Blog Posts

Sunday Solace: Week 32

8/29/2021

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Bougainvillea

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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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Wordless Wednesday: Week 31

8/25/2021

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Sunday Solace: Week 31

8/22/2021

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Blue Heron Rookery, Goat Island, Willamette River

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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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Wordless Wednesday: Week 30

8/18/2021

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Sunday Solace: Week 33

8/15/2021

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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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