Category: Golden Shovel

Poetry Friday, Week 44: Taking the November Challenge by the Inklings with a Tie In to SJT

11/8/2024

Linda at A Word Edgewise hosted Spiritual Journey Thursday last week and her prompt was "world". She also shared her prompt for the The Inklings: As we enter Native American Heritage Month I ask that you respond to Joy Harjo's Fall Song in any way that makes your heart happy.
I needed this prompt. Have you read Harjo's poem? It's so good. It has been fuel for three poems.

Thank you, Linda for this incredible poem.
There are so many juicy lines in this. I was Between the election and the passing of a friend, it's been a week.
I turn to writing and art in times such as these.

Today, I'm sharing two with the focus on Linda's prompt for SJT.

Thank you to Cathy at Merely Day by Day and her powerful poem, "In the Mourning".

The Greyness of Winter
The earth is slightly damp with rain
From “Fall Song” by Joy Harjo
I voted. Then bided my time for the
results to come in by digging in the earth.
Planting bulbs to contrast the greyness of winter. Is
it too early for hope? I slightly
pat down the mulch with a damp
hand. The one with
cramps from the letter writing. My eyes spill rain.
©jone rush macculloch, draft, 2024

When the World is Unhinged
Is there another word for ‘‘divine’’?
From “Fall Song” by Joy Harjo

Our world is
unhinged at this moment. There
is anger, fear, and worry for one another.
It feels like actions and words
of the our better angels cannot compensate for
the collective sadness of now. How do we contact the divine?

©jone rush macculloch, draft, 2024

SJT and Poetry Friday, Week 5: Love is...

2/1/2024

I'm combining Spiritual Journey Thursday and Poetry Friday. Patricia J. Franz is hosting SJT with thinking about the word love. Mary Lee at A(nother) Year of Reading has a secret to share. Today is the Irish holiday, St. Brigid, patron saint of poetry as well as dairy farmers, cattle, midwives, babies, and blacksmiths. So today, I thinking about how we are at the midpoint between winter solstice and spring equinox.
The word love is a perfect word for these days, we need more for the world. A book I dip in and out of is the Adam Cara by John O'Donohue.
I was taken by this quote on love:
“When you send that love out from the bountifulness of your own love, it reaches other people. This love is the deepest power of prayer.” ~John O'Donohue

And there was this one:
“Love opens the door of ancient recognition. You enter. You come home to each other at last. As Euripides said, ‘Two friends, one soul.‘” ~John O'Donohue

Recently, I've been seeing the arrival of dandelions, St. Brigid's flower and sign of early spring. I thought about the dandelion photo I took in Kildare, Ireland and that first sentence in the second quote.

Poetry Friday, Week 51: Winter Solstice: A Day of Celebrations

12/21/2023

©Graphic by Amber Fleek

Welcome to Poetry Friday. I am so glad you are here. As I write, it's winter solstice. Actually the exact time of the solstice is 10:27 PM (EST) or 7:27 PM (PST). It's also called the hibernal solstice.
It's been a day filled of solstice activities, starting with sunrise. In which I listened to my heart and took a risk that perhaps just 4.5 miles away at the top of an extinct lava dome, the weather might be clearer than the fog layer at my house.

My husband I drove to The Grotto. I've been here for the Christmas lights (and am planning to go on Saturday. We have never been to the upper Grotto. What a scared place. While there a murder of crows had quite a lot to say before they flew off.

My final stop for today was Leach Botanical Garden. It was a place to see winter in its glory, sip hot cider and paint a rock or two. One I left for placement in their rock garden and the other will be revealed early 2024 for my One Little Word. Now it's your turn. Please leave your links below.

Spiritual Journey Thursday and Poetry Friday, Week 30: Turning

8/3/2023

I read Linda’s post for Spiritual Journey Thursday. I was filled with gratitude that she used the song "Tis A Gift To Be Simple" by Joseph Brackett. It’s one of my favorites.

Mary Lee at A(nother) Year of Reading is hosting Poetry Friday and sharing a beautiful textile piece along with a poem. She has been reading Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer and I am reminded that book needs to come with me on a roadtrip.
I’ve just returned from four days at the coast with daughter, grandgirl, husband, and husband’s former wife. A tradition that is almost twenty years old.

Some of the questions that the 18 YO was asking made me think of ‘turning’; the turning of the seasons, the turning of our lives. Oldest grand has graduated and I am watching her enter adulthood with curiosity. She wanted to know about the “family member “cut off date” (translated how long everyone had lived) and whether she’d have access to the house we have rented all her life when we are no longer able to rent it. These questions show me the importance to her of traditions. It delights me that as the pages are turning in her life story (as are they in ours), that she holds some things close to her soul.

I am into writing Golden Shovels for the summer poetry swap this year and thus I took a line from "Tis A Gift To Be Simple".

To turn, turn, turn will be our delight.
Tis A Gift To Be Simple by Joseph Brackett

Criss-cross logs ready to
light the match to turn
the stack into fiery flames. The sun turns
a page by slipping below the horizon. We turn
marshmallows on a stick, they’re gooey, golden s'mores. Will
we ever be
too old, roasting marshmallows on the beach. Our
answer is in the moon, full of delight.

©Jone Rush MacCulloch

The Sealey Challenge
August 1: field notes poems of the lost and found by Melissa Madenski
August 2: Twenty Love Poems and One Song of Despair by Pablo Neruda
August 3: Recover by Allison Joseph

Poetry Friday, Week 28: Thinking about the Moon Landing, 54 Years Later

7/21/2023

Margaret at Reflections on the Teche is hosting and has an ode to strawberry jam and reflects on the kindness of friends.
Yesterday was the 54th anniversary of the first lunar landing. I was sixteen and in France. I pulled out the French papers yesterday, photographed them and that was as far it got as I had lunch with a friend to celebrate our both in Club 70 (she joined in June).

Sixteen

Looking for Armstrong walking on the moon
~Jone Rush MacCulloch

After dancing on Pont d'Avignon, we went looking
baguettes and cafe au lait for
our petite breakfast. 238,900 miles above us, Armstrong,
waved, walking
about, leaving forever footprints. On
the Palais des Papes steps, we cheered. The
moment remembered whenever I gaze at the moon
© jone rush macculloch, (draft) 2023

Monday Musing,Week 47: A Thread

11/21/2022

I had planned to share something else today but in light of this weekend's shootings, I am sharing this poem which I posted in May. I also submitted it to the Oregon State Fair this year and is won second place in short poetry.
While my poem is in response to the Uvalde School shooting, it holds true for any place. People should have the right to have fun and go out without the worry of not coming home. My heart goes out to those families who lost loved ones this past weekend.

A Thread
There’s a thread you follow
~ William Stafford

In the middle of the day, there’s
one moment in which a
classroom doesn’t know their thread
life will unravel. And again, you
wonder when gun safety reform will follow

© Jone Rush MacCulloch

Poetry Friday, Week 21: May Poetry Challenge

5/27/2022

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

Poetry Friday, Week 50: Ring the Bells, The Round Up is Here Plus Winter Poetry Swap Goodness

12/16/2021

Welcome. I am so happy to be hosting today. I am looking forward to reading all the fabulous posts that our community shares.
Did you write a Cento poem for the Inklings?
Did you write to the #PoetryPals prompt about that includes bells?

Do you have happy news or the sharing of poems or poets. No matter what, you are welcomed here.

The #PoetryPals challenge this month is writing a poem about bells. It instantly made me think of a couple of bell poem ideas. However, the one that most resonated with me was one from my childhood. It must have been when I was in third or fourth grade. Late at night I heard the jingling of sleigh bells from outside when I was supposed to be asleep. It was most likely Christmas Eve. I grew up in a house that until seventh grade, the tree (one from a SoCal tree lot) was not put up until after my brother and I went to bed on Christmas Eve when Santa brought it and the presents.
I recently wrote what I call the “Double Golden Shovel” for my winter poetry swap person using two of their poetry lines to bookend the lines. I borrowed some words from the poems that spoke to me.
This week, I found Edgar Allan Poe’s poem, The Bells to select lines from. Confession: I slightly altered two of the words for a better fit in the lines.

From the poem, The Bells by Edgar Allan Poe
On Christmas Eve

To the tintinnabulation that so musically wells
By the side of the pale-faced moon

To wake at midnight by
the faint jingling and tinkling of bells. The
tintinnabulation from the rooftop out-side
that tells me of Santa’s arrival. His boots of
so much magic-the secret for walking in silence. The
musically clanging and twanging of reindeer, careful not to disturb pale-faced
Well tucked-in dreamers who slumber in Runic rhyme by the moon.
©Jone Rush MacCulloch

Winter Poem Swap

I was so fortunate to get Linda Baie as my swap part for winter. She knows me well. I can't wait to dig into the books. I adore Alligator Pie and it will go into my sub bag. And her poem is so thoughtful.

What Jone Knows

A starfish to send home.
Calm ripples of the sea.
Pine needle drips reflect.
Sea glass walk for you and me.

Her postcards send us smiles
when the winter closes in.
Poetry fills her plate.
Each tree becomes a friend.

The photos that she shares
fill us weekly with a ploy.
She adds no words for them
only Wordless Wednesday joy.

Jone’s grateful heart is evident.
She lives her life as one content.

Linda Baie ©

Last Call to Join the New Year Poetry Postcards Event

Won't you join us? We have about 10 at the party so far and there's room for more. Sign up for the 2022 New Year Postcard Exchange. Send five, send ten or send to all.

Did you know there are 15 days until 2021 ends? Woohoo! Let's celebrate the New Year with a New Year Postcard? In Japan, it’s called Nengajo, a Japanese custom of ushering in the new year.

How It Works:

Choose to send five, ten postcards.
Create a postcard: you can buy a postcard and write a poem on the other side or you can create one postcard to send to everyone (I use Walgreens or Zazzle)
Once you get the names, send by February 1, 2022 (beginning of Chinese New Years)
If you choose, you can work in the Chinese animal for 2022: The year of the Tiger. It is not required.

ClarePoetry Friday, Week 31: Guest Blog Post with Janet Clare Fagel

8/26/2021

Elisabeth at Unexpected Intersections
is hosting Poetry Friday today. It's going to be a fun party as she and others celebrate Jane Yolen's 400th book, Bear Outside. Poets in the community are writing after the style of Yolen's eight line, rhyming poem, “What the Bear Knows”.

Join the party, the topic is What the ____ Knows.

Last week I shared my Poetry Swap from Janet ClareFagel . This week, Janet is my guest blogger. And it's an honor to share her Summer Swap treasures from Margaret Simon and myself.

Summer Poem Swap
By guest blogger Janet Clare Fagal aka Janet F. August 13, 2021

For my first foray into Tabatha Yeatts Lonske’s Summer Poem Swap I was lucky to pair up with two wonderful poetry friends, Jone MacCulloch and Margaret Simon. Jone and I have communicated via email and online regularly since we connected years ago. Some day we are planning to meet in person. My first stay at Highlights with Rebecca Kai Dotlitch found me in the cabin Jone had used a few weeks earlier. Reading her entry in the cabin journal made me happy. She was there for a class on verse novels. I felt right at home. Later Jone started an after school poetry club in her library and I helped her with information from my Poetry on Parade program. She dubbed hers, “Poetry Rocks” and it did.
When Jone’s envelope arrived I found 3 gems: an erasure poem using the Zentangle format, a beautiful art piece with Jone’s poem and a lovely notebook with a handmade cover, perfect for pocket or purse and collecting idea for new poems. The collaged trio of birds on the cover reminded me that birds of a feather do indeed flock together. Here are some photos of the treasures from Jone. I have a special spot chosen to place the vibrant plaque, a starburst of color and hydrangea petals accompanied by this poem by Jone:

the sandman
collects dreaming dust
from grandma’s
hollyhock
burgandy velvet star
childhood memories

© Jone Rush MacCulloch

How perfect for the grandma of self-named Superhero, Dazzle Girl and her sidekick Superhero brother, Dragonfly. Thank you so much Jone for these treats!

My second super Swap with Margaret Simon arrived and in it was a notebook with covers that Margaret painted in an abstract paint, print, and collage design. I noted sponges, dots from perhaps wide pencils, circles from the bottom of lids or bowls and some feathery strokes in deep green. Atop the initial layers of this work were green crisscross pieces that reminded me of lovely grasses. Its bright yellow, white and greens cheered me and made me want to write in it immediately! The border had these words: “oh happy day “repeating along the edge.

She included a copy of the poem Tonight I am In Love by Dorianne Laux. She said when she read the poem she thought of me as one who supports poetry as literature. From it she created a Golden Shovel poem for me. Here is Dorianne’s poem followed by Margaret’s.  How lucky am I.

This poem sings my song for sure  And I want to shout, “oh happy day!”
It begins
Tonight, I am in love with poetry,
with the good words that saved me,
with the men and women who
uncapped their pens and laid the ink
on the blank canvas of the page.

I am shameless in my love; their faces
rising on the smoke and dust at the end
of day, their sullen eyes and crusty hearts,
the murky serum now turned to chalk
along the gone cords of their spines.

And it ends:
They could not have known how I would love them,
worlds fallen from their mortal fingers.
When I cannot see to read or walk alone
along the slough, I will hear you, I will
bring the longing in your voices to rest
against my old, tired heart and call you back.

You can find the entire poem here
From Facts About the Moon ©W.W. Norton & Company, 2006. Reprinted with permission.
Here is Margaret’s Golden Shovel poem:

                                                                               Tonight I Write
                                                                a Golden Shovel for Janet
striking line from Dorianne Laux “Tonight I am in love with poetry.”

I stained my arm tonight
with ink spots from fingers I
drew across a blank page. I am
falling into the words in
this poem, in love
with how sounds sing with
harmony and make poetry.

© 2021 Margaret Simon

How much do I love this idea of my fingers full of ink spots from caressing all the poems I love? And indeed how the words and sounds sing with harmony and make poetry.  A blessing, this poem and poetry.

Also in the envelope were two magnet photos of my grandgirl aka Dazzle Girl and my grandson aka Dragonfly Superhero. They have taken prime position on my fridge holding up artwork. Again, oh happy day!!! Thank you Margaret.
And thank you Tabatha for organizing this. I am so glad I took this plunge! I loved writing for Margaret and Jone and gathering some poetry I felt each would like. I am still smiling about it all.

Poetry Friday, Week 30: A Swap from Janet Clare Fagal

8/20/2021

Thanks to Carol at Apples in My Orchard for hosting today. She's talk about important poets.

Next week, Janet will be guest posting about what I sent to her for the Summer Poetry Swap. It's her first time swapping and so glad she did.

Janet wrote a poem inspired by Fran Haley's blog. She participates in a group's prompts and this one is the decima from Spain.
There are 10 lines with 8 syllables per line.
The rhyme scheme is ABBAACCDDC.

While I will try the decimal, today's not the day. Instead another Golden Shovel:

Things to Do At the Tidepools

When at the tidepools, look
under the water’s surface for
Starfish returned from the sky. Turn over the driftwood
washed ashore last night. You might spy
barnacles looking for food. Walk along the sand for sea-glass
scrubbed and polished by the waves that sparkle green.

©jone rush macculloch, 2021
(not quite happy with the last line)

Besides the gorgeous poem that Janet wrote for me, she sent these two things.
A wonderful chapbook that I am savoring and the broadside by Taylor Mali, creator of the Metaphor Dice (which I have used). His poem nails my teaching style.

<<Previous

Poetry Friday, Week 44: Taking the November Challenge by the Inklings with a Tie In to SJT

SJT and Poetry Friday, Week 5: Love is...

Poetry Friday, Week 51: Winter Solstice: A Day of Celebrations

Spiritual Journey Thursday and Poetry Friday, Week 30: Turning

Poetry Friday, Week 28: Thinking about the Moon Landing, 54 Years Later

Monday Musing,Week 47: A Thread

Poetry Friday, Week 21: May Poetry Challenge

Poetry Friday, Week 50: Ring the Bells, The Round Up is Here Plus Winter Poetry Swap Goodness

Winter Poem Swap

Last Call to Join the New Year Poetry Postcards Event

ClarePoetry Friday, Week 31: Guest Blog Post with Janet Clare Fagel

Summer Poem Swap
By guest blogger Janet Clare Fagal aka Janet F. August 13, 2021

Poetry Friday, Week 30: A Swap from Janet Clare Fagal

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Winter Poem Swap

Last Call to Join the New Year Poetry Postcards Event

​Summer Poem Swap By guest blogger Janet Clare Fagal aka Janet F. August 13, 2021

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Summer Poem Swap
By guest blogger Janet Clare Fagal aka Janet F. August 13, 2021