Category Archives: National Poetry Month

Friday Fun: NPM24 Day 5

Have you ever written a sevenling? Me either. Leilya’s prompt over at #verselove suggested we write about a Friday date night–and try on a short form. Sevenling was a suggested form, and one I was unfamiliar with. And Friday date night turned into Friday road trip…in the form of a sevenling.

On the road (again)

In the car we sit, miles accumulating like snowdrifts

Mind numbing, body cramping, time freezing

Traffic and Google navigation mishaps punctuated with alltheswearwords

We burst into song, another oldie even I know the lyrics to

Seeking attractions from concrete dinosaurs to indie bookstores

Adventures found in unexpected places

In the hate/love struggle of roadtrips, when I’m with you love always wins

World’s largest flip flop, Rainbow sandal store, San Clemente, CA

Sea-spiration: NPM24 Day 3

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Today’s #verselove prompt asks for poetry inspired by a place your favorite writer loves. I have so many favorite poets, but honestly know little about their favorite places. Today as I explored CA central coast beaches, my writer-mentor became clear.

Rachel Carson is best know as a scientist and environmentalist, but her writing evokes the essence of poetry. An internet search uncovered an article where historian and author Jill Lepore described Carson as a “scientist poet of the sea.” Just what I was looking for.

So I let the sea inspire my poetry today. Today dawned cloudy and cool, yesterday’s sunshine merely a memory. To try to capture both the science aspect and some spare nature poetry, I chose a Haibun as my format.

Sea-spiration

Into the clouds we plunged, shrinking my field of vision. Purple sand dollars waved from the wet low-tide sand, many sporting a barnacle rider or two. As they lighten, becoming delicate skeletons, a charcoal-traced design appears. Like the sand dollars, I tunnel in, finding quiet in the symphony of wave and wind. Beauty emerges in the smallness.

Electric purple

Carrying tiny travelers

Brighten gray spring days

In Three Letters: NPM24 Day 4

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I wake up in the morning wondering what I will write as my poem of the day for April’s National Poetry Month. Today’s #verselove prompt was all about letters.

It didn’t take me long to decide that I would write about SLO–especially when I snapped this mural (and cow) on my rainy day downtown exploration. (Do you know that SLO has the tiniest art museum? “Snug” but soooo good!). Anyway, in addition to knowing I would write about these letters, I needed something more. I needed some kind of constraint to structure my thinking and my poem. I decided on an Etheree…a poem that begins with 1 syllable and builds to 10 (or you can go the other way from 10 to 1).

Here it is:

In Three Letters

SLO

Letters

Iconic

Small town wordplay

How SLO can you go?

Plastered on walls/billboards

Imagine the possible

Puns, playful allusions, bad jokes

Alphabetic marketing reminds

This is the best place in the world to be

Magic Box: NPM24 Day 2

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Many thanks to Bryan Ripley Crandall for his magic box prompt for #verselove over at Ethical ELA.

I wrote my poem under the influence of the beauty and wonder of Morro Bay and wordplay from the magic box.

The light calls

shining blinding

me to anything

beyond the sea

Enormous boulders buried

bulging between shoulders

releasing rocking raining

avalanching

becoming lacy delicate feathers

airy with lift

Hearts pump together

in unison

briny waters breathing in

breathing out

living life’s rhythms

Read and write each other

feast on images

taste each word

satisfy the soul

Light

spilling refilling marking

end

and then

begin again

reflecting joining

sea and me

Sunset Tree, a Hashtag Poem: NPM24 Day 1

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Inspired by Kim Johnson’s prompt for #verselove over at Ethical ELA, I wrote about a sunset over San Luis Obispo (SLO) (which was also inspired by the tree posing in the setting sun).

#Sunset Tree

#SLO-ing down

#Umbrellaed by the setting sun

#Night knocking

#Sunshine winking behind the tree

#Embraced by warm light

#Tracing lithe limbs

#Travel weary

#Reaching for rest, my dreaming eyes

#Echo back the day

#Enchanted by the sunset tree

Haiku for a Gray Day: NPM23 Day 30

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On this last day of National Poetry Month the weather dawned gray and damp–not unusual for May and June, but less usual for April (seems to have been re-named “gray-pril” by local meteorologists lately). But gray doesn’t keep us indoors–and to be honest, it’s not miserably cold–just gives out the “blah” vibes.

One of the things that I discovered about my own poetry by writing a poem each day this month is that I like to write nature poetry, science-focused poetry, eco-poetry. And on this last day of April that remains true. Kelp beds are a feature of our coast, a forest under the sea. I took this photo of Macrocystis Pyrifera, also known as giant kelp, looking down from a pier into the ocean below and let it inspire my Haiku.

Seeking Light: Macrocystis pyrifera

Floating undisturbed

While photosynthesizing

Famished by spring’s gray

I Need to Live Near the Beach: NPM23 Day 29

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Today as I wandered, looking for inspiration for a poem for day 29, I turned to the Moving Writers blog and found this post by Brett Vogelsinger, which led me to the poem I Need to Live Near a Creek that became my mentor text for today. I knew I wanted to write from this photo that I took today on a walk at the beach–the curlew flying out of the frame of my photo as I clicked the shutter.

I Need to Live Near a Beach

because

seabirds fly

somersaulting

on briny breezes

lifting my mood

with their wings

Making Sunshine: NPM23 Day 28

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Today’s #verselove prompt was all about expressing the abstract through concrete details. I’m not so sure I approached this in the right direction. I started with my feelings of irritation with yet another gray day–the kind of day that seems to wring out the energy and makes you want to curl up and take a nap–right in the middle of the day! But then when I turned to the concrete–pulling on my favorite sweatshirt, the one with the Linda Christensen quote on the back and our writing project name and logo on the front, something unexpected emerged. (I do wish my stanza breaks would stay where I want them on wordpress–but that is something I will take up some other day!)

Making Sunshine

When clouds are damp and thick

like wet blankets hanging

from the sky

and the sun has gone missing

in an elaborate game of

hide and seek

I shiver and grab my favorite sweatshirt

the one I seem to wear most days

from April through June

Luckily, the sweatshirt is an old friend

whose hug reminds me that I belong

to a strong community of educators

Who make the sun shine

even on a gloomy gray spring day

creating the right kind of friction

the kind that warms hearts

puts students at the center

and knows that teaching is all about

joy and justice

Architectural Tour: NPM23 Day 27

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When I saw Chea’s invitation over at #verselove this morning, I knew that I would need to do a photo walk and create a photo essay poem about this place where I continue to spend so much time–UCSD. I combined my lunch break with walking and taking pictures, not quite sure what would speak to me once I sat down to commit words to a page.

Architectural Tour

In this place

cars hide underground

burrowed together

out of sight, out of the way

Emerge into a space

of angles, lines, sharp corners, rigid edges

structures to hold learners and learning

restrained, confined

Creativity splashes orange

filling eyes, nose

inhale

break free

find your own face looking back

New shoulders old

towering, shadowing

the elderly relics

of another generation

How will the piles of folders

paper towers

infuse, confuse, contribute

build, flourish

bloom

Reflections

outside in

inside out

native beauties, architectural wonders

structures

unstructured

See anew

abandoned lenses

embrace

perspectives

Historical paths

lead to new discoveries

symphonic differences

roughing up the angles, straight lines

Beyond the structures

eyes on

brains on

hearts on

let learning

dance!

Borrowed Line: NPM23 Day 26

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Today’s #verselove prompt asks us to borrow a line from another poet and use it as inspiration for our own poem. I decided to use the poem-a-day poem from the poets.org. I read the poem: Throwing Children by Ross Gay and selected the line:…for a minute she notices the ants organizing on the bark…. Here’s my poem for day 26.

Seeing

What do you see when you close your eyes

the inky black of the darkest night

lighted pathways traced by stars

ants organizing on the bark of the trees

bees humming to the tune of spring

When you open your eyes

do you see the possibility of tomorrow

in today

and get up

get ready

live

this one day