Patchwork Prose and Verse
Dr. Darius Phelps, our host for Day 8 of #VerseLove 2025, is the Assistant Director of Programs at the Center For Publishing, Writing, and Media at NYU. You can read his full prompt here.
He encourages us to write poems about something we carry from someone before us, or something/someone we try to imitate.
Cricketing
I cricket.
I rub my feet together
to relax.
My father did it
and his mother, too.
It scares me
these repetitive motions
the oldness of it all.
I cricket.
Erica Johnson of Arkansas is our host for Day 7 of #VerseLove 2025. She inspires us to write poems today about meanings behind favorite flowers using a villanelle. She offers this process: “I started by simply searching for the meaning behind my favorite flowers. Once I had a list, I selected my favorite connection and started work on shaping that into a villanelle. Because it is a closed-form poem it has pretty strict rules about rhyme (ABA) and repetition (the 1st and 3rd lines repeat throughout) – this can be challenging, but I find that is also part of the fun!” You can read Erica’s full prompt here.
I chose the Larkspur as my flower, because as a child in the village of St. Simons Island, Georgia, I enjoyed the annual craft fair, where one year in the mid 1970s I got a leather bracelet with my birth flower and name stamped into the leather. Larkspurs symbolize lightheartedness and youth, likely because they grow in the summertime when carefree days are spent away from school.
Village Hippie Villanelle
leather Larkspur bracelet for a July lass
birth month flowers stamped and snapped on thin tan straps
village craft fair hippie, barefoot in the grass
groovy girlfriends ~ running wild, full of sass
softball jerseys, cleats and shorts and backward caps
leather Larkspur bracelet for a July lass
snippy, snappy, clicky clackers ~ spheres of glass
banana seats and wheel spoke straws click and clap
village craft fair hippie, barefoot in the grass
Kissing Potion, Lip Smacker, and Sunjuns (Bass)
macrame and halter tops and treasure maps
leather Larkspur bracelet for a July lass
roller skates and unicycles need no gas
gaucho pants and go-go boots and cowboy chaps
village craft fair hippie, barefoot in the grass
childhood in a decade-era school of class
dancing queens of disco, jazz, ballet, and tap
leather Larkspur bracelet for a July lass
village craft fair hippie, barefoot in the grass
Stacey Joy, our host for Day 6 of #VerseLove 2025, is a National Board Certified Teacher, Google Certified Educator, and 2013 L.A. County Teacher of the Year. Stacey has taught elementary school for 39 years in Los Angeles Unified School District.
Today, Stacey invites us to write Where I’m From poems. She offers this process: “Visit George Ella Lyon’s website for a refresher on Where I’m From. If you are a list person, create a list of people/places/things/memories. Then compose your poem in any way you prefer. If you are more comfortable with a form, you can write your poem following a form you prefer.” You can read her full prompt here.
Today, I’m writing a Where I’m Not From poem.
I’m not from here.
I’m not from this chaos.
I won’t play these games.
I won’t clean up the mess.
I won’t sit at the table.
I won’t partake of the feast.
I won’t bow for a fake prayer (I know the difference)~
I won’t smile and pretend.
I won’t take the bait.
I’m not from this chaos.
I’m not from here.
Bryan Ripley Crandall, our host for Day 5 of VerseLove 2025 at http://www.ethicalela.com, lives in Stratford, Connecticut, where he directs the Connecticut Writing Project and is Professor of English Education at Fairfield University.
Bryan offers these directions: “Write about a scar, one that may be physical in nature or one that might be more emotional.” You can read his full prompt here.
I chose a Pantoum form for this poem and made the decision to keep a staccato rhythm, as if touching a hot stove and getting burned.
Heart Scar Pantoum
my heart is scarred
it opened
it believed
it got stomped
it opened
it trusted
it got stomped
it realized
it trusted
it committed
it realized
it learned
it committed
it believed
it learned
my heart is scarred
Dave Wooley, our host for Day 4 of #VerseLove 2025, lives in Pennsylvania.
Dave inspires us to write from the perspective of a traveller, choosing to focus on the place, or focus on the experience of traveling, or maybe just the idea of being a traveller. He suggests using photos to help relive moments and inspire the thoughts of the poem. You can read his full prompt here.
I chose a photo of my youngest granddaughter with me having ice cream at Leopold’s in Savannah, Georgia and wrote a pantoum poem to capture the memory.
Sisterhood of the Southern Sweet Tooth
there we were, so sassy
Magnolia Mae and I
eating rose petal ice cream
at Leopold’s in Savannah, Georgia
Magnolia Mae and I~
grandmother and granddaughter
at Leopold’s in Savannah, Georgia
of the Sisterhood of the Southern Sweet Tooth
grandmother and granddaughter
sharing a spoon and a knowing smile
of the Sisterhood of the Southern Sweet Tooth
Georgia girls with flowery style
sharing a spoon and a knowing smile
eating rose petal ice cream
Georgia girls with flowery style
there we were, together
Our host for our third day of #VerseLove is Denise Krebs, who lives in Yucca Valley, California, near Joshua Tree National Park. She blogs and resists at Dare to Care.
Denise invites us to write Borrowed Rhymes poems today in her prompt. You can read the prompt in full here. Please jump in today to read the posts and feel all the harnessed energy of a community of writers. We’d love to have you!
Denise encourages us to find a poem with rhyming or song lyrics we like. “Extract the rhymes and write them down on the right margin. Fill in your own line for each rhyme,” she explains.
I extracted these words: blue, knew, round, down, time, mine, care, anywhere from my favorite Eagles song, Take it to the Limit. I wrote them at the end of each line and crafted my poem using these pairs.
More Time
….when out of the blue,
who even knew?!
can I last one more round?
do I feel too beat down?
I want more time
to call mine – ALL MINE!
to spend time how I care
to day trip anywhere….
Leilya Pitre, our host for Day 2 of VerseLove at http://www.ethicalela.com, lives in Ponchatoula, LA, which is known as the Strawberry Capital of the World. She teaches at Southeastern Louisiana University and coordinates the English Education Program.
Leilya inspires us to write spring tricubes, and you can read her full prompt here. A tricube consists of three stanzas, each with three lines, and each line having three syllables—quick, rhythmic, and focused. It’s easy to remember as 3:3:3.
It’s a great day to think about spring!
Springtime Tricube
umbrellas
daffodils
rain showers
butterflies
Easter eggs
wildflowers
hummingbirds
sunshine’s warmth
trees tower
Come join us today – read, write, and share! And if you happen to be in middle Georgia today, come by 1828 Coffee Company in Zebulon, Georgia and meet The Poetry Fox. He’ll write a free poem for you between 3:00 and 6:00 and share about his life between 7:00 and 8:00. Hope to see you there!
bedtime rituals
foot rub magnesium cream
relaxing music
I’m a firm believer in sleep – not too much, and not too little. I wish I knew the sweet spot of food like I know the sweet spot of sleep. I head bedward at 9:00 so I can start getting sleepy. The goal is to be fully asleep between 9:30 and 10:00 and to wake at 5:00 without exercising the snooze option more than a couple of times (much more challenging on a Monday).
For years, I took melatonin, but the nightmares were real. That’s when my sister in law told me about magnesium foot cream, and my sleep has never been better. This is the first part of my sleepy time ritual.
Plus, there is music. Which leads me to Leigh Anne Eck’s Music Festival. I’m showing up in pajamas and slippers, hair up and face drenched with moisturizer because my music is focused on peaceful relaxation and not feeling like I want to get up and dance or bust a move my body can no longer handle.
Let’s start with Louis Armstrong’s What a Wonderful World. No one on earth offers greater reassurance that things are still okay with the world than Louis himself. I need that at the end of a day when everything has reached the crescendo of doubt. Trees of green and red roses, skies of blue and clouds of white and babies…..it’s a feast of all-is-well, now go to sleep knowing it’s going to be okay. Tom T. Hall’s I Love is one that offers some reassurance, too, but not quite like old Lou.
B.J. Thomas may be in my top 5 artists with songs like Don’t Worry, Baby for relaxing. This one is on par with The Alan Parson Projects’ Eye in the Sky, which brings it waaaaay up on the list with its one greatest line in the whole song: the sun in your eyes made some of the lies worth believing.
But the best ever, the top top top line I love in a song is actually a question, and anytime we hear it playing, my husband and I look at each other and answer, “Yes.” The Eagles: Take it to the Limit – – if it all fell to pieces tomorrow, would you still be mine?
Now I could go far down the John Denver Country Roads and Calypso lyrics a long, long way…. they’re on my relaxation playlist, too, at this Goodnight Music Festival.
Let’s get this goodnight party started as we close out another year of The Slice of Life March Challenge and look forward to the Tuesday slicing all year long.
Good night, Moon! Good night, March! Good night, Slicing family! Thank you for the stories and for sharing your lives this month and inspiring everyone. See you on Tuesday!
Hey, wait……that’s tomorrow! In that case, see you around 5:00 a.m………
Special thanks to the TWT crew for making this month of slicing possible, to each of the writers for all of the inspiration, and to Glenda, Barb, and Denise for slicing in time increments throughout the day. Your writing kinship means the world to me, and I’ll end with a group hug and an invitation to write through April with another writing community starting tomorrow as we kick off VerseLove 2025 at http://www.ethicalela.com. If you wrote for 31 days, you can write for 61 – – believe it! Hope to see you there!
6:20-6:51 p.m.: My peace rituals are more necessary these days than they’ve ever been before.
Is it because I’m older?
Or because life is busier?
Or because the world feels so different today than it did yesterday?
Some evenings, I take a long walk with the dogs. Other evenings, I light candles. Some nights, I soak in a hot bath. Most every afternoon or evening, I make a pot of hot green tea and my husband and I indulge with local honey and a flavored herb blend. There is nothing that compares to the feeling of togetherness and unwinding over steam rising from a cup. When the world is cold, there is warmth in togetherness.
Steeping Peace
I come home from work
steep a mug of hot green tea
sweetened with honey
grab a tea towel
slip my hand inside the mug
buffered towel warmth
when the world is cold
a handwarmer mug steeps peace
from the inside out
long walk after work
out on the farm with the boys
we love exploring!
I come home tired at the start of the work week, which almost always starts out in high gear. All day, I look forward to returning home with the dogs and being able to put on a pair of sweatpants and go for a walk with them. More and more, my heart stays right here on this farm even though my mind and body go to work.
I gather Fitz’s leash from the basket by the front door – the only one of my trio who will chase a critter into the woods and completely lose his way back. Boo Radley and Ollie only lose their minds with excitement to get out the door as we prepare to take to the trails my husband keeps cut back just for us. It’s my slicing time today, my 31 minutes between 5:48 and 6:19, just before dinner, and the boys and I step out into the still-chilly damp air and hear the birdsong. Except for the occasional airplane, it’s all we hear other than our own footsteps.
It’s peaceful. So peaceful, in fact, that I could take the rest of the school year and just take walks instead of going to work, where the phones forever ring, the meetings never stop, and even the delightful sounds of laughter are still…..well, noise.
I signed my contract for another year, and by December of this year I’ll know whether I will pursue retirement starting 26-27 or hang in there for another year on the heels of the coming one.
So much is changing in the world of education, and at times it seems overwhelming to keep up. It seems there is no “staying ahead of the curve,” as there used to be.
The more I take long walks and feel the inner joy of the peace it brings just being home, the stronger the chances of retiring next year. I want to read more than I have the time to read as it is now. I want to take long walks with the dogs in the late morning. I want to press plants and decoupage them onto candles, to sew soft flannel rag quilts in light pastel patterns, to visit grandchildren and have lunch with retired friends…….to bake, to work the crossword puzzle every afternoon, and to get started on some writing projects that work leaves no time to enjoy. I want to think less each night about what I’ll wear the next day based on which meetings are on the calendar.
How does one know when it’s time to turn in the keys and sign on the dotted retirement line? If you’re retired, I’d love to hear your thoughts on this one. On one hand, I feel ready – – even past ready. On the other hand, it all seems so final to walk away from a career in education when that has been my life.
I would love for you to share your perspectives with me. What are your best tips and pointers, and your best advice for someone considering taking the leap?
Common Threads 