July 2019 archive

Poetry Friday: Found Haiku

Earlier this month Michelle Heidenrich Barnes started a new feature on Today’s Little Ditty — Reader Spotlight. Linda Mitchell was the first reader to be interviewed. I have enjoyed playing around with her Ditty Challenge for this month:

Create a Found Haiku: Find an interesting article on a topic that fascinates you. As you read the article highlight phrases with the right syllable counts for traditional haiku (5-7-5). It’s true that haiku is not strictly 5-7-5. However, for this exercise, keep to the “rule.” Once you have found several phrases, place them into the form of a haiku.

I chose an article in our local paper featuring a 73-year-old woman who just completed a four-day hike through the Grand Canyon. She is also planning to complete a one-day run through the Canyon for her 75th birthday. Can I say I want to be like her when I grow up? Here are a few haiku I found from the article.

time goes way too fast
just take one day at a time
to push the limits

to push the limits
just take one day at a time
don’t waste a minute

I wake up each day
one happy little rascal
crazy to do it

Each Friday, I am excited to take part in Poetry Friday, where writers share their love of all things poetry. Margaret hosts the Poetry Friday Roundup today at Reflections on the Teche. She shares a beautiful poem, “A Teaspoon and a Bit of String” that she stole like an artist. You’ll want to learn more! Hurry over and check out all the poetry morsels offered up today.

Poetry Friday: Nature’s Ninjas

While my daughter was growing up, I wrote her a poem for her birthday each year. I’ve gotten out of the habit the past few years, but brought it back for her 21st birthday (a few weeks late). She is a biochemistry major who hopes to pursue graduate school after next year’s graduation and who wants to go into pharmaceutical research. She’s already started with her undergraduate research on baceriophages. Her university is part of the SEA-PHAGES program through the University of Pittsburgh.

Who knew–a plush phage

I knew nothing about phages before she started this research, but I love how excited she is to share what she’s learning (even when some of it goes over my head). If you want to learn more about phage, check out the TED talk by Heather Hendrickson. Her TED talk inspired the title. My daughter recommends this video for an introduction to phage. Don’t freak out too much. She assures me that they won’t cause a zombie apocalypse.

I tried my first Fib poem (syllable counts for each line follow the Fibonacci sequence – 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8 and back down again in my poem). It received rave reviews from its first reader, who assured me I got the science right!

Nature’s Ninjas

Phage
lurks
unseen
but billions
teem in dirt and seas,
undiscovered. Nature’s ninjas
lie in wait for their very own
bacteria to
devour,
nothing
else
harmed.

Each Friday, I am excited to take part in Poetry Friday, where writers share their love of all things poetry. Carol hosts the Poetry Friday Roundup today at Carol’s Corner. She shares a heartwarming poem from her experience raising a puppy for Canine Partners of the Rockies. She even has pictures of an adorable Rooney who will one day help someone with mobility issues. Hurry over and check out all the poetry morsels offered up today.

Poetry Friday: It’s Swap Time!

For the past several years, I’ve enjoyed watching poetry goodness spread all over through the Summer Poetry Swap organized by Tabatha Yeatts. (If you haven’t seen the new look for her website, check it out–it’s amazing!) This year I got brave enough to sign up and take part. I loved it all! Even though I was a little nervous writing a poem for someone whose poetry I admire, it enjoyed learning more about her on my hunt for inspiration.

Then there’s the delight of finding a poetry package from Linda Baie at Teacher Dance.

Inside the package I found a wealth of poetry goodies: a note, a creative journal, and People on a Bridge by Wislawa Szymborska (more coming on this poetry collection once I have savored all the poems).

And best of all, a delightful summer poem to warm me through cold winter days. Don’t you love how she nails the Skinny form? And that tree could be the one outside my office window. And how did she know I spent most of my childhood summers climbing trees?

Sunshine days linger longer.
Summer
holds
promised
play.
Summer
sparks
nature’s
imagination.
Summer!
Longer sunshine days linger.

~Linda Baie (C)

Each Friday, I am excited to take part in Poetry Friday, where writers share their love of all things poetry. Jone hosts the Poetry Friday Roundup today at Deo Writer. She share a poetry fortune teller she received from Tabatha in the Summer Poetry Swap. What fun! Hurry over and check out all the poetry morsels offered up today.

Poetry Friday: Lady Liberty

I hope my US friends enjoyed celebrating Independence Day yesterday despite the heat in the weather and politics. We started a new tradition by baking cookies and  making fudge (at least my daughter did) and delivering them to our neighbors. Since we are new to the neighborhood, it gave us an opportunity to meet a few more people.

For the last few years, I have struggled to celebrate the 4th of July. I want to celebrate the many good things this country has provided–opportunity and freedom and service–but it seems the forces (present throughout our history) that want to deny liberty and justice for some are stronger than ever. Are we really a nation that separates families fleeing violence and locks up children without meeting their basic needs? It seems so, but we are also a nation that shouts and marches in outrage and mobilizes to make things right. In a Facebook post yesterday, Dan Rather reflected on similar sentiments and shared a quote from Alexis de Tocqueville that offers me some comfort:

“The greatness of America lies not in being more enlightened than any other nation, but rather in her ability to repair her faults.”

For this week’s poem I offer a revision of one I wrote a couple of years ago. It was first drafted for Laura Shovan’s February poetry project to write a poem using 10 words found in an article. The words that inspired this poem came from an article shared by Diane Mayr: Russian arms foundry mints one-kilo silver ‘In Trump We Trust’ commemorative coin. (It’s eerie how timely that headline still seems.) 

Lady Liberty

Lady Liberty
stands with open arms,
her profile a backdrop
to the poor and huddled masses
seeking a fresh start
to reverse the violence and poverty
they leave behind.
Her frozen features
welcome weary immigrants
who read
her bronze inscription
and cling to their hope to join
the newly-minted citizens
of the land of the free.

Each Friday, I am excited to take part in Poetry Friday, where writers share their love of all things poetry. Tricia hosts the Poetry Friday Roundup today at The Miss Rumphius Effect. She shares a heat-themed triolet (one of my favorite forms) in response to the Poetry Sister challenge this month. Hurry over and check out all the poetry morsels offered up today.