Louisiana | Reflections on the Teche

Posts Tagged ‘Louisiana’

Slice of Life Day 4: Courir de Mardi Gras

Posted in being mamére, Slice of Life, Writing, tagged Breaux Bridge, Courir de Mardi Gras, Louisiana, Teche Center for the Arts on March 4, 2025| 11 Comments »

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

Happy Mardi Gras, y’all! Today is Fat Tuesday, celebrated with parades and food and fun, the last day before Lent arrives, and we enter a season of penance and fasting. I decided to skip the New Orleans festivities this year and enjoy a quiet Mardi Gras; however, yesterday, my daughter invited me to go with her and her two children, Leo and Stella, to an event in Breaux Bridge, Louisiana.

A few years ago I attended the “Courir de Mardi Gras” with my family in Eunice, Louisiana. I had some trouble with the drunken parade and abuse of chickens. This event in Breaux Bridge changed my view somewhat. It was specifically for the children, so the adults were drinking coffee and water and handing out snacks to their children. There was a chicken involved, but we were assured that the chicken was tame and would not be injured.

Traditional Courir de Mardi Gras mask made from home crafted materials.

The costumes were fabulous and fun!

The history of the courir, which in Cajun French means run, dates back to before Louisiana became a part of the U.S., from a time when the Acadians came to Louisiana without much of anything but a promise of land. The small communities would celebrate Mardi Gras by having a chicken run. The idea was to go house to house to get all the ingredients for the gumbo. The gumbo would be shared by the community.

The Teche Center for the Arts recreated the courir specifically for children. El Capitaine, the leader, assigned the children to groups. It was a wild chase, for sure, but it was quick and usually ended with at least one child crying about being knocked in the head or not catching the chicken or, in Stella’s case, losing a shoe. We paraded house to house and shared in the tradition. This was more my style, watching the children, carrying their catches, and taking lots of photos and video.

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Slice of Life: Was it all a dream?

Posted in Poetry, Slice of Life, Writing, tagged Louisiana, snow, Student Slice of Life on January 28, 2025| 13 Comments »

As I was driving to school this morning, I wondered if the snow we had last week was all part of a dream. Every time I saw something white, I turned my head. Is it snow? No, there are still white sheets covering plants (ghosts of snowmen) and litter of white plastic (ghosts of snow drifts). But our temperatures are back to normal southern winter, 40-60 degrees, and there are few signs that last week we were covered in snow.

My students were so eager to write about their experience last week, a historic snowstorm. Most reminisced about the snow-people they built. Some wrote a Slice of Life without my prompting. I spoke with a colleague whose students were similarly inspired to write.

Kailyn described her snow-person: “Let’s talk about what my snow woman was made out of. Her eyes were flowers from my mom’s office, her nose was obviously a carrot, and her lips were a jelly belly sour pucker lip. She wore a Mardi Gras scarf, quickly changed to a light up necklace along with a coffee cup in her hand. We stuck a branch of leaves in her head for hair.”

Carson’s mother sent me a photo of him making a snow angel.

Carson, 3rd grade, makes his first ever snow angel.

James, 4th grade, wrote an I am From poem about a photo I posted of a Cajun Snowman.

I am from
The winter breeze
I am from
wearing jackets
I am from
The chilly snow
I am from
Drinking hot chocolate
I am from
Making snowmen

I encouraged my grandson, Leo, to create a journal page about the experiences we had together. His writing is coming along, but most of all, I’m excited that this is something we can do together. You have to love his signature.

I hope all of our children remember this experience, but we know it will fade, as the snow has faded. I decided to create a photobook for our family. No one seems to do photo albums anymore, so with a photobook, I can remember alongside my grandchildren, who are probably too young to remember. Maybe they will. The magical wonderland of Narnia. Our own time warp through the wardrobe.

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This Photo Wants to be a Poem: Cajun Snowman

Posted in Photography, This Photo Wants to be a Poem, Writing, tagged #poemsofpresence, #smallpoems, Louisiana, This Photo Wants to be a Poem, winter poems on January 22, 2025| 18 Comments »

Acadiana in Louisiana has gotten a rare, historical snowstorm. Cajuns all around are reconnecting to their Canadian roots and building snowmen. This one was posted by a colleague at my school, Alice Suire.

It’s still bitter cold here, so the snow is sticking. Another snow day! For those of you not familiar with French, the word couillon means fool.

Snowman Elfchen

Snowman
On truckbed
Rare Louisiana snow
Old family traditions reinvented
Couillon

Margaret Simon, draft

Please leave a small poem in the comments. Respond to other writers with encouragement. And stay warm!

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This Photo Wants to be a Poem: Beware of the Gator

Posted in Poetry, This Photo Wants to be a Poem, Writing, tagged #beingmamére, Alligators, Avery Island, Louisiana, This Photo Wants to be a Poem on October 30, 2024| 2 Comments »

Granddaughter June, 22 months, pointing at an alligator at Avery Island, Louisiana.

My daughter joined my older daughter and her kids at Avery Island, Louisiana, a few miles south of us. It’s the home of the Tabasco plant. The place is beautiful, set on an inlet from the Gulf of Mexico. The water is fresh water and yes, there are gators there. Alligators are generally not aggressive animals. They peacefully float along the surface. I’m not sure, but this might have been June’s first time to see an alligator out in the wild.

Let’s play with enjambment today. Enjambment is a poetic element in which a sentence or phrase continues from one poetic line to the next, without end punctuation. Enjambment can create a surprise or suspense.

Here’s an example from Maggie Smith’s poem “First Fall”:

“I’m your guide here. In the evening-dark
morning streets, I point and name.
Look, the sycamores, their mottled
paint-by-number bark. Look, the leaves”

Here is my draft:

Your finger is the guide here, pointing,
noticing, identifying first gator.
You say, “Foggie,” and Mom
repeats, “That’s an alligator!”
You point again, fumble over
new syllables, soaking up
space, place, and being
a toddler on tour.
Margaret Simon, draft

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This Photo Wants to be a Poem: Spider Lily

Posted in Photography, Poetry, Progressive poem, This Photo Wants to be a Poem, Writing, tagged Bayou Teche, Ethical ELA, Golden Shovel, Louisiana, Mary Oliver, NPM24, spider lily, word poems on April 3, 2024| 8 Comments »

Spider Lily among cypress knees on Bayou Teche, Louisiana

I wanted this swamp lily to be a star lily, but research is telling me it’s a variety of spider lily. On Ethical ELA, the prompt by Wendy Everard asks us to explore the place of a favorite poet. I chose Mary Oliver and a striking line from her poem Fall: “what is spring all that tender/ green stuff”

I’m not sure what
heaven is
but amazement like spring
when all
green that
was hiding in tender
seed fills green
bridal bouquets blossoming beautiful stuff.
Margaret Simon, draft

I’m also writing a word poem each day. Today’s word is vernal which means of, in, or appropriate to spring. Today’s form is an acrostic.

Variety of colors
eagerly popping-
resurrection-
nature’s recital.
April, I
Love you.
Margaret Simon, word poem NPM24

Progressive Poem is with Janice Scully at Salt City Verse

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Slice of Life: The Story of the Story

Posted in Books, Slice of Life, Writing, tagged Anne Simon, Blue Gray and Black Blood, Civil War, historical fiction, Iberia Parish, Louisiana, Phebe Hayes on December 5, 2023| 11 Comments »

On Sunday afternoon, the rain had stopped, the air was a perfect 70 degrees, and my house was full. Full of people with great admiration for my mother-in-law, Anne Simon, who once served as a district judge in a three parish area of Louisiana. She was not holding court, but the respect and honor was present. Minga (her grandmother name given by my oldest daughter) was signing her 5th book. Her first book Blood in the Cane Field came out in 2014. She has only been a writer for 10 years. She is 92 years old.

Actually, Anne has been working on being an author for a long time. She graduated from Wellesley and was the token woman chosen from her class to attend Yale Law School. Mona Lisa Smile was a movie based on her Wellesley class. At Yale, “They didn’t even have female bathrooms,” she told me. At Yale, she met Jerry Simon, a young man from an exotic place, New Iberia, Louisiana. In 1956, she was the only woman law school graduate in her class at LSU Law School. Jerry had swept her away from Yale to plant her firmly in Louisiana soil. From 1956-1984, Anne and Jerry practiced together as partners in a law firm. My husband Jeff joined the practice in 1981. In 1985, Anne ran for District Judge and became the first woman to hold that office. In her retirement, she served as an ad hoc judge for the Louisiana Supreme Court. All that time, she collected stories.

On Sunday, Anne told the group gathered in our home about how she came to write this latest novel, Blue, Gray, and Black Blood: The Civil War in the Bayou Country. She was interested in Civil War history. In her studies, she found that farm boys from western Massachusetts volunteered for the Union Army. She knew this area of the country well (Wellesley is located in Massachusetts) and imagined that they might have crossed paths with French speaking African Americans in Acadiana.

This photo shows Anne talking with Phebe Hayes, a historian and founder of the Iberia African American Society. Phebe was studying her family’s genealogy when she had lunch with me and Anne on the back porch of Anne’s house. I was there when the two discussed Phebe’s discoveries about her ancestry. Her ancestors were French speaking Creoles who joined the 52nd Massachusetts volunteers heading west. Through Anne’s thorough research, she wrote a historical fiction book “so you could imagine what it would have been like to live during that time.”

Phebe Hayes, left, and Anne Simon, right, celebrate the publication of a book that shares their history.

“We need to know every group’s history, not just our own. They intersect and we understand more when we know more,” said Anne to the crowd gathered. I was honored to be able to provide my home for the book signing. And many thanks to the people who helped with the event.

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Slice of Life: Snake Eyes

Posted in Slice of Life, tagged Costa Rica, eyelash viper, Louisiana, ribbon snake on July 19, 2022| 13 Comments »

Last week, my husband and I traveled to Costa Rica for an amazing week of adventures. Generally speaking, I have a fear of snakes that goes back to my childhood living near a creek in Mississippi. Through the years living near the Bayou Teche, I’ve come to appreciate that there are good snakes and bad snakes. That is to say, venomous and nonvenomous, as my naturalist friend corrects me.

While in Costa Rica, we took a fearful walk through the rainforest. It was frightening on many levels, the highest one being that we walked over numerous hanging bridges while rain poured down and thunder rolled in the distance. I did not feel safe. I took it slowly while our guide did not. She rushed us along, thus leaving me and a few other slowpokes behind.

At one point in our rainforest trek, the guide stopped us all to point out a small yellow flower. Yet it was not an exotic flower; it was a venomous snake known as the eyelash viper. I had hoped to see a poison dart frog, but this snake was not on my “want to see” list. I did not take the picture. I stood at a safe distance. The guide took the photo with someone’s iphone and we later airdropped it to everyone.

A Google fact search turned up this frightening fact: “Since they can be bold shades of green and yellow, they’ve accidentally been transported to other countries with exported bananas.” Yikes! Can you imagine finding this in your bananas?

Now I am home and on my morning walk, I nearly stepped on this little guy.

Innocent ribbon snake, New Iberia, Louisiana

This small striped ribbon snake is more my speed when it comes to accepting that there are snakes in this world. He’s actually kinda cute, don’t you think? And totally harmless.

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Slice challenge #5: A Perfect Day

Posted in Photography, Poetry, Slice of Life, Writing, tagged Bayou Teche, Louisiana on March 4, 2018| 5 Comments »

What do you do with a perfect day?

Sky’s a clear blue… let’s canoe…bayou still…no wind…smooth strokes…sun setting slow…an orange glow behind the towering smoke stack…abandoned mill…concrete riprap…a nest for trash…discarded life tokens.

A distant roar…speed boat…they see us hanging at the edge…cut the motor……push, pull, turn…cross waves…speed on.

Crossing under the bridge…sun’s gone…sky darkens…paddle strengthens…then we hear it…a distant hoot…the owl swishes overhead…beginning his hunt…who-cooks-for-you-you-all familiar call…calling sunset’s end… pull to dock…warm glow of home.

The idea for this poetry format came from Poets and Writers The Time is Now Writing Prompts.

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Slice of Sunshine

Posted in Gratitude, Slice of Life, Writing, tagged art therapy, Great Flood of 2016, Louisiana, sunshine on August 16, 2016| 9 Comments »

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

The rain started early Friday morning. I knew this was a serious rain because school was cancelled 5 minutes before I walked out the door. The rain stayed for days, falling in sheets for hours and hours. By Friday afternoon, the news media was calling this an Historic Flood. One of my colleagues posted on Facebook that her house was going under. I watched and waited. Finally a text came that she and her family were rescued and safe.

But the rain kept falling. By Saturday morning, I went into a panic. The bayou water had not risen this high in the 12 years we’d been living here, and neighbors said not in 20+ years. This was truly an historical event.

The sun peeks through the trees. Water is up to the back step.

We put the furniture up, rolled rugs, emptied book shelves, and watched and waited.

Sofas raised up on kitchen chairs. Mimi watches the sun come out.

Then on Sunday morning, the sun came out. The water was a few feet from our back door, but it hadn’t come in.

Not everyone in our area was as lucky. This incessant rain was worse than any hurricane. And the flood waters did not discriminate. Everyone here knows someone who is cleaning up today.

Painting the rain, collaborative work by a mother and son at the shelter.

In my gratitude, I went to the shelter in our City Park to help out with an art activity with the kids. It was crazy and messy and just what I needed.

Messy art is the best kind!

Today, I want to focus on the sunshine.

The sun will come out.
We know this is true.
There is always light after the rain.

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Celebrating Summer Week 3

Posted in Celebration Saturday, tagged Breaux Bridge, celebration, Joie de Vivre coffee shop, Lagniappe Antiques Mall, Louisiana, rainbows, writing space on June 13, 2015| 8 Comments »

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

Twitter is buzzing this morning. My friends in cyberspace are posting images of their writing spaces. Such a fun way to connect with other teacher/writers. My writing space is messy. I sit at the kitchen table most days because Charlie (my dog) is here, so he keeps me company. Mimi, the cat, is often lying on some random piece of paper. What is it about cats and paper? I have a tablet for notes, a leather journal for quick poems, and my school notebook where many ideas are stored. I celebrate time to sit here, connect with others, and write.

#Iwritehere

Celebrating Rainbows: The good thing about summer rain showers (which are happening daily) is rainbows. I know the science behind a rainbow, but I still marvel at the sight and believe in the promise. May your summer be filled with rainbows.

Thursday morning rainbow

Celebrating coffee shop visits: Yesterday I had two coffee shop dates. A wonderful way to relax and reconnect with friends over summer days.

I’m in between Jen and Sandy. Coffee cups and friends!

Celebrating antique shopping: This is a rare treat for me, to wander through an antique market. This one is next to the Joie De Vivre Coffee Shop in Breaux Bridge, Lagniappe Antiques Mall. Lagniappe is a French word that means a little something extra. That’s an understatement. It was a warehouse full of somethings extra. I bought a few things that jumped off the shelves at me, silver napkin rings, a 1961 Life magazine, and vintage postcards.