Common Inspiration--Uncommon Creations.22

Irises by V. VanGogh
Painting in the Public Domain, from Wikimedia Commons

IRIS

When I close my eyes,

I can smell their spice,

see the one white --

"Fire and Ice" --

my mother's pride.

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2013

From Kevin (Kevin's Meandering Mind):

VanGogh had an ear for color

I have an eye for sound

He heard flowers blooming

I see music all around

When rainbow shades collide,

minor chords fall like stars -

he dipped into his palette

I strum on my guitar

And so you sit, wondering,

whether his ear heard what you see

while I keep my eyes open wide

for every note, a melody ...

©Kevin Hodgson, 2013

The podcast is here.

From Carol (Carol's Corner):

"Iris"

I find them one day

in a brown paper bag

in the teacher's lounge

bumpy white bulbs

withered brown leaves

stringish roots

covered in dry dirt.

A sign on the bag says

IRIS- FREE TO A GOOD HOME.

I am told not to take too many

they will take over my yard

I select ten.

I am not a gardener.

do not know that iris

like to be planted

in mid to late summer

in groups of two or three

four inches down

with nitrogen fertilizer

in half sun.

I throw them in the ground

and forget about them. 

The next summer

my paltry efforts

are rewarded

with a rainbow of richness-

kingly purple,

a deep velvety night black, 

tawny lion's mane gold

and palest lemon yellow.

All that loveliness

pulled from a brown paper bag

in the teacher's lounge. 

(c) Carol Wilcox, 2013 

From Cathy (Merely Day by Day):

Irises

I wait patiently

for the irises: 

indigo,

canary yellow,

coral,

to bloom 

in the flowerbeds

surrounding my house,

a sign of warmer days,

and a reminder

of my great-grandmother

whose hands first 

cared for them. 

©Cathy Mere, 2013

I'm going to mix up the pattern of media this week: Monday: Famous Art, Tuesday: Audio, Wednesday: Video, Thursday: Picture of the Year, Friday: Featured Picture (new category), Saturday: Potluck, Sunday: Animation.

The theme of my 2013 National Poetry Month Project is 

"Common Inspiration--Uncommon Creations." 

Each day in April, I will feature media from the Wikimedia Commons ("a database of 16,565,065 freely usable media files to which anyone can contribute") along with bits and pieces of my brainstorming and both unfinished and finished poems.

I will be using the media to inspire my poetry, but I am going to invite my students to use my daily media picks to inspire any original creation: poems, stories, comics, music, videos, sculptures, drawings...anything!

You are invited to join the fun, too! Leave a link to your creation in the comments and I'll add it to that day's post. I'll add pictures of my students' work throughout the month as well.

Common Inspiration--Uncommon Creations.21

By Silver Spoon (Own work) via Wikimedia Commons

I have a couple of students who are obsessed with Rubik's Cubes and who are AMAZING at solving this puzzle. They study videos, learn algorithms, and work with a timer to improve their times. This kind of thinking is completely outside my skill set. I am in awe of them. Here is a video one of these Rubik's Cube experts made of himself solving the cube in under 20 seconds:

Video used with the permission from mariojj123Cubing

RUBIK'S CUBE

Rotate layers -- twist twist spin --

Up and down -- twist twist spin --

Backwards, forwards -- twist twist spin --
It's solved! ...How did you do that?
Kindly repeat, but

Slower this time...

Clickclick twisttwist spinspin

Updownaround, faster than you can follow.
Believe it...because you see it happen before your very
Eyes.

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2013

From Kevin (Kevin's Meandering Mind):

"It only takes 20 moves,"
the boy whispered, as his father stared
at the young fingers
quickly swiveling and twisting the color tiles,
remixing the cube back towards its original and perfect state,
"and I can do it in less," the boy boasted,
barely looking at his hands in movement,
matching up colors in a blur of speed
and confidence.

Instead, the boy gazed intently at his father,
seeking a compliment, or comment,
or an acknowledgement at the very least,
but all he got was that dead-eyed look of an adult
suddenly realizing just how difficult it would be
to put his own fractured world back together in just
20 moves or less.

©Kevin Hodgson, 2013

From Linda (TeacherDance):

Mr. Rubik, thank you!
You gave magic to those
drowning
in two-dimensional school.
They got to show their talents
as their fingers twisted and turned-
all eyes watching.
The teacher turned away,
but his thoughts filled
with new ideas
of what might be. 

©Linda Baie, 2013


From Cathy (Merely Day by Day):

Rubik's Cube

I gave my cube a twist,

and then a turn or two,

the colors started mixing,

what was I to do?

I twisted more and more,

I tried to match a row,

but the harder that I tried,

the less I seemed to know.

Now I look upon my cube,

a tear drop I have cried,

because for the life of me,

I can't even match a side!

©Cathy Mere, 2013


From Carol (Carol's Corner):

"A Rubik's Cube Kind of Life"

The Rubik's cube,

Those six faces

red, yellow, blue,

green, white, orange,

a twist, a turn, a spin, 

in the hands of some 

the faces magically align.

In my hands

that crazy cube

doesn't quite work that way

I twist one way

sure that that will make a color align

but then another color

is misaligned

and I make one more twist

sure that I will create perfection

and then two faces are misaligned.

Sometimes life

is a lot like a Rubik's cube

all those facets- 

family, friends, finances,

job, house, God--

and I think if I just make one shift,

if I just get up half hour earlier,

or spend $20 less here or there,

or pray a little harder

just that one twist

and all of the faces will align.

Except they never do. 

(c) Carol Wilcox, 2013 

The theme of my 2013 National Poetry Month Project is 

"Common Inspiration--Uncommon Creations." 

Each day in April, I will feature media from the Wikimedia Commons ("a database of 16,565,065 freely usable media files to which anyone can contribute") along with bits and pieces of my brainstorming and both unfinished and finished poems.

I will be using the media to inspire my poetry, but I am going to invite my students to use my daily media picks to inspire any original creation: poems, stories, comics, music, videos, sculptures, drawings...anything!

You are invited to join the fun, too! Leave a link to your creation in the comments and I'll add it to that day's post. I'll add pictures of my students' work throughout the month as well.

Common Inspiration--Uncommon Creations.20

Map of San Antonio, Texas
(Image is in the Public Domain, from Wikimedia Commons)

For the third Saturday in a row, I am not at home, enjoying the leisure and luxury that is sometimes known as Saturday. 

I am in San Antonio, Texas at the International Reading Association conference. As I'm out and about today, I'll be thinking about San Antonio's past, the river that runs through it, and maybe those flat, dry plains that spread to the horizon from its edges. Maybe today's image is about the known and the unknown. So many possible directions to go with your writing, when you've got a map in mind.

winding ribbon of water

fed by natural springs

lined by hundred year-old cypress trees

polka-dotted by restaurant umbrellas

serenaded by mariachi bands

cruised by tour boats

beloved heart of San Antonio

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2013

From Linda (TeacherDance):

In My Mind’s Eye
This older map
of straight lines
hides the crooked stories
of the past:
in the houses
down the street,
next door,
across the way,
in the alley,
catty-cornered,
in the park,
third floor,
a street away,
at the second stop sign,
along the river,
just out of town.

I just need to look
and imagine.

© Linda Baie, 2013

From Kevin (Kevin's Meandering Mind):

Heading left,
I turn right;
North then south,
then easterly towards the wildest west,
until the present fades from view
into the past,
sepia-toned and yellowed with age.
The color drains
out of experience
as I dig deep into the stories
sunk down deep into the grids
of time.

©Kevin Hodgson, 2013


From Cathy (Merely Day by Day):

the river
ever moving
meanders
surrounded by trees
watching
listening to the stories
that envelop it
for centuries
it babbles
gurgles
yet keeps many secrets
the river
ever moving
yet eternally entrapped
within this bed

©Cathy Mere, 2013

From Carol (Carol's Corner):

"Travelling"

long before the sun
climbs over the horizon

we travel eastward
across the plains of Colorado
past the cornfields of
Nebraska and Iowa
over the wide brown Mississippi
into Illinois.

The map,
once a precisely
fractioned pamphlet
becomes an unwieldy mass
as it is recreased
refolded
then reopened

my stubby seven-year-old finger
wonderingly
traces our route
amazed that
I have journeyed this
so far into this
big wide world.

(C) Carol Wilcox, 2013

The theme of my 2013 National Poetry Month Project is 

"Common Inspiration--Uncommon Creations." 

Each day in April, I will feature media from the Wikimedia Commons ("a database of 16,565,065 freely usable media files to which anyone can contribute") along with bits and pieces of my brainstorming and both unfinished and finished poems.

I will be using the media to inspire my poetry, but I am going to invite my students to use my daily media picks to inspire any original creation: poems, stories, comics, music, videos, sculptures, drawings...anything!

You are invited to join the fun, too! Leave a link to your creation in the comments and I'll add it to that day's post. I'll add pictures of my students' work throughout the month as well.

Common Inspiration--Uncommon Creations.19

Ocean Waves, by Luftrum via Wikimedia Commons

SWIMMING POOL MEMORY

I remember the day I learned to float on my back --
      lying in the middle of the pool's chlorine ocean
      listening to the sound of the water in my ears
      looking up at the blue blue Colorado sky
      feeling the cradle of the water rock me back and forth

I didn't hear them yelling at me to come out of the pool --
      lessons long over
      the other children wrapped in towels
      my own reverie broken
      feeling a loss when I climbed from water to land

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2013


From Kevin (Kevin's Meandering Mind):

She was always happiest
sitting by the window of the house
overlooking the Atlantic Ocean,
knotty hands knitting
as she listened to the rhythm of the tides
coming and going, like the years,
just like the years, coming and going,
and sometimes, I'd see her eyes close,
as if she were floating away for a few minutes
towards something better.

©Kevin Hodgson, 2013

The podcast is here.


From Carol (Carol's Corner):

“Underwater”

I am five.
Marge Westbay tells me to sit
on the steps at the pool
until it is my turn
to swim with her.

I mean to sit there
But then somehow
I am underwater
moving weightlessly
through a strange and magical
aqua green world

enchanted
by the dappled sunlight
dancing
on the bottom
of the pool

The lifeguard
drags me to the top
sits my bottom hard
on the edge of the pool
and scolds me
for moving toward that magic.

© Carol Wilcox, 2013

Irene has the Poetry Friday roundup at Live Your Poem...  Hopefully this week I'll be able to visit the roundup and catch up on some of the amazing projects others are doing this month!

The theme of my 2013 National Poetry Month Project is 

"Common Inspiration--Uncommon Creations." 

Each day in April, I will feature media from the Wikimedia Commons ("a database of 16,565,065 freely usable media files to which anyone can contribute") along with bits and pieces of my brainstorming and both unfinished and finished poems.

I will be using the media to inspire my poetry, but I am going to invite my students to use my daily media picks to inspire any original creation: poems, stories, comics, music, videos, sculptures, drawings...anything!

You are invited to join the fun, too! Leave a link to your creation in the comments and I'll add it to that day's post. I'll add pictures of my students' work throughout the month as well.

Common Inspiration--Uncommon Creations.18

Ansel Adams [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

ANSEL ADAMS IN CANYON DE CHELLY

meandering 

eroding

grain by grain

rising

towering 

from the plain

lighting

shadowing

changeable sky

framing 

shooting

artistic eye

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2013


From Carol (Carol's Corner):

"Canyon"

Great canyon,

shaped

by the crushing,

grinding 

wearing

constancy

of movement.

you

who have learned 

the secret

of bending,

circumnavigating

and pressing

forward

you

who so clearly 

comprehend

pattern and layer

shadow and light

clarity and cloud

You

who know

great beauty

derived

from great adversity

teach me the secrets

of your

rock canyon

endurance.

(c) Carol Wilcox, 2013

From Kevin (Kevin's Meandering Mind):

You're out of breath,
chasing sunspots around this mountain
as if you were lighter on your feet
than a rainbow,
or faster than the fingers of clouds
casting shadows.

©Kevin Hodgson, 2013

The theme of my 2013 National Poetry Month Project is 

"Common Inspiration--Uncommon Creations." 

Each day in April, I will feature media from the Wikimedia Commons ("a database of 16,565,065 freely usable media files to which anyone can contribute") along with bits and pieces of my brainstorming and both unfinished and finished poems.

I will be using the media to inspire my poetry, but I am going to invite my students to use my daily media picks to inspire any original creation: poems, stories, comics, music, videos, sculptures, drawings...anything!

You are invited to join the fun, too! Leave a link to your creation in the comments and I'll add it to that day's post. I'll add pictures of my students' work throughout the month as well.

Common Inspiration--Uncommon Creations.17

By exfordy (Brian Snelson) via Wikimedia Commons

CRAZY

It's a crazy life --

I'm stuck in a zoo.

What else can I do --

I'll laugh!

It's a crazy life --

I have no real choice, but

I've still got my voice, so

I'll laugh!

It's a crazy life -- 

I can't spread my wings,

I've no freedom: that stings.

I laugh?

It's a crazy life --

look me right in the eye.

Can't you see that I cry?

It's no laugh.

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2013

From Kevin (Kevin's Meandering Mind):

Don't laugh

this could be you

stuck here with me

inside this zoo

where all we do

is prance and wait

for someone else

to navigate

we situate

ourselves, here,

while dreaming only

to disappear

I fear, though,

we're here for ages

tossing words

across our cages.

- the podcast: http://vocaroo.com/i/s1nv8LMwFVET

©Kevin Hodgson, 2013

From Carol (Carol's Corner):

Some things 

are not 

supposed to be.

Parrots,

even laughing parrots,

are not 

supposed to be

trapped

in wire cages.

Moviegoers

are not 

supposed to be 

trapped 

in theaters

hiding as 

their worlds implode.

Six-year-olds

are not supposed

to be trapped

in school bathrooms

"waiting 

for the good people

to come."

Celebrants

are not supposed

to be trapped

in a rain

of bb's and broken glass

blood pooling around them.

And none of us

are supposed 

to be trapped 

in a world

where we are

the audience

always waiting

for the next act 

in an

endless tragedy. 

Some things

are not 

supposed to be.

(c) Carol Wilcox, 2013 

The theme of my 2013 National Poetry Month Project is 

"Common Inspiration--Uncommon Creations." 

Each day in April, I will feature media from the Wikimedia Commons ("a database of 16,565,065 freely usable media files to which anyone can contribute") along with bits and pieces of my brainstorming and both unfinished and finished poems.

I will be using the media to inspire my poetry, but I am going to invite my students to use my daily media picks to inspire any original creation: poems, stories, comics, music, videos, sculptures, drawings...anything!

You are invited to join the fun, too! Leave a link to your creation in the comments and I'll add it to that day's post. I'll add pictures of my students' work throughout the month as well.

Common Inspiration--Uncommon Creations.16

via Wikimedia Commons

FENCES

I've been climbing fences

(and being hurt by them)

since I was a kid.

Broke my arm on one.

Snagged my right knee on barbed wire.

I have the scar to show for it.

I don't much like fences.

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2013

From Kevin (Kevin's Meandering Mind):

Wrought-iron strong knots
twined to hold tight, day and night;
We stand, hand in hand.

©Kevin Hodgson, 2013

From Carol (Carol's Corner):

"A Poem About Barbed Wire"

I might have a poem about barley
or barges or barrels or bards
I might have a poem about barbeques
But I don't have a poem about barbed wire.

I might have a poem about Barbados
or maybe the Barbary Coast,
Those places with beaches and barnacles
where barbed wire's usually a ghost.

I might write a poem about bargains
or barbells or Barbie or Ken
Perhaps I've a poem about Bar-Bar-bara-Ann
But those barbed wire poems ain't no gems.

I might have a poem about barn burners,
barnstormers, barnyards, or barn doors,
But those poems about barbed wire fences
Are wadded-up trash on the floor.

Poems about barbed wire fences
are poignant or raunchy or wise,
I've written me poems about many ol' things
But barbed wire's one I ain't tried!

(C) Carol Wilcox, 2013

The theme of my 2013 National Poetry Month Project is 

"Common Inspiration--Uncommon Creations." 

Each day in April, I will feature media from the Wikimedia Commons ("a database of 16,565,065 freely usable media files to which anyone can contribute") along with bits and pieces of my brainstorming and both unfinished and finished poems.

I will be using the media to inspire my poetry, but I am going to invite my students to use my daily media picks to inspire any original creation: poems, stories, comics, music, videos, sculptures, drawings...anything!

You are invited to join the fun, too! Leave a link to your creation in the comments and I'll add it to that day's post. I'll add pictures of my students' work throughout the month as well.

2013 Kidlitosphere Progressive Poem

This poem, the brainchild of Irene Latham of the blog Live Your Poem, began 14 bloggers ago, and has grown since then, one line per blogger at a time (see sidebar for complete list). Today, smack dab in the middle of the poem, it's my turn.


When you listen to your footsteps
the words become music and
the rhythm that you’re rapping gets your fingers tapping, too.
Your pen starts dancing across the page
a private pirouette, a solitary samba until
smiling, you’re beguiling as your love comes shining through.

Pause a moment in your dreaming, hear the whispers
of the words, one dancer to another, saying
Listen, that’s our cue! Mind your meter. Find your rhyme.
Ignore the trepidation while you jitterbug and jive.
Arm in arm, toe to toe, words begin to wiggle and flow
as your heart starts singing let your mind keep swinging

From life’s trapeze, like a clown on the breeze.
Swinging upside down, throw and catch new sounds--

Take a risk, try a trick; break a sweat: safety net? 

Common Inspiration--Uncommon Creations.15

By ESO/Yuri Beletsky via Wikimedia Commons

IT'S NOT WHAT YOU THINK

My laser is non-violent --

it does the stars 

no harm.

It 's not a blast, 

just helps us watch

the far galactic core.

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2013

From Carol (Carol's Corner):

"Quantifiable?"

Let there by light

the astronomer proclaims

and a laser beam

shoots from earth

to measure 

heaven's vastness.

Creator God

chuckles

as He watches

miniscule humans

attempt to quantify

the work of His

mighty hands.

(C) Carol Wilcox, 2013

From Kevin (Kevin's Meandering Mind)

Riding lights;

writing nights;

The sky falls down

in a gentle rain of heavenly sights.

We gather hands and dance

amidst the possibilities

of chance that somewhere,

perhaps unaware,

someone else is looking out as we look in,

our eyes both extended into the stars

even as our words get scribbled out,

near and far, letter by letter, 

line by line,

in this data-strewn world of virtual space.

©Kevin Hodgson, 2013

The podcast of Kevin's poem is here.

Protest

Scientists announced at audio lab
a connection leaving today.
They are using a laser beam to nab
electricity from the Milky Way.

They haven’t said, but I’m wondering why
we can’t use the power at home.
I hope that our stars stay bright in the sky
And the scientists stop laser roam.

© Linda Baie, 2013

The explanation of this photo, which was the Wikimedia Commons Picture of the Year in 2010: "In mid-August 2010 ESO Photo Ambassador Yuri Beletsky snapped this photo at ESO’s Paranal Observatory, Chile. A group of astronomers were observing the centre of the Milky Way using the laser guide star facility at Yepun, one of the four Unit Telescopes of the Very Large Telescope (VLT).

Yepun’s laser beam crosses the southern sky and creates an artificial star at an altitude of 90 km high in the Earth's mesosphere. The Laser Guide Star (LGS) is part of the VLT’s adaptive optics system and is used as a reference to correct the blurring effect of the atmosphere on images. The colour of the laser is precisely tuned to energise a layer of sodium atoms found in one of the upper layers of the atmosphere — one can recognise the familiar colour of sodium street lamps in the colour of the laser. This layer of sodium atoms is thought to be a leftover from meteorites entering the Earth’s atmosphere. When excited by the light from the laser, the atoms start glowing, forming a small bright spot that can be used as an artificial reference star for the adaptive optics. Using this technique, astronomers can obtain sharper observations. For example, when looking towards the centre of our Milky Way, researchers can better monitor the galactic core, where a central supermassive black hole, surrounded by closely orbiting stars, is swallowing gas and dust."

We'll follow the same pattern of media this week as the last two: Monday: Picture of the Year, Tuesday: Featured Picture (new category), Wednesday: Video, Thursday: Famous Art, Friday: Audio, Saturday: Potluck, Sunday: Animation.

The theme of my 2013 National Poetry Month Project is 

"Common Inspiration--Uncommon Creations." 

Each day in April, I will feature media from the Wikimedia Commons ("a database of 16,565,065 freely usable media files to which anyone can contribute") along with bits and pieces of my brainstorming and both unfinished and finished poems.

I will be using the media to inspire my poetry, but I am going to invite my students to use my daily media picks to inspire any original creation: poems, stories, comics, music, videos, sculptures, drawings...anything!

You are invited to join the fun, too! Leave a link to your creation in the comments and I'll add it to that day's post. I'll add pictures of my students' work throughout the month as well.

A Wordless Book for All Cat Lovers

Franki and I were just talking about how much we both love wordless books. The possibilities for use in the classroom are endless, spanning from enjoyment and appreciation of the ability of the artist to communicate the story without words, right through differentiation for students who are striving text readers and ELLs.

I have been a fan of the Simon's Cat videos on YouTube since the first one came out in 2008. You've never seen them? Okay, take a minute and watch this:





Simon Tofield, the cartoonist, does so much with gestures, facial expressions, and, of course, a deep and personal knowledge of cat behavior.

Tofield, who struggled with dyslexia as a child and who was constantly urged to quit drawing and focus on getting a "proper job," created the first animation when teaching himself to use some animation software. He is now adding new videos to the Simon's Cat website on a monthly basis, and there are all kinds of Simon's Cat items for purchase, a soft toy and a newspaper strip. And there are books.

Simon's Cat in Kitten Chaos  

by Simon Tofield

Akashic Books, on shelves April 16, 2013

review copy provided by the publisher

In this book, Simon finds a kitten, abandoned in a rainstorm in a cardboard box. He brings it home and every manner of chaos ensues. There is the getting-to-know-you phase, the competing-for-attention phase, the I-terrorize-you-you-terrorize-me phase, and finally, the I-guess-we-can-get-along phase.

As much as this book is about a single-cat family with a new kitten, this can probably also be read as a single-child family with a new sibling. Kids will be able to relate; parents (and cat owners) will giggle, chortle, and sometimes laugh until tears stream down their faces.

Move over, Garfield. Simon's Cat is the new funny fat cat in town!