gotta dip: a brief blog hiatus

Greetings, Audience, whoever you may be! Thanks for popping by.

It's a time of transition for me, from "full-time classroom teacher who does poetry on the side" to "part-time poetry teacher who does essay coaching on the side." It's exciting and a bit daunting, and I'm diving right in!

I have a lot to organize in the next 6-8 weeks, so I'll be taking a break from weekly blogging except for one appearance on September 2nd, when the logo you see below should have become a clickable link, and I'll be joining my critique group, The Inklings, in our monthly poetry challenge.

See you back here on October 7, give or take, for further poetry musings for teachers, authors, kids and adults!

inklings august challenge: sports poems

Greetings, Poetry Friday friends!  Here it is August, a different kind of August than I have had since 1969, perhaps with the exception of 2007 when the kids went off to their French school and I stayed home and wrote PUMPKIN BUTTERFLY; I type this to encourage myself to get going on that next book! Catherine  has suggested we take inspiration from Liz Steinglass's SOCCERVERSE and "Write a poem about any sport you have a connection to--one you participate(d) in or love to watch. Use any form you think works best."

Now, it is not required for poets to be unsporty, but I think it's likely that many of us would say that we were rather busy reading as kids, not sporting. Maybe the same goes now as adults--we may tend to be unsporty, at least not in the usual competitive-type activities that the word "sports" makes us think of. Maybe more of us dance or run or do yoga or ride our bikes for health and fun, rather than going hard at basketball or soccer or field hockey. (It would be fun to take an informal poll in the comments; let us know if you have or are now any kind of serious competitive sportster! We will honor all versions of sporty.)

Me, I learned early that my bod was not built to run at length--so my favorite activities involve anything that helps my muscles carry my weight. Give me wheels or water or music! But if I could choose to be accomplished at anything, it might be gymnastics.

 

High and Over

In second grade Frettra Miller 

can already do an aerial. 

She tumbles down the mat

with her long brown limbs,

gathering force, and then,

faster than I can see exactly how  

Frettra tucks her elbows and throws her legs high and over: brown lightning!

She lands lightly, easy in her leotard.

 

I stand at the end of the mat,

not yet having written this poem,

heavier than a cart wheel

in my shorts and tank top.

No part of my body has any idea 

how to begin.

 

draft ©HM 2022 

 

 

 

Our host today is fellow Inkling Molly at Nix the Comfort Zone, which I have never done sufficiently to "get my aerial," as the Youtube coaches say.  Now go see what the other Inklings have done with this wide-open challenge...

Linda Mitchell
Margaret Simon
Catherine Flynn
MaryLee Hahn

 

#haikutraveldiary 2

Never have I ever been away from home for so long without making the new place my home; yet home away from home, thrice, an extended travel, not exactly a vacation, being not rushing, sudden or slowcooked multiserendipitous layered plans to connect and reconnect, one afternoon or evening or drink at a time (lord, the English can drink!), enough, never enough, overenough, forestalling the future, calculating did my bus and train and walk offset the flights, can we be divided and connected at once?

 

garden's modest luxury

the billion bricks of industry

warmth of a small country

 

  haibun Instadraft™ ©HM 2022
 

*************    

We are four days away from our return to "ordinary" life, which won't be very much like the last 20 years of life, so let me not forget what this interlude begat. Here are the daily haikus, picking up from where I left off two weeks ago. (This is also where I figure out which days I missed.)

 Day 29

 

little fish in a big sea

I resist putting my face under

acclimation takes time 

 

 Day 28 

#drunkenlongform 

"Arrogant in Victory, Sullen in Defeat" - The Grant Family Motto

granted you are well practiced granted I’m always a half pint behind but tonight I’m granted a win 

 

Day 27 

salt-sticky grips on

this solar-spurred cycle 

the right speed to see

 

 

 

 

 

Day 26

 

seven dials eight miles 

eleven women score four 

big windows brighton our day

 

 

 

Day 22 

 

blue light and beer 

a proper night out 

we were not reserved  

 

 

 

Day 21 

 

evening speed 

past the kittiwakes’ racket 

hair shrieks its joy

 

 

 

 

 

 

Day 19

 

10 hours of driving

45 minutes of  Flowers for Algernon

worf it, bruv

 

 

Day 18 

 

copied cut and stitched 

on a plane 1996 

I recollect myself 

 

 

 

 

 

Day 17 

 

whenever they come to worship 

the church of eternal friendship 

is waiting 

 

 

 

 

 

Day 16

slow span of channel 

sun from end to end 

my only halo 

 

 

 

Day 15 

 

so much 

sheep shit 

we hardly notice 

 

 

 

**************************

 

I'm late posting but I appreciate the space that my blog and  Poetry Friday make for whatever each of us wants to share.  Thanks to Marcie Atkins (another haikuist) for rounding us up this week!

 

#haikutraveldiary

 

Greetings from Seaford, on the south coast of England!  Wherever I am, wherever you are, there is a climate crisis. Would you like some good news to go with your bad news?  Try THE FIX newsletter from grist.com.  Here's the "Joy Issue."

We have been in France and now will be in the UK for all of July, catching up with our family and friends here after two years apart. In a bid to keep writing, I set myself a "reasonable" goal to write one haiku each day...and then remembered how challenging it is to write a really effective haiku.  

As I reviewed the "rules" for modern haiku here and there, I found my way to this helpful overview.  I've tried to keep it in mind and I'm thoroughly happy with...about 20% of these.  They do make a nice album, though, combined with the photos I've taken. Here are the last handful; you can see the rest on Twitter: https://twitter.com/heidimordhorst

Day 14 

white sheep white swans white horse 

concentric greens 

we walk behind the cows

Day 13  (for Juliet Cox)

butterfly on my dinner plate 

goats in the gully 

a little mild peril