npm19: all of the above 14

suddenly a
tornado watch
ripples our screens
unhinges good sense
concern careens
kindling wind

©Heidi Mordhorst

npm19: all of the above 13

      my back lawn + metaphor dice =

npm19: all of the above 11/12

There's a whirlwind of poetry play going on around the Kidlitosphere this month, and we do all need more play in our lives.  Margaret has been using some of the toys with her students: Metaphor Dice, paint chips, Magnetic Poetry, Haikubes.  However, reading her April 10 post, a line caught my eye and became my plaything.  I hope Margaret doesn't mind.

 


The Poet Evolves

Gathering words from
the air
not using any toys

Gathering toys from
the words
Not using any air

Gathering air from
the toys
not using any words

**************************************
In conclusion, evolution is overrated. 😏

Scroll down and see some of my other efforts from this unProject this week.  Then go gather some words from the air over at Live Your Poem with Irene, and don't miss Margaret's contribution to the Progressive Poem at Reflections on the Teche.

npm19: all of the above 8/9

 11 Years Left

Get a grip, kid--
it's an unwritten rule of
the planet outside your head
that to withdraw is to lose it. 
It only persists in the flexible
copper wirings and firings of
your beautiful brain.  Use it.

npm19: all of the above 7

Mascots
   for Mary Lee & Hemingway

Writing or reading,
rafting or riding--
how could you fail,
with Rhino to guide you?

Hiking or hooping,
hiving or hiding--
Whatever you do,
have Hippo beside you!

ODT #6 : return

In January I settled on One Difficult Truth to try to keep in mind for the year, rather than One Little Word.  This truth is briefly best expressed as "Life is gorgeous AND bitter" or "this excruciating, beautiful life"--take your pick.  The point is the paradox.

Thanks to Ruth at There Is No Such Thing As a Godforsaken Town, I have another poem to add to my collection of ODT poems.

Instructions on Not Giving Up | Ada Limón

More than the fuchsia funnels breaking out
of the crabapple tree, more than the neighbor’s
almost obscene display of cherry limbs shoving
their cotton candy-colored blossoms to the slate
sky of Spring rains, it’s the greening of the trees
that really gets to me. When all the shock of white
and taffy, the world’s baubles and trinkets, leave
the pavement strewn with the confetti of aftermath,
the leaves come. Patient, plodding, a green skin
growing over whatever winter did to us, a return
to the strange idea of continuous living despite
the mess of us, the hurt, the empty. Fine then,
I’ll take it, the tree seems to say, a new slick leaf
unfurling like a fist to an open palm, I’ll take it all.

It would appear that Ada specializes in these sorts of poems, just based on the titles of her collections:
"Ada Limón is the author of Lucky Wreck (2006), This Big Fake World (2006), Sharks in the Rivers (2010), and Bright Dead Things (2015)."

"...a green skin
growing over whatever winter did to us..."
 

npm19: all of the above 6

spring qi

all this burgeoning does not unfurl leaves
of peace: this is an unsettling, a stirring of
the rested energies, a sudden squall
above warming earth.

all this springing brings growing pains
of stretch and struggle, wet tendons of roots,
the rage of change straining to get
above ground, to burst.

npm19: all of the above 4/5

 online fraudulence

nodding
nodding
noggin gone
gotten
gotten
grading done
forging
forging
head ahung
gridding
learning's
bluntly wrong

©Heidi Mordhorst

***********************************************
Yes, it's that time again, where I attempt to encapsulate in single letters the unique and nuanced growth and progress of each child, across multiple measures and along a timeline of nine weeks: report card time.

I've tried to streamline it for myself with summaries like

A= consistently & independently       
B= generally & frequently         
C= partially & periodically       
D= barely & rarely

and for kids and families I've tried to help "standards-based" make some sense with

A= got it!
B= getting it!
C= learning it with help
D= working toward it...but not there yet

but let's face it--kids aren't numbers, and they aren't letters either. I might feel different if there were still a place for comments in the online gradebook, even though it would be more work, but no--we have abdicated professional responsibility for showing our knowing of students with words in favor of a lighter paperworkload. There is no place on the grid for words; only numbers and letters.

And truth be told, every kid is all of the above all at the same time.


The round-up on this first Friday of National Poetry Month is with Karen at her blog with the shockingly clever title.  You can also visit Jama's round-up of April NPM blog projects here.  Enjoy all of the above!
                                                     

npm19: all of the above 3

owning it

lift a lime, a loaf of bread
steal a scarf, a spool of thread
nick a nail, a bolt, a screw
all these things belong to you--

because you saw them, touched them, smelled them
then you listened as you held them,
now they live inside your head,
sneak into stories you can spread

©Heidi Mordhorst

npm19: all of the above 2

hungerku

banging on the door

craving my attention

mouth full of yelling

*********************************************************************************
As usual, this National Poetry Month, I will be delighted to join in the collaborative effort that is the Kidlitosphere Progressive Poem.  With one new line each day, it's a feast of suspense and fun. Check out the first two lines with the third from Kimberly hot on their heels...

2019 Progressive Poem schedule:

1 Matt @Radio, Rhythm and Rhyme
2 Kat @Kathryn Apel
3 Kimberly @KimberlyHutmacherWrites
4 Jone @DeoWriter
5 Linda @TeacherDance
6 Tara @Going to Walden
7 Ruth @thereisnosuchthingasagodforsakentown
8 Mary Lee @A Year of Reading
9 Rebecca @Rebecca Herzog
10 Janet F. @Live Your Poem
11 Dani @Doing the Work that Matters
12 Margaret @Reflections on the Teche
13 Doraine @Dori Reads
14 Christie @Wondering and Wandering
15 Robyn @Life on the Deckle Edge
16 Carol @Beyond LiteracyLink
17 Amy @The Poem Farm
18 Linda @A Word Edgewise
19 Heidi @my juicy little universe
20 Buffy @Buffy’s Blog
21 Michelle @Michelle Kogan
22 Catherine @Reading to the Core
23 Penny @a penny and her jots
24 Tabatha @The Opposite of Indifference
25 Jan @Bookseestudio
26 Linda @Write Time
27 Sheila @Sheila Renfro
28 Liz @Elizabeth Steinglass
29 Irene @Live Your Poem
30 Donna @Mainely Write

npm19: all of the above 1

burgeoning of spring + greenden shovel

here we are all

gazing down at the tender bright of

deliciodils, sheeny tulips; not at the

barely begun, unloved treetips above

©Heidi Mordhorst

looking forward to poetry month?

First things first:  As promised, one commenter on my blogtour post for IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT by Laura Purdie Salas wins a copy of the book, and the winner (courtesy of Random Thing Picker) is....JANET FAGAL!

Now then: what can it mean that I'm at a loss for an April Poetry Month project???

a) I'm too distracted by the burgeoning of spring (and possibly menobrain) to concentrate on anything
b) I've had tons of ideas over the last few months that I just can't remember (see again menobrain)
c) I've grown less structured by grand complicated plans and more able to go with a general intention
d) all of the above

Ah.  And there it is...ALL OF THE ABOVE.

I now choose, for my April Poetry Month project 2019,

a) to be distracted by the burgeoning of spring or anything else that catches my attention, including 
    possibly the unexpected workings of my menobrain
b) to be suddenly struck by an idea I once had & which reappears with a pop (see again menobrain) 
    and usually an exclamation such as "OTTER POPS! They were called Otter Pops!"
c) to be less structured by a grand complicated plan and more able to go with a general intention

turns out you can still buy these...kinda ruins the moment

In other words, I will now become my own Random Thing Picker with the general intention to write a poem--any poem, any length, any form, any style, any topic--each day of this month. 

And also it might be okay to miss a day, because, you know, LIFE.


All of the Above

In the spirit of "growth mindset," "I don't have it...yet,"
"I can't do it...yet," "I haven't learned it...yet,"

I choose it all, all of it, everything,
redhot uncool greedy passion for AllOfEverything

just 

not

allatthesame
time.

  
Our host for the Poetry Friday round-up today is Carol at Carol's Corner, where the daffodils are intensely all of the above for just a short while and furthermore don't feel bad about that in any way.  Bloom on over, and see you also on APRIL 1st!