Welcome to Poetry Friday, this week hosted by the talented artist Michelle Kogan, HERE. Thank you, Michelle for hosting!
What is Poetry Friday? It’s a group of bloggers who love poetry and like to share their thoughts and their work with others. Learn more about Poetry Friday HERE.
I learn something every week from this very smart group of teachers, librarians, poets and visual artists. This week I’ve written several poems called “Definitos” that I discovered on Mary Lee Hahn’s blog: A(nother) Year of Reading. You can find the definition and a fine example of a definito.
What is a definito? According to Mary Lee:
A Definito is ” a free verse poem of 8-12 lines (aimed at readers 8-12 years old) that highlights wordplay as it demonstrates the meaning of a less common word, which always ends the poem.”
I was up for learning new words to write a poem about, so I found this book on my shelf:
Who doesn’t want to sound smart? I wrote a few definitos:
WALL FLOWER
He avoids noise is as shy as can be
the world can be rough, like a roiling sea.
When people are mean, he dives under a bed
hidden from sight till it is peaceful instead.
Have you known a cat so PUSILLANIMOUS?
A shy, pusillanimous cat
DOES IT MATTER?
An apple in a bushel, A drop of water in the sea, hardly of significance, and no account to me.
So small I’d never miss it if indeed it wasn’t there--
so in the scale of what’s important, it is NOMINAL.
UNCERTAIN
When a strong rocky ledge shows its c r u m b l I n g edge,
When you lie in your bed and hear mice overhead
When you think the Earth’s flat and someone's questioning that,
The world can feel oh so PRECARIOUS.
Using a word in a poem seems an excellent way to actually feel and retain its definition. Pusillanimous will be with me for a while.
Next week, 5/31, I will be hosting and sharing work from Carol Lazuzzetta’s new poetry anthology, PICTURE PERFECT POETRY: An Anthology of Ekphrastic Nature Poetry for Students. See you then!
Welcome to Poetry Friday, this week hosted by poet Patricia Franz, Here. Thanks for hosting, Patricia! Make sure to check out what she has for us this week.
While I was at the Jamesville DeWitt Public Library near my home, this 2024 book for young people caught my eye. I love non-fiction for high-school age kids and this book does not disappoint. WITCH HUNT, was written by Andrea Balis and Elizabeth Levy.
If you sometimes think that we live in political times that are unique, you are right. However, the United States has survived through other times when human rights, such as the right to free speech, and our democracy, was threatened. During the early 1950’s, during the “Red Scare,” Republican Senator Joseph McCarthy held his famous senate hearings and challenged the freedom of speech of many Americans.
In the center of the story is Republican Senator McCarthy who was supposedly a large imposing, heavy drinking, seemingly powerful man. He kept lists of people suspected of being Communists and stirred up tremendous fear, for instance that the State Department was run by communists, which was false.
McCARTHY: I have here in my hand a list of 205---a list of names that were made known to the Secretary of State as being members of the Communist Party and who nevertheless less are still working and shaping policy in the State Department.
The story is put together by a “FLY ON THE WALL” narrator along with the use of quotes from all sorts of government officials to tell the story. For Example:
SAM RUSHAY, ARCHIVIST AT THE TRUMAN LIBRARY: President Truman was blamed for the communist victory in China.
FLY ON THE WALL: In advance of the midterm elections of 1950, the Republicans saw a way to use the growing fear that an international communist revolution would sweep the world and drown American democracy and freedom in its wake.
REPUBLICAN STATEMENT OF PRINCIPLES AND OBJECTIVES: We deplore the dangerous degree to which Communists and their fellow travelers have been employed in important Government posts...We denounce the soft attitude of this Administration toward Government employees and officials who hold or support Communist attitudes.
Joseph McCarthy used the Senate hearings to accuse Americans in government and in Hollywood of being communists who were seeking to destroy the country. McCarthy ruined lives and careers of countless talented and loyal Americans.
You will read in this book about Roy Cohn, a ruthless, relentless lawyer, well- versed in cruelly and falsely defaming his enemies. He who worked alongside McCarthy as they ruined lives. Recognize the name? He was a mentor and inspiration to our 45th president and then, tragically for him, Roy Cohn eventually died of AIDS. You can’t make this stuff up.
The details in this book are fascinating to anyone interested in history. Where does the title Witch Hunt come from? Here’s a quote from the book about the ordeal of dunking those accused of being witches:
VEENA PATEL, HISTORIAN:The ordeal of the swimming test originated as an old Germanic rite and . . . usually involved the tying of a suspect's wrists to their ankles and then throwing the individual into a body of water ...If the suspect sank, they were presumed innocent and hauled up . . . Should they float, however, this was taken as confirmation of their alliance with the Devil.
McCarthy in the end was discredited and in 1957, a few short years after his famous hearings, he died of alcoholic liver disease.
McCarthy was riding high for several years in the early fifties. But nothing good comes in the end to tyrannical leaders who, for a time, seem like kings. Other examples? Hitler killed himself as the Americans closed in and Mussolini was executed while attempting to flee in 1945, by Italian partisans.
A little history helps you to connect what went before to what is happening today, to understand it better.
Thank you, Patricia, for hosting! Have a great weekend.
Welcome to Poetry Friday, this week hosted by children’s author and awesome nature photographer Buffy Silverman Here. Thank you, Buffy, for hosting!
I was a little sad to end my National Poetry Month daily haiku project. It was fun sharing my photos and haiku on Facebook and it was indeed a hodgepodge of subjects. Here are the last few.
SPRING COLOR
Have you seen the trees? Overnight, long gray branches speckled green with leaves!
CONTRAILS OVER SYRACUSE
Morning passengers criss-cross the cool morning sky-- for lunch in New York?
JANUARY 2017
March on Washington-- women looked to the future and saw the present
AFTER "FOG" BY CARL SANDBURG
"On little cat feet" gray fog settled in; slept the whole morning.
Thank you all so much for reading and commenting this month.
Poetry encourages us to look at the world through different glasses. My husband and I found these glasses below at the De Young Museum in San Francisco. They made the world look like multi-faceted cut diamond.
Have a great weekend! Be sure to check in with our host, Buffy Silverman, Here.
Welcome to Poetry Friday! Ruth is hosting HERE. Thank you, Ruth for hosting.
We are at the end of National Poetry Month and I am sharing more of the haiku I have written each day and posted a first draft on Facebook. It has been a challenge, though a fun one. I’ve wracked my brain some mornings to find an interesting connection in each of these photos that might inspire a short poem.
The PROGRESSIVE POEM has taken interesting and evocative twists and turns. On 4/26 check out the newest lines by Karin Fisher-Golton Here .
SPECTRUM 1, 1953, ELLSWORTH KELLY
Juxtaposed color-- Is the first and last yellow the same or different?
COIT TOWER IN SAN FRANCISCO
Tourist attraction. Inside, murals depict hard times-- The Great Depression
IT'S BEEN DONE BEFORE
Charlie Chaplin shows: working from home and childcare is easily done.
PRINT OF SNOWFLAKE BENTLEY'S LIFE'S WORK
He photographed snow, each flake a tiny sculpture-- Quick! Before it melts!
Magritte's Masterpiece
L.A. Museum, an icon of modern art-- No smoking allowed!
SUNDIAL
A goose in April shows us with some certainty that noon approaches
Happy National Poetry Month! Thank you, Ruth, for hosting.
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
