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Posts Tagged ‘Padma Venkatraman’

National Poetry Month Day 14: Safe Harbor

Posted in nature, Poetry, Progressive poem, Writing, tagged , , , , , on April 14, 2025| Leave a Comment »

Today’s #verselove prompt is from Padma Venkatraman who wrote Bridge to Home and most recently Safe Harbor. Her books never fail to take me to a new place where I can find a relatable character and beautiful language. What a honor to have her writing a prompt for us based on her latest book. She invited us to write about a safe place.

I am visiting Ridgeland, MS, a few miles from the place I grew up. While my visits here bring forth many emotions, this morning I wanted to find solace in a walk in nature. Even though my hotel is near an outdoor shopping mall, there is a creek nearby with a walking path. The creek is the very same creek that ran behind my childhood home, Purple Creek. I used the poetry form of tanka (haiku with a chorus) which has a syllable count of 5, 7, 5, 7, 7.

The Kidlit Progressive Poem is with Janet today at Donna’s blog, Mainely Write.

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Poetry Friday: Writing about Hope #DiverseVerse #AuthorsTakeAction

Posted in Poetry Friday, Writing, tagged , , , , on April 23, 2021| 14 Comments »

Poetry Friday round-up is with Catherine at Reading to the Core.

On Ethical ELA this month, teachers and authors are offering intriguing poetry writing prompts. Padma Venkatraman wrote on April 14th that she has created a team of authors dedicated to diverse verse: “Diverse Verse is a website and a resource for educators and diverse poets and verse novelists.” This week they launched using the hashtags #DiverseVerse and #AuthorsTakeAction.

Padma invited teacher/writers to write a 4 lined rhymed stanza beginning with “Hope is.” I thought of how I made origami cranes last summer and organized a gathering of cranes to hang downtown. My first draft of this poem was this:

Hope is an origami crane
hanging in a tree
twisting with the wind
longing to be free.

Draft #1

In the comments, someone pointed out the words hanging, twisting, longing. “There is beauty but also struggle with “hanging”, “twisting”, “longing”. Much truth here.” A positive comment, I know, but I wanted to revisit the verse and see if I could make more of a connection from the hands creating the crane to the idea of peace. This is my next attempt with a line from Chloe, “Is perfection too much?” We’ve tried origami together. She pointed out how our attempts are imperfect at best, but we keep trying. Like hope. Like peace. It’s in the attempts, not the perfection.

Chloe wrote a verse, too. She received a comment from Padma herself and was thrilled.

Would you like to try to weave a metaphor about hope? Share one in the comments.

Photo by Prashant Gautam on Pexels.com

Hope is space between the clouds

the light shining through

the sun’s smiling face

who knew?

Chloe, 5th grade

Our Kidlit Progressive poem is rolling along nicely. Check out the next line choices today with Janice at Salt City Verse.

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