Karen Eastlund | Reflections on the Teche

Posts Tagged ‘Karen Eastlund’

This Photo Wants to be a Poem: Milkweed Seed Pod

Posted in Photography, Poetry, This Photo Wants to be a Poem, Writing, tagged Karen Eastlund, milkweed, seedpod on October 12, 2022| 9 Comments »

I love how both students and poet participants are on the look out for photos that want to be poems. Last week I featured a sunset photo taken by a third grader. This week Karen Eastlund sent me an interesting photo from her garden. She said they planted milkweed hoping for monarchs. I have recently found 3 monarch caterpillars on my own milkweed. Two of them were on volunteer milkweed that had planted itself in a crack of concrete near my air-conditioner units. I’m so glad I left it there growing wild and free like the weed it is meant to be. Thanks Karen for this amazing photo of a milkweed seed pod, open, soft, and free.

Seed pod opens
to the morning sun
waiting for a wisp of wind
to carry feather-soft seedlings
to the sky.
Plant me upon your pinwheel
and carry me along.
Margaret Simon, draft

Please leave a small poem draft in the comments. Come back, if you can, to write encouraging comments for other writers. Happy Hump Day!

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Poetry Friday: Little Gingerbread Houses

Posted in Gratitude, Poetry Friday, Teaching, Writing, tagged ee cummings, Karen Eastlund, The Slowdown, winter poem swap on December 17, 2021| 11 Comments »

Little Gingerbread House
The whole room smells
of graham crackers and icing,
sweet-scented as Christmas should be,
marked by twinkle lights and fingers
dipped in icing or glitter glue.
Santa’s in the hallway
listening to every child’s wish.
Teachers are tired, overwhelmed
by lists and sugary treats. Too much
time spent on planning, cooking, decorating.
But there’s the child with bright eyes
who opens her arms and says “I love you”.
You must open
your little gingerbread house
to all of it.
Margaret Simon, draft

I started my day listening to Ada Limón and The Slowdown. She talked about her grandmother’s kitchen and read the poem little tree by ee cummings. I played this episode for my students, and we wrote together. My poem above is true. I took the plunge and did gingerbread houses made out of graham crackers for the first (and most likely last) time. The success on Avalyn’s face and her insistence on telling me she loved me comforted my weary soul. She wrote a sweet story about her little gingerbread house on Fanschool here. (Spoiler alert: it includes a true story about a lizard rescue.)

Chloe wrote a poem side-by-side to ee cummings.

(after ee cummings little tree)
bright star
bright little North Star
you are so bright
you are more like a light
who found you behind Mars
and were you sad to lose hide and seek?
see I will comfort you
because you light up my Christmas tree.
i will hug your prickly sides
and swing you gently
as your mother would
so don’t run away
and my father and i will lift you up
and look at your shining stem
we’ll skip and sing
“Behold that Star”
Chloe Willis, 6th grade

This is the time of year for the Winter Poetry Swap. I exchanged with Karen Eastlund. She sent me the following poem (how cool that it’s in the shape of a Christmas tree) along with some delicious goodies and a hand sewn mini bin. Thanks, Karen.