Month: August 2022

National Trail Mix Day – a great way to plan for stamina for the journey! The featured poem today in Dictionary for a Better World as I delve into the word exercise is a Golden Shovel, which uses a striking line from Maya Angelou, nothing will work unless you do, at the end of each line that reads vertically. Here is a poem that I wrote that appears in the book Rhyme and Rhythm: Poems for Student Athletes.

A Golden Shovel Tribute to Athletes

some days when the body resists – make

room to persist, cheering yourself through the hoops

in slumps, jump higher to tackle

your hurdles, to bat

heart-stopping grand-slam homeruns

for the love of the game, with

the grit of a true athlete – discover your

unimaginable power to accomplish the impossible

This striking line in bold is taken from Mary Oliver’s poem “Evidence” – Keep some room in your heart for the unimaginable. I placed my striking line at the beginning of each line.

*During the months of August and September on days when I’m not participating in the Open Write at www.ethicalela.com, I will be writing in response to the pages of Dictionary for a Better World: Poems, Quotes, and Anecdotes from A to Z by Irene Latham and Charles Waters, illustrated by Mehrdokht Amini. The poems, poetic forms, narratives, quotes, and calls to action to make one small difference might be just the medicine my world – or the whole world – needs. I’ll be inviting insights in the form of an immersion into a 10-minute-a-day book study (just long enough to read the page, reflect, and connect). If you don’t have a copy of the book, you can order one here on Amazon. I invite you to join me in making August and September a time of deep personal book friendship. A few teachers will be following the blog and engaging in classroom readings and responses to the text. So come along! Let’s turn the pages into intentionally crafting beautiful change together.

On National Grief Awareness Day, compassion is one way to express our kindness and concern to those who are experiencing loss. I like the way Irene Latham explains that compassion doesn’t have to be a grand gesture, but can be a small moment of connection with someone to let them know that our thoughts are with them. She shares that when her father died, people reached out to her – and she appreciated their kind words and memories.

Like Irene, I remember feeling so grateful to those who reached out when my mother died in December 2015. They brought food as we grieved – and while every dish was wonderful and special because loving hands had prepared it, I remember two sisters who brought a pot of homemade vegetable soup and corn muffins and commented, “It isn’t much, but it’s what we had, and we wanted to do something.” That pot of vegetable soup was my favorite meal we received. It was simple, it was given with a heart of love, and it warmed my body and my soul!

*During the months of August and September on days when I’m not participating in the Open Write at www.ethicalela.com, I will be writing in response to the pages of Dictionary for a Better World: Poems, Quotes, and Anecdotes from A to Z by Irene Latham and Charles Waters, illustrated by Mehrdokht Amini. The poems, poetic forms, narratives, quotes, and calls to action to make one small difference might be just the medicine my world – or the whole world – needs. I’ll be inviting insights in the form of an immersion into a 10-minute-a-day book study (just long enough to read the page, reflect, and connect). If you don’t have a copy of the book, you can order one here on Amazon. I invite you to join me in making August and September a time of deep personal book friendship. A few teachers will be following the blog and engaging in classroom readings and responses to the text. So come along! Let’s turn the pages into intentionally crafting beautiful change together.

According to Hoyle Day reminds us all that it’s important to play by the rules and abide by expectations of particular situations. In Dictionary for a Better World, the call to action today challenges me to look over the question poem and select one that applies to my online life.

I like the question that asks what if responding in anger you wait ten minutes, an hour, a day? I like that question not only for responding to comments or posts online, but also in person. Sometimes just that time to process a situation from another perspective warrants an entirely different response than we might initially want to give.

One other question I might add to the poem is whether social media is an effective audience for seeking resolution to issues that raise concern Student loan debt forgiveness has become the most recent divisive issue in recent news. What if we all asked whether a post is designed to target those in power to make a change or whether the post would be to join the fray and jump into the feeding frenzy?

Which question sparks your interest for further netiquette consideration?

*During the months of August and September on days when I’m not participating in the Open Write at www.ethicalela.com, I will be writing in response to the pages of Dictionary for a Better World: Poems, Quotes, and Anecdotes from A to Z by Irene Latham and Charles Waters, illustrated by Mehrdokht Amini. The poems, poetic forms, narratives, quotes, and calls to action to make one small difference might be just the medicine my world – or the whole world – needs. I’ll be inviting insights in the form of an immersion into a 10-minute-a-day book study (just long enough to read the page, reflect, and connect). If you don’t have a copy of the book, you can order one here on Amazon. I invite you to join me in making August and September a time of deep personal book friendship. A few teachers will be following the blog and engaging in classroom readings and responses to the text. So come along! Let’s turn the pages into intentionally crafting beautiful change together.

In savoring the moments of National Thoughtful Day, I dwell on the idea that the mindfulness of spirit is necessary for connecting deliberate thoughts and actions. Merriam-Webster defines mindfulness as a mental state achieved by focusing one’s awareness on the present moment, while calmly acknowledging and accepting one’s feelings, thoughts, and bodily sensations.

I think mindfulness happens most intensely for me as I travel. My husband and I were listening to Travels with Charley by John Steinbeck yesterday as we drove along the interstates of three southeastern states. Somewhere along Chapter 3 or 4, he writes, “For a man has to have feelings and words before he can come close to thought.” I hit the 30-second rewind on that one, listened again, and pondered it awhile. Most thoughts require words, I believe, since we think in language, but I’m not entirely in agreement just yet that feelings are a necessary part of the lineup. Could logic – as a judge weighing evidence and rendering a decision, for example – be substituted for feelings?

But the type of mindfulness that I think we most often seek requires both intention and surrender to experience moments in their pure organic essence.

That is why today, I’m giving deep thought to my Kentucky roots. As a child, I lived in a rural town in this Kentucky while my father completed seminary at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville. I spoke with Dad on the phone yesterday, and he encouraged me to take some back roads to see some of the most breathtaking countryside views this nation has to offer. And so today, as I seek a heightened state of mindfulness, I’ll drive along the rural byways and bask in the beauty of God’s paintbrush with its unending spectrum of color and wonder – and I’ll give thanks for the spiritual experience of tarrying along these scenic routes!

*During the months of August and September on days when I’m not participating in the Open Write at www.ethicalela.com, I will be writing in response to the pages of Dictionary for a Better World: Poems, Quotes, and Anecdotes from A to Z by Irene Latham and Charles Waters, illustrated by Mehrdokht Amini. The poems, poetic forms, narratives, quotes, and calls to action to make one small difference might be just the medicine my world – or the whole world – needs. I’ll be inviting insights in the form of an immersion into a 10-minute-a-day book study (just long enough to read the page, reflect, and connect). If you don’t have a copy of the book, you can order one here on Amazon. I invite you to join me in making August and September a time of deep personal book friendship. A few teachers will be following the blog and engaging in classroom readings and responses to the text. So come along! Let’s turn the pages into intentionally crafting beautiful change together.

Sometimes we all need freedom to do something just because….so on National Just Because Day, today’s a day to celebrate! To take a drive through the rural countryside on the way to visit family in another state, to eat a creme-filled donut, to nap in a hammock with a book. Today’s poetry form shared in Dictionary for a Better World is a Cento, a poem created from lines borrowed from other poems. I often call these mashed potato poems, since they’re like a mix-tape of eclectic songs that all come together to make great sense to the listener….or not. I keep a bank of Cento lines written on large craft sticks in a decorative box on my bookshelf, just waiting to find their way into new poems! Try your hand at a Cento today, and share in the comments below!

*During the months of August and September on days when I’m not participating in the Open Write at www.ethicalela.com, I will be writing in response to the pages of Dictionary for a Better World: Poems, Quotes, and Anecdotes from A to Z by Irene Latham and Charles Waters, illustrated by Mehrdokht Amini. The poems, poetic forms, narratives, quotes, and calls to action to make one small difference might be just the medicine my world – or the whole world – needs. I’ll be inviting insights in the form of an immersion into a 10-minute-a-day book study (just long enough to read the page, reflect, and connect). If you don’t have a copy of the book, you can order one here on Amazon. I invite you to join me in making August and September a time of deep personal book friendship. A few teachers will be following the blog and engaging in classroom readings and responses to the text. So come along! Let’s turn the pages into intentionally crafting beautiful change together.

August 26 is National Women’s Equality Day. Today’s poetic form is a Renga – – the first poet writes the first three lines in seventeen syllables, followed by two lines with seven syllables each written by a second poet. This can be a collaborative effort between two or the same poet can write the entire poem.

I’m going to write a stanza of seventeen syllables, and I invite you to add two lines containing seven syllables per line to finish the Renga.

to better the world

eliminate privilege

remove pedestals

*During the months of August and September on days when I’m not participating in the Open Write at www.ethicalela.com, I will be writing in response to the pages of Dictionary for a Better World: Poems, Quotes, and Anecdotes from A to Z by Irene Latham and Charles Waters, illustrated by Mehrdokht Amini. The poems, poetic forms, narratives, quotes, and calls to action to make one small difference might be just the medicine my world – or the whole world – needs. I’ll be inviting insights in the form of an immersion into a 10-minute-a-day book study (just long enough to read the page, reflect, and connect). If you don’t have a copy of the book, you can order one here on Amazon. I invite you to join me in making August and September a time of deep personal book friendship. A few teachers will be following the blog and engaging in classroom readings and responses to the text. So come along! Let’s turn the pages into intentionally crafting beautiful change together.

To give a nod to National Kiss and Make Up Day, I’m reflecting on the word Forgiveness in Dictionary for a Better World. The poetic form today is a Quatrain, which is a poem or stanza of four lines with a rhyme scheme such as aabb or abab or abcb, or not rhymed at all.

Forgiveness

Forgiveness: the keys to freeing the soul

Forgiveness: a weight-lifted mental toll

Forgiveness: a stain-erased stone-throwing judge

Forgiveness: a love-choosing heart to budge

*During the months of August and September on days when I’m not participating in the Open Write at www.ethicalela.com, I will be writing in response to the pages of Dictionary for a Better World: Poems, Quotes, and Anecdotes from A to Z by Irene Latham and Charles Waters, illustrated by Mehrdokht Amini. The poems, poetic forms, narratives, quotes, and calls to action to make one small difference might be just the medicine my world – or the whole world – needs. I’ll be inviting insights in the form of an immersion into a 10-minute-a-day book study (just long enough to read the page, reflect, and connect). If you don’t have a copy of the book, you can order one here on Amazon. I invite you to join me in making August and September a time of deep personal book friendship. A few teachers will be following the blog and engaging in classroom readings and responses to the text. So come along! Let’s turn the pages into intentionally crafting beautiful change together.

Our host today at www.ethicalela.com is Scott McCloskey, whose bio alone is worth the visit. He inspires us today to write I Was Today Years Old poems, astounding revelations we have learned only recently.

Duds

I was three months ago years old

invited to a retirement party
where everyone was bringing 
scratch-off lottery tickets

I phoned my colleague:
I’m buying a five-dollar gift ticket~  
want one?

she did

but wait, she said, when I got back
to the office with two tickets,
what if they’re actual winners
and we give them away?!? 

we thought of her six kids’ tuition
and the cars they all need
and her burned garage roof
where the lightning struck it 
and mourned a little 
for the untold fortune 
under the silver gunk

another colleague overheard us

all you have to do is scan them
to see if they’re winners

and so she did

satisfied they were duds,
we dropped them in the
congratulatory gift bin
then
cheered with great hope
as she scratched away

Tomorrow I return to the journey through Dictionary for a Better World

*During the months of August and September on days when I’m not participating in the Open Write at www.ethicalela.com, I will be writing in response to the pages of Dictionary for a Better World: Poems, Quotes, and Anecdotes from A to Z by Irene Latham and Charles Waters, illustrated by Mehrdokht Amini. The poems, poetic forms, narratives, quotes, and calls to action to make one small difference might be just the medicine my world – or the whole world – needs. I’ll be inviting insights in the form of an immersion into a 10-minute-a-day book study (just long enough to read the page, reflect, and connect). If you don’t have a copy of the book, you can order one here on Amazon. I invite you to join me in making August and September a time of deep personal book friendship. A few teachers will be following the blog and engaging in classroom readings and responses to the text. So come along! Let’s turn the pages into intentionally crafting beautiful change together.

Today’s host at www.ethicalela.com for the August Open Write is Ann Burg, who inspires us to write perspective poems.

Trees always fascinate me, and her last line of her mentor poem was my inspiration for today. Home is where love sprouts – we carry our roots inside us. That’s simply beautiful, and it made me think of the hydrangea named Heidi in my back yard, a gift from my island childhood friend Missy. Join us for the Open Write at the link above.

Heidi

while we were 
in grade school
riding bikes to the beach
writing soda pop limericks
her mama tied her hair back
tended her traffic-stopping 
hydrangeas

while we were 
graduating
getting married
raising children
getting divorced
her mama tied her hair back
tended her traffic-stopping
hydrangeas

while we were both home
on the island 
visiting our parents,
still neighbors,
she called. 
“Want one? I’ve been propagating.”

we laughed
like old times

from island living to 
country life
this great great great 
great great great granddaughter bloom

  ~Heidi~

put down new roots 
in a faraway land
and blooms memories
right where
she is
wanted

*During the months of August and September on days when I’m not participating in the Open Write at www.ethicalela.com, I will be writing in response to the pages of Dictionary for a Better World: Poems, Quotes, and Anecdotes from A to Z by Irene Latham and Charles Waters, illustrated by Mehrdokht Amini. The poems, poetic forms, narratives, quotes, and calls to action to make one small difference might be just the medicine my world – or the whole world – needs. I’ll be inviting insights in the form of an immersion into a 10-minute-a-day book study (just long enough to read the page, reflect, and connect). If you don’t have a copy of the book, you can order one here on Amazon. I invite you to join me in making August and September a time of deep personal book friendship. A few teachers will be following the blog and engaging in classroom readings and responses to the text. So come along! Let’s turn the pages into intentionally crafting beautiful change together.

Today our host at http://www.ethicalela.com for the August Open Write is Margaret Simon of Louisiana, who inspires us to bring a piece of art or a creative form to life with words as a kind of talk-through process. In my kitchen hangs a white framed picture of a rolling pin drawn on notebook paper with colored pencil, a gift from my parents, numbered by the artist. It’s there alongside the framed handwritten recipes by generations of ancestors in my family. Cooking together was far more important back in those days, and one thing I wish is that I had learned to make biscuits as well as they did!

In This Kitchen

loop an apron over shoulders tie it in back
lift down their old bowl pour buttermilk
sift and grind pour and squeeze
hand mix knead pour
feel knead pour feel knead
sprinkle flour plop roll push
roll smooth cut cut cut bake
smell the spirits of loved ones once gone now here
in this kitchen

*During the months of August and September on days when I’m not participating in the Open Write at www.ethicalela.com, I will be writing in response to the pages of Dictionary for a Better World: Poems, Quotes, and Anecdotes from A to Z by Irene Latham and Charles Waters, illustrated by Mehrdokht Amini. The poems, poetic forms, narratives, quotes, and calls to action to make one small difference might be just the medicine my world – or the whole world – needs. I’ll be inviting insights in the form of an immersion into a 10-minute-a-day book study (just long enough to read the page, reflect, and connect). If you don’t have a copy of the book, you can order one here on Amazon. I invite you to join me in making August and September a time of deep personal book friendship. A few teachers will be following the blog and engaging in classroom readings and responses to the text. So come along! Let’s turn the pages into intentionally crafting beautiful change together.