May is a month for flowers. Last week sunflowers. Today, gladiolas. My friend Mary brought me a full bouquet with a variety of colors.
I am following Georgia Heard’s calendar and on Sunday, the topic was “what quiet sounds like.”
An ode is a poem of praise. I was also inspired by Amy Ludwig Vanderwater’s Ode to Seeds “Seedsong” from Poetry Friday.
Ode to Glads
Oh, the silence in your lavender touched by white laced around a tall stalk. It’s hard to believe how you grow perfectly perched upon the soil, now delighting my kitchen table with joyful obedience. I love you.
Margaret Simon, draft
Please join me in writing a small poem of praise about May flowers. Leave your poem in the comments and support other writers with encouraging words.
The air turned cool overnight. The cats are hunkered next to the door. My friend in upstate New York, Amy Ludwig VanDerwater, posted a photo of a basket of dahlias. She gathered them to place in a vase since the cold front would surely wilt them.
We wait and wait for the air to turn cool. Then when it does, we gather flowers, fruit, caterpillars to save. Yesterday I released 3 new monarchs into the air. Today they are blown south by the cold front. Seasons change. Sometimes gradually. Sometimes suddenly. Write a small poem today about this changing time. What does it mean to you?
This week is the first week of the National Writing Project Write Out, so if you can, go outside. Let nature speak to you. Catch a poem.
Daisy’s cousin Asteraceae family name Heat loving plants Light of morning sun Invite them inside A guest for the dining table Margaret Simon, draft
Francisco from Argentina is spending some time in our little town. I invited him to teach some of our students about the instrument he plays, violin. He visited the school on Thursday for Multi-Cultural Day. To get the students engaged in the understanding of how music words, he used a most basic and familiar tune “Happy Birthday.” He asked them questions that led them to understand you first have a note, a sound, then a beat, a melody, but he also talked about how that song is so much a part of our culture that we all know it.
We all sang along. Everyone knew the words.
In her weekly newsletter, Maggie Smith wrote about how art can be synchronistic, that the universe crisscrosses and shows us something new. “Art begets art begets art.”
On Friday, Amy Ludwig VanDerwater posted a lesson and video on her blog “The Poem Farm”. She called the method for finding a meter to use in poetry “Tapping it Out.” For my students, this essence of how song influences poetry was inspiring. I was inspired, too.
My poem came from the beat of “I’m a Little Teapot”.
Looking at the raindrops falling down, One on the windshield One on the ground. When I find my jacket, cozy warm, I thank the clouds for their swift storm.
Margaret Simon, draft
Thanks, Amy and Francisco, for inspiring us to see the magic of a simple tune, how music is in our hearts everyday.
Thank you to Two Writing Teachers for creating an amazing community of writers and a safe, welcoming space to write and share.
Today is the first Friday of the month. Time for the Inklings challenge. Molly challenged us to write a poem that answers an unasked question in the spirit of Amy Ludwig VanDerwater’s poem Answer. I was intrigued by the way that Mary Lee responded to this prompt by writing after Joe Cottonwood’s Because a Redwood Grove. I wanted to borrow the form and use a repeated because.
Because a Poem
Because upon entering your breath is taken away into aha, yes-and, me, too.
Because breath has power to stop your heart and fill it up again.
Because words seem to know what they are doing.
Because alongside stars, rivers flow capturing refracted light.
If you would like to join the host round-up for Spiritual Thursday 2023, fill out this form.
The first week of the month also brings Spiritual Thursday. This is a roundup of bloggers writing about their Spiritual Journey. Bob Hamera has the gathering at his blog. He selected the topic of Acceptance and Change.
I follow Faith Broussard on Instagram. Faith was a classmate of my daughter’s and she currently lives in Atlanta. On Instagram, she’s become an influencer known as Fleur-de-lis Speaks. I loved her message today, and she used my 2022 One Little Word, Enough.
My family has changed in the last year. We lost my Dad, and this month we will meet our newest granddaughter. I once had a mentor who told me that God is Change. I actually believe that God is the constant in change. God does not leave us where we are, ever. There are changes that are hard, and changes that are good. Whatever the change, our acceptance, our open arms, our breath is enough. I am enough.
Thank you to Two Writing Teachers for creating an amazing community of writers and a safe, welcoming space to write and share.
On Poetry Friday, Amy Ludwig VanDerwater posted on The Poem Farm a slide show created by teacher/author Emily Callahan. Her 4th graders have been writing proverb poems after Amy’s. I shared the slide show with my student Chloe. She was inspired to write a prequel to Ms. Callahan’s students’ prequel poems. Here is her Fanschool page, Prequel Crazy.
Here it sits covered from the rain a chess board broken into pieces. I allow access to the board. He has found a new home. I glue it, I wash it, I rinse it, I dry it, I wrap it up and drive along a bumpy road the perfect gift to my daughter She asks, ” Where did you dig this up from?” “One man’s trash is another mans treasure Maybe you can do the same Like with a blanket?”
Chloe, 6th grade
I wrote alongside Chloe. A poem about my sister’s plan to create a quilt from my father’s shirts. I left the last line blank so I could make it a prequel to Chloe’s. We enjoyed this playful poem making. Thanks, Amy and Emily!
“One man’s trash is another man’s treasure”
The girl sees patterns, pictures in her father’s shirts, gathered, sorted, cut, stitched into a quilt of many colors, into a memory of many hugs, into a dream of everlasting rest. She sees more than anyone a life lived as a husband, a father, a doctor, an artist, a friend. She touches every day what he wore, a treasure in her hands. Maybe you could do the same. Maybe with a chess board.
Poetry Friday is with Amy at The Poem FarmThank you to Two Writing Teachers for creating an amazing community of writers and a safe, welcoming space to write and share.
I’m excited to hear from Tabatha that Imperfect II is almost here. I have a few small poems included. The anthology is ready for pre-order here. The blog for this book is here.
Hardcover for Imperfect II
My blog is featured on Twinkl as a Top 10+ poetry blog for children.
The Kidlit Progressive Poem begins on April 1st. The schedule is ready to go. Irene Latham starts us off. I can’t wait!
Click here to copy and paste the Kidlit Progressive Poem schedule.
I won a copy of Amy Ludwig VanDerwater’s new book If This Bird Had Pockets, released March 1st. Amy is one of my favorite poets and people. Her poetry makes me smile. It’s accessible to children and is just plain fun!
Personal signature on the title page of If This Bird Had Pockets
Many poets take on a poem-a-day project during National Poetry Month. I haven’t decided yet if I am creating one or just following along with someone else. What are your plans for celebrating National Poetry Month?
Last Wednesday I invited Mary Lee Hahn to teach my class. She is a retired 5th grade teacher in Ohio. Her poem Riches is the first poem in Amy Ludwig VanDerwater’s invaluable teacher resource Poems are Teachers. I wanted to share Mary Lee’s poem with my students and when I emailed her, she agreed to meet with my students. The marvel of technology makes author visits reasonable, practical, and possible.
Mary Lee wrote Riches about a photograph. She told us that the bird bath had frozen over with a myriad of leaves in it. Her husband removed the slab of ice and placed it in the sun, and she photograph it. The play of light in the ice attracted her eye and her poetic self.
Riches by Mary Lee Hahn
Mary Lee talked to my students about all the things that she thought about when she wrote the poem. She included thoughts from a book she was reading as well as loving thoughts about her husband, how he sees things that she doesn’t notice.
Today, I invite you to sit with all that is in your head alongside this photo. What surfaces for you? Write a small poem in the comments or on Facebook or on your own blog (or all three!). Be sure to encourage other writers with comments.
My student Avalyn (2nd grade) came to class today and performed for me a poem she had heard on TicTok. At first I wasn’t really paying attention, but as she spoke on, I was drawn in. She memorized Brown Eyes by Nadia McGhee. The line that was in my head when I composed my poem is “Your eyes carry earthquakes that bring mountains to their knees.”
Your eyes like the brown of a leaf in winter glimmer in the sunlight and smile at me when you say, “I love this poem!”
Thank you to Two Writing Teachers for creating an amazing community of writers and a safe, welcoming space to write and share.
Through blogging communities like this one (Slice of Life) and Poetry Friday, I’ve met many mentors for writing. Amy Ludwig VanDerwater is one of those special teacher-poets who generously gives of herself. During the pandemic shut down, she recorded videos in Betsy, her writing camper, every day. These can be found on her YouTube channel. Last year she went back to teaching, so she didn’t blog as much. Boy, did we miss her voice in cyberspace!
But she’s back and each week on Friday, she posts a mentor poem on The Poem Farm with student-friendly (and adult-friendly) instructions for writing your own poem. This past Friday, her poem came up on my Instagram and was just right for our writing time.
Crocheted wool hat by Margaret Simon
One of our kindergarten teachers is having a baby, so I crocheted a little hat for her new child. This was on my mind when I wrote alongside my students. I gifted the poem to Miss Heidi along with the hat.
When sheep’s wool becomes yarn becomes crochet becomes hat, a newborn baby’s head holds a sheep, yarn, hands, needle, warmth, and I wonder how prayers offered for a stranger growing inside a friend becomes a child wearing a hat passed on from sheep to hand to heart to warmth to love.
Margaret Simon
Jaden, 6th grade, has started a new trend when he writes his gratitude poem. If he makes a mistake, he turns it into a picture. I noticed his little designs and complimented him. He said, “Oh, I made those dots and stars because I messed up.” That sounds like a poem to me. And so he turned his mistakes into stars into a poem.
Recycle Poem
Old mistakes become rainbows and new designs old mistakes become new inspirations when I look at the designs will I remember the old mistakes? will I think of new ideas? shapes like stars and squares? or something new? what will the new mistakes become?
Jaden, 6th grade
One of the fourth grade teachers is raising monarchs. Katie was inspired by this and wrote her circle poem about the life cycle of a butterfly.
Life Cycle Poem
Out of a small egg comes a small, slimy, bean. A bean that squirms and grows and grows. Grows into a small chrysalis where it stays for a while until it’s ready to fly. Fly into the real world with beautiful, colored, wings and to reproduce another small egg.
Every week I am delighted to visit The Poem Farm. Amy Ludwig VanDerwater posts a poem and a student writing activity. A few weeks ago, I borrowed this post, The Real Me, and wrote I am poems with my students.
My students loved the activity. Many of them chose to post their poems on our kidblog site. I invited Amy to write comments. You should have heard them reading aloud their personalized comments; the pride in their voices made my heart sing. Amy has a talent for connecting to kids and finding just the right words to say. Thanks, Amy.
I wrote alongside my students. I put together my favorite lines to create this poem:
I am a lionness set in the stars, that drumbeat around a warm campfire.
I am a longing look from a silent child, a melody strummed on his guitar.
I am a secret scratched on a yellow sticky note. Don’t tell anyone who I am.
Poetry Friday round-up is with Tabatha at The Opposite of Indifference
What a thrill to be a part of this amazing collection of poems from all over our great country! This honor was made possible by the connections I’ve made in Poetry Friday. Because Amy Ludwig VanDerwater knows me, when J. Patrick Lewis was looking for a Louisiana children’s poet, she connected us. The poem I wrote, “Louisiana Bayou Song” became the title poem of my first poetry book published by UL Press this summer.
I also know many of the poets included in the collection, and if you read more Poetry Friday posts, you will find them, too. Today, Buffy Silverman’s post includes 4 poems from the book. Last week, Amy Ludwig VanDerwater posted her poem “A Note from the Trail.”
Here’s Linda Kulp Trout’s poem about Helen Keller. And Mary Lee has two poems included. Robyn Hood Black shared her poem, “Mural Compass.” If I find more, I will add the links into this post.
My poem sits on a two page spread that includes an amazing heron photograph and a heart-wrenching Katrina poem by the anthologist J. Patrick Lewis. I feel I am sitting among my poet-heroes.
Louisiana Bayou Song
Sometimes on the bayou in Louisiana a storm rolls in quickly– Cypress trees sway to the sound.
Sometimes on a quiet day when the sun is high and hot a heron happens by– The bayou slows to the beat of his wading.
The song of the bayou can be as fast and frenetic as a Zydeco two-step or as soft and slow as a Cajun waltz– The bayou sings a song to me.
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 