#imagepoems | Reflections on the Teche

Posts Tagged ‘#imagepoems’

This Photo Wants to Be Grateful

Posted in Blogging, Photography, Poetry, Poetry Friday, This Photo Wants to be a Poem, Writing, tagged #imagepoems, #poemsofpresence, Denver street art, free verse poem, Joyce Sidman, letter poem, This Photo Wants to be a Poem on November 27, 2025| 19 Comments »

Crocheted tree wrap on the streets of Denver

I am happily home and cozy after being in Denver for a week of busy (NCTE) and, after Jeff came, walking. We clocked over 20,000 steps on Monday.

Today I am taking a day off before my family comes for Friday Thanksgiving. I wanted to take this opportunity to thank the poetry community, so wonderfully kind and generous. Some of you I hugged and talked to at NCTE. Others of you stop by this blog and give support through comments. Reflections on the Teche (pronounced Tesh) is my happy place because of you, my readers.

Today’s photo is a crochet-wrapped tree. I’m using a free verse form today following a prompt from Joyce Sidman after her book Dear Acorn, Love, Oak: a compliment, a question, and a wish.

A Tree that Grows in Denver
Single crochet,
double crochet,
cluster-hills & valleys,
green, pink, purple
blooming round
a tree that juts from concrete.
Your colors give warmth
when times are tough.
Will you twirl with me?
I hope your dancing colors
fill the gloom with bright
like a vine that’s lost control
and only seeks the light.
(Margaret Simon, draft)

Poetry Friday will be gathered at Buffy Silverman’s blog.

If you are feeling the muse of this photo, leave a poem draft in the comments. Support other writers with your responses.

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This Photo Wants to be a Poem: Heron Horizon

Posted in Photography, Poetry, This Photo Wants to be a Poem, Writing, tagged #imagepoems, #poemsofpresence, haiku, John Gibson, poems of nature, purple creek, small poems on June 26, 2024| 31 Comments »

Great Blue Heron on Purple Creek, Ridgeland, Ms. by Margaret Simon

On a recent visit to Mississippi, I caught this flight of a great blue heron on my phone camera. The wingspan of these birds amazes me. They fly low across the water and perch near the water’s edge to forage for minnows and other small aquatics. This photo reminds me of a drawing my father did of a heron over the water.

I invite you to write today using these photos as inspiration. Leave a small poem in the comments and support other writers with your responses.

The Flight of the Great Blue Heron

Poised dawn glider
Horizon solitude
Regal wave to God

Margaret Simon, draft

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Poetry Friday: Magic Sky

Posted in Photography, Poetry, Poetry Friday, Writing, tagged #imagepoems, #ProjectPoem, #sky on July 7, 2017| 15 Comments »

Poetry Friday is Carol at Beyond Literacy Link

While I was vacationing for the 4th of July in Santa Fe, NM, my Voxer Good2Great friend, Jen Hayhurst tagged me in a post about her #ProjectPoetry. I wrote about the project on my Slice of Life post on Tuesday.

I have this self-assigned goal of writing a poem a day. That gets tough when you have a husband who wants to walk all over New Mexico. My writing muscles had to give way to my walking muscles. Nevertheless, I took some pictures that planted some ideas in my brain. Once home I had time to sit. Sit with the images and process a poem. Jen’s goals for writing poems are to synthesize experience and ignite curiosity. This is what poetry should be, in our lives as well as in our classrooms.

Last night I watched Kylene Beers and Bob Probst do a Facebook live video about their book, Disrupting Thinking. When someone asked if poetry should be the first unit taught in the school year, Kylene answered, “Poetry is not a unit. Poetry is something we breath in. We should breathe in poetry every day.”

Take a deep breath and look at the amazing sky. I was astounded and mesmerized by the huge sky of New Mexico. It seemed somehow bigger and brighter and mightier there. Maybe because I was paying attention. Maybe because there was something to be learned. Maybe just to be captured in a poem.

The Magic Sky
Sculpts grey clouds
into bursts
of sparkling rain.

Then a rainbow,
a puffy horse
riding beside.

I stand above
this Rio Grande Gorge,
feel like a speck
of dust in the wind
to the magician
of the sky.

–Margaret Simon

Next Friday is National Mac and Cheese Day. Who knew there was such a thing? So Poetry Friday folks are planning to write about Mac-n-Cheese. Join in the yummy fun.

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NPM #2 and #3: Dancing Clouds and Expectant Blossoms

Posted in Poetry, tagged #imagepoems, #wonderbreak, acrostic poetry, Read Write Think on April 3, 2017| 2 Comments »

This National Poetry Month button was created by my student Lani. If your students are writing a poem-a-day, you are welcome to use this button. My students are posting their poems here.

My Sunday poem came to me during the shower. Because I couldn’t write it down or record it, I kept saying it over and over, like a musical refrain. Then I wrote it on a sticky note. I was thinking about how the clouds seem to be dancers passing each other in the sky. Sometimes poems come whole, and all I have to do is write them down.

On Monday, after my morning walk, I noticed closed blossoms in the flower bed. Such a pleasant surprise. I know they will open up once the sun comes out, so I thought of the word expectant. Since it was our first day of ABCs of poetry in my class, we were writing acrostics today. I found a student interactive on Read, Write, Think.
My student Lynzee helped me write this poem. I wanted to use the word radiant, but it didn’t fit with the letters. We put radiant into the online thesaurus and found emanating.

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NPM16 #29: Words

Posted in Poetry, Poetry Friday, Teaching, Writing, tagged #imagepoems, Mary Oliver, nature poem, Rumi, steal like an artist, word groups on April 29, 2016| 11 Comments »

Poetry Friday round-up at Buffy’s Blog.

Where do you find words? I am always in search of the right words, whether I am writing a poem or a blog post or a Facebook message. The right words in the right order.

As I sat next to Vannisa while she revised a poem to enter into a 4-H poetry contest, she and I stared at the screen. She was looking for the last stanza, the inner thinking, that punch of an ending. Where were the words she need?

I pulled out a precious Mary Oliver book from the shelf, A Thousand Mornings. Vanissa swept her hand over the cover. She knows it feels soft, like silk. I read aloud the last lines of some of Mary Oliver’s poems. I was teaching Vannisa how to “steal like an artist.”

This is the list we made:

earth-praise
temple
my heart
angels singing

I can’t share her final draft because we’ve sent it in. Maybe she will win. But we both won when we sat together with the master Mary Oliver and celebrated the right words.

As I continue to write a poem a day (Just one more day, folks!), I decided to use these stolen words in a poem of my own.

Melody

The male cardinal
wakes us every morning
with his earth-praise–
monotone,
happy tone
morning music making.

I nudge the cat
to move off my foot
stretch out of bed
while you stay, softly snoring.

Coffee brews.
The day wakes.
My body is still tired.

But this cardinal
is determined in his glory-making.
He persists
until I turn and see
angels

singing along
in his tree-temple
making melody
of the morning.

–Margaret Simon

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NPM16 #27: Help Needed

Posted in Poetry, Solomon House, Writing, tagged #imagepoems, #NPM16, Poem a Day on April 27, 2016| 4 Comments »

Most every Tuesday, I wake early to serve at Solomon House, a mission of my church and a food bank. My self-appointed job is to find the clients’ names on a printed spreadsheet, check their IDs, and have them sign. During this process, I say good morning, how are you today, and have a great day. And most times they say these same greetings to me. I feel blessed by their presence, their love, and this small way to be a blessing to someone else.

There are places where
buttercups bloom
unattended
no one cares
or notices.

They bloom anyway.

There are people
nobody sees
walking alone on the street
clothes in need of cleaning
backs aching from failure.

The news speaks for itself
but I can help.

My hands are warm and kind;
they reach for you.

My mind is clear and focused;
I think of you.

My shoulder is light and flexible;
I can carry your burden.

I see buttercups.

I see you.

–Margaret Simon

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NPM16: #20 A Tree Grows…

Posted in Poetry, tagged #imagepoems, Amy Ludwig Vanderwater, Catherine Flynn, National Poetry Month, Poem a Day on April 20, 2016| 4 Comments »

Yesterday, my student Lani was featured on Today’s Little Ditty with a reverso poem inspired by the book Water Rolls, Water Rises by Pat Mora.

Amy Ludwig VanDerwater is writing a poem a day about daily Wonders on Wonderopolis. I love how her website speaks directly to students about the writing process. On Monday, Amy wrote, “I began thinking about the value of sharing our stories, the sad ones as well as the happy ones.” Her poem was a before/after poem that held universal truths about the sadness of broken marriages.

There’s a sadness weighing on my mind. It’s not my loss, but even when others suffer a loss, we grieve. It’s the way of the world.

My writing friend, Catherine Flynn wrote a poem about Crystal Rapids in the Grand Canyon, but the poem was about so much more. This stanza speaks to that deep grief that comes back over and over.

“The path is altered,
a chasm opens.
Never fully healed,
full of fissures that can crack
without warning,
bringing us to our knees.” (Catherine Flynn)

Sometimes writing poetry is about diving into the sadness, entering in, and letting it all go. Inspired by Amy’s and Catherine’s poetic honesty, I wrote this poem for B. She’s probably not ready to read it. But I needed to write it.

A Tree Grows near the Pier

Before
when the sun rose,
so did he,
fishing pole in hand,
tackle in a box.
His heart full of hope.
His mind full of lures.

After
the boat lost him,
so did we,
as a tree grows
near his tackle box;
Its branches open wide
for resurrection fern.

–Margaret Simon

Ruth has the Progressive Poem today.

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NPM16 #13 Turning off the Critic

Posted in Poetry, Writing, tagged #imagepoems, NaPoWriMo, National Poetry Month, Poem a Day, writer's block on April 13, 2016| 15 Comments »

My internal critic is turned on high voltage. I take my journal in my backpack to school to school (I teach at two), and I turn the page and write some words, then a student needs me. I come back to the page focused, thinking, and another student has to share.

Here I am at home with Charlie and there’s nothing worth much in my journal. This is day 13 of my personal challenge to write a poem a day, and my personal critic thinks I can’t possibly keep this up.

Step one: upload a picture. Here’s another sky picture taken from my car with my phone.

Sky Sea

How to Stay a Poet (A synonym poem)

Attach a line to a thought
with a long string, maybe even wire

Fasten sprinkles of light,
a frosting of powdered sugar would taste good.

Unite clouds to sky to space,
an ethereal concept, I know.

Abide with your favorite poets,
savor their strength, their providence.

Linger over the page, make a statement,
scratch it out, start again.

Remain committed; don’t listen to the witch
in your head telling you to abandon all.

Keep on writing. Stay a poet.
Stay here.

–Margaret Simon

Process: After writing the title, I did a synonym search for “stay.” I used selected synonyms as the first word of each stanza. Creating rules for myself helped me get through writer’s block. This is not one of my finer poems, but it’s a poem. Let’s keep moving forward.

Follow the Progressive Poem to Teacher Dance

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NPM16 #12 Dancing with a Paintbrush

Posted in Poetry, Slice of Life, Teaching, Writing, tagged #imagepoems, music poems, NaPoWriMo, National Poetry Month, Poem a Day on April 12, 2016| 6 Comments »

Join the Two Writing Teachers blog for March Slice of Life Challenge.

We brought out the paintbrushes and watercolor paints. Each table had a stack of white paper. I turned on the music. Painting flowed in time with the beat.

This is dancing with a paintbrush. When the music stops, we title the piece of art and list three words that come to mind. This continues for three rounds. The songs are all instrumental, one sounds oriental, another symphonic, and another Irish.

Following this painting activity, we write.

Freedom of expression, playing with words, making associations with music and poetry, the resulting poems went in all kinds of directions. (My students share their poems on Kidblog.)

In reading Tara Smith’s book review of Writing with Mentors, I pulled out this piece of advice: “Mentors Show Students How to Play: In order to grow as writers, students need safe places to play with writing – places that aren’t assessed or evaluated or given a grade. They need places where their work can be messy, where thinking outside the box and being wild with ideas is encouraged.”

When I was struggling to write a poem with my painting, I turned to a favorite author, Mary Oliver. From A Thousand Mornings, “Poem of the One World” begins “This morning/ the beautiful white heron/ was floating along above the water.”

Writing beside this master poet helped me to follow the rhythm that my own words wanted to take.

This longing
the beautiful white egret
wanders from known to unknown waters

And then
onto the shore of this
one stream we all swim in

where everyone
is part of the blue vein
where we can throw a stone in

which thought made me feel
for a small moment
welcomed home.

–Margaret Simon, after Mary Oliver

The abstract painting that led to my poem.

Follow the Progressive Poem to Today’s Little Ditty

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NPM16 #9 Celebrating Collaborative Progressive Poetry

Posted in Celebration Saturday, Poetry, Writing, tagged #imagepoems, Kevin Hodgson, NaPoWriMo, National Poetry Month, Poem a Day, Progressive poem on April 9, 2016| 16 Comments »

Ruth Ayres invites us the celebrate each week. Click over to her site Discover. Play. Build. to read more celebrations.

It’s my turn!

Today is Saturday, time to celebrate with Ruth Ayres and my fellow bloggers, but first I must stop and post a line to the Progressive Poem, the brainchild of author Irene Latham. This year’s poem has taken on a pattern. It rhymes, too, but I am grateful I don’t have to complete a rhyming line. All I have to do is set up the next stanza. The pattern of first lines began with Laura’s “A squall of hawk wings stirs the sky.” Then Penny made the decision to repeat this pattern in “A cast of crabs engraves the sand.” So all I have to do is fill in the blanks “A __da__ of __de___ __da-da____ ___di___ __doe___.” Where do we want to go next? From observing the sky to the ocean we have watched hawks and hummingbirds and crabs.

I have been working with images for my poem a day project. My friend, Kimberley, in Maine sent me this picture of purple crocuses in her yard wilting in the recent cold snap. I decided to keep us in the natural world but move into the plant world.

photo by Kimberley Moran

A squall of hawk wings stirs the sky
A hummingbird holds and then hies
If I could fly, I’d choose to be
Sailing through a forest of poet-trees

A cast of crabs engraves the sand
Delighting a child’s outstretched hand
If I could breathe under the sea

I’d dive, I’d dip, I’d dance with glee

A clump of crocuses crave the sun.

In the spirit of poetry and connecting through blogging, Kevin Hodgson left a comment on my abecedarian post yesterday that honored me as a writer, but also honored the entire blogging community. Thanks, Kevin!

A
Blog has
Character beyond
Description:
Everywhere you write,
For yourself and readers,
Good words chewed like fine food, nourishing
Health and happiness and creative
Inspiration.
Just listen to the music of the dance,
Knowing you are invited to
Learn about the world through
Many voices, many stories, many
New ways of seeing the world, always
Open to
Possibilities.
Quell your qualms, for writing has
Real value beyond the shape and texture, and
Somewhere, someone will read your words
Though it might seem terribly silent at times,
Until that moment when they write a note that lets you know with
Veracity that your Truth resonates
With their Truth,
eXceeding the notion of one writer/one story;
You are writing the World together, dancing the
Zydeco Write!Kevin
— Cheated at X.
:0