Posted in Celebration Saturday, Poetry, Writing, tagged Bayou Teche, haiku on February 25, 2017| 10 Comments »
Find more celebration posts at Ruth’s blog.
Good Morning Haiku
1. Light streams on bayou
wake up trees to stand tall for
perfect reflection.2. Frothy milk swirling
atop French roast coffee drips,
sweet cafe au lait.3. Breezy walk with Anne-
dogs sniff, pull, and interrupt
our conversation.4. Breakfast at Victor’s,
savor sweet potato pancakes,
crispy bacon.5. A day like today,
watering is not a chore;
Praise gentle morning.–Margaret Simon
Posted in Photography, Poetry, tagged #haikuforhealing, Bayou Teche, haiku-a-day on December 12, 2016| 1 Comment »
Posted in Gratitude, Slice of Life, Writing, tagged Bayou Teche, canoeing, cypress trees, October on October 25, 2016| 10 Comments »
Join the Two Writing Teachers blog for the Slice of Life Challenge.
Living on the bayou is a gift I don’t always remember to appreciate, but on Saturday, I announced to my husband, “It’s a gorgeous day. We have to go canoeing.”
For the first Saturday this month we had little to do. I sat outside on my deck, clean and inviting from the wedding we had a few short weeks ago, and watched my neighbors prepare for their daughter’s wedding reception. Tents and lights and tables and chairs were going up, and all I needed to do was watch. The lack of responsibility felt freeing.
Peeking through the grandmother oak to the wedding prep next door.
Jeff quickly grabbed the paddles, life jackets, and a lunchbox of two beers, and launched the canoe. This canoe has a long history, close to 50 years. The Grumman. He and his brother bought it together when they were Boy Scouts competing in canoe races.
Jeff paddles the stern, the steering part.
The bayou was slow and still, offering endless reflections. The air was a perfect 70+ degrees. I know that happiness is fleeting, but on this day in October, we grabbed hold of it, and spent some time savoring and celebrating the goodness.
Cypress tree reflection
Posted in Photography, Poetry, Slice of Life, Writing, tagged Annie Dillard, Bayou Teche, nature poem on May 3, 2016| 18 Comments »
Join the Two Writing Teachers blog for March Slice of Life Challenge.
Emerging from 30 days of poetry, words eluded me. I looked outside for inspiration. With my camera in hand, I captured the natural meaning of the word saturated.
Reflections in the flood by Margaret Simon
After three days of incessant rain, I am saturated.
The ground below is just a shadow.
My words are hiding there.
Resurrection Fern by Margaret Simon
Fern glistens in the emerging sun.
Beauty finds me
speechless.
Lizard face-off
by Margaret Simon
Like these lizards,
face to face
puff up and show their true colors,
I dive back in,
searching for the light.
Bayou Sunspot
by Margaret Simon
When I am not even trying, poetry finds me. In reflection of her month-long poem-a-day writing, Violet Nesdoly posted this quote from Annie Dillard.
Anything you do not give freely and abundantly becomes lost to you. You open your safe and find ashes. – Annie Dillard
I turn to poetry when I feel inadequate. When I’m not sure what to write, creating a verse moves me forward. So here I am again, no challenge, no poem-a-day, just me, opening the page, and giving freely, so my writing will not turn to ashes.
Posted in Digital Learning, Photography, Writing, tagged #sdawpphotovoices, Bayou Teche, digital literacy, Digital photography, inspiration, Kim Douillard, quiet on January 24, 2016| 4 Comments »
Please use this button on your site for DigiLit Sunday posts
As an educator and as a writer, I am always on the look-out for inspiration. It can come in the form of a blog post, a quote, a video, or an image.
This school year I decided to start a new posting on my kidblog site. I called it Snippet of the Sea to go along with my blog title, Mrs. Simon’s Sea. Each week I post something and ask the students to respond. I started out using quotes. I’ve used videos. And since the new year began, I’ve posted poems.
At first my goal was to promote kindness. The quotes had to do with kindness. But now I see that my purpose is more about inspiring real thinking. I want to expose my students to good, strong words and inspire them to be good stewards of their own words.
To view last week’s poem post by Irene Latham and my students’ thoughtful responses, click here.
I was this close to choosing Inspire as my one little word. I still feel attached to it. The meaning connecting breath and creativity appeals to the core of who I want to be. However, the root meaning spirit tells me that this word belongs to the Creator.
in·spire inˈspī(ə)r/ verb
1. fill (someone) with the urge or ability to do or feel something, especially to do something creative.
“his passion for romantic literature inspired him to begin writing”
synonyms: stimulate, motivate, encourage, influence, rouse, move, stir, energize, galvanize, incite
2. breathe in (air); inhale.
Kim Douillard of Thinking through my Lens inspires me. This week her photo challenge is Quiet. Works well with the quiet, restful week I’ve had. Living on the bayou, I am witness to the quiet calm of nature. On Saturday morning, a blue heron was perched on the water in the rising sunlight. He was there again this morning in the fog. I captured these images.
Bayou heron, Margaret Simon.
Blue heron wings, Margaret Simon
What inspires you? Inspires your students? Share your digital literacy posts below.
Posted in Slice of Life, tagged alligator, Bayou Teche, Korean visitors, waltz on October 21, 2014| 7 Comments »
Join the Two Writing Teachers Slice of Life Challenge.
Our Korean guests brought us delicious nut bars as a thank you gift.
This weekend was a glorious weekend on the bayou! My neighbors had a wedding. Their son and his bride met in Korea where they were both teaching English. They came home in early September, but my friend has been preparing for this event for a year or more. Our backyards meet at a line of live oaks and is a beautiful setting for a wedding, especially on a clear day in October.
We were asked to house the photographer and his son, both of Korean descent. Soomin, Saeho’s son, visited my first class on Friday. We had a delightful time learning about Korea. Soomin is ten (11 in Korea), so he fit in well with my group of 5th and 6th graders. I was amazed at his knowledge of English. I put a chart on the board and wrote Hello on one side. Soomin drew beautiful Korean characters on the other side. But how does one read that word? We eventually resorted to Google translator. There is a speaker who helped us hear the pronunciation. I gave up after the second word we tried, “Thank you.” And here was Soomin who could read, write, and speak both languages. Amazing!
A view from our yard to the wedding.
Saeho and Soomin spent the weekend with us. On Sunday, my husband took them out on the bayou in a canoe. They even saw a real alligator sunning on a log. We never see alligators. What a treat for our visitors! (I secretly hope the gator works his way farther down the bayou.)
I am enjoying making videos in Imovie. I took two videos, one of a scan of the bayou, and one of the boys in the canoe. If you look hard, you can see Soomin waving. The alligator did not make it into the video. The music is a honeymoon waltz performed by David Greely. Relax and enjoy a few seconds on the Bayou Teche. I wish I could send you the sweet smelling air, too. (It’s sugarcane harvest time.)
Posted in Slice of Life, tagged Bay St. Louis, Bayou Teche, Grandmother Oak, writing muse on March 9, 2013| 14 Comments »
Sunrise at Bay St. Louis
The Slice of Life Challenge is just that…a challenge. We must pay attention every day to our lives. We have to listen and think. We have to compose in our heads. We even dream about what we will write next. I use the proverbial we here because I’m sure all of the Slicers are experiencing this. Today is Day 9, and I was running low on the muse. I have been keeping up a day ahead, but yesterday was Friday, which translates to “I’m fried day.” I had just enough energy to take on the commenting challenge, but I wasn’t up to writing.
This morning early I texted a friend to check in. We haven’t been able to work out a get together in a while. She was, low and behold, on the beach. She sent me the picture above. She also sent me a recording of the sounds she heard, the swishing of waves and the calls of the gulls. Here is our conversation. Walking together, alone.
I’m on the beach
walking with the laughing gulls
calls and caws.Tell them hello in gull speak.
Thanks for lighting up my cell this morning.
Missing my friend!
Missing you, yet happy to be in touch again.
What beauty you walk in. I will hold
this gift for those days when
I need a calm friend.Sweet.
I walked outside to the sounds of mockingbirds, woodpeckers, and robins. This is my scenery, our grandmother oak standing tall and proud over the bayou. Not bad for a quiet Saturday morning.
Grandmother oak on Bayou Teche
Slice of Life Challenge Day 9
Posted in Poetry, Slice of Life, tagged Bayou Teche, Clare Martin, collaborative poem, nature poem on March 4, 2013| 5 Comments »
Every week I get an email from Poets & Writers called “The Time is Now.” You can sign up, too. They send out prompts for writing. A few weeks ago, the poetry prompt suggested collaborating by email or text on a poem with each person adding a line until the poem felt complete. I invited my new poet friend, Clare Martin, to participate with me. We composed it using Facebook messenger. We each revised to create our own poem. I am posting my version.
Stained Glass
Reflection of bare trees
stripe the still bayou.
See into the reflection.
Clouds become water.Water holds a dark harm–
dangerous depth,
deceiving beauty.
The surface holds the whole sky.A single tear
breaks the glass.
Slip within the sky.
See your self in the depths.Slice of Life Challenge Day 4
Posted in Blessen, Slice of Life, Writing, tagged Bayou Teche, Slice, young readers on April 24, 2012| 6 Comments »
Read other Slice of Life writers at The Two Writing Teachers
For a long time, I have wanted to be a writer. I recently found my teenage diary and in it I had written some really bad rhyming poetry. But at the bottom of the page I found this.
"I would love to be a writer if only someone would give me confidence!"
When do we let go of our dreams? The summer following this diary entry, I volunteered for a program called “Operation Life Enrichment.” The program was designed to enrich the lives of underprivileged children who had difficulty with reading. That experience led me to a path of becoming a teacher. The writer in me did not go away, but she was buried deep within.
In 1995, I had the privilege of being selected for the National Writing Project’s Summer Institute. We were a group of fellow teachers writing about our lives and learning from each other. The motto of the NWP, “A teacher of writing is a writer,” went straight to my heart.
One of my favorite writing project events has been an annual “writing marathon” in New Orleans led by the Southeastern Writing Project. For three days, teacher-writers gather to be practicing writers. In the summer of 2009, the focus was on fiction. I spent the days with two other women. We wrote, read, revised, and each created a fiction short story. I began to feel like a fiction writer.
Not long after the New Orleans writing marathon, I attended a fiction workshop with Sharon Arms Doucet, author of Fiddle Fever and Alligator Sue. The workshop took place an hour away. As I drove Highway 31 along the Bayou Teche, the story of Blessen began in my mind. I passed True Friend Road. I saw a row of crape myrtle trees.
From where I stand next to the chicken coop, I can see Pawpee’s old house and the two rows of crape myrtles in full bloom lining the gravel driveway. Pawpee still trims those trees every fall with a cherry picker from his wheelchair. He says he’s topping the trees to make the blossoms fan out like a fiery bouquet.
While at the workshop, I wrote the first chapter. On our lunch break, the owner of the restaurant retold a story that became the Piggly Wiggly scene for Chapter 2.
Fiction is born of real life, the stories we hear and the ones we imagine. Over the years, I grew to know and love Blessen. When I listened, she told me about her life. I believe in her story. I am so proud to have her come alive in my first young readers novel. I hope one day you will come to know and love her, too.
Link to Blessen’s Facebook page.
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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 