Life at the Speed of Grace

Ah, September.

I love this month...the clear, crisp skies make my heart sing. The school supplies are still fresh and new and learning is on the agenda. Like so many educators, this time of year is my true New Year celebration.

I love this quote attributed to Virginia Woolf.

found on facebook

Patricia offered, Life at the speed of grace, as a Spiritual Journey Prompt last year. I'm sharing my response to Mary Lee's challenge to the Inklings which was to write to the poem, Next Time by Joyce Sulphen.

Sulphen's original poem has a positive tone. I struggled to write the phrase, next time, from being one of deeper personal regret. I wrote a poem...discarded it. Wrote a second poem...discarded that one too. This third poem is more wistful. Wistful is more positive and lovely to me than the angst of regret.

It wasn't until seeing (by looking at an old calendar and thinking it was from THIS year. OOOOPS!) Patricia's Prompt, though, that I had a title. I'm not sure the title makes sense if you are a grammarian. I am not. I'm taking meaning from the words in a looser way that fits this poem.

Grace, Past Perfect

Next time, I’ll be good at math.
I’ll remember the order of operations to add, subtract, multiply and divide 

more time for us.

I won’t rush through homework I’ll enjoy learning without my intricate schemes of getting out of it.

I’ll read aloud to you       –all the poetry that doesn’t rhyme the gorgeous images we’ll paint in our minds.

I’ll find ways to enjoy
weeding your giant garden
      a farmer’s acreage, really
–remember the deer
meandering in to nibble green beans and lettuce?

But I’ll be decades away

poking fingers into dirt

under my suburban kitchen window
with your grandkids
chatting about how many days until
we can eat beans
from the seeds we're planting.

I will remember all the steps
of how to sew a hem, a button,
a zipper. I’ll still buy my clothes
but I won’t throw away
what I can mend.

I’ll be better tending relationships.
    I now know can’t last forever–In fact,
I’m calling my sisters right now.
I won’t even have to say
I’ve been thinking of you.

Linda Mitchell --draft

If you happen to be reading this on Friday, make sure you hop over to Buffy Silverman's blog for the weekly Poetry Friday round-up. Buffy is one of my favorite nature writers. You won't want to miss her work!

I've got more shined up clunkers to share. These are from comments left at my annual Clunker Exchange Post. Anytime I could use my OLW '24, WORLD, in a poem, I posted to the padlet of WORLD poems I'm keeping for this year. Find refurbished clunkers from:

Laura Purdie Salas

Karen Eastlund

Marci Flinchum Atkins

Connect to more Inkling responses to Next Time:

Mary Lee Hahn @ A(nother) Year of Reading

Catherine Flynn @ Reading to the Core

Molly Hogan @ Nix the Comfort Zone
Margaret Simon @ Reflections on the Teche
Heidi Mordhorst @ my juicy little universe

Hello, hello, hello! Labor Day Weekend '24

 Hello, hello, hello!

Mixed media collage. Linda Mitchell August, 2024

How are you? I've missed you, Poetry Friday people. Summer has been great--let's catch up!

When I left in May for a summer hiatus I was unsure of some things: Would I stop writing? Would creativity leave me in the dust? Would summer be enough time to sort out unfinished projects, new projects and learning opportunities? I have this wonderful and terrible habit of impossibly trying to do all the good things! 

Now that I am fully back to work with teachers and students in the building, I can happily report that I have continued to write. Creativity did not leave me in the dust. I have grown as a creative person and I have sorted some projects and project priorities. Although, if I'm honest, I'd love a bit more summertime.

Look! An honorable mention in the Lyrical Language Lab Free Verse Contest '24. I wrote this poem after seeing the contest announcement--as opposed to digging through my files to see if I had written something already that might fit the criteria.  Woot!  If you think you might want to take a poetry course, the LLL is a good one. It's not easy but it really works your poetic heart, mind and soul. You will be a better writer after taking the course (and doing the work, of course).

I had fun playing with clunker lines you all gave me in May. I'd love to see any clunker re-writes you've worked on. 

Here are two lines I from the comments of that post turned into poems: 

I have more poems from shared former clunkers. I'll share more in future posts.

See this beautiful Summer Poem Swap gift to me from Denise Krebs? It's such thoughtful art and sentiment. Many thanks to our Tabatha for organizing poetry swaps that make my snail-mailbox a happy place to visit.

A little more art from Jone who gave me some joy too. Mixed media artists sometimes swap Artist Trading Cards aka ATCs (think baseball cards but for artists). She designed this pretty ATC and sent it in one of her gorgeous raven notecards. 

ATC from Jone McCulloch. Summer 2024

There's more from this summer. I don't want to overwhelm you in my first post back. Thank you, Susan @Chicken Spaghetti for hosting our Poetry Friday round-up today. I'm hopping over to see all the poetry goodies you have collected for us. 

Inkling Challenge and Summer Hiatus

Hello Friends,

Thank you Tracey at Tangles and Tales for hosting our round-up this weekend.

Molly gave us a wonderful challenge for June.

I stopped by the Poetry Foundation for some inspiration and mentor text and found this lovely poem, You Learn by Living, by J. Patrick Lewis about one of my favorite historical figures.

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/56361/you-learn-by-living

Isn't that a great poem? I would so love to see students creating these for their heroes. Alas, school ends for them this week! I hope all my students enjoy a wonderful summer break and grow fat brains from reading. We can write a fresh crop of biography poems next year. 

I have plans to travel more than stay home this summer. So, for the first time in a few years, I'm taking a summer hiatus from Poetry Friday. I reserve the right to pop in and enjoy the poems of others. But, I want to preserve my writing creativity and energy for some projects that I'm working on. And, summer for a school librarian sometimes feels too short for that to me!

So, my friends, remember to hydrate, re-apply your sunscreen, take time to live and write and don't be a stranger. I can always be reached by the gmail account connected to this blog.

To read more Inkling responses to Molly's challenge find them at:

Mary Lee @Another Year of Reading
Heidi @my juicy little universe
Molly @Nix the Comfort Zone
Margaret @Reflections on the Teche

Here's one more WORLD poem for the road!

Three Hearts: An Anthology of Cephalopod Poetry

Oh, my goodness--we are so close to June. Can you feel it? I've busted out my capris and sandals and am looking forward to finishing up the school year with students. 

Thank you, Janice Scully, at Salt City Verse for hosting our round-up this weekend. She is highlighting the delightful anthology Picture Perfect Poetry: An Anthology of Ekphrastic Nature Poetry for Students. This collection is anthologized by Carol J. Labuzzetta one of our Poetry Friday poets.

I've just received my copy of Picture Perfect Poetry and it is beautiful! I have a plane ride coming up and this book is coming with me. I love that I recognize so many names in the pages.

I also have a celebration--a couple of poems published in Three Hearts, An Anthology of Cephalopod Poetry, Edited by Sierra Nelson (World Enough Writers. 2024). When I perused the book I was delighted to see that my contributions rub shoulders with poets I admire. 

https://worldenoughwriters.com/Publications.htm 

Here are two poems of mine in Three Hearts.

haiku Found in A Handbook to the
National Museum 1886

1.
octopus limbs
grasp, enfold and draw in prey
of squid proportions

2.
dimensions
are valuable in the 
cold fiords

Linda Mitchell (120)

Middle School Octopus

from Octopus focus on key features for camouflage

The first day of seventh-grade is about   camouflage.

Don't do anything to be seen or heard. It   is

the deadliest whirlpool of your life. If you   used

brilliance to survive elementary school, drop it. Better   to

blend in with cephalopods, move along with suckers--be a   fool

swimming, eating, inking, like the others.   A

fish in the center of a school isn't tempting prey.   Wider

expectations for success must be met out of   range

of waking hormones and lab partners, projects, square-dancing...  of

growing undetected, passed over by bigger teen   predators.

Linda Mitchell (121)

There's a new WORLD poem on the padlet. I wish I could be more cheerful. Truth is, WORLD is struggling these days. I cannot help but to lament.

Poetry from Michelle's Clunker

Hello to May Twenty-Fourth! 

Let's go out and play with poets in the springtime.

Michelle Kogan gave me a clunker to worth with. I've been playing with her words, "reason to hope, and time to consider." There are wonderful and complex ideas in this line.

First, a haiku

sing con vibrato
each green bud and leaf of spring
keeping time with hope

Next, a triolet

Stories of hope,
time to remember
ways we cope
stories of hope,
courage-word lifeboats
or a fire's ember
stories of hope
time to remember.

Thank you Michelle for the clunker line and for hosting our Poetry Friday round-up this week. I look forward to seeing what you're up to this busy-bee spring.

There is a new WORLD poem on the padlet. 

Inspired by Treasure Books, I've been making some paper dolls lately to unwind. So fun. This lady is a bit stiff...she was my first attempt.

Paper Princess collage, May 24, Linda M.

This lady let me know with her expression that she doesn't like any shade of orange...maybe another color on her will coax a smile.

Paper Princess collage. May 24. Linda M.

Poetry from Patricia's Clunker Line

Hello Poets,

Except for a little sogginess, I'm still reveling in May, glorious May! Just look at these dogwood blossoms.

My friendly neighborhood dogwood blossoms...mmmmmm.

Last week I received a bumper crop of clunker lines from all of you wonderful poets! Thank you. Since Patricia is hosting our round-up this weekend at Reverie, I thought I'd play with her clunker line. It was a toughie. But, after a few mornings playing I came up with trinet (Thank you, Alan W. for introducing me to that form.

Original line: "hidden progress runs deep" Patricia Franz.

My re-working:

Trinet (Seven lines long. Lines 1, 2, 5, 6, 7 are two words long. Lines 3 & 4 both have 6 words) 

All arms

digging, slinging

beneath the surface of what’s seen

your hidden progress runs sea-deep

rocky cave

Welcome home

octopus asleep

Linda Mitchell 5/17/24

Oh, and a Skinny just for funsies.

Sometimes progress hides -- runs deep

under

the

rocks

and

under

the

creek

whistling

under

a dark bridge -- progress running deep

Linda Mitchell 5/17/24

Thank you, Patricia! 

There is a tiny new WORLD poem for this week. 

Poetry Friday is HERE! Clunker Exchange

Hello Poets,

A few years ago I started what has now become an annual activity. I call it a Clunker Exchange. None of the of poetry lines below were quite right for the poem I wrote them into. Sometimes, the line held a grammar gaff, or a spelling mistake. Maybe a metaphor didn't quite work, or any number of things that caused the line to clunk instead of sing.

Here's How a Clunker Exchange Works:
I'm giving you any of the lines below in exchange for a clunker of your own. Find a line from a poem you've revised or meant to but never got around to revising. 

I will gladly take your clunker and turn it into something new if you take one of mine and do the same. Please and thank you.

Photo Source: Jerry Lofaro

Clunkers

•  again the notion that with
• How to write a peace poem
• into another world
• only sure of light pushing her brush
• She is gone and she is there
• You listening,/my face deep in shadowed spaces
• In the sunroom, our old lady faces
• weave our own cloth. I go
• pattern belong to each other
• under an electric wire salad slaw
• paints like it’s an epiphany
• My only flaw and freedom
• Just a little puff of spray for interaction
• It’s an engineer’s puzzle niche
• What is Autumn to the bee?
• you’ve lost your way – up ahead lies harm
• wrapped up in a gift box, bag or stocking stash
•  Joy as a prairie poppy
• more a drawer of worlds
• are my eyes in the mirror like his?
• thinned and whisper wept–
• with large or small emptiness–air space
• I could see that the group wasn’t really helping me
• The window radiator / sure made a bumpy seat
• the lightning truck keys
• You are sad and relieved at the same time
• pinning another year into memory
• A band that relegates bright
• What are the odds/That you would be/The less than six degrees
• Sunshine and short shorts
• joy is a choice / Still I struggle
• a dandelion dotted day
• weedy dirt patch of writing /should never see the light of day. 

Don't forget to respond with a line of poetry from your stash that I can play with and write into something new. Remember, blogger marks some comments as anonymous. Make sure your name shows up so I can give credit to our masterpiece later. Ha!

I'm hosting the round-up this week. Please leave your links below. If you aren't familiar with Poetry Friday, check out this description here. Jump in!

Mr. Linky's Widget