Tag: Linda Mitchell

Poetry Friday – Swaps and Sealey

Denise Krebs16 Comments

Today is Poetry Friday. Thanks to Linda Baie at TeacherDance for hosting us today. She writes about school starting and a playful poem called “Resistance” about resisting growing up. Sweet.

First up, The Poetry Marathon is coming. 24 poems in 24 hours! Want to try? Learn more about it here and apply by August 28. (Don’t let that word “apply” worry you; if you apply, you will be signed up.)

Next, recently I received two wonderful poetry swap packages in the mail that I wanted to share with you (and with the poets’ permission).

First, Sarah Grace Tuttle and I swapped poetry. These sweet gifts came in the mail.

This beautiful bookmark I’ve used every day since it arrived.

These are all cards made from photos Sarah has taken on her world travels of what she calls “Unexpected Art” — The shoe display is one of my favorites.

This poem made me stop and appreciate the flowers–in real life or as painted on murals. It is a lovely reminder to  s l o w   d o w n.

A Nestling for Sarah
Red Blooms on Breeze
Smell the Slow Down

More on Nestling found poems:  This Poem is a Nest by Irene Latham / Learn more about nestlings on Irene’s handout.)

Next, I swapped poems with Linda Mitchell; she sent this beautiful handcrafted junk journal.
I received this precious junk journal from Linda.

What is a junk journal, you might ask? She explains in her poem:

Some of the ephemera she included:

Another sweet poem about what a prompt can be:

Thanks to the prompts at the Open Write at Ethical ELA this week, there are five more of my poems that wouldn’t have otherwise been birthed. In the process of writing and research, I learned about myself, my style, Emily Dickinson, nineteenth century history, and Renoir’s “Luncheon of the Boating Party.” All thanks to prompts that educators shared on the site. Thank you, Linda, for this poem that reminds us of the power of prompts.

Linda told me to use it and “don’t be precious with it.” So, I’m going to do just that and think of her when I hold its sweetness and add my own touches to her artwork.

A Nestling for Linda after “…Junk Journal”
find fun
pages into pages
you make new treasures

Finally, here are Sealey Challenge books I read this week, along with a found nestling poem from each of my favorite passages.

August 18 – They Call Me Güero, A Border Kid’s Poems by David Bowles

My nestling from a portion of “Ms. Wong & the Rabbit” in They Call Me Güero

Language has night birds
viewing world poetry
floating in the sky

August 19 – I’m the Big One Now! Poems about Growing Up by Marilyn Singer

My Big One Now! Nestling

big-sprays castle
doesn’t show how far
you imagine
that wide world

August 20 – It’s Not Magic Poems by Jon Sands (Selected and Foreword by Richard Blanco)

First two of five stanzas of “Decoded”

My nestling (based on words found in all five stanzas of “Decoded” by Jon Sands)


August 21 – Underneath My Bed List Poems by Brian P. Cleary

My Nestling of Hopes after Brian P. Cleary

  • Box electric
  • X-ray-sized breath
  • Fluorescent cheese that does world peace

August 22 – The World Began with Yes Poems by Erica Jong

My Nestling after “From the Danish Poet” by Erica Jong
Fascinating
still writing
Poet herself
still love
not death-breath
for-edge see clearly
undo-doom
walk
exuberant
question
fill-you
with desire

August 23 – Nervous System Poems by Rosalie Moffett

This was a difficult (and touching) read. Rosalie Moffett’s mother was a scientist and fell at the beach while studying snails. She had a  traumatic brain injury, and Moffett’s relationship with her sick mother is the backdrop of this book of poems. One quote on page 42 shows the complicated nature of their connection after her accident: “The mother I know is the mother who hit her head or who suffers from something that’ll come for me.” The following is a passage from one of my favorite pages:

My Nestling from two stanzas on page 51

Home
beauty enormous
make a difference
ones I love

August 24 – The Undefeated by Kwame Alexander

Nestling of the Undefeated MLK, Jr. 

Unlimited dreamer-doers

who show majestic

promised land

 

Poetry Friday – Springtime Update

Denise Krebs23 Comments

It has been too long since I’ve taken time to read and write on a Poetry Friday. Thank you to Buffy Silverman for hosting today. Do read her post to learn about the sly lady slipper wildflower. 

Today I came to leave a little springtime joy (as summer bears down, making a growling entrance here in the California desert).

In April, Linda Mitchell shared this poetry prompt at Ethical ELA. It is a poem where you use one or more parts of the scientific method to inspire poetry.  On April 25th, I wrote this because, after a sweltering day, we had gotten a dusting of snow overnight.

When
the weather
gods bewitch you
with heat and humidity
one day and freezing the next,
how do you always come up on top?
Or will you?
We’ll have to wait and see.

We spent five weeks of our spring in Orange City, Iowa. When we arrived, just about everything was brown, dead, cold and in winter despair. A month later, the Midwest was alive in springtime.

Update on the tulip poem: Orange City has a tulip festival every  third weekend in May. The question I asked in the poem was a common theme of conversation around town all month. Will the tulips be up? Or will they be gone already, forcing the dreaded stem festival?

As usual, the tulips knew best, so the Orange City Tulip Festival was a big success. These pictures were taken on a beautiful day just before the festival (and the crowds). It was hard to believe this was the same brown town we drove into less than a month ago.

These were taken after the Tulip Festival. The tulips were still hanging in there.

We froze this day of the Tulip Festival in the 50s!

 

 

#Verselove, Week 4

Denise Krebs1 Comment
Congratulations, Verselovers with Dr. Sarah Donovan (my poem)

Pencil and paper
Dig out the broken rubble
Sing: I am Poet
I empty to become full
Poems pour onto paper

What a Poem Can Do with Glenda Funk (my poem)

A poem doesn’t know my name. 
It was composed time ago
and away from here
But that poem
whispers from the ages
From the pages
And finds its way
Swirling
Dreaming
Loving
Changing
Into my life
Today.

By My Self-Love with Jessica Wiley 

Me By Myself
After Eloise Greenfield and Katalyn

When I’m by myself
And I close my eyes
I’m content
I’m unbent
I want more
I’m a bore
I’m full of ambition
but short an ignition
I’m focused, but hazy
I’m the wind, I’m a daisy
I’m whatever I want to be
An anything I care to be
And when I open my eyes
What I care to be
Is me

Re-Encounters with Shaun Ingalls (my poem)

That year
I spent hanging out
with boys every recess,
I was one of two girls
“allowed” to play baseball
in the sixth grade lunch recess league.
Every day I wore
the same rag tag jeans
with patches on the knees.

When I went to our larger junior high school,
I decided to embrace my femininity.
I thought I had made
changes in my appearance,
that summer I started
growing my hair out. I
bought new girl clothes
and wore some that first day
of seventh grade.
But as Mrs. Sykes
called out my name
during roll call,
I came forward
to get whatever
she was passing out.
She said,
“No, this is a girl.”
Or something similar.
I said, “That’s me.”
Or something similar.

In a better world,
she would have known
my pronouns.

Found Poems with Amy Vetter

Found from “Bushwick Library,” in When We Made It, novel in verse, by Elisabet Velasquez.

Somebody Else in a Book

every Saturday
leaves us at the library
no time limit
A vacation from us
for one day
She doesn’t have to be
someone’s mother
miracle

I love her for this
for one day
inside a book
we get to be
somebody else too

Scientific Method with Linda Mitchell (my poem)

When
the weather
gods bewitch you
with heat and humidity
one day and freezing the next,
how do you always come up on top?

Or will you?

We’ll have to wait and see.

Found Annotations with Jessica Shernburn (my poem)

This is a found poem based on notes taken during Brian Keepers’ sermon at Trinity Reformed Church in Orange City, Iowa, on April 24, 2022. Dr. Derwin Gray is quoted within, as well. 

Racism and bigotry
Are they far from here?
No, they are here

Race is a construct
based on power
Forgive us our silence

God’s new creation
multiethnic
international
we are not color blind
we are color blessed
beautiful kaleidoscope
of humanity

God chose to create a
revolutionary gospel
of reconciliation

The love of Christ
compels us to act
mending
healing
restoring Shalom
(Can’t have peace without justice, for
peace and justice are married.)

Love makes us courageous
We must become extremists of love

Racism isn’t far away from here,
But the living Jesus is not far
away either.

It won’t be easy
we have to do this
I know of no other Gospel

Rolling the Dice with Stefani Boutelier (my poem)

The past is a glorified gauntlet,
Where one side of the challenge
is a ready stream of if-onlys and wishes
beyond the hope of tomorrow
But on the other side is
a source of joy and pride in
a life well-lived, strength
sustaining me into the future
Which is to say, it is punishment
only if I walk the gauntlet
letting that side beat me up
with its
glorified
regrets

Susan B. Anthony

Denise Krebs1 Comment

Based on the following line that Linda Mitchell shared on her clunker list, I was inspired to do some new research on this suffragist and the tradition of adding “I Voted” stickers to her grave marker.

  • Susan B. Anthony’s gravestone is covered with “I voted” stickers

I also watched a helpful biography about this important figure.

Finally, I wrote this poem with Linda’s clunker idea. It is a septercet sandwich poem, haiku-septercet-haiku.

“I voted” stickers
bejewel the headstone of
the pioneer who
died before living her own
Amendment–the Susan B.
Anthony Amendment, where
voters thank her by
taking this nation further
to justice for all.

Poetry Friday: A Surfeit of Poems, Clunkers, and Manavelins

Denise Krebs26 Comments

This week I wrote a lot of poems; I was not a student of meter. In fact, what’s meter? I was just cranking out poems. So, Linda, I’m sure I have lots of bad lines for the clunker exchange. Linda Mitchell is hosting the Poetry Friday Roundup today, and she has lots of “clunker” lines to exchange. Go on over and visit to join in the fun.

It was time for the June Open Write at Ethical ELA. That was fun! I have five days worth of poems from this lovely community of teacher-poets. Days One, Two, Three, Four and Five, if you are interested. Next Open Write will be July 17-21. You are welcome to join us.

There was also Margaret’s “This Photo Wants to Be a Poem,” where I pulled a couple of clunkers for Linda.

I was on the committee to create a keepsake book for our principal and his family who are leaving next week to go back to the United States. I wrote one for each of the family members. These are the pages from the book that I wrote, after I removed the photographs of family, students, and staff, for the sake of privacy.

Perhaps all my reckless poetry writing this week is getting me ready for The Poetry Marathon coming up on Saturday. Are you participating? Here is a link to my page on the Poetry Marathon site and a link to my follow-up blog post.

I did spend some time thinking about Poetry Friday before I got so busy this week. I wrote a definito poem created by Heidi Mordhorst. In Heidi’s words, 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. Quite a fun way to learn and write about new vocabulary words. You can read lots of great examples here on her definito post.

This isn’t the first definito I’ve written. I tried a definito a few weeks ago at Margaret Simon’s blog when her post was about Rigmarole. Remember? In the comments, she asked us to try one with the word poignant. I tried, but I wasn’t happy with it and as soon as I submitted, I knew I hadn’t defined poignant. I’m trying again today on a brand-new-to-me word: Manavelins, which was one of Dictionary.com’s words of the day last week.

Merriam-Webster defines “manavelins“– odds and ends of food : LEFTOVERS

Manavelins

When your family’s had a busy week
and dinner plans look bleak, just bits and
smidges of food left in dishes in the fridge–
tofu tetrazzini, a few pieces of beet,
a tub of butter, stale bread of sprouted wheat
a bowl of Gramma’s pasta, some sticky, gooey treats,
a few peaches and some plums, so cold and sweet,
four hard boiled eggs, and just a shred of meat…
then dinner becomes a rehash of this mishmash.
All those leftovers for dinner are manavelins.

And finally, here is one more poem I wrote to read at a 5C class poetry slam, the only grade 5 class I continued to co-teach throughout the school year. I taped it up near my camera, and everyone thought I had memorized it. I’m developing some bad habits with Zoom! (Or at least habits I’ll miss after this Zoom chapter.)

5 C Poetry Slam Poem by Mrs. Denise

 

Have you ever used the word manavelins?
Do you think I captured it in my definito of manavelins?

Linda Mitchell at A Word Edgewise is the host of Poetry Friday today.

 

#OpenWrite for June 2020

Denise Krebs

June 20, 2020 – List Poem and Lift a Word prompt

Doctor Solomon
Servant of God and humanity
Older with underlying conditions
Did not stop his work
Urgent care physician
Contracted Covid-19
We prayed

  • for a miracle
  • for healing
  • that you would go home to your wife, to your grandchildren
  • for you to laugh and listen as always
  • for us to hear your wisdom again
  • for you to pray for us again

Again and again
But today you died
Rest in peace, dear Dr. Solomon,
Today you are with Jesus in Paradise.

My sweet teacher-mentor-fellow-poem-writing sisters left some healing comments and gratitude for Dr. Solomon. See them here.

June 21, 2020 – Father’s Day Small Fiction
I wrote this poem with another prompt for The Isolation Journals. See A Gift From My Father.

June 22, 2020 – Memory Poem

Playing House
Think playing house–
but maybe not that kind–
come with me to the
eucalyptus grove
at Grove Avenue Elementary School
a hundred trees planted so close
they barely have elbow room
aromatherapy for us
minty, herbal with a touch
of honey and lemon
no sun rays make it to the floor
so nothing grows
tamped-down, hardened clay
becomes our earthen tile
pencil-like leaves fall and gather
the floors swept with our hands
construction materials
readied for the building
we mound the leafy walls
zig-zagging willy-nilly
throughout the grove
the bell rings for us to go back to class
play as long as possible
before running to avoid being late
immediately start watching the clock
when is our next recess?
finally…run to the grove
choose our favorite spot and build again–
living room, den, bathrooms and
bedrooms, lavish and profuse
this forest is our mansion
gladness gleaned from the grove

June 23, 2020 – Marcher or Leaper?

Leaping Into the Story
The story is with us, with us for a lifetime.
The story is within us, much beyond
Our lifetimes. Story passed on to our heirs. Little or
Much property doesn’t matter, but generation after generation
All become heirs of our beliefs–
Tenets of toxicity,
Positions of poison,
Cesspools of say-sos.
Four hundreds years of unjust stories.
Let justice roll down like water.
Righteousness like an endless stream.
The story of humanity makes
Us alive to Truth. Will we listen to the Truth?
Will we make amends? Hear the story.
Tell the story. Tell
The Truth.
Tell the stories for the just world we yearn for.
March for Truth. Truth that will set
Us free. Then maybe we can
Leap into a changed storyline.

June 24, 2020 – Writing with Melanie Crowder

Rose of Saffron
Out in the open
In the full sun
Lies the costliest of all
Spices

For thousands of years
It is true
The Crocus Satimus corm
Initiates the process
First lying dormant
Through the heat of summer
Does its wizardry underground

Then the autumn crocus
Burgeons and blossoms
Six purple petals
Cradle the crimson stigmas
And yellow styles

Gentle hands
Carefully pluck out the
Three red threads,
Dry and store safely–
150 flowers are needed to make
One gram of spice
(400 flowers to match the mass of a penny)
Use saffron for
Fancy fragrances
healing and health
Creating golden ambrosial delights
Beauty of the beloved