Tag: open write

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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

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Celebrating Living Poets: Amanda Gorman

I was transfixed on the smiling poet delivering her poem with grace and poise at the Biden inauguration. Wearing a yellow coat, with red, she beamed and took the podium. When she spoke, I was speechless, mesmerized. Her name is Amanda Gorman, and her poetry is healing. Our nation needs a spoonful – perhaps a bottle full – of Amanda Gorman right now. You can read more about Amanda Gorman here and here. I’ve composed a Cento poem using Gorman’s lines from various poems, listed beneath the poem. Her words: Pay Attention. Learn from them. are words I will carry into the day.

We Rouse Ghosts

Even as we stand stone-still

we rouse ghosts ~

A grandma on a porch fingers her rosaries.

This truth, like the white-blown sky.

What endures isn’t always what escapes.

Pay attention.

Learn from them.

Taken from: The Shallows; Who We Gonna Call; The Miracle of Morning; & So; Cordage, or Atonement; Hephaestus; In the Deep

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Open Write Day 3 of 3 February 2026

Our host for the Open Write at http://www.ethicalela.com this month was Stacey Joy, who inspired us to write poems honoring human emotions. Since I was traveling, I was off by a day, so I am posting the poem from one of those prompts today. You can click here to read the full prompt.

Emotions

I’ve had a few

severe ones came

on takeoff from

the Vegas airport

yesterday

My phone was in

airplane mode

with Delta wi-fi

but my soul wasn’t

it wasn’t the

proverbial placenta pulling

it was the heartstrings

as I watched my

daughter ping on

Find My Phone

our plane flying

away, away, away

so far home

my firstborn watching

planes from her window

beneath, asking

in her text

if the plane she saw

might be us

On Fremont Street
We saw The Wizard of Oz as a last-minute Sphere ticket, and what a show!
Mallory and I prefer the “original” style slots with the pull handle. You have to feel the vibe, and I was drawn to the Tabasco logo and won a few dollars on this one at The Golden Nugget!
My daughter, her partner, and their four-legged “son,” Jackson.
There was a hidden speakeasy at The Flamingo, and we found it!
Walking down Fremont Street, a/k/a “The Old Strip”
For a special surprise, my daughter took us to ride on The High Roller on our first night in Vegas
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Open Write Day 2 of 3 December 2025 with Mona Becker of Maryland

Mona Becker of Maryland is our host for the second day of the Open Write at http://www.ethicalela.com. Today, she inspires us to write haiku poems. You can read her poems and those of others, along with the full prompt, here. If you have a few moments, write a poem and share it today!

Let Them

if I feel like it

I’ll bake cinnamon rolls for

Christmas Day breakfast

if I feel like it

I’ll shop for a few presents

and maybe wrap them

if I feel like it

I’ll plug in the Christmas tree

lights for the others

if I feel like it

I’ll make the happy happen

or maybe I won’t

maybe I just won’t

maybe I’ll go see movies,

have dinner with friends

maybe I’ll read books

sit around doing nothing

and let someone else

maybe I’ll make these, maybe not
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Open Write Day 1 of 3 December 2025 with Gayle Sands of Maryland: Picture This!

Gayle Sands of Maryland is our host for the first day of the December Open Write at http://www.ethicalela.com. She inspires us to use photographs to inspire poems today. You can read her full prompt, along with the poems of others and their responses, here.

Gayle inspires us to walk into a photo and to be present in the photograph in some way—as a bystander, as one of the individuals in the photo, or as someone coming upon the scene. She says, “Use the photo as your starting point and open your senses.  What do you see and/or hear? Is there something you can taste or smell?  What sensations do you feel?  Is there any movement?  What thoughts come to your mind as you engage with the photo? Vintage photographs are a good source of inspiration.”

The Gift of You

there you were, so tiny

a bud on our tree

here you are, standing tall

following God’s call