Tammi Belko of Ohio is our host for Day 25 of #VerseLove. You can read her full prompt here. She inspires us today to write Where I’m From poems, based on George Ella Lyon’s “Where I am From” poem. She provides a template to create a “Where I Am From” poem.
Royal Fortress Meadow
I’m from the Royal Fortress Meadow
from Breck shampoo and Johnson’s No More Tears
from wispy locks of amber gold, windblown in the breeze
I’m from chain-woven crowns of wildflowers, dandelions, and daisies
from backlit sunlight exposing the truth: there will never be no more tears
from churning butter and wondering why the pants don’t fit
I’m from ancestors of the lye soap stirred in the backyard tin tub
from the front porch swing and swigging Mason Jars of sweet tea
from wash behind your ears and do a good tick check
from a don’t you slam that screen door one more time! flyswatter granny
who swatted more than flies
I’m from the country church of the cardboard funeral fans
with the off-key piano
I’m from Georgia, Cherokee blood three generation branches up-tree,
still searching for the bloodstained earth of my ancestors
from Silver Queen corn, husks shucked
from shady pecan groves and Vidalia onion fields
from Okefenokee swamplands and railroads
that side that tallied three pees before flushing
from clotheslines of fresh sheets teeming with sweet dreams
from sleeping under a box window fan in sweltering summer heat
Stefani Boutelier leads us in Irish poetry today. You can read her full prompt, along with the poems and comments of others, here. She writes,”Today I will introduce the Deibide Baise Fri Toin form. It was difficult to find the full history of this form and more impossible to get a clear translation, but I like how it ends with one word to represent the power of single words and syllables. The quatrain form (3/7/7/1) is explained here:
Barb Edler of Iowa is our host today for the 13th day of #VerseLove2024, inspiring us to use a brain dump process to craft a poem. You can read her full prompt and the poems and comments of others here.
My role as the District Literacy Specialist for Pike County Schools in Georgia involves utilizing grant funds to create Literacy events to ignite reading and writing passion in our schools and throughout our community. When my soul sister Fran Haley of North Carolina posted about The Poetry Fox visiting her school years ago, I tucked that thought away as a dream to bring him from her school event in Zebulon, North Carolina to our coffee shop in Zebulon, Georgia to work his magic, sitting at his table in a fox suit, pounding out poems on his vintage typewriter for folks who stand in line to offer him their word.
He made that 7 hour trip this week from his home in Durham, NC and produced nearly 60 poems between 3:00 and 6:15, delighting people of all ages and from all walks of life – funeral directors who gave the words tears and gravestones, a pilot who offered the word sky, children who offered all sorts of words from monster truck to axolotl, teenagers who brought the words hooligan and baseball, and a librarian who brought the word library – and so many more! I’ve included the list of words in a photo at the bottom of this post. My words were royal fortress meadow since my name, Kimberly, means from the royal fortress meadow.
After three hours of writing poems, he packed up his fox suit and walked down to the barbecue restaurant on our town square and had a barbecue sandwich, baked beans, and banana pudding with me. When we returned at 7:00, he shared a delightful hour telling us about who he is, what he does, and how he came to do it. Beyond watching him work, there is as much amazement in the person of Chris Vitiello as there is the jaw-dropping magic of….
Mo Daley of Michigan is our host today for the 8th day of #VerseLove2024, inspiring us to write Zip Odes (an ode to our Zip Codes) by considering our place and our zip code. You can read Mo’s full prompt and the poems and comments of others here.
To write a zip ode, write the numbers of your zip code down the left-hand side of the page. Each number determines the number of words in that line. For a zero, you can leave it blank, insert an emoji or symbol, or use any number of words between 1 and 9.
I thought of the meaning of my name as a connection between where I live and who I am.
From the Royal Fortress Meadow
3 royal fortress meadow
0 =
2 Kimberly‘s meaning
9 green pastures, rolling hillsides, fields full of countryside charms
Bryan Ripley Crandall of Connecticut has quite a Magic Box process of turning out nonsense, whimsical poems that make us smile. You can read his full prompt along with the process (this one is loads of fun) and the poems of others here.
Just let words roll off the pen and see what pops up!
Turning the Tables
vintage green stamps in rose-hued sunglasses sewing thimble, dogtag, thumbs of young lasses Cracker Jack prizes trinkets and toys but pencils for scholarly girls and boys crocheted tablecloth clamps stitched by all our Aunt Mabels clothespinned lottery tickets turn all the tables
Today, I’m hosting the kickoff of #VerseLove 2024 at http://www.ethicalela.com, the website and writing community of Dr. Sarah J. Donovan of Oklahoma State University. Each day this month, we will be writing poetry together as we rotate hosting, celebrate writing together, and encourage one another. You can read the entire prompt below, but you can also read it (and the poetry of others) here.
Inspiration
I enjoy unlocking the puzzles of smashed-together-word hashtags and considering their power to make a statement. Like clever license plates and bumper stickers, hashtags can issue a call to action, proclaim characteristics, and identify members of a group. Today, let’s use them to introduce ourselves as we begin our #VerseLove journey together this month.
Process
Write your name vertically down the left side of a page. You can use your first name, nickname, or full name – your choice!
Place a hashtag in front of each letter of your name.
Jot a list of your hobbies, your passions, and any other aspects that you might use to introduce yourself to someone getting to know you. You can scroll through photos, Facebook posts, or poems you’ve written to help you think of some ideas.
Finally, use the letters to make a hashtag acrostic to introduce yourself to your #VerseLove family! You can #smashyourwordstogether or #space them apart.
We are your people. We can’t wait to get to know you better as we write and grow together.
we, in one accord listened ~ hung on every word our hungry hearts heard
Thursday night’s reading of Awakenings by Clayton Moon in our local coffee shop on the town square to kick off our town’s celebration of National Poetry Month was a heartwarming cross-section of intergenerational bridging that nothing but poetry can build. From teenagers to young adults to middle-agers to seniors, we were all listening in one accord as we hung on every word.
Before I welcomed Clayton to the microphone, I shared the impact of a writing community not only in the writing, but in the day to day living – the motivation to learn new things, to try new things, to notice new things. I shared with those who’d come that I would be sharing poems written by living poets from across the United States during the month of April. I began by sharing a definition poem illuminating our theme of awakenings, written by our friend Fran Haley of North Carolina. I shared each canvas, one at a time, describing how they would hang ladder-style in the window of the Chamber of Commerce with eye hooks and chain once the display was complete. #4 brought smiles, the kind I could tell were deep from within, the knowing satisfaction of a feeling.
Here are some photos of the kickoff event for our town’s poetry celebration.
Clayton, who goes by Boxer for most of us who know him, shared his book, written from the awakening to the brewing of the coffee to the first cup, the second cup, the third cup, and the dregs. His featured poem, The Heart of Nahoo, offered a tribute to retired educator Dr. Dan Dunnahoo, who was our county’s long-time art teacher and who now is the president of the Pike County Arts Council and who restored the coffee shop and preserved its history right down to saving each nail and floorboard.
Ethan was our poet for our February event. He shared from is recently published book Dust. I also wanted to share a couple of photos from his event. We’re blessed to live in a town where authors, poets, and artists stand ready to share their talents with us!
Come visit us in Georgia, have coffee, and read and write with us!
The melatonin was working fine, just fine, I thought, but I figured either we had a rogue sound machine with broken buttons or that one of the machines was possessed. I kept hearing things, but my husband didn’t. Just like when the car starts making a sound, only not a car but a tiny little white noise machine.
So finally, finally – – he in his melatoninlessness began hearing mysterious sounds, too. I didn’t know whether to cry, be scared, or celebrate.
If your children tell you they hear funny voices at night, believe them and check the sound machine. They’re in there.
our old fan broke but our new fan was too quiet
(they don't make 'em like they used to)
so we bought a second sound machine the kind for babies with the white noise
so we can both sleep if one of us is traveling
but now I’m hearing what he can’t make out in all the white noise
in this Sound Spa machine
we both hear all the usual things: rain, thunder, waves crashing, crickets chirping, owls hooting
but I roll over half asleep and I hear these:
computer printer printing washing machine
pulsing monitor
injured animal
Moaning Myrtle steel drums
robot sirens
Amazon notifications
vintage typewriter return dings
disco beats
messages in the machine
heard by one unpillowed ear
I'm afraid next I'll hear a murder or a confession
or a ghost of a soldier who stood where I now sleep
Last year, Denise Krebs asked me to share what I had done to plan a National Poetry Month celebration in my rural Georgia town. Today, I’m sharing a list prose poem (I think I just totally made that combo form up) of How To Plan A Poetry Event In Your Town. I’m currently, still, and always in the planning stages, so these are some of the things I’ve done to plan this year’s event (and last year’s too). At the end of April, I’ll share a picture tour of these events that began in February this year (we couldn’t wait…). Stay tuned.
21 Steps to a Town Poetry Celebration: A List Prose Poem
1. Ask the local Arts Council to pick a theme that fits your town. Imagine the infinite possibilities when they pick Awakenings after two years of the same theme of Bloom. 2. Say a prayer of thanks that your community works together to make poetry happen and has given you the title The Crazy Poetry Lady. (Move over, Crazy Cat Ladies!) 3. Ask a friend to write a poem on the theme (the one who writes a book instead). 4. When he writes the book, set him up with a poetry reading and book signing event. 5. Ask another local poet to read and sign his new book, too, in the coffee shop. 6. Think back to Fran Haley's post on The Poetry Fox and invite him to town with his Fox suit and his vintage typewriter to bang out poems in under 70 seconds when folks throughout the land give him a word and then watch them be amazed when he stamps it with his little fox paw print, suitable at once for framing. 7. When he agrees to come from North Carolina, create canvases for the Chamber of Commerce windows of all the poets' verses. Paint the backdrops in shades of sunrise awakenings. Pretend you are a New York City window dresser and borrow easels and buy fishing line and eye hooks to hang the artwork, then stand back and wonder if any Crazy Cat Ladies will loan you some poetry cats to curl up in the window display. 8. Set up a Progressive Poetry Walk around the town square (read it in sections on stands). Since people will come throughout the land to see the fox, they’ll need something to read while they wait in the long line. 9. Make YouTube shorts of directions on how to write poetry for those who think they can't. 10. Set up community poetry writing kiosks with QR codes to scan for directions and create a community Padlet to showcase the writing online. 11. Ask the Georgia Poet Laureate to come read her poems in the coffee shop, too. Jump out of your skin with excitement when she sends you two poems that will appear in her new book and allows you to put them on a canvas in the Chamber window. 12. Plan an Open Mic night so those throughout the land can come listen....read.....recite. Note that 2 other community partners planned them without your prompting this year….and smile that your seeds are blooming. Pray your garden will grow and grow theoughout the land. 13. Bask in the glow of what poetry does in a town and a state and a nation and a heart. 14. Invite all your writing group friends to come to 1828 Coffee Company on April 25 at 6:00 to read their poems and drink the best coffee in all the land with you. Because Glenda Funk keeps a suitcase packed and ready, you know. 15. If they can't be here in person, invite them instead to record themselves reading a favorite poem or one they've written and send it to you or upload it to YouTube so you can make a QR code and put it in frames all around your town and throughout the land. 16. Create canvases of their verses to go in the Chamber windows, too, on your theme: awakenings. 17. Wonder why you haven't created a collection and put it out on Amazon. 18. Start a Word document of all the poems you'd put in a poetry collection on your theme. 19. Decide to self publish a short collection and choose a title and create an action plan. 20. Bask in the joy of poetry and all the healing it brings to a heart and a town and a state and a nation and a world and a universe. 21. Don't wonder where you'd be without the gift of poetry. You don't even want to know.
and then wonder if you can rewrite 21 into a poem all its own…..try a Haiku….
you don’t want to know where you’d be without the gifts of life-changing verse
its healing magic reaches in, awakens souls throughout all the land
James Coats is our host today at http://www.ethicalela.com, where on this first day of the March Open Write, he asks us to write about the anarchist in us. You can read his full prompt here. When I was reading the prompt, my fingers were already running to the computer before the rest of me had even left the bed. I’m convinced that the most compelling poetry, and all writing really, lives in those shadows, lurks in the pain. My sympathies ahead of time to any PK parents out there and sincere apologies to any well-behaved PKs who turned out good.
When You Want to be Gryffindor But Your Slytherin Roots Say No…….. Slythindor
Okenfenokee swampland mud
plus Southern Baptist preacher’s blood
mix them and you’re bound to find
they breed an offbeat, lawless mind
this reptile in me, like Slytherin magic
broke dad’s sermons something tragic
stealing church chalk so I could play teacher
(kind of what you expect from the kid of a preacher)
I learned to smile, doodle tie in my hair
when I wanted to strike and crawl out of there
but
let me assure you, if you’ve ever wondered
there’s an upside to this P.K, life I’ve encumbered