Tag Archives: verselove

In a Photo: NPM24 Day 6

That phrase–a picture is worth 1000 words–reminds me of the power that photographs have to tell stories. So today, when the #verselove prompt asks to tell the story of a photo in a poem, I knew I would have thousands of choices. Katrina suggested choosing a photo that includes yourself in it…hmmm, now my choices are much more limited.

So I picked this image and the first three lines kept echoing in my head. So…etheree it is…a poem in 10 lines.

In a Photo

Me

and my

camera

alone and yet

together just the

sea and me through the lens

focusing on light, shadow

narrow, wide find all the angles

nourishing mind and soul with each breath

never alone with camera in hand

Friday Fun: NPM24 Day 5

Leave a reply

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

In Three Letters: NPM24 Day 4

Leave a reply

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

Leave a reply

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

Making Sunshine: NPM23 Day 28

1 Reply

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

Leave a reply

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

Leave a reply

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

Torrey Pine: NPM23 Day 23

Leave a reply

Yesterday we drove to the far reaches of our county to see and appreciate the diverse natural beauty San Diego is known for. Today we went local and visited a place nearby–Torrey Pines State Nature Reserve. We frequently walk the beach there, but today we decided to hike the trails of Torrey Pine groves and cliffs above the beach. Drought and beetles have devastated these special trees that only grow here on the cliffs above the beach and on Santa Rosa Island (one of the Channel Islands). Today, after the abundant rains we had, the trees looked happier than I’ve seen them in a long while–and the native wildflowers were in full bloom. The #verselove prompt for today was to bring a historical figure to life in a poem. Instead, I chose to focus on the Torrey Pine tree in an etheree-ish form (a poem that grows from one to ten syllables). We’re lucky to have this Reserve that is focused on protecting natural places so that future generations can also enjoy them. Maybe a poem and photo can help too.

Torrey Pine Trees

Trees

local

Torrey pines

rare beautiful

yet devastated

beetles climate changes drought

atmospheric rivers poured

rain and more rain to start healing

Will they rebound? Can we preserve them?

celebrate appreciate protect our trees

Island Earth: NPM23 Day 22

Leave a reply

On this Earth Day, the #verselove prompt was inspired by a shower curtain with a map of islands. My own poem was inspired by a trip to the desert to get an up close look at the superbloom that has been all over the news here in California. It’s hard to take photos that capture the glory of the earth in bloom–and I’m not sure my words do either, but it was fun to try.

Earth Day Explosion

On an island

Of waterless land

Framed by mountains

Colors burst

Like fireworks

Yellows riot

While purples dance

In the warm dry breeze

Shy pinks peek

Reds stretch

Tickling a sky so blue

Eyes water

The desert demands patience

Wait for water

For years if you must

And when it comes

EXPLODE

Show off

Invite the pollinators

Paint the earth

With a springtime

Superbloom

A Space to Look and Think: NPM23 Day 20

Leave a reply

Give me sharp pine needles

and tall trunks that scratch the sky

Skies that bloom into oranges

so juicy you can taste them

and pinks that shyly blush

Birdsong and wind that whispers

rushing water and creaking branches

a kind of silence that isn’t silent at all

but leaves space for thoughts to roam

Give me unpaved trails

where my feed connect me

building pathways in my brain

a salve to my soul