Category: Poetry Friday

Poetry Friday, Week 38: #inktober and #poemtober

10/15/2021

Bridget at wee words for wee ones is hosting today. I am looking forward to her new anthology, 10•10 Poetry Anthology: Celebrating 10 in 10 Different Ways.

Earlier this week, I posted the #inktober and #poemtober for Days 8 through 13 on Instagram. Today I have Days 14 and 15 for Poetry Friday. I admit both were a challenge, one more than the other for an autumnal theme.

Day 14: tick
ancient clock
midnight spooky time
tick, tick, tock

Day 15: helmet
in the field
crow on a helmet
not afraid

©Jone Rush MacCulloch

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Poetry Friday, Week 37: #Poemtober and #Inktober

10/7/2021

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Today Irene at Live Your Poem is hosting us in the Poetry Friday community. And she's sharing a great opportunity that will be available in 2022.
And she has a gorgeous autumn poem. I love this line: "how time eats daylight." It's a great mystery.

I've been attempting to be intentional in writing a haiku each day in response to the #inktober prompt. October 6 was "spirits" and October 7 is "fan".

cirrus clouds
wrap the Hunter's Moon
night spirits

©Jone Rush MacCulloch

nature's fans
float on autumn's breeze
lucky day

©Jone Rush MacCulloch

*ginko biloba
It is a sign of luck to catch a leaf as it falls.

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Poetry Friday, Week 36: #Poemtober and #Inktober

10/1/2021

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Today Catherine at Reading to the Core is hosting the Poetry Friday community. This month the Inklings Poetry Group are writing were challenged by Mary Lee Hahn to explain a poetry term (simile, metaphor, allegory, allusion, etc) in a poem that makes use of that term. OR tell how to write a poetry form (ode, elegy, sonnet, limerick, etc) in that form.

Catherine wrote an abecedarian poem.

My goal this month is to return to the practice of daily small poems. Some years it's been called #Poemtober. I am using the #Inktober words for inspritation. On a walk this week, I took this photo.

I am playing with two versions.

leaf shadow
after the rain
memory

©Jone Rush MacCulloch
memory
after the rain
leaf shadow

©Jone Rush MacCulloch

The first word for #Inktober is 'crystal'.

crystal stars
shimmer on the lake
wish makers
©Jone Rush MacCulloch

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Poetry Friday, Week 35: Poetry Princess Challenge

9/24/2021

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Laura at Laura Purdie Salas is hosting Poetry Friday today and sharing more of the Poetry Princess Challenge. It was to find a poem from the Poetry Friday Community and write a response using the Tanka form. Curious about tanka? Read this post by Kelly.

I went to the blogs and landed at Mary Lee's Poetrepository. She wrote a sonnet (and for AJ no less) about Summer's End. It is a cornucopia of juicy and rich words.
Meanwhile, I spied my last remaining Summer Poetry Swap. Guess who it was from? Mary Lee and I knew that this was a serendipitous moment.

I have been thinking today about the fact that I don't really have a favorite season. There is great anticipation for the arrival of the new season and all it has to hold. Toward the end, the anticipation of the season builds.

.Using a couple of the cards Mary Lee sent me I responded to "Summer's End" with a
Dodoitsu (7-7-7-5), part of the summer swap and a tanka. I pulled some of her words from the sonnet.

scarlett maple leaves quiver
apples finish crisp on trees
roads that are unexpected
fall’s many textures
©jone rush macculloch. 2021

wake before sunrise
cool air hushes summer heat
lingering too long.
harvest moon and Orion
set in the west. autumn arrives
©jone rush macculloch. 2021

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Poetry Friday, Week 33: Today's Reminder

9/9/2021

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The fabulous Tricia at The Miss Rumphius Effect is hosting the Poetry Friday community today.

Renee La Tulippe has an explanation for Poetry Friday on her blog, No Water River.

Do you ever have days or weeks where you have a lot of questions? It's been that way for me this week. This morning (Thursday morning) I stepped outside and saw the clouds. And as I took the photo, the crow appeared. A gentle reminder to breathe and slow down.

I will miss next week. My college pals and I are heading to Palm Springs to celebrate a Golden Anniversary: 51 years of friendship.

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Poetry Friday, Week 32: Lessons from Georgia O'Keefe

9/3/2021

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This week Heidi at my juicy little universe is hosting Poetry Friday. If you want to learn about ghazals this is the place.

I just returned earlier this week from a road trip to Souther California to see family. Today, I rearranged and organized several things before I realized it was Poetry Friday.

This summer I created this found poem and art from an article about Georgia O'Keefe. Since school has begun in many places, it might be a good time share lessons from Georgia O'Keefe.

Lessons from Georgia O’Keefe

Great artists
observe the world
Watching the light
looking
out the window
The full pale moon
Early morning
Lavender sky, purple hills
the feeling of space
Daily rituals-
rise with the sun
take an early walk
Don’t sweat mistakes
something will come
Stay with it
Be yourself
Carve your own path

©jone rush macculloch, 2021

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

8/26/2021

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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.

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

8/20/2021

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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.

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Poetry Friday, Week 32: A Bonus Poetry Swap

8/12/2021

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so glad to be here for Poetry Friday. This week Christie at Wondering and Wandering is hosting and she has a community poem, Poetry Is...

After Tabatha set up the Summer Poetry Swap, she offered an opportunity for an extra exchange. I was glad to add Rebecca Herzog to the swap. Her poetry package arrived late last week. It included an erasure poem which was so fun. I love the painted bookmark and the bracelet/anklet made by her daughter.

For a response, I decided to use the words for a Golden Shovel poem and use the final line as a final line as well. I have been working on ancestry puzzles of late so the words spoke to me in that way.

Let’s unravel the mysteries of generations
working feverishly and wordlessly
finding kernels of information to console
those who believed the stories of the past. Love
guided the ancestors’ choices. I am grateful
to carry on the name.
©jone rush macculloch, 2021
Thank you, Rebecca for a wonderful swap that sparked this response.

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Poetry Friday, Week 31: Creating for Art Postcard Swap #seepoetryeverywhere

8/5/2021

35 Comments

Welcome to Poetry Friday. Mary Lee is hosting at her new space, A(nother)Year of Reading.
Her villanelle with a clunker from Linda Mitchell, surprised her as a retirement poem. I remember that feeling the first year after retirement, not preparing for school as soon as August 1st arrive. Happy new adventures, Mary Lee.

From a book of Lyric Poems by John Keats

Amy Souza, fabulous creator of the Spark collaborative art series, also offers art postcard swaps. For me, it's usually combined with poetry. Last month, I made copies of a two page spread and divided it into four puzzle pieces for my four recipients. Then I played with washi tape and ink (when I applied the final coat of sealer, the ink bled which is kind of cool.)