In the new year, I’ve returned to a daily notebook practice with my students. Little did I know the Stafford Challenge would appear and reaffirm my commitment. I adopted this practice years ago after an NCTE panel I coordinated which included Naomi Shihab Nye. We talked about William Stafford’s daily writing, and I adapted the steps to fit with my young students. For whatever reason (maybe Covid) I haven’t been leading my students to write daily in their notebooks. Now I’m reminded of the importance of a daily writing practice. These first few days of the Stafford Challenge, I have opened up more and more on the blank page and worried less about perfection.
Notebook page on Thursday, our first day of school all week.
Our notebook steps:
Date
Quote
What’s Up
Poem-ish
Pretend Play Elfchen
Pretend no script Play echoes life. Their light, my delight –Shine!
I have driven past this church for 16 years. It resides on the same country road as one of my schools. On the left is a small cemetery. Sometime this year I noticed a carpenter I know (I’ve nicknamed him Saint because he is selfless and kind.) doing work on this church. I assume it is an active congregation, but for me, it is the safe haven for our school’s safety plan in case we have to evacuate. We would meet a bus here that would take us to a high school down the road. Does this little building know its job? I’ve been wanting to take this photo for a long time and finally stopped last week. Notice the crooked stop sign, the high cirrus clouds, the simple steeple. Where does your mind go? Please write a small poem today and share it in the comments. Kindly respond to other writers.
I found out about the Stafford Challenge yesterday on Barb Elder’s blog post. I signed up. There is a Zoom gathering tonight with Kim Stafford. I had the pleasure of writing with Kim years ago at a writing marathon. His father William Stafford inspires writers everywhere to practice a daily poem. Whether you join or not, I think this is a good commitment to daily writing.
Thank you to Two Writing Teachers for creating an amazing community of writers and a safe, welcoming space to write and share.
Visiting my mother is tough these days. She’s good, in the general sense of the word, healthy and happy. This weekend my sister and I drove to be with her, to be with my brother. Leaving on Sunday was hard. We stopped by the front desk at the memory care facility and chatted with the receptionist on duty, Tina.
“This is the hardest part, leaving,” I said.
Tina said, “At least you can see her face. I can’t see my mother anymore. She died a year ago in December.”
“December is a hard month to lose someone,” my sister said.
I noticed that Tina was wearing beaded bracelets. I asked her about them.
“This one says Peace,” she told me.
“Peace is the word I’ve chosen to guide my year, but I haven’t gotten a bracelet yet.”
Tina pulled the bracelet off her wrist and handed it to me. “No, I couldn’t,” was my first reaction and then I realized this was a gift of the heart. To honor her gift, I had to take it. Tears welled up. I gave her a hug and left knowing my mother is in the exact right place with people who care, who love her as she is–with Peace on my wrist and in my heart.
Have you ever had a form attach itself to you and beg you for a daily poem? I’ve hoped for a daily haiku to come to me for years now. I’ve tried it on, and some days it fits just fine, but I’ve recently felt a tug toward elfchen which is a similar form to a cinquain. Five lines. However, in an elfchen (elevenie, in English) there are more specific directions that stretch the form to a higher problem-solving level, a level of Flow for me, not too hard, not too easy.
On Tuesday, I wrote about beginning this new year with a practice of notebooking with my students. I shared an elfchen there.
Do you read The Marginalian? I highly recommend it as a weekly practice. Maria Popova sends a newsletter each Sunday, and it never fails to inspire me. This is a found elfchen from Jan. 7, 2024.
Attention high degree be as prayer gravity in acts of Love
Margaret Simon, found in The Marginalian
“Perhaps this spiritual dimension of love stems from a simple equivalence: At its core, love is the quality of attention we confer upon another; and as Simone Weil observed in her timeless meditation on the nature of grace, “attention, taken to its highest degree, is the same thing as prayer.” All of love’s gravity and all of its grace are found in our acts of attention.” Love and the Sacred–The Marginalian.
Have you started a new poetry practice? What commitment to writing have you made?
Back to school after winter break I noticed my student’s backpack and his surfeit supply of pencils and clean, pointy eraser heads. He was prepared! I’m not sure this arrangement with his initials on each pencil and eraser was done by him, his mother, or his grandmother, but it made me chuckle and think back to the days of raising my children. They were lucky to find clean clothes to wear.
I admire anyone who can be this organized. I struggle with being organized. It’s a goal for every year, and every year I fail. What does this photo recall for you? Please leave a small poem in the comments and encourage other writers with your responses.
Pencils stand ready for another year of thinking, writing, erasing Surfeit*
Thank you to Two Writing Teachers for creating an amazing community of writers and a safe, welcoming space to write and share.
We officially went back to school on Monday after a full two-week break, but because of an unpredictable weather system, we dismissed early, so I did not see all of my students. In a way I wasn’t ready for a full day. The early release helped me get a grip on what I need to get done this week. It was as though the train I was on came to a full stop in the middle of the journey. Pause. Think. Plan.
I made the decision to lean back on a reliable and time proven way to start our class: 100 Days of Notebooking. I recall a few years ago after attending NCTE, I received the gift of this idea from Michelle Haseltine. I still follow her on Instagram, and she is still notebooking. With my first group of kids on Monday, I introduced the idea.
I leaned back on William Stafford’s writing habit with these 4 steps:
Date
Quote of the Day
What’s up?
Poem-ish
That’s it, a simple format that seems to work every time. I set the timer for 10 minutes and we write…together. Creative freedom is my only goal. I hope getting back to this practice gives me, as well as my students, time to express themselves, a time for pause and peace (my OLW).
For my poem-ish, I wrote an elfchen. These are so fun to write. See the process here.
“When you say ‘yes’ to others, make sure you are not saying ‘no’ to yourself.” Paulo Coelho
Yes makes sound like the ocean drawing me to love Myself.
The first Friday of each month, one of my Inklings writing group friends gives us a challenge. Well, Heidi gave us 12 prompts, one for each day of Yuletide. She sent it to each of us in a handmade mobile. I attached it to my December calendar page and left it there while Christmas and a family trip happened. Only yesterday, I decided to glue the prompts into the remaining pages of my 2023 notebook. The ultimate procrastination, I’m afraid. I’ve written one poem, so it is one poem you will read. This is probably not what Heidi intended when she put so much time and handwork into making our Yuletide prompt calendar.
Call Back the Dying Sun
Your rising beckons me to notice a stream of light overarching bare trees.
Your rising beckons me to be like you– a light for sight, beacon of joy.
Your rising beckons me to sense warmth even at a slant toward darkness– I rise, too.
Margaret Simon, draft
Morning sun on the porch of our mountain house in Georgia.
I am hosting today’s Spiritual Journey blog gathering. Add your links using Inlinkz at the end of this post. Welcome to 2024!
Every year I tangle with what word to choose for my One Little Word for the year. I’ve held this practice for years now, but I have to say the word I choose does not always serve me. I have a collection of word bracelets, and alternate them depending on my mood of the day. (Grace, Enough, Presence, Purpose, Embrace…)
Last year I chose the word Purpose. At the time, I didn’t have a clue what a turbulent health event was waiting for me. Now that I am fully through and back to myself, I still can’t find purpose in it. My priest told me that God wanted me to come to a full stop. I somehow needed that. Really? I don’t believe it yet. I still carry anger about what happened to me. I could gloss it up here for social media, but the fact remains, I’m not OK with thinking that God somehow was involved in the medical failure. God doesn’t fail. God sits with you in all things. God was with me even when I could not pray. Presence (not purpose) was what I felt.
I’ve been getting messages about the word Connect. I have a new calendar by Nikki McClure that is titled Connect. When I wrote a poem yesterday for This Photo Wants to be a Poem, connect was my last word. I understand that the reason I write this blog is to connect.
However, last night when I started working on a graphic in Canva, many of the images that came up were mechanical, technical, not at all about human connection. My mind turned on a dime to what I think I truly wish for myself and for the world: Peace.
For these last days of my school break, I have spent some time next to the fireplace noticing how fire can be a comfort as well as a destroyer. Maybe I will be gutted by Peace as I was with Purpose. Who knows what 2024 holds for me? I’m ready to be present for all of it. What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, right? I know I have strength to make it through.
My hope is for Peace, peace of mind, peace of soul, peace of presence. Peace, my friends.
Instead of Christmas presents, we gave our children and their families a house in the Appalachian mountains of North Georgia. This is a view of the house from the lake below. I don’t think I could have picked a more perfect spot. Today it becomes an image for inspiration. You may focus on the green moss on the log, the act of looking up, or the idea of a perfect place to rest. Happy New Year! I hope it brings you joy and renewal.
I am still ruminating on my One Little Word for 2024. It may or may not be the word at the end of this poem. I’ve been having fun playing with the elfchen (elevenie) form. The basis is 1 word, 2 words, 3 words, 4 words, 1 word. The magic of the form seems to happen when writing about the first word leads to a conclusion in the last word.
Tomorrow I will host Spiritual Thursday. We are writing about our One Little Word choices. Please join us.
Mountain House
Wood chopped, stacked the fire pit where secrets are shared– Connection
Thank you to Two Writing Teachers for creating an amazing community of writers and a safe, welcoming space to write and share.
This new year has come in quiet, restful, on tender feet. Twenty Twenty Four has a nice sound to it.
My family has been talking a lot about the Enneagram. On the long drive to and from North Georgia, we listened to The Enneagram Journey with Suzanne Stabile. My husband and I were riding with our middle daughter and her 4 year old son. Enneagram language has now entered our family talk. It has transformed the way I speak to and about my daughters. And now, after 12 or so hours of instruction, my husband and I speak about it as well. It is an amazing tool toward empathy and understanding.
I subscribe to an Enneathought of the Day. This little short piece of advice is helpful in keeping me healthy in my ever present mind. I am a four which means my orientation to time is the past. I can get stuck in my feelings about things. My work toward a more healthy way of being is to be present.
I am still working on my One Little Word for this year. Come back on Spiritual Thursday for that post. (And certainly if you are a blogger and want to write with us, you can join with Inlinkz on Thursday.)
Today’s Enneathought teaching “Health is a measure of our capacity to be present.” I think this teaching is valuable to all of us. Here is my reflection:
Health is the Measure of our Capacity to be Present
Present to the muse inside. Waiting with stillness. Open to longing all the while content with its Begging of me To do something courageous. Get out of my head. Put on my walking shoes. Say hello to the morning light. That is all that is required.
Margaret Simon
Amicalola Falls, Georgia (photo by Margaret Simon)
Margaret Simon lives on the Bayou Teche in New Iberia, Louisiana. She teaches gifted elementary students, writes poetry and children's books. Welcome to a space of peace, poetry, and personal reflection. Walk in kindness.
Reflections on the Teche 