Our host at ethicalela.com for VerseLove today, Leilya Pitre, inspired us to take a walk to a place of comfort. Ill be adding haiku stanzas as I walk through the day and finishing this evening.
Today our host at http://www.ethicalela.com for VerseLove, Sheri Vasinda, inspired us to write How To Be Poems. I immediately thought of the video I received from my son on Easter, after the kayaking adventure with his two older children when they saw a pod of dolphins. They live on the coast and kayak frequently.
I love the way he and his wife are raising their children to be lovers of the outdoors, and it made me think about how to be a coastal adventure parent.
How to be a Coastal Adventure Parent
Teach your babies how to swim.
Model safety by wearing a life jacket out on the water.
Show your children how to respect nature – wild animals included.
Spend quality time together away from screens!
Be thrilled and remain calm when you encounter the unexpected.
Make every single moment matter.
Invest time in making memories.
Seize the sunshine – and relish the rain!
Share videos with Nana and Poppy so they, too, can be amazed.
Never underestimate the power of a dolphin to outdo the Easter Bunny.
O Lord, how manifold are your works! In wisdom have you made them all; the earth is full of your creatures. Here is the sea, great and wide, which teems with creatures innumerable, living things both small and great.
The Coastal AdventurersAdventurers Special thanks to Two Writing Teachers at Slice of Life for giving writers voice and space!
Gayle Sands is our host today at http://www.ethicalela.com for VerseLove, inspiring us to write poems about choices. One Easter, my oldest daughter and I chose to make our eggs to last – not a year we dyed them, but a year we painted them instead, because she wanted to try something artistic and different.
Cara Fortey is our host at VerseLove today at http://www.ethicalela.com, inspiring us to write Tankas, traditionally with the syllable line count of 5-7-5-7-7 – but now spread out over 3 lines totaling 31. Mine are strung together.
Bumblebee Tik Tok
Security Cam Notification Alert – I check the footage~ A bumblebee dances like it’s his personal Tik Tok
Irish jig step groove Shimmy shimmy Coco Puff Shimmy shimmy pow Tik Tok salsa, sashaycrunk Virginia Reel….promenade
then the two steppin’ cowboy boogie do the butterfly round round round and round you go it’s time to show out wit’ yo
bad
bee
self
This is not the actual bee or location- my video would not embed, but this looks just like him.
The actual dance my bumblebee does in front of my security camera all. day. long.
Anna J. Small Roseboro is our host of VerseLove today at http://www.ethicalela.com. On this Good Friday, she inspires us to write about our favorite day of the week!
Octagon window in the early morning, mirroring the moon
Our host today for VerseLove at http://www.ethicalela.com is Andy Schoenborn, who inspires us to write Tumble Down Poetry by writing first a paragraph about shoes in prose, and then….
“Once your paragraph is written, look for naturally occurring repetition, alliteration, striking images, and moments of emphasis fit for enjambments.
Then play with the structure and form as a poem tumbles down the page.”
My shoe paragraph:
I traded my fifteen dollar clearance Merrills I wore through Europe in 2019 for a more stylish pair of On Clouds when I went to San Antonio, Texas in February. They came with a whole new odometer, set at zero steps, ready to count miles like a new car. My running shoes years back were easier to tally the 500 mile lifespan in training runs and races – these, not as easy. They’re my new traveling shoes. They have built-in air flow to let my feet breathe, and I can feel my breath-taken toes taking me to new places and enjoying the sights up through the mesh topscreens. Traveling shoes. There’s nothing like them for seeing the world.
These wineskins were new when we filled them, and behold, they have burst. And these garments and sandals of ours are worn out from the very long journey.”
Stacey Joy is our host for VerseLove today at http://www.ethicalela.com, and inspires us to write Goghohka poems. She writes, “The Gogyohka is a form of verse developed…. in 1957. The idea behind the Gogyohka was to take the traditional form of Tanka poetry (which is written in five lines with 5-7-5-7-7 syllable counts) and liberate its structure, creating afreer form of verse. In the 1990s, Kusakabe began his efforts to spread Gogyohka as a new movement in poetry, and there are now around half a million people writing this form of verse in Japan.”
Today I write from a place of growing, which a year ago was a place of wondering. Could I be a writer who writes every single day? I celebrated a year of daily writing at the end of February 2022 and began another year. I stumbled across a book by Kobi Yamada, illustrated by Gabriella Barouch, entitled maybe while in Asheville, North Carolina last week. I was mesmerized, and this book has become my Year 2 inspiration to get me over the hurdles that will inevitably come. It’s worth the read, it’s worth the purchase, it’s worth reading every morning as I get dressed and start the day.
maybe by Kobi Yamada, illustrated by Gabriella Barouch
The Journey of a Year of Writing Begins with a Single Word
Susie Morice is our host today for VerseLove at http://www.ethicalela.com , inspiring us to use the news to write poetry of place, time, era. I found an article in this month’s Georgia Magazine for today’s poem.
Common Threads 