Linda Mitchell | Reflections on the Teche

Posts Tagged ‘Linda Mitchell’

This Photo Wants to Be a Poem: Who Will Buy this Wonderful Morning?

Posted in Photography, Poetry, This Photo Wants to be a Poem, Writing, tagged 90 Ways of Community, Grandmother Oak, Linda Mitchell, Love, Oliver, photography, poem, poetry, writing on October 2, 2024| 8 Comments »

Bayou morning with rope swing, photo by Margaret Simon

I’ve been working through the new book 90 Ways of Community by Sarah Donovan, Mo Daley, and Maureen Young Ingram of Ethical ELA. Daily I’ve been reading a prompt to my students and writing alongside them. Today’s prompt comes from Linda Mitchell. Her original prompt suggests to find a list of words in our notebooks to write along to. Her sample poem is “Wishing Well Price List” which led me to think of the song from the musical Oliver, Who Will Buy?.

I took this photo at sunrise on Sunday morning. Hanging from our grandmother oak is a rope swing. I began to imagine how many people over the years have swung on that rope. My grandchildren don’t have the strength yet in their toddler bodies to hold on, but they love swinging the rope and running to keep it from hitting them, a game they made up.

This photo may take you on a journey to another place in your memory. Let it go and write a small poem in the comments. Respond to others with encouraging words.

Who will buy
this sunglow on water?

Who will buy
the fallsteam rising?

Who will buy
a twist of rope to swing on?

Who will buy
this changing of seasons?
I find a reason to keep my spirits high
wondering who will buy.

Margaret Simon, draft

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Poetry Friday: Star

Posted in Poetry Friday, Progressive poem, Writing, tagged Festival of Words, Inklings challenge, Linda Mitchell, nestling poems on May 3, 2024| 17 Comments »

Poetry Friday is hosted today by Buffy Silverman.

Happy May! In many ways, I’m sad that it’s May. I looked over the school calendars, and I have fewer than 10 days left with my students. May’s calendars are worse than December. They are full of “Fun Days”, field trips, and “Awards Day”… Where are the time-with-my-students days?

Of course, there are some wonderful days on the same calendar: Teacher Appreciation Week, Mother’s Day, Memorial Day, Sleep-in-it’s-summer days.

Today is Inklings Challenge of the Month Day. Linda Mitchell hit us with an interesting challenge to exchange poems and “Fiddle with, play with, tinker, tear-apart, be inspired or stumped by” the poem you were given. I chose to find a nestling ( à la Irene Latham). On this Canva design, you can see the poem Linda sent and my nestling.

Full poem “Star Says” by Linda Mitchell
Nestling “Star” by Margaret Simon

Links to other Inklings. Molly had my poem to fiddle with. I can’t wait to see what she did with it.

Molly Hogan
Heidi Mordhorst
Catherine Flynn
Mary Lee Hahn
Linda Mitchell

If you followed the Progressive Poem, you can find the poem as a whole at this link: 2024 Kidlit Progressive Poem: Border Crossing This year felt different, a higher stakes dramatic story evolved. Thanks to everyone who participated.

I will be participating in a poetry reading event on Saturday night. It’s been a while since I have read for an audience. Wish me luck.

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Poetry Friday: Clunker Exchange

Posted in Poetry Friday, Writing, tagged clunker line, Eudora Welty, Linda Mitchell on June 23, 2023| 15 Comments »

Poetry Friday is being hosted by Linda Mitchell. She is offering a clunker line exchange. Such a fun idea for poets.

Last weekend, two of my daughters and I went to an adorable antique shop in Ridgeland, MS called Antique Aly. We wondered aloud if Aly was the owner’s name and sure enough, when we walked in, we met a cute little southern girl named Aly. Aly helped me make a difficult decision. The first thing I spotted was a Eudora Welty book that was bound in leather and signed. It was locked in a glass cabinet, so I asked her about it. She opened the cabinet while I told her how I met Eudora Welty when I was in high school. I attended a reading and spoke to her afterwards because I was doing a paper about her. I remember her kindness and willingness to talk to a shy teenage admirer.

Aly wasn’t all that impressed, but she was willing to text the seller to see if he would come down on the price of the book. I paid the high price anyway because it was a hard day, and I wanted it. Of course being a woman of my generation, I immediately felt guilty about spending that much money on a single book.

This week I talked with a friend about it. She understood retail therapy. She said, “You deserve to do something good for yourself, something that has a special meaning to you. Go home and give the book a kiss.”

I used a clunker from Linda: “Catch a falling word, hold onto it.” And wrote this little poem:

I Bought a Signed Eudora Welty Book at an Antique Store

Catch a falling
Word, hold onto it,
Love it,
Covet,
Share some tea with it.
Understand the word
is not yours to own forever,
so kiss it
with lipstick on
and set it free.
Margaret Simon, draft

I am still fundraising for the Alzheimer’s Association in honor of my mother’s 87th birthday. If this touches your heart, consider a donation. I’m making beaded bracelets for a donation of $50 or more. Here is a link to my donor’s page: http://act.alz.org/goto/honordotgibson

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Poetry Friday: May Flowers

Posted in Poetry Friday, Writing, tagged butterfly garden, Inklings challenge, Linda Mitchell, May Day, May Sarton on May 5, 2023| 14 Comments »

Today Poetry Friday is hosted by Linda Baie at Teacher Dance.

Happy May! May is a time for flowers. Let me interrupt this poetry post with a gallery of flowers.

Purple salvia in the butterfly garden, red canna returned from winter, and begonias at Walmart on May Day

On May Day I stopped at Walmart just to see what they had in the Garden Center. I was wowed by coral pink and yellow begonias, a whole display of them that seemed to be punished. I had to climb over the back of the display to get to them while a worker totally ignored me because she had to put together a grill. How did she not notice the beauty that was right in her way? I only rescued five of them, but I wanted all 50! I gave away each one to people in my life who have been shoulders for the weight I carry.

Last week my student and I planted a butterfly garden in a vegetable garden box abandoned by the 4-H Club. Lowe’s gave her $200 to shop with. The purple salvia is singing to the butterflies. We haven’t seen any yet, but we are keeping the soil moist so that all our plants can thrive and invite them.

This first Friday of May, Linda Mitchell invited the Inklings to write:

Write a poem from your O-L-W for 2023
Or
Find a piece of artwork that has a word(s) embedded and write an ekphrastic poem inspired by the piece
Or
Go to Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day (any similar site) and be inspired by a word from there
Or
Just write a poem–about anything that needs to be written.
Linda Mitchell, a generous open prompt for the crazy month of May

An author-friend suggested I subscribe to Kelly Bennett’s newsletter, Fishbowl, in which she prompts a 7 minute writing each week. I responded to her prompt using a May Sarton poem “Bliss” as a model poem. I borrowed a few words and was on my way. The photo is a word card that Linda M sent me for National Poetry Month, so I basically hit all points of the challenge.

Find other Inklings poems at these links:

Heidi Mordhorst
Linda Mitchell
Molly Hogan
Mary Lee Hahn
Catherine Flynn

The Kidlit Progressive poem for 2023 is archived here. I decided to archive the poems together, so scroll down to find 2023. Thanks to all who participated. What a fun adventure into the forest!

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Spiritual Thursday: Community

Posted in Gratitude, Spiritual Growth, Writing, tagged community, Inklings, Linda Mitchell on September 1, 2022| 8 Comments »

Happy September! Maureen has the Spiritual Thursday round up today. Her topic suggestion was “community.” As a new school year gets underway, my thoughts of community turn to my classroom. To build community, we write together. I’ve always felt that writing helps build connections and brings us closer to each other.

When my father died in April, I received so many cards that I couldn’t fit them all on my counter, so I filled a basket. Like Christmas, every day for a few weeks I received handwritten, comforting cards and letters. Without even noticing, I had become a part of a community of people who support each other in good times and in bad times.

This weekend there was an article in the local paper that caught my eye. It was an interview with a teacher I knew. This teacher came to a writing workshop I held one summer. Because we wrote together, I feel close to her. I cut out the article and laminated it to send to her. She probably has multiple copies, but I decided that the gesture was about more than just giving her another copy of the article. It was a gesture of community, recognizing and seeing her.

My writing group is a special community to me. The Inklings got together and created a “junk journal” with each poet writing a special sympathy poem for me. I made a video of this gift that can be viewed here. Linda Mitchell of our group recently shared a new poem with us. She wrote it about the sycamore tree that we planted in memory of my dad on the grounds of their retirement home. “A sycamore tree symbolizes strength, protection, eternity, and divinity.” She gave me permission to share her sweet skinny poem.

Whether writing with each other or writing for each other, writing creates community. If you are interested in joining a small community of writers, tune in on Wednesdays when I post “This Photo Wants to be a Poem.” We write together in separate places about a shared image. There is always room for more.

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Poetry Friday: Birthday Rainbows

Posted in Poetry Friday, Writing, tagged birthday, Linda Mitchell, Patricia Franz, rainbows, William Wordsworth on August 11, 2022| 25 Comments »

Poetry Friday Round-up is here. Scroll to the end to find the link up and join.

Today is my birthday. I am turning the age of the year I was born. Can you do the math? I have to admit I am not a fan of birthdays. Being born in August has never appealed to me. It’s always hot and usually rainy. But with daily rain comes daily rainbows. Over the last few days I’ve seen a few big ones. I stop my car and get out to take a picture. I wish the pictures could show the colors and size, but you’ll have to just imagine it.

My Heart Leaps Up

William Wordsworth – 1770-1850

My heart leaps up when I behold
A rainbow in the sky:
So was it when my life began;
So is it now I am a man;
So be it when I shall grow old,
Or let me die!
The Child is father of the Man;
And I could wish my days to be
Bound each to each by natural piety.

Birthday card from Linda Mitchell, my birthday “sistar”

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!Click here to enter

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Poetry Friday: Sitting with Grief

Posted in Creativity, Poetry Friday, tagged Catherine Flynn, grief, Heidi Mordhorst, Inklings, Linda Mitchell, Mary Lee Hahn, Molly Hogan on May 19, 2022| 8 Comments »

One of the wisdoms I have gained as a writer is that writing with others creates strong friendships because writing is such an act of vulnerability. It is true for the classroom, for writing workshops, and for critique groups. My group, the Inklings, are true friends. They listen, respond with integrity, and encourage me as a person as well as a writer. We live far away from each other, but we used Zoom long before the pandemic, and see each other twice monthly. This is all to say that when my father died, they did what they do best, and sent me a book of poems. I sat alone with these poems and let the comfort and wisdom of words wash over me. I offer a video today of me reading each poem sitting out by my beloved bayou. It’s 8 minutes long.

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Slice of Life: A Place at the Table

Posted in Poetry, Slice of Life, Writing, tagged Ethical ELA, Linda Mitchell, scientific method poem on April 26, 2022| 14 Comments »

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

My friend and fellow writing group member Linda Mitchell led the writing prompt for #verselove at Ethical ELA yesterday. She directed us to use the steps in the scientific method to craft a poem. As many of you know, my father died on Friday morning. If you follow my blog, I’m afraid there is nothing else so pressing on my mind than this and the care for my mother. Writing is healing for me.

A Place at the Table
You could make this place beautiful.
Can you float a flower in the vase and call it home?
Flowers, a white cat, a black dog, coffee brewing, what could be missing?
The empty seat at the table is cold, lonely.
I move over, sit in his chair, open the last book he was reading.
Time will fill the space at the table, even in the midst of absence.
There will be beauty again.
Margaret Simon, draft

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Poetry Friday: Spark Art!

Posted in Poetry Friday, Slice of Life, Writing, tagged art collage, Linda Mitchell, Spark! on March 11, 2022| 16 Comments »

Poetry Friday is with Sylvia at Poetry for Children

I signed up to do an exchange for Spark Art #50 with my friend Inkling Linda Mitchell. Linda creates wonderful collages, so I asked her to do the exchange with me. She sent me a collage and I sent her a poem. She was charged with creating a collage from my poem and me with creating a poem from her collage. Fun, right? It is fun when you are playing with a friend you know will be respectful of your work and who does good work herself.

The links to our exchange on the Spark website are here and here.

I am sharing my poem process that responded to this collage.

The first thing I noticed was the moon. I wrote the title first, “Moonlight Sonata” and played Beethovan’s Sonata for inspiration. I noticed the foreign words. I asked Linda about the flowers, but she didn’t know what they were. I decided they were edelweiss. I got stuck, though, and decided to use a poem I had written for Laura Shovan’s February project and combine it with the work I was doing on responding to the collage. I don’t usually do this, and it created a level of mystery to the poem. And I’m OK with that.

Moonlight Sonata

Moon, wild orb nightly shining
high above the oak trees.
Your pull breaks waves
and concrete where oak roots
rise like bread, yeast pressing
our foreign earth.

How can you feel sadness
if you’ve not known joy?

When the edelweiss blooms,
we breathe in sweet scent,
welcome Spring
and sing praise for your goodness, Moon.

We push on and on
until, like you, the flower, the oak
we find our light
and shine.

There are only a few dates left for the Kidlit Progressive poem. Claim your day here.

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Slice of Life: Dancers

Posted in Photography, Poetry, Slice of Life, Writing, tagged Acadiana Center for the Arts, art collage, dancing, Linda Mitchell on February 8, 2022| 6 Comments »

This month I am participating in Laura Shovan’s February poetry project on Facebook. The theme this year is Time. This beautiful collage made by Linda Mitchell was our prompt on Monday. So much to write about, but I focused on the couple dancing. This weekend my husband and I were dancing to one of our favorite bands, Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys at an event at the Acadiana Center for the Arts. Opportunities to dance have been few during the pandemic. We were a little rusty, but so happy to be out there again. A nearby friend captured a photo of us on the dance floor.

Time in a Picture Frame
The photographer shutters the moment
mid-glide of a waltz.
You were smiling at him
in the way a person whose known someone for a long time-
familiarity mixed with joy.
In your mind’s eye, the planets spin an orbit of protection.
No matter what,
the photo
will always show joy.
You do not know when loss
will reveal something else hidden there-
a child looking on
or the tail of an astronaut’s lifeline.
Today it is enough
to smile.
(c) Margaret Simon draft