Patchwork Prose and Verse
Jordan, our host for this 19th day of #VerseLove 2025, lives in Suffolk, VA.
She inspires us today to write poems about food.
lots of things I don’t do right in this world
but making a fresh sprout and kale wrap
with beets and a half dollop of
mayonnaise is not one of
them, fortunately ~ and
the difference is
right outside on
the porch where
it grows
fresh
Our host for Day 17 of VerseLove 2025 at http://www.ethicalela.com is Angie Braaten, who inspires us with a poetry prompt to use Google search phrases to create a poem. You can read her full prompt here.
Googling
how much is enough sleep?
how much is enough to retire?
how much?
when is enough enough?
when is there too little?
when?
should we be worried about bird flu?
should we break up?
should we?
shall we gather at the river?
shall we dance?
shall we?
how can you tell if a cat is pregnant?
how can you tell if a diamond is real?
how can you tell if an egg is bad?
how can you tell whether zeros are significant?
how can you tell?
Dr. Sarah J. Donovan is the founder of Ethical ELA, a community for teacher-writers, and a 2024 Fellow for the Genocide Education Project. A former middle school English teacher and author, she advocates for humanizing literacy practices, genocide education, and poetry as witness. Her work bridges pedagogy, justice, and storytelling.
Sarah inspires us to write poems in recognition of the past and in celebration of the Armenian people, their voices, and their enduring culture. You can read her full prompt here. I’m sharing a celebration pantoum.
Armenian Culture Pantoum
elders are respected
children are revered
Hellenistic temples
intricate khachkars
children are revered
strong family values
intricate khachkars
lavash and harissa
strong family values
Yarkhushta marriage dance
lavash and harissa
Artsakh carpets
Yarkhushta marriage dance
Hellenistic temples
Artsakh carpets
elders are respected
Today’s host at http://www.ethicalela.com for the 10th day of #VerseLove2025 is Joanne Emery, who inspires us to look closely at something in nature and write a poem about it. You can read her full prompt here.
I was on my way to Mississippi on Tuesday when I stopped for a memory card and noticed a huge mural proclaiming Greenville as Alabama’s Camellia City. I stopped and looked. I hadn’t thought of camellias in a long time, but my mother had loved them so much. It felt like a hello from Heaven.
Hello from Heaven
two days ago
passing through
Greenville, Alabama
I noticed a mural~
Alabama’s Camellia City
fuchsia petals
and yellow anthers
adorning the corners
and thought of
my mother, who loved them
yesterday
in Hattiesburg, Mississippi
I drove past a camellia
bush of these exact colors
and thought again of
my mother, who loved them
this gentle wave from Heaven
to remind me of her
sent me on a quest
to discover more about
the Japan rose
which symbolizes
advancing women’s rights
and is used to make tea
and food seasoning
and to protect the blades
of sharp cutting instruments ~
interesting, but where is the
message from Heaven?
my brother will be at
The Masters, where the
10th Hole is The Camellia Hole
so I will tell him to look for a
sign from our mother there
and perhaps, just perhaps
he’ll see a
Freedom Bell or
Cornish Show, Inspiration,
Royalty, or a Spring Festival
maybe my own message is
here, now, ~ in To Kill a
Mockingbird, Jem destroys
Mrs. Dubose’s garden when
she insults his family but is
later given a bud from the
dying woman who struggled
to overcome her
morphine addiction
and perhaps, just perhaps
this camellia wave is
every assurance that
forgiveness of others
is the work my heart
needs to do
and perhaps, just perhaps
I’ll plant a camellia this spring
to welcome more
hellos from Heaven from
my mother, who loved them
I glance up at the coffee table
in the VRBO where I’m staying
and notice a decorative box
I hadn’t noticed before now
gold-outlined camellias
as if my mother has been
sitting with me as I write this poem
and perhaps, just perhaps
she has
Our host for the 9th day of #VerseLove2025 is Britt Decker of Houston, Texas, who inspires us to write. a poem about who we were at various times in our lives. You can read her full prompt here. Maybe you’ll come write with us today! I’ve chosen a list poem for today’s poem.
Depending on when you met me, you would have known
I was a wild preacher’s kid running amok with a
cast of characters that weren’t Southern Baptists ~
that I became them in my closet with a flashlight
obsessed with the words, the characters, the places
in Childcraft Volume 1: Poems and Rhymes
the book with the gold and pink banded spine
where they lived on pages but came alive
in me ~ and stay with me still
I’m Pirate Don Durk of Dowdee
I’m a sugar plum tree at the Lollipop Sea
I’m a little turtle climbing on the rocks
I’m Wee Willie Winkie, crying through the locks
I’m a water nymph with green glass beads
I’m a goblin in the marsh, howling in the reeds
I’m Mary, Mary, quite contrary
I’m a little puffin on an island in the sea
I’m a gypsy, a gypsy, earrings in my ears
I’m a cave boy with a spear hunting prehistoric deer
I’m the Raggedy Man with a wobble-ly calf
I’m the Ice Cream man with a cart full of laughs
I’m Young Melissa sweeping a room
I’m an astronaut….3, ….2,…..1……BOOM!
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.
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
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!
Common Threads 