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Thank you, Rose, at Imagine the Possibilities for gathering poetry for our Friday round-up this week.
I walked into this week with no planned poem. I thought I'd take a crack at an etheree. It wasn't as easy as I thought it would be. This one is OK. I'll practice some more before we reach March 31.
Hello Lucky Friday!
I bought a Shamrock scarf to wear to school four years ago--and haven't had a chance to wear it. But, today I wear the green! Thank you, Laura Purdie Salas for hosting this week's poetry round-up.
Hello Friday Friends,
What a week! March feels long after that hug-and-kiss of February. Thank you, Heidi, at My Juicy Little Universe for hosting this week's round-up. I appreciate all the ways your poetry works in my life...helping me think, learn and get up and out to do!
This past week, I spent time with an ARC of Welcome to Monsterville by Laura Shovan, illustrated by Michael Rothenberg. This magnificent and silly book of illustrated poems took me back to childhood -- the emotional ending of that time, if not chronological.
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| 2023 Apprentice House Press |
My mother had just passed away after weeks in hospice (This happened years ago). A friend comforted me by describing that period as sacred. I agreed.
Haven't we all been on sacred ground recently?
As I read the poems of Welcome to Monsterville, I smiled and giggled and was also a little sad. The journey of these poems is exactly how humanity should be; time spent with each other to lift each other up.
Welcome to Monsterville belongs in child and adult spaces...schools, homes, coffee shops, libraries, and houses of worship. The monsters inside the book connect us to our humanity.
An introduction to Welcome to Monsterville by therapist Dr. Mercedes Ballbe ter Maat, steeped in art therapy experience, helped me see how monsters help all of us:
"But wait... am I saying that humans are monsters too? Yes, we are a different type of monster, but monsters nonetheless. Why?!? Because like us, monsters laugh and talk, play and cry, sing and dance, think and feel."
I'm a fan of letting poems speak for themselves. I don't enjoy too much explanation or analysis. I've selected a line from each poem of Welcome to Monsterville to create the cento below. I hope you'll take a trip to Monsterville soon. This book arrives on April 25th and is available for pre-order at your favorite bookseller. Let our friend Laura Shovan's poems and Michael Rothenberg's art bring you a hug.
Golden Lines from Welcome to Monsterville!
A cento gathered by Linda Mitchell
Our tour is creature filled.
A monster bought the house next door.
Monster houses wobble, wiggle
guarding strawberry ice cream cones.
Flooey Bagookie!
well-fed monster
They laughed and hugged each friend
"Let's go monsters! We are free!"
A monster needs quiet.
I go to the green cave and listen for the monster's song
during long, lonely hours.
There is a monster in me called sadness.
It flies through the air
with leathery wings
O monster child.
Today's word is monster! Check out the padlet poem...it's a doubt monster. https://padlet.com/mitchellhubeimom/word-bwfgg0bqmjhf62fd/wish/2511088208
Hello Friends,
I'm sharing this post for Spiritual Journey Thursday and Poetry Friday.
Thank you to Karen Eastland for the SJT prompt, 'Words to fall back on.' And, Tanita Davis at 'Fiction Instead of Lies' for hosting this week's poetry round-up.
Additionally, on the first Friday of the month, my critique group, Inklings, shares a challenge set by a member of our group. This month's poem challenge is from Margaret who asked us to:
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| https://grateful.org/resource/crossing/?mc_cid=1b81b5b8ef&mc_eid=360b5653b7 |
My response...words to fall back on
Life Work
Trust the process and trust again.
Trust is learning, even if only a little.
Trust the process, even if it hurts.
I can be an athlete training, stretching more
each day. I can be a bull, obstinate and angry
seeing red. I can tear at the cape, ready
to gore the wind that fills it.
But either way, I move. I move to understand,
I move to see, seeking truth, a truth that proves I am. I am a process too.
Linda Mitchell
March 1, 2023
To see more Spiritual Journey posts, visit this month's host, Karen, at Karen's got a Blog.
For other Inkling takes on exploring anaphora:
Margaret
Catherine
Heidi
Molly
Mary Lee
The word on the padlet this week is idea...as in...I have no idea who created that print I took a photo of in the Jepsom Center at the Savannah Art Museum several years ago.
https://padlet.com/mitchellhubeimom/word-bwfgg0bqmjhf62fd/wish/2497777390
Goodbye February.
Thanks for the memories...let's work on solving angst-ridden world problems that keep us up at night, eh?
Thank goodness for poetry that covers all. Tabatha at The Opposite of Indifference hosts our poetry round-up this week.
It was a Poetry Friday post of Tabatha's in January that generated this comment from me:
The very next day, I saw this photograph online in the New York Times.
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| New York Times 1/24/23 |
It calls for poetry, don't you think?
As I write this post, it is one year of an aggressive war on Ukraine by Russia. I've wondered about people like me living in the 1930s...when did they know their entire world was at war? Surely, they weren't calling World War II, "World War Two," until well into it.
It feels like my world is at war--or at least on the brink. How will humans remember this time eighty years from now?
I need poetry to help me put it into words.
In the Snow, a golden shovel
by Linda Mitchell 2/24/23
I didn't think I had a poem for the padlet today...and then, I woke up with an idea and have a very drafty draft. That's OK. I'll go back and fiddle with it later. The word is war.
Hello Poets,
Happy Poetry Friday. Thank you, Molly, at Nix the Comfort Zone, for hosting our weekly round-up.
One of the things I love best about Jone McCulloch's annual New Year's postcard exchange is all the lovely lines of poems I receive and then play with!
I took lines of poems from ten other postcards exchanging poets and arranged them into a cento.
I actually made lots of poems...but this one was my favorite and it included all the poets.
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| collage by Linda M. |
There's a new poem, Words of Other Poets, on the padlet this week: https://padlet.com/mitchellhubeimom/word-bwfgg0bqmjhf62fd/wish/2485658929
Hello Friday!
I am participating in Laura Shovan's February poem project. Each year, Laura chooses a theme, and participants take turns sharing prompts around that theme as the group writes daily poems. This year's theme is story.
Weeks before the project began, I went to my camera roll and selected photos I thought might fit the theme. It was about the time that I was also writing to prompts from Ethical ELA a monthly free-write for educators. "Write a short poem: haiku, cinquain, or lantern form."
I had fun writing a bunch of little lantern poems and then I saw that one of the lantern poems fit two of my photos...and there was a story poem in very few words.
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| Linda Mitchell |
You
are the
bright lantern
that makes my
night
safe
Linda Mitchell. '23
Have you written lantern poems? Warning--they are addictive! Try it out. And, if you want to follow along with Laura's February project, check out her blog for more information.
There is a new word poem on the padlet in memory of poet Linda Pastan, a poet I admired and who recently passed away.
Thank you, Carol for hosting our Poetry Friday round-up today.
