James Edmunds | Reflections on the Teche

Posts Tagged ‘James Edmunds’

NPM26: Onomatopoeia Poem

Posted in Photography, Poetry, Writing, tagged Ethical ELA, James Edmunds, onomatopoeia, This Photo Wants to be a Poem on April 22, 2026| Leave a Comment »

Today, I am the guest poet at Ethical ELA. Please visit the site to see my prompt for an onomatopoeia poem.

Follow the Kidlit Progressive Poem at Karen Edmisten’s blog.

Happy Earth Day! Please consider writing a poem to celebrate our island home.

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This Photo Wants to be a Poem: Above the Sky

Posted in Photography, Poetry, This Photo Wants to be a Poem, Writing, tagged #poemsifpresence, #small poems, James Edmunds on June 7, 2023| 26 Comments »

My friends James and Susan recently flew to Costa Rica for a long awaited vacation. James is an excellent photographer and while I enjoyed his Costa Rica photos (they reminded me of our trip last summer), I took a special interest in the photo he took while flying home. He wrote, “Over the Gulf of Mexico, somewhere.” It’s the somewhere I want to play around with.

One can’t help but think of the song “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.” This photo muses me with “Somewhere over the sky.”

Somewhere over the Gulf of Mexico by James Edmunds. (all rights reserved)

Somewhere
           where space meets clouds
                      our wishes shine in ambient light.
Margaret Simon, draft

Take a moment and write a small verse to welcome summer, the sun, the warmth of summer. Leave your small poem in the comments and respond to others with comforting encouragement. Thanks for being here beside me.

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This Photo Wants to be a Poem: Cajun Prairie

Posted in Photography, Poetry, This Photo Wants to be a Poem, Writing, tagged Cajun Prairie Habitat Preservation, haiku, James Edmunds on November 9, 2022| 27 Comments »

In most parts of the northern hemisphere, fall is a time when leaves change hue and fall getting ready for the dormancy of winter. But here in the deep south of Cajun country, the prairie goes to seed. My friend and neighbor James Edmunds recently photographed fields of prairie grasses. I was attracted to the starlike seed pods of this one.

On Instagram, James wrote, “The Cajun Prairie project in Eunice right now is in a beautiful post-flowering, going-to-seed stage. The perimeter can be walked on nice sidewalks and gives views into a wide variety of native grasses!” To see more, I found a website for Cajun Prairie Habitat Preservation. It does my nature-loving heart good to see there are organizations dedicated to preservation and restoration of natural land.

Prairie grass sashays
replanting, replenishing
starlike seedlings soar

Margaret Simon, haiku draft

Write your own small poem in the comments and support other writers with comments. Thanks!

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Slice of Life: Snake Rescue

Posted in Slice of Life, Writing, tagged bayou life, James Edmunds, snake rescue on June 15, 2021| 10 Comments »

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

When I married Jeff almost 39 years ago, I did not know everything about him, but I did know that he had had a boa constrictor for a pet at one time during his wild childhood. Jeff has a brother who is only 18 months younger. The Simon boys spent a lot of time out in the woods along the bayou. Stories include the time they fished out a shark from the bayou. (Little did they know as young boys that sharks don’t live in the bayou; obviously someone’s throw back from fishing in the Gulf.) But that story is not the one I want to tell today.

Calm in every situation would aptly describe this hero. He sat next to me for hours and hours during natural childbirth…3 times…and never lost his cool calm demeanor.

Susan may not know this about him, but she does know that he cares about reptiles. Susan and Jeff go way back to days when she lead summer library programs, and Jeff would collaborate on ones on canoeing and camping and fishing all through the local Optimist Club. And she may remember (she sent me a photograph once) of a library workshop he brought our middle daughter Katherine to when she was four-years-old, and how Jeff showed particular interest in the snakes. Nevertheless, she texted on Sunday morning, and I sent my hero away to save the day.

Jeff and Susan patiently released 3 tangled rat snakes. photo by Mary Tutwiler.

I am deathly afraid of snakes. Jeff has tried many times to get me over my phobia, and often I’ve become the source of a snake joke. Needless to say I did not personally attend this snake rescue. In fact, I’m having trouble posting the pictures. I refuse to post the one of the three rescued snakes happily wriggling in the bottom of a trash can.

My calm hero was able to patiently cut away the mesh entrapment while Susan held the snakes’ heads. I don’t know which was braver, but combined these two people should win a prize. The snakes were not released in our backyard, thank you very much. They are happily in someone else’s yard.

Here is the text of a thank you email from Susan:

“Thanks again for coming to the rescue yesterday-I don’t think I could have done the extraction solo, the task needed experienced snake rangers comfortable with very close contact! Certainly you handled the snipping far better than I could have, didn’t see any fresh blood! Excellent work.”

Instagram photo by Susan’s husband, James. Those hero hands are mighty close to that snake tongue!

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This Photo Wants to be a Poem

Posted in Photography, Poetry, tagged #poeticdiversion, #smallpoems, James Edmunds, nature poem, resurrection fern, This Photo Wants to be a Poem on July 30, 2020| 20 Comments »

Welcome to my weekly photo writing prompt. Take a peaceful moment to lose yourself in words. Write a poem of 16 words or so and place it in the comments. Write encouraging words to others by commenting on their poems. This week we are writing with the hashtag poeticdiversion that Molly Hogan started on Twitter.

This week’s image comes from my friend and neighbor James Edmunds. James does a lot of creative work including photography. I once took a class from him about iPhone photography and learned some cool tricks. I don’t know if he took this picture with his phone, but I doubt it. James, if you stop by, let us know.

Way down south here we’ve been getting a great deal of rain lately. The resurrection fern loves rain, and it pops up in beautiful green carpets on our trees. In nature, there are small miracles like this every day.