Today’s poem is an etheree. It is a poem that grows from one syllable to 10, and in this case, inspired by power lines I noticed overhead.
Notice the Mundane
Wires
Above
Lines stretched high
Against the sky
Electricity
Depending on power
Invisible, essential
Ordinary infrastructure
Not taking in what is right above
Look up, look again, notice the mundane
®Douillard
Have you ever written an etheree? I hadn’t–and hadn’t even heard of this particular poetic form until I came across the book Thanku: Poems of Gratitude by Miranda Paul. As I read I came across a poem–an etheree-All This by Liz Garton Scanlon. A poem that begins with one syllable and builds one syllable at a time until it reaches ten syllables in line ten. In All This, Scanlon shows appreciation and gratitude for a small pleasure (or maybe a collection of small pleasures)…the snow, a book, a bubble bath, a cat…
Coming back from our winter break in early January, this seemed like a perfect alternative to resolution making and would ease us all back into writing and reading and thinking and planning. So, in #collaboration with Liz Garton Scanlon, my students and I embarked on some etheree writing…and finally…today, I got their finished Postcards to Myself up on the classroom wall!
It feels like serendipity that this culmination coincided with the #clmooc poetry port invitation #collaboration! I love that I can celebrate my students’ poetry and the power of a mentor text…and my own poem too.
And here is a a closer view of a couple of student creations (8 and 9 year olds)…the first by H:
Bone
Skull
Fossil
Dinosaur
Bones in the ground
Brushing off the dust
Prehistoric fossils
Putting on the soft plaster
Breaking the hard rock to find bone
T-Rex has a small name but it’s huge
Fossils are everywhere in the world.
And another by B:
The Art of Folding Origami
Fold
sharp ends
crisp paper.
Origami
the art of folding
take your time, be precise
make sure you use square paper.
I can fold cranes, swords, hats, and more
fold until your run out of paper
origami is hard, so keep trying.
And my own:
Inhale
Beach
with sand
bright sunshine
cool frothy waves
and perky sea birds.
I walk and watch and shoot
camera ready, focused
helping me see the world clearly.
I have so much to be grateful for
and I breathe in: inhaling sea’s bounty.
®Douillard
Now it’s your turn to join in the collaboration! Will you try an etheree?
Thinking Through My Lens 