Tag Archives: photography

Writing Out of Write Out

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Today marks the end of Write Out 2026.

But what does it mean to end an invitation to get outside and write under the influence of nature? Is there a line in the sky that divides Write Out from the rest of the days of the year?

For me, there isn’t.

Writing under the influence of nature is a practice for the entire year…something we practice in community during October and continue in our own places in our own ways during the rest of the year.

I love my growing tool kit of practices:

  • the Hawaiian Kilo
  • Grant Snider’s poetry comics
  • a growing list of mentor texts
  • my favorite wonder walks (in all their varieties)
  • wishes and hopes and dreams
  • data dives
  • questions
  • and so much more

I know that my students benefit from expanding the classroom beyond the walls that hold our tables. Notebooks and sketchbooks and pencils are portable. We use them in the garden, on the playground, while examining the bug crawling up the wall, when smelling the passion fruit that is so abundant that it threatens the fence it grows on…

So we’ll keep writing out, doing Write Out as October folds into November and as winter shifts to spring. And I will also keep up my practice of spending time daily outdoors and letting my place inspire my thinking and my writing.

Thanks NWP for Write Out. It’s a gift that continues to give.

Write Out in Learning Spaces

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Some days getting outside is less about a walk on the beach and more about walking among buildings, on paved paths, up and down stairs, places where concrete, steel, and glass outnumbers the trees.

After last night’s rain, the clouds put on a show. They gathered and hovered, swooped and curved, showing off against the brilliant blue sky lighted with October’s still-warm sun.

Feeling a bit stuck about what to write today, I turned to the Write Out mentor text list. I found Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer’s For This I walk Outside and borrowed the line Outside everything is teacher: to get started.

I can never get enough of the spectacular architecture and whimsical Stuart art collection at UCSD. The Geisel library and Fallen Star caught my eye–especially with the clouds nestled up against them.

Outside everything is teacher:

clouds bubbling

swaths of cotton

nestled low

cuddling with straight lines

and sharp angles

rising in this human-made

environment

I count snake path scales

and scale hundreds of stairs

hiking skyscrapers

as I watch clouds race

each other across the sky

today the show is outside

between the raindrops

and slant of sun

the lessons keep falling

like raindrops

like wafting fog

like screaming Santa Ana winds

like abundant sunshine

and cool ocean breezes

I walk through the school of life

taking in all that is outside

#writeout #writewherewestand #mentortext #learning

What are you learning with the outdoors as your teacher? Where are the lessons falling?

Write Out and Kilo

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This afternoon I had the opportunity to learn more about the traditional Hawaiian practice of Kilo. Three educators from Hilo, HI hosted a gathering on Zoom to share this practice with educators through NWP’s Write Out.

Kilo is all about observation. Bringing your whole self and all your senses and attention to whatever nature is around you: sky, earth, water. After spending some time learning about Kilo, we were invited to find a window or walk outside to take the time to experience a moment of kilo ourselves.

I walked into my backyard, senses tuned, notebook in hand. I listened, smelled, felt, looked, and even tasted (without actually putting anything in my mouth) what otherwise feels ordinary. The intentionality of the kilo somehow intensified the experience for me.

From my notes, I wrote.

Wind calls, beyond a whisper

yet not a shout

urgently ruffling my hair

caressing my cheek with cool fingers on a warm afternoon

Sun peers over my shoulder

my hand casting a shadow on my notebook, my eye catches

sister orb weaver’s web dancing

light and wind holding hands

Sweet and tart blueberries

tease my tastebuds

a reminder of summer

lingering, hanging around

well into fall

#smallpoems #kilo #writeout #writewherewestand #inthebackyard

You can find more information about the Kilo on the Write Out choice board. I highly recommend trying it out. I know I will also be doing it with my students in the next weeks.

Write Out with a Mentor Text

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Getting outside to take photos, to walk, and to anchor my writing is a daily endeavor. With tides cooperating with my schedule, I was out walking on the beach this afternoon. The water was warm (more than 70 degrees F), the beach was wide, and today–because of the effects of the storm this weekend–the beach was sudsy.

I spent time during my walk videotaping the clouds of foam dancing along the shore, gathering and spreading as the waves chased and scooped. Then I turned to still photography to capture the foam in close up.

On the second day of the two-week Write Out experience, I turned to a mentor text to support my writing. My colleague Christina started a Google Doc with potential mentor texts when I asked whether we were starting a list for people to lean on as they participate in Write Out. I added a couple…and today tried another on the list to see where I would take my writing.

Using The Lesson of the Falling Leaves by Lucille Clifton as my starting point, I explored a different kind of repetition of words for my #smallpoem today.

the sea exhales
blowing bubbles
bubbling questions
questioning understanding
understanding complexity
I strive to become
a scholar of the sea
#writeout #writewherewestand #mentortext

What mentor text would you add to the list? Which will you use for your own writing? Which would you share with students?

Be sure to #writewherewestand this week!

My Place: NPM26 #22

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Inspired by both Verselove‘s onomatopoeia poem invitation by Margaret and NWP’s Write Out Write Where We Stand Challenge, I took a mental walk on the beach this afternoon. The beach is truly my place.

Funky fishy salty smells

feel like my favorite pair of jeans,

an old friend, familiar and cozy and comforting.

Whistles and squawks harmonize,

sea songs narrating bird stories

from water to shore.

Pop, pop, crunch

kelp floats explode under my feet.

When I hear the rumble-whoosh

whisper of waves lapping the shore,

I know I am home.

@kd0602

Week’s End Soup: NPM26 #17

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Add fish with bones

and birds with feet

slugs and jellies will 

make it sweet

salted liberally

and splashed with foam

warmed from above

then left alone

Stirred and paddled 

upwelled and churned

downside up and turned around

best served with a firm sandy crust 

Dip your toes

slowly at first—tasting the cool

then plunge

whole feet up to your knees

cleanse the work from

knotted shoulders 

clenched jaw

breathe in the briny broth 

delight in the umami funk

while tossing off

the work week funk

slurp up the pleasures of sand 

and salt and wind and water

make it a whole body experience

It’s the weekend 

@kd0602

Loving Today: NPM26 #12

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Things I Love Today

Raindrops kissing my cheeks as I walked the beach this afternoon. Life-giving water from the sky, promised yesterday, arrived today. Will we get enough to be more than a light caress?

Immersion in a novel…making it hard to set aside to take up today’s must dos. I keep picking it up, puzzling through the story, and reminiscing about time in warm water, watching sea turtles swim, and the sweet and sour taste of lilikoi from my Hawaii experiences. (Pick up Bones of Hilo by Eric Redman if you want to know more)

Sister time. Four miles side by side, words spilling about all the things and nothing at all. Wind and water, conversation and contemplation, fitness and fun. With a bit of shopping thrown in as the cherry on top. 

Alliterative Play: NPM26 #7

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A playful prompt from Verselove: pick a photo and begin and end with alliteration. When our garden teacher brought this delightfully huge lacy looking cauliflower into the lounge, I had to snap a photo. And the poem is some fun word play.

Wild white wonderful

cauliflower vegetably 

meandering through the school garden

growing to enormous proportions 

wandering wistful wondering

Am I a veggie kids will embrace?

Garden Dreams

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Time in the school garden with my students today turned into my wish for the future.

I watch it dive

into the waterless pool

swimming in the vibrance

of orange

of squash blossom

of too soon summer

In this place tended by children

where vegetables thrive

where small hands pull weeds and pet insects

where blossoms invite the pollinators in

I dream of a world

inhabited by honesty and gardens

inhabited by bees and babies

inhabited by kindness and care

And I worry that it will be destroyed

by war

be inattention and neglect

by the power hungry

before these children get a chance to make their mark

draft by @kd0602