Sunday, April 28, 2013

Screen Free Week, Concussions and Stuff...



A Year of Reading will be taking part in Screen Free Week 2013. This is a week for turning off screens to find more time to read, play, hang out with family, etc. Our Screen Free Week will begin after Mary Lee's National Poetry Month series ends on April 30.  We will be off the blog from May 1-May 5.

Franki will have an extended Screen Free Week. Due to a never-ending concussion, she will most likely be unable blog for 4-6 weeks.  Mary Lee will cover on her own for a while (as she has been for weeks) as Franki takes time to recover.

Enjoy your time during Screen Free Week!

Common Inspiration--Uncommon Creations.28



Photos by Gideon Pisanty (Gidip) גדעון פיזנטי, from Wikimedia Commons

This photographer has five photos of this female long-horned bee collecting nectar and pollinating this flower. Yesterday's photo prompted poems about work, and perhaps today's will, too. That seems fitting, because today is Workers' Memorial Day, "an international day of remembrance and action for workers killed, disabled, injured or made unwell by their work."


BEES

clamber
climb
pry

nectar 
pollen
sky

home 
hive
fly

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2013





My leg gets stuck
at every opening
I crawl into
so that I must always
ask for help
before returning
home.

©Kevin Hodgson, 2013


From Margaret (Reflections on the Teche):


fly
buzz
land

flower
sweet
syrup

busy
happy
bee 


©Margaret Simon, 2013


From Linda (TeacherDance):

We appreciate
the time the bees
are busy buzzy, 
making their knees
fat and golden,
pollen fuzzy.

©Linda Baie, 2013


From Carol (Carol's Corner):

"ABC's of Honeybees"

Apian adventurers
busily buzzing
ceaselessly collecting
diving and delving
ever exploring
fragrant flowers
groping gardens
hoping honey's
ingredients are inside.

joyfully journeying
keenly kavorting
looking leads to
miraculous meadow of
never-ending nectar

obviously the only option is to
pull from petals make
ready for recycling
suck into second stomach
through tubular tongue
unload and use
working wings to dehydrate
extract any extras

zweeeeeet!

(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.

Saturday, April 27, 2013

Common Inspiration--Uncommon Creations.27

Breakfast Break of the Scaffolders
Bundesarchiv, Bild 102-09409 / CC-BY-SA

Work and rest. That's what's on my mind today.


The trick 
is learning to rest
in the midst 
of your work.

That,

and balance.

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2013



From Linda (TeacherDance):


Breaktime (in the clouds)

high time for breakfast
did you bring the news
I have a bag of donuts
for munching with the views

I can balance here on top
while I take my break
just don’t want the wind
to come and give a little shake

©Linda Baie, 2013


From Carol (Carol's Corner):


"Precarious"

Look
the view
from up here
head brushing clouds
fingertips cold steel

please
be still
don't lean much
because my perch
is precarious

your
courage
is making
me a little
uncomfortable.

(c) Carol Wilcox, 2013



My grandfather worked this place,
with brothers and cousins
and fellow blue-collar heroes,
riveting steel into the skyline
as dreamed by those down below ...

I listen to Springsteen -
with chords and lyrics
and stories of working-class men -
driving this steel on wheels
to spend hours in those towers ...

At lunch, I study the skyline,
watch the clouds,
imagine the dangerous balancing act
my grandfather's crew performed
each day, every day,
as they built this city, 
from the bottom up.

©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.

Friday, April 26, 2013

Common Inspiration--Uncommon Creations.26

Creative Commons photo by Brocken Inaglory. The image was edited by user:Alvesgaspar
From Wikimedia Commons Featured Images: Natural Phenomena

BUBBLE

thin 
skin:
just
water 
and 
soap

clear sphere:
a vessel 
of hope

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2013



Hold me gently:
fingertips touching tender skin;
for inside,
I remain invisible
and vulnerable to the way things have been.
I float above this world,
in a cloak of color
but my rainbow drains easily,
so be gentle.

©Kevin Hodgson, 2013



From Carol (Carol's Corner):

"Soap Bubble"

A gentle puff
rainbow carriage
appears
dancing
shimmering
glimmering
inviting me
to journey
to a magical
far away
fairy world.

(c) Carol Wilcox, 2013


From Margaret (Reflections on the Teche):

To see life
in a bubble
like a looking glass
transparent
spherical
silky
slide across
slip inside
pop
fly!

©Margaret Simon, 2013


From Lisa (steps and staircases):


and a haiku:

Bubble reflecting
my home, my world, me; this day
an island in time

©Lisa


From Cathy (Merely Day by Day):

Bubbles

Bubble, Bubble,
blow, blow.

Bubble, bubble,
grow, grow.

Bubble, bubble,
soar, soar.

Bubble, bubble,
more, more.

Bubble, bubble,
fly, fly,

Bubble, bubble,
high, high,

Bubble, bubble,
drop, drop,

Bubble, bubble,
Pop!

Pop!

©Cathy Mere, 2013



Laura Purdie Salas has the Poetry Friday roundup this week at Writing the World for Kids.

Here is the other media I've featured this week (and, of course, the poems the media inspired--poems by me, and by the three or four other people who have been playing along with me this month):

Thursday: Photo of Broadway Tower
Wednesday: Video of a Sushi Train 
Tuesday: Sound of Birdsong
Monday: "Irises" by Vincent VanGogh
Sunday: Animation of a Rubik's Cube (edited to add a video made by one of my students of him solving the cube in under 20 seconds)
Saturday: Old Map of San Antonio, TX




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.

Thursday, April 25, 2013

Common Inspiration--Uncommon Creations.25

Broadway Tower, Cotswolds, England (Wikimedia Commons Picture of the Year for 2007)
Creative Commons photo by Newton2 (cropped by Yummifruitbat
)

FAIRY TALE

Once upon a long ago,
I stood before a tower.
Magic blew in from the east;
the hero met the coward.

Obstacles were overcome,
the happily came after.
Evil withered, crumbled, turned
the page to the next chapter.

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2013




I light a match
to this cardboard castle
and burn the story to the ground,
finally free after so many years
of the roles into which we have been thrust:
the hero in shining armor
the damsel in distress
the fool juggling lives before the fickle king.
So now begins the new adventure,
free from the shackles of past
riding hard and fast 
into the fading sun.

©Kevin Hodgson, 2013

The podcast is here.



From Carol (Carol's Corner):

“Castle Dream”

the day is all about blue sky
and green grass and
a few wispy clouds and
i will march right up
to the enormous stone castle
after crossing the moat
filled with hungry alligators
i will lift the lions head knocker
bang authoritatively
on the heavy wooden door
and proclaim
i am a long lost princess
here to meet my prince
please let me into
and they lived happily ever after…

(c) Carol Wilcox, 2013


From Linda (TeacherDance):


A Plea

Will you come to my castle fair?
I am so awfully lonely there.
‘Tis sitting tall at the top of a hill
and surrounding land is bereft and still.
No forest primeval’s near this hold;
no witches or dragons to shiver you cold.
Just me in the upper turrets of stone
wanting, oh wanting to call you home.

©Linda Baie, 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.

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Common Inspiration--Uncommon Creations.24



Moving Sushi by Deror Avi on Wikimedia Commons


In science we learned about food chains
but clearly that does not apply
to sushi, which comes on a food train
chew-chewing as it passes by.

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2013



The predator hunts,
biding his time,
as his dinner cavorts
with others in line.

One might think
there were hours to wait,
as dinner flows by
on a small blue plate.

Another night
with too many choices,
the predator slinks home
in his stomach, the voices

call out for some meat,
some rice, some fish,
something of substance
from the small moving dish.

But, alas, that won't be
so he takes out his bread
spreads peanut butter and jelly
and slinks off to bed.

©Kevin Hodgson, 2013

The podcast is here.


From Linda (TeacherDance):

With Apologies to Joyce Kilmer

I think I never want to see
a sushi train click-clack by me,

a train who only runs to serve
those with quick hands and steely nerve,

a train full of makimono and
futomaki - nori the outside band.

I will accompany friends who wish
to grab each and every tasty dish

But I’ll sit calmly with spring rolls and tea.
These trains aren’t made for fools like me.

©Linda Baie, 2013


From Carol (Carol's Corner):


"Sushi Train"

The sushi bar
in the neighborhood 
grocery store
opened to great fanfare.
Chefs banging gongs,
free samples
shouted invitations, 
to come try this fishy delight.

And I watched 
my neighbors- 
carts loaded with
pepsi, hot dogs, white bread, 
tortillas, enchiladas, frijoles,
chitlings, collard greens, mac and cheese,
crowd around
to partake
in a whole new world 
of sashimi, wasabi, and squid.

(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.

Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Common Inspiration--Uncommon Creations.23






"Bird songs recorded in the forest of Fontainebleau (France). You can especially hear some wrens." 
The author, barracuda1983, has released this work into the Public Domain. It can be found on Wikimedia Commons.


BIRDSONG

The leader of the early morning bird walk was a quiet-spoken angular man.
He led us across dew-soaked grass to the forest's edge.

Robins and Bluejays were spotted in the October sky;
Carolina Wrens sang way too loudly for their diminutive size.

Rarely were there surprises.
I remember mostly the comforting sameness of the walks.

Sassafras leaves, worm castings, 
and the sound of the woods waking up with a song in its heart.

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2013




I find peace and solace in this space
with only the birds singing
their musical refrains.

When no one is watching or aware,
I join in, too,
meshing my harsh voice with theirs.

We remix nature together,
them and I, here in these woods,
until only the sunset quiets us down.

As the moon rises it skyward arc,
the birds fall silent, to sleep,
yet still, I sing into starlight.

©Kevin Hodgson, 2013



From Linda (TeacherDance):

Back Home

Rasp and chatter
Carolina Wren
calls me
back to my forest friends
teakettle, teakettle
cheer cheer
cardinal flashing
spring is here

alive with chicka-dee dee
leafy-damp smell
walking in my forest
all is well

©Linda Baie, 2013



From Steve (Inside the Dog):

Where?

Where does
the birds’ song
come from?
Of course,
we know:
from deep inside
and past
the narrow
cords of sinew,
a drawn breath
squeezed tight,
a tiny explosion
of must
flung to the sky.
These things we
know. But
where does
the birds’ song
come from?
And how can
it alight so precisely
in the heart?

© Steve Peterson, 2013


From Carol (Carol's Corner):


frigid april morning
red breasted robin huddles
saving songs for spring


busy shovels throw
piles of wet slushy snow
no bird songs today


Hey Mr. Redbreast
ignore this swirling gray whiteness
sing your song of spring


welcome mr. robin
glad you brought your own sunshine
to this cloudy day


Three April blizzards
long to listen to bird songs
not clanking shovels


Mr. Weatherman
we should be planting flowers
not shoveling snow


One more blizzard then
we shut the door on winter
and welcome bird's song


Bird choir ignores
howling April blizzard to
sing spring aria.


April showers bring
May flowers, April blizzards
bring grumpy poets 

©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.

Monday, April 22, 2013

Happy Earth Day!

by Hugh Macleod at GapingVoid

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




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.

Sunday, April 21, 2013

Common Inspiration--Uncommon Creations.21

PocketCube (small)

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




"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.