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Posts Tagged ‘Janet Fagel’

Progressive Poem is Here with Janet Fagel

Posted in Progressive poem, Writing, tagged on April 11, 2022| 23 Comments »

And here is today’s new line from poet Janet Clare Fagal, a blogless soul who posts on Facebook as Janet Clare and whose poems can be found in a variety of anthologies (pictured below), and online at nlapw.org. If you are not a Facebook friend, please send Janet a request if you would like to connect!

I am happy to be participating once again in the Poetry Friday Progressive Poem! Thanks to Margaret for hosting me this year.

 Such an adventure we have begun. I tried a little formatting to get a feel for the bones of our poem, but please feel free to try your own version as we move along down the path!  For my line, I found one from Neil Gaiman, and using my poetic license, I adapted/edited the line to make it work a bit better for the poem. I am eager to pass the poem to my friend Jone Rush MacCulloch!

Don’t we all love the adventure of April in this wonderfully creative Blogosphere of Kidlitosphere poets and writers! I am so glad you started this Progressive Poem, Irene, I look forward to it every April.

Where they were going, there were no maps.

              Sorry! I don’t want any adventures, thank you. Not Today.                   

Take the adventure, heed the call, now ere the irrevocable moment passes!

              We have to go back. I forgot something.

But it’s spring, and the world is puddle-wonderful, so we’ll whistle and dance and set off on our way.

              Come with me, and you’ll be in a land of pure imagination.

Wherever you go, take your hopes, pack your dreams, and never forget – it is on our journeys that discoveries are made.

                 And then it was time for singing.

Can you sing with all the voices of the mountain, paint with all the colors of the wind, freewheeling through an endless diamond sky?

 Suddenly, they stopped and realized they weren’t the only ones singing.

                (Now for my addition! An adapted line from Cinnamon by Neil Gaiman.)

Listen, a chattering of monkeys! Let’s smell the dawn and taste the moonlight, we’ll watch it all spread out before us.

Lines 1 -11, poet and where they are from:

  1.     Irene  (The Imaginaries)
  2.     Donna (The Hobbit)
  3.     Catherine F. (The Wind in The Willows)
  4.     Mary Lee (Walk Two Moons)
  5.     Buffy Silverman (a bit from e.e. cummings)
  6.     Linda Mitchell (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory)
  7.     Kim Johnson (from Maybe by Kobi Yamada)
  8.     Rose Cappelli (Sarah, Plain and Tall)
  9.     Carol Varsalona (Disney Songs)
  10. Linda Baie (The Other Way to Listen.)
  11. Janet Clare Fagal (line adaptation from Cinnamon by Neil Gaiman)

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This Photo Wants to be a Poem: Adventurers

Posted in Photography, Poetry, Writing, tagged , , , on February 2, 2022| 23 Comments »

This week’s photo comes from Janet Fagel’s daughter-in-law who captured a special moment when her children, Janet’s grandchildren, were walking at Washington Crossing Park in New Jersey.

Out for a brisk walk with their wonderful mom, the kids ask: Can we be adventurers today? Her answer? Absolutely!!!

Janet Fagel
Adventurers, by Kate Fagel

On Facebook, a friend responded “The first photo reminds me of this photo by W. Eugene Smith. It is on the last page of the book The Family of Man.”

Photo by W. Eugene Smith

I’m loving this line as a striking line for a poem.

We walk a
step & another into a magical world
side by side, brother to
sister we’ll always be.
We were born born
for this adventure under
a canopy of trees, your
refuge the sound of our footsteps.
Margaret Simon, draft

Please write your own small poem in the comments or on your blog. Leave encouraging comments for other writers. Most of all, have fun!

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Poetry Friday: Summer Swap

Posted in Poetry Friday, tagged , , , , , on August 13, 2021| 18 Comments »

Poetry Friday round-up is with Christie at Wondering and Wandering.

Just as my school year started, I received my final Poem Swap gift and poem from Janet Fagel. It was all about Taylor Mali, the inventor of Metaphor Dice. She’s friends with him. (Swoon!) She sent me his book Late Father, which I added to my Sealy Challenge stack, and a signed print of his poem Undivided Attention. Janet’s poem for me came as a found/black out poem from this poem. I don’t know if it was intentional or not, but the poem arrived just in time for my 60th birthday.

Earlier in the summer I received a poem swap from Mary Lee Hahn. She made an oracle deck from my own words, phrases she had found in my poems. She color-coded the cards to show which was 5 syllables and 7 syllables. Then she created two poems from my words, a haiku and a doditsu (7-7-7-5). She encouraged me to make these with my students this year. Tucking it away until April when we’ve written lots of poems together from which to choose lines.

Haiku by Mary Lee with phrases from Margaret Simon
Dodoitsu by Mary Lee Hahn with phrases from Margaret Simon
Creating my own haiku from the oracle deck.

Both of these gifts come straight from the heart. This is the whole embodiment of this Summer Poem Swap, organized and led by Tabatha Yeatts. Thanks Janet, Mary Lee, and Tabatha. My hear is full!

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This Photo Wants to be a Poem

Posted in Photography, Poetry, Writing, tagged , , , on May 5, 2021| 63 Comments »

Leo, my 2 year old grandson, likes to scroll through my photo library. Mostly he wants to watch videos. Janet Fagel, a fellow poet grandmother, posted a picture on Facebook that I downloaded to use today. When Leo scrolled by this photo, he wanted to “play” it. I had to explain that it wasn’t a video. Beyond the idea that we are raising a new generation, a group of littles who know how to tap a screen and make it do things, I was fascinated by his fascination with this image. What did his little eyes see?

Later as we were walking in the garden, he tried to put a flower behind his ear. I placed it there for him and set the phone to selfie so he could see what he looked like. Phone as mirror.

Dandelion bow, photo by Janet Fagel

When I wear my unicorn dress,
and a dandelion for a hairbow,
I can be whatever I want to be.

Margaret Simon, with a nod to Cinderella, my favorite childhood movie

Please leave a small poem in the comments. Consider joining #PoemsofPresence on Twitter for the month of May. Encourage other poets with your comments here and there.

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Kidlit Progressive Poem with Janet

Posted in Poetry, Writing, tagged , on April 12, 2021| 15 Comments »

Thanks to Margaret Simon for hosting the Progressive Poem started by Irene Latham. And a big thank you for allowing blog-less me to appear on her blog once again. If you don’t know me I comment on Poetry Friday as Janet F. or Janet Clare F. and I love this poetry community! As a former teacher and poet I feel at home with my poetry friends. 

Following last year’s procedure established by Donna at Mainely Write, we are choosing between two lines offered by the person before us and then writing two for the next poet.  Our poem about kindness and friendship is now traveling a new path so off we go. 

Thanks to Buffy for two great options, which did not surprise me at all, but I am off to the woods.  I hear the bees buzzing, the quiet and the birdsong. I remember how I loved to explore the woods behind my house while playing as a child. And on hikes when my family camped in summers. Fresh air, imagination and wholesome times! 

I’m a case of kindness – come and catch me if you can!
Easily contagious – sharing smiles is my plan.

I’ll spread my joy both far and wide,
As a force of Nature I’ll be undenied.

Words like, “how can I help?” will bloom in the street.
A new girl alone on the playground – let’s meet, let’s meet!

We can jump-skip together in a double-dutch round.
Over, under, jump and wonder, touch the ground.

Friends can be found when you open a door.
Side by side, let’s walk through, there’s a world to explore.

Buffy’s lines for me were:

  1. We’ll hike through a forest of towering trees 

and

  1. Should we follow the stream as it eddies and flows?

Not surprisingly I selected #1! It sounds like a wonderful way to enjoy special time with a new (or old) friend.

We’ll hike through a forest of towering trees

And now for Jone, I offer:

Option 1: Look for flowers, enjoy birdsong as long as we please.

OR

Option 2:  Find a stream we can follow while we bask in the breeze.

(You can tell I was torn by that lovely idea of following the stream!)

Jone you may choose one of these OR feel free to choose one of your own as Kat Apel describes in the first day’s post!  Happy poeting!

P.S. As I was contemplating the idea of walking for health, poetry and friendship for the Progressive Poem, it reminded me of the one I saw today at Poetry Boost with Michelle Schaub. I recalled Thoreau espousing the benefits of walking about 4 hours a day. I googled and found this interesting link. I am going to make a goal of doing more contemplative walking! With and without my friends, but friends are always good to have around!

(You can find me on FB at Janet Clare. If we haven’t yet connected, I look forward to doing so.)

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

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