Linda gave the Inklings a most generous and lovely prompt for this month: “Use this poem by Joy Harjo as a mentor text in any way that makes your heart happy.” Thank you, Linda. My heart is, indeed, happy!
Here’s what the other Inklings did with this month’s challenge:
Linda @A Word Edgewise
Catherine @Reading to the Core
Molly @Nix the Comfort Zone
Margaret @Reflections on the Teche
Heidi @my juicy little universe
Patricia has this week’s Poetry Friday roundup at Reverie.
The Poetry Sisters’ challenge this month was to write “…a poem in which we literally build and/or take apart something – large or small. Our focus will be on constructing or deconstructing, taking into account technical terms, instructions, and perhaps even material sources.”
I’m not usually a fan of food that needs to be deconstructed on my plate (bone-in chicken, Maryland crabs, shrimp that still have their tails). But I’ll make an exception for fresh mussels. Yum.
Here’s what the others made of this month’s challenge:
Liz @ Liz Garton Scanlon
Tanita @ {fiction, instead of lies}
Laura @ Laura Purdie Salas
Tricia @ The Miss Rumphius Effect
Carol has this week’s Poetry Friday roundup at Beyond LiteracyLink.
Surprises
Would you have known
to watch for
porpoises and dolphins
as your ferry crossed the Minch
between Skye and Harris?
There’s something to be said for surprises
and also for a guide
generously sharing both knowledge
and binoculars.
(c) Mary Lee Hahn, draft, 2024
Your Scotland might be cities and castles, but mine is the rugged wide open beauty of the Hebridean islands. I experienced Scotland through the soles of my boots, the pain in my knees, and the exhilaration of peaks and beaches; through wind and rain, fog and rainbows; through history, geology, and local wildlife. And, of course, through the food.
I’m back, but a bit of my heart was definitely left behind in the Outer Hebrides.
Matt has this week’s Poetry Friday roundup at Radio, Rhythm & Rhyme.
Here’s my poetic contriBLUEtion to the conversation. (I have no idea why the two images won’t line up. We’ll just let a wonky poetry form have a wonky look on the page.)
Heidi has this week’s Poetry Friday Roundup at my juicy little universe and reminds us that small things can be enormous. Let’s carry that vibe forward.
I had so much fun writing after Joyce Sutphen’s Next Time, that I offered it to the Inklings for our September challenge.
Here’s what the other Inklings did with this month’s challenge (if back-to-school allowed for time to write) :
Linda @A Word Edgewise
Catherine @Reading to the Core
Molly @Nix the Comfort Zone
Margaret @Reflections on the Teche
Heidi @my juicy little universe
Buffy Silverman has this week’s Poetry Friday roundup.
The Poetry Sisters’ Challenge for this month was to write ekphrastic poems from photos we shared with each other. This happens to be one of the photos I shared, and while it is a glorious and whimsical sky, my poem took me in other, more mournful directions. Such is the nature of ekphrastic poems. Whatever the image prompts is where the poem goes.
Here’s Tricia’s poem, and Tanita’s poem, and Liz’s poem.
Susan has this week’s end-of-August Poetry Friday roundup at Chicken Spaghetti.
Look at that lineup! Be still my poetry heart! And they’re all coming to Ohio!
And…
…I will be helping to lead the Casting for Recovery retreat that weekend!
You can hear my sobs and wailing and gnashing of teeth, can’t you? So. Please go in my stead and tell me all about it. More information and registration is here. Go to the live Poetry Unbound interview. Wander the streets and enjoy the typewriter poets. Swoon for me, please. I’m swooning from afar.
I don’t have a poem to share today, just this sad-for-me / happy-for-you news.
Plus, I would be remiss if I didn’t link to Amanda Gorman’s PHENOMENAL poem delivered at the DNC.
Oh, and the poets.org poem of the day today was my kind of call to action.
Rose has this week’s Poetry Friday roundup at Imagine the Possibilities.
Long walks during the coolest part of the day eat what was once my writing time for breakfast. But they also usually give me back at least one snapshot that I can get a snack of a poem out of. All of my photo-cherita-Stafford Challenge poems can be found @curious.appreciative in the story highlights.
Sealey update: I have finished six books so far, and BLACK GIRL YOU ARE ATLAS by Renée Watson (illustrated by Ekua Holmes) is far and beyond the best of the bunch so far. Put it at the top of your TBR.
Janice has this week’s Poetry Friday roundup at Salt City Verse.
Combine this with a 2-mile walk, a bit of weeding plus the cutting back of the peony foliage, a one-hour zoom, a trip to the library to audition a few more books for the new after-school year, and the usual DuoLingo lessons and 1/2 hour of Sealey reading, and you have a snapshot of my day.
Speaking of Sealey, I’ve finished three books so far, You Are Here by Ada Limón, Grace Notes by Naomi Shihab Nye, and Everything Comes Next by Naomi Shihab Nye. I like this year’s commitment to 1/2 hour of poetry reading per day rather than the unrealistic pressure of finishing a whole book in a day. It gives me more time to read slowly and savor.
Molly has this week’s JOYFUL Poetry Friday roundup at Nix the Comfort Zone.
The Inklings’ challenge this month was simultaneously issued by Catherine, by Ada Limón, and by Mo Daley at Ethical ELA.
Catherine charged us with joining Ada Limón’s Poet Laureate project, “You Are Here.” The Library of Congress website describes it as a “project is for everyone, and I hope people of all ages—poets and nonpoets—will feel moved to write their own response to the “You Are Here” prompt. It’s simple: What would you write in response to the landscape around you?
On Day Three of Ethical ELA’s Open Write last week, Mo Daley challenged writers to try an X Marks the Spot Poem: “Find a print article from a magazine that interests you…Once you have chosen your article, simply draw an X through the page. You will then write your poem using the words touching your X.” I printed the full text of Ada Limón’s challenge to receive my X, and the words that touched the X are italicized in my poem:
“I believe the way we respond to this crucial moment on our planet could define humanity forever. In conceiving of my signature project, I wanted something that could both praise our sacred and natural wonders and also speak the complex truths of this urgent time. It’s my hope that You Are Here will do just that,” Limón said. “You Are Here: Poetry in the Parks aims to deepen our connection to nature through poetry, and You Are Here: Poetry in the Natural World is an anthology that speaks to the many different ways we are nature too. It may seem easier to surrender to the overwhelm of the world’s challenges right now, but I believe that singing out, offering something back to the earth, noticing our connection to the planet, could help us all move forward together in a powerful way.”
Limón said this project is for everyone, and she hopes people of all ages — poets and non-poets — will feel moved to write their own responses to the You Are Here prompt. It’s simple: What would you write in response to the landscape around you? People can share their responses on social media if they choose, using the hashtag #YouAreHerePoetry.
“Above all, this project is about rising to this moment with hope, the kind of hope that will echo outwards for years to come,” Limón said.
Here’s what the other Inklings did with this month’s challenge:
Linda @A Word Edgewise
Catherine @Reading to the Core
Molly @Nix the Comfort Zone
Margaret @Reflections on the Teche
Heidi @my juicy little universe
Laura has a book birthday and this week’s Poetry Friday roundup at Poems For Teachers. Congratulations, Laura!
**Make a note that Amy LV with have the October 4 Poetry Friday roundup, not me. We’ll be traveling, and Amy generously agreed to host the roundup that week.
A(nother) Year of Reading 