Tag: open write

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Homeless in Portland: Outside the Zone

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Powell’s City of Books in Portland, Oregon

I was in Portland, Oregon at the first annual Stafford Challenge Poetry Conference, and I’m not sure how one can feel exhilarated and exhausted at the same time, but I did. The days of writing held such magic here in the Pacific Northwest. From Powell’s City of Books to Lewis and Clark College to the Willamette River and the 30th floor of the Portland City Grill, I’ve breathed the air of artists everywhere.

This is a city of literature, visual art, music and dance. Have you ever been immersed in a city so filled with the unexpected?

But one humanitarian challenge is the homeless population here. All these years I’ve walked past, minded my business, tried not to look. But something has tugged at my heartstrings on this trip, and I’m rethinking my stance. Something must change.

Outside the Zone in Portland, Oregon

oh my ~ he was there/ on the street / outside Powell’s City of Books in Portland /this young man/

locking his white-blue eyes with mine/ pleading / Excuse me, Ma’am? / as I walked past/

outside the zone/a few blocks later it smacked my heart wide open/ this is someone’s child/ a mother’s baby boy/ and I? I have neglected this soul / a disco ball of fragmented pieces/ reflection’ll do that/

refracting in pieces that scatter and haunt my being as I walk on/ ripped apart / outside the zone/ wanting even now to return to hear his story/ a sermon of life there on the street/ giving more than he requests/ listen: he has a story/ we all have a story/

this poem knows regret can do a 180/ change a line like an edit/ a tide of change/ one small act of knowing someone/ asking their story/ seeing, listening, validating humanity/ on a concrete city sidewalk/ where someone needs a human outside the zone/ to enter the zone and see them, hear them, understand them

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June Open Write Day 3: Souvenirs

Today’s host of the third and final day of the June Open Write at http://www.ethicalela.com is Leilya Pitre of Louisiana. She inspires us to write poems about the souvenirs we bring home from trips. You can read her full prompt here, along with the poems of others and the feedback given. I have written mine today as I await a flight home from Portland, Oregon to rural Georgia, fresh on the heels of a delightful writer’s conference trip with my friend Glenda Funk of Idaho. I’ve used the style of Ada Limon’s Instructions On Not Giving Up.

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Horsetail Falls

Souvenirs from Portland, Oregon

more than the t-shirts and canvas bags

more than the keychains and shot glasses

more than that obnoxious prayer request card

cussing to God about the souls

of His other children

in the pew back compartment

someone intentionally forgot

to put in the offering plate

that I claimed as a bookmark

so I can pray the same sort

of prayer for Sam, Gavin, Kellen and all of us sinful humans

(yes, all of us !*(^ing %*m#@$$es)

more than the signed books of other writers

more than the leather shopping treasures,

it’s the photographs that really get to me

that keep the memories alive

stances of trees, slants of slate rooftops,

smiles of strangers and those we love

(yes, all of us !*(^ing %*m#@$$es)

standing beneath waterfalls

in the bend of the rainbow

God’s promise of hope for all His children

cloaked in the prayer shawl of His grace and mercy

(yes, all of us !*(^ing %*m#@$$es)

yes, I’ll take them. I’ll take them all.

Actual prayer request found in a church pew back in Portland, Oregon
Bridal Veil Falls

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Summer Travel Companion for the Open Write

Leilya Pitre of Louisiana is our host today at http://www.ethicalela.com for the June Open Write. She asks us to write a poem about the person we would choose to ask to go traveling with us this summer if we could take someone. I’ve been awaiting the release of Lauren Hough’s Monster of a Land for months. She takes a Travels with Charley journey, modern day, with her dog, Woody Guthrie. So instead of pre-ordering, I waited to buy the book at Powell’s City of Books in Portland. This bookstore is an entire city block and when you’re waiting on a book about a monster of a land, it makes sense to buy it in the monster of all bookstores.

Let’s Go, Lauren Hough!

a Steinbeck-like is Lauren Hough
an author I would ask to go
to join my summer travel band
to see this Monster of a Land!

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Taking Notes in Portland, Oregon

I’m in Portland, Oregon for the Stafford Challenge Poetry Conference, and Glenda Funk and I have been out meeting people on the streets, taking notes of what to do while we are here.

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Glenda, Ellie, Me

Taking Notes

Glenda and I went people-ing

on the streets of Portland

asking folks

What’s your favorite thing

to do here?

then smiled for quick snapshots

to remember these kind souls

Ellie likes parks ~ waterfalls and Pioneer Square

Josh likes fishing ~ salmon and rivers

Joe likes running and showed us to a garden

Cheriss likes staying home (she attracts dead ancestors)

Arthur yawns ~ he likes sleeping

Higinio likes remembering Venezuela and Miami

Librarian poet Leslie likes reading and eating Ethiopian food

Matt likes adventure ~ camping on Mt. Hood (he has a feral cat named Big O)

Scott’s favorite thing to do is eat

we are all a human tribe~

how can we not be filled with

such a vast love,

this diverse and unified living of life?

Cheriss, Me, Glenda
Me, Josh, Glenda
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Open Write

Erica and Jessica of Arkansas are our hosts today for the third and final day of the Open Write for May 2026 at http://www.ethicalela.com. They inspire us to write “found” poems not by finding lines or words from other poets by collecting thoughts and ideas of things we find. You can read their full prompt here. It’s a lot like taking a nature walk and instead of collecting pine cones or stones or feathers, poets collect moments and feelings to share.

I visited my brother on Lake Hickory over the weekend, so this morning I’m scrolling back through my photos for my “walk” back through the weekend.

Welcome to North Carolina

Welcome sign greets us into the state

we pull into the driveway overlooking the lake

artist’s palette sunset, dock, pool,

a sloping hill for dogs to play

Mojave sun hat on the boat

tritoon power fast afloat

Ospreys soar and dive for fish

songbirds, praise chimes, fountain wish

boats on sandbar, toasting dreams

wallowing in warm sunbeams

but one more stop while traveling home

Malaprops for treasure-tomes

And then two more,

Black Rock Mountain, Tallulah Gorge

but back to work, a life to forge…..

.

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Open Write Day 2 of May 2026: Trees

Erica of Arkansas is our host today for the second day of the Open Write at http://www.ethicalela.com. She’s shared an inspirational prompt about trees and invites us to write about them. You can read her full prompt here. Come join us and read the poems of others or write your own!

I’ve been dabbling in watercolor lately, and one thing I’ve realized is that leaves are not easy to paint. I’ve also tried drawing my own pictures to paint, but concluded I’m a long way away from that technique. So pages in the watercolor books that guide and tell. how to paint the subject are my best option for building confidence and learning techniques.

And while ferns are not trees, it’s a Watercolor Weekend! Here is a fern I painted (not dark enough, but at least it turned out somewhere in the green color family). I recently brought a fern in a turtle planter home from St. Simons Island, where we are cleaning Dad’s house and yard to prepare it to go on the market, and ferns were one of my mother’s favorite plants.

To My New Turtle Fern

Fern: from 322 Magnolia Avenue in a concrete turtle planter

Everything about you

Reminds me of Mom – and Fitz, who

Never met a turtle he didn’t like

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May 16 Open Write Place Based Poetry on a Watercolor Weekend

It’s a Watercolor Weekend and an Open Write weekend, too – and I wish I could have painted the sky last night, but instead I am sharing a painting I started earlier this week and have not yet finished – it’s a Lily of the Valley, and I chose it for the varied shades of blue I feel when I’m around all this water. I’m on the road, so I didn’t bring my paints with me in preference for spending time with my people this weekend. This one didn’t blend well, but I do like the colors.

Our host today for the May Open Write is Jessica, who lives in Arkansas. Today, she inspires us to write about places in our state – anywhere, but particularly considering any hidden or obscure places. I’m in a uniquely-named place this morning – not in my own state, but in North Carolina visiting my brother and sister-in-law, who just bought their dream home right on Lake Hickory. I asked him, “So your house is in Hickory?” He said “No, it’s close…..it’s a Taylorsville mailing address.” And then he elaborated. “It’s actually Bethlehem. Our place on the map is in Bethlehem, North Carolina.” Our late parents would be so proud – Dad, a preacher, and Mom’s favorite Christmas carol was O Little Town of Bethlehem.

It took my breath away when I rolled in just before sunset last night. The sky changed from a watercolor palette to vibrance the opacity of oil with its blues and oranges and pinks a purples. We sat with wineglasses in hand watching it. This morning, a heron and an osprey, already, waving hello with a thousand other birds looking for breakfast. And I saw the Osprey flying high change course, dip down, skim the surface, and catch a fish. It’s spectacular to watch and resembled the eagles I saw in Alaska swooping down for fish so much that it has me wondering…..have I seen an eagle this morning??

So I’m writing about morning lake activity here in Bethlehem, North Carolina

Bethlehem

I think I know

why His eye is on the sparrow

with all the other birds

far more majestic in flight

this tiny song sparrow

may not have the wingspan

of the eagle or the osprey

but it sings praises more

powerfully than all the rest

here in Bethlehem

where songbirds

know the best reason

to sing

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VerseLove Day 17: The Queen of Our Kitchens

Our host today for the 17th day of VerseLove at http://www.ethicalela.com is Kratijah, who lives in Mauritius, where she teaches English Language Acquisition and Language & Literature at Le Bocage International School. She inspires us to write poems about our kitchens in free verse, and you can read her full prompt here.

Hidden Signals

on the wall by the French doors

in my kitchen hangs a

framed notebook paper drawing

of a rolling pin

its heavy wooden body

completely out of orientation

with the writing at one end

as if the artist got bored

or hungry

or murderous

in some seminar long ago

in some other language

but rolling pins and art

and French doors

speak in a

universal female tongue

so I have a hunch

why my mother

gave me this framed

picture in 1985

when I married my

first husband

she never liked him

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VerseLove Day 15: Cascade

Our host today for VerseLove at http://www.ethicalela.com is Erica Johnson, who offers inspiration here in a new-to-me form of poetry called a cascade. These remind me of Pantoum poems. Erika explains: It’s a form created by Udit Bhatia and asks that the poet take each line from the first stanza of a poem and makes each one the final line in the stanzas that follow. This results in the poem resembling a tumbling waterfall, which was when I knew I needed to go look through my photos of waterfalls for inspiration!

Erika shares the process with us: Read over the cascade form and write out the pattern you wish to follow: tercet or quatrain.  I found that having the structure written as a reminder helped guide my writing.

My mind went straight to Gibbs Gardens, where I’d rather spend the day in flowers than at work. Here, you can check out the bloom report and see where I’d take you if you were spending the day with me. We’d have lunch at The Burger Bus and order daffodils to plant next season.

Let’s Play

I did not want to get up today
I’d like to sip coffee with friends in a cafe
talk books, catch up, paint daffodils, play

I’d drive to Ball Ground
stroll Gibbs Gardens’ spring blooms
I did not want to get up today

the tulips have opened, Monet’s pond awaits
I’d load up the girls for a quick getaway
I’d like to sip coffee with friends in a cafe

we’d laugh and share stories
take off work for the day
get a slow start, talk books, paint daffodils, play

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VerseLove Day 1 ~ Landscapes of Our Lives

Today is the first day of VerseLove at http://www.ethicalela.com, and many of the Slice of Life writers and Stafford Challenge poets will be joining this robust group of poets who write during Open Write throughout the year and VerseLove every day in April. We’ll be joined by writers from Poetry Friday and Spiritual Journey Thursdays and those belonging to many other writing groups – from all across the continental United States and from other countries as well. I love March and April because there is a convergence of writers from different groups all coming together.

Today’s host is Sarah Donovan, creator of EthicalELA and human being extraordinare. You can read her opening prompt here, inviting us to write about the landscapes of our lives – along with the response poems of others throughout the day. By the afternoon hours throughout April, there will be an amazing collection of poems all on a theme. Come write with us. Or come read what we’ve written.

the page and the pen

inside me there is a boxcar
bent fork and family
there is a farm
radiant web overhead
there is Golden
Fedder Fountain and Verbivore
there is River Heights
old clock and mystery
there is Mitford Village
Barnabas and covered dish
there is a mountain
Swiss cabin, goats, grandpa

Inside me there are pages
some filled, some blank
where the reader writes the story
but I

I hold the pen