Tuesday, March 30, 2021

March Poetry

Earlier this month, in the midst of the Two Writing Teachers blogging challenge, I participated in the five-day March poetry Open Write with Ethical ELA. It was a dizzying five days, trying to write a "slice of life" for Two Writing Teachers and, additionally, create a special poem for the suggested inspiration. I thought I'd share my five poems here, just to document the experience. I am really giving short-shrift to the writing process of these poems; it truly was a fun and challenging writing endeavor. 

In April, I will attempt the Ethical ELA VerseLove - 30 days of poetry writing; I did this for the first time last year and enjoyed it so very much.


Day One: write about a childhood memory - inspiration by Dr. Kimberly Johnson

Here's my poem: Meet you at Heckerd’s!


Meet you at Heckerd’s!
someone
must have asked permission
someone was first
all I know is
kids had been playing on his front lawn 
since long before we moved in

Meet you at Heckerd’s!
Mr. Heckerd’s front lawn
the only one on the street without 
trees or shrubs or flowers or 
a concrete sidewalk to divide it up into parts
just one big rectangle of bare grass
inviting

Meet you at Heckerd’s! 
Mr. Heckerd lived alone
the only house on the street that wasn’t bursting 
with children or pets or relatives or wiggliness of any kind
just him and
all of us 

Meet you at Heckerd’s!
every kid in the neighborhood 
every afternoon after school every day all summer
impromptu football, frisbee, footraces, flags to be captured,
he saw it all from his front window
our laughter and our bickering 
so much foolishness and sweat
children at play
he welcomed it all

Meet you at Heckerd’s!

Day Two: Write a pantoum; this is the basic format of a pantoum  - inspiration by Dr. Kimberly Johnson

  1. Begin by writing four original lines.
    1 2 3 4

  2. REPEAT lines 2 and 4 and expand ideas in lines 5 and 6:
    2 5 4 6

  3. REPEAT lines 5 and 6, expand ideas in lines 7 and 8:
    5 7 6 8

  4. FINALLY, repeat lines 1, 3, 7 and 8 in the following order:
    7 3 8 1


(I did not follow the pantoum form precisely)


Here's my poem: the shortcut


the shortcut:
walk past the Marines at the base gate
immediate turn wander sneak through the woods
to the back entrance of my new high school

after I walk past the Marines I find
fringe kids there they sat on fallen trees smoking weed
right outside the back door of my new high school
another world indeed

free spirited fallen forgotten fringe there they sat 
seeing me, welcoming me to join them too
another world indeed
me, rule-follower new friendless alone

welcoming me to join them, seeing me 
sneaking through the overgrown weedy woods
me, rule-follower sitting smokeless with my first friends
the shortcut


Day Three: Table of Contents Poem - inspiration by Dr. Kimberly Johnson

Why I Write Poetry

seek

wonder

solace

knowledge


observe

nature

children

family


evoke

beauty

mystery

joy


surrender

anxiety

confusion

hurt


share

memories

understanding

life


reveal

surprise

desire

bravery


Day Four: License Plate Poetry (no vowels!) - inspiration by Katrina Morison


PNDMC 

DYS 

LNG

LV 

IS 

LNGR


Day Five: Backwards Poem (it is read right to left) - inspiration by Katrina Morison.


child young a as

rod fishing bamboo a found I

pond a alongside lying

stuck softly mud the in

thought I fishes one how be must this

hook rusty with line the tossed I

water green brown the into

luck for waiting calmly stood

surprise my explain to how

long so eel an was catch my

learned I when that’s perhaps

bobber a be to best it’s

connected on holding

ways invisible small in helping

flow the with going



Hope you enjoyed these poems! I will have many more this April . . . .




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