Ahhh....a snowy morning, a hot cup o' joe, and no school! Thanks, George & Abe!
I have the honor today of helping out my friend and Maryland neighbor with her annual February Write-Along Challenge. (Laura's kind of busy right now, with her NEW BOOK* set to come out in April.) This project goes by many names, and I'll let
Laura herself explain it thoroughly at her new blog, but the short version is:
one interesting prompt per day in February = one new poem per participant per day
Laura is very careful to let everyone know that perfect attendance is not a requirement for participation, although some do challenge themselves to that discipline. I'm in the other camp,
joining in when I can, but since today's prompt is the Found Object photo that I provided, I'll be working on my draft along with rounding up the responses of others today.
And let's be frank, shall we? Although each of us blasting out a poem-a-day may enjoy a blazing moment of transcendent poetic glory here and there, it will be a very rare poem shared that doesn't need some time to percolate (heh heh "percolate" get it?) and another few rounds of review and revision. Most of our responses are very definitely
drafts. But as I noted earlier, there is something liberating about just Going For It--conceiving a poem, typing it, cutting and pasting it and clicking to put it out there, all in under an hour. This practice exercises all kinds of muscles other than actual composition, doesn't it!?
Now, let's go find some transcendent poetic glory....
Jessica Bigi gives us a related round, brown textured treat:
Chocolate Chip Cookies
Vanilla splashes
Flowery fingerprints
Cookie dough everywhere
Spoonful of chocolate chips
Magic baking on trays
The best part of all
Slurping leftover
Batter off fingers
From the mixing bowl
We're Grandma's
Little bakers
~ Jessica Bigi
Matt Forrest Esenwine finds himself transported by engrained marketing slogans, and it works, by golly!
Maxwell’s Kitchen
I sipped away
as time ticked by;
the Last Drop, though,
is growing nigh.
© 2016 Matt Forrest Esenwine, all rights reserved
Catherine Flynn writes: "I recently read Lisa Randall's
Dark Matter and the Dinosaurs: The Astounding Interconnectedness of the Universe, and this poem is
definitely under the influence of Randall's fascinating (although at
times over my head) book."
Rings of sediment
line this mug of stone.
Remnants of cocoa
chart the history
of this poem.
Thin layers mark
many quick sips,
moments of confusion
or distraction.
Thicker layers tell
a tale of clarity,
ideas growing,
words flowing.
In the unfinished drops
at the bottom
I try to read the future,
and divine the fate
of the universe.
© Catherine Flynn
Laura also (in a phenomenon that I'm going to call
"quantum entanglement," after Albert Einstein, but which I'm pretty sure has a different name when it's not about particle) connects the coffee in the mug to the surface of the Moon in a haiku:
La Luna flashes
her cappuccino craters
in my coffee mug
(c) Laura Shovan
And Mary Lee Hahn carries us far from the chill of this snowy morn, the strata of this half-empty cup:
Dregs
It's late summer.
All that's left of Bijou Creek
is a sinuous path of green
between low eroded hills.
In the cutbank of a gully we find
fossilized fragments of turtle shell,
and a Paleocene tree trunk
buried in its upright, growing position.
©Mary Lee Hahn, 2016
We do enjoy hearing how others' poems come to be, so Mary Lee shares her
process notes here.
I myself intended a similarly thoughtful poem of time and strata, layers and decumulation; I even titled the photo both "Caffeinocene Era" and "Capuccinocene Era". But, being the photographer, I know what was really going on during the drinking of this cappucino a few Saturdays ago...
Weekly Planning
See that warm cinnamon foam
at the bottom? I drank my capuccino upside down;
I mean I planned my week of second grade upside down.
I came to the frothy, spicy cinnamon layer last
even though it was topmost when I took my giant overflowing cup
from the baristo. I was the one who liberally sprinkled the cinnamon,
for heaven's sake. I was the one who poured in the raw brown sugar
crystals, the sweetness.
And then I plunged in--
new marking period, new topics, good stuff! technology and tools,
observing the moon, change over time, measurement
in inches and centimeters, distinguishing
fact and opinion. How to compile it all together
into a coherent whole? How to layer the concepts
by period of the day, so that "social studies and information
literacy inquiry project" might also link with "well-constructed
investigation" and "justifying mathematical approach logically"?
Relishing the challenge and the time to tackle it, I
sat in that noisy food court cafe and I
planned the bejeesus out of Week 1.
And then last--
I mean actually
last, I thought about our morning meeting,
a new greeting for a new quarter, personal sharing.
Last
I thought about the topmost layer, first things first,
the spicy cinnamon "hello I see you," the frothy foamy
"you have a life outside of school, it sounds like
you had fun," the liberally sprinkled "you belong here
in this class, in this family" of
e pluribus unum, every color
from the espresso of Mali to the milky froth of Scotland + Belarus
to the cinnamon of Indonesia to the raw sugar of El Salvador
and as we know
technologytoolsmoonchangeinchescentimeters
factopinionconceptsliteracymathematicalapproach
all that caffeinated coherent curriculum
none of it will happen
without the spicy cinnamon foam on top,
the sweet greeting, the "hello I see you,"
the "you belong here" of
"January, February, March April May--
I choose YOU. What do you say?"
(c) Heidi Mordhorst 2016
Well, it would appear that I have met a goal of mine without intending to...could this be my first slam poetry composition?
Diane Mayr has come by to remark, "
I took what I thought was the obvious path, but, I guess it was only obvious to me. The variety of subjects amazes me!"
On the Seconds Table
Clay in his hands
I had spun--rising,
molded--into a vessel.
I'd been transformed
into soft stone by
fire, yet I was
still vulnerable.
He covers me now
with silica and
oxides--knowing my
potential. I have
good lines.
The warmth of a coat
is augmented by fire.
Like the Wicked Witch
I feel I am melting.
Melting, melting...
I stand strong.
Turn incandescent.
Then cool.
Ping! Ping!
At first glance [
Ping!]
I am a beauty.
Ping! Ping!
Crazed! In a word,
imperfect--but,
inside...inside,
I remain stone.
I survived. And, I,
still have purpose.
© Diane Mayr
And here's Buffy Silverman, firing on her second cup of the morning:
Cuppa Joe
Inhaling the scent of morning,
cold fingers curl
around a steaming mug.
She takes a sip
and stops to savor
the jolt of caffeine
the warmth of routine
the start of a new day.
© Buffy Silverman
Carol Varsalona has fashioned a digital composition for us...I think I can share it "wholecloth"...
So, at
7:30 9:30 pm,
it would seem that that's all the entries for today. there are still three more to post! Welcome to Julieanne!
Stainworthy
The lip curls
just
so
it can carry
warmth
toward its early morning partner.
The solid presence
reassures
and softens the light,
and lifts the spirit.
Left alone
it bears
a stain of worthy use.
Waiting for tomorrow.
© Julieanne Harmatz 2016
Charles joins in today too, with this tribute to one who fills the cup:
HOT CHOCOLATE
My
once ivory coffee cup
now
has hot chocolate
rings,
reminding me of
the
warm beverage that
thawed
out my insides
minutes
ago.
As
trees shiver-sneeze
outside
my window,
Grandma
pours another
cup
of love into my mug,
dunks
in a marshmallow
then says, “Be thankful for
what
you have.”
(c) Charles Waters 2016
And here's Linda Baie, our hands-on finale:
A Cupful of Story
Beginnings:
A cupful of hands,
dug the clay,
formed it round,
to finish in the kiln.
Meanwhile:
Another cupful of hands
harvested the pods,
gathered the cocoa beans,
shipped them off to the world.
Next:
A cupful of hands
ground the beans,
prepared the cocoa,
to sell at a grocery.
Finally:
Your cupful of hands
brought the cocoa home,
heated the milk,
stirred in the chocolate,
touched the cup to the lips.
smelled and sipped.
Hmmm
This cup remembers hands.
Linda Baie ©All Rights Reserved
And, for the final finale, Donna's little sip, with a lovely title:
Time in a Cup
Like tree rings and
Layers of rock,
A chocolate trail
Records time
In a cup.
©2016, Donna JT Smith, all rights reserved
Jone joins late, and if I'm not mistaken, has the chance to feel an influence from all the previous poems to create hers:
Morning Mocha
Chocolate moon craters
lava steam
Use the mug
as a hand warmer
before morning work
starts
before students
arrive
daily ritual
© 2016 Jone Rush MacCulloch all rights reserved
Thanks to all who participated today and most especially to Laura for chivvying us all along in this most inspirational way!
*****************************************
*Laura's new book is
The Last Fifth Grade of Emerson Elementary and it's due out from Wendy Lamb Books on April 12. The book is enjoying a thrilling amount of pre-publicity, so pre-order now to make sure it's in your hands as soon as possible!
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