April - Poetry Month - 2024, Day Twenty, Begins with T -

 Happy Poetry Month!

        I'm taking the advice from the poet who has given so much to help us all, including students and teachers, write poetry. I'll be moving from A to Z, obviously needing to combine a few to make it all come out to 30. FYI—Sometimes, Paul Janeczko offers a prompt to write a poem that begins with the specific alphabet letter instead of a poem type. It will be fun to be open to writing in all kinds of ways!

       You can find the path to the Progressive Poem over to the right! Simply click on the graphic!

     This is Day 20, a word that starts with T -  tree

          Did it snow yesterday and continue this morning just for my poem? I don't know but it really is serendipity that it happened!

Overheard on A Snowy Day

 

Hey, we’re growing up.

           We’ll never be as big as that cottonwood.

No, but our branches flourish.”

            Have you noticed more birds visiting?

And we’re still part of the gathering.

They help us underground, don’t you know!

             Yes, I’m grateful for all those older trees around.

             Their chatter when it’s snowing makes a pleasant day.

We caught a lot of snow this time, good for a big drink!

              I’m glad we’re together, too

              in our own cozy corner of the world.

Growing old together makes a good life.

              Yep! 

 

         Linda Baie ©

Poetry Friday - Snowy Imagining

 Poetry Friday is with Molly Hogan HERE at Nix The Comfort Zone.  Molly's sharing a beautiful poem to praise the beauty of trees in winter. Mine connects trees in another way. What fun to discover that. Thanks, Molly, for hosting! 

             It's another holiday weekend coming. Do you have plans?

This comes from Laura Shovan's birthday month poetry challenge. The prompt was "a gathering". It was bitter cold Wednesday and I sat quite a lot looking out one of my windows, at the snowy cold and birds feeding often throughout the day. No, I didn't write about birds gathering, or people memories either. I also had a view of a corner of my lawn, and the green space outside of it. Imagination took over.

(You can see the younger group behind the big tree from back in 2013. Then, there they are today in 2023!)

Poetry Friday - For the @PoetryPals and Heidi

 

 

         Poetry Friday is with Tabatha Yeatts-Lonske, HERE at her website, The Opposite of Indifference, sharing some "meme" laughs and a sweet poem about missing cats. You'll understand when you read her post!  Thanks for hosting, Tabatha!

              Best wishes to anyone who has been touched by Hurricane Ian or is waiting to see what it will do next. I am so sorry for all the devastation I am seeing.

          The Poetry Princesses gave their end-of-month prompt at the end of August. I found it at the end of Laura Purdie Salas' post. She wrote: "Want to write with us next month? Write a definito poem, a cool form that I first learned about from Heidi Mordhorst, and post on September 26 on your blog and/or on social media with #PoetryPals!" Heidi introduces her creation here!

          I've known about it but somehow I have never tried one. Now I have! For this challenge, I've been messing with words for a couple of weeks, at least. I struggled to choose. Then I thought of my favorite kind of words, those that are exactly the same but differ in meaning, homonyms. This time, I wonder if each one does differ when researching it. Can there be a connection? 

            (Side note: There is a third definition of "bark", less-used, usually spelled "barque". Do you recognize it now?)

  I live in an old neighborhood, looked out
all my windows, and counted 26 trees that I 
could see.  Their bark fascinates me every
time I pass by when out walking. Here are four.
The dog picture
was found on Wikimedia Commons,
titled "dog barking".

Bark

 

     Protecting trees and you!

They keep insides safe,

the cambium where trees thrive.

the homes where children flourish.

furry or smooth, patchy or rough. 

 

One offers a forest’s fashion line;

another a family’s canine kin,

     protectors

 

From insects and interlopers,

to fire and strangers:

the ‘bark’ of a tree,

the ‘bark’ of a dog,

 

both safety warriors.

 

 Bark

 

Linda Baie ©

 

April - Poetry Month - Day Seventeen - Trees

 

        The bookmark, on top of the picture above, came into the bookstore at the end of March. Often people do donate books and leave 'treasures' in them. This time, it became my own treasure and I knew what I would do for April's poetry, write about found treasures, perhaps find new places to look? Happy April!

Plus! Check each day for the added line to the Progressive Poem, created by Irene Latham, now hosted by Margaret Simon! The link is to the right!  

peace

salaam

shalom

 

Once every 33 years, Ramadan, Passover & Easter are observed simultaneously. This year is one of those amazing years

 

shimmering sky

trees lean together –

a human wish

Linda Baie ©

photo by Adam Rhoades on Unsplash

Poetry Friday - Time for A Debut

    Heidi Mordhorst hosts our Poetry Friday today HERE at her blog, My Juicy Little Universe. She is celebrating her birthday with spectacular poems, candles, and a few lightbulbs - Huh? Thank you, Heidi! I hope the day has been absolutely grand! 

         

 

         It was near seventy earlier this week, now we have a big snowstorm on its way, all weekend. Time for me to enjoy all the PF posts and some reading of some poetry and prose, too!

          Trees are sprouting, too. I am really looking forward to that beginning green haze, then the leafing, every spring like a miracle! Are you preparing for April, Poetry Month? Here's a peek at the poster.

            Here's a challenge for you if you're staying in and writing: 

Rhopalic Verse: (from Greek "rhopalon"--a club which is thicker at one end)

Lines in which each successive word has more syllables than the one before it.

Trees

 

To define, 

so many ideas-

branched complexity

each species demonstrates

surprising variety.

Bark displays 

rough edges,

smooth symmetry,

and nature’s coloring.

Leaves’ ID

as palmate, parallel, trifoliate

and pinnate.

Leaf colors illustrate

lime, chartreuse, emerald, asparagus.

 

Trees offer

shade, cover, oxygen,

 

but mostly 

eye candy.

 

Linda Baie ©

Poetry Friday - Free for Play

     Poetry Friday is hosted by Matt Forrest Esenwine here at Radio, Rhythm & Rhyme! Thanks, Matt for hosting and for celebrating those beautiful poems and poets in Lee's new Night Wishes!  

      I am thinking of all of you with the terrible fires and now flooding in our country, plus educators working so hard to do well for your students. It's a challenging time and I am hoping for better in less than two months!

     
          I moved into my 'now' home in 2012 and while I love the inside, the real reason that cinched my decision is this 100 years plus cottonwood in my side yard and all the trees surrounding me in the green space plus the library that is a block away. Those of you on social media with me probably recognize the tree because I really believe I might take more pictures of it than most anything, except for the grandchildren! Well, every few years, I need to have the arborists out, to check the tree's health and to trim some of the branches, those dead or dying and those hanging a little too low over the house. Yes, I have a motive for telling you this. The people who do this are wonderful and Tuesday, my yard and the outer garden one was covered with tree debris. They cleaned it up beautifully. But I am used to picking up sticks from this and other trees anyway and there were a few left. I started thinking about all the times my children and my grandchildren have played with sticks. I even remember a few times so long ago creating a structure with large sticks, then filling it up with snow for a snowball fight. They, thus my tree, is a treasure for more than one reason.

Poetry Month - Day Twenty-Three - a shelter

It's April. It's Poetry Month!  
            

         Remember to check out the list of what everyone is doing at Jama Rattigan's blog: Jama's Alphabet Soup.

          And check on the Water Poem Project where every day, a poet is sharing a prompt connected to water, hosted and created by Laura Shovan!

Plus! Check each day for the added line to the Progressive Poem, created by Irene Latham, now hosted by Margaret Simon! The link is above and the graphic to the right!  







         A leap with the theme of CIRCLES for poetry month, poems & small sketches. I am looking forward to reading everyone's posts. I'm sure I will love each one, knowing they're done during a time we've not lived before. I am worried about so many, those close and those far, my community, too. 

April 1 - haiku
April 2 - cinquain
April 3 - a couplet
April 4 - limerick
April 5 - a kyrielle
April 6 - a skinny
April 7 - quatrain

April 8 - tanka

April 9 - a prose poem

April 10 - free verse
April 11 -  acrostic
April 12 - free verse

April 13 - a nonet

April 14 - haiku
April 15 -  lune
April 16 - sonnet
April 17 - free verse
April 18 - silly verse 
April 19 - couplets

April 20 - free verse
April 21 - a skinny
April 22 - prose poem


Best wishes for continuing good health to you all!

day follows day

these hours

freeze my choices

I shelter within

a tree’s refuge

from a mystery

NPM19 - #25 - Trees

     Back to the book, writing about nature, specifically last evening.          

Tabatha Yeatts has created a link to poems teachers and librarians can print for poetry month, titled "Poetry in The Halls". I'm grateful to be one of the poets!

Jama Rattigan has a post HERE with many poets' goals for April.

The Progressive Poem schedule can be found on the right.

Evening Mail

Down the street,

around the curve

sits the bank of mailboxes.

Each time I walk for the mail,

I see these trees, 

stalwart sentinels in winter 

and now, this early spring.

they offer a green promise,
still lean lines to love,

crooked, crossed, craning upward

like skinniest of arms

praising the sky,

welcoming birds flying in

for the night.

Linda Baie ©

Poetry Friday - Leaving the Year

         Thanks to Heidi Mordhorst at A Juicy Little Universe for hosting this final Poetry Friday of 2017, sharing her love of trees. 

          I've been writing all the month to Mary Lee Hahn's challenge of a haiku a day, #haikuforhealing, begun last year after the election. It is a good thing to greet the day, to write words that reflect a small part of this December. I looked through these days, and before even reading Heidi's post, chose a favorite, also connected to trees. I'm lucky to live in an older neighborhood with mature trees, and I look and admire and sometimes imagine them looking like people. And they are the people that always give hugs. 

Here are two: an earlier haiga I wrote this month, and I used a picture taken earlier to write the one for today. 

eavesdropping

the trees' conversation,

better than the news

lesson learned,

when looking long,

trees reveal more

       Wishing you and yours a wonderful new year's beginning. From Rilke, my favorite quote: "And now let us welcome the new year—full of things that have never been." 

#PoetryFriday - #NPM17- poem 28 of 30 - Tree

         Thanks to JoAnn Early Macken at Teaching Authors who is hosting this final April Poetry Friday. JoAnn has a terrific "drip-drop" poem in response to all the rain happening in her part of the world. See all the poetic events in the sidebar.

          "Writers don’t write from experience, although many are hesitant to admit that they don’t. If you wrote from experience, you’d get maybe one book, maybe three poems. Writers write from empathy." — Nikki Giovanni

 See all the poetic events this month in the sidebar.  

My goal for Poetry Month: 

                                               TINY THINGS.  
But this time I have a "BIG THING", although it began as a tiny thing, a seed. I was driving through a nearby neighborhood, and saw what you'll see in the following pictures. I had to stop, as did others, to see why this beautiful tree was being cut down. I was told it was showing signs of rot inside, and the city said it was too dangerous to stay. The owner, the man you see standing, told me he thought it could have stayed a few more years, but it was an "order" from the city. He was sad. About that same time, Michelle had given her April challenge from Today's Little Ditty, to write from one of the previous challenges. I thought of Joyce Kilmer's Trees, and knew that was the poem I would use for a parody/tribute, Tamera Will Wissinger's challenge, found here. 

Click the photos to enlarge.

Celebrating Family

  This weekend I celebrate with Ruth Ayres at Discover Play Build.  and link with others who share their celebrations, too. I am grateful to Ruth for starting this meme that offers a place to celebrate together!
         Also posting today on a blog tour that shares a new book. Be sure to check it out here!

         I missed last Saturday because I was celebrating family, a wonderful trip with my daughter and her two daughters, the grand-girls. This is our fourth year visiting my brother in Missouri, and sad to say Carter, my grandson couldn't be there this time. He's in the midst of beginning marching band practice and could not come! We missed him, but had a fabulous time. Pictures tell the story, and I'll share just a few. My brother lives on a small acreage with all the things that children love, places to run and swing and explore. 

My cousin night! There's not much more fun
than talking with those who knew you when you
were young! Everyone came, plus a few "extras"!

A Memory or Two - 24/31

The March Slice of Life Challenge-
                            Thanks to Ruth and Stacey, at Two Writing Teachers - 24 of 31

      Tweet at #Slice2013

 “Love the trees until their leaves fall off, then encourage them to try again next year.”  Chad Sugg

      

       I’m going to explain one reason I bought my new house:  I love trees!  Oh, I also moved because it was a better location for me in my life right now, but there was this tree.  I knew the place was special when I drove by, and then drove by again, and each time I passed, I really didn’t see a great-looking house, I saw “the” tree. 

       The tree is a native cottonwood, over a hundred years old, and I hope it will continue to flourish.  I am looking forward to making good memories under its shade, and am excited to see how it looks when the buds are liberated.  If you’ve been a faithful reader of my blog, you know this tree; I’ve shared it already in photos in my snowy pictures.  It’s right outside my back door!