 Linda at A Word Edgewise has an unexpected post today as she hosts Poetry Friday It was not the week anyone expected with the tragedy in Texas. Another shooting. Another elementary school. It hits hard. I've checked in with my teacher friends this week. There are no words. And yet I hunker down into poetry. I was thankful for Amanda Gorman's book, Call Us What We Carry. I am working on a project and am using her book. This line resonated with me after Tuesday: So on this meaningful morn, we mourn and we mend ~ “The Miracle of Morning” I wonder how many more shootings will it take, how many more times do we need to mourn and mend? The Poetry Sisters suggested for May's challenge to write a poem using the words string, thread, rope and/or chain. I immediately thought of William Stafford's poem, “The Way It Is". I wrote one earlier in the month. But in response to Tuesday's news, I wrote another. Earlier in May There’s a thread you follow ~ William Stafford ~ In the middle of the night, there’s a moment in a dream a startling discovery, as you pull a red thread unraveling at the bed’s edge you watch the floor vanish into your past and you follow ©jone rush macculloch, 2022 In response to the Texas tragedy.
There’s a thread you follow ~ William Stafford ~ In the middle of the day, there’s a moment in which a classroom doesn’t know their threads of life will unravel. And again, you yell out in anger, asking, when gun safety reform will follow ©jone rush macculloch, 2022 
It's Poetry Friday and Carmela at Teaching Authors has all the details for today's fabulous poems. At Teaching Authors, there's a sneak peak of a very cool poetry STEAM project and a poem from Imperfect II.
I have been able to sub in the fifth grade classes at my former school. These students are pretty special as they were first graders when I retired. Some of them were in my "Poetry Rocks" afterschool club. And when I've subbed during the last four years, they have had poetry lessons. I have watched them grow as poets.
These two classes did the Color Poem and Art project with a 4 x4 square of a monochromatic collage. It's been fun to bring in some of the papers I use in my art for the students to choose from for their project. 
Welcome to Poetry Friday, hosted by Jama at Jama's Alphabet Soup. She has a fabulous post with Mom filled poems and remembering her mom is photos.
I love this: "What we wouldn’t give for just one more sip of our mothers’ unconditional love." Absolutely, Jama. 
Last Friday, I had the pleasure of subbing in a library and the teacher librarian asked if I would do poetry with the fourth and fifth grade classes. Who's going to turn that down? I've been thinking about ways to use Sylvia Vardell's and Janet Wong's, Things We Do, as mentor text. When you have to teach in a thirty minute class, it's almost like a poetry slam.
I created a quick presentation of four slides, share a couple of poems from the book. (I really love Jack Prelutsky's "Eat"), introduced and guided the students through writing a skinny poem. One thing about these poems is flexibility. Technically, a skinny poem only allows for one word in lines 3, 4,5 and 7, 8, 9 but we flex that rule little. Congrats to Karen Edmisten. She won a copy of Imperfect II. Please email me your address.
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AuthorAll photos and poems in these blog posts are copyrighted to Jone Rush MacCulloch 2006- Present. Please do not copy, reprint or reproduce without written permission from me. 
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