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Posts Tagged ‘cherita’

Slice of Life Day 5: This Photo Wants to be a Poem: Sky

Posted in nature, Photography, Poetry, Slice of Life, This Photo Wants to be a Poem, Writing, tagged , on March 5, 2025| 41 Comments »

Sky by Margaret Simon

Welcome to my weekly photo prompt. A few years ago, Laura Purdie Salas held a weekly prompt called 15 Words or Less. When she decided to stop posting, I took the idea and made it my own. If this is your first time here, the idea is to write a quick, small poem draft in the comments and leave encouraging comments for other writers. I also post this prompt for my students each week on Fanschool. This week we have a break, so they may or may not join in.

I love to look up at the sky. On any given day, the sky can change my mood. On the day I took this picture, the clouds were wispy cirrus clouds that mean high air pressure and cooler temperatures. They are a happy contrast to storm clouds or the grey stratus of a winter day. Even as an adult I enjoy looking for images in the clouds. I took this photo while out on carline duty, so only now do I have the time to see the shapes. Do you do this? Can you find an image in the clouds? What do you imagine?

Did you know there are many names for colors of the sky?

Sky blue colors from Pinterest

Try to use one of the color words in your poem. Today I am writing a cherita. It’s a short form of three stanzas. The first line is one line, the second: two, the third: three. Similar to haiku, a cherita captures a small moment or story.

Carline Duty

Look into the Carolina blue sky.

Find the great white heron
with whispering white feathers.

Be curious about the secrets
of sky gods
who oversee the safety of children.
Margaret Simon, draft

Thank you to Two Writing Teachers for creating an amazing community of writers and a safe, welcoming space to write and share.

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This Photo Wants to be a Poem: Aquatic Colonnaide Maquettes

Posted in Photography, Poetry, This Photo Wants to be a Poem, Writing, tagged , , , on February 26, 2025| 2 Comments »

Metal Sculpture by Ida Kohlmeyer at New Orleans Aquarium

Last week I met our friend from Maine, Molly Hogan, and her husband in the Quarter in New Orleans. She was visiting, and it was Jeff’s birthday, so we took the day off to visit with them during their vacation. One of the things we came upon (in addition to a fabulous walking parade) was a unique sculpture garden outside of the Aquarium of the Americas.

Further research identified these sculptures as being restored sculptures by artist Ida Kohlmeyer (1912-1997). The installation was supported by a grant to the Ogden Museum of Art. The sculptures are titled Aquatic Collonade Maquettes. AI defines this as “a small scale model, or “maquette”, that depicts a colonnade, which is a row of columns typically joined by an entablature, often used in classical architecture to create a covered walkway or part of a larger building.” For more information, click here.

I invite you to write a small poem about this sculpture. In the spirit of shared art, please encourage others with your comments.

I chose to write a cherita poem. A story poem told in three stanzas (1 line, 2 lines, 3 lines).

The collonade invites her in

with a curtsy and a bow,
curly flowers in her hair.

She dances in her ocean dream
obliviously happy
among her aquatic guests.
Margaret Simon, draft

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Spiritual Thursday and Poetry Friday: Open the Door

Posted in Poetry Friday, Spiritual Growth, Writing, tagged , , , , , on February 7, 2025| 23 Comments »

Poetry Friday is hosted today by Carol at Beyond Literacy Link

On the first Friday of the month, Inklings (my trusty writing group) respond to a challenge. Mary Lee made it easy this month. She asked us to type a color into the public domain image archive and find a photo to write about. I chose lilac. I immediately got a photo I knew was telling a story. I imagined that Lilas and the bug are having a conversation.

“Unhappy the man who never had his eyes fill with tears at the sight of a particular flower. Such a one can have been neither a child nor a youth. He can have had neither mother, sister, nor affianced bride. He never loved.” This is the tone and tenor throughout Les Fleurs animées (The Flowers personified), a collection of floral — and sometimes florid — writing, featuring playful illustrations by J. J. Grandville (1803–1847), engraved and hand-colored by Charles Michel Geoffroy.

How Lilas Learns of Love (a cherita)

With draping lilacs for long locks,

Lilas questions Sir Ladybug,
“Where will my love grow?”

Love grows from a starter seed
planted small in your heart
until with wisdom, grace, and tender care…Blooms!

Margaret Simon, draft

To see other Inkling poems, visit their blogs:
Linda @A Word Edgewise
Mary Lee @ A(nother) Year of Reading
Molly @ Nix the Comfort Zone (and oh boy, did she ever…)
Heidi @my juicy little universe
Catherine @ Reading to the Core 

Spiritual Journey first Thursday is gathered by Bob Hamera.

Bob suggested we ponder the idea that doors may close while another one opens, how focusing on the closed door may lead us to miss the open one. My father spoke about this in his firm belief that there is always a resurrection. Jesus showed us in a very real sense that when someone dies, it is not the end. I’ve always prided myself on a belief in the resurrection; however, when faced with an actual closed door, a death of something in my life that I put my trust in, whether it be a job, a friendship, a manuscript, I get lost and lonely and question. That is the rough part of the death/resurrection story arc.

I am following a path to a new journey to retirement. This is a door I’ve chosen, but even so, I have mixed feelings. So many of my days with my students are good, happy, and fulfilling. I will miss teaching, I know. I also know I’m a teacher through and through. I chose this career when I was 15 years old. I will find ways to still be a teacher. I keep telling myself this truth, but it’s not easy. When I tell people I’m retiring, I hear “Congratulations!” I wish I could feel excited. Is it the closed door I fear? Or the open one I’m unsure about?

Resurrection fern is grey when the sun is out, but turns to bright green after the rain. May God bless us with the knowledge and grit to survive the grey and thrive again after the rain.

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This Photo Wants to be a Poem: Snake Skin Nest

Posted in Photography, Poetry, This Photo Wants to be a Poem, tagged , , , on January 29, 2025| 11 Comments »

Happy New Year! Today is the Chinese New Year and this year, 2025, is the year of the snake. I am totally afraid of snakes. I even find it hard to touch a photo of a snake. But this year I’m trying on a new skin, a more brave stance toward the scaly beasts. What are they good for?

At a recent art show, I saw this sculpture from nature. Can you find the snake skin? It is fascinating that snakes get to shed their skin in order to grow and change. Snakes symbolize transformation and creativity. How can we as humans “take off our skin” and begin again?

I was reminded of the cherita form in a post yesterday and wanted to offer it for today’s writing prompt. Simply put, a cherita tells a short story in stanzas of one line, two lines, and three lines.

What are your hopes for 2025? What skin do you need to leave behind? Explore with me in a small poem.

Hidden in a bramble of dried prairie grass

A single snake skin looms
empty, translucent, urging me

To believe* in the possibility
of creative transformation
and strength.
by Margaret Simon, draft

*One Little Word 2025

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This Photo Wants to be a Poem: Scotland

Posted in Photography, Poetry, This Photo Wants to be a Poem, Writing, tagged , on October 9, 2024| 28 Comments »

by Mary Lee Hahn on the Isle of Harris, Scotland.

Recently I’ve had three different friends travel to Scotland. I think it’s a sign that I am meant to travel there. And, of course “Outlander” on Netflix is my current binge obsession. Mary Lee has been posting daily albums on Facebook of her travels. I chose this one, but they are all amazing. Can’t you just hear the bagpipes and feel the cool breeze?

Let’s travel today in our poems. Where would you like to go? Maybe a stay-cation is all you need. Close your eyes and dream. Please leave a poem in the comments and respond to other writers.

Mary Lee is writing daily cherita poems of one line, two lines, three lines that tell a complete story. So I chose the cherita form.

Scotland calls me

to hear the wind
roar across the sea

and be a traveler
wondering isle to isle
seeking Skye.

Margaret Simon, draft

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This Photo Wants to be a Poem: Chicken

Posted in Slice of Life, This Photo Wants to be a Poem, tagged , , on March 20, 2024| 37 Comments »

I wrote a book years ago about a girl who loved a chicken. Her name was Blessen. Blessen still lives in my heart. I don’t know her, but I know her because I created her. Here is a child I don’t know. She is hugging a chicken. I love the image and I borrowed it from Facebook. I don’t have permission to publish it, so please do not take it.

Can you create a character in a poem today? A child who loves chickens or all animals? Who is she? Explore her with a fictional poem. Today I am choosing the form of cherita which is a 6-lined poem broken into 3 stanzas. (stanza 1: one line; stanza 2: 2 lines; stanza 3: 3 lines.) Cherita means story, so the poem should tell a story. An example from Mary Lee is here.

Curly locks and black feathers

hold on to each other–
friend to friend

Cherishing a moment
before the parade
when black feathers will fly.

Margaret Simon, draft

There is a weird tradition here in South Louisiana at Mardi Gras when country folks chase a chicken for a gumbo. It’s a drunken, barbaric affair that I struggle with. Many believe it is harmless fun.

Leave your own poem (cherita or other small poem) in the comments. Give encouraging responses to other writers.

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NPM 2023: Cherita

Posted in Poetry, tagged , , on April 3, 2023| 3 Comments »

Does a poem ever wake you up in the morning, in that liminal space between sleep and awake? I had to get up an hour before I usually do to make sure I captured it.

My mother-in-law whom I wrote about yesterday refuses to write her memoir. She’s written five books now, three mystery novels based on stories from her days as a District Judge, and two historical fiction books. She asked me “What should I write next?” I emphatically said “Your memoir.” Yesterday she looked at me and turned the proverbial key on her lips meaning her lips are sealed. There are some things I already know. She grew up in New Jersey, went to Wellesley then to Yale Law School where she met my father-in-law and moved to Louisiana with him, a shocking move for her parents to grasp.

Mary Lee is writing cherita poems this month. “Cherita is the Malay word for story or tale. A cherita consists of a single stanza of a one-line verse, followed by a two-line verse, and then finishing with a three-line verse…The cherita tells a story.”

Storytelling is about healing the heart and mind.

It enables us to remember and not forget those who went before us, and also of those who loved or hurt us with their words and deeds. The recording, both oral and written, and sharing of stories is age-old. When we start to write, we bring to life the lost words of yesterday – from just a few moments ago to the time of our ancestors huddled around a roaring fire in some smoky cave of all our beginnings.

Be the storyteller and healer you are meant to be. Make us laugh, cry and be entranced by six lines of your words.

Storytelling is oxygen for the soul.

From thecherita.com

The Progressive Poem is with Tabatha today. Follow along here.

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