Poetry Friday -- Three for Earth Day

 

When will we decide

to stop squandering our home?
We act like there's time.

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2021

Nowhere Else to Go

by Linda Sue Park

via Poetry Foundation

Go read Linda Sue Park's poem. I'll wait.             There. You understand now why I couldn't excerpt it, right? You need to read all the way to that powerful last line, which sends you back to the title, and then down through the poem again. 

This was our Weekly Poem for this past week. Our routine goes like this: on the first day, I just read the poem.  My students follow along on the share screen, but we don't talk about the poem. Just read it and let it start soaking in. Then, each day after that, we dig deeper into what we notice about the words, the shape, the craft. Finally, towards the end of the week, we get to possible meanings.  It took most of the week, but they totally got this one. Got what Linda Sue Park was doing with the clues at the beginning and that last line that sends you back to the title.

The Last Straw: Kids vs. Plastics

by Susan Hood

Illustrated by Christiane Engel

HarperCollins, 2021

An introduction by Milo Cress, founder of BeStrawFree.org

17 poems

Facts on every page

Fabulous illustrations and quotes

Scientists and children from around the world working on the problem of plastic

AND

An author's note

A timeline

"Sources and More" to go with every poem/topic (great websites!!)

AND

Poetry notes about the forms used in each of the poems

PLUS

"For Further Reading"

Jama has this week's Poetry Friday Roundup at Jama's Alphabet Soup. 

National Poetry Month: #haikudiary.15

ask those hard questions

spotlight inequalities

then make good trouble

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2021

 

National Poetry Month: #haikudiary.14

 

white privilege abounds

black lives matter on yard signs

and I write haiku

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2021

National Poetry Month: #haikudiary.13

 

we teach the wrong things:

task completion, not passion

test taking, not joy

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2021

We've got seven weeks left, and I'm focusing as much as possible on passion and joy. Our newest fun: about 1/4 of the class is learning a new language using the DuoLingo app. 

National Poetry Month: #haikudiary.11

 

after the cold snap

glorious magnolias

wear brown in mourning

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2021

National Poetry Month: #haikudiary.10

 

illumination

sun shines through dirty windows

with no prejudice

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2021

National Poetry Month: #haikudiary.9

 

singing in the dark

first one voice, then a chorus

early morning birds

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2021

Hmm...looks like I wrote a version of this haiku last week! These two haiku reflect not just the glory of springtime, but also my despair about (and hope for) the direction our country is poised to go. Let's be the wrens! Let's be the chorus!

Happy First Full Week of National Poetry Month! I can't wait to get caught up on all you've created! Tabatha has the Poetry Friday Roundup at The Opposite of Indifference.

National Poetry Month: #haikudiary.8

 

one slice of peach left

in a wide indigo bowl

early morning sky

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2021

National Poetry Month: #haikudiary.7

 

nervous, excited

first day at school...in April

together at last

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2021

My Remote Learning Academy students have been troopers (most of them, for the most part, most of the time). They've been learning through a screen and working in isolation for more than a year now. This month, they've been granted a small reprieve. It comes in the form of state testing, which must be done in person. But even the price of a morning spent testing is not too high for the opportunity to be inside a school again, in the physical company of classmates. We get two days this week, two days next week, and two days at the end of the month. This is what will get us through to the end of May. For once, I'm glad for the chaos known as state testing. 

For those who are following my spring bloom haikus, here's what the Virginia bluebells look like just one day later. See why they are classified a "spring ephemeral?" Now they are blue. Now they are bells.

National Poetry Month: #haikudiary.6

 

Virginia bluebells

at first neither blue nor bells

spring ephemeral

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2021

Sorry I sent you off to Google for sessile trillium yesterday!

(Here's one of ours...see the little one to the right?)

And here are my Virginia bluebells as of today.

They are getting the faintest blush of blue.

National Poetry Month: #haikudiary.5

 

sessile trillium

blooms at the base of our oak

formerly forest

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2021

National Poetry Month -- #haikudiary.4

 

impulse purchase

packets of zinnia seeds

still too early

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2021

National Poetry Month: #haikudiary.3

 

razor blade north wind

winter is not quite over

wear wool once more

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2021

National Poetry Month: #haikudiary.2

 

dark, darker, darkest

those moments just before dawn

wren sings from the fence

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2021

National Poetry Month 2021: #haikudiary

 

maple trees blushing

forsythia in full joy

forecast calls for snow

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2021

Poetry Friday -- A Poetry Challenge

My students love Poetry Friday. They've never experienced it the way we did it in the past -- browsing for a book on the tall white shelf full of poetry, sitting with a partner or two, heads bent over the book, looking for just the right poem, practicing until it could be said just right, then standing in front of classmates to read with loud enough and expressive voices...and getting the feedback of laughter for the funny poems, or sighs for the beautiful ones, and always the finger snaps of appreciation.

Poetry Friday these days is flying through the interweb to a breakout room, pulling up Irene Latham's or Amy LV's rich online resources, choosing a poem, practicing, then flying back to perform from separate squares in the Google Classroom.

Last Friday, several groups chose the same poem on Irene's site. Hearing the poem over and over again gave us a chance to think about the meaning of the title in relationship to the poem. Maybe you saw it? The poem is called WHY RIVER SMILES IN WINTER, but the poem is mostly about the snow. We wondered why the river was smiling, and figured it was kind of sneaky, greedy smile, since it is gulping the fair snow. A casual "We would love to know why you chose that title" resulted in an explanation and an invitation to join Irene for her last winter poem which uses Sleigh Ride by Winslow Homer for inspiration. (Thank you SO MUCH for your generosity, Irene!) One student took the challenge with me. Here are our poems:

picture via wikimedia commons

Sleigh Ride
By: J.L.
For: Irene Latham

Here we go, very fast
Off to make the good times last.
Our sleigh is zooming,
Our fun is blooming,
Out on our wondrous Sleigh Ride.

No need to hide,
No need to cry,
As we ride our worries away.
Here we go,
Happy today.
Out on our wondrous Sleigh Ride.

SLEIGH RIDE

shhh
say the runners
sliding through the snow

smack
say the reigns
asking horse to go

ching ching
say the bells
on the harness and the sleigh

flap flap
say the wings
of the crows that show the way

peekaboo
say moon and clouds
thanks for coming out to play


© Mary Lee Hahn, 2021

Linda B. has a TIMEly post at TeacherDance for our Poetry Friday Roundup, and be sure to check in with Susan at Soul Blossom Living to share your NPM project and logo. She'll be doing the NPM project roundup this year because of some tech issues Jama's having. 

Poetry Friday -- Momentum

photo via Unsplash

Momentum

When you take your foot off the gas pedal

and roll to a stop in front of your house.

When you stop pumping your legs on the swing

and enjoy the ever-shortening trips back and forth.

When you stand still on your skates and just roll

feeling every pebble and sidewalk crack under your wheels.

When you sit at your desk and stare at the ceiling

and let go of the task at hand.

When you know there is a mountain of work to be done

and you deliberately choose not to do it.

Since when did loss of momentum

become equated with some kind of failure?

Today I will reclaim loss of momentum

as a form of pleasure.

I will savor the slow down and the pull back

the drifting and the regathering of strength so I can begin again

later.

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2021 (draft)

(totally a Lamipofri...but I like how it flowed out!)

Heidi has the Birthday Edition of the Poetry Friday roundup this week over at my (her) juicy little universe.

Poetry Friday -- Perspective

 

photo via Unsplash

Perspective

All my life you've been a dipper.

Just this morning, though,

as I wondered whether you were telling me

to pour out

or scoop up

you changed into a giraffe

your long curved neck

reaching across galaxies

so you could nibble on the juicy gibbous moon.

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2021

Obviously, that photo was not taken in Ohio, but it was the one I could find with the correct orientation of The Great Giraffe, as this constellation is now known (to me). 

The big ideas here are

    1. Look up

    2. Notice

    3. Wonder

    4. Be willing to think differently about everything you've been taught

Kat, at Kathryn Apel, has the Poetry Friday Roundup for this week.

    

Poetry Friday -- Remote Teaching

photo via Unsplash

Each day

I thread the needle of my heart

and stitch together

my quilt-square students

into a tapestry

of joy

and learning.

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2021

The WORK of teaching online does not relent. It's brutal. But I never could have imagined how deeply connected I would be to my students (and they to each other) without ever being together in person. There is joy every day. The joy of a student who has finally mastered the steps for long division, the joy of their creativity in creating websites, the joy of our little inside jokes (for example, the "Loading Loading Loading" song we sing). 

I'm joining the Poetry Sisters' metaphor challenge today, and I look forward to tomorrow, when I'll read through the Poetry Friday roundup at Karen Edmisten* before I go and get my second COVID shot.  

Poetry Friday -- Prioritizing

 

image via Unsplash

It's good to be back. I got overwhelmed by online teaching and a couple of other projects that landed on my plate. I felt like something had to give, and that something was Poetry Friday. All of my writing energy needed to be directed to the other projects. The time I spent on Saturday mornings with a cup of tea and the Poetry Friday roundup would be better spent on those projects or on school work.

Thank goodness for snow days. We've had the Gift of Time three Tuesdays in a row, and my pressure valve is back to a more livable level. (The house is also just a wee bit cleaner, too.)

And thank goodness for Lent. Although neither of us is particularly religious, a friend from college and I have been using Lent as a time to set goals and cheer each other on. My goal for this year is to write a small poem every day. One haiku, one acrostic, one Golden Shovel. Just a few words. But I want to -- I NEED to -- recover my writing life...and my connection to this Poetry Friday community. Hopefully, this Lenten recharge will give me the boost I need to do a Poetry Month project in April.

Yesterday, Audre Lorde was featured in the Google Doodle, and coincidentally, was featured in my daily ancestor acknowledgement. I explained "intersectionality" to my students for the first time in my career. Then we went on to watch the episode of QED With Dr. B "What is Race?" to provide common language and baseline information for next week when we tackle our social studies standards about culture, cultural diversity, and mainstream culture. I have to get past my fear of making mistakes in these conversations, because the conversations are too important NOT to have.

Your silence will not protect you. -- Audre Lorde

Talking openly with your

students about race is necessary. Silence

is fear, and fear will

keep you frozen. You will not

grow without risk, and neither will they. You can't protect

them from hard truths, so invite them to explore and learn along with you.

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2021 (draft)

Ruth has this week's Poetry Friday roundup at There is no such thing as a God-forsaken town.