“Snows hard in afternoon…” #ThoreaulyInspired #NPM #NaPoWriMo #NationalPoetryMonth #ProgressivePoem

Each day during April, I will write a poem-ish piece inspired by a word or phrase mined from the pages of Henry David Thoreau’s jewel-laden journals. I have left my challenge open so that the poems may take any form — haiku, free verse, borrowed line, blackout –and who knows which direction they will go in.

Day #27: “Snows hard in afternoon…”

A peek at my process —

On April 27, 1858, Thoreau wrote in his journal, “Snows hard in afternoon and evening. Quite wintry. About an inch on ground the next morning.” (The Journal of Henry David Thoreau, Journal X: August 8, 1957-June 29, 1858, Chapter IX. 1858, p. 385)

Snow is sadly in the forecast for us tonight and the early o. It isn’t unusual for us to still have a few flurries this time of year in New England, but fortunately, they don’t last for very long.

And now for…

Our Poetry Friday family has launched the 8th annual Kidlitosphere Progressive Poem originally organized by author/poet, Irene Latham. Margaret Simon at Reflections on the Teche is taking over this year as the organizer. Many members of the #PoetryFriday family have signed up to provide a line for the 2020 poem, and Friday was my turn.

Here’s where things stand with our sweet poem’s adventure thus far.

Today it’s Robyn Hood Black’s turn to conjure up new lines for Jessica to choose from. You may find them on her blog, Life on the Deckle Edge.

Here’s the itinerary for the final days of the Progressive Poem. I really don’t want it to end! Does it have to?

1 Donna Smith at Mainly Write
2 Irene Latham at Live Your Poem
3 Jone MacCulloch, deowriter
4 Liz Steinglass
5 Buffy Silverman
6 Kay McGriff at https://kaymcgriff.edublogs.org/
7 Catherine Flynn at Reading to the Core
8 Tara Smith at Going to Walden
9 Carol Varsalona at Beyond Literacy Link
10 Matt Forrest Esenwine at Radio, Rhythm, and Rhyme
11 Janet Fagel hosted at Reflections on the Teche
12 Linda Mitchell at A Word Edgewise
13 Kat Apel at Kat Whiskers
14 Margaret at Reflections on the Teche
15 Leigh Anne Eck at A Day in the Life
16 Linda Baie at Teacher Dance
17 Heidi Mordhorst at My Juicy Little Universe
18 Mary Lee Hahn at A Year of Reading
19 Tabatha at Opposite of Indifference
20 Rose Cappelli at Imagine the Possibilities
21 Janice Scully at Salt City Verse
22 Julieanne Harmatz at To Read, To Write, To Be
23 Ruth, thereisnosuchthingasagodforsakentown.blogspot.com
24 Christie Wyman at Wondering and Wandering
25 Amy at The Poem Farm
26 Dani Burtsfield at Doing the Work That Matters
27 Robyn Hood Black at Life on the Deckle Edge
28 Jessica Bigi at Mainely Write
29 Fran Haley at lit bits and pieces
30 Michelle Kogan

And lastly, I am also excited to share that I have joined the Teach Write blogging team and will be writing a Poetry Ponderings blog post for them every month. My first offering, Finding Your Poetry Secret Decoder Ring, is now live and May’s post, about inviting poetry into your classroom, will be up soon. And my blogging teammate, Paula Bourque, offers up Quick Write Sparks to Kindle the Poet In All of Us for her first Think & Ink post in honor of National Poetry Month. I hope you will take a peek at all of the posts by the Teach Write team!

 

Advertisement

Day 15: Paint Chip Poetry #NaPoWriMo #playwithpoetryNPM

My #NaPoWriMo Poem-A-Day project is Playing With Poetry. I am tagging along with Margaret Simon, Jone MacCulloch, Molly Hogan, and Mary Lee Hahn. We will be playing with Haikubes, Magnetic Poetry, Metaphor Dice, and Paint Chip Poetry (I raided Home Depot).  I’m even throwing in nail polish color names as inspiration, just for fun! Play along, if you’d like! We are using the Twitter hashtag #playwithpoetryNPM to see what poetic mischief everyone is getting into.

My inspiration today is historical.

april morning rain/minutemen trudge through wet mud/freedom waits for all — Christie Wyman, 2019 (draft)

A peek into my poem and process:

• We are in the process of selecting fun paint colors for several rooms of our house. I’ve had the Benjamin Moore Historical Colors leaflet all winter and am drawn to the shades with references to our local history. My dining room is about to become Concord Ivory! This lead me to…
• Today is Patriot’s Day here in Massachusetts. The Stow Minutemen re-enactors group should have passed through my village (Maynard) about an hour ago on their way to the battle at Concord’s North Bridge, but is POURING outside with a flood advisory just posted. We didn’t hear their drums or muskets firing off as usual, so we are thinking they may have aborted their march and opted for a van ride to the events.
• I’ve noticed my #playwithpoetry playmate, Margaret Simon, uses Word Swag often, so I decided to give that a go today instead of my usual Canva. I put the word “rain” in the search field and came up with some lovely rain drops. Thanks for the inspiration, Margaret!

******************************************************************

And now for….

On April 1, the Poetry Friday family launched the 7th annual Kidlitosphere Progressive Poem organized by author/poet, Irene Latham. (Click here to learn more.) Many of us have signed up to provide a line for the 2019 poem. Author/poet Matt Forrest Esenwine kicked things off with some familiar “found” phrases merged to get us going. Today’s line comes from Robyn Hood Black. You can find her line here. Our little poem has finally taken flight! Participants are having fun song lyrics. I was excited to provide the 14th line yesterday, April 14th. You can read it here. I hope you’ll join us to see what happens! Here’s the itinerary for the rest of the poem.

April

1 Matt @Radio, Rhythm and Rhyme

2 Kat @Kathryn Apel

3 Kimberly @KimberlyHutmacherWrites

4 Jone @DeoWriter

5 Linda @TeacherDance

6 Tara @Going to Walden

7 Ruth @thereisnosuchthingasagodforsakentown

8 Mary Lee @A Year of Reading

9 Rebecca @Rebecca Herzog

10 Janet F. @Live Your Poem

11 Dani @Doing the Work that Matters

12 Margaret @Reflections on the Teche

13 Doraine @Dori Reads

14 Christie @Wondering and Wandering

15 Robyn @Life on the Deckle Edge

16 Carol @Beyond LiteracyLink

17 Amy @The Poem Farm

18 Linda @A Word Edgewise

19 Heidi @my juicy little universe

20 Buffy @Buffy’s Blog

21 Michelle @Michelle Kogan

22 Catherine @Reading to the Core

23 Penny @a penny and her jots

24 Tabatha @The Opposite of Indifference

25 Jan @Bookseestudio

26 Linda @Write Time

27 Sheila @Sheila Renfro

28 Liz @Elizabeth Steinglass

29 Irene @Live Your Poem

30 Donna @Mainely Write

Day 14: Progressive Poem is Here! #NaPoWriMo #playwithpoetryNPM #ProgressivePoem

My #NaPoWriMo Poem-A-Day project is Playing With Poetry. I am tagging along with Margaret Simon, Jone MacCulloch, Molly Hogan, and Mary Lee Hahn. We will be playing with Haikubes, Magnetic Poetry, Metaphor Dice, and Paint Chip Poetry (I raided Home Depot).  I am even throwing in nail polish color names as inspiration, just for fun! Play along, if you would like! We are using the Twitter hashtag #playwithpoetryNPM to see what poetic mischief everyone is getting into.

Taking a one day hiatus from #playwithpoetry to focus on the Progressive Poem. A little senryu to kick things off.

On April 1, the Poetry Friday family launched the 7th annual Kidlitosphere Progressive Poem organized by author/poet, Irene Latham. Many of us have signed up to provide a line for the 2019 poem. Now it is my turn!

Author/poet Matt Forrest Esenwine kicked things off with some familiar “found” phrases in song lyrics merged to get us going. The trend stuck and here we are, 14 days in, ready to soar. Doraine made a move yesterday for some action. HUZZAH! I was going to do the exact same thing, but in a different direction. I was going to have us “make the wish to swim away with the fish,” (from Miley Cyrus’ “Malibu,”), but instead Doraine sent us soaring up into the sky. So…what better way to get a piece of the sky than to fly like an eagle. Cue the Steve Miller Band! (Click here to listen in.) I used to work at an outdoor performing arts center handling publicity and the press at concerts, and Steve Miller was always a favorite.

Endless summer; I can see for miles…
Fun, fun, fun – and the whole world smiles.
No time for school- just time to play,
we swim the laughin’ sea each and every day.

You had only to rise, lean from your window,
the curtain opens on a portrait of today.
Kodachrome greens, dazzling blue,
it’s the chance of a lifetime,

make it last forever–ready? Set? Let’s Go!
Come, we’ll take a walk, the sun is shining down
Not a cloud in the sky, got the sun in my eyes
Tomorrow’s here. It’s called today.

Gonna get me a piece o’ the sky.

I wanna fly like an eagle, to the sea

Found Lines:

L1 The Who, ‘I Can See for Miles’ / The Beach Boys, ‘Endless Summer’
L2 The Beach Boys, ‘Fun, Fun, Fun’ / Dean Martin, ‘When You’re Smiling’
L3 The Jamies, ‘Summertime, Summertime’
L4 The Doors ‘Summer’s Almost Gone’/ Led Zeppelin ‘Good Times, Bad Times’
L5 Ray Bradbury, Dandelion Wine “You had only to rise, lean from your window,”
L6 Joni Mitchell, “Chelsea Morning”
L7 Paul Simon, “Kodachrome,” “Dazzling Blue”
L8 Dan Fogelberg, “Run for the Roses”
L9 Spice Girls, “Wannabe”/ Will Smith, “Gettin’ Jiggy Wit It”
L10 The Beatles, “Good Day Sunshine”
L11 The Carpenters, “Top of the World”
L12 Lin-Manuel Miranda, “Underneath the Lovely London Sky” from Mary Poppins Returns

L13 Carole King, “Hi-de-ho (That Old Sweet Roll)”

L14 Steve Miller, “Fly Like An Eagle”

I hope you’ll keep joining us to see what happens next! Here’s the poem’s itinerary. Take it away Robyn!

April

1 Matt @Radio, Rhythm and Rhyme

2 Kat @Kathryn Apel

3 Kimberly @KimberlyHutmacherWrites

4 Jone @DeoWriter

5 Linda @TeacherDance

6 Tara @Going to Walden

7 Ruth @thereisnosuchthingasagodforsakentown

8 Mary Lee @A Year of Reading

9 Rebecca @Rebecca Herzog

10 Janet F. @Live Your Poem

11 Dani @Doing the Work that Matters

12 Margaret @Reflections on the Teche

13 Doraine @Dori Reads

14 Christie @Wondering and Wandering

15 Robyn @Life on the Deckle Edge

16 Carol @Beyond LiteracyLink

17 Amy @The Poem Farm

18 Linda @A Word Edgewise

19 Heidi @my juicy little universe

20 Buffy @Buffy’s Blog

21 Michelle @Michelle Kogan

22 Catherine @Reading to the Core

23 Penny @a penny and her jots

24 Tabatha @The Opposite of Indifference

25 Jan @Bookseestudio

26 Linda @Write Time

27 Sheila @Sheila Renfro

28 Liz @Elizabeth Steinglass

29 Irene @Live Your Poem

30 Donna @Mainely Write

Two Blue Herons #PoetryFriday

Happy Poetry Friday, all! Robyn Hood Black is hosting this week’s gathering on her blog, Life on the Deckle Edge.  Won’t you join us there? Robyn is sharing some lovely Scottish memories as well as a few bird-related treats. My offerings this week share an avian connection — two blue herons. 

Blue Heron #1 — Here in the Boston area — Cambridge, to be exact — we are blessed with a vibrant early music scene. One particular resident vocal ensemble, Blue Heron, has been getting loads of well-deserved attention lately. This is in part because in 2018 their CD, Music from the Peterhouse Partbooks Vol. 5, won a Gramophone Classical Music Award for Early Music, the British equivalent to a Grammy! (Click here to have a listen.) It is now part of a boxed set, The Lost Music of Canterbury.

I have been mesmerized by polyphonic Renaissance choral music since I was a child, and had the good fortune to be selected to sing in several small groups dedicated to this style beginning in Middle School and straight through until after I had graduated from college. To this day, listening to this music still sends chills down my spine. My husband and I wait eagerly for the next concert in Blue Heron’s subscription series the minute one performance ends. (Note: For those of you in the NYC area, they perform there quite often!)

And why did they choose Blue Heron for their name? This from their website: “Someone once mentioned to us a medieval legend which had it that the heron was the only bird that sang in parts, but we have been unable to substantiate the tale.” Fact or fiction? Who knows, but it makes for a terrific tale. And it leads me to…

Blue Heron #2 — My companion Great Blue Heron was found on the shores of Ithaca’s Sapsucker Pond on the campus of Cornell’s Lab of Ornithology. I had the great privilege to spend a week there last summer, studying with other science educators. The Great Blue Heron is a favorite bird of mine. This one in particular, who made an almost daily appearance, inspired several haiku which I’ve dusted off to share today as a side dish to the main course. 

P.S. If you live near Providence, Seattle, or Vancouver, Blue Heron (the singers, that is) is headed your way! 

*************************************************

Thanks for wondering and wandering a bit with me today. I hope you’ll join us on this Poetry Friday by posting a bit of poetry — your’s or someone else’s — and leaving a comment here or there.