Thursday was a stormy day. Everyone was talking about the storm, so when we were looking for a topic for a zeno poem, Thunder came through.
A zeno poem was invented by J. Patrick Lewis and it follows the mathematical sequence 8,4,2,1,4,2,1,4,2,1, and the one syllable words rhyme. Great time to pull up RhymeZone and do some chatting about word meanings like dire.
Thunder is a loud, cranky noise terrifying crackling fire electric charges targets wire outrageously shocking dire.
–Mrs. Simon’s class
I then set my students loose to write their own zeno poems while I worked on my own. I tried the haikubes, but there are no rhyming words in them, so it proved nearly impossible to make a zeno. Then I turned to metaphor dice. A little better, but I’m still not completely satisfied with the results. But, as writing partner Molly Hogan stated in her post yesterday, I honored the play of it all.
The mind is a back-handed drum pounding fissures into line beating thoughts with rhythm time waiting for my soul to shine.
This month I am playing with poetry with poet-teacher-blogger friends. Feel free to play along.
I am also playing alongside my students. We brought out the cookie sheets of magnetic poetry. I talked about two similar poem forms, the How to poem and the Things to do poem. You can read their poems here.
I also played with my Word Swag app in my phone to create a more beautiful and professional looking image.
Here’s another on the cookie sheet. I can’t remember who brilliantly suggested using cookie sheets for magnetic poetry, but it works great. For an itinerant teacher like me, it’s a convenient way to carry them. I also have some in a tin which works equally as well. The lid of the tin serves as a composition space.
I have a new student, Maddox, in 4th grade. Sometimes kids walk into my classroom already knowing how to be a poet. Here is Maddox’s first poem.
How to Be a Storm
rock the ships below
boom like a thundering drum
blast the air with a gale
use your wrath in a tempestuous storm
then let the sun shine again
See more posts at Two Writing Teachers Slice of Life
Some of you have been following our wood duck house story. In late February, my husband built a wood duck house and set it up near the bayou. We put a Ring doorbell camera inside to capture the whole process. We were amazed when a hen came in the very next day. It took her a few weeks to lay the eggs and begin sitting on them. I wrote about it here and here.
The last time I was able to count the eggs, I had counted 13 eggs.
The problem with using a Ring camera is, with the constant motion of a hen sitting fairly consistently, the battery runs down. We changed it out once with no problem, but Saturday afternoon, it had totally died. Because we couldn’t look at the camera to see if the hen was in the house, my husband spooked her when he went to change the battery.
She came back for a brief minute then flew back out at around 7:30 PM. After that, nothing.
Did she abandon the nest altogether? Alerts to motion come onto my phone. I usually turn off notifications during the night but I didn’t Saturday. We waited for the buzz of the phone. Nothing.
Sunday morning I looked out the window, saying a few prayers that she would return. I saw the couple in the water. I practically begged at the window, “Please go back in. Please go back in.”
She flew up and around the house and landed back in the water.
I woke up my husband who admits he wasn’t really sleeping. I said, “There must be some kind of sound coming from the camera to scare her like that.”
He said, “To hell with broadcasting, we need to save these eggs.”
But taking the camera out didn’t prove necessary. I heard a buzz on my phone. She’s back! She was in the box, settling in, poking around, as if nothing had happened. Whew! Relief!
Relieved to get this phone alert.
Jeff watched one of the videos from the camera and noticed that there was a hen perched at the hole flying out while another hen was in the box sitting. Could they both be sitting? Are they sharing the nest?
While our hen was away, I was able to get a shot of the eggs. She hadn’t had time to cover them before she left. I counted 20 eggs! Twenty!
If my calculations are right, and the 12 hour hiatus doesn’t change the incubation time, the eggs are due to hatch on or around April 11th. You know I will be posting. You can follow on my Instagram or Facebook page.
Now for poetry. I am playing with some fun poetry games. My students are playing along and posting on our Kidblog site.
With Paint Chip Poetry, I pulled honey, quicksilver, and under the sea. The prompt was “We’re all in this together.”
We’re all wild honey under the sea free and quick like silver sparkles together making waves splashing sprays whale family.
My box of Paint Chip Poetry arrived just in time for this month’s poetry writing. I am playing with poetry. In Paint Chip Poetry, you select a prompt which is a phrase, along with some paint chips. The paint colors have names. I’m not sure if I’m playing right, but here is what I got.
A little revision:
Far, far away before the rain, a sunburst glows on scarecrow makes him believe in magic like gold at the end of the rainbow. –Margaret Simon, (draft) 2019
Matt Forrest Esenwine has the first line for the Progressive Poem. He is using found lines. The schedule is in the sidebar. National Poetry Month begins!
Margaret Simon lives on the Bayou Teche in New Iberia, Louisiana. She teaches gifted elementary students, writes poetry and children's books. Welcome to a space of peace, poetry, and personal reflection. Walk in kindness.
Reflections on the Teche 