Solar Prominence

   

It is April, and I am going to do my best to join many others in celebrating National Poetry Month by reading, writing, sharing, and celebrating poetry each day. On April 8th we will experience a solar eclipse, and my hometown is the longest totality in the state of Indiana. We are expecting several tens of thousands of visitors to my town of 17,000. I thought it only fitting to write about sharing my sky with them. 

My inspiration this month will be from the Teach Write monthly writing prompts. Yesterday's word was eclipse (of course!) and I created a found nonet poem. I read a Facebook post by Eric Snitil who is a meteorologist explaining what the read spot on the bottom right of the sun, and I used his words to write my poem.

Equinox Equation

  

It is April, and I am going to do my best to join many others in celebrating National Poetry Month by reading, writing, sharing, and celebrating poetry each day. On April 8th we will experience a solar eclipse, and my hometown is the longest totality in the state of Indiana. We are expecting several tens of thousands of visitors to my town of 17,000. I thought it only fitting to write about sharing my sky with them. 

My inspiration this month will be from the Teach Write monthly writing prompts. Today's word is equinox, and the form is an equation poem.

Check out the Kidlit Progressive Poem, which is being organized by Margaret Simon at Reflections on the Teche. A different poet adds a line each day for the month of April, and today's contribution is added by Margaret.

Orbiting Partners

 

It is April, and I am going to do my best to join many others in celebrating National Poetry Month by reading, writing, sharing, and celebrating poetry each day. On April 8th we will experience a solar eclipse, and my hometown is the longest totality in the state of Indiana. We are expecting several tens of thousands of visitors to my town of 17,000. I thought it only fitting to write about sharing my sky with them. 

My inspiration this month will be from the Teach Write monthly writing prompts. Today's word is orbit, and I wrote a short haiku. 

Check out the Kidlit Progressive Poem, which is being organized by Margaret Simon at Reflections on the Teche. A different poet adds a line each day for the month of April, and today's contribution is added by Irene at Live Your Poem.

Planet Earth

 

It is April, and I am going to do my best to join many others in celebrating National Poetry Month by reading, writing, sharing, and celebrating poetry each day. On April 8th we will experience a solar eclipse, and my hometown is the longest totality in the state of Indiana. We are expecting several tens of thousands of visitors to my town of 17,000. I thought it only fitting to write about sharing my sky with them. 

My inspiration this month will be from the Teach Write monthly writing prompts. Today's word is planet, but I chose to write about the planet Earth. Today's form is a tricube, a three-syllable, three-line, three-stanza poem.

It was my day to add to the progressive poem. Check my contribution here.

Galaxy

It is April, and I am going to do my best to join many others in celebrating National Poetry Month by reading, writing, sharing, and celebrating poetry each day. On April 8th we will experience a solar eclipse, and my hometown is the longest totality in the state of Indiana. We are expecting several tens of thousands of visitors to my town of 17,000. I thought it only fitting to write about sharing my sky with them. 

Much of my inspiration this month will be from the Teach Write monthly writing prompts. Today's word is galaxy and I wrote a definito poem. This form was created by Heidi Mordhorst and 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."

a collection of a billion stars,

clouds of gas,

and particles of dust

moving together through space

trying to defy gravity

ellipticals, 

spirals, 

irregulars.

with a black hole in the center

gobbling anything

that gets too close

-galaxy 

Check out the Kidlit Progressive Poem, which is being organized by Margaret Simon at Reflections on the Teche. A different poet adds a line each day for the month of April. You can follow the poem's journey below.

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

Gravity

 

It is April, and I am going to do my best to join many others in celebrating National Poetry Month by reading, writing, sharing, and celebrating poetry each day. On April 8th we will experience a solar eclipse, and my hometown is the longest totality in the state of Indiana. We are expecting several tens of thousands of visitors to my town of 17,000. I thought it only fitting to write about sharing my sky with them.

Much of my inspiration this month will be from the Teach Write monthly writing prompts. Today's word is gravity, and I used the Shadorma form, a five-line poem with a 3/5/3/3/7/5 syllable pattern.

Pulling like

gravity toward

the night moon,

leaving tides

to wash away the footprints

you left on my heart.

Check out the Kidlit Progressive Poem, which is being organized by Margaret Simon at Reflections on the Teche. A different poet adds a line each day for the month of April. You can follow the poem's journey below.

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

Aurora

It is April, and I am going to do my best to join many others in celebrating National Poetry Month by reading, writing, sharing, and celebrating poetry each day. On April 8th we will experience a solar eclipse, and my hometown is the longest totality in the state of Indiana. We are expecting several tens of thousands of visitors to my town of 17,000. I thought it only fitting to write about sharing my sky with them.

Much of my inspiration this month will be from the Teach Write monthly writing prompts. Today's word is aurora

The elfchen is a form that has been popping up a lot lately. It is a type of cinquain that uses a word count of 1, 2, 3, 4, 1 instead of a syllable count.

Line one--A thought, an object, a color, a smell or the like

Line two--What does the word from the first row do?

Line three--Where or how is the word of row 1?

Line four--What do you mean?

Line five--Conclusion: What results from all this? What is the outcome?

Image by RENE RAUSCHENBERGER from Pixabay

Displayed

northern lights,

night sky dancing,

with green, purple ribbons

aurora.

Check out the Kidlit Progressive Poem, which is being organized by Margaret Simon at Reflections on the Teche. A different poet adds a line each day for the month of April. You can follow the poem's journey below.

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

Wishes: A Golden Shovel 1/31

I know it is March 1st, but I can't let February go by without writing something about leap year. 

In my writing group we have a monthly writing challenge. Some months it is a daily challenge, while others may be a weekly or a one-time challenge. We have written fiction, memoirs, all types of poetry, and even riddles.

For February we chose to write a Golden Shovel but added a little twist for leap year--the line had to come from Shakespear's Sonnet 29. We called the challenge A Golden Leap. And it was definitely a leap for me! 

Here is the line I used:  Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,

Wishes

I threw a penny in the fountain, wishing

for love to find me.

Instead of love, grace falls like

rain from the sky to

the ground--protecting my heart, one

beat, two beats, three times more

Showing me how rich

 I am, not in love, but in

hope.

Here's to 31 days of writing! Here's to wishing for words to find me!

Join Two Writing Teachers and other teacher-writers as we 
share a slice of life during the month of March. 

Solace & Connection {6}

      

Welcome to this week's nature-inspired invitation to write and connect. Each week, I will post a round-up, and you just need to write your blog post and link up at the bottom of my post. I leave a little inspiration each week, but you are free to write about nature:  prose, poetry, images, or anything else you would like to share. 

This week's inspiration comes from a Ruth Ayres lead in the Choice Literacy Big Fresh weekly newsletter. She writes about times when she and her children "name the sky." It is a lovely piece, and I hope you will take some to read it.

I hope you take some time to observe the sky and write about how you would name it.

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As the new day dawns

I reach into my wounded heart,

searching for

the unspoken words of

forgiveness.

My team at school has been going through a difficult time. One day last week, I snapped this picture from our school parking lot and thought about Ruth's writing. With the sun trying to appear from the breaks in the clouds, I knew this sky was named "Forgiveness." 

I hope you will join me in naming your sky or writing about the world around you.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Solace & Connection {3}

  

Welcome to this week's nature-inspired invitation to write and connect. Each week, I will post a round-up, and you just need to write your blog post and link up at the bottom of my post. I leave a little inspiration each week, but you are free to write about nature:  prose, poetry, images, or anything else you would like to share. 

This week's inspiration: Margaret Simon posted her "This photo wants to be a poem" post, which was a picture of a patch of wildflowers along the roadside in Louisiana. I started thinking about seeds and how they could be a metaphor for continuation of life. This week, look outside for how life is continuing in this season of birth and rebirth. What are you noticing?

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I have a section of pink evening primroses in our landscape. If I am not careful, they can quickly take over this space, but I absolutely love this wildflower.

native wildflower

from wayward, wind-caught seedlings

primrose tsunami

Please share your link below and read and comment on other posts to enjoy the solace and build the connection.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

The Finish Line {11}

 

It is April, and I am joining many others in celebrating National Poetry Month by reading, writing, sharing, and celebrating poetry each day this month. I have chosen to combine my love of reading with my love of writing. I will be writing poems using all things bookish--from titles to quotes to characters. So, come turn the page and write a little poetry with me.

I am lingering in the Poetry Friday community this month, and Jone has the round-up. 

Today's poem is a "found" cherita. A cherita is a poem consisting of a one-line stanza followed by a two and three lined stanza and also tells a story.  My inspiration come from The Running Dream by Wendelin Van Draanen. My poem was written from page 214 in the book, which I had copied and wrote beside in my notebook back in January of 2021.

Crossing the finish line,

even if you don't 

win a ribbon,

is symbolic,

as the finish line

becomes a new starting line.

Check out the Kidlit Progressive Poem, which is being organized by Margaret Simon at Reflections on the Teche. A different poet adds a line each day for the month of April. You can find the poem's trail below.

April 1 Mary Lee Hahn, Another Year of Reading
April 2 Heidi Mordhorst, My Juicy Little Universe
April 3 Tabatha, The Opposite of Indifference
April 4 Buffy Silverman
April 5 Rose Cappelli, Imagine the Possibilities
April 6 Donna Smith, Mainely Write
April 7 Margaret Simon, Reflections on the Teche
April 8 Leigh Anne, A Day in the Life
April 9 Linda Mitchell, A Word Edgewise
April 10 Denise Krebs, Dare to Care
April 11 Emma Roller, Penguins and Poems
April 12 Dave Roller, Leap Of Dave 
April 13 Irene Latham Live You Poem 
April 14 Janice Scully, Salt City Verse
April 15 Jone Rush MacCulloch
April 16 Linda Baie TeacherDance
April 17 Carol Varsalona, Beyond Literacy Link
April 18 Marcie Atkins
April 19 Carol Labuzzetta at The Apples in My Orchard 
April 20 Cathy Hutter, Poeturescapes
April 21 Sarah Grace Tuttle at Sarah Grace Tuttle’s Blog, 
April 22 Marilyn Garcia
April 23 Catherine at Reading to the Core
April 24 Janet Fagal, hosted by Tabatha, The Opposite of Indifference
April 25 Ruth, There is no Such Thing as a God-Forsaken Town
April 26 Patricia J. Franz, Reverie
April 27 Theresa Gaughan, Theresa’s Teaching Tidbits
April 28 Karin Fisher-Golton, Still in Awe Blog
April 29 Karen Eastlund, Karen’s Got a Blog
April 30 Michelle Kogan Illustration, Painting, and Writing