Day #14: Take and Taken

Usually when writing, we try to avoid repeating the same word unless we are using its repetition for a specific intent.

Today's prompt invites us to use words over and over again!

Take / Taken / Took

In a two-stanza poem, consider what you TAKE (from friends, parents, school, the world) alongside what has been TAKEN from you (by friends, parents, school, the world).
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While I began with this prompt, as I wrote, my poem morphed into a rhyming ditty about the precious time I TAKE with my morning coffee!

I look forward to seeing where this take/taken/took prompt TAKES you!

Coffee

I take the filter off the shelf
It takes five minutes brewing
I take a measure of myself
While coffee grounds are stewing.

I’ve taken time while waking up
I’ve taken morning lathers
I’ve taken stock then filled my cup
Now take on all that matters.

Thanks to Ethical ELA for many of the prompts I'm adapting for my students this month.

Day #13: That Memory

Today's prompt asks you to sift through memories of your past nine years of school.

Make a list.

Jot down 12 (I love that number!) images that come to mind when you think of grades K-now. 

Of the memories on your list, which calls out to you as hot, deserving your attention and reflection?

A memory that came to my mind was about swear words. Here's what came of it when I tried to think about all my senses in as I experimented saying cuss words aloud in the privacy of my bedroom when I was maybe 10 or 12. (Lemon button is a type of fern.)

Lesson

Even shut-up was forbidden in our house
so of course I
wanted to cuss

I craved the razor
burning against my tongue
in the privacy of my
blue bedroom
where at the window
a macrame noose held
a flourishing lemon button

Mere words
sparked sensations
spicier than Doritios and
richer than cream
green as the fern
in my pink mouth

Day #12: Day Poem

Here's a fun poem to try!

According to NationalToday.com, April 12 is National Grilled Cheese Day!

Think of a day that has special meaning to you, then search the site and discover what else is celebrated on that day.

Or work in reverse: Think of a hobby, interest, or item and search the site to see if there is a holiday for it!

If you can't find a day celebrating your love for juggling or skid loaders (I couldn't find either on the site, but via a Google search, I found that World Juggling Day was celebrated on June 20 last year.), designate your own day for your own desired celebration and write about that!

I chose to write about July 12. Read my poem and see if you can figure out the "National Days" associated with that date and then the reason I chose to write about it. (You can check the day here.)

July 12

It’s simple
as it should be
on National Simplicity Day:
Eat your jello
and pecan pie.
A good day for both.
Give Orangemen Day
a shudder,
since his mother
is from Belfast,
(though I’m loathe
to celebrate fires
of religious hate)
Wink at heterochromia;
pet a husky.

But keep it simple:
absorb the goodness of the sun
inhale the hydrangea
sing a verse of
lullaby.
My heart pumps little
puffs of joy
to know that
12,796 km
as the crow flies
safe in New Zealand
William Wolf Hoegh
turns one.

William Wolf on the day of his birth, July 12, 2020

Thanks to Ethical ELA for many of the prompts I'm adapting for my students this month.

Happy writing!

AB

Day #11: A Skinny Poem!

 Process

• A skinny poem has only 11 lines!
• The first and last lines are the only lines with multiple words.
•  Lines 2-10 are each one word only.
• Line 2, 6, and 10 are each the same word!
• Line 11 uses the same words as line 1, but it can be rearranged for your purposes.

I made a table to number my lines on one side and wrote my poem on the other. As you'll see, I wrote about watching a student who wasn't reading during reading time. The image stayed with me because I'm always trying to figure out how to help students sink into their books.

For ideas, consider moments in the past week that have lodged into your memory for some reason. Or an image of your pet. Or a moment from a holiday.

Consider the image you want to write about and describe the situation in the first line. From there, skinny it on out! You may link a series of skinny poems together for a longer poem.

Happy writing,

AB

Thanks to Ethical ELA for many of the prompts I'm adapting for my students this month.

Day #10: Haiku

 

Inspiration: Haiku

The haiku is a short three-line poem that uses sensory language to capture a feeling or image.

According to my poet friend David Duer, "haiku are often inspired by nature, a moment of beauty, or a poignant experience. Traditionally, the poem couples a spontaneous observation containing a direct or indirect reference to a season (kigo) with a subtle commentary on that observation."

The form consists of 17 syllables:
a line of 5 syllables,
a second line of 7 syllables,
and the last line of 5 syllables.

I recently learned the word "petrichor," so I wrote 13 haiku about the word! You don't need to go crazy like I did, but you might enjoy writing a sequence of haiku that are somehow related.

See if you have fully embraced the meaning of "petrichor" after reading my poem!

Thirteen Ways of Smelling Petrichor
by Allison Berryhill

I knew scent of rain
meeting dust, but did not know
the word: petrichor

Smell of rain on dust
universal memory
the word? petrichor

raindrops pelt the dust
a song of scent arises
it is petrichor

an open window
the first droplets pelt the dust
welcome petrichor

when arid meets rain
my dusty hours quench(ed)
your smile petrichor

we farmers love dirt
when rain hits dust we rejoice
and dance petrichor

when the day’s dullness
is broken by a startled
glint, it’s petrichor

petrichor petri
chor petrichor petrichor
petrichor petri

I learned “petrichor”
the word said pay attention
notice rain on dust

dry tongue swells with want
give me wet relief
oh sweet petrichor

I have lost my god
but clouded sky touches
my soul: petrichor

Ashes to ashes
dust to dust I hear the dirge
yet still know petrichor

I will look to find
moments where dust meets the rain
I smell petrichor.

Thanks to Ethical ELA for many of the prompts I'm adapting for my students this month.

Day 9: Things I Didn't Know I Loved

Sometimes we don't realize life while we live it. But it's a poet's job to "pay attention." 

Today’s mentor poem  is Nazim Hikmet’s “Things I Didn’t Know I Loved,” which can be found in its entirety here: https://poets.org/poem/things-i-didnt-know-i-loved

Here are the opening lines:

it's 1962 March 28th
I'm sitting by the window on the Prague-Berlin train
night is falling
I never knew I liked
night descending like a tired bird on a smoky wet plain
I don't like
comparing nightfall to a tired bird

I didn't know I loved the earth
can someone who hasn't worked the earth love it
I've never worked the earth
it must be my only Platonic love

........

Here is the poem I wrote using Hikmet as a model. Because he began with a date, I did too.

Things I Didn’t know I Loved
by Allison Berryhill

it’s 2021 April 8th
I’m legs-up in my life’s favorite chair
the only sound is my click on the keys
on this rainy night.

I never knew I loved
this time alone.

oh that’s such a lie!

what I never knew
was how much I could revel in time alone.

oh that’s such a lie!

I’ve always reveled in
journal writing
long drives without passengers
the company of my own thoughts.

What I never knew
was that I could love so much
and so many
contradictions:

the rubbery bathbubbly arms and legs
and also the glorious school bus that
whisked them away each morning

the full to bursting
busyness that soldered fragmented days
and saved me from raw terror;

the blessed
empty house that now hums
a silent welcome.

can I live both lives?
can I love two lives?

is this betrayal?


..........

Your turn! Use any aspect of the model poems to jump-start your own poem today!

Happy Writing!

ab

Thanks to Ethical ELA for many of the prompts I'm adapting for my students this month.

Day 8: Steps to Being You

Here’s a link to Brandon Leake’s poem Steps to Being Brandon Leake. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=waMBTIGYe-A

Watch it!

Here are the first lines:

Steps To Being Brandon Leake

One: You gotta first be named Brandon Leake.

Two: Be born on May 4th, 1992 with an extremely large head, sorry about that, Mom.

Three: Be born to a mother who got a heart of gold and just pray she got the Midas touch.

Four: Be born and raised in Southside Stockton in a cave full of hard rocks that when pressed become gems.

Five: Be born with brown skin. This excessive amount of melanin will truly dictate much of your future. Be sure to remember these steps.

Six: Be born with all of your limbs. And then remove one. My fault? No. Remove Father. No surprises here, refer back to step five.

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What are the steps to being YOU?

Take as few (or as many) as you need. Here is mine:

20 Steps to Being Allison Berryhill

1) Find a name with dactylic rhythm.
2) Contort this person to fit between four sandwiched siblings, where she will seek out unclaimed crannies of identity.
3) Try too loud, too bossy, too much. Then add another scoop.
4) Hide important parts of self. (See step 11.)
5) Explode.
6) Find her scattered across an Iowa cornfield July 4, 1976.
7) Implode.
8) Grind her teeth until the jaw is set afire.
9) Teach her to sew, with thread, and then with words.
10) Stitch the pieces into something whole-ish.
11) Seek out those hidden selves and
12) Patch them in.
13) Burst into a classroom where too loud, too bossy, and too much somehow work to an advantage.
14) Add a counterweight, a husband, to hold steady this chaotic, half-human, half-hyena.
15) And–why not?–add six kids.
16) Spin in circles, dig deep.
17) Repeat steps 10 through 16, omitting step 15.
18) Get cancer to gain perspective on all the rest.
19) Keep stitching.
20) Write poems.

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Your turn! Play with this. Find specific images, notice how your words sound together!

Thanks to Ethical ELA for many of the prompts I'm adapting for my students this month.