During the month of April, I’m participating in #VerseLove 2025 at http://www.ethicalela.com. Each day, a different host will lead us in a fresh prompt to inspire writing. These prompts can be used in classrooms or for personal writing development. It is my hope that you will visit the site and consider writing and sharing your own poems as we celebrate National Poetry Month together.
Today’s host is Jennifer Jowett of Michigan, who leads us in The Verse Collector prompt. You can read her full prompt inspiring us to write Cento poems here.
For my poem today, I looked no further than my old Childcraft Volume 1: Poems and Rhymes, the book that started my love of poetry as an elementary school child. I sat in a dark closet with a flashlight for hours on end, mesmerized by the reading. Here are some rearranged lines from that volume of poems that I used to create a new poem.
Stolen Childcrafted Secrets
I was going to the window
(to steal the secret of the sun)
too burning and too quick to hold
but something surely to behold
the swallows blow along the sky
the sparrows twitter as they fly
the wind is passing through
I was going to the window
(to steal the secret of the sun)
(hush, I stole them out of the moon!)
I have so much to tell!
Here are the poems from which I took the lines, in order:
Once I Saw a Little Bird, anonymous
This is My Rock – David McCord
The Falling Star – Sara Teasdale
Song of the Wake-Up-World – Countee Cullen
April – Sara Teasdale
Wind Capers – Nancy Byrd Turner
Who Has Seen the Wind? – Christina Rossetti
Repeat 1
Repeat 2
Overheard on a Salt Marsh – Harold Monro (the poem that put a spell on me for life)
March – Emily Dickinson
My original book had a pink spine and a whole different set of illustrations. This one features the same poems, but is from a different year of this set of books. One day I hope to recover the original book from an attic somewhere……..
Today we wrap up #VerseLove 2024 at http://www.ethicalela.com with a prompt from Dr. Sarah Donovan, inviting us to choose a favorite prompt from the month and write another poem on that same prompt. I chose Stacey Joy’s In Our Mama’s Kitchens and Fran Haley’s The First Time. A very special thanks to Sarah Donovan and to Two Writing Teachers for giving us a space to write and grow and encourage each other. I look back as a preacher’s kid growing up in a household where one truly never knew which way the ball was coming, and today’s poem takes me back to the first time I knew I needed to hold on tight.
Pastorium Perils
late summer 1971 in rural Reynolds, Georgia the land of peach trees in their time of ripeness
Mama was pregnant with my baby brother and we were in the den Mama Daddy and me when
~~whoosh~~
in through the kitchen door a naked girl with long wet hair streaked through our house holding a towel screaming all the way down the hall to my parents’ bedroom
locking the door on her heels her stepdad pounding and screaming threatening her life I recognized them from church
I was five the girl was a teenager (with flapping boobs ……and hair….down there?) her stepdad was drunk
my mother clutched me carried me like a football into my room locked the door
then ran through the connecting bathroom
I followed, fearful to stay alone crawled under their bed
Mama found the girl huddled in the bottom of their closet shaking crying uncontrollably wailing for help Mama comforted her clothed her sat on the bed holding her
called the cops
we listened in fear for Dad as we waited
those slurred screams of fury are seared into my memory forever
she comes with me or I’ll go get my ruiner and ruin you
then more voices, the crash of a lamp furniture slamming
handcuffs, arrest, police report one prominent family in ruins
exposed
it was the first time I knew growing up a preacher’s kid would bring a whole cast of characters always calling mostly clothed
it was the first time I saw a naked teenager running for her life
Jessica Wiley of Conway, Arkansas is our host today for Day 27 of #VerseLove2024. She inspires us to write Sound Off poems, spouting off about things that irk us. You can read her full prompt here.
Burning Realms
his whole realm
went up in smoke
ashes of trust
soot of believability
smoldering memories
of the way
upon-a-times
once were
the day he
struck the sulfury
match
burning an
entire
kingdom to the
ground
starting with
his own
castle
*sulfury is a play on soul fury, as in Jessica’s original prompt a podcast entitled Sound and Fury was part of the discussion.
The Poetry Fox in 1828 Coffee Company in Zebulon, Georgia
Barb Edler of Iowa is our host today for the 13th day of #VerseLove2024, inspiring us to use a brain dump process to craft a poem. You can read her full prompt and the poems and comments of others here.
My role as the District Literacy Specialist for Pike County Schools in Georgia involves utilizing grant funds to create Literacy events to ignite reading and writing passion in our schools and throughout our community. When my soul sister Fran Haley of North Carolina posted about The Poetry Fox visiting her school years ago, I tucked that thought away as a dream to bring him from her school event in Zebulon, North Carolina to our coffee shop in Zebulon, Georgia to work his magic, sitting at his table in a fox suit, pounding out poems on his vintage typewriter for folks who stand in line to offer him their word.
He made that 7 hour trip this week from his home in Durham, NC and produced nearly 60 poems between 3:00 and 6:15, delighting people of all ages and from all walks of life – funeral directors who gave the words tears and gravestones, a pilot who offered the word sky, children who offered all sorts of words from monster truck to axolotl, teenagers who brought the words hooligan and baseball, and a librarian who brought the word library – and so many more! I’ve included the list of words in a photo at the bottom of this post. My words were royal fortress meadow since my name, Kimberly, means from the royal fortress meadow.
After three hours of writing poems, he packed up his fox suit and walked down to the barbecue restaurant on our town square and had a barbecue sandwich, baked beans, and banana pudding with me. When we returned at 7:00, he shared a delightful hour telling us about who he is, what he does, and how he came to do it. Beyond watching him work, there is as much amazement in the person of Chris Vitiello as there is the jaw-dropping magic of….
The Poetry Fox!
I. The Suit
there must have been
some magic in that old
fox suit they found
for when he placed it
on his head
keys began to dance around
to swirl up typewriter dust
conjuring the memories
reaching deep for connections
once forgotten, resurrected now
in the deep recesses of minds
and souls
the piercings of heartstrings by
moments of life
summoning past
awakening present
cultivating future
pounded out with two fingers
often superglued for
tenderness support
a suit ~
left behind, abandoned, forgotten
given as a gift by a
friend who knew the quirky depths
of brilliance in THE one who would
wear it best
II. The Roots
because as a kid
he read newspapers
enjoyed the flapping of paper
and the words they held, and
this future fox word volleyed
(forget board games – he played word games)
with friends
to build schema
set egg timers and each wrote 5 poems
all about one word
that had to be different from any other
with his knees against a heater
where his desk sat
the heat rising as the breath
of a boy who would someday
write to the tune of sweat
in a toasty fox costume
III. The Pursuit
and every day live out
his dream of writing
his love of meaning
his incessant hunger
for the exchange of words
for the gift of poetry
this soul-spark of wonder
when words touch places
long ignored
and breath catches
and tears well and spill
and loved ones lost return, smiling
between the lines
and children laugh
because the clever fox
explains in all logic
through poetry
that people don’t
make monster trucks ~
monsters do
and people aren’t the
only ones who write poems
foxes do, too
A group stands watching The Poetry Fox work his magic
I said, “Royal Fortress Meadow,” and this is my poem on the meaning of my nameA poem about monster trucksThe word list The Poetry Fox keeps – for all the words folks give him at his events
Mo Daley of Michigan is our host today for the 8th day of #VerseLove2024, inspiring us to write Zip Odes (an ode to our Zip Codes) by considering our place and our zip code. You can read Mo’s full prompt and the poems and comments of others here.
To write a zip ode, write the numbers of your zip code down the left-hand side of the page. Each number determines the number of words in that line. For a zero, you can leave it blank, insert an emoji or symbol, or use any number of words between 1 and 9.
I thought of the meaning of my name as a connection between where I live and who I am.
From the Royal Fortress Meadow
3 royal fortress meadow
0 =
2 Kimberly‘s meaning
9 green pastures, rolling hillsides, fields full of countryside charms
Bryan Ripley Crandall of Connecticut has quite a Magic Box process of turning out nonsense, whimsical poems that make us smile. You can read his full prompt along with the process (this one is loads of fun) and the poems of others here.
Just let words roll off the pen and see what pops up!
Turning the Tables
vintage green stamps in rose-hued sunglasses sewing thimble, dogtag, thumbs of young lasses Cracker Jack prizes trinkets and toys but pencils for scholarly girls and boys crocheted tablecloth clamps stitched by all our Aunt Mabels clothespinned lottery tickets turn all the tables
we, in one accord listened ~ hung on every word our hungry hearts heard
Thursday night’s reading of Awakenings by Clayton Moon in our local coffee shop on the town square to kick off our town’s celebration of National Poetry Month was a heartwarming cross-section of intergenerational bridging that nothing but poetry can build. From teenagers to young adults to middle-agers to seniors, we were all listening in one accord as we hung on every word.
Before I welcomed Clayton to the microphone, I shared the impact of a writing community not only in the writing, but in the day to day living – the motivation to learn new things, to try new things, to notice new things. I shared with those who’d come that I would be sharing poems written by living poets from across the United States during the month of April. I began by sharing a definition poem illuminating our theme of awakenings, written by our friend Fran Haley of North Carolina. I shared each canvas, one at a time, describing how they would hang ladder-style in the window of the Chamber of Commerce with eye hooks and chain once the display was complete. #4 brought smiles, the kind I could tell were deep from within, the knowing satisfaction of a feeling.
Here are some photos of the kickoff event for our town’s poetry celebration.
Definition poem by Fran Haley
Clayton “Boxer” Moon reads from his book Awakenings
Clayton, who goes by Boxer for most of us who know him, shared his book, written from the awakening to the brewing of the coffee to the first cup, the second cup, the third cup, and the dregs. His featured poem, The Heart of Nahoo, offered a tribute to retired educator Dr. Dan Dunnahoo, who was our county’s long-time art teacher and who now is the president of the Pike County Arts Council and who restored the coffee shop and preserved its history right down to saving each nail and floorboard.
Boxer’s books and Sarah’s art – they collaborate on father/daughter books that he writes and she illustrates
Boxer reads to the crowd
Boxer (L), Dr. Dan Dunnahoo (C), and Sarah (R) stand with an excerpt of Boxer’s tribute poem for Dan.
Three people who didn’t know each other an hour ago write poetry together – this is why we need more of it!
This young lady wrote a Cento poem in a short time – she used the poetry kiosk sticks and wrote hers in colorful letters.
One of our town’s short story writers came out to support poetry writing and hear Clayton read.
Our town’s Magistrate Judge talks with Sarah and Melinda Moon, Clayton’s wife and daughter
Ethan Jacobs’ Cento Poem on a magnetic poetry kiosk
Ethan was our poet for our February event. He shared from is recently published book Dust. I also wanted to share a couple of photos from his event. We’re blessed to live in a town where authors, poets, and artists stand ready to share their talents with us!
Ethan Jacobs was our reader from February, and this is a photo from his Leap Day event.
Ethan Jacobs read from his book Dust on Leap Day in our coffee shop.
Come visit us in Georgia, have coffee, and read and write with us!
Last year, Denise Krebs asked me to share what I had done to plan a National Poetry Month celebration in my rural Georgia town. Today, I’m sharing a list prose poem (I think I just totally made that combo form up) of How To Plan A Poetry Event In Your Town. I’m currently, still, and always in the planning stages, so these are some of the things I’ve done to plan this year’s event (and last year’s too). At the end of April, I’ll share a picture tour of these events that began in February this year (we couldn’t wait…). Stay tuned.
Painted canvas in the palette of awakenings poetry – ready for lettering!
21 Steps to a Town Poetry Celebration: A List Prose Poem
1. Ask the local Arts Council to pick a theme that fits your town. Imagine the infinite possibilities when they pick Awakenings after two years of the same theme of Bloom. 2. Say a prayer of thanks that your community works together to make poetry happen and has given you the title The Crazy Poetry Lady. (Move over, Crazy Cat Ladies!) 3. Ask a friend to write a poem on the theme (the one who writes a book instead). 4. When he writes the book, set him up with a poetry reading and book signing event. 5. Ask another local poet to read and sign his new book, too, in the coffee shop. 6. Think back to Fran Haley's post on The Poetry Fox and invite him to town with his Fox suit and his vintage typewriter to bang out poems in under 70 seconds when folks throughout the land give him a word and then watch them be amazed when he stamps it with his little fox paw print, suitable at once for framing. 7. When he agrees to come from North Carolina, create canvases for the Chamber of Commerce windows of all the poets' verses. Paint the backdrops in shades of sunrise awakenings. Pretend you are a New York City window dresser and borrow easels and buy fishing line and eye hooks to hang the artwork, then stand back and wonder if any Crazy Cat Ladies will loan you some poetry cats to curl up in the window display. 8. Set up a Progressive Poetry Walk around the town square (read it in sections on stands). Since people will come throughout the land to see the fox, they’ll need something to read while they wait in the long line. 9. Make YouTube shorts of directions on how to write poetry for those who think they can't. 10. Set up community poetry writing kiosks with QR codes to scan for directions and create a community Padlet to showcase the writing online. 11. Ask the Georgia Poet Laureate to come read her poems in the coffee shop, too. Jump out of your skin with excitement when she sends you two poems that will appear in her new book and allows you to put them on a canvas in the Chamber window. 12. Plan an Open Mic night so those throughout the land can come listen....read.....recite. Note that 2 other community partners planned them without your prompting this year….and smile that your seeds are blooming. Pray your garden will grow and grow theoughout the land. 13. Bask in the glow of what poetry does in a town and a state and a nation and a heart. 14. Invite all your writing group friends to come to 1828 Coffee Company on April 25 at 6:00 to read their poems and drink the best coffee in all the land with you. Because Glenda Funk keeps a suitcase packed and ready, you know. 15. If they can't be here in person, invite them instead to record themselves reading a favorite poem or one they've written and send it to you or upload it to YouTube so you can make a QR code and put it in frames all around your town and throughout the land. 16. Create canvases of their verses to go in the Chamber windows, too, on your theme: awakenings. 17. Wonder why you haven't created a collection and put it out on Amazon. 18. Start a Word document of all the poems you'd put in a poetry collection on your theme. 19. Decide to self publish a short collection and choose a title and create an action plan. 20. Bask in the joy of poetry and all the healing it brings to a heart and a town and a state and a nation and a world and a universe. 21. Don't wonder where you'd be without the gift of poetry. You don't even want to know.
and then wonder if you can rewrite 21 into a poem all its own…..try a Haiku….
you don’t want to know where you’d be without the gifts of life-changing verse
its healing magic reaches in, awakens souls throughout all the land
Special thanks to Two Writing Teachers for inspiring writers!
Sunday was a day well-spent! We watched my dad preach in my childhood church via YouTube, and I texted my brother and his fiancee to check on them as they travel to New Orleans for the week. We had breakfast with our schnoodles by the fire, and then I painted 18 canvases to dress the Chamber of Commerce windows for National Poetry Month. Finally, we had a wonderful Zoom gathering arranged by Lainie Levin to meet other slicers face to face and enjoy conversation.
Part of my role in my school system is to oversee the L4GA Literacy grant, which offers funding for literacy events in the community. National Poetry Month is a fabulous time to plan some Open Mic nights, author poetry readings, and writing workshops. Last year, we created a progressive poetry walk around our town square, featuring a local poet’s poem he’d written about our rural town to the theme of Bloom!
For this year’s theme, Awakenings (our local Arts Council chose this year’s theme), we’re switching from a progressive poetry walk to a window dressing, thanks to our sensational Chamber of Commerce team, who has agreed to allow us to decorate the windows as a town square feature this year. These canvases will have poetry written on them in black letters.
If you are looking for a slice topic sometime this week and enjoy writing poetry, I would love to have some short poems (4-6 lines) on the theme of Awakenings. I’m curating a collection of poems on this theme by living poets to feature in our window. Some will be local poets who share readings in our coffee shop, while others will be from right here in the Slice of Life or another writing group….maybe you! I’ll change them out from week to week, so if yours is featured, I’ll share a photo of your poem on display sometime at the end of May on a Tuesday slicing day. You can add your poem in the comments on any day of my blog throughout March.
I’m sharing our palette color scheme below.
Poetry Invitation Elfchen
painting bright canvases National Poetry Month local business window dressings ~ awakenings ~
With special thanks to Two Writing Teachers for hosting the Slice of Life Story Challenge for writers!
Earlier in the month, I mentioned that I would be planning a celebration of National Poetry Month throughout my community. As the District Literacy Specialist in my school system, I am able to tap into Literacy grant funds through my state to be able to bring interactive Literacy events to our county. Denise Krebs asked, “Will you blog it?” I assured her that I would. And I thank her for the inspiration for this post!
We kick off on April 1 with our big celebration. I sought a poet to write a poem on the theme of Bloom! Clayton Moon was my choice, because he has a true gift of writing about place. The rural countryside of Pike County, Georgia is his jam. He calls himself a dirt road mystic.
And he is. Not only did he write our featured poem, The Kiss of a Flutter’s Eye, he also added to the collection and published a book of poems about our county and its rural setting.
We sectioned his poem onto twelve pages, and I asked a recent Pike County graduate who was on Spring Break from ABAC College to illustrate the poem. She drew amazing blooms to match the words in the poem. I purchased 12 poster stands and asked 12 businesses on our courthouse square if they would allow us to place a stand with a stanza outside their door. They agreed, and merchants will add flowers at the base of the stands (Bloom!). On Friday (today as you read this), we will take these to the square and put them out for folks to come and take a progressive poetry walk, beginning at our Chamber of Commerce on the west side of the square and ending at Prosperity Real Estate on the south side of the square.
Progressive Poetry Walk Stands
On each stanza, there is a QR Code to give L4GA credit for funding the project and to let readers know which numbered stanza it is, in case they begin reading in the middle (they’ll know to go back to the Chamber to start with Stanza 1).
One of our libraries will host a paint chip poetry writing workshop. Come join me as we write!
We are also having pop-up poetry writing opportunities in several businesses, along with writing workshops. I’ll lead those in our libraries, but I prepared magnetic boards and baskets with instructional videos to help folks understand what to do in each station if they want to write poems before or after the workshops. They can scan the QR Code to watch a short How To video. I also created a Community Padlet for each poet to upload their poetry if they’d like.
Our local bookstore is hosting a Cento writing board, where shoppers can read the directions or scan a QR Code to watch an instructional video before writing their poem and sharing it on a community Padlet.
I’ve framed QR Codes with poets reading their poetry so folks can scan them and listen!
I’m also featuring poets reading their poetry in random QR Codes scattered around the square. I’ve hidden them in Easter Eggs, framed them and placed them on shelves in businesses, and even put them on bookmarks and doorknob hanger signs. If you’re interested in sharing a YouTube video of yourself reading a poem that you have written, please let me know in the comments and I’ll share where to send the YouTube link so that you can come virtually to Pike County and read your poetry! When someone scans your QR Code, there you’ll be – reading to us right here. Click here to hear me read Paint Chips, or click here to hear Clayton Moon read The Kiss of a Flutter’s Eye.
One of our local libraries is hosting a Jenga Block poetry basket, a Haikubes basket, a Found and Blackout Poetry basket, and a Paint Chip Poetry board.
We’re looking forward to an amazing celebration of National Poetry Month, and if you’re in the neighborhood, be sure to check out the progressive poetry walk and holler out for me to meet you at the 1828 Coffee Company on the Zebulon square, where we can sip a lavender latte – or my other favorite, a medicine ball tea. We’ll be having an Open Mic Night with Ethan Jacobs and other local poets on April 19th, and Clayton Moon will be signing his book on the sidewalk outside the bookstore earlier that week.
Come join us! And if you can’t make it to Georgia, come join us at #VerseLove at http://www.ethicalela.com, starting April 1. We’ll be writing poetry every day. Glenda Funk will kick off the party on April 1, and I’ll take the reins on April 2 before passing them on to another host on the 3rd. Several of us in the Slice of Life group will be hosting on a day in April – Denise Krebs, Margaret Simon, Barb Edler, and others. Don’t forget Leigh Anne Eck’s new blog group, too, that begins April 1 and focuses on topics of nature.
Thanks for a great month of writing, friends! Now we can all celebrate by wearing our Slice of Life t-shirts. I got the baseball shirt with the black sleeves, because I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about my first post this month, being a lost slicer wandering the streets of Anaheim looking for a meet-up. I’ll be wearing my t-shirt at NCTE this year, so if I look lost, please come help me find my way!
Common Threads 