A Journey Through the Pages

Welcome to April and National Poetry Month. I plan to write a new poem every day for the month of April. For much of the month I hope to explore prompts in poemcrazy by Susan Goldsmith Wooldridge, but I make no promises not to find inspiration in other places. If you want to join in even more poetry fun and shenanigans check out the 2020 National Poetry Month Kidlitosphere Events Roundup hosted by Jama over at Jama’s Alphabet Soup. And for the first time (for me) I am taking part in the Progressive Poem organized by Margaret at Reflections on the Teche. Check out the daily progress with the list of contributors on the right (scroll down). You can find today’s line from Margaret Simon at Reflections on the Teche.

Today I’m responding to a prompt from Laura Shovan’s Water Poem Project offered by poet/YA author Meg Eden: List favorite words and see how they pair with water. Of course, this playing with words and associations is very much in the spirit of many of the prompts in poemcrazy, too. From my list of words, I choose SMOOCH.

Water’s Smooch

When summer s
scorches long afternoons,
welcome water’s smooch–
gulp cold water
from the garden hose,
dance in the sprinkler’s rain,
float over cool depths,
cannonball into the deep end,
and come up gasping for air

If you want to see the rest of National Poetry Month poems, here they are:

Day 13: Hope (from lying to tell the truth in poemcrazy and Emily Dickinson)
Day 12: My Sign (from my daily walk)
Day 11: Stitches (from from my grandmother in poemcrazy)
Day 10: These Hands (DMC from Today’s Little Diitty)
Day 9: I’m From (from where do you come from in  poemcrazy)
Day 8: Peaceful Porch (from Plum Nelly poemcrazy)
Day 7: I Am (from full moon me in poemcrazy)
Day 6: Progressive Poem
Day 5: Small Celebrations (from on a night picnic in poemcrazy)
Day 4: A Water Limerick (from Laura Shovan’s #WaterPoemProject)
Day 3: our real names (from our real names in poemcrazy)
Day 2: Star Burst (from naming wild hippo in poemcrazy)
Day 1: Pandemic (DMC from Today’s Little Diitty)

Welcome to April and National Poetry Month. I plan to write a new poem every day for the month of April. For much of the month I hope to explore prompts in poemcrazy by Susan Goldsmith Wooldridge, but I make no promises not to find inspiration in other places. If you want to join in even more poetry fun and shenanigans check out the 2020 National Poetry Month Kidlitosphere Events Roundup hosted by Jama over at Jama’s Alphabet Soup. And for the first time (for me) I am taking part in the Progressive Poem organized by Margaret at Reflections on the Teche. Check out the daily progress with the list of contributors on the right (scroll down). You can find today’s line from Kathryn Apel at Kat Whiskers.

I’m back with another practice from poemcrazy, but I did not expect to end up where I did. This practice focuses on using hyperbole and metaphor to get at an emotional truth. I started as suggested with making a list of emotions, but had difficulty settling on just one. Maybe because so many emotions are swirling these days. Eventually, I turned to Emily Dickinson and wrote a Golden Shovel poem from the first stanza of one of my favorites of hers. Hope may seem scarce, but it is sorely needed–and must maybe stronger than we think.

HOPE

Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul.
Emily Dickinson

Who dares to Hope
in this time that is
unprecedented in the
disruption of the thing
we hold most dear? Hope fights with
teeth and claws and feathers
through the darkness that
will not overwhelm us. Hope perches
in this storm that forces us to shelter in
place, relearning the
habits that nourish our soul.

If you want to see the rest of National Poetry Month poems, here they are:

Day 12: My Sign (from my daily walk)
Day 11: Stitches (from from my grandmother in poemcrazy)
Day 10: These Hands (DMC from Today’s Little Diitty)
Day 9: I’m From (from where do you come from in  poemcrazy)
Day 8: Peaceful Porch (from Plum Nelly poemcrazy)
Day 7: I Am (from full moon me in poemcrazy)
Day 6: Progressive Poem
Day 5: Small Celebrations (from on a night picnic in poemcrazy)
Day 4: A Water Limerick (from Laura Shovan’s #WaterPoemProject)
Day 3: our real names (from our real names in poemcrazy)
Day 2: Star Burst (from naming wild hippo in poemcrazy)
Day 1: Pandemic (DMC from Today’s Little Diitty)

Welcome to April and National Poetry Month. I plan to write a new poem every day for the month of April. For much of the month I hope to explore prompts in poemcrazy by Susan Goldsmith Wooldridge, but I make no promises not to find inspiration in other places. If you want to join in even more poetry fun and shenanigans check out the 2020 National Poetry Month Kidlitosphere Events Roundup hosted by Jama over at Jama’s Alphabet Soup. And for the first time (for me) I am taking part in the Progressive Poem organized by Margaret at Reflections on the Teche. Check out the daily progress with the list of contributors on the right (scroll down). You can find today’s line from Linda at A Word Edgewise.

I’m going off the book with today’s poem. One of the small joys I have found during these days of social distancing is going for a walk each morning with my daughter (and husband if he’s not at work). We wave to the cows and listen to the birds and watch the redbud burst into bloom.

At the end of one lane, the way is blocked with a gate, and the gate has a sign that says:

If you come on my property,
I will feel threatened.
If you bring a weapon,
I will defend myself.

The sign makes me sad. I would not want to live in such fear that I have to keep everyone out. (To be fair, the people who live back there seem friendly and wave and even sometimes stop to talk if they pass us out walking.) So I want a sign of my own. It will say something different.

My Sign

If you come
on my property,
I will treat you
as an honored guest.
We will
break bread
together
and share
our stories.

For those of you who celebrate Easter, may you rejoice that the tomb is as empty as our churches and that Christ is risen indeed. May we find meaning in our celebrations even as our traditions are disrupted.

If you want to see the rest of National Poetry Month poems, here they are:

Day 11: Stitches (from from my grandmother in poemcrazy)
Day 10: These Hands (DMC from Today’s Little Diitty)
Day 9: I’m From (from where do you come from in  poemcrazy)
Day 8: Peaceful Porch (from Plum Nelly poemcrazy)
Day 7: I Am (from full moon me in poemcrazy)
Day 6: Progressive Poem
Day 5: Small Celebrations (from on a night picnic in poemcrazy)
Day 4: A Water Limerick (from Laura Shovan’s #WaterPoemProject)
Day 3: our real names (from our real names in poemcrazy)
Day 2: Star Burst (from naming wild hippo in poemcrazy)
Day 1: Pandemic (DMC from Today’s Little Diitty)

Welcome to April and National Poetry Month. This is my first year participating in the annual Progressive Poem. Irene Latham started the tradition of writing a community poem during April  The poem grows as it passes from blog to blog and each poet adds another line. This year Margaret Simon takes over the organizing duties for the Progressive Poem. The schedule for the month is down and to the right. You can find today’s line from Janet, hosted at Reflections on the Teche..

This prompt from poemcrazy is one I can dive into again and again as it asks me to reflect on the people I come from–both those known and those possible in the mists of time. My thoughts first went to my grandmother. All my life I have heard, “You are just like your grandmother.” The tone of voice could convey either admiration or frustration, depending on the circumstances. My grandmother died when I was twelve, and  have often wondered what she would think of me know and have wanted to ask her opinion on many things in my life. One of the last things she was teaching me before she died was to crochet. I left crochet alone for decades but have recently begun to learn again. Hence today’s poem.

Stitches

Long ago
you taught me
to wrap yarn
over a crochet needle
and pull the hook
through loop after loop
Years later
my fingers relearn
the way to hold
the yarn, to stitch
chain after chain
of single and double loops,
to hook together
different strands
that wrap my life
in memories.

If you want to see the rest of National Poetry Month poems, here they are:

Day 10: These Hands (DMC from Today’s Little Diitty)
Day 9: I’m From (from where do you come from in  poemcrazy)
Day 8: Peaceful Porch (from Plum Nelly poemcrazy)
Day 7: I Am (from full moon me in poemcrazy)
Day 6: Progressive Poem
Day 5: Small Celebrations (from on a night picnic in poemcrazy)
Day 4: A Water Limerick (from Laura Shovan’s #WaterPoemProject)
Day 3: our real names (from our real names in poemcrazy)
Day 2: Star Burst (from naming wild hippo in poemcrazy)
Day 1: Pandemic (DMC from Today’s Little Diitty)

Welcome to April and National Poetry Month. This is my first year participating in the annual Progressive Poem. Irene Latham started the tradition of writing a community poem during April  The poem grows as it passes from blog to blog and each poet adds another line. This year Margaret Simon takes over the organizing duties for the Progressive Poem. The schedule for the month is down and to the right. You can find today’s line from Carol at Beyond Literacy Link.

This is not the Where I Come From prompt inspired by George Ella Lyon that I have written and taught in the past (and still love). This prompt from poemcrazy invites me to explore a more metaphorical landscape–what are places where I felt at home even if I have never been there.

While I grew up in eastern North Carolina (very flat coastal plain), I can still remember the sense of coming home that I felt the first time I drove up the hill to Hinton Rural Life Center in the mountains of western North Carolina. I worked there as summer staff for three summers during college. Even though I had never been there before, I knew I had found my home, and I was right. And today, my home shares several things from that time that make me feel at home–hills (instead of the mountains) and next to water.

I Come From

I come from
ancient mountains
that cradle eternity,
where wind and water
have weathered away
craggy peaks.
I rest beside
still waters
that nourish life.
After thunderstorms
have scrubbed the air,
I drink deeply
from life.

If you want to see the rest of National Poetry Month poems, here they are:

Day 7: I Am (from poemcrazy)
Day 6: Progressive Poem
Day 5: Small Celebrations (from poemcrazy)
Day 4: A Water Limerick (from Laura Shovan’s #WaterPoemProject)
Day 3: our real names (from poemcrazy)
Day 2: Star Burst (from poemcrazy)
Day 1: Pandemic (DMC from Today’s Little Diitty)

Welcome to April and National Poetry Month. This is my first year participating in the annual Progressive Poem. Irene Latham started the tradition of writing a community poem during April  The poem grows as it passes from blog to blog and each poet adds another line. This year Margaret Simon takes over the organizing duties for the Progressive Poem. The schedule for the month is down and to the right. You can find today’s line from Tara at Going to Walden.

I’m back with another practice from poemcrazy. This might be one of my favorites–to write about a place that is poetry for you. I have many places where I find poetry, places that are poetry, but for today’s poem, I went to my current favorite place: my front porch. As spring temperatures warm, it is again my haven and place of peace. Once this current virus has run its course (and we have protections against it) and it is safe to travel, you are invited to sip some tea while we sit in the porch swing.

Peaceful Porch

Come sit with me in the old porch swing
looking o’er the pond below.
We’ll listen to the crickets sing
if you sit with me in the old porch swing.
While we watch the geese take wing
we’ll feel the gentle breezes blow.
Come sit with me in the old porch swing
looking o’er the pond below.

What places hold poems for you?

If you want to see the rest of National Poetry Month poems, here they are:

Day 7: I Am (from poemcrazy)
Day 6: Progressive Poem (organized by Margaret Simon, started by Irene Lathem)
Day 5: Small Celebrations (from poemcrazy)
Day 4: A Water Limerick (from Laura Shovan’s #WaterPoemProject)
Day 3: our real names (from poemcrazy)
Day 2: Star Burst (from poemcrazy)
Day 1: Pandemic (DMC from Today’s Little Diitty)

Welcome to April and National Poetry Month. This is my first year participating in the annual Progressive Poem. Irene Latham started the tradition of writing a community poem during April  The poem grows as it passes from blog to blog and each poet adds another line. This year Margaret Simon takes over the organizing duties for the Progressive Poem. The schedule for the month is down and to the right. You can find today’s line from Catherine at Reading to the Core.

I’m back today with another practice exercise from poemcrazy. Wooldridge got me started with a list of questions to answer:  If I were a color, what color would I be? What animal or shape or car or number and so on. Then combine those with a list of verbs you’ve been collecting. (You have been collecting verbs and other words, right?)

I noticed a couple of things with this (and other exercises). It is really good for me right now to be playful and not worry too much about what others might think about my poems even though it is challenging to let go and be playful. I am trying to “Just pile on words. Don’t think. See images. Daydream with words. Wander. Go crazy defining yourself.” As I do, I am learning things about myself and this crazy world.

Second, I love that this can be an ongoing, never-ending poem. I can keep gathering words and lines and images to keep writing my poem. Here is its beginning for today:

I am
a weeping willow
twirling in the storm
and a prickly pear cactus
holding my own in the desert.
I am
an irrational number
that cannot be solved.
I am
a flowing stream
dissolving limestone
one grain at a time
to reveal vast caverns
that sparkle in the dark.

If you want to see the rest of National Poetry Month poems, here they are:

Day 6: Progressive Poem
Day 5: Small Celebrations
Day 4: A Water Limerick (from Laura Shovan’s #WaterPoemProject)
Day 3: our real names (from poemcrazy)
Day 2: Star Burst (from poemcrazy)
Day 1: Pandemic (DMC from Today’s Little Diitty)

Welcome to April and National Poetry Month. This is my first year participating in the annual Progressive Poem. Irene Latham started the tradition of writing a community poem during April  The poem grows as it passes from blog to blog and each poet adds another line. This year Margaret Simon takes over the organizing duties for the Progressive Poem.

I have enjoyed reading the Progressive Poem as it has grown through past Aprils, but I was a little nervous about joining in. This year Donna Smith upped the fun by providing two first lines for the next poet to choose between. So far it’s been a choose your own adventure poem.

Yesterday Buffy Silverman offered me a choice of these two lines to continue:

My back pocket bulges with notebook and pen (Option A)
I follow the tracks of deer and raccoon (Option B)

I do like that notebook and pen (I’m seldom caught without them in my pocket or bag, but I also can’t resist following the tracks of deer and raccoon. Here is the poem so far:

Sweet violets shimmy, daffodils sway
along the wiregrass path to the lake.
I carry a rucksack of tasty cakes
and a banjo passed down from my gram.
I follow the tracks of deer and raccoon

Here are my two lines:

deep into nature’s peaceful cocoon (Option A)

OR

and echo the call of a wandering loon (Option B)

Which one will Catherine choose?

If you want to follow along to see where the poem ends, here is the schedule for the month:

1 Donna Smith at Mainly Write
2 Irene Latham at Live Your Poem
3 Jone MacCulloch, deowriter
4 Liz Steinglass
5 Buffy Silverman
6 Kay McGriff at A Journey Through the Pages
7 Catherine Flynn at Reading to the Core
8 Tara Smith at Going to Walden
9 Carol Varsalona at Beyond Literacy Link
10 Matt Forrest Esenwine at Radio, Rhythm, and Rhyme
11 Janet Fagel, hosted at Reflections on the Teche
12 Linda Mitchell at A Word Edgewise
13 Kat Apel at Kat Whiskers
14 Margaret at Reflections on the Teche
15 Leigh Anne Eck at A Day in the Life
16 Linda Baie at Teacher Dance
17 Heidi Mordhorst at My Juicy Little Universe
18 Mary Lee Hahn at A Year of Reading
19 Tabatha at Opposite of Indifference
20 Rose Cappelli at Imagine the Possibilities
21 Janice Scully at Salt City Verse
22 Julieanne Harmatz at To Read, To Write, To Be
23 Ruth, thereisnosuchthingasagodforsakentown.blogspot.com
24 Christie Wyman at Wondering and Wandering
25 Amy at The Poem Farm
26 Dani Burtsfield at Doing the Work That Matters
27 Robyn Hood Black at Life on the Deckle Edge
28
29 Fran Haley at lit bits and pieces
30 Michelle Kogan

Welcome to April and National Poetry Month. I plan to write a new poem every day for the month of April. For much of the month I hope to explore prompts in poemcrazy by Susan Goldsmith Wooldridge, but I make no promises not to find inspiration in other places. If you want to join in even more poetry fun and shenanigans check out the 2020 National Poetry Month Kidlitosphere Events Roundup hosted by Jama over at Jama’s Alphabet Soup. And for the first time (for me) I am taking part in the Progressive Poem organized by Margaret at Reflections on the Teche. Check out the daily progress with the list of contributors on the right (scroll down).

Today’s poem started with a prompt from poemcrrazy but quickly went in another direction. In “on a night picnic” Wooldridge challenges readers to create a small occasion–celebrate those ordinary moments with something special from candles to fireworks. We have been celebrating small moments through these turbulent weeks. We’ve toasted grad school decisions made and accepted, grilled pizzas for an evening picnic, picked flowers to herald spring’s arrival. But as I was pondering what to write, I witnessed a celebration that captivated me.

Small Celebrations

The world outside
has paused or gone mad–
I’m not sure which.
But here at home
we gather close
as spring unfurls.
Tiny purple stars
and fuzzy suns
scatter across
an emerald lawn
and a warm breeze
ruffles the surface
of the pond
from its still reflection.
Just beyond the beveled
glass of the front door
a little brown bird
alights atop
the flowered wreath,
raises his beak,
pours forth a melody,
and my heart
sings, too.

If you want to see the rest of National Poetry Month poems, here they are:

Day 4: A Water Limerick (from Laura Shovan’s #WaterPoemProject)
Day 3: our real names (from poemcrazy)
Day 2: Star Burst (from poemcrazy)
Day 1: Pandemic (DMC from Today’s Little Diitty)