Flowers are fascinating, and their names can be entertaining. I took a drive out to the country on Sunday to visit a friend. She had naked ladies growing in her yard. As I was leaving, she said, “Can I cut you some hurricane lilies?”
“I thought they were naked ladies.”
She may have blushed. “Yes some people call them that.”
When I put “naked ladies” into Google, more name possibilities popped up: Belladonna Lily, Bareroot Red Surprise Lily, Resurrection Lily, August Lily, Red Spider Lily, Lycoris Raidanti.
Let’s have a little fun today with these names. Play with one of them in a small poem. Post in the comments. Reply with encouraging comments to others. Happy Hump Day!
Naked Ladies in the country, Margaret Simon
red stamens reach up resurrected from bare earth radiant surprise
Last week when my youngest daughter, Martha, set up her office on the back deck, she watched hummingbirds fighting at the feeder. It was one of those rare high pressure/ low humidity days with an actual breeze. She had to silence the wind chimes for her Zoom calls. Today, Martha’s office is back in New Orleans as power has returned.
Currently I am watching the rain bands of Hurricane Nicholas (now a tropical storm) fill up the bayou. The hummers are still coming. That’s a good sign.
My friend Molly Hogan in Maine has been watching these amazing birds, too, and taking amazing photos of them. She sent me this one.
For my students, since this is a virtual learning day due to the storm, I linked the photo to this Wonderopolis article and used one of the facts in my haiku.
photo by Molly Hogan
Peach-sweet zinnia fanned by wingbeats 200 times per second: Zest!
Haiku draft, Margaret Simon
Please write a small poem in the comments and reply to other writers with encouraging words. Thanks for being here.
On Tuesday evening I participated in a free webinar from Highlights with Lesléa Newman called “Poetry to Soothe the Soul”. During the presentation, I realized I had picked up one of her books at NCTE last fall, October Mourning. I went on a search for it and found it and have been reading. It’s a verse novel about the killing of Matthew Shephard. Her use of short form and repetition is affective in that book.
The Patrol Officer’s Report
two thin white tear tracks one red swollen blood-caked face this is someone’s child
With us, she shared her own Pandemic Haiku. Her homework assignment was to write our own. I had written a haiku a few weeks ago and sent in a soundbite of me reading it to Alan Nakagawa’s sound collage commissioned by OCMA, Social Distance, Haiku, and You! This week I received a link to all the creative sound recordings. They had more than 500 entries. My haiku is included in Part B. Posted here if you choose to listen.
Heartbroken world mourns Loss of who we were before Waiting for new life -Margaret Simon
On Wednesday, I collected moments throughout my day in haiku. Here is my collection:
Pandemic Haiku
In a viral time, let us be grateful for this: Breath. Green. Life.
Early morning sun slant of light through cypress shades welcoming hummers
Walks with Leo are a wander, meander See dat, dat, and dat?
Chalk art on sidewalks greet passersby with colors “This too shall pass!”
A new duck tenant three eggs today lay in the wood duck house.
Seven green-gold charms chrysalis-haven for wings to magically form.
Watching my screen I see Chloe, Rylee, you in your own kitchen.
Don’t know what will be when the viral storm calms down I hope for a hug.
Thank you to Two Writing Teachers for creating an amazing community of writers and a safe, welcoming space to write and share.
Poetry Friday round-up is Michelle Kogan. Click over to join the round up and to read poems from The Best of Today’s Little Ditty, including one of mine.
Ethical ELA posts a 5 day Poetry Challenge each month. (Next month, there will be a prompt every day for National Poetry Month.) This month I participated in only two days, but I shared one of the activities with my students this week on our Kidblog site.
Click here to see the full prompt from Jennifer Goyer-Jowett.
Her prompt included finding a Japanese character to write a haiku from. I chose river. (There isn’t one for bayou.)
Kawa
In the process of finding this character, I discovered the Japanese word Kawaakari which means the gleam of last light on a river’s surface at dusk.
Last light of first day glows like any other, yet gleam lingers longer.
Margaret Simon, draft
Knowing my student Madison would jump on this prompt (she loves all things Japanese), I posted the prompt to my class Kidblog site. I’m sharing their wonderful responses.
Ember’s graceful flight,
Sparks fly, blizzards and tornadoes
of dire fire.
Madison, 6th grade
Mizu means water
Maddox, 5th grade, wrote “The Japanese character I chose is mizu which stands for water. It represents the fluid flowing and the formless things in the world.”
fluid flowing streams
flowing in the wild forest
complete harmony
Maddox, 5th grade
A.J., 6th grade, chose tree.
Standing tall and firm,
Strong arms supporting small twigs,
Uneven Fractal.
A. J., 6th grade
Breighlynn, 4th grade wrote, “My Japanese character is Kaze. Kaze is for wind. It represents Freedom of movement.”
One of the joys of summer is participating in Tabatha Yeatts’ Summer Poetry Swap. Tabatha creates the matchups, and we enjoy sending and receiving poetic gifts.
This week I received a gift from Jone MacCulloch. Jone took an amazing trip this summer to Page, Arizona where she took photos in Secret Canyon. She wrote a beautiful poem capturing the feeling of being there. She had the image printed onto a plaque that has a stand, so it all becomes a piece of art to display.
I took a quick trip to the beach in Florida last week with my daughter. I posted an interesting image on Instagram and invited friends to write a haiku to it. I had a few takers. The catch was they couldn’t use the word “sun”.
Beach reflection, photo by Margaret Simon
reflective water meets the blinding summer’s jewel they kiss in between
Kaylie Bonin ( a former student, now college freshman)
day’s ending water ignites one final moment
Linda Baie
yellow and white light drawn together by nature reflects the divine
Evelyn Migues
my eyes catch the light bright reflection from above I need sunglasses
Gloria McKenzie
If you want to play along, leave a haiku response in the comments.
The more I play with the poetry tools, the less I trust them. I want to manipulate the words into something, anything that rings true. Yesterday I combined magnetic word pieces with metaphor dice. Both of these poems interested me, but I don’t think either is a great poem. Let’s just live in the moment for a moment.
White misty rose
unspoken kiss
of light wine
True summer echoes
as delicate time lost
my bare feet say-shine
Over the weekend I bought a new magnetic poetry kit, The Edgar Allan Poe version. Lots of words spread out on a cookie sheet. I created an Earth Day haiku.
A discovery walk near our hotel led to a path along Purple Creek, the very creek that ran behind my childhood home. Along the shore were two Canada Geese with 5 little goslings, an Easter morning miracle.
See more posts at Two Writing Teachers Slice of Life .
St. Mary Falls, Glacier Park
Montana mountains
marvel me with rugged peaks
water blue as topaz.
Bear Grass wildflower Glacier Park, Montana
Bear grass blossoms
a mountain spray of stars
invite travelers in.
Kayaker on St. Mary Lake, Glacier Park, Montana.
Lone kayak streams
rock mosaic reflection
private piece of heaven
I understand why Basho turned to haiku to capture moments in nature. They are just too big to write big about. Last week, my husband and I spent July 4th with my friend Dani and her husband, Randy, hiking in Glacier Park. A note about Dani: We meet through a Voxer group and Twitter chats with #G2Great. It means so much to me to have a close friend so far away. What a joy to get our guys together and spend time in a magnificent wonderland! These pictures say it all, beauty and majesty, and all that is good.
Poetry Friday posts are with Irene at Live Your Poem
Last week, my friend, poet, blogger, writing partner Linda Mitchell posted her found haiku along with the inspirational poem Letter in October by Ted Kooser. See her post here. I took it all to create a lesson for my students. After study of and talk about Ted Kooser’s poem, I shared Linda’s haiku and talked about how these haiku could stand separate from the original poem. I challenged my students to try finding haiku.
Madison created this lovely poem, but first she gave the form a name “re-ku” as in recycled haiku.
A late light dawning
finding a world of darkness.
Silhouettes of the
lost leaves, soaring
on a draft. They have lost
their way. I watch the
darkness, sipping tea.
The night has wrapped the light, sowing
reflections ‘cross
my window. Watch.
Madison, 4th grade
Free image
I’m fascinated by the rhythm and repetition that Noah used to create his artistic expression of A Letter in December.
The icy water
a letter in December
Sowing reflections
The icy writing
a letter in December
in the window pane
The icy fingers
a letter in December
wrapped around the hearth
The icy shingles
a letter in December
frozen in its place.
I love that we have a whole month of celebrating poetry. My students walk into class each day and ask, “What kind of poem are we writing today?” or “I have been thinking about writing a poem about wind.”
I’ve read articles, listened to podcast, and read lots of daily poetry this month. I don’t want it to end! Check on the progress of the Progressive Poem. Listen to Laura Shovan on All the Wonders. Find a selection of daily poem writers on Jama’s Alphabet Soup.
Yesterday I got a postcard poem from Jone MacCulloch’s kids poetry group, an ode to cheating. We will be trying out odes next week, so I’ll share this one with my students. I love the irony of flying hearts and pencils around this topic of cheating.
Here’s my poem for today, a little haiku about our state flower Magnolia. They are blooming!
I live on the Bayou Teche in New Iberia, Louisiana. I love teaching, poetry, my dog Charlie, my three daughters, and dancing with my husband. This space is where I capture my thoughts, share my insights, and make connections with the world. Welcome! Walk in kindness.
Reflections on the Teche 