Welcome to Poetry Friday, this week hosted by the talented Jone McCullough Here. Thank you, Jone, for hosting.
Also thanks to all the poets participating in the Progressive Poem.
Each week a different poet adds a line to the poem during the month of April. You can find a list of websites Here, in the margins of Margaret Simon’s website, and follow along. Thank you, Margaret, for organizing this fun event.
I’m written an haiku each day on Facebook, most with a photo. Here’s a few more.
#5 NPM
CHINATOWN CELEBRATION
Year of the Dragon symbol of strength and courage-- good fortune to you!
Young girl playing the zither in San Francisco to celebrate the new year.
#6 NPM
green and gold brushstrokes paint the California hills-- up close: wildflowers!
#7 NPM
BY A SIDEWALK IN PACIFICA, CA
cacti in blossom celebrating early spring, each in its own way
#8 NPM
TORCH LILLY
Caution when you walk, petals exploding in flame! "Hot poker" in bloom.
#9 NPM
THROUGH CLOUDS AT AROUND 3:30
The solar eclipse by indirect evidence dark sky, quiet birds.
Crimson showstopper! Eager to reveal yourself-- others wait their turn.
Enjoy National Poetry Month! It’s been fun writing an haiku for each day, spending the morning thinking about words, learning a little more about flowers.
Welcome to Poetry Friday! This week we are hosted by our friend, author, and poet Irene Latham HERE. Thank you, Irene!
I’ve been celebrating NPM by writing a haiku and sharing it on Facebook each day. I find an haiku a day doable and it also keeps me paying attention to the beauty I see around me every day. I also have found poems in my photo library and using them to inspire a poem. Here are my first four haiku..
April 1
With springtime comes mud, clouds, rainstorms, even snow squalls. But then . . . daffodils.
I look forward to the next line of the Progressive Poem, soon to be revealed by Irene Latham on her blog Live Your Poem . Thank you Margaret Simon for organizing it. It’s really fun to see the poem develop each day. Below is a list of poets to help you follow along during National Poetry Month.
April 1 Patricia Franz at Reverie April 2 Jone MacCulloch April 3 Janice Scully at Salt City Verse April 4 Leigh Anne Eck at A Day in the Life April 5 Irene at Live Your Poem April 6 Margaret at Reflections on the Teche April 7 Marcie Atkins April 8 Ruth at There is No Such Thing as a God Forsaken Town April 9 Karen Eastlund April 10 Linda Baie at Teacher Dance April 11 Buffy Silverman April 12 Linda Mitchell at A Word Edgewise April 13 Denise Krebs at Dare to Care April 14 Carol Varsalona at Beyond Literacy Link April 15 Rose Cappelli at Imagine the Possibilities April 16 Sarah Grace Tuttle April 17 Heidi Mordhorst at my juicy little universe April 18 Tabatha at Opposite of Indifference April 19 Catherine Flynn at Reading to the Core April 20 Tricia Stohr-Hunt at The Miss Rumphius Effect April 21 Janet, hosted here at Reflections on the Teche April 22 Mary Lee Hahn at A(nother) Year of Reading April 23 Tanita Davis at (fiction, instead of lies) April 24 Molly Hogan at Nix the Comfort Zone April 25 Joanne Emery at Word Dancer April 26 Karin Fisher-Golton at Still in Awe April 27 Donna Smith at Mainly Write April 28 Dave at Leap of Dave April 29 Robyn Hood Black at Life on the Deckle Edge April 30 Michelle Kogan at More Art for All
I’m very excited to help create a new Progressive Poem with my friends from Poetry Friday. See the list of poets below.
The rules: 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.
Patricia and Jone have provided a beautiful and evocative beginning. How could I move it forward? First I began wondering where the visions of earth and moon were coming from–who is watching? Perhaps a child in their room, waking up, and beginning their day?
But there seemed something bigger was going on. The words “clinging to tender dreams of peace,” in the first lines, and the moon singing hope in the next, brought me to think someone’s courage might be being tested. But whose?
April 1 Patricia Franz at Reverie
April 2 Jone MacCulloch
April 3 Janice Scully at Salt City Verse
April 4 Leigh Anne Eck at A Day in the Life
April 5 Irene at Live Your Poem
April 6 Margaret at Reflections on the Teche
April 7 Marcie Atkins
April 8 Ruth at There is No Such Thing as a God Forsaken Town
April 9 Karen Eastlund
April 10 Linda Baie at Teacher Dance
April 11 Buffy Silverman
April 12 Linda Mitchell
April 13 Denise Krebs at Dare to Care
April 14 Carol Varsalona at Beyond Literacy Link
April 15 Rose Cappelli at Imagine the Possibilities
April 16 Sarah Grace Tuttle
April 17 Heidi Mordhorst at my juicy little universe
April 18 Tabatha at Opposite of Indifference
April 19 Catherine Flynn at Reading to the Core
April 20 Tricia Stohr-Hunt at The Miss Rumphius Effect
April 21 Janet, hosted here at Reflections on the Teche
April 22 Mary Lee Hahn at A(nother) Year of Reading
April 23 Tanita Davis at (fiction, instead of lies)
April 24 Molly Hogan at Nix the Comfort Zone
April 25 Joanne Emery at Word Dancer
April 26 Karin Fisher-Golton at Still in Awe
April 27
April 28 Dave at Leap of Dave
April 29 Robyn Hood Black at Life on the Deckle Edge
April 30 Michelle Kogan at More Art for All
Welcome to poetry Friday, this week hosted by Tricia, HERE. Thank you, Tricia, for hosting this last week in March. Honestly I’m glad March is nearly over. It’s not my favorite month. April is a different story, a joyful one.
This month we were given a Poetry Peeps Challenge. I found in on Tanita Davis’ blog. I thought I’d take this on at the eve of April which is National Poetry Month.
I find pantoums difficult, the repetition can feel dull, and today I must have spent six hours on two different poems which I scrapped. That is the process, however, as frustrating as it can be sometimes. I finally wrote this, my final attempt, about an animal that captures my imagination even as it’s been extinct for 300 years.
IMAGINING THE DODO AFTER THREE HUNDRED YEARS
Only clues remain.
Head and foot displayed in Oxford.
What did the dodo look like?
Piece of skin in Copenhagen,
head and foot displayed in Oxford,
upper jaw in Prague,
skin in Copenhagen,
bone caches in Mauritius,
upper jaw in Prague,
we reconstruct this flightless bird.
Bone caches in Mauritius—
the dodo was an island bird.
We reconstruct this flightless bird
that fell prey to cats and rats.
The Dodo was an island bird,
alone, the bird had thrived.
Sailors brought the cats and rats,
only clues remain.
What did the dodo look like?
In our past the bird remains.
Janice Scully 2024
Photo by McGill Library found on Unsplash.
This flightless, island bird was no match for species of animals introduced by sailors in the 1600’s.
Have a great weekend! Thank you, Tricia, for hosting!
Welcome to Poetry Frida! This week Rose is hosting Here, at her blog Imagine the Possibilities. Thank you, Rose, for hosting!
I finally arrived home after a five week absence visiting my family and was greeted by snow upon my arrival. Not much, only an inch, but today, it is 26 degrees. Spring is holding out a little longer.
Today I received Laurie Purdie Salas‘ new picture book OSKAR’S VOYAGE! It was a Copy signed by the author and the book’s talented illustrator Kayla Harren.
.
Oskar, the main character, a squirrel, is adventurous, sweet and engaging and the setting is also like another character. As Oskar leaves the comfort of his oak tree and finds himself on a Great Lakes freighter, we follow along, trying to spot him. The boat’s route is revealed on an engaging map, the first thing the reader sees after the front cover:
Tracing Oskar’s voyage through the Great Lakes will be fun for kids, and so will the boat with its various machines, the galley and even the mail bucket. Salas’ poetry will inform and entertain:
Rumble. Movement. Oskar wakes.
Climbs four stairways lined with gear.
Pilothouse holds charts and screens:
tools to help the captain steer.
And indeed the illustrator takes the reader to the stairways and the pilothouse as we follow Oskar and try to locate him on the page, reminiscent of “Where’s Waldo.”
The back matter defines the boat terms and an interesting detailed map of this freighter, known as a “footer” because it is 1,ooo foot long. My oldest son, who loves all things maps would have loved this book.
While I was away the last five weeks, I took out my novel in verse to tweak it some more. My WIP, WHEN MY BROTHER WENT TO WAR, is historical fiction, that takes place during the Vietnam war in the year 1969-70. This is how the novel begins, in the voice of my main character Maddie.
SEWING
Just before I turned fifteen,
the end of eighth grade,
I began to stitch together
what I knew about
my family,
my town,
and the War, too,
just like I stitch a dress
at my Singer sewing machine
on our dining room table.
except
just before I turned fifteen
only stitching a dress
made sense.
Janice Scully 2024
I have doubts whether publishers would be interested in a book set in 1969, especially in verse. And I am told by a friend that a novel in verse as a debut novel might be a hard sell. Still reading it through, I still like it and it seems relevant in many ways, though there are no cell phones or computers. So I’ll keep trying to find a home for it. I enjoyed the process, and for me, that has meant a lot.
Well, everyone. Have a great weekend! I’ll close with a ground squirrel I encountered in Pacifica, California. A cousin of Oskar?
Ground Squirrel on the beach
eyeing the sea and bright sun--
seeking adventure.
Janice Scully 2024
Welcome to Poetry Friday! Today we’re hosted by Tanita Here. She has a fabulous poem to share which, though she didn’t say it, made me think of the 1920’s when women threw away their restraining fashion, like corsets. She also offered a prompt for the end of the month. Thank you for hosting, Tanita!
This week I’m in Texas visiting my sister. We like to cook and made something I’ve never made before: Pierogies. They are like raviolis filled with potatoes and cheese, an ambitious project, not for the faint hearted. We made over 60 of them. It is a blessing that I’m not wearing any constriction clothing!
So I’ve been away from home for over a month now and will be home soon. I was so glad I visited my sister’s eleven year old grandson, Ezra, because he shared some drawings. His take on a T-Rex is awesome and I got permission to share it and wrote a poem inspired by it. Thank you Ezra!!!
I appreciated this project today because it took me to a different place and time, the Mesozoic Era which was 252-266 million years ago. No TV, no phones, no computers! Just the crunch of big feet in the Mesozoic Earth and the misty light perhaps filtering down into the marshes and prehistoric seas. What would I hear if I were there?
Many poets have written about dinosaurs. Here’s another written in a different style written by Walter Sykes, a playwright who was born in 1969.
O, ANCIENT RULERS OF THE EARTH
by Walter Wykes
O, ancient rulers of the Earth,
O, race of mighty warriors,
O, evolutionary giants,
I sing your praise.
You were powerful creatures of incredible diversity.
Elaborate skeletal modifications.
Numerous adaptations for social interaction.
(No Facebook, though.)
Elevated metabolism.
You were formidable foes.
Savage in battle.
Unforgiving to your enemies.
Even the shadow that remains of you is terrifying.
Welcome to Poetry Friday, this week hosted by poet Tabatha Yeatts Here. Be sure to stop by her blog to see what she has for us this week. Yesterday she posted about drawbridges with photos, ancient, interesting, and beautiful. Thank you Tabatha!
I usually feel overwhelmed in art museums. I want to learn about and remember everything! But that is impossible. So I took some photos to jog my mind later. On my visit, I discovered several artists new to me. One of them is Wayne Thiebaud (1920-2021), whose work is often considered pop art, though he wasn’t apparently a fan of Andy Warhol’s repetitive paintings of consumer items.
Wayne Thiebaud is known for his colorful, luscious paintings of cakes, pastries, ice cream and other eye-catchers such as bright lipstick, using repetition and exaggerated shadows. Here’s a Youtube video featuring the artist speaking on his path to becoming an artist. How does did he decide what ideas he will bring to the world? If you have time it’s worth seeing.
Thiebaud paintings feature bright lucious colors that are mouth watering, styled as in an advertisement. Why?
Looking more deeply, his bright objects say something about the essence of consumerism. I saw his 1963 painting, THREE MACHINES, and wondered what might be represented by gumballs? Why gumballs?
What do these mean? I wondered. Next to the painting, the museum posted this description.
"Gumballs are the common-denominator of penny candy--a sort of atom particle of American consumer culture. They also represent, in microcosm, a common cycle of American consumerism, which spans from an imagined ideal, to the pleasure of possession, to a state of diminishing returns--and finally to the sense of loss--until the cycle begins again."
It seems Thiebaud spent his time thinking about more than gumballs. An excellent metaphor, the gumball as an “atomic particle of American consumer culture.” Like candies such as M & M’s, which I love, one just keeps wanting repetitive experience of pleasure. I buy M & M’s whenever I go to a movie, I simply have to, and the empty box is always disappointing.
That’s one reason we look at art, why I return to art museums–because art touches indirectly what it means to be human. Why do we buy the things and do the things we do? Why do we always want more?
Have a great weekend. The winter is rushing past! Thank you, Tabatha, for hosting.
Welcome to Poetry Friday this week hosted by Carol at Beyond Literacy HERE. I look forward to what she has for us this week!
I received lovely postcards from Poetry Friday friends Molly Hogan, Heidi Mordhorst, Michelle Kogan, Gail Aldous, Linda Baie, and Tricia Stohr-hunt and Jone MacCullough. They were bright spots in an otherwise rather dreary week. Thank you Jone for masterminding the poetry swap-New Years post cards! I was thrilled to receive them in my mailbox and loved all the photos, poems and artwork. Thank you all!
I will be posting on Poetry Friday somewhat erratically, I guess you’d say, over the next few weeks as I will be visiting family. I will also take some pictures and gather some new ideas that I can share going forward. I hope you all have a terrific rest of winter. Today in Syracuse it was sunny and in the fifties, so I know many of you will be getting some springlike weather. Enjoy and stay safe!
Welcome to Poetry Friday, this week hosted by the talented poet and teacher, Mary Lee Hahn HERE. Thank you for hosting and I look forward to the poetry you share with us this week!
WINTERY WOODS IN CENTRAL NEW YORK
Those who live where it snows know what it’s like to open the front door after a snow storm and see, hear, and smell winter. Even in the midst of climate change, those days still happen and was on display this week:
