Welcome to Day 5 of the August Open Write. A very special thank you to Wendy, Linda, Leilya, Jeania, and Anna for taking such good care of our words. If you have written with us before, welcome back. If you are joining us for the first time, you are in the kind, capable hands of today’s host, so just read prompt below and then, when you are ready, write in the comment section below. We do ask that if you write that, in the spirit of reciprocity, you respond to three or more writers. We will see you back here in September with . Also, check out our “store” to pre-order our books coming September 3rd! https://www.ethicalela.com/store/
Our Host
Anna J. Small Roseboro, a National Board Certified Teacher has over four decades of experience in public, private schools and colleges, mentoring early career educators, facilitating leadership institutes, in five states. She has served a director of summer programs and chair of her English department, published six textbooks based on these experiences, and was awarded Distinguished Service Awards by the California Association of Teachers of English and the National Council of Teachers of English. Her poetry appears in several issues of FINE LINES: An Anthology of Poetry and Prose (2015-2020); was in her own publication EXPERIENCE POEMS AND PICTURES: Poetry that Paints/Pictures that Speak (2019) and will be featured in CENTERED IN CHRIST, a devotional coming out this Fall. Her new textbook PLANNING WITH PURPOSE: A Handbook for New College Teachers published by Rowman and Littlefield also is due out this Fall.
Inspiration
The inspiration today is telling T.I.M.E about poetry. The mnemonic device is a way of analyzing a poem: T is the title, thought, and theme; I is imagery; M is music; and E is emotion. Here is a link: https://teachingenglishlanguagearts.com/writing-about-poetry-with-t-i-m-e/
Process
Let’s honor the creativity our group is showing by taking time to TELL THE T.I.M.E. about a poem someone else in this group has posted this SUMMER.
Let’s keep in mind that poetry is SOMEONE saying SOMETHING to SOMEONE(S).
I invite you to consider the speaker (narrator) of the poem, a possible audience (specific person, group of people, kind of person), and the SOMETHING or message of one of the poems someone else has posted here this in August or past April VERSELOVE 2024.
I selected “Beautiful Lady” by EMVR and wrote three TIME stanzas.
Beautiful Lady by EMVR (Verselove April 22, 2024)
I thank you for
sweet trills and bird whistles greeting the day
orange and purple splashes across the sky
intoxicating scents of lilacs carried on the breeze
soft elegance of cat fur brushing my legs
sweetness exploding from a fresh-picked strawberry
claps of thunder and life-giving rain
cool setting in after hot summer days
Anna’s Poem
Telling with personification of nature
I imagery evokes aromatic memories
M musically, the assonance of open vowels
E emotes for me pleasant sounds of earth
T thoughtfully showing the experience
I inspires me to retain adherence
M making my own sounds of huffing
E evoking sounds of huffing and puffing
T treating the earth like a life giver
I insightfully reveals you respect her
M maybe others reading your poem will see
E exactly how wonderful she can be.
Your Turn
Now, scroll to the comment section below to write your own poem. (This is a public space, so you may choose to use only your first name or initials depending on your privacy preferences.) Not ready? That’s okay. Read the poems already posted for more inspiration. Ponder your own throughout the day. Return later. And, if the prompt does not work for you, that is fine. All writing is welcome. Just write something. Also, please be sure to respond to at least three writers. Oh, and a note about drafting: Since we are writing in short bursts, we all understand (and even welcome) the typos and partial poems that remind us we are human and that writing is always becoming. If you’d like to invite other teachers to write with us, tell them to subscribe.
Thank you, Anna, for this final prompt for the August Open Write. I am deeply sorry that time didn’t decide to be kind to me today. I’m against a deadline for a group project and got home later than usual so I’m giving what I can instead of what I wanted. Thanks to all of our gracious hosts this month!
Time sometimes fights fair
I sleep well and wake up fresh
No alarm bells chime
But time often sucks
Takes me by the feet and runs
Until I collapse
©Stacey L. Joy, 8-21-24
I hear you, Stacey! Time really does have a way of sleeping away so quickly. Love the personification of time here “Take me by the feet and runs.”
I think we can all relate to what you’ve expressed here, Stacey. I live your first line about sometimes fighting fair.
Stacey, ah, I’m glad you came and dropped this sweet poem here anyway. That is such a powerful line where time “Takes me by the feet and runs / Until I collapse” Sad but true. I hope your week finishes well and you can rest this weekend.
Be sure to stop by Kim’s poem. She analyzed your kitchen table poem.
Anna,
This is a great prompt and way to encourage students to interact with each others writing.
I selected Barb’s postcard poem from yesterday:
Tantalizing adventures
Imagine forbidden roads, bottomless seas, star studded space
Musical rhyme, rhythm, repetition
Evokes wonder
Destinations Unknown
submerge my soul beneath bottomless seas
travel forbidden back roads and wild coves
explore exotic lands with ancient trees
submerge my soul beneath bottomless seas
unearth buried beauty, free to be me
explode into space, skip across star groves
submerge my soul beneath bottomless seas
travel forbidden back roads and wild coves
Barb Edler
20 August 2024
Your imagine line is a lovely tribute to Barb’s poem. I also really like the use of tantalizing.
Tammi, this is awesome. I liked Barb’s poem yesterday, and you have honored it here! I like the way you cover all the destinations unknown here: “Imagine forbidden roads, bottomless seas, star studded space” Lovely poem! I hope Barb sees this.
Anna,
Thanks for hosting and teaching us this clever way of responding to poetry with more poetry. Thanks for deepening our connections with one another. I’m going to think about how and when I can use this with my students as it is such a validating way to connect to each others’ writing.
I revisited Mona Becker’s lovely poem from The Clunker Exchange.
The Holy Well
It’s a three mile walk
From the streets of Jericho in Oxford
To the Holy Well at the Saint Margaret of Antioch Church.
Through the fields at Port Meadow
Along the Thames, my hand brushes
The tall grasses along the path.
No one else is on the path
I am greeted only by the sentinel trees
And the ghosts of pilgrims before me.
Walking the same path tread by thousands of others
To pray at the well
A poem of peace
Here’s my response:
Parallel Pilgrimages
Thank you
Mona Becker
for taking me
along
on your pilgrimage
I read your poem
and find myself
touching “the tall grasses”
”along the Thames”
Mindfully walking
through your poem
makes me ponder
the paradox
of the individuality
and the universality
of our human experiences
Each line
each step
slows my thoughts
bringing peace
Such a beautiful response to a lovely poem! I love how you addressed Mona directly. The M stanza is my favorite.
Sharon, what a wonderful response to Mona’s poem! I love each stanza clearly addressing T.I.M.E. Thank you!
Sharon,
Love this “Mindfully walking
through your poem” and the last stanza:
“Each line
each step
slows my thoughts
bringing peace”
You really capture the process of slowing down to savor a poem.
Thanks,everyone, for feedback on how you can adapt this approach to teaching poetry analysis. Sarah, for adding the link to this prompt section.
For the curious. I learned this approach to analyzing poetry when I was an in-house sub in St Louis, Missouri …in 1969! A turquoise book was lying on the desk. I picked it up and flipped through the pages, saw this and read it. There were no photocopiers in the offices back then; I REMEMBER! because the mnemonics made sense. I’ve used this approach to teaching poetry to middle school, high school and college students. They remember!
Former students returned to the classroom, telling me they used it for regents exams in NY, ACT and SAT tests in other states where I’ve taught, and other lit courses they took in college across the country where they’ve gone.
So, taking time to teach students to tell the T.I.M.E. is worth the time.
Thank you, Anna, for hosting today. I enjoyed the link and TIME Analysis handout you created.
I did take time to revisit Patricia Franz’s Clunker Exchange poem from this week, which really spoke to me. I responded with a TIME acrostic, more than analysis. 🙂
Turns come at the end of our lives
Imagining mine as I read your poem
Making me tired, weathered, and worn–
Except for the brave sunlight and grace
Denise, your final line gives a pop of fresh energy to your poem. I felt tired like you on line 3 and then……here comes the sun! Yes, a welcome bit of energy and grace.
Denise, I loved the vivid details in Patricia’s poem. Thanks for giving me a chance to take another look at it. (And to comment on it through your post. 🙂 ) I love how you crystalized her theme through your “turn” at the end of your poem: “Making me tired, weathered, and worn– / Except for the brave sunlight and grace.” Brilliant!
Turns come at the end of our lives is such a powerfully understated line. I love your hopeful ending.
Denise, thank you for sending me back to Patricia’s poem. It is beautiful and sad. Your response is thoughtful and neatly reflects T.I.M.E. strategy. Each line is essential here beginning with a simple, but profound “Turns come at the end of our lives.”
Denise,
I missed writing Sunday, so thank you for highlighting Patricia’s gorgeous poem. I think your contrast between “Making me tired, weathered, and worn” with “except for the brave sunlight and grace” works really well to show that aging is beautiful.
I didn’t get a chance to read the poems from others today or sent you thanks for your TIME method. Thanks to all and see you next month!
Susan
To breathe in, to aspire, to inspire
Images of watching and building of laying and seeking
Mirrored by repetitions – of Gs and Bs and Fs and Ms
Evoking not only a hope but an expectation of better things to come
______________________________
Anna, thank you for giving me the opportunity to spend a bit more time with Glenda’s wonderful postcard poem – “Aspirations” – from yesterday! And thank you, Glenda: I hope so much that you will, indeed, need to make that trip to Washington, D.C. to witness the swearing in of Madam President.
Aspirations
on the day
she’s sworn in as president
i’ll be there
in my mind
watching glass ceilings break
building ruby bridges
laying a foundation
for future generations of women
seeking America’s dream
Glenda Funk
Glenda, I am with you all the way! Glass ceilings broken for future generations of women. Yes!
Scott, I went back to read Glenda’s postcard poem and respond on yesterday’s page. It’s worth of analysis and reflection. your TIME poem clearly and beautifully captures the essence of Glenda’s message “[e]voking not only a hope but an expectation of better things to come.” Thank you!
Scott,
Love the hopefulness expressed in both your poem and Glenda’s. Fingers crossed America votes for Harris and breaks the ceiling.
Scott, yes to hope and “better things to come.” I loved Glenda’s poem and now yours has said a big Amen to it! I love the sound action in “watching and building of laying and seeking”
Anna,
This prompt does so many things . . . it helps us to revisit past poems and prompts and praise our fellow writers; it provides us with a great mnemonic device to help tackle analyzing a piece; it pushes us to think about our words in relation to another’s writing.
Ever since Darius Phelps posted the entire idea of burning a house full of things to be waiting for us in the afterlife, I circle back to the idea of that often. So, I went right back to that prompt to dig for a poem to use for this activity. There were so many great ones, but I landed on this gem by Cara F. because it showed so dang much compassion for students:
Cara F’s poem in response to Darius Phelp’s prompt House in the Sky
My students do not worry
I will burn you a house in the sky
filled with acceptance and love
that lights every room
It will be in a rainbow
of colors shining through
glass of every hue and creating
a kaleidoscope onto the floor
There will be smiles on
every face and genuine
crinkles around all the eyes
so welcome you will be there
No longer will you yearn
for understanding, to know
the feeling of true friendship
for it will be in this house
Every story you tell will be
heard and celebrated
not looked askance at with
questioning expressions
There you will thrive in
self-confidence and the glory
of complete and compassionate
coexistence without doubts
Have patience my students
for I am burning you a house
in the sky just for you
where there are no judgements
by Cara F.
Compassion for Kids
Thinking about youth and the black and grey and white we see when we look at them
Instead of the rainbows and kaleidoscopes; we should see their color, be their color.
Making them feel seen and HEARD with “complete and compassionate co-existence”–such musicality in those wise words
Empowering them to grow into who they want to be and should be and are meant to be not who society thinks they should be
~Susan Ahlbrand
21 August 2024
This form does get us connecting, right?
Love this revising of Cara and Darius and the way you surface your meaning-making in a new poem here. “Instead of rainbows and kaleidoscopes” love that phrase and the imagery that it evokes. And the “shoulds” offer the tone and theme of this poem! Nice.
Sarah
Susan, bringing this lovely poem to the front is so inspiring for us all. Cara F’s poem gives us something to aim for, and your poem about her poem affirms that the goal is worth pursuing.
My favorite from her poem is
No longer will you yearn
for understanding, to know
the feeling of true friendship
for it will be in this house
And from yours,
Empowering them to grow into who they want to be and should be and are meant to be not who society thinks they should be
Thank you both!!!
Susan,
“Empowreing them to grow …”
Your last line is so true and so important. Students need to have their emotional needs met.
I also wrote this one in general response to the prompt since it was so fun to work with.
TIME
Time is a funny thing.
It is true that I, perhaps, focus too intensely on the rearview window as my car tears down this mortal highway,
Mesmerized to the point of being haunted by song lyrics (“I’ve been afraid of changing ‘cause I built my life around you”),
Ever searching for yesterday’s echoes in the firing synapses of today, in the déjà-vus, in the urgent telling of (ghost) stories.
There is a clinging.
I understand that; a frantic and desperate attempt to stop, to feel my fingers latch onto solid rock as the relentless river rushes me downstream, to
Make the forward movement into endless tomorrows cease, and fill this still unfolding, uncertain space with that song unconsciously hummed when anxious,
Except how do you exert control over the uncontrollable? Divine meaning from still un-steeped tea leaves? See the future in stars that have yet to be born?
The answer, of course,
Is that you can’t, and that the (disorienting)
Magic is in focusing on the landscape that now extends beyond the windshield, wide open as a blank page, a song waiting to be written, and to
Embrace the flailing, hurtling, urgent push into the next.
Mariah,
That parenthetical toward the end is really craftful, offering just the right nod of commentary and extra context, just a little intrusion to call attention to the reality of the poem and the creation by an author. I really like it — humanizing. I never thought of a parenthetical as humanizing until this moment.
Sarah
Gotta love any poem that uses “Landslide” lyrics!
and I love this metaphor…
There is a clinging is such a wonderful line.
I just started yesterday so picked through some poems from the last few days and found this from Susan Ahlbrand (19 August 2024), which resonated.
Occasional Lunacy
my emotional weight
comes from analyzing our kids
and their tendencies.
revisiting their past
combing through looking for clues
wanting the why.
not enough attention?
were the expectations too high?
people pleasing princess
everyone loves her
she lights up every place
except our house.
full of independence
she always gets things done
bristly demeanor offputting.
we don’t worry
she’s got it all together
so mentally strong
genes run deep
main priority . . . attending to needs
wanting others happy.
he dives deep
into anything that fascinates him
trapping it all.
he needs consequences
before he maybe ever learns
fails to think.
loving and protective
soft inside with hard outside
easy to misread.
our four kids
keep my thoughts ever swirling
worries pummel me.
their free will
sculpts them into sometimes strangers
but authentic selves.
___
My T.I.M.E. on Parenting
The thing about parenting is that sometimes the act of analyzing your child and their behavior, almost feels like an
Intimate interrogation, the probing of some long forgotten, dark and twisting root system that put forth living, breathing you, before the
Mystical music continued, organically, in this small human that forms the present hinge between past and future. The day to day, though, feels far less poetic. No one could have prepared you for the slog and for the
Ever-present worry, the incessant puzzling, the fierce admiration of this bold, blazing, and somewhat familiar spirit, and the fear that knowledge of this world brings, having seen and felt its ability to snuff it out.
Mariah,
I am so touched and honored that you used my poem. I’m sure I’ll look and relook at your interpretation of it. First thing that jumps at me is
You have described parenting in a brilliant way! The ever-present worry and the fear that knowledge of this world will bring that might snuff out all our expectations and hope.
Thank you for hosting and your poem today, Anna! I liked your exercise and copied the directions chart to keep for my students. I think it is a nice way to disrupt regular poem analysis and let students be creative. When I read the prompt, I knew exactly what poem was still lingering in my heart since yesterday.
It is “You Come Too” by Jennifer Guyor-Jowett
I’ve never been
wakeboarding with a dragonfly,
skimming the pond’s surface,
briefly walking on water
I’ve never been
rocket surfacing the stars
in meteor borealis,
leaving trails of light behind me
I’ve never been
skysailing with a cloud,
racing jetstreams
and shaping shifts
I’ve never been
flashdancing in the dark,
sparking my firefly electric
in a morsecode poem of light
I’ve never been
flowershopping with a bumblebee,
tumbling amongst blossoms,
gathering pollen like gossip
I’ve never been
murmuring with a stream
or starlings, sky-softened at dusk
or wind gently tucking secrets
or billboarding at midnight
with moon’s eclipse
or window watching
with snapdragons waving from boxes
I’ve never been
My T.I.M.E. poem in response to it is below:
Time and Time Again
The title signals me promise,
Inviting journeys to wondrous places,
Murmuring, musing, singing of life,
Enveloped in curiosity’s jazz.
Taking leaps from one dream to the next,
Immersed in ponds, meteors, and blossoms,
Melodies of nature thread through your lines,
Echoing the thrill of discovery anew.
Leilya,
I am trying to read the TIME ones first to see how they stand on their own and then how they work in conversation with the first. Lovely. Love this: “murmuring, musing, singing of life” — yes, that is a flow of becoming and living. And then “enveloped” — great word here to hold meaning.
Sarah
Leilya, the slide deck for this series of lessons is available at this link.
https://teachingenglishlanguagearts.com/writing-about-poetry-with-t-i-m-e/
Thank you, Anna! This is very helpful.
Jennifer’s poem is gorgeous, and your response is, too. Your second stanza is dreamy.
Leilya, I love that you wrote two stanzas — “Time and Time Again” — to encompass Jennifer’s wonderful poem. She didn’t make it easy with all of her vivid descriptions, lol, but you nailed it with your “curiosity’s jazz” and “[e]choing the thrill of discovery anew”! So good! Thank you!
Leilya, what a delicate and beautiful response to Jennifer’s. I missed Jennifer’s poem yesterday, so I got a double blessing here. I love her coined words like morsecode and flowershopping. There is “taking leaps from one dream to the next” in her poem. Nice analysis.
You Come Too by Jennifer Guyor-Jowett
I’ve never been
wakeboarding with a dragonfly,
skimming the pond’s surface,
briefly walking on water
I’ve never been
rocket surfacing the stars
in meteor borealis,
leaving trails of light behind me
I’ve never been
skysailing with a cloud,
racing jetstreams
and shaping shifts
I’ve never been
flashdancing in the dark,
sparking my firefly electric
in a morsecode poem of light
I’ve never been
flowershopping with a bumblebee,
tumbling amongst blossoms,
gathering pollen like gossip
I’ve never been
murmuring with a stream
or starlings, sky-softened at dusk
or wind gently tucking secrets
or billboarding at midnight
with moon’s eclipse
or window watching
with snapdragons waving from boxes
I’ve never been
TIME Analysis
The thing about miracles
Is the moment is fleeting and quick
Maybe it’s as unassuming as the low whine of bugs
Everything as it’s meant to be
Things I’ve never done
Inspire me nonetheless, colors spilling across the page
Meeting me with that assumptious thrum of stringed instruments, insisting on greatness
Endless with epiphany
There’s far more to life than we alone can live
Indeed, can we ever be as vaporous and fluid as the air?
Maybe in that lilting flute we can come close
Enigmatic but full of light
Helen, I cannot believe, but I just posted my poem about the same poem from yesterday – look above 🙂 That was my favorite poem from yesterday!
I like that you reflected on the poem and its message while I attended a tiny bit to to everything: title/theme, imagery, music, and emotions.
Your first stanza is full of wisdom, and I love it:
“The thing about miracles
Is the moment is fleeting and quick
Maybe it’s as unassuming as the low whine of bugs
Everything as it’s meant to be”
Helen, I your TIME spin from start to finish. from the miracles fleeting and quick to lilting flute, enigmatic and full of light – this reads like a sacred, ancient writing – I savor it!
Poets on Time
By Mo Daley 8/21/24
Shakespeare knew time could devour
The mighty and the mild alike
Herrick begged us, especially the virginal among us
To get busy and stop wasting time
And good old T. S. Eliot pondered how to live in the present
As time continuously moved on
Mr. Larkin deliberated
On days that pass one to the next
Oh, and Maya Angelou speculated
On a certain end
Miss Millay, perhaps said it best,
“Time does not bring relief; you all have lied.”
Poor Emily D.,
Her clock stopped one day
Mo, this is a great take on time! I like that you gave us perspectives of several poets on time. Yes, indeed: “Poor Emily D., / Her clock stopped one day, ” and we will all experience it at some point. Thank you.
Mo, I love all of these “timely” references! Poets do go on about it, don’t they? You’ve made them work so well together! (And I love love that Millay poem — thanks for including it!)
Mo,
Your poem is sumptuous. I love all the allusions. So clever. The last one is heartbreaking.
Mo,
I love the creative slant you took on this. Pulling poetic T.I.M.E. connections is so clever.
I think I’m loving this Shakespeare bit of wisdom .…
Wow, this must have taken a little research. I want to go down a rabbit trail now, and lean about the allusions and literature you’ve mentioned.
The Important Thing
By Mo Daley 7/23/2024
The important thing
about a baby grey treefrog
is that it lives
in woodlands and forests.
You can send your grandsons
pictures of him
so that they ask 42 questions.
You can tell them the frog is just like them,
helpful, kind, quiet,
and a little jumpy.
But the important thing
about a baby grey treefrog
is that it brings a smile to your face
when you work in the yard.
Susan’s analysis:
T Lessons in nature shared with a child
I sitting in green forests, temperature mild
M a small frog in hand, a rhythm of jumping and sending
E a smile and warmth, yet distance rending
Susan, your observations from Mo’s poem deserve a high mark! When I remove TIME from your analysis, it turns into a beautiful quatrain with rhymed couplets. The final line is my favorite: “a smile and warmth, yet distance rending.”
Susan, I like your rhyme scheme and the lessons in nature – – with a small frog in hand.
I love this, Susan. You nailed it!
I have no time- for time- to have me
Too Little, Too Much, slipping with a watchful crutch.
In and out of, with obnoxious shoves,
Meant to be, calculated for me, none is for free?
Every moment, try to own it, but you cannot loan it.
Tenacious, relaxes vivacious, sensations,
Incorporates motivations for celebrations on vacations.
Mended for faults, during talks on morning walks.
Emptied in lines of chalk, forever paid in thoughts, it cannot be bought.
Through and through, a dash for me and you,
In gray skies or blue, stopping our koo-koo,
Manufacturing what is true? Faithful without a clue.
Enduring the past, presenting the tasks, forwarding a mask.
Tearing our edition of life’s tradition,
Incomplete with daily indecision,
Marveling at our revisions,
Empowering our split collisions.
Ticking on and on, like the ohm’s song,
Into infinity, linking destinies of tocking realities.
Mindful of the severity of its necessity.
Engaging facial dexterity.
Tis’ digital water-sand , different zones, rotating land.
Invented by mankind, switched on the international dateline.
Meridian is primed, Split evenly, like a lime.
Ever passing, alarms flashing, never stopping, never asking.
Tangled on both sides, a living death ride.
Imagining when the glide will subside,
Making arrangements bedside,
Eternal guide to the other side.
I’m amazed at how you can ask so many questions and explore time so fully in these lines with such lovely rhyme and rhythm. Bravo, Boxer!
Here is Sharon’s poem from yesterday!
Dear Class of 2030,
Happy First Day of School!
I’m excited to start learning your names, personalities and strengths.
I hope that in our class we will each learn more about who we are and how to be your best and happiest selves.
We’ll practice wabi sabi, mindfulness, leading, learning, supporting one another, executive function strategies, scientifically-proven habits for happiness, goal-setting, reflection and, most importantly, being kind to ourselves and each other.
I look forward to teaching and learning with you. Please let me know how I can best challenge, motivate and support you.
Take care,
Ms. Roy
A TIME for Ms. Roy
Today is a future first willing another decade in this work
In greeting, body, & closing lines of “we” and “with”–an image of us
Many ways of being list rhythms of habits cultivated
Enveloping calm in a letter, first days’ next: take care
Sarah, the second line stands out so comfortingly to me – the idea of having a companion along the journey of learning – the we and with and us assure that there will be someone to lean on!
Thanks, Sarah, for giving some time to my poem. I feel seen!
I love your focus on we!
This is one of the most interesting prompts I’ve come across here, Anna. Thank you. I usually use TPCAST but like the shorter TIME. Thank you for inviting us to look at the work of our writing friends.
Mariah, I think your lune is totally appropriate since there is so much about TIME involved!
Here is Mariah’s lune from Monday:
How
I’m sure that
she was only five
yesterday
Not a backward glance
As she hopped
On that yellow bus
On Thursday
We’ll make a new bed
on campus
In another town
Not too far
But not here with me
Here is my TIME analysis:
Like This
The question that has no mark, marks the time from child to adult as a fact which happened too fast.
Imagining, wishing, hoping there would have been more time, wondering if this is the last of living together.
Music sings through the rhythm of the syllable switch and the traces of time: yesterday, backward, Thursday, far.
Expressing disbelief in the passage of time and independence even at five.
I resonate with your assertion of rhythm! I love all the interesting connections to be made here.
Love how your title answers Mariahs – How? Like This…and oh yes, how we wish for more time with the child growing too fast. I find this line especially compelling: “Music sings through the rhythm of the syllable switch and the traces of time…” something about “syllable switch” just sings to me!
Angie, your title rocks! And I think we were on the same writing wavelength today with our analysis of time.
Angie, I really like your analysis here! Like you, I’m a fan of TP-CASTT and am intrigued with T.I.M.E. Giving students more tools can only help! Thanks for modeling this so well!
Thanks, Anna for teaching me this fun way to analyze a poem. (I’ll admit, “analyze a poem” still is a trigger for me after my high school experience, which had me convinced I wasn’t any good at this). However, your simple use of T.I.M.E. made me feel successful today. I chose Kevin’s clever Lune poem from Monday.
h, Mondays.
🙂
Kevin
Dawn, opens eyes
with raindrops for a skirt;
Monday gets dressed
T elling the personified story of Monday
I magery evolves an early morning wakeup routine
M aking all the action occur within the Lune’s 3-5-3 word limits
E motes for me a cleverness
Aw, thank you!
Kevin
Sally, I love your close reading of such a short poem.
Thank you Anna for inspiring us this morning and challenging us to travel back in TIME to a previously admired verse and write! Iceland is on my bucket list so Kim Johnson’s poem of yesterday was an easy choice. Thank you Kim
Travel Fever
I want to pack my bags, go where it’s
Cold – to soak in thermal springs, to
Explore an ice cave in the
Land of Ice and Fire
Aurora Borealis dancing as the
Northern Lights
Delight the eyes and soul
T Traveling fuels my soul
I Imagining sights dancing before me
M Mystery sounds tickle my fancy
E Evoking delight at every turn
I like how today’s prompt took you back to Kim’s poem and has you excited to travel to this cold spot. Thank goodness for the thermal springs! I love your joyful word choice – explore, selight, fuels, dancing, tickle. I hope you so get to Iceland soon!
Christine, I want to go to Iceland so much, and your recent trip to Alaska has me replaying memories there – – I think we could make good travel buddies – – we seem to like the same places for adventure. And we write.
Thank you for the prompt, allowing us to head back again to poems of the last few days and an opportunity to show gratitude and appreciation, Anna. I found a Lune from the other day by my longtime writing exploring friend, Terry Elliott, to work with.
Kevin
How the day slides by.
nearly done.
watercolor spent.
— poem by Tellio
Tellio, my friend, Terry, again,
I‘m forever thankful of the moment
My quill connected with yours, for we are
forEver dipping nibs of wonder into ink
Kevin, the connecting quills and the dipping nibs of wonder are stunning images here, and it’s spellbinding what can come of a simple act of TIME and the ways we walk through a poem already written. This has gratitude, action, and the permanence of not only the ink but of the friendship and writerhood as well. I love what you’ve done here, and I know Terry will too.
Thank you, Kim.
Kevin, I love how you took Anna’s TIME idea and turned it into a gratitute poem for a poet! Your last line is sticking with me – the image of the quill dipping! So lovely. And thank you for your Lune from Monday that I used to look at more closely today!
Kevin, “forever dipping nibs of wonder into ink” evokes images of delight! Thanks for these words
Kevin, your response to this assignment confirms the value of using it with our students – upper elementary to graduate students in college. These lines capture that outcome for me.
I‘m forever thankful of the moment
My quill connected with yours, for we are
forEver dipping nibs of wonder into ink
I particularly like “nibs of wonder” as we encourage our students to think about what the text – written or graphic – makes us think or wonder about.
Thanks for the confirmation and inspiration.
Anna, such an interesting way to analyze and personalize poems – I especially like that we are also invited to pay homage to the members of our writing community. My inspiration comes from Barb Edler’s poem posted on yesterday’s Open Write, “Postcards from Places I’ve Never Been”:
Destinations Unknown (Barb Edler, 20 August 2024)
submerge my soul beneath bottomless seas
travel forbidden back roads and wild coves
explore exotic lands with ancient trees
submerge my soul beneath bottomless seas
unearth buried beauty, free to be me
explode into space, skip across star groves
submerge my soul beneath bottomless seas
travel forbidden back roads and wild coves
My T.I.M.E.:
Take me to these destinations unknown
Immerse me in their infinite foam
Make my soulsong soar on their ancient tune
Euphonic, euphoric, at every strange moon
Fran, I love seeing both poems the way you have done here with Barb’s, so you reminded me to go back and share Stacey’s original poem as well. This sense of weightlessness and weightedness (submerging and bottomless seas) in exotic lands and space and back roads is captured so perfectly here with your walk through the destinations unknown – the infinite foam of the oceans, the soulsong (nice word) soaring not just in distance but in time (ancient) and across moons – – the poem magnifies the poem, the poet magnifies the poet, the poem is born again through the hands and heart and mind and pen of another. This is beautiful, and it reminds me almost of a baby being born – – a godchild poem of sorts, a new root on an old family tree.
Fran, that last line just sings with joy: euphonic, euphoric at every strange moon. Such a short and delightful verse
Wow, the alliteration is amazing this morning. I love the way “Immerse me in their infinite foam” rolls off my tongue. I love that you took words from Barb’s beautiful poem and changed them up a bit.
Fran, I love your use of “infinite foam!” It’s compelling, succinct, and a good summary of the original poem. I really resonate with the word choice “euphonic.”
Fran,
your poem evokes such a sense of play and joy.
I love this line especially:
Anna, thank you for this acronym for spending TIME walking through the lines of poetry of our group members from April and for encouraging us to feel all the emotion and to write about it. What a great way to blend the poetry experience of rereading AND writing poetry about the poetry. There is nothing that speaks quite as loudly to me as an old kitchen table (I recently refinished my grandmother’s, which sits in our kitchen and conjures the ancestors as I think about all who gathered around it through time). So drawing back to Stacey Joy’s poem Our Old Kitchen Table is right straight where I went for this prompt today.
Tabletime Tempos
Through all these tender table times
In games, gatherings, cartoons, showers,
Meals, drumrolls of dice and laughter and tears against
the backdrop of time ticking
Emanating life tempos tintinnabulated and tolled, thus told
around the old kitchen table
I loved Stacey’s kitchen table poem, too, Kim. The kitchen table is such a symbol of family and the heart of the home – or at least it was so, in times past. How beautifully you weave the rhythms of life around your table here! Oh, the “backdrop of time ticking” – I am ever more aware of it, every single day. And the sound, the feel of distant thunder rolling and bells tolling (“for whom”…for us all) in this line – “Emanating life tempos tintinnabulated and tolled, thus told” – indeed, the tempos take their toll at times, but oh, to have sung the song and dance the danced and loved the love and told the stories and had all these tender table times… worth it all. Poignant and powerful poem, my friend.
Stacey Joy’s original poem:
Stacey’s Poem
Our Old Kitchen Table
I’ve been writing this since
we sat across from each other
at our old wooden kitchen table
with the screw embedded between
burls and your wine glass, since
I struggled through algebra
and its variables, since
my sad pleas for help
caused anger and exhaustion
I’ve been writing this since
we played Boggle and Yahtzee
after Saturday cartoons
and I Love Lucy, since
my Sweet Sixteen party
with a vanilla cake in the center
of the tablecloth covering the screw, since
my bridal and baby showers
for all our friends and family to
gather around in loving laughter
I’ve been writing this since
the hospice nurse, Gina, sat with us at the table
to explain all the medications
that would numb your suffering
and magnify ours,
since we ate Gina’s spicy tacos after
saying grace, asking God for peace, since
we knew your time here was fading
but memories at our old kitchen table
would be kept sacred.
© Stacey L. Joy, October 17, 2022
Kim, I love how you name all the things done at a table (line 2) and then the actions and feelings (line 3). As I read “dice”, I immediately smiled and thought if it was my table poem, I’d include words about shuffling and dealing cards. So much happens “around the old kitchen table” (last line) I love how reading your poem is inspiring me to write more! Thank you.
I love that time made it into this time. And omg what am alliteration master!! 🤯
Kim, what magical sounds are in your poem like “tempos tintinnabulated and tolled, thus told” and “tender table times” You have honored Stacey’s lovely poem and the message behind it here.