thanku

Posts Tagged ‘thanku’

Gratitude for the Voices in my Life

Posted in Poetry, Spiritual Growth, Teaching, tagged gratitude, spiritual journey, thanku on November 2, 2017| 8 Comments »

Find more posts at Live your Poem.

Our Spiritual Journey first Thursday posts are centered around gratitude this month. When I think of what I am most grateful for this week, I think of the many voices in my life.

Sunday: The voices of the choir up in the loft with me. I am the only alto, but that’s OK. I love to hear the harmony of my voice alongside the others around me. I carry the anthem in my head all week long. Today I can hear the echo of “even thine altars…O Lord, my king and my God. Blessed are they that dwell in thy house.”

Monday-Friday: The voices of my students ring in my ear. This week one group is writing mood stories. A few students are collaborating together. They hunch over the paper and computer and speak in excited voices about what happens next. Another group is working on podcasts, so they have written scripts and are practicing and recording and re-recording. Voices over voices, played and replayed.

Voxer voices: I have a few friends I keep in touch with using the Voxer app. I look forward to hearing their messages on my morning walks. One of these friends is reading aloud a book. She’s actually reading it for another friend, but she forwards them to me, so I can enjoy the book as well. I love being read to. Her soothing, friendly voice makes the experience of listening like a meditation.

As I write, my husband calls and offers to meet at our favorite restaurant. There, we will catch up on the news of day and just be with each other. I remember one of the first things that attracted me to him was his voice. I’ll never tire of hearing it.

November is thanku season, a time for writing thank you haiku.

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Famous Again

Posted in Celebration Saturday, Gratitude, Writing, tagged Acadiana Lifestyle, celebration, Gumbo, roux, Teaching Authors, thanku on November 8, 2014| 6 Comments »

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

In our household, if you make it into our local paper, you are famous. I made it into a local free magazine, Acadiana Lifestyle. The writer Anne Minvielle called me about 6 weeks ago asking me about my hero. She was doing a feature on local heroes’ heroes. I didn’t have to think long. My hero is my mother-in-law, Anne Simon. I’ve written about her a few times on this blog.

When I married at the young age of 21, I moved with my husband to his home town, away from my family in Mississippi. So his parents became very important to me. Following his father’s death (ten years ago on Nov. 14th), his mother Anne and I got closer and closer. We affectionately call her Minga. That’s the grandma name my oldest daughter gave her. It was a baby’s version of grandma. We loved it and kept it. What a coincidence that the greeting in Burma is “Minga La Bal.” Yes, a few years ago, Minga traveled to Burma and came to my classes dressed in traditional Burmese clothes, bowing her head and saying, “Minga La Bal.” I wrote about it here.

Acadiana Lifestyle, November 2014

From the article: “Margaret speaks of her mother-in-law as if she were truly a hero. ‘She is like a mother to me, but more than that, she is a best friend, a writing partner, and a confidante. I can talk to her about anything and trust that she will love me no matter what,’ she says. What a blessing!”

While I write this celebration post, my wonderful husband is making a roux for a gumbo. That is the smell of cool weather and of home. However, the scent gets into all your clothes and your pores. We will carry that southern home smell with us all day.

Teaching Authors posted a challenge yesterday on Poetry Friday. Three Weeks of Gratitude. Writing thanksgiving haikus, otherwise known as Thankus. I did this activity with my students a few years ago and here is one from a student. I keep it pinned to the bulletin board in my kitchen.

The seed of a rose
You sprout your knowledge like roots
We share our petals.
by Kylon

Keep your hand moving: Roux in the pot.

Thanku to Roux

Heat tempered with love
Strong scent of flour and oil
Come home for gumbo.
–Margaret Simon

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Thanku. Chalk-a-bration. Celebration

Posted in Celebration Saturday, Poetry, tagged Betsy Hubbard, chalkabration, poems about mothers, Ruth Ayres, Teaching Young Writers, thanku on November 30, 2013| 5 Comments »

Join the Chalk-a-bration over at Teaching Young Writers

This post combines three ideas/connections to three blog sites. The Thanku poem was started by the Teaching Authors who encouraged us to write thank you haiku about teachers who have influenced us. Chalk-a-bration is a monthly round up that Betsy Hubbard hosts at Teaching Young Writers. And the Celebration Saturday round up is hosted by Ruth Ayres at Discover. Play. Build.

Last Friday before we broke for a week off, my students wrote their Thanku poems in chalk. I wrote, too, and was pleased with the sticky thanku I wrote for my mom. I’m hoping she will read this and make me pancakes this morning.

I celebrate that Brooklyn’s flying and thanking me for her wings. How awesome!

Tyler celebrates the sunshine in his life, his mother. His grandma makes pancakes shaped like Mickey Mouse.

I love you, Mom, for more than just your pancakes, but your pancakes are the best!

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Posted in Poetry, Slice of Life, Writing, tagged thanku on November 27, 2012| 5 Comments »

Join the Tuesday Slice of Life

Last week, Thanksgiving week, I was introduced to the “thanku,” a haiku thank you poem. Today, I introduced the idea to my students. Since I teach gifted kids, I had to give them a challenge. Since haiku originally was a style of poetry that not only used a set syllable pattern (5,7,5), but also used the theme of nature, I asked them to include a metaphorical use of nature. And, of course, I modeled with my own poem. This one I wrote for a friend.

Sunflowers open
to see the world around us
like your heart to mine.

Some of my students took on the challenge. Most of them chose to write to teachers. It was sweet watching them type up their poems, find just the right graphic, and print them out to give to their favorite teachers. At the very end of the day, Kylon slipped me this little gift of a thanku. My heart melted.

The seed of a rose
You sprout your knowledge like roots
We share our petals.

Link to Teaching Authors two weeks of thanks

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More Thanks

Posted in Blessen, Poetry, Writing, tagged author, thanksgiving, thanku on November 22, 2012| 3 Comments »

Link to Teaching Authors two weeks of thanks

Yesterday my 14 year old niece interviewed me for her journalism class. While my family around me wondered why she would choose me to interview, I felt privileged that she asked me…as an author. Her questions were good. They made me really think, and I enjoyed telling her about this journey. She asked me when I knew I wanted to be a writer. I told her the story about finding my diary from 1975 when I was her age. (See this post.) When she asked what advice I would give to students who would like to be writer, I said surround yourself with people who affirm and support you.

Today, for the Two weeks of Thanksgiving, I am writing a thanku for all of my people who support this crazy writing life.