I’m exhausted. Fall break begins today, and I’m ready for a rest.
I’ll travel to Kentucky for my daughter’s baby shower and spend time with her the first part of the week, perhaps doing some light hiking in her favorite state park and helping them find things for their new home. Then, I’ll come home and attend a book discussion group on Weyward by Emilie Hart and work on my writing deadlines for the book my writing group has coming out in 2025.
Normally, I don’t count minutes at work. I’m not a clock watcher for any other reason than being on time for meetings and deadlines.
Today is different. I’m ready to give my mind a break and enjoy some cooler temperatures in northern Kentucky. I’m ready to see some leaves changing color and feel the breeze nipping enough to make me zip my jacket.
Fitz, Ollie, and Boo Radley take to the trails and paths of state parks
Our three Schnoodles enjoy taking to the trails. In Georgia, the state parks have a program called Tails on Trails, and you can even get a t-shirt for yourself and your pups to identify yourself as a Tailer-on-Trailer.
Our boys may look all nonchalant about it, but don’t let them fool you. They live for this. Boo Radley could not settle himself down for all the things he was trying to take in, and Fitz had to pee on every upturned leaf and then kick dirt and pine straw up in a confetti nature parade behind him as he scratched off. He and Ollie tried to scale a vertical cliff like they were mountain goats or something.
Come with us for a few moments as we walk. The band of brothers will lead the way.
I saw this social media post with a haiku plus 3 syllables, and it inspired me to take action:
Photo taken from a social media post about writing poems
My Response to the Leaf Writer
I did what you said
I found leaves and rocks, penned verse,
left for others to
discover….
We were camping at FD Roosevelt State Park in Pine Mountain, Georgia, and the leaves are starting to change. I found an assortment of leaves and rocks and took the advice from the
post.
Mary Oliver verse on a rock
This writing on the rocks makes me think of my time in Asheville at the Grove Park Inn, which has been fiercely and steadily on my mind over the past week. I’ve heard much about Biltmore House, but very little is out there except for a statement that I could find on the Grove Park Inn’s website. Besides the old caged elevator and the mega-sized fireplaces with rocking chairs lined up in front of them, one of my favorite things to do at the Grove Park Inn during my visit there was walking around and reading the quotes from books etched into the rocks in the lobby. Perhaps this rock with its lines of poetry is one small way to keep the city of Asheville and its devout love of the arts close to my heart as they heal.
I do hope that The Grove Park Inn finds a way to temporarily host the National Gingerbread House Contest in November this year to another location if they are unable to have it there – which I’m sure may be next to impossible. My vote is for Atlanta, and I’d love to buy 15 tickets and bring the children and grandchildren!
August was a month of preparations for the launch of three of the five books that my writing group has written over the past couple of years. Words That Mend: The Transformative Power of Writing Poetry for Teachers, Students, and Community Wellbeing, 90 Ways of Community, and Just YA launched on September 2, and we celebrated the birth of these books via Zoom and Facebook Live a few weeks later.
August was also preparation time for local book events, the first of which was held last night pretty much in the middle of the Upson Lee Homecoming Parade in Thomaston, Georgia on the courthouse square. One week after Hurricane Helene’s blustering of wind and heavy rain that necessitated our one week delay, I arrived on the square two hours ahead of time to seek parking among the throngs of people and the flurry of floats.
Earlier in the day, I’d considered leaving my car parked on the square and getting a ride back, but I’d stopped by Ace Hardware in town looking for a foldable wagon to pull my baskets of books in, even if I ended up having to walk a few blocks. The salesman had one little red wagon left, and he took it to the back, unboxed it, and installed the wheels for me, pulling it right back up to the checkout and wishing me well. (Local small-town shopping is a thing of the past in most places, and I was grateful for his stellar customer service).
Little Red Wagon in my back seat, ready to load up books
The Thomaston Upson Arts Council (TUAC) is an active, thriving group who bring cultural arts and literary events to the forefront of the city of Thomaston. I entered the place I’d been several times before, offering a land honorarium not only for the Native Americans who’d once called it home but also for all people who had ever lived in Thomaston and their stories. This arts council is a model for keeping arts in the spotlight, and I perused the photography exhibit on the walls, spotlighting landscapes of America.
Tomorrow’s blog will feature more of the actual book talk now that the stage of place and arrival has been set. Today, I stand back and take in the whirlwind of life: returning to normal after a storm, traffic, a friendly Ace salesman pulling a little red wagon to me and wishing me well, a passing parade with spectators and a line of Homecoming Court high schoolers waving from the backs of convertibles, the tops of cars, and the beds of trucks. All of this feels like the twirling leaves of fall descending upon us as we think of the cozier days ahead – – hopefully, filled with mugs of cider, cozy blankets, and reading fireside in the early mornings.
On Sunday, we had our book launch celebration, and we began with……well, what else? Writing! I wrote a 20 Questions Poem, falling short by about 9 questions. Our first 23 minutes includes a writing prompt, and then there is discussion about our books. Enjoy!
How do we celebrate this excitement of our book?
How do we scream and yell loud enough?
How do we jump high enough? Run in place fast enough?
Smile big enough? Laugh loud enough?
How do we let the joy out slowly enough without bursting wide open?
How do we keep our feet on the ground?
How do we remember our names and where we live?
How do we keep our faces from hurting, with these smiles too big
To fit on our faces?
How do we contain all the sugarplums that danced in our heads,
Now here on the pages of our book, our words, our joy, our being?
Barb Edler of Iowa is our host today at http://www.ethicalela.com for the final day of our September Open Write. She encourages us to celebrate our writing group through poetry of any form today. You can read her full prompt here and read the poems of others. On the heels of a celebration of the Labor Day launch of our books Words that Mend and 90 Ways of Community earlier this week, I can’t think of a better way to write today than in thanksgiving and heartfelt gratitude for a group of writers who make a difference in how we live and how we think.
If you don’t have a writing group, I encourage you to find one ~ and you can use this one as a great model for a face to face group in your own corner of the world after spending a few hours looking back at the prompts and the feedback. Get the books, read them, and feel the deep need to fix places you never knew were broken. Too many of us have lost our footing and found ourselves floundering and then discovered the power of writing and what it can do. Today is a day to celebrate the power of the pen and the ways it connects us with others. Anna Roseboro said it best at our celebration: if poetry can do this for us, imagine what it can do for our students. We all need poetry and writing in our lives.
Our host today at http://www.ethicalela.com for the September Open Write is Larin of Oklahoma. She inspires us to write “I Thought You Should Know” poems in any form of our choice. You can read her full prompt here, along with the poems of others.
Special thanks to Two Writing Teachers at Slice of Life
To the Craftsman in Kentucky Who Made the Secretariat
Join us today for our book launch party, too! September 22, 2024 – we are having an Online Publication Party to celebrate this bounteous time in our poetry community. Please join us for a live event on Zoom/YouTube at 12 PM PST/2 PM CST/3PM EST and bring friends with you…we are going to celebrate!
Mirrors
mirrors of life in art
Picasso exhibit in Nashville with my daughter
we sat admiring wondering taking it all in
then my birthday~ she sent blank journals with Picasso art covers fronts and backs
mirrors
mirrors of life these words
conversations with Fran we chatted on writing on family on pens and pencils
then a Ticonderoga Noir Holographic Hexagon flat sections
Common Threads 