Common Threads

I’ve been reading Kyle Vaughn’s Lightning Paths: 75 Poetry Writing Exercises, (available on Amazon, linked on title or here on NCTE), which inspired me to delve into another book study of poetry forms and responses. I’ll be making my way through the exercises and prompts between now and the end of the year.

Today’s exercise is based on Wallace Stevens’s Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird to inspire multiple points of view in sections about the different ways we see a particular thing. I broke my ankle a week and a half before Fall Break….so I spend a lot of time looking at this elevated, swollen, bruised, broken ankle. But I’m on the mend.

Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Broken Ankle
I
a missed step
in an unlit stairwell
OH, SNAP!...SNAP!
II
nondisplaced fracture of
lateral malleolus of right fibula
and
displaced avulsion fracture of right talus
III
a pair of crutches 
like Tiny Tim's ~
God bless us, every one!
IV
a flashback fashion
black boot like that ice boot on  
Mendenhall Glacier for dogsledding
so I can pretend to be cold, 
mushing, Gee! Haw!
V
a shiny blue knee scooter (with basket)
borrowed from Mrs. Bell
(I got her a new blue bell)
it's fast like a dogsled
VI
no pain meds 
for three days 
workers compensation: inhumane
VII
no housework
no cooking
no laundry
just Netflix and Hallmark movies
and The Great Alone 
set in Alaska
VIII
no fall break vacation
to go hiking
in the mountains
at that cozy cabin
I cancelled
IX
challenging showertime
vulnerable nakedness
~what if I slip and fall again???~
~and can't get up???~
X
a temporary handicapped 
parking tag
when you want to go nowhere anyway
because you order even Aleve
and hairpins 
and all your pretend dogsledding gear
from Amazon
XI
a heightened sensitivity
to open doors,
assist those who need it
when you are healed
XII
a renewed appreciation 
for freedom of movement
XIII
praising God that 
it wasn't much worse
that you’re still alive
that your team is pulling you 

Today, I’m sharing some acrostics I am writing as I prepare to lead a fall poetry writing workshop in my small Georgia town, where the leaves are just beginning to turn, to spiral downward upon the town square sidewalks. Hay bales resemble giant cinnamon rolls on their sides in pastures throughout the rural countryside. Businesses on the square are festively decorated with scarecrows, pumpkins, and fall foliage. Our restored 1828 Coffeeshop workers greet locals by name and whip up pumpkin spice lattes and ever-changing creative fall teas and coffee blends sure to please! That’s the vibe right now in this most magical season of the year – like a Hallmark Christmas movie without all the shopping and baking deadlines! And children of all ages will be working their own magic ~ writing fall acrostics in schools and libraries in the coming days.

I took Ollie to the vet: one shot
one little heartworm injection~
I got that guilt trip stink eye:
get me out of here NOW, Mom -
before making a scene
flattening himself
onto the floor
playing dead.....
DRAMA
KING

he’s always guilty

when we hear noises camping…..

we know….treat bag down!

Church Dogs

three
schnoodles
sit with us
watching church on
Sunday morning like
they haven’t bickered all
morning at the heels of my
broken ankle, just like children
all dressed up, behaving one small hour

I broke my ankle in two places last week, falling down the stairs at work as I was bringing a box of writing supplies down for a workshop this coming week. My husband has been waiting on me hand and foot, but there’s no one else like Mom to soothe the pain and reassure me that this will all be okay. I was missing her so much, but then I heard a sweet sound and looked up…..there she was, a spirited message: you’re going to be fine, Kimmie.

Sunday Morning Songbird Nonet

one tweeting Sunday morning songbird
singing peace through my green-leaved wreath
a healing greeting from Mom
Heaven knows I need her
to soothe this broken
ankle, to lift 
my weary,
aching
heart

I missed the last step ~
couldn’t see in the stairwell 
X-Ray: two fractures 

London: rainy day

a colorful umbrella

can’t change history

On National Love People Day, it’s a day to treat others with kindness. I can’t think of a better word to end a two-month study of words for a better world than with the word kind, because in a world where we may not always love others or agree with them, we can still be kind. In fact, as I look back over each word in Dictionary for a Better World this morning, if I had to choose a word to begin making the world better, I would choose kind. It’s a starting point, and even if someone found it difficult to get to the point of love or respect or acceptance, being kind is one of those investments that costs nothing but yields big returns. I also believe it may cultivate the other words and allow them to take root in our lives as we grow. We can all be kind.

Today’s poem introduced on page 54 is a cherita, a three-stanza poem that has one line in the first story, two in the second, and three in the third. This poem tells a story. Here is one cherita that I wrote during Verse Love earlier this year. And today’s…….

I missed the last step.

She propped my ankle,
grabbed an ice pack.

Her kindness 
was what I needed,
what the world needs.....

*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 Urban National Wildlife Refuge Day, it’s important to consider our green spaces and safe spaces as an etymology of progress on the journey to a better world. Safe spaces for all life is important, and we celebrate this refuge and sanctuary today. As I’ve read through Dictionary for a Better World, I have had the most insightful conversations with my father, who read the book and joined me on my journey. We discussed words that we might add if we were adding to this lexicon. While we wish that we lived in a world without the need for refuge, we both understand what it’s like to feel that need, and how deeply we appreciate a refuge when we need one and find it.

Equally as satisfying is the ability to provide refuge for others in times of need. And that includes our pets. Among my mother’s last coherent words before she died were, “You take care of these dogs.” Though the dogs about which she spoke have since crossed the Rainbow Bridge after living long, happy lives, there are new ones who have come to us as rescues, and we carry on Mom’s legacy and her love of animals by loving our pets as family members. We provide refuge.

And we, too, often ask ourselves who needed the refuge – – just who saved whom?

*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.