Today’s #verselove prompt was to “sound off,” but honestly, on a busy Saturday after a busy week, I simply needed a space with the sound off. So I decided to riff on that idea for today’s poem.
Sound Off
Today I need the sound off
to tiptoe through clouds of silence
listening to echoes
of nothing at all
Sound off
vibrations stilled
hearing only the words inside
my own head
And in that quiet
inspiration speaks
in colors muted and soft
a masterpiece
heard only by one
We learned about William Carlos Williams earlier this week and wrote our own 16 word poems (I wrote about it here). Today we returned to WCW and studied his apology poem: This is Just to Say. I also read a few poems from Joyce Sidman’s collection of the same name. Even though the first graders in my class have been writing poems all month, stretching to write a poem of apology was challenging for many of them. They definitely knew how to say they were sorry–but that “tongue in cheek” sort of “sorry not sorry” approach eluded many of them.
With some coaching, we started to get there. Here are a couple of examples:
B wrote to his mom.
For Mom
This is just to say
I’m sorry I didn’t want to play in the baseball game
I just was as tired as a bear in winter
But it was fun playing baseball
Please forgive me mom
And this student wrote to her sister
I am sorry I came on your bed
and gave it a caterpillar look
I just wanted to give you a hug
like two bears in a cuddle
It might make me feel better
Another wrote to basketball
For Basketball
This is just to say
I’m sorry I haven’t made a shot yet.
Today stuff kept getting in my head
and I couldn’t get it out
It was like a milkshake was getting in my head
My mind said “you can do this” but
my head said I’m a brick
My own attempt was related to our first grade performance at this morning’s assembly where students sang Jimmy Buffett’s Cheeseburger in Paradise.
For Jimmy Buffett
This is just to say
I’m sorry our singing
was a bit off key
We were excited and nervous
twitching like hiccups
dressed in our cheeseburger hats and guitars
Your songs are so catchy
so fun and filled with energy
We just had to dance
and shout out with glee!
Some days less is more–and this is one of those days for me. #Verselove suggested a where I’m from poem, but at the end of a long day, a where I’m from Haiku is where I found myself. (Inspired by the black sage in full bloom on campus right now)
Where I’m From
My nose knows black sage
fragrant, earthy purple blooms
marks this place as home
The night sky was the inspiration that Kevin offered the writers at #verselove today. He shared Ada Limon’s poem, In Praise of Mystery: A Poem for Europa and it was the line, “still, there are mysteries below our sky” that caught my attention and sent me to my beloved ocean. I found myself remembering wandering the night beach and oohing and aahing as the waves crashed with the florescent light of bioluminescence, creating a private fireworks show right in the sea.
Rewrite the Ocean
Oceans conjure
sunny skies, umbrella drinks, coconut body oils
and a hint of salt as you lick your upper lip
When the sky drops
and orange and red dances across the horizon
darkness descends
In the black of night
the magic of living chemistry
millions of microscopic creatures
light up the sea
Each crashing wave
a sliver of bioluminescent day
in brilliant greens and turquoises
Night sky rewrites the ocean
slows time with dramatic pauses
as it paints the inky seas
with light
Day is for sunbathers
vacationers
swimmers and beachcombers
Night is for dreamers
igniting wonder
deeper than earth’s vast
waters
I love small poems. Those deceptively simple compositions that are packed with possibilities of layered meaning. I also love that they invite my young students into their mystery.
Today we read 16 Words William Carlos Williams & “The Red Wheelbarrow” by Lisa Rogers & Chuck Groenink and learned about this well-known poet and his famous short poem. We studied The Red Wheelbarrow and students were ready with their noticings. They counted those words carefully–yes there were 16 (at least the way it was written). They noticed the four stanzas and that each stanza had four words. They noticed the color words and felt that the line “glazed with rain water” was a bit metaphorical. (It also brought to mind donuts–got to love the literal interpretations from first graders!)
I handed out post it notes–it worked last week–small paper for small poems. And they set off with a mere five minutes before they needed to head off to their reading groups. We came back to our poems after lunch. Some students wrote several (I have plenty of post-its!) and all wrote at least one.
Here’s the one inspired by donuts
a sweet donut
with raining sprinkles
is waiting for someone
to pick it up
chomp
Many of my students continued to be inspired by sports
balls flying
like blue birds
flying in
the air
flies into a brown
kids glove
And the one I fell in love with (I’m sure I didn’t write like this when I was in first grade!)
little bits
of sky fall
down on my
face giving
it a small
cool nature shower
And my own poem is trying to conjure spring. There are hints here and there, but the pervasive marine layer is back–something that brings out the complaining in us Southern Californians!
spring wildflowers pop
yellow
when the sun
shines
after many rainy
days
my heart sings
joyfully
It’s Earth Day, a perfect day to celebrate the earth and nature and our connections to them. Donnetta at #verselove suggested crafting a poem that honors Mother Earth in some way. Abigail, part of the #writeout team from the National Writing Project shared a recoding of Ada Limon reading the Mary Oliver poem Can You Imagine?
After a day spent with first graders talking and learning about all the reasons and ways we can and should honor and care for our planet, I found myself thinking about the ever-present tall palm tree that has been a constant on our playground for longer than I can remember. This is the tree that inspired my poem for today.
Tree-by-the-Sea
Can you imagine
standing tall and still
a constant
playground companion
for generations of children
Watching wall ball games evolve
casting a skinny shadow
a line of shade
connecting
play and nature and trees and kids and learning
Can you imagine
the stories
our sentinel palm
can tell
of friendships forged
lives linked
in a school-by-the-sea
Toes tucked in deep
green crown with a priceless view
if you listen to the rustle
you might hear your childhood
in the leaves of a tall
tree-by-the-sea
Some prompts are meant to be transformed and that’s what happened with Stacey’s prompt over at #verselove for me today. Her prompt was about memories from mama’s kitchen, but instead I picked up on her “I’ve been writing this since…” line.
When I think of kitchens, I think of my husband. He’s the resident chef in our family and the one who makes food happen for me and our extended family. But I didn’t really write about food or the kitchen, instead that refrain conjured the power of the ordinary and its translation into love.
The Joy of the Ordinary
I’ve been writing this
since the day you walked into my life
making conversation easy for once
as we talked through that entire first evening
everyone and everything disappeared
but you
I’ve been writing this
for decades
through our youth and childrearing
sickness and health
frustration and excitement
boredom and change
learning from each other, with each other
embracing the inevitable messiness that life serves up
I’ve been writing this
as I’ve learned to value the ordinary
daily dependability
Love
I taste in the meals you make day in and day out
Love
I hear in days that start and end with I love you
Love
I smell in freshly mown grass or the flowers you decided I needed just because
Love
I see in your attention to detail about all things family
Love
I feel in the warm hugs that defy distance
packed in a text, a phone call, a note in my lunchbox
a whisper in my ear
I’ll be writing this
forever
spending a lifetime
with you
Today’s #verselove prompt from Susan was about communications. She focused on notes from the past. But with Earth Day on Monday, I am thinking about communications with our planet, with nature–how we can build a symbiosis between humans and our planet.
Prewriting and walking–they go together for me. As I walked the beach today in the cool spring sunshine, poetry began to form. What I haven’t learned yet is how to capture those fleeting thoughts while I am in motion. By the time i get home with my notebook, specifics have flown…I have to reach back in my mind to reconstruct, rethink, revive, and revise the nascent poetics.
Conversation with the Sea
I hear her whisper
hush shush
hush shush
an echo of my own heartbeat
a lullaby
lifting the weariness of the workweek
Shorebirds whistle
collaborators
“on your right” and “I have your back”
singing as they run and fly in unison
Sandy squelches
a give and take of my feet
and the wet sand
we play cat and mouse
who can catch who
Seagulls squawk
complaining
wanting more
impatient
annoyed and annoying
this is our beach
they squawk
She whispers
and I hear history
and her story
hush shush
hush shush
the sound of wombs, of new life
ancients, primordial
salty tears of the planet
Letters in the sand
message in a bottle
whispers and echoes
I’m listening
I’m lucky enough to work at a school that has fruit trees growing throughout our campus. I had noticed the blossoms on the apple trees a couple of weeks ago, but today when I went to pick my students up from PE I had to double back and capture a photo of the explosion of tiny fruit that is now growing.
The #verselove prompt today was a complex one. Stefani introduced an Irish quatrain with both a syllable count and a rhyme scheme. At the end of a long week, I did cheat a bit with my ending!
Fruit babies
scarlet orbs, lunch snack maybe?
will the crows get to them first?
worst!
(case scenario)
Thinking Through My Lens 