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
Scratch-off cards, internet stock photo
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
Heidi
*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
Generations of handwritten family recipes
*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 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.
Common Threads 