creating an amazing community of writers and a safe, welcoming space to write and share.
What an amazing month for flowers! They are everywhere. Knockout roses, wild purple salvia, native Louisiana iris. I even say a few poppies in a neutral ground. Jasmine is blooming sending fragrance through the windows. I am finding hope and poetry in the flowers this month. Today I want to offer two poems about flowers. I hope you are watching flowers blooming in your part of the world. Small daily miracles.
Louisiana iris clipped from our bog.
Iris in a Glass Vase
If you want to know hope as the deepest thing, look at each flower blossom. The iris yellow eyes like little candlelight wrapped in a purple gown. Nature plants seeds for us to notice new life to believe that God wants us to rise up and wink at the sun, to hear the sounds of birds as they shout out loud, We are here! We are here! We are here!
Margaret Simon, draft written to my own prompt on Ethical ELA
This next one is after Clint Smith as prompted on Ethical ELA. Pop over to see many wonderful poems.
Today I will write a poem about a small white flower opening overnight to burst into fragrant song–
Jasmine climbs boldly over a picket fence persisting to be here in a place where no one cries, innocently hidden from view.
The scent of it opens over spring breeze announcing its place in the family of things.*
Being a part of the Poetry Friday community has given me much to be grateful for. We are writing together a wonderful Progressive Poem. Today’s line is with Denise Krebs and yesterday was Linda Mitchell. I’ve met these poets along with many others through our weekly postings. These posts have led to collaboration on other projects. Linda is a writing group partner and Denise and I are a part of Ethical ELA and a book we are collaborating on. (More on that later.) I would never have met them in real life. The gathering of a like-minded community of writers has all occurred right here with my blog.
This week I attended the Fay B. Kaigler Children’s Book Festival and had the privilege of presenting with Irene Latham. Irene and I met through Poetry Friday and in person years ago at the Louisiana Book Festival. We’ve presented together before at NCTE.
Irene is such a humble leader. She turns every eye away from herself toward you. She makes everyone in the room feel like confident poets. What joy! You can see our slideshow here.
Margaret and Irene presenting at Fay B Kaigler Children’s Book Festival: “Poetry as a Time Machine”
Next year, you should consider attending the festival in person. They invite the most inspiring speakers. This year I heard keynotes from Lesa Cline-Ransome as well as her talented husband, James Ransome, Cynthia Leitich Smith (Southern Miss Medallion), and Juana Martinez-Neal who won the Coleen Salley Storytelling Award. Jason Chin, deGrummond Children’s Literature Lecturer, impressed me with his curiosity about the world and how that curiosity has led him to illustrating. He won a Caledecott Medal for Watercress. The book that impressed me the most was The Universe in You: A Microscopic Journey (Caldecott and Sibert Honoree). As you can see, the Fay B Kaigler invites some of the best authors and illustrators in the children’s literature realm.
And now for a poem. Following Ethical ELA VerseLove has kept me writing a poem each day. Yesterday’s prompt was an ode to the unworthy. I’ve lived in Louisiana and Mississippi all my life, so I’ve had many hurricane experiences. I wrote an Ode to the Hurricane.
Ode to the Hurricane
As the wild winds swirl together above the Gulf, you become a massive creation threatening a nation.
No matter how we prepare– buy bread, water, flashlights, charge up Sparky, the generator, your fierce presence is feared.
They give you gentle names: Katrina, Ida, Andrew, Camille. Names that will live in history. Names that define an era.
After you pass through, an eerie calm descends upon a community. We band together to feed each other, to clean up destruction you left behind.
Oh, hurricane, you are the hint of end times. Behold your survivors–we tell your story.
This poem comes from a prompt on Ethical ELA VerseLove by Joanne Emery. She asked us to read Jane Hirshfield’s poem My Life Was the Size of My Life and borrow a line to use in our own poem that expresses something about ourself. I used the line “I told my life I would like some time.”
I Told My Life
I would like some time. I wanted to hit Pause, rise in another space– maybe a vase of flowers beautiful & scented then tossed away.
I told my life to hold on while I slept, dreamt I was flying.
What does it feel like to be free?
I told my life I would like some time to get back a broken piece of me.
This painting by my friend, artist Melissa Bonin, was exhibited at the Acadian World Congress in 2019 in Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada. When Melissa posted this photo of her art on Instagram, I was inspired to ask permission for our ekphrastic poetry this week.
Did you experience the eclipse? The experience was exciting for everyone. Although there were clouds and rain, a few times the sun peeked out and we were able to view it. My students were fascinated.
Every day we Come closer to Learning our lesson. I stand in awe Pretending to feel Safe on our fragile Earth.
Margaret Simon, draft
Please write a small poem in the comments. Encourage other writers with your responses.
Fifth grader Kailyn blows India ink into a mysterious shape.
Thanks to a grant from Alpha Delta Kappa educational sorority, I funded a field trip for the elementary gifted students in Iberia Parish. The purpose of the field trip was to expose our students to the mystery and magic of art.
The students were able to tour an exhibit at The Hilliard Museum in Lafayette, LA. They saw the art of George Rodrigue, who was born in New Iberia and became world famous with the creation of his Blue Dog series. The students were fascinated to learn of Rodrigue’s origins and how he created amazing paintings throughout his life until his death in 2013. They recognized the iconic Blue Dog from a sculpture that we have in a downtown park dedicated to his memory.
They also viewed the art of Beili Liu who used the element of water to create an abstract hanging of paper above their heads. She also made blue cyanotype prints of objects from the ocean to draw attention to the problems of pollution.
Denise Gallagher, a local author, illustrator, and graphic artist led the students in an abstract activity using small straws and India ink on paper. Enjoy the gallery of art. Some students wrote poems to accompany their creations.
I believe that children should be exposed to art and learn that they are creators. Denise and Callie, the educational docent at The Hilliard, helped our students feel comfortable and inspired by art. The students were pleasantly surprised and proud of their creations.
Thank you to Two Writing Teachers for creating an amazing community of writers and a safe, welcoming space to write and share.
Margaret Simon lives on the Bayou Teche in New Iberia, Louisiana. She is a retired elementary gifted teacher who writes poetry and children's books. Welcome to a space of peace, poetry, and personal reflection. Walk in kindness.
Reflections on the Teche 