Today’s host at August’s Open write at www.ethicalela.com is Margaret Simon, host of the weekly This Photo Wants to Be a Poem. She gave us a photo of grass and asked us to write a poem about it. It will be fun at the end of the day to see all the different types of poetry that one same photograph inspires. Please come join us at the link above and write! We’d love to have you! For those following the Dictionary for a Better World word journey, we will resume our trek through the book on Thursday, following the conclusion of this month’s Open Write on Wednesday.
photo of grass by Margaret Simon
Grass
one GPS point home to each green blade, anchored in rooted scalp hugs
earth’s trendy hairstyle no St. Patrick’s dye needed nature’s adornment
wildlife welcome mat carpet for little critters sustenance for some
picnic piazza frisbee freeway for Fido Rip Van Winkle’s bed
recess football field Emerald City pathway the road less taken
stargazing blanket lush mattress for lovers in hand-holding heaven
*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.
Gayle Sands is our host today at www.ethicalela.com for the August Open Write. She inspires us to find obscure words from a site like Words at Play on the Merriam-Webster site. My word choice today was ullage – the half-full glass that is actually the not-there part. The part of the gas tank that has space….and I chose to write a half-abecedarian in honor of the ullage of missing letters, but I mixed them up like a wine swirl for the letters that are there. I will resume the Dictionary for a Better World journey on Thursday, August 25th if you have been my travel companion on our trek through this book.
*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 Soft Ice Cream Day, there’s a truth we can’t dispute: soft-serve ice cream hits the spot on a sweltering-hot day! When I think of ice cream, I think of my grandmother, who always had an ice cream sandwich waiting for me in the freezer. And I also think about that day I took my grandchildren to the Georgia Aquarium. The night before we went, my son and daughter in law explained that one of my grandchildren would live on ice cream alone if they allowed it – – and that no matter where he goes, his ice cream radar is turned on powerfully high to spot it, even from a distance. He accepts all ice cream ~ hand-scooped or soft-served!
True to his parents’ words, Sawyer spotted the Dippin’ Dots freezer before he ever saw the first fish at the aquarium. So they calmly explained: fish now, ice cream later. And it worked.
I sent a copy of Dictionary for a Better World to my grandchildren as I began this 2-month journey through the world of words. My daughter in law is a homeschool teacher who shared this text with me the day after receiving the book in the mail:
Actual text received from my daughter in law on August 8th
As I laughed at the clever craftiness of our sweet boy (and how his daddy, when he was little, never seemed ready to accept his bedtime, either), I thought about all of the ways that we as parents have the responsibility and honor of molding and shaping our children. I also thought of all the ways that our children ask to be accepted – even though we may not quite be ready to allow them to be the night owls they’d like to be!
Sawyer (middle) with brother River and sister Saylor – and some Tennessee Titans cheerleaders he met in the Children’s Discovery Museum in Nashville, TN in 2021
*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.
It’s National Ice Cream Pie Day – a day to say yes to the sweetness of life. In Dictionary for a Better World, the persona poem is introduced as a form that is written in the voice of the poem’s subject on pages 104-105. This poem for YES is JAM UP! I hear a spoken language poem on an Open Mic night in a downtown coffee shop as I read this. Oh, and with a mic drop at the end.
I’m saying YES to a persona today in an acrostic form ~ the first letter of each line vertically spelling YES.
Yes is my name ~ please – wear it out!
Even when all you feel is doubt,
Shake loose the fear ~ a resounding YES! shout.
Watch Charles Waters recite the poem from DFABW here.
Today’s call to action may be the most life-expanding Try It! in the entire book. The authors encourage us to take new opportunities that come our way. We become well-rounded and know who we are (and who we aren’t) through our experiences.
*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.
National I Love My Feet Day is a time to use an ottoman and ponder the importance of caring for our feet – and how they support us in standing up for others. Upstanders are like mother birds to their little fledglings – – they spread their wings of protection and envelop those who need a mighty presence alongside them – to advocate and to support in times of need.
I like Irene Latham’s story about the staged offense in the park a few years ago, put together by actors just to see who all would step in to help. No one rushed right in, but finally someone stepped in with enough courage to face the perpetrator. Upstanders are courageous people who take risks on behalf of others.
I remember a time I needed an upstander to speak for me. I was concluding a semester’s work on my dissertation when I hadn’t heard from my URR (university research reviewer), despite my answers to the questions that he’d asked of me. I asked my chair what I should do, because another semester would be costly, financially and otherwise. She advised me to send one more email and to copy her on the email. We discovered that he had entered my email number incorrectly. Since my last name is Johnson, there were many of us with my exact name. He’d been emailing the Kim Johnson with a different number behind the name.
The short of the story is that even though we both politely explained his mistake, he would not back down. He was too proud to apologize and correct his action. My chair was my upstander in a difficult situation with a committee member who continued to act illogically. She took the matter to the university leaders to argue on my behalf, even as she had to continue to work with this committee member. Because of her actions, I moved forward and did not have to repeat the semester.
I’ve also had to act as an upstander. As a teacher, I am a mandated reporter – someone who makes a report if I suspect any type of child abuse or neglect. Even though it was hard to believe that what a student told me was true, I had to make a report. I did what I knew was the right thing – because the child needed an upstander. Several of her other teachers, I later learned, had also made reports on her behalf.
Doing the right thing is sometimes the most difficult thing to do, but it’s rewarding to know that we can make a difference for others when we have opportunities, and that when we need upstanders in our own lives, there are brave people who are willing to rise to their feet for us.
Who are your upstanders? Celebrate them today!
*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.
It’s National Tell a Joke Day, and laughter is on the menu! Nonsense poetry is fun and light, whimsical in tone, and sometimes has made-up words. I wrote a nonsense poem as an introduction to the immersion into daily words in Dictionary for a Better World, the poetry form the authors introduce on this day of laughter. You can read it here.
I’m connecting strongly with Charles Waters’ moments when reading a poem has brought a smile to his face in those times that seem heavy. I, too, find that reading will lift me out of a fog and set the world back on its proper axis. When I need to hear the wisdom of the ages, I head through the doors off of my bedroom into my reading room. It’s my go-to place when the world or my attitude needs a change, and my books stand ready, marked to meet my needs. I go to my reading room for laughter, for hope, for help. When I’d rather listen instead of reading, Dear Poetry is a podcast featuring 8 episodes, hosted by Luisa Beck, whose goal is to use poetry to answer world problems shared by letter writers (a spin-off of Dear Abby, only using poetry as the answer).
Laughing dogs, internet stock photo
When I need book laughter, I pick up Rick Bragg, David Sedaris, Bill Bryson, or Trevor Noah. The most side-splitting laughter is no further away than Chapter 3 – Pray, Trevor, in Born a Crime (there is a Young Adult version that scales back the language). Hearing the author read it on Audible is the cherry on top. The expertise of shopping for hiking gear and taking a donut-loving character like Katz along the Appalachian Trail puts me back on the path to loving life’s adventures with Bill Bryson, and sitting beside David Sedaris in his French class talking about global holiday traditions turns my tickle box upside-down. That scene in Travels with Charley by Steinbeck where he assures the park ranger that Charley will not raise the bears’ dander and vice-versa, then turns around and comes back to apologize to the ranger only after driving a few miles and discovering the truth about Charley, paints such a picture of the humor of animals and our underestimation of them that I sometimes laugh to the point of tears.
What are your favorite go-to books or poems for laughter? Indeed, it is the best medicine of all. Please share your top picks in the Padlet 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.
National Lemon Meringue Pie Day is a delicious attitude toward life’s tough times. Tenacity is not for the soft-meringue of spirit. It’s holding on, despite all challenges. It’s our level of stick-to-it-ness – – our grip – – our ability to stay the course when the course seems dang near impossible.
In December 2021 when my father and brother came for a Christmas visit, Dad and I drove the short distance from my home to Warm Springs, Georgia to visit The Little White House and the pool where F. D. Roosevelt came to soak in the springs believed to hold healing properties for those with polio. I wrote a decima inspired by that visit that you can read here. Charles Waters and Irene Latham introduce this form on the Tenacity pages of Dictionary for a Better World.
After our tour of his home in Warm Springs, we stopped for lunch at The Bulloch House, a home-cooking restaurant in a historic building filled with pictures of the days that F D R visited the town. Southern cooking that comforts the soul is never as good as fried chicken, black-eyed peas, squash casserole, fried okra, and cornbread from The Bulloch House.
And then came dessert. The menu descriptions themselves are a certainty that diners will have dessert. I asked Dad what he wanted, and he didn’t hesitate.
“We’ll share a slice of Lemon Meringue Pie,” he told our server.
Lemon Meringue Pie, Stock photo from Pinterest
As our forks cut into this perfect-blend-of-tangy-sweetness on a plate, meringue curls perfectly browned, I wondered why I’d never taken the time to learn from my grandmothers how to create such a work of food art that requires a brown paper bag in an oven. Our coffee steamed in swirls hovering above our cups, dissipating heavenward, and as the festive sounds of forks on plates, clinking of ice cubes in tea glasses, and table conversations filled the space, I thought about this man, my father, whose hardheaded stubbornness I’d inherited honestly, and regretted the times I’d been such a pill for my parents. My parents pushed strongly encouraged me to get my doctorate, just as Dad had done. Without his strong will of tenacity, grit, perseverance, dedication, and hardheaded stubbornness, I would never have made it through my degree program. My mother died of Parkinson’s Disease in December 2015, ten months before I finished. I pushed ahead with a powerful pair of wings guiding my efforts, feeling her arms around my shoulders.
While others may disagree, I’m here to vow that all the lemons and learning of a doctoral program – and life itself – have far less to do with intelligence and far more to do with tenacity – holding on when every day brings tears, having all faith that there is a rainbow just up ahead, around the next bend.
So there we sat, eating lemon meringue pie in The Bulloch House, reflecting on life. It brings me to the Try It! section of today’s word, at the bottom of page 89. A vision board of goals is a great idea for moving from Aha! to Action! in taking the steps to realize dreams. All it takes is the vision, the tenacity, and the plan.
Watch Charles Waters recite his poem for Tenacity here.
*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.
National Creamsicle Day is the perfect day to let the dreamsicles melt and capture the stickiness of dreams. And is it creamsicle or dreamsicle? I’ve heard them called both.
On pages 24-27 of Dictionary for a Better World, the found poem featured is from chapter 1 of Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave. Found poems are created by selecting words from existing text – – much like those sticky splotches of melting creamsicles as the dreamy words drip onto the page — and they have so many different variations, from pulling words on a page of text to taking lines from different pages or poems. I love found poems so much that I started a bank of creamsicle stick lines of poetry using craft sticks in 2020 – and my bank has grown. On one side, I write a line of poetry; on the other, I write the title of the poem and the author’s name. Then I mash them up and call them mashed potato poems (the name dreamsiclepoems sounds so much better, though). Once they are complete, I photograph both sides to give poets full credit for their lines – and I make a big deal about this with students, because it’s an opportunity to help them understand that words are to be shared, but ownership of expression matters.
Students write found poetry using a bank of dreamsicle sticks with lines of poetry on one side, title and author on the flipside.
I often search for lines on a theme, but other times I simply write lines that reach out to me. I plan to present this idea at a roundtable discussion at NCTE in Anaheim, California in November, so if you’re there, please come to my session table from 9:30-10:45 in Room 213-CD. I’m looking forward to being there with members of Dr. Sarah J. Donovan’s writing group at http://www.ethicalela.com, and they will also be sharing some amazing ways to write poetry with students (even reluctant writers). Students enjoy the creativity of writing found poems, so I use them in my writing groups frequently when I visit schools to write in small groups. Here is one I wrote for today:
The Dark Buds of Dreams
Dreamsicle stick poems with lines of poetry on one side of the stick Title of poem and author’s name, in order of line appearance in the poem (flipside of stick)
Please share your found poems in the Padlet below, or share the variations of found poetry that you use with students!
*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 http://www.merriam-webster.com, xe·nial | \ -nēəl, -nyəl \ means : of, relating to, or constituting hospitality or relations between host and guest and especially among the ancient Greeks between persons of different cities. The illustrations on pages 102-103 of Dictionary for a Better World show a world of shoes – (including my favorite Birkenstocks in a color the warmth of sunshine). Desmond Tutu’s message that there are no outsiders in our world is fitting for the day! We all belong.
Today’s poetry prompt is other side poetry – a form that deals with anything on the other side – perspectives, viewpoints, afterlife, global places. You can watch Charles Waters recite his poem for Xenial here. Here is my other side poem:
Criss-Cross Jumprope
right hand washes left
left hand washes right
right brain talks to left
left brain talks to right
like a criss-cross jumprope
hands and brains hold world hope
Criss Cross Jumprope, Pinterest stock photo
*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.
At the beginning of the year, I chose the word listen as my one little word of the year – not to be sure I was hearing words correctly, but that I was taking time to consider the ideas and thoughts of others – to let them resonate with me as I reflected and allowed myself to feel the impact of the weight of words.
In Dictionary for a Better World today, the tricube form of poetry is featured – three stanzas, three lines, and three syllables in each line. Back in November, Linda Mitchell from our writing group at http://www.ethicalela.com challenged us to write tricubes. Here is one I wrote about listening for words during a writers’ word drought.
River Tricube
when writing, ride river word rapids!
droughts will come so will rains ~ levels change
when words flow grab your pen: listen in!
*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.
Common Threads 