Poetry Friday – 2 Percent

Days numbering 2,873
Days of worry and those carefree
Days of full health and sickness
Days of glad joy and sadness
Days of work and fun vacation
Days of overwork and relaxation
Days of dullness and shining jewels
Days of burden and then renewal
Days of dining in and often out
Days of rain (1.5%) and drought
Days of relationships so compelling
Days in our Bahrain dwelling.

While I was here,
I met people from 67% of earth’s countries,
100% of my daughters became married to
100% extraordinary partners.
I lost 25% of my sisters and
8% of my body mass,
I spent 21% of my married life
and 12% of my full life so far.

On 16% of the days I wrote on this blog,
26% of the days refilled water bottles,
18% of my Thursdays edited church
service videos during the pandemic,
44% of my days at Al Raja School,
and 36% of my days at church.

Now there are 56 days to go.
Inshallah,
just 2%
of our time remains
How will I make the most of it?

I know this:
100% of my days
are forever a gift of Grace

Do you want to join some of us in writing daily poems of gratitude this month? Post your short poems with #gratitude, #gratiku, #gratitudepoem.

Today’s Poetry Friday is hosted by Mary Lee Hahn at A(nother) Year of Reading. The Inklings wrote poems using percent today, so I had fun thinking of some of the things I had done during the last eight years in Bahrain.

Spiritual Journey Thursday – Gratitude

Continue…
To let gratitude be the pillow
Upon which you kneel to
Say your nightly prayer

~Maya Angelou’s in “Continue” Read the rest here.

Continue gratitude.

Is it cliché to focus on gratitude in the month of November in the U.S.? Perhaps. But here I am doing it again, with no regrets. This Spiritual Journey Thursday group’s theme last November was gratitude, too. I wasn’t part of the group then, but I did join others in writing daily haikus of gratitude, #gratiku. That experience led me to choose “gratitude” as my one little word for all of 2021, and I have tried to practice being more grateful always for the little things as well as the big things. If you haven’t already done so, I hope you’ll read Maureen Ingram’s touching poem about being grateful for a small big thing.

Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.  I Thessalonians 5:16-18

When I signed up to host the Spiritual Journey Thursday group, the theme of Gratitude was on my mind. I decided to celebrate November again this year by writing a small poem of gratitude each day, focusing on one of the gifts of that day. I’m choosing to write small poems of any kind, but with three lines, like haiku (modern or traditional), blackjack / septercet (scroll down to Jane Yolen’s description of the septercet at this link), sijo, and hay(na)ku (as well as free-from-form poems where we don’t count syllables or words of gratitude!)

Here are my first days of thank you poems for this month of gratitude. I will keep adding to this post daily throughout the month. Please consider joining me by sharing your #gratitudepoem and #gratiku on social media.

1

Ten
days of
staycation with Keith

2

Mango
And Blueberry
Yogurt for dessert

3

Clear-eyed observing
No longer seeing the world
through sepia lenses

4

181 students completed
with DIBELS screenings
Sixty-eight to go

5

It’s all, all a gift
Our spiritual journey’s
glow of gratitude

(Thanks to Ruth Hersey and Chris Margocs for inspiring this found poem.)

6

Old friends smiling at
the airport–John and Barbie–
Here again, once more

7

A breakfast with felafels Always a bright wonder, one of my choice Bahrain delights

8

walking
at the
seaside at sunset

9

You
gave us
our daily bread

10

Cleaning
cupboards while
audio book listening

11

One unknown soldier
100 years ago rests
in peace. Thank you, sir.

12
Biryani
and curries
conversation even better

13
Sitting
outside, breezy
shady coffee spot

14
Dinner
with friends
delicious and healthy

15
Helping with a Zoom workshop
Three to seven, before dawn
Just the birds and I awake

16
Lumees
for dinner
Delicious vegan koshari

17
Almost
finished with
your yo-yo gift

18
Good
comprehensive health
care and insurance

19
Jesus-full Gospel of Mark
Filled my morning, as children
had fun and showed their learning

20
Birthday
party surprise
full of laughter

21
Teacher friends over
I’ll miss these cherished colleagues
Laughter, food, flowers

22
Unbirthday
party: teachers
over after school

23
Gifts to
Lina and Hanan
Reactions brought joy

24
Started
cooking for
ten for Thanksgiving

25
Lovely
time with
friends like family

26
For the beauty of
the verdict that helps Dixie
forge a new future

27
Garden
party with
Church School teachers

28
Reflective
time with
Thomas and Katie

29
Another
chapter finishing
today. Then more.

30
Angela has gone
to heaven. Jesus and she
are sipping good tea.

 

“We are all more blind to what we have than to what we have not.”
Audre Lourde

How will you share gratitude today?

 

 

Thankful For This Time

Today’s Slice of Life at TwoWritingTeachers.org, 2 November 2021.

We now have nine weeks before we leave Bahrain, and I’m realizing how very fast the days fly by. By day, DIBELS screening at school and cleaning out cupboards and closets are two tasks that are keeping me busy. I’m so thankful I am not teaching this year, so I have time to do what needs to be done to make this a good move. I remember one move we made when my children were in middle school, I was teaching full time, and we moved to another state the week after school was out. Fortunately, we had professional movers, but when we got to our new home and I had to look through and sort the boxes that should have been done before. There was one junk drawer that had just been poured into a box and shipped across country, complete with the sticky gum sticks, broken rubber bands, random staples and paper clips, bits of Blue Tack. Yuck!

This time of course it’s a different kind of move. There are no professional movers with semi-trucks picking up the houseful of furniture and belongings for four people. We hope to get our eight years worth of Bahrain belongings into eight suitcases; that means we have a lot to give away. I’m trying to sort things to make them handy to look through. Now, I’m starting to invite people over to go through and pick things they would like to have.

Thankfully as we close this chapter, Covid numbers are low and the country is open for gathering. A few times a week, we have fun in the evenings and weekends being with people. I’m starting to feel like the goodbye is really coming, and it’s not going to be easy.

Filling up boxes
Expanding to the living room now

Inktober / Poemtober Small Poems, Week 4+

This week I decided to double my random poetry process. I went to a favorite inspiration post: “141 Ways to Play, Process, Stretch, Express, Disrupt Words and Form” and chose #23-31, without previewing them. Each day I attempted the linked prompts (below) and then also included the Inktober word of the day.

23 October, Saturday

Your surprise party today
did not leak, so you were blessed
with laughter and memories

24 October, Sunday

I am a mending people-pleaser
I don’t mind being an appeaser
but my own wishes are indistinct
May my imprecision become extinct

25 October, Monday – The word was splat, and I wrote about it for Tuesday’s Slice of Life Challenge at this link.

26 October, Tuesday

I miss you and can’t wait to
see you. In the meantime, your
painting helps connect us.

27 October, Wednesday

On her deathbed, my mom
got up again.
With a welcome spark,
she lived longer–
in her wheelchair,
at the dinner table,
with her kids all around.

Later, she said,
“I think it’s time for bed.
The wine’s made me a little tipsy.”

“Good night, Mama.
See you in the morning.”

28 October, Thursday

We’re here!
On the way over,
we made a plan for the day.
First, we’ll build pyramids.
Later we’ll have a pan band.
When it’s lunch time, Coconut
wants to eat crispy carrots.
(He can’t really eat, but I’ll eat them.)
You said we can have pancakes.
May I make my own pirate?
We have to build a zoo
with habitats for all the animals.
Then we’ll decorate gingerbread,
do the Makey Makey piano,
build a tower with the straws
and those yellow connectors.
If our dad comes too soon,
we’ll save some for next week.
OK?

29 October, Friday (A life memory, yes, but not from high school.) 

My mom had worried
when she saw her newborn
with a patch on her eye,
a port wine stain birthmark
I’ve hardly noticed.

30 October, Saturday

That approaching rattler isn’t a worry; it can’t bite and slither
at the same time. My coffee isn’t finished, but I guess I’ll
make a move. Wouldn’t want to find out if his opinion differs.

31 October, Sunday

A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings
By Gabriel Garcia Marquez
A Summary Poem

Too much rain, crabs flooding into the courtyard,
A very old man with enormous wings appears in the mud,
And the new baby has been feverish for days.

Neighbors say the man is an angel coming for the child.
The priest thinks he’s a faker, just a carnival trickster,
But pilgrims come to pay five cents each to get a view.

A woman turned into a spider comes to town, so
Everyone loses interest in the old man angel.
The spider woman is a better storyteller.

The angel continues to live in the chicken coop
Until the hen house collapses, and the angel wanders
like a stray man, here and there, barely staying alive.

Years later, after a vulnerable winter, miraculously
his health improves, and his wings repair.
The angel flaps them clumsily, takes a risk and flies away.


Today is Poetry Friday, and Linda Baie at Teacher Dance, has the round up. She has written two sweet Halloween poems at her “Poetry Friday – Costumes Welcome!” post.

Slice of Life – Can We Change Now?

Today’s Slice of Life at TwoWritingTeachers.org, 26 October 2021.

I’ve been writing a small poem each day in October using the Inktober prompt for the day. For yesterday’s word, splat, I went to a favorite inspiration post: “141 Ways to Play, Process, Stretch, Express, Disrupt Words and Form”. I randomly chose one from Andy Schoenborn. It was to write a story in 100 one-syllable words, and then add line breaks and enjambment to make a poem to help the reader pause.

Instead of a 100-word story, I wrote a prayer. It breaks my heart each day to see such effort to get school back to “normal”, when some parts of normal weren’t all that great.

A Prayer for School Change

How can things change
so much? We were just fine,
and then we weren’t. Splat,
like a moth that hit
a fast car, school stopped. Now,
we try to pick up
the cracked and rent
bits
and put them back
as they were.
But,
can we just stop
and find a new way?
A fine way to be
in this world.
Please,
Lord, help us give voice
to kids who do not yet
have one. Help us make
rules that just give
life. May the kids be free
to catch a glimpse of
who they can be.
So be it.

On another note, Blooket came through and added Hoor’s name to their computer system:

Poetry Friday – Inktober / Poemtober, Small Poems Week 3

16 October, Saturday

Jesus napped in the windstorm
No compass needed for his route
to invite friends’ faith to transform.

17 October, Sunday

I love when languages
collide and I hear cognates
in Hindi, Spanish, and Arabic–
kashyu, teléfono and limun

18 October, Monday

Fickle moon,
what shape
will you take
today?

19 October, Tuesday
(“My Mother’s Eyes” prompt by Andy Schoenborn at Ethical ELA)

After Marjorie Agosin

I

My husband’s eyes
Are pools of hope
Where falls
Sing, dreaming of a tomorrow
Where kindness
Comes to rest
Where raindrops are friends
Of his nourishing stories

II

My husband’s eyes
Are pools of hope,
Of waves simply
Trying to find their way
In a new chapter.
I approach them
And on the threshold of his eyes
She is looking
For herself in the green streams
That forever flow

In my husband’s eyes
I also encounter myself
Because into them
I loop, basking
Again and again
As I have found my own
pools of hope.

20 October 2021, Wednesday
Sevenling (Somebody’s Daughter)

Somebody’s daughter–a sprout
of hope–vulnerable, bountiful,
and strong.

Relationships of imperfect perfection,
being loved in her truth telling,
an introspective and worthy storyteller.

Ashley C. Ford writes a memoir.

21 October, Thursday
A Lazy Sonnet about Addie LaRue

starkness
fuzzy
Darkness
was he?

Addie LaRue
strife
breakthrough
life

bookshop
remembered
backdrop
dismembered

coping.
hoping.

22 October, Friday
A Wedding Memory

Gift of words to each other.
Your hearts open between you.
Thankful to witness the adoration.

Today’s Poetry Friday roundup is over at Jama Rattigan’s blog, Jama’s Alphabet Soup. Enjoy an October cup of hot chocolate and a beautiful pumpkin cookie with her and other Poetry Friday friends.

More Open Write Poems for October

Wednesday, 20 October
Embrace Your Why with Andy Schoenborn

Why I Bake

So I can enjoy the
smell of chocolate chip cookies
lingering in my home, I bake.
When I crave rhubarb crisp
with ice cream, I bake.
When I want to tear my hands
into a warm crusty loaf
of sourdough, I bake.

I bake for myself.

I bake for others, too,
so I can spread out
the fat and happiness.

I bake to reach back
across generations.
I bake warm, flaky biscuits using
Grandpa Sockwell Leodore Hamilton’s recipe,
biscuits that can’t hold all the
honey and butter dripping off them.
I bake Aunt Thelma’s corn bread
and Grandma’s foolproof pie crust.

And I bake into the future
to create the best peanut butter brownie
for your wedding and
vegan carrot cake muffins
for yours.

I bake for you.

Tuesday, 19 October – My Husband’s Eyes 

Monday, 18 October
Abecedarian Poem with Cara Fortey (There are such clever poems by the others; I hope you will check them out at the Open Write Ethical ELA site.)

The ABCs of Bahrain

Al Raja School and
Bahrainis, so helpful and kind,
Camping in the desert and
Doctors at American Mission Hospital,
English Language Congregation and
Freedom to worship here,
Galleries of arts and crafts and
Hummus at our favorite restaurant,
Indian food in the homes of dear ones,
Juices, freshly squeezed,
Karak tea at
Lumee and
Mango gelato at
Naseef,
Onions from India for thirty cents a pound and
Petrol for less than $2 a gallon,
Quality friendships are family now,
Rava dosa with dried fruits and nuts at
Sangeetha,
Table crowded with friends and
Unceasing hospitality,
Vinolia and Victoria, dear friends, and
World Trade Center of Bahrain,
eXpatriates bringing their cultures here,
You–should you want to come and visit–and
Zaatar and labneh on khubz

Sunday, 17 October
20/20 Poem with Anna Roseboro

Before cataract surgery
I thought the world
was shaded in umber.
Now my eyes remember
too many colors
to number.

Saturday, 16 October – A poem using anagrams of my name

Anagrams of My Name Poem

Today’s Ethical ELA poetry prompt is by Anna J. Small Roseboro “Mixing Them Up Today: Anagram Poetry.” She had us find anagrams for our name and use them in a poem about a person or event in fiction or in real life, or a concept we’ve taught. I wrote about Cora, the main character in The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead.

Cora redressed as Bessie 
wasn’t able to kiss freedom
on her underground rides.
She resided in sirens
of berserk oppression,
misery and evil her forced drink.
Cora’s chosen kindred died,
Desires denied,
Seeker of choice,
Risker of hell,
Her end.

The powerful
sneered and reeked 
of the monstrous beds they made,
Serene skies their lie.

Stand beside Cora’s memory,
America’s dressed in this history.
May a keen sense of ownership
indeed send us to our knees
to repent, rise, and render hope
for a new day.