Monday, April 30, 2012

Chalk-A-Bration

I Chalk
 
Today is the day
I hope you got
dusty eyebrows
scraped knuckles
sore palms
dirty kneecaps  
and truly

chalked.


I hope you all had/have a good chalking experience. Mine was especially dusty, fun and admittedly a bit nerve racking! How silly, right? It's chalk! So, go chalk to your heart's delight and share with all of us fellow chalkers to celebrate one wonderful month of April. I know I have learned a whole lot!


 
Early entries and anyone else who posts to my previous chalky-goodness will get updated in this post. All others can check out, comment, and link your own chalk poetry or illustrations in the comments below! For the back story on this idea and more specific instructions visit here.

Mary Lee gets us started from A Year of Reading saying goodby to Sunday with her Chalk-ku.


Friday, April 27, 2012

A Wavy Week


This week's Poetry Friday round-up is hosted by Tabatha Yeatts at The Opposite of Indifference.

Lately I feel like I am seeking more and sorting everything. I am using a writer's notebook over the past few weeks more thoughtfully, intentionally. I am reading with clearer vision and seeking interpretation. I am processing, reflecting, trying to look into my future, seeking...something. I don't know what but I feel the impending impatience. The act of composing, scratching out and rewriting seems to be biding me time as I wander through all these words in my head. The following poems are combinations of my discontent and content within my world these days.

Wavering

Waves of words
wash over me.
Do you know of this
sea I speak of?
The waves bring treasure.
Sometimes jumbles
of disorganized chaos.
Each wave brings
something.



Speculation

A speck
Becomes a mass
Breeding
Emotion
Without consideration
Creating
A rapid
of
Speculation.


Kite

Kneading and slicing the wind.
Intersecting each burst.
Tilting past each pause.
Easy landing.













Chalking on pavement
Eraseable graffiti
Creates playful words


I hope you will chalk some poetry and share with me on April 30th! If you are curious enough to read more, check out the full description of our chalking celebration here! I just bought a whole lot of chalk, go get yours!

Friday, April 20, 2012

A Poetry Inspired Night into Morning

 Hosted by Random Noodling

A little chalking before my night was done. 
This was a collab with my husband.

Whispering ferns
wake to the morning moon.
Without words like the sparrow
they unfurrow.


(If you like to "chalk" your poetry,
 remember to share it here on 
April 30th at Teaching Young Writers 
for a poetry chalking celebration)!

Just

The peace
of my morning.

No twinkling of day.
No cool on my coffee.

Just quiet.
Just darkness.

The piece
of my morning.

Friday, April 13, 2012

Moment of My Day Captured in Words

Hosted by Booktalking

Post your chalk poetry on April 30th here at Teaching Young Writers. Click here for more info!


On my way to school this morning I stopped to pull over because these words were cycling and I was afraid they might ride away!


Morning Greeting

You call in the day
Through the haze
Dancing on the evaporated frost
Flickering past my gaze.

You temp the budding leaves
A blinding teasing dare
The tall growing greens
Calm and standing there.



I had an amazing experience at school today. My kindergarten students took their notebooks outside and jotted down some notes, pictures, lists, etc of what they noticed. It was fun, we listened, touched and wrote. There was a moment I asked everyone to be silent for one minute. I had been snapping photos the whole time as they worked up to this point. When everyone was still and quiet, it was a beautiful moment. I could not wait to capture it on camera, to my horror "check battery" came up on the screen. An internal scream of NOOOOOO accompanied my tense posture. I could not believe I wouldn't be able to capture this. Then I realized I could write about it, so for one minute I did. Then I shared it with my class and told them that this was a great example of writing being something to treasure, like a photo, it captures moments. It was a great day! Here is the poem.
I can't wait to post what they did next week as we continue on our poetry adventures in kindergarten.

One Minute

One minute of silence
All of you so still
Some kneeling standing sitting down 
among the floral woods.
I wish I could have captured you
that moment of concentration
beauty before me.
The camera in my mind pausing time.
Just for a moment.

 

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

I Chalk!

 

If you had the chance to share poetry and chalk illustrations to celebrate poetry, would you?

Back in March my husband was outside with our children doing chalk on the driveway. He got the idea to write some song lyrics. This idea of writing words on our driveway spread. I started writing poems, then my husband started writing poems and song lyrics of his favorite singers. It has been fun. 
Then, I began thinking, what if  others shared writing underfoot? What if someone, somewhere wrote their favorite poem or an original poem and someone else stumbled upon it? Instant smiles is what I thought. 

Soooo...I would love it if you would join me at the end of the month and share some chalk here at Teaching Young Writers. From your favorite poet or from your own notebook, put a poem on a piece of ground somewhere (asphalt, sidewalk, maybe even a fence--just make sure it is appropriate and legal). Illustrate it if you want with chalk too and take a photo! Post it to your blog and link here on Chalk-A-Bration day. 

April 30th
May 31st
June 30th
July 31st
August 31st 

Should be fun, tell your friends, tell your students and get chalking!

Saturday, April 7, 2012

A Little More Asphalt Poetry...

Since it is April, poetry month, and lovely outside I have been creating out there, where things happen. This came out yesterday while I was blowing bubbles with my kids in the driveway. We were hit by a storm of seed pods.


Podling
Sort of thing
Comes down
Like an armory
Firing Toward
Unsuspecting spring.

Friday, April 6, 2012

A Little Innisfree, Asphalt, and Book Spine Mashed Together

Poetry Friday Roundup by Robyn Hood Black at  Read Write Howl

When I first saw a book spine poem, about a month ago, I was excited to try it myself. I kept my eyes open, let my fingers run along the bottom edge of the shelved bindings. Finally, this week, I got inspired and filled a crate with books. Back upstairs to the bench for assembling and then had my husband take a peek at my layers of words!

(second line: A Taste of Blackberries)





(My husband gets credit for the "flipping" of the book, loved it).














My husband has been writing song lyrics on the driveway and then photographing them. It is what inspired a haiku I wrote a few weeks ago; driveway as a canvas to a poem, anything is possible. He recently wrote some favorite lyrics from a Fleet Foxes song; upon reading it I wondered what inspired the lines. When I was making my book spine poems I opened up Poetry Speaks, right to Yeats, and there was the inspiration. 
As a result, I made a bit of an inspirational sandwich below.
(Above, lyrics from The Shrine/An Argument by Fleet Foxes, Picture and Chalk Art by my husband)


Finding Innisfree

On my darkest day
Last year or today
Relief, though muddy
Emotions in the way.

A moment in my play
Carrying me away
Remembering, though muddy
Fleeting memories in the way.

My story shaped by pain
Preparing me today
Gratitude, though muddy
On my darkest day.


The Lake Isle of Innisfree
by William Butler Yeats

I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,
And a small cabin build there, of clay an wattles made:
Nine bean-rows will I have there, a hive for the honey-bee,
And live alone in the bee-loud glade.

And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow,
Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings;
There midnight's all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow,
And evening full of the linnet's wings.

I will arise and go now, for always night and day
I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore;
While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements grey,
I hear it in the deep heart's core.