Walden Wednesday – Wondering and Wandering

PLAYING WITH POETRY (1)

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.

onwaldensstillspring

A peek into my poem and process. Let’s get meta!

So I’m not very good at following my own directions. None of my #playwithpoetry tools inspired today’s haiku! An earlier version of this poem popped up in my Facebook feed this morning, as I had shared it for Haiku Day last year. I’m on my way to Walden Pond this afternoon, so I couldn’t resist revisiting the poem!
I originally wrote this as a haiku in 2017 and later added two additional responsive, reflective lines to create a tanka. You can read that original post here.
Inspired by one of my poetry writing mentors, Margaret Simon, I have begun to add the word “draft” after all of my work. Another writing mentor, fellow Kindergarten teacher Kelsey Corter, noticed this change and commented to me (something to the effect of) that it made my poems feel alive, because they could grow and change. Time for this little haiku to evolve!
Changes, all in the first line, include:
- specifically mentioning which body of water — Walden (Pond)
- more accurately referring to the “sunlight stars shimmering” ON the water rather than AT the water.
- referencing the possible source of the water in Walden Pond , which is actually a lake!

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And now for….

2019 Kidlitosphere Progressive Poem

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 my poetry mentor and friend, Amy Ludwig VanDerwater. You may find her line here. Our little poem is now waltzing in the waves. Participants are having fun song lyrics. I was excited to provide the 14th line on April 14th. You can read it here. I hope you’ll join us to see what happens next! 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

PLAYING WITH POETRY (1)

It’s National Poetry Month! 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.

Today’s paint chip poetry prompts for my haiku are “Curtain Call” and “Swan Song.”

Winter's Final Curtain Call

A peek into my poem and process:

Winter just won’t let go around New England. It’s chilly in Massachusetts today and my friends north of the border in NH and Maine got more snow the other day!
Winter’s insistence on not letting go got me thinking about a diva prima ballerina (in Swan Lake?) who wants just one more curtain call!
A quick search for “swan song” and “curtain call” miraculously turned up to color swatches!

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And introducing….

2019 Kidlitosphere Progressive Poem

On Monday, 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 Janet. You can find her line here on Irene’s blog. Participants are having fun combining two found phrases in favorite song lyrics. I’m excited to provide the 14th line on Sunday, April 14th. I hope you’ll join us to see what happens! Here’s the itinerary for 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