Tag: challenge

I was as mesmerized by the story of this unlikely hero as many New Yorkers were. And I was as devastated by his death. The necropsy report was recently released, showing that he had high levels of rat poison in his system, along with a severe pigeon virus. Both of which likely contributed to his demise.

Is the vandal who slashed open Flaco’s enclosure at the zoo responsible for his death, or for his incredible final year of life? Would as many people have pondered the importance of The Wild if Flaco had remained in his cage? How can we refocus this attention on the plight of a single bird and help people to understand the cataclysmic extinctions of entire species every. single. day. (up to 150 species per day, according to some estimates)?

Maybe the human brain is incapable of wrapping itself around the big picture, and the best we can do is to love and care for The Wild in our own yard, neighborhood, and city. On that note, I’m going to go check to see if the milkweed in my garden has poked its head up yet. Maybe this summer, I will have monarchs again. If not, I will have done my best for them.

Here’s how the rest of the Poetry Sisters met the challenge of a pantoum to, about, or including an animal:

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

Tricia has this week’s Poetry Friday roundup at The Miss Rumphius Effect.

Good morning, Clouds!

Surprised to see you all offshore this spin.
Headed east towards that other continent?
Good luck and safe travels – I wish brisk winds for you!
What’s that you say?
You left this continent clear from coast to coast?
What a treat! Thanks!

Spin away, Earth! Let’s do this!

First up, the marsh.
I hope Camera Lady is ready for me.
I’ll give her some misty rays
through the dead trees and reeds.

Next, I’ll light some south-facing windows as if on fire
to give Breakfast Woman a show.

After that, I’ll lure Woman in Bathrobe
halfway down the block to take pictures of my art.

Keep that spin going Earth! 

I’ve got to glow awake Early Rising Writer
and then shine in a kitchen window on
Watercolor Doodler.

I can’t be late to join Morning Walker
under the oaks along the bayou.

All through the flat middle,
I’ll illuminate farmland until I flow through an east door
to warm the bones of an aging Tea Drinker.

Then I’ll light up peaks and eventually their valleys
until I get to my last window
where I peek in on Talented Twins

before the other ocean suddenly appears below.

Behind my line of sight, it’s noon, then night.
Ahead, perpetual morning.
I like looking forward,
creating all those beginnings
over and over again.

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2024

Margaret gave the Inklings our challenge for this month — to write persona poems. For Laura Shovan’s birthday month poetry group on FaceBook, Molly challenged us to write poems inspired by the game I Spy. This poem is for both challenges and for my fellow Inklings. (Can you each find yourselves?)

Here’s how the rest of the Inklings met this challenge:

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

Linda B. has this week’s Poetry Friday roundup at TeacherDance.

The image came from Unsplash.

The Poetry Sisters’ challenge for February was to write a Valentine or love poem. A plethora of people, places, things, and ideas are objects of my affection. Why, then, was it so hard to pick one and write a poem?!? Thank you, Irish Breakfast Tea, for helping me crank out an eleventh hour haiku.

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

Tabatha has this week’s Poetry Friday Roundup at The Opposite of Indifference.

Image came via Unsplash.

The photo above is a black swallowtail that was born in the fennel in our garden last summer, raised in the safety of our house, and released back into the garden when she (yes, that’s a female) emerged from her cocoon. Compare a real black swallowtail to the piñata version by Roberto Benavidez. Remarkable, isn’t it? Using “paper as the equivalent of paint” in a “fringe that flows,” Benavidez is able to capture the reality of a butterfly, the fantasy of mythical creatures, and nearly photographic landscapes.

If you want to know more about piñatas as well as about Roberto Benavidez and his art, you can watch this Craft In America episode on play. Piñatas are found at 12:16, and Roberto Benavidez is at 18:27.

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

Susan has this week’s Poetry Friday Roundup at Chicken Spaghetti.

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.

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.

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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.

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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