somber morning walk
bones amid the greenery
o, this deadly spring
JoAnn's Blog
#SaferAtHomePoem No. 26 (April 18, 2020)
April 18, 2020
2 Comments
#SaferAtHomePoem No. 25 (April 17, 2020)
April 18, 2020
quiet park lagoon
grebe, merganser, muskrat, geese
distant siren wails
#SaferAtHomePoem No. 24 (April 16, 2020)
April 18, 2020
big mistake last night
reading the news at bedtime
nightmares all night long
#SaferAtHomePoem No. 23 (April 15, 2020)
April 18, 2020
picking up dog food
newfangled shopping adventure
topsy-turvy world
#SaferAtHomePoem No. 22 (April 14, 2020)
April 18, 2020
brave Wisconsin voters
stood in line for hours--
six feet apart for hours--
stood outside in the rain
brave Wisconsin voters
stood up to voter suppression
stood up to gerrymandering
to show the world that this is what
democracy looks like now
may they all be safe
#SaferAtHomePoem No. 21 (April 13, 2020)
April 18, 2020
busy morning--I'm
rarin' to go until (thud)
oh, yeah--I remember
#SaferAtHomePoem No. 20 (April 12, 2020)
April 18, 2020
this morning's service
white-throated sparrow chorus
sings Alleluia!
#SaferAtHomePoem No. 19 (April 11, 2020)
April 11, 2020
My groceries are quarantined
beneath the kitchen table.
I washed off bottles, cans, and fruit
as well as I was able.
Soapy water, kitchen sink.
Dunked the broccoli in the drink.
The rest of it
can sit a bit.
Won't it be fun to open up
each can that has no label?
Our Wisconsin governor has issued a "Safer at Home" order for the state. I'll try to post a new poem each day based on my experiences and perceptions. You can read more below. Stay safe, everyone! Wash your hands!
#SaferAtHomePoem No. 18 (April 10, 2020) & Poetry Friday!
April 10, 2020
we sew our own masks
this fake administration
too little too late
You can read more of my #PandemicPoems below. Amy Ludwig VanDerwater has today's Poetry Friday Roundup. Enjoy! Be safe! Wash your hands!
#SaferAtHomePoem No. 17 (April 9, 2020)
April 9, 2020
cheery messages
hail from sidewalks and windows
let's stick together
#SaferAtHomePoem No. 16 (April 8, 2020)
April 9, 2020
some days for poems
some for long walks and sewing
delicate balance
#SaferAtHomePoem No. 15 (April 7, 2020)
April 9, 2020
water carves a way
frightened voters form long lines
turbulence ahead
#SaferAtHomePoem No. 14 (April 6, 2020)
April 9, 2020
pair o' geese on the water
pair o' ducks in the air
paradigm shift beneath our feet
#SaferAtHomePoem No. 13 (April 5, 2020)
April 9, 2020
at every corner
we choose the direction with
fewer people in sight
#SaferAtHomePoem No. 12 (April 4, 2020)
April 9, 2020
oh, sparkly rhubarb
sprouting up through sunlit soil
sign of pies to come
#SaferAtHomePoem No. 11 (April 3, 2020) & Poetry Friday!
April 2, 2020
How to Help: Stay Home!
Everybody on the street,
stay at home. Please stay at home!
It's not safe for friends to meet.
Stay at home. Please stay at home!
Be a hero. Don't go out.
Don't go frolicking about.
Seriously, must I shout?
STAY AT HOME! STAY HOME!
I've been posting a #SaferAtHomePoem each day on Facebook and Twitter since our governor issued the alert for Wisconsin. This one has been rattling around in my head all week as I walk through our busy neighborhood. I've also gathered the others on this blog. (Please keep reading!)
Today's Poetry Friday Roundup is at My Juicy Little Universe. Enjoy!
xox,
JoAnn
#SaferAtHomePoem No. 10 (April 2, 2020) & National Poetry Month!
April 2, 2020
pin in the carpet
needle in a haystack
virus in a community
#SaferAtHomePoem No. 9 (April 1, 2020) & National Poetry Month!
April 2, 2020
mask production starts
at the dining room table
like normal things do
Today is the first day of National Poetry Month! Celebrate with me by reading and writing poetry!
#SaferAtHomePoem No. 8 (March 31, 2020)
April 2, 2020
Gene's warm homemade bread
more than sustenance--comfort,
reassurance, love
#SaferAtHomePoem No. 7 (March 30, 2020)
April 2, 2020
I guess you can teach
this old sewing machine
a new trick
#SaferAtHomePoem No. 6 (March 29, 2020)
April 2, 2020
one unprecedented
thing after another--
whose footprints are these?
#SaferAtHomePoem No. 5 (March 28, 2020)
April 2, 2020
yellow caution tape
blocks school playground equipment
cheery robinsong
#SaferAtHomePoem No. 4 (March 27, 2020)
April 2, 2020
living room yoga
lie back, reach up overhead
underneath the couch
For anyone looking for free yoga videos, I recommend Yoga with Adriene. Enjoy!
#SaferAtHomePoem No. 3 (March 26, 2020)
April 2, 2020
use up what's on hand
online recipes galore
pumpkin pie pizza?
#SaferAtHomePoem No. 2 (March 25, 2020)
April 2, 2020
brisk walk outside
fresh air, sunshine, crocuses
ballots in the mail
#SaferAtHomePoem No. 1 (March 24, 2020)
April 2, 2020
morning river walk
beavers busy on the bank
essential workers
Our Wisconsin governor has issued a "Safer at Home" order for the state. I'll try to post a new poem each day based on my experiences and perceptions. Stay safe, everyone!
For You
March 5, 2020
Here is a wagon of flowers for you
to thank you for all the good work you do.
In terrible times, you still pull through.
You inspire me to do all that I can, too.
While the world lurches from one crisis to another, I'm tempted to curl up in a blanket and hope everything will quietly improve on its own.
But no.
When I look for silver linings, I see people pitching in all over the place, largely unrecognized, trying to make the world safer and cleaner and fairer.
This tiny token of appreciation is for everyone who feeds hungry people, registers voters, sews for sustainability, picks up trash, studies and educates, contacts legislators, marches for justice, knocks doors for trustworthy political candidates, does anything and everything to help. Thank you!
Today's Poetry Friday Roundup is at Sloth Reads. Enjoy!
Cooking a Poem, Poetry Friday, & Valentine's Day!
February 13, 2020
Happy Valentine's Day! Here's a pie for you.
Cooking a Poem
You never know how long a poem will take.
The act of writing's not like baking cake.
It might resemble cooking tasty stew
with spicy words emerging from the blue,
a cup of images, a dash of rhyme—
the one essential thing to add is time.
Age improves a draft. Don't watch the clock!
Just think of pickles crisping in a crock.
You could try marinating overnight.
A week, a year, or more might be just right.
You open up an oven door too soon;
souffles collapse like craters on the moon.
A poem rarely pops into your head
like some kind neighbor's gift of fresh-baked bread.
Unlike a pie or cookies or a cake,
a poem takes as long as it will take.
—© JoAnn Early Macken 2020
Today's poem was inspired by David Harrison's Word of the Month challenge. (February's word is "age.")
Follow David's #AfterDarkBlogTour to find out about his new poetry collection, AFTER DARK, POEMS ABOUT NOCTURNAL ANIMALS. His 97th book, illustrated by Stephanie Laberis, it features creatures that stir about their business after the sun goes down and makes its debut on Tuesday, February 25.
Linda has today's Poetry Friday Roundup at Teacherdance. Enjoy!
Fog Magic
January 17, 2020
Fog makes the bridge disappear,
disguises the bayou,
conceals the buildings beyond it.
Fog muffles traffic noise,
hushes gulls' calls,
shushes barking dogs.
Fog spangles spiderwebs,
plays tic-tac-toe on window screens,
softens the view through my glasses.
--JoAnn Early Macken
Today's Poetry Friday Roundup is at Reading to the Core. Enjoy!
JoAnn
They Say
January 9, 2020
I've fallen out of a habit that
I used to think defined me.
I hope to find more joyful moments
ahead, not only behind me.
I don't really want to write today,
but I want to want to again.
I miss the surprise of finding out
what secrets flow from my pen.
They say if you act like you're doing a thing,
then it might come back to you.
Could I jump into a new stanza?
Well, here's what I'm going to do:
Gather my pens and good luck charms.
Endeavor to put an end to
this slump. I might not write today,
but I can surely pretend to.
My sister Eileen gave me the idea for this one. ("I want to want to paint, but I don't really want to.") We'll get there together, I hope!
Sally Murphy has today's Poetry Friday Roundup. Enjoy!
Recycle Your Unused Ideas!
January 2, 2020
From notebooks and desk drawers,
from folders and files,
from pockets and teetering tabletop piles,
gather your scribbles,
your notes and your jots—
ideas that don't fit your poems or plots.
Shred if you must,
or just toss them in
the helpful, convenient
recycling bin.
In bins, in trucks, in recycling plants,
snippets combine, completely by chance.
They'll evaporate into the bountiful air,
ready for someone to notice and care.
Ready for someone awaiting a muse.
Ready for someone to snatch up and use.
Every idea deserves its own spot—
a real home in somebody's poem or plot.
So make room. Set yours free!
They'll be wondrously new
to someone who's paying attention
like you.
—JoAnn Early Macken
Today's Poetry Friday Roundup is at Carol's Corner. Enjoy!
JoAnn
Peering Ahead
October 18, 2019
Peering Ahead
There's a light at the end of this tunnel.
It's still faint, but it's starting to glow.
If I squint, I can just barely see it,
and it's so reassuring to know
that persistence is always the answer
and if I keep plugging away,
that light will grow brighter and brighter.
I'll burst through to sunlight one day.
I'm awfully excited about the middle grade nonfiction manuscript I'm writing, Turn This Earth Around: Everyday Ways to Help Our Planet. Although I have a long way to go (and I don't have a publisher yet), I'm beginning to find a rhythm in the work. Everything takes time.
As I research, I'm experimenting. I've been sewing reusable shopping bags for several years. Lately, I've tried making my own toothpaste, tortillas, and beeswax wraps. I'm learning.
I'm also accumulating tons of information. Some of it keeps changing. So I'm creating a companion web site where I'll post some of the most helpful tidbits. I hope to reveal it soon.
Today's Poetry Friday Roundup is at Jama's Alphabet Soup. Enjoy!
JoAnn
Take Heart!
May 18, 2019
You know how you get up in the morning and check the weather forecast, and you see that rain is on its way again, so you figure you'd better get your walk in early, and maybe today is finally the day to scatter the last of the milkweed seeds that spent the winter in the garage after you stored all you thought you could possibly use in the refrigerator to plant when the weather warms up? So you head to the bike path and spread those seeds around the bare spots along one side, and it's already foggy and kind of damp, so they stick to the dirt instead of flying away, and you keep walking through the wet grass, even after your feet are soaked, scattering milkweed seeds and hoping they'll sprout and monarchs will come, along with all the other creatures that benefit from milkweed, until you reach the garlic mustard patch that goes on and on and on, and it gets harder and harder to find any bare spots?
But eventually you do, and all the seeds are spread, and by then you have to pee, so you walk into the clubhouse of the golf course in the public park that your tax dollars pay for, and you see that someone has knocked down two swallows' nests in the entranceway because heaven forbid some bird poops outside the clubhouse, and when you come back out, you notice that there is not one dandelion on the whole golf course, which you know means that the park has been poisoned with pesticides, and you wonder what will happen to the worms that those robins over there are hunting for, and wait a minute—are there any worms? And you wish the robins good luck and safe hunting, and you turn around to head home thinking, How on Earth are we going to fix this?
And then you realize that you just said "we." Because all over the world, millions of people like you are trying to do the right thing, trying to care for our planet in spite of what the greedy idiots in power say, doing whatever little bits and pieces they can to try to protect what they care about. Millions of people are planting milkweed and pulling out invasive weeds and picking up trash. Millions of people are remembering to bring (and even make) their own shopping bags and refusing plastic and recycling what can be recycled, and no, it's not enough, not yet, but you can't give up because it's still the right thing to do and at least—thank goodness—you are not alone.
Winter Poems & Poetry Friday!
February 27, 2019
melting snow + rusted gutter = icicle cascade
Imagine the view from inside that window!
Snowman – Cold = Puddle by Laura Purdie Salas is a clever combination of poetry, math, and science. Spring equation poems, poetic informative explanations, and lively collage illustrations by Micha Archer make this book a joy to discover and reread. I was inspired to write a few equation poems of my own, including the one above. I'm limited to one photo per post, so I can't show you the cover, but do look for the book—it's delightful.
I've been trying to walk the dog outside as much as possible between unbearable weather events. We both need it! Here's a haiku from yesterday's icy walk:
sunlit snowbanks sparkle
frozen camera balks
battery exhausted
This year for the first time, I'll be one of 64 authletes taking part in the Madness Poetry Tournament, in which a word is assigned to be included in each poem. To warm up, I've been writing short poems that include a random word that pops into my head. Here's one from this morning, based on ascertain:
Dog Walk Intermission
While the dog sniffs a snowbank,
I try to ascertain
where the cardinal is tweeting
its lonely refrain.
Polls open March 5th for Round 1. Please stop by, read the poems, and vote!
Monday is my favorite date of the year, March 4th. For me, it's the beginning of spring—a chance to take stock, clear out clutter, and start fresh. I'll be celebrating all day. In fact, I've already started. Join me, won't you? March forth!
Linda has today's Poetry Friday Roundup and an ingenious spring anagram poem at TeacherDance. Enjoy!
Snowshoe Surprise & Poetry Friday!
February 7, 2019
My doctor says I need more exercise.
Cholesterol, you know... heredity....
Begrudgingly, I strap my snowshoes on
to trudge beside a frozen riverbank
with traffic roaring on my other side
and robins cheering me from overhead.
I stop to catch my breath above the spot
where freeway runoff keeps a channel clear
and beavers built their lodge across the way.
Beside the aging concrete ledge, I see
a wide, flat tail extended on the ice.
I hold my breath and watch the beaver chew.
Thin saplings rustle when it rounds the bend.
My doctor says I need more exercise.
So this is my prescription?
Lucky me!
Laura Purdie Salas has today's Poetry Friday Roundup at Writing the World for Kids. Enjoy!