Category: Margaret Simon

Poetry Friday, Week 25: Naomi Shihab Nye

6/26/2025

Tanita at {fiction, instead of lies} is hosting Poetry Friday. She is sharing the poetry challenge for July which sounds very fun and doable.
Its a Sedoka is an unrhymed poem made up of two three-line katautawith a 5/7/7, 5/7/7 syllable count. Since a Sedoka has only six lines, you can totally do this! BONUS: Mary Lee (A(nother) Year of Reading) is hosting next Friday and has the theme for protest Poetry on Independence Day. Try a Sedoka.

We are living in some uncertain times. This past weekend, after the news, I decided to do restart abandoning art. This time I'm making 2 x 2 in canvas hearts. #moreart #morelove.

There are 2 that are heading to Paris with a friend to leave somewhere in the city. I'm going to make more this summer.

The other thing I'm doing is to revisited the poems of Naomi Shihab Nye. This one comes from The Tiny Journalist. It's a book I bought at the 2020 AWP Conference. I found the poem on Poets.org

Moon Over Gaza Naomi Shihab Nye 1952 –
I am lonely
for my friends.
They liked me,
trusted my coming.
I think they looked up at me
more than other people do.

I who have been staring down so long
see no reason for the sorrows humans make.
I dislike the scuffle and dust of bombs blasting
very much. It blocks my view.

A landscape of sorrow and grieving
feels different afterwards.
Different sheen from a simple desert,
children who say my name
like a prayer.

Sometimes I am bigger than
a golden plate,
a giant coin
and everyone gasps.

Maybe it is wrong
that I am so calm.
From The Tiny Journalist (BOA Editions, Ltd. 2019) by Naomi Shihab Nye. Copyright © 2019 by Naomi Shihab Nye. Used with the permission of the poet.

This line is so powerful:
see no reason for the sorrows humans make.

I received the first Summer Poetry Swap from Linda Mitchell. And squee she sent me a fabulous book to read by our very own Poetry Friday poet, Margaret Simon. I am going to begin it tonight. and will be using Linda's hand crafted book mark with the poem, A Book is a Place" by Clyde Watson on the back.

My goal this summer is to read more poetry and to share more titles. You may or may not know this but the CYBILS are pausing their year awards for this year. I get why they are yet I am very sad about this.

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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

Poetry Friday, Week 32: Poetry Swap Star

8/12/2022

Head over to Margaret at Reflections on the Teche and wish her a happy birthday. She's hosting today. She was greeted with a rainbow for her birthday and has a poem from William Wordsworth.

Summer is for Poetry Swaps

When I returned from my travels, this swap was waiting for me. Linda Mitchell outdid herself with this "Junk Journal" which is more like a piece of art. and for me, a mentor example to create my own junk journal about Scotland.

an old book
for starry dream doodles
of wonder

© jone rush macculloch

New Blog Post Alert!

I'm adding "Monday Musings" to my blog. Here is the link for this past Monday.

Poetry Friday, Week 40: Getting Back in the Classroom for Poetry

10/28/2021

Thanks to Linda at TeacherDance for hosting Poetry Friday this week. she begins the weekend with Halloween fun.

I felt like I was riding a bike with training wheels last Friday. I was asked to sub for a teacher at my former school. The last time I subbed for this teacher it was in first grade. He now teaches fifth grade. Many of his first graders are in his class and were they excited to know that we would write poems.

I decided to try Ekphratic poems. Using the photo fromMargaret's post and Lee Bennet Hopkins book, WORLD MAKE WAY: New Poems Inspired by Art from the Metropolitan Museum, and a couple of my own photos, we dove it.

I shared Irene Latham's "This is the Hour" from the book and Lee Bennet Hopkins poem and "Endgame". We also talked about what we noticed on the Dragonfly wing photo as well as the two photos below. I then provided some scaffolding for creating a poem and let the students choose. Students took to the "Why" poem format that Margaret recently used with students

Cooper asked to write his own poem after he wrote one for one of the photos. He said he wants to be a writer.
I think he understand line breaks.

I revised with students using Padlet. Did you know that you can print from Padlet? That was my new learning last week.
Xavier wanted to write his own poem. He and I worked together as he read his poem as I wrote it down.
Please note: Ellie's poem needs a revision but I have not heard back on a couple questions I have for her.

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 22: Spark 48 with Margaret Simon

6/3/2021

Today Margaret at Reflections on the Teche is hosting Poetry Friday. And we are sharing collaborative posts.I decided to once again participate in SPARK, organized by Amy Souza. ( participated in SPARK 27 with an Inspiration piece and a Response piece).

If you are not familiar with this creative community, please check it out. For times a year, writers, musicians, and visual artists are invited to participate in a 10-day project round. As a participant
you create a new work by using someone’s art, writing or music as inspiration. And you have work with someone you know if you wish.

I put the call out to the group of friends and Margaret responded. She sent me today’s poem and I created a mixed media response. I sent Margaret a photo from the California Redwoods and she wrote a poem for it. She's sharing her response on her blog today.

This is the inspiration from Margaret:
Notes in a Locker
I forgot
who she wanted to become.
  A note dropped into a locker
scribbled in cursive,
curly letters to sign her name.
I forgot
who she was.
When notes became soggy
tissue floating in the river
buried beneath the flood,
we climbed out on Easter morning.
I forgot
who she wanted to be.
Her blonde Dorothy Hamill haircut
flirted with the boys
just wanting to be loved.
I become
who she is
daily walking from
cocoon of sleep
into full moon rising,

  being fine
being she
being me.
©Margaret Simon

This was great fun. I will admit to some anxiety of getting it perfect. But I went with my heart and gut. The funny thing is that after reading Margaret’s poem, an image of a red locker came to me. It surprised me upon re-reading her poem that while it said ‘locker’, the word red was nowhere in the poem. I noted these words in Margaret’s poem:
Locker
Note scribbled in cursive
Floating on the river
Dorothy Hamill haircut (those of us of a certain age had this haircut, “The Wedge”)
Full moon rising
Cocoon
My process for the mixed media was to create some painted papers. I have my great-grandfather’s letters from the Civil War, 1863 in cursive. I printed them and added paint. The red frame is from a gardening book. While I didn’t have a magazine photo of Dorothy Hamill, I was able to find an image and hide it in the painted papers.

Through the Red Locker: Bayou Moon

To see them on the SPARK website:
Jone MacCulloch, Inspiration piece and How Do We Stand? By Margaret Simon,
Response
Notes in a Locker By Margaret Simon, Inspiration piece and Jone MacCulloch
SPARK 48 happens in August. It’s a great way to play in art. This is something that I am trying to do more of since retirement.
Response

Poetry Friday, Week 25: Naomi Shihab Nye

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

Poetry Friday, Week 32: Poetry Swap Star

Summer is for Poetry Swaps

New Blog Post Alert!

Poetry Friday, Week 40: Getting Back in the Classroom for Poetry

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 22: Spark 48 with Margaret Simon

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Poetry Friday, Week 25: Naomi Shihab Nye

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

Poetry Friday, Week 32: Poetry Swap Star

Summer is for Poetry Swaps

New Blog Post Alert!

Poetry Friday, Week 40: Getting Back in the Classroom for Poetry

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 22: Spark 48 with Margaret Simon

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