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Posts Tagged ‘oracle deck’

Poetry Friday: Sail Away

Posted in Poetry Friday, Spiritual Growth, Writing, tagged , , , , , on May 15, 2026| 11 Comments »

Poetry Friday is hosted today by Patricia Franz.

I’ve been taking a class in watercolor painting, and I find it challenging. This morning I went to yoga at my friend’s house. She does a private session with a sound bath meditation at the end. During the meditation shavasana, I had a vision of billowing waves of an ocean. I wanted to capture the vision in a watercolor, but I’m not brave enough yet to paint without help. I used a YouTube video to produce the image for my poem today.

The ocean is interesting, but the sailboats…well…ew. I accidentally dribbled some blue, and one thing my instructor said about accidental spots really helped me. He said, “Make them into birds.”

My poem wanted to be a shadorma form. (3, 5, 3, 3, 7, 5)

Waves of sound
surround in seaflow
billow sails
simply free
Meditation comes to me—
whispers of owl wings.

Margaret Simon, draft

For Mother’s Day, my daughter gave me a beautiful oracle deck. The card I picked today was the owl “Wisdom”.

Roots and Wings Oracle Deck by Katharine Ryalls

What is inspiring you these days?

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This Photo Wants to be a Poem: Power of the Oracle

Posted in being mamére, Spiritual Growth, This Photo Wants to be a Poem, Writing, tagged , , , , on May 13, 2026| 7 Comments »

Roots and Wings Oracle Deck created by Katharine Ryalls.

The power at my house is off. We are getting some repairs done, and the guys showed up at 7 and shut off the power at 7:45 AM. I’ve escaped to my daughter’s house.

She left a Mother’s Day gift on her dining table. It’s an oracle deck. Ironically, the first card I pulled was the snake. I am afraid of snakes, and my grandchildren know it, so they love to scare me with any snake-like toy. It is a visceral fear, completely out of my control. My son-in-law has gotten into the joy of scaring Mamére on our family trips. How did I pull this card? The Universe is speaking to me in snakes!

The label reads “Healer” and the message is “Begin the process of repairing something that has been hurt, sick, or not functioning at its best. Healing can leave us changed, but the scars remind us of our strength, courage, and resilience.”

Asclepius,
help me shed the skin of grief
and put on the armor of hope.

What are you most afraid of? What in you needs healing? Join me today with a small poem in the comments and encourage other writers with your responses.

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Slice of Life: Cooling Down

Posted in Slice of Life, Spiritual Growth, Writing, tagged , , on September 24, 2024| 4 Comments »

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

For multiple reasons, I had a rough week last week. On Saturday, I woke up early and went to a local farmer’s market to sell books and make “zines” with kids. It was really great fun, but hot! By the time I finished, I had not eaten or had anything to drink, so I went to my daughter’s house to cool off, literally.

Maggie and I started talking about my week and the day at the market. She suggested I pull a card from her oracle deck, “Mysteries of Love” from alenahennessy.com.

The card I pulled could not have been more perfect, literally and figuratively.

Today on Ethical ELA’s Open Write, the prompt was given by Larin, Thought You Should Know.

I wrote a poem to the Oracle Deck:

To the Oracle Deck (Snap Dragon: Cooling Down)

I want you to know
I’m trying to balance
will & ego,
soothe my inner fire,
but the system pushes
back again and again.

I want you to know
they say we have to move Mom
to skilled nursing. No! I shout
to you. This is not the path
I expected.

I want you to know
I tried to smile at everyone
I met in the halls at school.
I held onto a door handle
and did tree pose
just to test my balance.

I want you to know
how much I want to love
a puppy that chews my shoelaces
as I write this. If I stay cool,
will he stop and look up
with loving eyes?

I want you to know that no matter
what you told me on Saturday,
my will is fading fast
on Tuesday. I should pick
another card.

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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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