Slice of Life: What a Day!

Thank you to Two Writing Teachers for creating an amazing community of writers and a safe, welcoming space to write and share.

It was a full day — the usual reading, writing, and art-making, plus baking gingerbread blondies. If I could have stopped there, I would have been happy-tired.

Then came two hours of animated read aloud plus snowflake cutting, followed by the cleaning up of the glorious mess of snippings, all of which pushed happy-tired into satisfied-exhaustion.

There was still dinner to make, though, which luckily was an easy standard casserole from my childhood made from a recipe with a note at the top that never fails to give me a shiver of connection to all my dinner-making ancestors: “November 1949 Women’s Day Kitchen.” When I got to the final step, the assembly of the layers, I discovered that we had no Bisquick.1 Sigh. At least it wasn’t raining torrentially anymore, and I was pretty sure that the nearby UDF would have Bisquick. Which they did.

When I took the bag out of the box, I noticed some powder in the bottom of the box. “That’s odd,” I thought, then grabbed the one-cup measure out of the open drawer in front of me and started filling it. As I filled the measuring cup, I realized that I was simultaneously sifting powder into the open drawer. But how? What was going on? That’s when I (holding the bag over the counter now) investigated the bottom of the bag to find that though it had been crumpled enough to pass at first for closed, it had completely missed the sealing process at the Bisquick factory. It was wide open and now there was a pile of powder on the counter along with the liberal dusting in the silverware drawer and, I discovered as I stepped away from the chaos, on the floor as well.

At this point, AJ came to the rescue. Giggling and making light of the mess, he de-fused my impending meltdown by bagging up the remaining Bisquick, fetching the shop vac to clean the counter, drawer, and floor while I finished assembling the casserole. I popped it in the oven, did all the dishes, and had exactly three minutes to collapse on the couch before dinner. Now I was full-on, head-to-toe, blurry-vision exhausted.

What a day!

1Bisquick was invented in 1930, in case you were wondering.

HAMBURGER COBBLER

1 sm. onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1 lb. hamburger
1 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
1/4 tsp. marjoram
1/4 lb. sliced cheese (white smoked cheddar takes this recipe to a whole new level!)
1 can drained tomatoes
2 T Worcestershire sauce
3 T ketchup
Bisquick

In a small bowl, mix together the tomatoes, Worcestershire sauce, and ketchup. Saute onion and garlic, then add hamburger and seasonings and brown the hamburger. Make one recipe-worth of Bisquick dough (as per directions on the box). Spread hamburger mixture in a 9×9″ baking dish, put cheese on top, then the tomato mixture. Add blops of Bisquick on top. Bake at 450º for 25 minutes.

Slice of Life: Poetry Unbound

Thank you to Two Writing Teachers for creating an amazing community of writers and a safe, welcoming space to write and share.

Pádraig Ó Tuama is three poems into the new season of the podcast Poetry Unbound. Yesterday’s poem gave me lots to think about.

The Land Acknowledgement we do at the beginning of the Casting for Recovery retreat reminds us all that the place where we will make new friends and learn new skills was originally where the Kaskaskia people and the ancient Hopewell Culture lived. At this year’s upcoming retreat, we’ll do that AND acknowledge the land itself as Conor Kerr does in “Winter Songs.”

Two words that Pádraig unravels in his conversation about the poem are DISMANTLE and REMEMBER. We usually think of dismantle as meaning to take apart. But he points out that

The verb “dismantle” comes from the noun mantle, which in some uses of it, is the placing of a ceremonial cloak to confer authority to someone. And so to dis-mantle structures…this is not necessarily about destroying, it is about placing authority where it should be placed because the structures that are being critiqued in the poem have divided.

When we remember, we are usually looking back and thinking about something again. But if we consider what it means to be dis-membered, or torn apart, then if something is re-membered, it is put back together again. I love that shade of meaning.

So there you have it: a podcast to check out if you don’t already know it, one that will not only add more poetry to your life but also provide all kinds of food for thought. Happy Listening!

Poetry Friday: Yuletide

Heidi’s December challenge for the Inklings came to us in the form of this mobile (which is hanging beside our mail table and yes that’s the Christmas tree reflecting in the lace swan’s glass). The card from which hang the “12 Days of Yuletide Poetry Prompts” details the precepts for the season and each of its days.

I wrote to all twelve of the prompts. Here are a couple that I especially liked. First, the introduction to Yuletide:

“On these dark nights we celebrate light and the power of the human spirit to brighten and warm the season of cold and dark. As the wheel of the year begins another turn, we think on the old and prepare for the new, lighting a candle for each of these human gifts:

25 generosity: the urge to share what we have with others (prompt: ask what generosity really means)

27 laughter: the singular human ability to convert the unexpected into joy (prompt: capture the sound of laughter)

Thank you, Heidi, for generously (and creatively!) sharing your family’s Yuletide traditions with us, and for twelve days of thoughtful writing prompts. I can’t wait to see what the other Inklings did with your challenge, because for once, we haven’t had the chance to share any early drafts. We haven’t an INKLING what the others have written!

Heidi @my juicy little universe
Molly @Nix the Comfort Zone
Catherine @Reading to the Core
Margaret @Reflections on the Teche
Linda @A Word Edgewise

Marcie has this week’s Poetry Friday Roundup at Marcie Flinchum Adkins.

Slice of Life: Beginnings

Thank you to Two Writing Teachers for creating an amazing community of writers and a safe, welcoming space to write and share.

Do weeks start for you on Sunday or on Monday? Mondays start my weeks, so this New Year was a new day, a new week, a new month, and a new year, all rolled into one.

I’m keeping all the usual goals and routines (exercise, DuoLingo, stitching, doodling, writing), but I’m adding a commitment to more diverse blogging, and I’m launching a year-long reading of Jane Hirshfield. I enjoyed savoring Pádraig Ó Tuama’s book POETRY UNBOUND one poem a day, so I bought Hirshfield’s new collection THE ASKING with the intention of lingering with it the same way. In conversations with my brother, and following links he sent to interviews with Hirshfield, I learned about her books of essays, NINE GATES: ENTERING THE MIND OF POETRY and TEN WINDOWS: HOW GREAT POEMS TRANSFORM THE WORLD. An essay a week seems doable, doesn’t it? I thought so.

I’m curious to see if and how this immersion will impact my own writing. Time will tell.

Poetry Friday: Elfchen

clouds
stereotypically blanketing
December’s morning sky
no warmth, and yet
comfort

© Mary Lee Hahn, 2023

The Poetry Sisters’ December challenge was to write Elfchen, a type of cinquain that uses word count instead of syllable count, and links together the lines with these prompts:

Line one=A thought, an object, a color, a smell or the like
Line two=What does the word from the first row do?
Line three=Where or how is the word of row 1?
Line four=What do you mean?
Line five=Conclusion: What results from all this? What is the outcome?
(This information via Wikipedia.)

Elfchen are German in origin, so for bonus points, I wrote one in German, using my limited vocabulary.

brot
warm, frisch
mit Schinken und Käse
und natürlich viele Butter:
lecker

© Mary Lee Hahn, 2023

Here’s how the other Poetry Sisters met this month’s challenge:

Liz @ Liz Garton Scanlon
Tricia @ The Miss Rumphius Effect
Tanita @ {fiction, instead of lies}
Laura @ Laura Purdie Salas
Sara @ Read Write Believe
Kelly @ Kelly Ramsdell

Michelle has this week’s Poetry Friday Roundup at MoreArt4All.

Poetry Friday: Call for Roundup Hosts

It’s that time again. Six months have passed since last we queued up to host the Poetry Friday roundups.

What is the Poetry Friday roundup? A gathering of links to posts featuring original or shared poems, or reviews of poetry books. A carnival of poetry posts. Here is an explanation that Rene LaTulippe shared on her blog, No Water River, and here is an article Susan Thomsen wrote for the Poetry Foundation.

Who can do the Poetry Friday roundup? Anyone who is willing to gather the links in some way, shape, or form (Mr. Linky, “old school” in the comments, or ???) on the Friday of your choice. If you are new to the Poetry Friday community, jump right in, but perhaps choose a date later on so that we can spend some time getting to know each other.

How do you do a Poetry Friday roundup? If you’re not sure, stick around for a couple of weeks and watch…and learn! One thing we’re finding out is that folks who schedule their posts, or who live in a different time zone than you, appreciate it when the roundup post goes live sometime on Thursday.

How do I get the code for the PF Roundup Schedule for the sidebar of my blog? You can grab the list from the sidebar here at A(nother) Year of Reading, or I’d be happy to send it to you if you leave me your email address. 

Why would I do a Poetry Friday Roundup? Community, community, community. It’s like hosting a poetry party on your blog!

Put your request in the comments (blog URL is appreciated) and I’ll update the calendar frequently. Feel free to share this post on all the various socials.

And now for the where and when:

January
5 Marcie at Marcie Flinchum Atkins
12 Tracey at Tangles and Tails
19 Robyn at Life on the Deckle Edge
26 Susan at Chicken Spaghetti

February
2 Mary Lee at A(nother) Year of Reading
9 Carol at Beyond LiteracyLink
16 Margaret at Reflections on the Teche
23 Tabatha at The Opposite of Indifference

March
1 Linda at TeacherDance
8 Laura at Laura Purdie Salas
15 Tanita at {fiction, instead of lies}
22 Rose at Imagine the Possibilities
29 Tricia at The Miss Rumphius Effect

April
5 Irene at Live Your Poem
12. Jone at Jone Rush MacCulloch
19 Heidi at my juicy little universe
26 Ruth at There is no such thing as a God-forsaken town

May
3 Buffy at Buffy Silverman
10 Linda at A Word Edgewise
17 Patricia at Reverie
24 Michelle at MoreArt4All
31 Janice at Salt City Verse

Poetry Friday: Avoirdupois

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I usually know the Merriam-Webster word of the day that’s delivered to my inbox. But when Monday’s word came, not only did I not know the meaning of avoirdupois, I didn’t know how to pronounce it. Merriam-Webster gave me the American pronunciation ˈa-vər-də-ˌpȯiz (rhymes with boys and you sound like a hick saying it — a-ver-duh-poise), but clearly the word has French roots, so I found the British pronunciation ævwɑːdjuːˈpwɑː (rhymes with straw) and it’s not only more fun to say, but you sound so suave saying it — avwah-dyu-pwah. It’s a “pinkie out” kind of word. Next time you have to lift a heavy box, you can comment on its avoirdupois.

You’re welcome.

Patricia has this week’s Poetry Friday roundup at Reverie.

Hat tip to Heidi Mordhorst, inventor of the Definito form. (I broke the rules slightly by rhyming, instead of making it free verse. I felt the rhyme was necessary to help with the pronunciation.)

On another note, watch for the call for roundup hosts (Jan-June 2024) next week.

Poetry Friday: Grandmother Oak

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Molly challenged the Inklings to write luc bats in November, and it’s a good thing I started playing with the form early on, because my November kind of evaporated starting with NCTE. Not only did I write a luc bat for the burr oak across the street and her “burr oak buffet” which feeds the neighborhood deer, squirrels, and groundhogs, I wrote one in response to the news

and a stubbornly optimistic one in response to the Albert Rios poem, “A House Called Tomorrow”

It’s definitely a tricky form, but I loved the puzzle of the syllable-counting and the weaving of the rhymes.

Here’s how the other Inklings met Molly’s challenge:

Linda @A Word Edgewise
Heidi @my juicy little universe
Molly @Nix the Comfort Zone
Catherine @Reading to the Core
Margaret @Reflections on the Teche

Anastasia has this week’s Poetry Friday Roundup at Small Poems.

Poetry Friday: In the Style of Valerie Worth

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The Poetry Sisters’ challenge for November was to write in the style of Valerie Worth. Attempting to narrow my focus, I went from garden, to fennel, to the ladybug larva I found in the fennel last week. Liz commented that this could be an on-going practice — choosing small and/or ordinary things and writing without the restrictions of form or rhyme. I agree. It’s quite satisfying to find the extraordinary in the ordinary that surrounds us.

I have stumbled recently both in posting regularly and in commenting generously. Please know that I am thankful for each of you and for your words! This community is one of the bright spots in my world.

Ruth has this week’s Poetry Friday Roundup at There is no such thing as a God-forsaken town. Since it will be December next week, we need to start thinking about January-June roundups. Watch for signups.

Here’s how the other Poetry Sisters met our challenge:

Liz @ Liz Garton Scanlon
Tricia @ The Miss Rumphius Effect
Tanita @ {fiction, instead of lies}
Sara @ Read Write Believe
Laura @ Laura Purdie Salas
Kelly @ Kelly Ramsdell