janice.scully – Page 6 – SALT CITY VERSE

National Poetry Month: More Haiku

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.

Day # 10 NPM

February at the San Francisco Botanical Gardens

Fragrant, velvety
Evergreen Magnolia--
Kathmandu native

Day #11 NPM

CAMELLIAS IN QUEUE

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.

Have a great weekend!

Haiku: National Poetry Month

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.

© Janice Scully 2024

April 2

AT THE SAN FRANCISCO BOTANICAL GARDENS

From South Africa
proud and tall King Proteus
on an American tour.

© Janice Scully 2024

April 3

Penning a poem
on a rainy spring morning--
question: which is which?

© Janice Scully 2024

April 4

REFRACTION

White light is a mix
of many different colors--
and so, the rainbow.

© Janice Scully 2024

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

Progressive Poem 2024

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?

PROGRESSIVE POEM 2024

cradled in stars, our planet sleeps,

clinging to tender dreams of peace

sister moon watches from afar

singing lunar lullabies of hope.

MY NEW LINES:

almost dawn. I walk with others,

keeping close, my little brother.

Leigh Anne Eck takes it from here.

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

Pantoum About the Dodo

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!

OSKAR’S VOYAGE, By Laura Purdie Salas

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

A Dinosaur on My Mind

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!!!

HOW DO YOU DO?

I love showing off!
See my pointy black spine!
See my pointy black teeth?
All the better to dine.

Sure, most dinos are dull—
but I’m bright bluish green!
Out and about
I love to be seen

and would like to say,
though I know you are wary
I swear if you meet me,
you’ll see I’m not scary.

© Janice Scully 2024

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.

There is more. Read the rest here:

Tanita tells us she’s seeing signs of spring. When I return to Syracuse maybe I will. Hope you all have a great weekend!

Artist Wayne Thiebaud’s THREE MACHINES

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 traveled last week to the west coast to see my son and daughter-in-law and we visited the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

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.

I wrote a tanka to share:

THIEBAUD'S ATOMIC PARTICLES

Gumballs glistening
tangy red, blue, green
sharp fruity flavor--
desire alternated
with an aftertaste of loss. 

© Janice Scully 2024

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.

A WINTER POEM

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:

IN THE JANUARY WOODS


All around, the snow  
painted the frozen 
branches white
this breezeless morning. 

No snow clumps 
fell with a thud from trees--
no snow Hieroglyphics
on the ground.

I saw no birds.
heard only silence,
and so I pretended
(because it seemed so)
that time had somehow stopped.

               Then soon, the drip-drop 
               of snow melt
               echoed here and there,
              .
               A squirrel flashed by,
               
               A doe and her spotted fawn
               startled and fled, 

               as nature spoke,
               inching it's way again
               towards spring. 
               
 
© Janice Scully 2024

POST CARD EXCHANGE

I received three New Years post cards this week thanks to Jone McCullough’s post card exchange. Thank you so much, Jone, for organizing this.

The first poem came special air delivery straight from Honolulu from Joyce P. Uglow, which I appreciated because her words were hopeful.

TRACKS AND HOPEFUL MOMENTS

The importance of tracks
in the squint of a new day
hopeful moments
moments of wonder
wondering why
words far apart
in the squint of a new day.

© Joyce Uglow 2024

The next poem came from Carol Labuzzetta with a photo of a castle.

RHINE DRAGON FANTASY

Years come and years go
With each New Year comes
More stories of old . . . 
Arrows, maidens, and drums.

Do you remember this time
Of castles and plunder?
Fighting on a riverbank till
The town is asunder.

Memories are stirred when
My eyes see the stone turret
Of the castle on the hill.
Watch out! Don't be lured by it. 

Knights and kings lived here,
So long ago,
Perhaps, Perhaps,
With a dragon in tow. 

© Carol Labuzzetta, 2024

The next postcard was a poem by Tabatha Yeatts accompanied by a painting of a dragon by “Elena.”

As the new year delivers the unknown to hand,
Fortify yourself as well as you can:

Repair your armor, pack a shield,
Stow words and memories that heal,

Keep compassion on tap and pour a deep flagon--
We're at the edge of the map, and here be the dragons. 

© Tabatha Yeatts 2024

We are not the first, it seems from reading Tabatha’s poem, to fight dragons. Happy Year of the Dragon!

How to Write a Peace Poem?

Welcome to Poetry Friday, this week hosted by Susan at Chicken Spaghetti Here. Thank you, Susan, for hosting!

Several things.

First of all, I received the proof pages of my poems from the diligent Carol Labuzzetta. She is composing an anthology of ekphrastic nature poems. I sent three photos and poem and was thrilled to see them dressed up and on the page! She improved on the clarity of my three photos and made my poems look good. I am so grateful.

I also received New Years postcards from Marcie and Linda M. this week. Marcie sent an amazing winter photo accompanied by a haiku. The postcard shines brighter than my photo of it. I love the idea of these red berries as frosted ornaments.

    Overnight cold
  leafless bushes become
    frosted ornaments

Marcie Flinchum Atkins 2023

Linda sent this collage postcard with a wonky, sweet hand-fashioned paper clip attached, accompanied by a poem about peace:

Peace Four Ways 2024
by Linda Mitchell

How to write a peace poem
when our world knows only war?
Millions wander with no home
How to wrote a peace poem? 
as bomb-dropping drones
pollute our skies and more?
How to write a peace poem?
when our world knows only war? 

        Peace
     quiet covers
   this warring world
       we fight 
      ourselves

this peace at twilight
this refuge from day's worries
a breath for this world

                            In 2024, let
           us remake the world for peace
           Let us take a moment to begin
              again the notion that with
 a new year there's no war for you or me.

Since I received Linda’s poem, I watched the New Hampshire primary where the victor insulted his female opponent’s dress. Not fancy enough. He insulted her as a creepy predator would. I may not be a Republican, but she deserves respect and admiration for her talent and courage to run for president.

I saw on TV three young college women, voting for the first time in New Hampshire, declared they will vote against her and for a sexual predator. Really?

Here’s a response to Linda’s poem.

HOW DO I WRITE A PEACE POEM?
(after a poem by Linda Mitchell)

when I live in a country
where voters would throw away freedom
for a strong man?

How do I write a peace poem
when America is lying on its side,
bleeding like an injured bear
and needs to stand strong
because the forest is on fire?

How do I write a peace poem
to inspire the world
to value and love
a whole future's-worth
of children? 

© Janice Scully 2024 (draft)

All I know is that I want my children and grandchildren to live in a free society like I did, where they can read what they want, say what they want and live in safety.

It’s a good time to remember George Washington. Several years ago I wrote a series of “Presidential Haiku and Tanka” about each American President. It still sits on my computer.

GEORGE WASHINGTON

Indispensable! 
He patched together ragged,
hungry men, and won!
This clever man was a star. 
Crown and throne? Thank you, but no.

© Janice Scully 2022

Have a great weekend! I want to thank those who recommended the novel “Bright and Remarkable Creatures” by Shelby Van Pelt.” I listened to it on audiobooks and loved the story. It’s really heart warming!

Author: janice.scully