Poetry Friday gathering this week is with Jone MacCulloch. Being a part of the Poetry Friday community has given me much to be grateful for. We are writing together a wonderful Progressive Poem. Today’s line is with Denise Krebs and yesterday was Linda Mitchell. I’ve met these poets along with many others through our weekly postings. These posts have led to collaboration on other projects. Linda is a writing group partner and Denise and I are a part of Ethical ELA and a book we are collaborating on. (More on that later.) I would never have met them in real life. The gathering of a like-minded ..read more

Photo by Peter Fazekas on Pexels.com This poem comes from a prompt on Ethical ELA VerseLove by Joanne Emery. She asked us to read Jane Hirshfield’s poem My Life Was the Size of My Life and borrow a line to use in our own poem that expresses something about ourself. I used the line “I told my life I would like some time.” I Told My Life I would like some time. I wanted to hit Pause, rise in another space– maybe a vase of flowers beautiful & scented then tossed away. I told my life to hold on while I slept, dreamt I was flying. What does it feel like to be free? I told my life I would like ..read more

L’Éclipse by Melissa Bonin This painting by my friend, artist Melissa Bonin, was exhibited at the Acadian World Congress in 2019 in Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada. When Melissa posted this photo of her art on Instagram, I was inspired to ask permission for our ekphrastic poetry this week. Did you experience the eclipse? The experience was exciting for everyone. Although there were clouds and rain, a few times the sun peeked out and we were able to view it. My students were fascinated. Every day we Come closer to Learning our lesson. I stand in awe Pretending to feel Safe on our fragile Earth ..read more

Fifth grader Kailyn blows India ink into a mysterious shape. Thanks to a grant from Alpha Delta Kappa educational sorority, I funded a field trip for the elementary gifted students in Iberia Parish. The purpose of the field trip was to expose our students to the mystery and magic of art. The students were able to tour an exhibit at The Hilliard Museum in Lafayette, LA. They saw the art of George Rodrigue, who was born in New Iberia and became world famous with the creation of his Blue Dog series. The students were fascinated to learn of Rodrigue’s origins and how he created amazing painti ..read more

On Saturday in downtown New Iberia, we held the Books along the Teche Literary Festival. I spent most of my time volunteering in the children’s tent, but in the late afternoon, I went to hear Faith Broussard Cade ( @fleurdelisspeaks.) Over the past 6 years, Faith has healed from a traumatic brain injury by writing daily affirmations. These Instagram posts have caught fire and have made her an influencer and entrepreneur. I am so proud of her. She is the daughter of a close friend, and she was in my oldest daughter’s high school class. Faith told her story. She also taught the audience how to ..read more

My mother with my grandson, Thomas Visits with my mother are hard on me. I don’t live near enough to get used to her Alzheimer’s silence, the confused look in her eyes. I keep thinking one of these days I will accept this. But it seems so unfair. She was such a vibrant and thoughtful person. She is safe and happy and generally in good health, so I convince myself I should feel gratitude. Despair and grief take over. I can’t even look at this photo without tears welling up. At Ethical ELA, we were prompted by Katrina to write about a photograph. I chose the one above. We see a child delighted ..read more

The Kidlit Progressive Poem originated from an idea that Irene Latham had to celebrate National Poetry Month in 2012, to bring a community of writers together as they collaborated on a poem. I began coordinating the effort in 2020. Each writer who volunteers creates a new line of the poem. The poem has passed to me today. Patricia Franz started it off in the form of couplets. I’ve structured it into quatrains to see how it rides. The poem will take shape as it moves along toward 30 lines. Thinking about this character who dreams of peace and lullabies of hope, he/she begins a journey across a ..read more

Spiritual Journey Posts are gathered by Robert. Robert selected the topic of everyday miracles for this month’s Spiritual Journey posts. Jennifer Jowett led us at Ethical ELA to explore a letter of the alphabet. Combining both prompts, I wrote about the letter M, my first initial that carries the legacy of my grandmother as well as the letter of my grandmother name, Mamère. M is for miracle, mountain of twin peaks, how mothers are made, become Mamères watching a boy learning to write his name- “up, down, up, down” ride the pen roller-coaster how calligraphic M wears a fancy dress to the lett ..read more

Day two of the Kidlit Progressive Poem is with Jone today. This National Poetry Month, I am writing word poems using random words that come into my life. I’m taking care of my 4 year old grandson while his mother is on a work trip. Today’s elfchen is playing with the word shambles. Shambles Elfchen Shambles of toys on Mamere’s floor a kingdom of pretend Lightstep Margaret Simon, draft NPM 24 I’m also following Ethical ELA prompts. Today’s prompt “The Magic Box” was an interesting practice in synectics, combining words together that normally would not be connected. The intent was to release so ..read more

Inspired by Molly Hogan’s post, “Diary of a Maine Spring,” I am finishing the Slice of Life March Challenge with a diary of a sunset paddle on the Bayou Teche. I’ve lived almost twenty years on this bayou named “Teche” (tesh) for the Native American word for snake. Not so named because there are snakes (there are), but because of its winding shape. With our busy lives, work, school, activities, dancing, grandchildren, we don’t paddle our backyard as often as we “should”. Saturday offered us a window of time and a perfect weather day, low 70’s and clear skies. My husband steers the canoe. I si ..read more