Tag Archives: verselove

Scarred: NPM25 Day 5

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I’ve written scar stories, I’ve had my students write their own scar stories, but when Bryan’s scar prompt came up this morning at Verselove, I just kept thinking about my good fortune in this life.

Instead of my own scars, my mind immediately went to a student that I didn’t get to help this year. Time with me was too brief, attendance too sporadic, and eventually fear won and my student was gone. I can only imagine the resulting scars for this child and this family.

Both Molly at Nix the Comfort Zone and Margaret at Reflections on the Teche posted poems using a form they called a shadorma: a six-line poem that follows a 3/5/3/3/7/5 syllable count. To keep myself focused and constrained, I used this structure for today’s poem.

Immigration Policy Fallout

scarred learning

at only seven

fear impedes

permeates

school: expensive luxury

erasure of hope

@kd0602

Roadtrip: NPM25 Day 4

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Dave’s prompt over at Verselove about travel is actual lived experience at the moment. And as often does when travel is involved, the day got away from me. Here is my small offering…a piece that may (or may not) develop during the course of the month.

Roadtrip

Pack the car

snacks galore

(which we never touch)

Are we traveling

or moving in to stay?

Hope Unfeathered: NPM25 Day 3

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Today’s Verselove prompt comes from Denise. She encouraged us to borrow some rhyming words to craft a poem of our choice.

Rhyme is one of those techniques I mostly stay far away from. Rhythm, yes. Word play? I’m in. But rhyme challenges me–it feels too forced or too trite or just too obvious.

But in the spirit of trying and working to craft something meaningful, I turned to Emily Dickinson and her very well known poem, “Hope” is the Thing with Feathers and borrowed some rhyming words–as well as using her title as inspiration on the slant for my title.

An afternoon at the Monterey Bay Aquarium under the influence of the sea–both inside the aquarium and outside in the wilds of the magnificent Monterey Bay provided the content: jellies, the giant Pacific octopus, the grumpy looking moray eel to name just a few.

Hope Unfeathered

In depths of blue

another world appears

breaths unbodied

inside out tears

Spiraling within an octopus soul

rages a tentacled suctioning storm

transformational power of the rainbow

a palette of colors from cooling to warm

Some float and bob

unnoticed unheard

hope unfeathered

fantastical creatures, marine mammals, and birds

Under the spell of the sea

wild wet weirdly wonderful

I splash in the mystery of extremity

so much to explore–just the ocean and me

@kd0602

How to Write a Poem: NPM24 Day 30

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All this month I have challenged myself to write a poem and post it here…AND I have been working with my young students, creating opportunities for them to write poems in lots of different ways. I’ve been inspired by poets at #verselove who have offered daily prompts and thoughtful feedback to my mostly first draft poems. So on day 30, what would I offer my students…and myself as impetus for composing?

Today we headed back to Grant Snider and his book Poetry Comics. (You can read a mini book review here and a bit about Haikomics here). I read them the four “how to Write a Poem” pieces from the book and we talked about what advice we might give aspiring poets. Grant recently wrote a blog post teaching his readers how to make a poetry comic. When I read his post, working my way all the way down to the end I found my own students’ Haikomics featured there! So after reading Grant’s blog post and showing my students all the ideas he shared about how to create a poetry comic–I also showed them that some of their poems were a part of his post! (That definitely created a lot of excitement!)

With all of that as inspiration, I invited students to write their own poetry comics–maybe even a “how to write a poem” poem. And they are off and running! Unfortunately, creating a poetry comic takes a bit more time…I’m hoping we can get them finished tomorrow.

Of course I wrote with my students…and I, too, need more time to get the comic bit completed. But I did take some time to revise my poem when I got home today…and will share the words that hopefully will become a poetry comic with some work with my students tomorrow.

How to Write a Poem (with first graders)

Dip into lots and lots of poems

swim in the language

play in the wonder of words

Notice the pitter patter of ideas

tap dancing like raindrops on the roof

like dew drops slipping off the leaves

Soaking into childhood’s wild fresh colors

unleashing a sky full of rainbows

Settle in the moment

and wait…

poets will bloom

Sound Off: NPM24 Day 27

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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

From Black Sage: NPM24 Day 25

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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

Writing the Night Sky: NPM24 Day 24

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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

Small Poems: NPM24 Day 23

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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

Earth Day: NPM24 Day 22

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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

The Joy of the Ordinary: NPM24 Day 21

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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