Friday, April 30, 2021

Poetry Friday: NPM Spring Cleaning Day 30, Happiness

 

It's the last day of National Poetry Month. I'm pretty proud of myself for posting every day this month. Most of my posts fit into my Spring Cleaning plans, writing about tabs I had open on my desktop so that I could then close them. I had sooooo many tabs open. I still have more than some people would be comfortable with, but I have way fewer than when the month began. 


One thing I noticed right away as I was categorizing my tabs was that I had a lot about happiness. I'm fascinated by happiness: what makes people happy, how much of happiness is a choice, how much it's related to physical well-being or living in privileged circumstances. I always read the studies that measure happiness from one country to another (like these on the World Happiness Report). I'm thrilled to know that birds make people happy. (Here's another good one on that.) And I had this article open too, on how becoming a beginner at something can make you happy (I picked birding). 

 

Something else that makes me happy is poetry. I've posted so many happiness poems in the past, like this onethis one, and this one.

 

Language makes me happy. This month, Tabatha asked for bilingual poems, and I wrote one that she has on her Poetry Friday post today. 

 

Another thing that makes me happy is celebrating. That's why I always try to stretch out my birthday as long as I can. And last week was my blog birthday. Fifteen years, and the traditional gift for fifteen years is crystal, so I asked people to leave poems about crystals. Here's what I got in the comments:

 

from Jama:

 


 

from Linda Baie:


for Ruth, for her 15th blogiversary

a crystal for healing
a crystal for stars
a crystal that sparkles
wherever you are
a crystal that pleases
a crystal for smiles
I wish you these crystals
to wish on a while

Linda B ©

 

and from Laura Salas:

 

Brinicle

Arctic Ocean,
dark, vast
water cave guarded by an
arc of sea ice above

Ceiling recedes,
feeds salt to the deep
Super-saltwater ribbon flows,
grows, and sinks

Stalactite
with a frigid core
wears a crystal
cloak of ice

Brinicle gushes,
rushing down to the
sea floor,
an icy finger of death

© Laura Purdie Salas, all rights reserved


And edited on Friday afternoon to add this golden shovel poem from Michelle Kogan, using a line from Jama's song as a strike line!


CRYSTALFILLED VIBRATION
For Ruth on her 15th Blogosphere Birthday

Illuminating from 1,000 points, crystal
sparkling blue
luminous light of pure persuasion.
It satisfies, mmhmm
basic human calls, desires, it’s
all we need—A
love for peace, and new
found, hope-filled, world-movement full of vibration!


© 2021 Michelle Kogan

 

Edited Sunday afternoon to add this anniversary gift from Heidi Mordhorst, a poem about spring cleaning and realizing how much is really necessary:

 

classroom, you are my second home
my queendom
my domain of wild imagination
and utter control
you are the box which I may think outside of
the envelope which I daily push
you are a magic hat of rabbits and bouquets
called caterpillars minnows
diamonds and pandas

you contain multitudes
all the small packages of life come to
burst my boundaries and
draw erase redraw the essential lines
of faces bodies lead and follow
you are my petri dish of blue-green molding
my clear plastic cup of kindergarten carrot seed
my test tube of dirty living creek water
my chrysalis of compare and contrast
my stone soup of democratic socialism

you swallow me.

I am drowned
simmered baked consumed
I am the Little Red Hen
married for better or worse to
doing it all by myself

and the truth is, it’s not me, it’s you.

I am leaving you and the breakup
is a long messy self-sliced surgery
of many stages and sloppy stitches
oozing wounds and second thoughts
but there is no other way

no graceful ending
no grateful celebration
only touching each paper book artful idea
only shouting at myself “throw it away”
only piles of planbooks
to mark the work we did

which I will
hold on
hold on
hold on to
while I let go and
finish growing out of

into

 

Thanks so much for these gifts, and for the other birthday wishes, too! They made me happy!

 

Here's what I posted this past week. On Saturday I shared an all-prompt post. On Sunday I shared a poem by Marie Howe, plus two others that went with it on the subject of despair. Monday was a miscellaneous day, with lots of links that didn't fit in anywhere else in my Spring Cleaning. On Tuesday I had an original poem, "Ordinary Birds." On Wednesday I posted a poem and link about friendship.  And yesterday I shared the Richard Wilbur poem "Year's End."

 

Today the Progressive Poem ends:

 

April 1 Kat Apel at Kat Whiskers
2 Linda Mitchell at A Word Edgewise
3 Mary Lee at A Year of Reading
4 Donna Smith at Mainly Write
5 Irene Latham at Live your Poem
6 Jan Godown Annino at BookseedStudio
7 Rose Cappelli at Imagine the Possibilities
8 Denise Krebs at Dare to Care
9 Margaret Simon at Reflections on the Teche
10 Molly Hogan at Nix the Comfort Zone
11 Buffy Silverman
12 Janet Fagel at Reflections on the Teche
13 Jone Rush MacCulloch
14 Susan Bruck at Soul Blossom Living
15 Wendy Taleo at Tales in eLearning
16 Heidi Mordhorst at my juicy little universe
17 Tricia Stohr Hunt at The Miss Rumphius Effect
18 Linda Baie at Teacher Dance
19 Carol Varsalona at Beyond Literacy Link
20 Robyn Hood Black at Life on the Deckle Edge
21 Leigh Anne Eck at A Day in the Life
22 Ruth Hersey at There is No Such Thing as a God-forsaken Town
23 Janice Scully at Salt City Verse
24 Tabatha Yeatts at The Opposite of Indifference
25 Shari Daniels at Islands of my Soul
26 Tim Gels at Yet There is Method at https://timgels.com
27 Rebecca Newman
28 Catherine Flynn at Reading to the Core
29 Christie Wyman at Wondering and Wondering
30 Michelle Kogan at More Art 4 All 

 


 
And here's a roundup of some of the amazing, creative projects going on during NPM this year. 

 

Here's today's Poetry Friday roundup! 

Thursday, April 29, 2021

NPM Spring Cleaning Day 29, Year's End

 

I think this Richard Wilbur poem, "Year's End," has been open on my desktop since, well, the year's end. 2020, that is.  I decided to share it as this National Poetry Month ends. This is a poem about unexpected endings, when you thought you'd have more time, but suddenly you don't. It references Pompeii. "These sudden ends of time must give us pause," it says.


One thing I've learned about myself is that I'm very attuned to endings, often more than to beginnings. Although, as Karen Blixen says in the movie "Out of Africa," "I'm better at hello," I seem to have more experience of goodbye. Although that makes no sense, since in order to say goodbye you have to have said hello. Let's just say that the goodbyes pile up. Because of all the endings, I try to say what needs to be said, to avoid postponing joy, as my Aunt Margie used to say. Because you just never know when your time will be over.


So go read the poem, here at month's end.

 

Today is Poem in Your Pocket Day. Do you have a poem in your pocket? For that purpose, I don't think I can improve on the Emily Dickinson one I used in 2018.
 
 
 
This is the ninth year of the Progressive Poem! See the schedule below to find where to go for today's line and to see who's participating this year.

April 1 Kat Apel at Kat Whiskers
2 Linda Mitchell at A Word Edgewise
3 Mary Lee at A Year of Reading
4 Donna Smith at Mainly Write
5 Irene Latham at Live your Poem
6 Jan Godown Annino at BookseedStudio
7 Rose Cappelli at Imagine the Possibilities
8 Denise Krebs at Dare to Care
9 Margaret Simon at Reflections on the Teche
10 Molly Hogan at Nix the Comfort Zone
11 Buffy Silverman
12 Janet Fagel at Reflections on the Teche
13 Jone Rush MacCulloch
14 Susan Bruck at Soul Blossom Living
15 Wendy Taleo at Tales in eLearning
16 Heidi Mordhorst at my juicy little universe
17 Tricia Stohr Hunt at The Miss Rumphius Effect
18 Linda Baie at Teacher Dance
19 Carol Varsalona at Beyond Literacy Link
20 Robyn Hood Black at Life on the Deckle Edge
21 Leigh Anne Eck at A Day in the Life
22 Ruth Hersey at There is No Such Thing as a God-forsaken Town
23 Janice Scully at Salt City Verse
24 Tabatha Yeatts at The Opposite of Indifference
25 Shari Daniels at Islands of my Soul
26 Tim Gels at Yet There is Method at https://timgels.com
27 Rebecca Newman
28 Catherine Flynn at Reading to the Core
29 Christie Wyman at Wondering and Wondering
30 Michelle Kogan at More Art 4 All
 

 

 

Wednesday, April 28, 2021

NPM Spring Cleaning Day 28, Holding Hands

 

This poem called "Holding Hands" has been open on my desktop since November of 2020. We really do need each other. 

 

The poem goes well with this article about a wonderful friendship, also a long-term open tab. But not now that I've put it here in a Spring Cleaning post!

 

This is the ninth year of the Progressive Poem! See the schedule below to find where to go for today's line and to see who's participating this year.

April 1 Kat Apel at Kat Whiskers
2 Linda Mitchell at A Word Edgewise
3 Mary Lee at A Year of Reading
4 Donna Smith at Mainly Write
5 Irene Latham at Live your Poem
6 Jan Godown Annino at BookseedStudio
7 Rose Cappelli at Imagine the Possibilities
8 Denise Krebs at Dare to Care
9 Margaret Simon at Reflections on the Teche
10 Molly Hogan at Nix the Comfort Zone
11 Buffy Silverman
12 Janet Fagel at Reflections on the Teche
13 Jone Rush MacCulloch
14 Susan Bruck at Soul Blossom Living
15 Wendy Taleo at Tales in eLearning
16 Heidi Mordhorst at my juicy little universe
17 Tricia Stohr Hunt at The Miss Rumphius Effect
18 Linda Baie at Teacher Dance
19 Carol Varsalona at Beyond Literacy Link
20 Robyn Hood Black at Life on the Deckle Edge
21 Leigh Anne Eck at A Day in the Life
22 Ruth Hersey at There is No Such Thing as a God-forsaken Town
23 Janice Scully at Salt City Verse
24 Tabatha Yeatts at The Opposite of Indifference
25 Shari Daniels at Islands of my Soul
26 Tim Gels at Yet There is Method at https://timgels.com
27 Rebecca Newman
28 Catherine Flynn at Reading to the Core
29 Christie Wyman at Wondering and Wondering
30 Michelle Kogan at More Art 4 All
 

And here's a roundup of some of the amazing, creative projects going on during NPM this year.  

Tuesday, April 27, 2021

Slice of Life Tuesday: NPM Day 27, Ordinary Birds

 

This year for National Poetry Month, I've been writing about tabs I have open on my desktop, and then - I know it's revolutionary - closing those tabs! I've done a remarkable job closing tabs, and I'm pretty pleased with myself. But there are some bird tabs still open. Some of them are going to stay open, like eBird (I use it constantly). And my Bird Academy tab (some courses I'm taking) will stay. But I could probably close this one: Cities: How Do Some Birds Thrive There? And maybe this one: BirdsCaribbean. And this one from March 2020 on how birds would make it easier to get through lockdown.

 

I decided that since my bird tabs aren't strictly speaking poetry tabs, I'd write a bird poem to represent them. And since this is a Slice of Life post, what better subject than Ordinary Birds?

 

Ordinary Birds


The ordinary birds matter most,
the ones you see every day,
the ones that come to mind when you think the word “bird,”
the bird sounds you knew before you paid attention to bird sounds,

just as the meals you eat every day
matter more than Thanksgiving Dinner
when it comes to keeping you alive.

For me, birding here in Port-au-Prince,
the city birds like the Rock Pigeons matter most,
the House Sparrows and Mourning Doves,
the noisy Palmchats.
The Bananaquits and the Black-crowned Palm Tanagers
matter most.

Someone who grew up here
tells me that when he was a child,
he used to see flamingos downtown,
and when I hear that I long for a flash of bright pink
as I’m commuting.
But how would I even know that was unusual
unless I knew my ordinary, everyday birds?

The White-necked Crows squawking in that tree
matter most,
the Hispaniolan Woodpecker, handsome in yellow and black,
matters most.

Look up now.
What do you see?
That’s what matters most.

 


This is the ninth year of the Progressive Poem! See the schedule below to find where to go for today's line and to see who's participating this year.

April 1 Kat Apel at Kat Whiskers
2 Linda Mitchell at A Word Edgewise
3 Mary Lee at A Year of Reading
4 Donna Smith at Mainly Write
5 Irene Latham at Live your Poem
6 Jan Godown Annino at BookseedStudio
7 Rose Cappelli at Imagine the Possibilities
8 Denise Krebs at Dare to Care
9 Margaret Simon at Reflections on the Teche
10 Molly Hogan at Nix the Comfort Zone
11 Buffy Silverman
12 Janet Fagel at Reflections on the Teche
13 Jone Rush MacCulloch
14 Susan Bruck at Soul Blossom Living
15 Wendy Taleo at Tales in eLearning
16 Heidi Mordhorst at my juicy little universe
17 Tricia Stohr Hunt at The Miss Rumphius Effect
18 Linda Baie at Teacher Dance
19 Carol Varsalona at Beyond Literacy Link
20 Robyn Hood Black at Life on the Deckle Edge
21 Leigh Anne Eck at A Day in the Life
22 Ruth Hersey at There is No Such Thing as a God-forsaken Town
23 Janice Scully at Salt City Verse
24 Tabatha Yeatts at The Opposite of Indifference
25 Shari Daniels at Islands of my Soul
26 Tim Gels at Yet There is Method at https://timgels.com
27 Rebecca Newman
28 Catherine Flynn at Reading to the Core
29 Christie Wyman at Wondering and Wondering
30 Michelle Kogan at More Art 4 All
 

Monday, April 26, 2021

NPM Spring Cleaning Day 26, Miscellaneous

 

I've been told it's never a good idea to have a file or a drawer or a box marked "Miscellaneous." It just becomes a place to dump things so you don't have to organize properly. You know, like when you're moving, and you've reached the point in the process where you hate all your possessions and want to just take them all to the dumpster. Instead of doing that (because you know you'll regret it), you put everything left into a box marked "Miscellaneous." I have done that many times, and I also have a folder in my email account called "Miscellaneous" and a desktop folder on my computer with the same non-helpful name. 


And now, a Miscellaneous blog post! That's because there are some tabs still open that don't fit readily into any of the other posts I've published or planned. But I don't want to close them without writing about them so that I can find them later. 


So here goes.


Jama's posts are always amazing, but this one, I just couldn't close. The tab's been open for ten months! I'm warning you; if you open it the same thing will happen to you. Here it is, if you dare: Strawberries: A Taste of Something Wild and Sweet.

 

Until I read this post from Amy Ludwig VanDerwater in May of 2019, I had never thought of this way of teaching about line breaks. Take a poem and reproduce it on a sheet or on the screen. Work with kids to break it up into lines. If it rhymes, it's easy. The rhyme generally is at the end of the line. But what if it doesn't? It's your choice where you break the line, but some choices are definitely more effective than others.

 

This post, a pdf by Tabatha Yeatts of poems about peace, has been open even longer, since April of 2019. It's so great, all ready to print out and make into a booklet. 

 

This is a presentation from Heidi Mordhorst on helping very young children write poetry. Do I even teach very young children? I do not. But this is so good, I just can't close it! 


Ross Gay wrote this poem, "A Small Needful Fact," about Eric Garner. You should definitely read it.

 

In September of 2020, Karen Edmisten posted this Emily Dickinson poem, and somehow it was so perfect for September of 2020 that I just kept it open on my desktop from then on, eternally. Amen. (But not any more. Closed, closed, closed!)

 

See that, six more tabs, getting closed! It's a National Poetry Month miracle! 

 

This is the ninth year of the Progressive Poem! See the schedule below to find where to go for today's line and to see who's participating this year.

April 1 Kat Apel at Kat Whiskers
2 Linda Mitchell at A Word Edgewise
3 Mary Lee at A Year of Reading
4 Donna Smith at Mainly Write
5 Irene Latham at Live your Poem
6 Jan Godown Annino at BookseedStudio
7 Rose Cappelli at Imagine the Possibilities
8 Denise Krebs at Dare to Care
9 Margaret Simon at Reflections on the Teche
10 Molly Hogan at Nix the Comfort Zone
11 Buffy Silverman
12 Janet Fagel at Reflections on the Teche
13 Jone Rush MacCulloch
14 Susan Bruck at Soul Blossom Living
15 Wendy Taleo at Tales in eLearning
16 Heidi Mordhorst at my juicy little universe
17 Tricia Stohr Hunt at The Miss Rumphius Effect
18 Linda Baie at Teacher Dance
19 Carol Varsalona at Beyond Literacy Link
20 Robyn Hood Black at Life on the Deckle Edge
21 Leigh Anne Eck at A Day in the Life
22 Ruth Hersey at There is No Such Thing as a God-forsaken Town
23 Janice Scully at Salt City Verse
24 Tabatha Yeatts at The Opposite of Indifference
25 Shari Daniels at Islands of my Soul
26 Tim Gels at Yet There is Method at https://timgels.com
27 Rebecca Newman
28 Catherine Flynn at Reading to the Core
29 Christie Wyman at Wondering and Wondering
30 Michelle Kogan at More Art 4 All
 
 
   

 

Sunday, April 25, 2021

NPM Spring Cleaning Day 25, What the Living Do

 

I don't remember why I opened this tab or when, but I've had Marie Howe's poem "What the Living Do" on my desktop for a while. Howe talks in the poem to someone named Johnny, detailing some of the mundane tasks of her everyday life. Johnny, I think, is no longer living. She says to him, about life, "What you finally gave up." 


What the Living Do

Marie Howe


Johnny, the kitchen sink has been clogged for days, some utensil probably fell down there.

And the Drano won't work but smells dangerous, and the crusty dishes have piled up


waiting for the plumber I still haven't called. This is the everyday we spoke of.

...


I've been thinking: This is what the living do.

 

Here's the rest. 

 

 

I have two poems, not on my desktop but in my inbox, that seem to go well with this one. Both came in the Poem-a-Day email from Poets.org this month, and I forwarded both to people because they struck me so forcefully. One is "Bobolink," by Didi Jackson. The other is "The Little Book of Cheerful Thoughts," by Jeffrey Harrison. 

 

One thing the living do is to hold on to friends who are depressed, and to try to give them reasons why living is the best choice. 

 

April 1 Kat Apel at Kat Whiskers
2 Linda Mitchell at A Word Edgewise
3 Mary Lee at A Year of Reading
4 Donna Smith at Mainly Write
5 Irene Latham at Live your Poem
6 Jan Godown Annino at BookseedStudio
7 Rose Cappelli at Imagine the Possibilities
8 Denise Krebs at Dare to Care
9 Margaret Simon at Reflections on the Teche
10 Molly Hogan at Nix the Comfort Zone
11 Buffy Silverman
12 Janet Fagel at Reflections on the Teche
13 Jone Rush MacCulloch
14 Susan Bruck at Soul Blossom Living
15 Wendy Taleo at Tales in eLearning
16 Heidi Mordhorst at my juicy little universe
17 Tricia Stohr Hunt at The Miss Rumphius Effect
18 Linda Baie at Teacher Dance
19 Carol Varsalona at Beyond Literacy Link
20 Robyn Hood Black at Life on the Deckle Edge
21 Leigh Anne Eck at A Day in the Life
22 Ruth Hersey at There is No Such Thing as a God-forsaken Town
23 Janice Scully at Salt City Verse
24 Tabatha Yeatts at The Opposite of Indifference
25 Shari Daniels at Islands of my Soul
26 Tim Gels at Yet There is Method at https://timgels.com
27 Rebecca Newman
28 Catherine Flynn at Reading to the Core
29 Christie Wyman at Wondering and Wondering
30 Michelle Kogan at More Art 4 All
 

Saturday, April 24, 2021

NPM Spring Cleaning Day 24, Prompts

 

Nobody can predict what is going to start a creative spark. But as I've been Spring Cleaning the open tabs on my desktop during this National Poetry Month, one thing I've noticed is that lots, lots of the tabs that are open are prompts and articles that I want to write about. I've written about some of them during this month, but there are still lots more open, so I decided to do an all-prompt post. Who knows? Maybe I will come back and write about them, and maybe some one else will get inspired by one or two of them too.


In October 2019, Tabatha posted this poem called "If I Could Write Like Tolstoy." She wrote her own poem in this same vein, called "If I Could Write Like Edgar Allan Poe." Ever since then, I've had this tab open, and a plan to do my own "If I Could Write Like..." poem. I even tried one this past week. I called it "If I Could Write Like the U.S. Embassy," and it was about travel advisories. Haiti was already at Level 4, which is the worst of the worst, the "Do Not Travel" category. Nevertheless the Embassy managed to strengthen their cries of "Stay Away!" Now we have four official reasons Not To Come Here. Not only that, but the State Department is telling Americans not to travel to 80% of the world. For most of these places, the prohibition is COVID-related. Well, turns out it's easy to write like the U.S. Embassy - just go on and on about how bad everywhere is. But it didn't make much of a poem -- not yet, anyway. To be revisited.

 

Another open link from Tabatha is this list of mentor poems from December 2019. Lots of what seemed inspiring to her also seemed inspiring to me!

 

Margaret posts a new photo each Wednesday to inspire writing in her feature "This Photo Wants to Be a Poem." From that feature, I saved this photo from May last year. I really want to write about it!

 

In September 2019 Laura Shovan posted this great prompt. Lots of people wrote about it, but I didn't, just filed it away for later. 


The Time is Now at Poets & Writers magazine has weekly writing prompts. 


I've lost track of the origin of this one, but a few months ago, everyone was writing poems using new words from their year of birth, using this Time Traveler tool from Merriam-Webster.

 

Here's a Call for Poems posted by Jan. 


So there you go! And now I can close all these tabs!


This is the ninth year of the Progressive Poem! See the schedule below to find where to go for today's line and to see who's participating this year.

April 1 Kat Apel at Kat Whiskers
2 Linda Mitchell at A Word Edgewise
3 Mary Lee at A Year of Reading
4 Donna Smith at Mainly Write
5 Irene Latham at Live your Poem
6 Jan Godown Annino at BookseedStudio
7 Rose Cappelli at Imagine the Possibilities
8 Denise Krebs at Dare to Care
9 Margaret Simon at Reflections on the Teche
10 Molly Hogan at Nix the Comfort Zone
11 Buffy Silverman
12 Janet Fagel at Reflections on the Teche
13 Jone Rush MacCulloch
14 Susan Bruck at Soul Blossom Living
15 Wendy Taleo at Tales in eLearning
16 Heidi Mordhorst at my juicy little universe
17 Tricia Stohr Hunt at The Miss Rumphius Effect
18 Linda Baie at Teacher Dance
19 Carol Varsalona at Beyond Literacy Link
20 Robyn Hood Black at Life on the Deckle Edge
21 Leigh Anne Eck at A Day in the Life
22 Ruth Hersey at There is No Such Thing as a God-forsaken Town
23 Janice Scully at Salt City Verse
24 Tabatha Yeatts at The Opposite of Indifference
25 Shari Daniels at Islands of my Soul
26 Tim Gels at Yet There is Method at https://timgels.com
27 Rebecca Newman
28 Catherine Flynn at Reading to the Core
29 Christie Wyman at Wondering and Wondering
30 Michelle Kogan at More Art 4 All
 
 

Friday, April 23, 2021

Poetry Friday: NPM Spring Cleaning Day 23, Happy Blog Birthday to Me!

 

Today I've been blogging for fifteen years. Happy Blog Birthday to me!

 

I love having this little spot on the internet that's mine. I love writing down what I'm thinking about and reading. I love being part of a community of bloggers. I've made friends through blogging I never would have met any other way. Fifteen years of regular blogging, more regular at some times than others, but mostly regular: this is something that has given me so much joy through these years. I'm proud of sticking with it. 


I couldn't decide how to celebrate my blog birthday, but I knew that fifteen years deserved some kind of celebration. Then I read this post over at the TeachingAuthors blog, which is celebrating twelve years of blogging. Esther Hershenhorn wrote that the gift for twelve years is silk. That's it, I thought! I'll look up the gift for fifteen years!


The gift for fifteen years is crystal, and since it's National Poetry Month and Poetry Friday, I'm giving myself some crystal poems. You may read them too, Reader. And have some cake. 


Here's Lines to Some Crystallized Violets, by Marvin Solomon. Sounds sort of festive and delicious, don't you think? I've never had crystallized violets, but I do keep a container of crystallized ginger by my stove and I often add a couple of pieces to a plain cup of tea.

 

And here's And Later...  by Jen Bryant, who writes of a kaleidoscope:

 

letting the crystals shift into strange 

and beautiful patterns, letting the pieces fall

wherever they will.


And here's Releasing a Tree, by Thomas Reiter, in which the crystals are snow:

 

Those grace notes

of the snowfall, crystals giving off

copper, green, rose—watching them

I stumble over a branch, go down

and my gloves fill with snow.

 

But I think my favorite crystal poem I found was this one:

 

What to Count On

by Peggy Shumaker

 

Not one star, not even the half moon         
       on the night you were born
Not the flash of salmon
       nor ridges on blue snow
Not the flicker of raven’s
       never-still eye
Not breath frozen in fine hairs
       beading the bull moose’s nostril
Not one hand under flannel
       warming before reaching
Not burbot at home under Tanana ice
       not burbot pulled up into failing light
Not the knife blade honed, not the leather sheath
Not raw bawling in the dog yard
       when the musher barks gee
Not the gnawed ends of wrist-thick sticks
       mounded over beaver dens
Not solar flares scouring the earth over China
Not rime crystals bearding a sleek cheek of snow
Not six minutes more of darkness each day
Not air water food words touch
Not art
Not anything we expect
Not anything we expect to keep
Not anything we expect to keep us alive

Not the center of the sea
Not the birthplace of the waves
Not the compass too close to true north to guide us

Then with no warning
       flukes of three orcas
                 rise, arc clear of sea water



Do you notice that most of that poem is about what not to count on? I think that's kind of perfect for this fifteenth birthday, remembering what not to count on, and then reflecting on what to count on, all the time wondering how to fix the formatting of the post. That's blogging, right? Thank you, Readers! Thanks for reading, and commenting, and coming back again. If you wish, leave me a comment with a birthday greeting or a poem with crystals in it!
 
 
 
This is the ninth year of the Progressive Poem! See the schedule below to find where to go for today's line and to see who's participating this year.

April 1 Kat Apel at Kat Whiskers
2 Linda Mitchell at A Word Edgewise
3 Mary Lee at A Year of Reading
4 Donna Smith at Mainly Write
5 Irene Latham at Live your Poem
6 Jan Godown Annino at BookseedStudio
7 Rose Cappelli at Imagine the Possibilities
8 Denise Krebs at Dare to Care
9 Margaret Simon at Reflections on the Teche
10 Molly Hogan at Nix the Comfort Zone
11 Buffy Silverman
12 Janet Fagel at Reflections on the Teche
13 Jone Rush MacCulloch
14 Susan Bruck at Soul Blossom Living
15 Wendy Taleo at Tales in eLearning
16 Heidi Mordhorst at my juicy little universe
17 Tricia Stohr Hunt at The Miss Rumphius Effect
18 Linda Baie at Teacher Dance
19 Carol Varsalona at Beyond Literacy Link
20 Robyn Hood Black at Life on the Deckle Edge
21 Leigh Anne Eck at A Day in the Life
22 Ruth Hersey at There is No Such Thing as a God-forsaken Town
23 Janice Scully at Salt City Verse
24 Tabatha Yeatts at The Opposite of Indifference
25 Shari Daniels at Islands of my Soul
26 Tim Gels at Yet There is Method at https://timgels.com
27 Rebecca Newman
28 Catherine Flynn at Reading to the Core
29 Christie Wyman at Wondering and Wondering
30 Michelle Kogan at More Art 4 All
 

 

Today's Poetry Friday roundup is here. 

Thursday, April 22, 2021

NPM Day 22, Progressive Poem is Here!

Today it's my turn to host the Progressive Poem. This is a fun tradition that's in its ninth year, and I've participated each year! This year, like last, each poet is writing two lines, so that the next person can choose between them.



April 1 Kat Apel at Kat Whiskers
2 Linda Mitchell at A Word Edgewise
3 Mary Lee at A Year of Reading
4 Donna Smith at Mainly Write
5 Irene Latham at Live your Poem
6 Jan Godown Annino at BookseedStudio
7 Rose Cappelli at Imagine the Possibilities
8 Denise Krebs at Dare to Care
9 Margaret Simon at Reflections on the Teche
10 Molly Hogan at Nix the Comfort Zone
11 Buffy Silverman
12 Janet Fagel at Reflections on the Teche
13 Jone Rush MacCulloch
14 Susan Bruck at Soul Blossom Living
15 Wendy Taleo at Tales in eLearning
16 Heidi Mordhorst at my juicy little universe
17 Tricia Stohr Hunt at The Miss Rumphius Effect
18 Linda Baie at Teacher Dance
19 Carol Varsalona at Beyond Literacy Link
20 Robyn Hood Black at Life on the Deckle Edge
21 Leigh Anne Eck at A Day in the Life
22 Ruth Hersey at There is No Such Thing as a God-forsaken Town
23 Janice Scully at Salt City Verse
24 Tabatha Yeatts at The Opposite of Indifference
25 Shari Daniels at Islands of my Soul
26 Tim Gels at Yet There is Method at https://timgels.com
27 Rebecca Newman
28 Catherine Flynn at Reading to the Core
29 Christie Wyman at Wondering and Wondering
30 Michelle Kogan at More Art 4 All

 

Leigh Ann Eck gave me two lines to choose from:

 

We paddle and paddle to the island we see.


or


Ahh! Here comes a wave--let's hold on tight!

  

I chose the second line.

 

Every year, my kids give me helpful suggestions. One year, my daughter said my line should be "Suddenly, ninjas!" And this year my son offered: "But that was before the darkness came." I decided not to follow their advice (though I was tempted).

 

I wrote my two lines, one a little more abstract and one that went in a more concrete direction.  Leigh Ann had mentioned wanting to get back to kindness, where the poem began, and I shared that desire, so I tried to do that in my first line. Here they are:


To the boat, to kindness, to friendship's delight

 

or


Splashing and laughing, let's play until night!

 

If Janice chooses the first one, she can leave off the exclamation mark from Leigh Ann's line.


 

So here's the poem so far, without my line (waiting for Janice to add the one she picks):

 

I’m a case of kindness – come and catch me if you can!

Easily contagious – sharing smiles is my plan.

I'll spread my joy both far and wide

As a force of nature, I’ll be undenied. 


Words like, "how can I help?" will bloom in the street.

A new girl alone on the playground – let’s meet, let’s meet!

We can jump-skip together in a double-dutch round.

Over, under, jump and wonder, touch the ground.


Friends can be found when you open a door.

Side by side, let’s walk through, there’s a world to explore.

We’ll hike through a forest of towering trees.

Find a stream we can follow while we bask in the breeze.


Pull off our shoes and socks, dip our toes in the icy spring water

When you’re with friends, there’s no have to or oughter.

What could we make with leaves and litter?

Let's find pine needles, turn into vine knitters.


We'll lie on our backs and find shapes in the sky.

We giggle together: See the bird! Now we fly?

Inspired by nature, our imaginations soar.

Follow that humpback! Here, take an oar.

 

Ahh! Here comes a wave -- let's hold on tight!

 

 

It's your turn, Janice!

Wednesday, April 21, 2021

NPM Spring Cleaning Day 21, Nature Poetry

 

 
This webinar by Aimee Nezhukumatathil has been open on my desktop for nearly a year. It was recorded in May 2020, and it's full of ideas for how to write about nature when you're stuck at home in quarantine. But Aimee's prompts and book recommendations would be wonderful at any time. She did the broadcast for the North American Association for Environmental Education. 
 
This seems to go well with an article from December 2019 that's been open on my desktop for a while, too. It's about nature as a cure for gloom and depression. It works for me, better than almost anything else! 

This is the ninth year of the Progressive Poem! See the schedule below to find where to go for today's line and to see who's participating this year.
 
Tomorrow I add my line!
 

April 1 Kat Apel at Kat Whiskers
2 Linda Mitchell at A Word Edgewise
3 Mary Lee at A Year of Reading
4 Donna Smith at Mainly Write
5 Irene Latham at Live your Poem
6 Jan Godown Annino at BookseedStudio
7 Rose Cappelli at Imagine the Possibilities
8 Denise Krebs at Dare to Care
9 Margaret Simon at Reflections on the Teche
10 Molly Hogan at Nix the Comfort Zone
11 Buffy Silverman
12 Janet Fagel at Reflections on the Teche
13 Jone Rush MacCulloch
14 Susan Bruck at Soul Blossom Living
15 Wendy Taleo at Tales in eLearning
16 Heidi Mordhorst at my juicy little universe
17 Tricia Stohr Hunt at The Miss Rumphius Effect
18 Linda Baie at Teacher Dance
19 Carol Varsalona at Beyond Literacy Link
20 Robyn Hood Black at Life on the Deckle Edge
21 Leigh Anne Eck at A Day in the Life
22 Ruth Hersey at There is No Such Thing as a God-forsaken Town
23 Janice Scully at Salt City Verse
24 Tabatha Yeatts at The Opposite of Indifference
25 Shari Daniels at Islands of my Soul
26 Tim Gels at Yet There is Method at https://timgels.com
27 Rebecca Newman
28 Catherine Flynn at Reading to the Core
29 Christie Wyman at Wondering and Wondering
30 Michelle Kogan at More Art 4 All
 
 
 

Tuesday, April 20, 2021

Slice of Life Tuesday: NPM Spring Cleaning Day 20, Hymn for These Times

 

This year for National Poetry Month, I am Spring Cleaning the open tabs on my desktop. That is, I'm writing about them, so that I can close them and reduce my digital clutter. Recently a friend sent me this hymn, and I've had the tab open for a while:



Music and choral arrangement by Jay Rogers, words by Meggan Moorhead, and musical performance by Sam Robson, samrobsonmusic.com.

 

Part of life right now is weeping with those who weep. That means those who have lost family members and loved ones to the pandemic or to other illnesses. It means the victims of violence and suffering around the world. It means those who don't have enough to eat, or who struggle for daily necessities. It means those here in Haiti who have been kidnapped or affected by other traumatizing crimes. We are all members of the human family that experiences these things.


Not one voice but many voices

Not one note but still one song

Not one dying, not one grieving

All are ours and ours to mourn.


I want to turn away from the suffering, but that doesn't make it go away. 



April 1 Kat Apel at Kat Whiskers
2 Linda Mitchell at A Word Edgewise
3 Mary Lee at A Year of Reading
4 Donna Smith at Mainly Write
5 Irene Latham at Live your Poem
6 Jan Godown Annino at BookseedStudio
7 Rose Cappelli at Imagine the Possibilities
8 Denise Krebs at Dare to Care
9 Margaret Simon at Reflections on the Teche
10 Molly Hogan at Nix the Comfort Zone
11 Buffy Silverman
12 Janet Fagel at Reflections on the Teche
13 Jone Rush MacCulloch
14 Susan Bruck at Soul Blossom Living
15 Wendy Taleo at Tales in eLearning
16 Heidi Mordhorst at my juicy little universe
17 Tricia Stohr Hunt at The Miss Rumphius Effect
18 Linda Baie at Teacher Dance
19 Carol Varsalona at Beyond Literacy Link
20 Robyn Hood Black at Life on the Deckle Edge
21 Leigh Anne Eck at A Day in the Life
22 Ruth Hersey at There is No Such Thing as a God-forsaken Town
23 Janice Scully at Salt City Verse
24 Tabatha Yeatts at The Opposite of Indifference
25 Shari Daniels at Islands of my Soul
26 Tim Gels at Yet There is Method at https://timgels.com
27 Rebecca Newman
28 Catherine Flynn at Reading to the Core
29 Christie Wyman at Wondering and Wondering
30 Michelle Kogan at More Art 4 All

 


And here's a roundup of some of the amazing, creative projects going on during NPM this year.