SALT CITY VERSE – Mostly Poetry for Children

Spring Continues: Tree buds and Hyacinths

Welcome to Poetry Friday, this week hosted by poet and steadfast environmentalist, Heidi Mordhorst, Here. Thank you for hosting! She is adding a new line to the Progressive Poem. It’s been a thrill to see it develop again line by line.

I didn’t post last week, which I always regret. But I am preparing to leave for two months to visit my three month old grandson and I find packing overwhelming. As I travel this weekend I hope to tune into Poetry Friday and hopefully make up for last week.

Spring is really here in Central New York and so much is going on in the bigger world, like the death of Pope Francis. He was a reminder to all to welcome the stranger and to help the poor. I hope that the new Pontiff will honor human rights, including the rights of all immigrants, and to protect the environment, as those values seem to be receding like a puff of smoke. We need all the voices we can get.

Pope Francis would have understand my hunger to write about beauty today and I always find it in nature, just as do so many on Poetry Friday.

On my walk yesterday, something seemed different. What was it?

Oh! The leaves on the trees had suddenly unfurled! I seemed to have happened overnight! I believe it did!

Later on my walk, I noticed hyacinths, too. First came the daffodils, then forsythia, and now the hyacinths have bloomed..

Here is my attempt to draw a hyacinth flower as well as a haiku. I haven’t explored drawing in a while, but have bought a book and pencils and thought I’d try and see what happens on my upcoming travel to visit baby Tommy.

I sacrificed a hyacinth in my yard for this purpose. My drawing needs some work but it’s really fun to try.


Hyacinth

morning breeze scented,
absent since last April
clutch of curling blooms

© Janice Scully

Have a great weekend and enjoy spring and your friends and families! Thank you, Heidi, for hosting.

Demonstrations are Nothing New: Marcie Flinchum Atkins’ ONE STEP FORWARD

Welcome to Poetry Friday, this week hosted by the generous and talented Irene Latham Here. Thank you, Irene, for hosting and Happy NPM to all!

Of all the things I did this week, two things stuck out and were closely related. First, I read Marcie Flinchum Atkins YA poetry novel ONE STEP FORWARD. The other thing I did was attend a Hands Off protest in downtown Syracuse, NY. I’ll share some photos of that later, but first, Marcie’s novel.

People in America have a history of protesting for their human rights.

ONE STEP FORWARD, through beautifully written with accessible poetry, introduces us immediately to a teen girl whose family is divided by the issue of women’s suffrage. And on page 1, she is sneaking off to witness a demonstration. The first poem ends with the following lines in the voice of main character Matilda. She is scared her parents will find out she’s at a suffragist protest in front of the White House.

I pull down my hat
tuck my chin into my scarf.

No one can know I’m here.

The conflicts in the novel from the beginning is clear: Women vs society and Matilda vs her father.

Suffragists in the early 20th century picketed daily in front of President Wilson’s White House. We soon understand that they were dead serious about their rights. They got arrested, withstood dirty jails with inadequate food and hygiene, and were willing to even starve themselves for the cause.

Atkins takes us inside the danger facing police and hecklers, their bravery and persistence. Not only do women earn the vote, but the men in Matilda’s family, her father and brother, are changed by Matilda’s struggle. I highly recommend this book especially now as young people might be seeing people on the streets again, today, protesting for their human rights.

This book put in historical perspective the action I saw this weekend on TV and in the protest in downtown Syracuse. It’s what Americans have always done. Most Americans will fiercely protect their rights if, of course, they are made aware and not deceived about their rights being taken. Many signs at the protest promoted John Lewis’ “Good Trouble.”

Clever signs about Greedledee and GreedleDUMB.

Protestors of all ages

A crowd of 4,000 gathered. Get it together, America!

HANDS OFF, Syracuse, April 5, 2025


under heavy skies

they stood, as many before,

in damp shoes and hats,

protesting lies of tyrants

demanding age old freedoms. 


© Janice Scully 2025

Thank you Irene for hosting! There are so much in our daily lives at risk. But we have to continue to try to turn our country around.

Progressive Poem 2025, Day #8

Welcome to Progressive Poem 2025. Hello everyone! We are part of a long tradition!

Irene Latham began the Progressive Poem and hosted it from 2012-2019. If you would like to see poems from those years the early archives are Here. Margaret Simon took over in 2020. Her archives Here.

The rules are simple:
The poem passes from blog to blog
Each poet-blogger adds a line.
The poem is for children.
Other than that, anything goes.
Each blogger will copy the previous line exactly as written (unless permission from the previous poet is obtained) and add their line, offering commentary on their process if they wish.

Here is the 2025 poem so far. Jone McCullough has handed it off to me. It seems I had to rhyme with thrum as a rhyme scheme has been established.

Open an April window
let sunlight paint the air
stippling every dogwood
dappling daffodils with flair
Race to the garden
where woodpeckers drum
as hummingbirds thrum

in the blossoming Sweetgum.

Now I send it on to Tabatha for line #9. Have fun!

April 1 Linda Mitchell at A Word Edgewise
April 2 Tricia at The Miss Rumphius Effect
April 3 Robyn at Life on the Deckle Edge
April 4 Donna Smith at Mainely Write
April 5 Denise at https://mrsdkrebs.edublogs.org/
April 6 Buffy at http://www.buffysilverman.com/blog
April 7 Jone at https://www.jonerushmacculloch.com/
April 8 Janice Scully at Salt City Verse
April 9 Tabatha at https://tabathayeatts.blogspot.com/
April 10 Marcie at Marcie Flinchum Atkins
April 11 Rose at Imagine the Possibilities | Rose’s Blog
April 12 Fran Haley at Lit Bits and Pieces
April 13 Cathy Stenquist
April 14 Janet Fagel at Mainly Write
April 15 Carol Varsalona at Beyond LiteracyLink
April 16 Amy Ludwig VanDerwater at The Poem Farm
April 17 Kim Johnson at Common Threads
April 18 Margaret at Reflections on the Teche
April 19 Ramona at Pleasures from the Page
April 20 Mary Lee at A(nother) Year of Reading
April 21 Tanita at {fiction instead of lies}
April 22 Patricia Franz
April 23 Ruth at There’s No Such Thing as a Godforsaken Town
April 24 Linda Kulp Trout at http://lindakulptrout.blogspot.com
April 25 Heidi Mordhorst at My Juicy Little Universe
April 26 Michelle Kogan at: https://moreart4all.wordpress.com/
April 27 Linda Baie at Teacher Dance
April 28 Pamela Ross at Words in Flight
April 29 Diane Davis at Starting Again in Poetry
April 30 April Halprin Wayland at Teaching Authors

NATIONAL POETRY MONTH: A CHERITA

Welcome to Poetry Friday. This week the talented poet Matt Esenwine is hosting HERE. I can’t wait to read his new anthology, A Universe of Rainbows! Congratulations! The cover is gorgeous!

I am so impressed by the poetry projects that so many are doing this month! I love the Progressive Poem and am waiting for my turn. I am also soaking up the ideas I learn from Poetry Friday poets. Thank you all.

What a great poster! Yes! I want to live in a shared world. For me there is no alternative. If we want to live in a shared world, we have to speak up!

This week I wrote a Cherita.

What is a Cherita? It is a poetry form described HERE. A cherita has three stanzas and it tells a story.

CHANGE IN AMERICA

Good change comes slowly,

inspired by the will 
of the people. But keep watch!

If change is sudden and requires flashlights 
on Friday night, in dark buildings,
suspect thieves.  

© Janice Scully 2025

There are signs that America is waking up. I hope so. I will take pictures at the demonstrations on Saturday in Syracuse. Thank you Matt for hosting.

Spring Declaration

Welcome to Poetry Friday, this week hosted by the talented Marcie Flinchum Atkins on her blog. Thank you for hosting, Denise. I did not get to read posts this week and I apologize. I’m working on a poetry collection I had critiqued and now am revising. It isn’t easy, but I’m moving forward, where to, I’m not sure. I am thrilled that I signed up for the Highlights Poetry Palooza this November with Georgia Heard, Rebecca Kai Dotlich, Irene Latham, and Charles Waters.

It’s warming, in the forties here in Syracuse today, The FORSYTHIAS are budding:

The DAFFODILS have arrived:

So I want to declare something.

DECLARATION BASED ON THINGS SEEN

Forsythia buds
Patches of bright daffodils
I declare it spring! 

©Janice Scully 2025

I feel, like many, that I have so little control over life these days. So many things that I took for granted, maybe too much, are changing. So why not declare something? I do believe that nothing, at this moment, could possibly prove I’m wrong today when it comes to spring. It is definitely coming to Syracuse.

My husband and I look forward to attending a local political protest on 4/5. I’ve never in the past felt as if I was propelled to take a stand against anything, such as DOGE, quite like I do now. This feels urgent and it’s fueled by hope.

My OLW for 2025 is HOPE, and I’ve neglected the poor little word. So here is my first poem.

HOPE

Hope makes you sign up 
Paint a poster, demonstrate,
believe it matters.

© Janice Scully

Have a great weekend. Thank you for posting, Marcie! I look forward to reading posts this weekend.

POETRY FRIDAY IS HERE!!!

Welcome to Poetry Friday. Today I am the host and I’m feeling a needed boost today, weather-wise. Spring is in the air–it’s warm and the sun has showed up in Syracuse, having shone elsewhere for quite a while. So, Yay!!!

What is Poetry Friday? Find out here.

I’m celebrating women’s history month by finding One Step Forward by Marcie Flinchum at my local library. Can’t wait to read it.

I also am about to read the Narrative of Sojourner Truth which I have never read.

I look forward to reading all your blogs! Please leave your blog address with Mr. Linky at the end of this post.

Before I continue, I would like to thank Laura Shovan for the 13th Annual February Facebook Poetry Project. Click on her name to find her blog containing useful information for poets and teachers, though I’m sure many are familiar with her work. In February, I was inspired by the daily prompts all by different poets on Facebook.

Like many I’ve been thinking about public service with all the firing of government civil servants, who, in their different ways, save lives. Think of the Department of Education. By supporting schools and scholarships, those civil servants certainly save lives by investing in the future of all students. Think of the Department of Justice that is supposed to investigate crime, and researchers at the NIH. Those who spend their lives helping others are special people.

I will share a short poem I wrote about nurses, who care for people 24/7 in V.A. Hospitals. When I was an intern the VA was a favorite place to work. The veterans were always grateful for their care and liked the young students who came by, even as they were poked and prodded. The patients taught students a great deal, as did the nursing staff.

NIGHT NURSE

In our busy ER
monitors beep
people in pain,
records to keep.

I’ve been working since midnight,
a twelve hour shift,
IV’s to hang,
sick patients to lift.

lunch break at five,
from the chaos, a gap,
I close my eyes  
       for a moment,
and steal a short nap.

© Janice Scully 2023

The middle of the night in a hospital is special. It’s a world that few get to see, away from the noise and commotion of the busier hectic day shift. For staff, circadian rhythms seemed to bottom out around 5AM, and must recover however they can until the shift ends.

In the 19th century, Walt Whitman wrote about nursing in a most serious way. He worked as a nurse during the Civil War, caring for dying soldiers, describing in depth his experience in the poem, Nursing the Wounded and Dying. It’s a long poem. Here is an excerpt:

Excerpt from Nursing the Wounded and Dying
by Walt Whitman

With dear or critical cases I generally sit by the restless all the dark night,
Some are so young, some suffer so much.
I stand in the dark with drooping eyes by the worst-suffering and the most restless,
I pass my hands soothingly to and fro a few inches from them;
I find deep things, unreckoned by current print or speech—
It is perhaps the greatest interchange of magnetism human relations are capable of.

His “interchange of magnetism” in human relations is fascinating and emotionally touching; the feeling passing from patient to care giver. Here’s his likeness on a copy of his collection Leaves of Grass.

There are more men in nursing now. But it began as a women’s profession in the mid-nineteenth century. Florence Nightingale did much to established nursing as a profession during her work in the Crimea and later, and should be remembered.

During this time of upheaval which seems to involve every corner of the United States, I’ve appreciated by family and friends more than ever. I have become much more aware of those who serve our country and keep people and democracy alive. I look forward to reading all of your posts.

A President Millard Fillmore Haiku

Welcome to Poetry Friday. This week hosted by teacher and poet Margaret Simon Here at Reflections on the Teche. Thank you, Margaret for hosting!

Ten years ago, I completed a haiku project about the American Presidents. I wrote a haiku or tanka about something specific about each life and a short factoid to fill in a fact or two. I thought I’d share what I wrote about Millard Fillmore, who was born in Upstate New York in a town called Moravia. There is a state park in Moravia named for him. You will find water falls, a swimming hole and walking trails.

Waterfall at Millard Fillmore State Park

Fillmore was President during the Compromise of 1850 which was an attempt to appease the South. Part of the agreement was to allow federal Marshalls to cross state lines to hunt down runaway enslaved people in the North and return them South.

We all know the Compromise of 1850 failed. The South could not be appeased, but the law was tested out:

In October 1851 the Marshalls came to Syracuse to capture a fugitive named Jerry. But famously, they failed miserably. The citizens in Syracuse, white and black, rescued him from jail and spirited him to nearby Canada in an event known as The Jerry Rescue. In the link you can see the sculpture dedicated to this event.

Here’s my haiku about President Fillmore, who is not on the top ten list.

Millard Fillmore

Hate was mounting—why
could you see only money
in a field of cotton?

#13 MILLARD FILLMORE (1850-1853) Mr. Fillmore, failed to see that slavery was immoral. In 1848, he was concerned only about the United States economy and cotton, which, at the time, depended on slaves.
___

This haiku seems relevant today, as everything has a price. The pesky needs of humanity inconveniently keep getting in the way of world peace, as Fillmore discovered.

Thank you, Margaret for hosting. I’ll be hosting next week. See you then.

Weathervane Seagulls

Welcome to Poetry Friday, this week hosted by the talented Denise Krebs HERE. Thank you, Denise, for hosting!

It has been a busy week. After struggling with a failing laptop, I finally replaced it. So it’s a thrill to transfer my writing to a new computer which actually inspired me to get to work on some revisions. I feel like I’m getting a new start! My non-fiction poetry collection about “Team Digestion” received some needed cutting and a rework of its story line. Now what will I share this week?

Here’s two photos and haiku:

Earlier this winter in California, I would use the seagulls on the beach to tell me which way the wind was blowing. It seems that gulls face into the wind so they can remain upright and not blow over. The wind was so strong it almost blew walkers over. I loved seeing them standing together, all in the same direction, like soldiers.

On a breezy day
Seagulls gather together
To brave the west wind

©Janice Scully 2025

Here’s another sighting. The beach was less crowded, but still, they all faced the wind.

Seagull weathervanes
—today facing down
a stinging east wind

© Janice Scully 2025

I can’t let my mourning for the loss of respect and decency in our country take the joy from my life. There is no time for that. I am so grateful for my little grandson, Tommy, now already 2 months old and growing bigger every day! I look at a picture that comes every day and feel such joy and hope.

Have a great weekend!

Unicorns and Narwhals

Welcome to Poetry Friday, this week hosted by poet Laura Purdie Salas, HERE. Thank you, Laura, for hosting.

What is Poetry Friday. Find out HERE.

I’d like to celebrate a museum today: The Cloisters, in New York City.

My husband, Bart, and I happened to be in the NY suburbs visiting family and on a Sunday morning, drove across the GW bridge to one of our favorite places. It is part of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and sits in northern Manhattan, close to the bridge, in Fort Tryon Park.

The museum displays medieval art including the seven Unicorn tapestries, woven in the late 1400’s.

The unicorn, of course if a legendary creature with a single horn protruding from it’s head. To some, the unicorn is the symbol of Christ and its pursuit and capture a metaphor for the crucifixion and resurrection. For others, the tapestries are explained by some as an allegory of marriage, the devotion and subjugation of love.

However you interpret them, through Christianity or culture, the tapestries are amazing. For instance, according to Wikipedia, in the background are 100 different plants, 85 identified by botanists. That’s a lot of detail! At the Wikipedia site, you can view the seven tapestries.

 Unicorn in Captivity, the last of the series of seven tapestries.

I always learn something at every museum. One thing I learned at the Cloisters was that the tusk of the narwhal whale was thought my many to be that of a unicorn.

Such tusks, ten feet in length, when found were safeguarded in churches from London to Cracow. One such tusk, in France, was said to have been given to Charlemagne, according to a museum plaque. Other prized unicorn horns were gifted to San Marco of Venice, Philip the Good, the Duke of Burgundy and other deserving fellows.

A Narwhal tusk or, if you prefer, a unicorn horn, displayed in the corner of the tapestry room

What do you think? Is it love/marriage or religion, or today, government gone amok that has placed this beautiful unicorn inside a fence? Here’s a tanka:

I WONDER

Love or religion?
A lovely animal fenced--
medieval, me thinks.
Who made the fancy collar?
Why fence an innocent in?

 ©Janice Scully 2025

Image from Freepic

Thank you for hosting, Laura!

If I Could Choose a Best Day: Poems of Possibility, by Irene Latham and Charles Waters. Illustrated by Olivia Sua

Welcome to Poetry Friday, this week hosted by poet Linda Biae at TeacherDance. Thank you for hosting, Linda.

What is Poetry Friday? Find out here.

Today the mailman brought me the new poetry anthology IF I COULD CHOOSE A BEST DAY, edited by Irene Latham and Charles Waters, Illustrated by Olivia Sua.

The contains thirty poems by as many poets, many who are well know to the children’s poetry community, such as Nikki Grimes, Renee LaTulippe, Rebecca Kai Doltish, Georgia Heard, Joseph Bruchac, Laura Purdie Salas and many, many others. I feel honored to have been included. Thank you, Irene and Charles!

The collection is about possibility. What if you could choose the best day?

The artwork by Olivia Sua features children at play in a colorful, gentle and welcoming world. The book opens with a welcoming poem by the editors, entitled, “Welcome.”

Welcome
by Irene Latham and Charles Waters

If you're reading this,
It's time to unlock
the door to possibility.
Trust yourself--

        Turn the key.

Every poem in the book begins with the word, “If” : which seems like an invitation to a child to imagine as they explore each poem, and think, “What if . . . ?” Some of the poem titles include “If this wind persists” by Sydell Rosenberg, “The gift of If” by JaNay Brown-Wood, “If We Were Rich” by Janet Wong, to mention a few.

I’m sorry I was not able to copy the art inside the book, but at least I can share the cover. The book will be released early March.

It’s been two years since I submitted and I almost forgot this book was being published, but here it is.

The illustration on the page of my poem is a picture of a pretty whitewashed town with snow falling. There is a silhouette of a child, a girl, in a window of one of the houses.

IF A SNOWSTORM COMES TO TOWN

If a snowstorm comes to town,
I'll watch the snowflakes falling down,
watch them swirling to the ground
sparkling, spinning round and round.
Never will they make a sound
just keep falling
down 
     down
           down.

I love to watch the snowflakes fall--
no one rushes snow at all!
Out my window, wandering free,
snow is how I like to be. 


Janice Scully 2025

I was thrilled when my copy arrived today! My new grandson in California is finally home from N.I.C.U and he seems, I hear, very happy to be there. I’ll definitely add this book to his growing collection!

Thank you for reading. I’m sure you will hear more in the coming months about this collection.