Tag: mountains

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VerseLove Day 4: Living Poets

Instructions for Traveling with Living Poets

I’m hosting today at http://www.ethicalela.com for the fourth day of VerseLove to celebrate National Poetry Month. Hop on over there and write with us today! Follow this link.

Inspiration 

I made a commitment to follow more living poets in 2026, and I’ve been on a remarkable journey of discovery ever since.  As a third-year member of The Stafford Challenge, it brings great joy to see a surge of interest in modern poetry! At my father’s funeral in June 2025, I chose a poem from an anthology of living poets to read at his graveside – not one written long ago.  I reached out to the poet to let her know I planned to read it, and I sent her a recorded clip of that reading. Imagine my surprise when, with tears in her eyes, she sent her own recorded message back explaining that it was her own cancer journey that had inspired her deeply moving poem. I hope to meet her in person this summer when I travel to Portland, Oregon.

Joy Sullivan, author of Instructions for Traveling West, is one of the living poets I follow on social media.  Her Substack, Necessary Salt, captivates me with each new post.  I think what I find most enthralling is the sheer glory she finds in everyday moments.  I invite you to go on a living poet journey to find new writers throughout the month.  Use their work to inspire your own, even borrowing their style and a line or two to frame your own poem.  You can find living poets at Teach Living Poets, Poetry Foundation, and by using search engines to discover others. 

Process

I’ve selected a poem by Joy Sullivan to get us acquainted with each other using the title alone: The cashier at the gas station asks me where I’m from.  Here is the poem free to download from Pinterest. 

Choose a person and setting (i.e. cashier at the gas station, pastor at church, mysterious stranger at the bar, waitress at a restaurant, passenger on an airplane, etc.) and introduce yourself.  Title your poem as Joy Sullivan does, and offer us a glimpse into your world.

My Poem

The Soapmaster of Green Willow Soaps asks me where I’m from

so I tell her: an hour south of Atlanta

because no one has ever heard of this place

and besides, these towns are so tiny we all just say

                      Pike County

which is small enough to spit watermelon seeds

across, where the sunsets rival Titian red

when we look over Alabama-way

but what I don’t tell her as I place bars of 

Mountain Mist, Morning Citrus, and Purple Haze

into my arm basket

is that I’m plotting retirement in these mountains

sipping black coffee on my porch

         in the shadows of Blue Ridge 

channeling inner birdsong and crystal-splashing waterfalls

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To Love a Word

Check out Georgia Heard’s Substack for monthly writing calendars that work for both children and adults. Her February Valentine Mini Writing Calendar, inspires us to fall in love with the everyday. Day 5 asks us to fall in love with love with a word, one that feels good to say, then to write it down and let it lead.

Since my One Little Word of 2026 is Onward, I’m choosing it today.

Onward

onward: mountains call ~

fresh, clean air…..majestic views

…..babbling creeks….ONWARD!

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This Photo Wants to Be a Poem

My friend Margaret Simon of Louisiana hosts the weekly Poetry Friday Roundup by posting a photo and inviting writers to compose a poem inspired by the photo. Last week, she visited the North Georgia mountains with her family as a Christmas gift to her children and their families, and she posted her cherished moments of making memories with them. She invites us this week to write a poem about this photo of her mountain house. 

Margaret has been using the elfchen form, also called an elevenie, in which the lines fall into the sequence of 1 word, 2 words, 3 words, 4 words, and concludes in summary fashion with 1 word that ties it together. She will announce her One Little Word tomorrow, and hints that it may be the last line in her own poem (Connection), so I’m giving an enthusiastic nod to her choice by using a form of connection as the last word in my own poem. You can read her post here, along with other poems that were written about the photo, and her picture that inspires her poem (and others) is below:

Mountain House photo by Margaret Simon

Presence

unhindered

time spent

unhurried memory making

letting presence be presents

connecting

Try an elfchen! These are fun to write, and what a fabulous way to preserve memories – using photos and short forms of poems. I like the way just a few words can encapsulate an entire experience and bring all the memories and good times rushing back. 

A special thanks to Margaret Simon for inspiring my writing today. Some of my greatest blessings are my writing community friends, who encourage and inspire me to be better.