This NPM, I am writing acrostic poems using words from the Banned Words List at the Pen America Website. You can find my poems each day on Poetrepository, IG stories, and BlueSky.
But today is special. This is a Poetry Sister Challenge Day, and this month we are writing in conversation with a vintage photograph. I chose to have a conversation with my father as a young man, and ponder everything that happened in his life after that moment was captured, up to and including my very own now.
Every single one of the “banned” words on the Pen America list is ridiculous. The whole list is ridiculous. You can’t erase words; you can’t erase history. We ARE our history. We exist. And we will keep talking about all of it. We will keep making art about and with all of it. Here’s mine so far:
Now more than ever, it is a blessing to be in community. I give thanks for this generous chorus of poets who have come together to create a poem for children, line by line. Special thanks to Margaret who wrangled us all together and to Irene, who invented this Poetry Month tradition.
I lost track of a week’s worth of lines while I was “away from my desk,” and it’s a joy to see how this year’s poem has progressed! Impressive that we’ve maintained quatrains with a regular rhyme pattern. We’ve opened, raced, sung, and breathed. We’ve painted and communed, rejoiced and given thanks. In the current stanza, we bask, romp and startle. Such fun verbs! Here’s the poem I’ll pass to Cousin Tanita for the next line and the next stanza and the next action! I’m not adding punctuation to keep that pattern going, but I will modify the capitalization in the current stanza to match the rest. Now it’s up to Tanita to follow, bend, or break the “rules” we’ve all set!
Open an April window let sunlight paint the air stippling every dogwood dappling daffodils with flair
Race to the garden where woodpeckers drum as hummingbirds thrum in the blossoming Sweetgum
Sing as you set up the easels dabble in the paints echo the colors of lilac and phlox commune without constraints
Breathe deeply the gifts of lilacs rejoice in earth’s sweet offerings feel renewed-give thanks at day’s end remember long-ago springs
Bask in a royal spring meadow romp like a golden-doodle pup! startle the sleeping grasshoppers delight in each flowering shrub
This NPM, I am writing acrostic poems using words from the Banned Words List at the Pen America Website. You can find my poems each day on Poetrepository, IG stories, and BlueSky.
This NPM, I am writing acrostic poems using words from the Banned Words List at the Pen America Website. You can find my poems each day on Poetrepository, IG stories, and BlueSky.
This NPM, I am writing acrostic poems using words from the Banned Words List at the Pen America Website. You can find my poems each day on Poetrepository, IG stories, and BlueSky.
Today, April 4, is an Inklings challenge day. Margaret invited us to try a Shadorma, a Spanish 6-line syllabic poem of 3/5/3/3/7/5 syllable lines respectively. So today’s poem, “Biases,” is a Shadorm-acrostic!
Here’s what the rest of the Inklings came up with, if life gave them the elbow room this month to write:
Thank you to Two Writing Teachers for creating an amazing community of writers and a safe, welcoming space to write and share.
Goodbye Slice of Life March Challenge…hello National Poetry Month Poem-a-Day Challenge!
This NPM, I will be writing acrostic poems using words from the Banned Words List at the Pen America Website.
It’s up to us to keep the truth in American history, and in science. It’s up to us to keep reading, thinking, and being as gloriously weird as possible. We must push back against the urge to obey in advance and we must defend our institutions. We must not let someone else dictate the language we choose to tell our stories, name our cultures and landmarks, and prevent us from telling all kinds of truths. I’ll do my small part by keeping some of the “banned” words in circulation by using them to write acrostic poems.
Daily poems will be found at Poetrepository, but I’ll round them up here at A(nother) Year of Reading on Fridays. Join me if you’d like!
Thank you to Two Writing Teachers for creating an amazing community of writers and a safe, welcoming space to write and share.
Last week, a small pebble was dropped into the lives of a couple dozen ladies in Ohio. They were chosen as participants or alternates for a Casting for Recovery retreat. As Participant Coordinator, I had the delight of making calls to confirm they’d gotten their emails. The joy was unmistakable.
I got my own call twenty years ago, when my breast cancer diagnosis was seven years behind me and the Ohio CfR program was just in its second year. I was already a fly fisher, so I knew the healing power of standing in a river completely in the moment, concentrating on current, rod, line, possible fish, breezes, and patches of sunlight on the water. I had fished throughout my year of treatment and I knew palpably, viscerally, that casting a fly rod could be a vital part of recovery.
The next year after my retreat, I joined the CfR Ohio volunteer staff, teaching basic fly fishing and knot tying, and for the past seven years I’ve been the Ohio program’s co-coordinator.
Fly fishing, breast cancer, Casting for Recovery, fourteen participants per year for almost twenty years: innumerable ripples in my life and the lives of others.
We rarely know the difference we’ve made in the lives that our life bumps up against, or in the world. It’s enough to know that simply by being here and doing the work we love and that matters, our ripples, too, go out carrying love. And they matter.
“Hope” is the thing with feathers BY EMILY DICKINSON
“Hope” is the thing with feathers – That perches in the soul – And sings the tune without the words – And never stops – at all –
And sweetest – in the Gale – is heard – And sore must be the storm – That could abash the little Bird That kept so many warm –
I’ve heard it in the chillest land – And on the strangest Sea – Yet – never – in Extremity, It asked a crumb – of me.
* * * *
And “Hope” is the lady with a flyrod BY MARY LEE HAHN, 2011
And “Hope” is the lady with a flyrod – Learning something new – Just for the weekend she can drop her facade – She can forget all that she’s been through –
Or she can remember – without fear – Supported by new friends – She’ll find a way to steer – Through all life’s twists and bends –
I’ve seen Hope by the pond – Heard Hope in the happy shouts – I’ve remembered those who’ve gone to the Beyond – All this is what Hope’s about.
.
Casting for Recovery is a national nonprofit whose mission is “…to enhance the lives of survivors and thrivers of breast cancer through wellness retreats that connect women to each other and nature using the therapeutic sport of fly fishing, and providing oncology medical and psychosocial support — all at no cost to the participants!” If you or a lady you know is going through or has gone through a breast cancer journey (any age, any stage), I encourage you/them to apply for the chance to attend a CfR retreat in your state. Don’t be put off by the fly fishing. It’s a weekend of being pampered, healing in nature, connecting with others, and learning something new. Oh, and if you’re into shopping for good, Casting for Recovery Ohio’s online auction Reel in Hope opened today!
Thank you to Two Writing Teachers for creating an amazing community of writers and a safe, welcoming space to write and share.
I am a tea drinker. So, this piece by KimHaynesJohnson yesterday caught my eye. I loved the story and I so understand this ritual (or addiction) to tea.
I drink tea all day every day. I drink hot tea in the winter and I drink hot tea during the hottest months of summer. I start every single day with tea. But I am a very boring tea drinker.
I only enjoy black breakfast tea. Plain, no milk, no sugar, no honey, plain. Waiters often suggest Earl Grey as a similar option. It is not. I would rather have no tea than have Earl Grey. Once in a great while I’ll have a flavored tea, but mostly when I am out for dinner and I need something decaffeinated. And I don’t really enjoy it. LOL.
I don’t love when my tea choices change. Up until recently, I went to Starbucks for tea every morning. Probably for about 15 years. (With being more intentional about where I spend my money these days, I make tea at home now.) Several years ago, Tazo English Breakfast was the tea they served but they changed brands and I was not happy. I survived the change but only keep Tazo or Lipton at home.
During Covid, I remember purchasing 6 boxes of Tazo tea, laughing that certainly that would be enough to get me through the few weeks of covid lockdown…..
I now keep boxes of Tazo English Breakfast tea at home. I start every morning with tea and typically carry around a cup until mid afternoon. I have a few favorite mugs that I rotate.
I am a consistent, yet boring tea drinker but drinking tea is definitely a ritual that is not optional for me!
It’s time again for the Poetry Sisters’ Challenge! Here’s the scoop, via Tanita’s blog: “We’re writing back to four Lucille Clifton poems, in her notes to clark kent series: “if i should;” “further note to clark;” “final note to clark;” and “note passed to superman.” We’ll be ‘in conversation’ with Ms. Lucille’s poems – talking to them, talking back to them, or talking about them, whether that’s all of them, or any of them, either in form or in substance.”
I got really really REALLY stuck on this one. Exactly nothing useful showed up in my notebook during our 25 minute work session on Zoom last Sunday. But the magic of a shower to wash away the chlorine from my swim also unlocked the idea box. I think these responses work without reading Lucille’s poems, but just in case, take a minute to read what she said to Clark before you read what Clark wrote back.
(all four Clark Kent Writes Back poems (c) Mary Lee Hahn, 2025)
Thank you to Two Writing Teachers for creating an amazing community of writers and a safe, welcoming space to write and share.
I like little surprises. I like when I take the dust jacket off of a book to find some little surprise under the cover. I like that the Pigeon is hidden in all of the Mo Willems’ books. I like when a friend sends a meme that is a match to how I am feeling.
I was reminded of how much I delight in little unexpected things that pop up in the day. Today a visitor to OH What a Space had on these shoes (below). Fancy shoes with this crown that you may not notice on the back!
We opened our new business a few months ago. It is a play-based learning studio. It is full of joy and fun and making. 2 of my favorite things in the space are little surprises. I like them myself and I love to watch children discover the surprises.
First, we have a fairy door. Sometimes it takes kids a few visits to discover it. But then they are down on the floor, joyful at the idea of a fairy living in our space.
Second is an amusing sign I found on Etsy. It says “There’s like, a lot of craft supplies in here.” It made me laugh and decided we needed it for our business because, well, there are a lot of craft supplies in there. It makes me smile every time I notice it. But even more fun is when an 8 or 9 year old sees it for the first time. They laugh to themselves or mention something to one of us.
I appreciated these little surprises today and realized how much I appreciate surprises across ordinary days.
