Month: August 2023

Poetry Friday: Enjambment and Peach Jam

Catherine Flynn10 Comments

How did it get to be September first? At this time of year, I always think of these lines from Charlotte’s Web:

The crickets sang in the grasses. They sang the song of summer’s ending, a sad, monotonous song. ‘Summer is over and gone,’ they sang. ‘Over and gone, over and gone. Summer is dying, dying.”

E.B. White, 1952

This time of year also makes me nostalgic for my grandmother’s peach jam. So when Margaret challenged the Inklings to “write a poem on any topic using enjambment” for our September challenge, I couldn’t resist writing a poem about jam.

Your kitchen

exists only in my memory but I
can walk through that sunny room 
as if I was there yesterday.

I can open the silver bread 
box and find a loaf
of Pepperidge Farm
white bread, then
pull the cover off
the toaster, pop
two thin slices into
its hungry cavern where
they turn golden and crisp.

While I wait, I get a knife
from the drawer by
the dishwasher and
butter from your old
tan refrigerator. A jar
of peach jam sits on 
the table. I pop the
wax seal from its mouth
just as the toast pops
up. I spread butter over
the warm, toasted bread,
then slather the rich,
honey-colored jam
on top. Cinnamon 
sweetness fills the air
as I take a bite and dream
of you.

Draft, © Catherine Flynn, 2023

Please be sure to visit all the Inklings to read their enjambment poems, then head over to Ramona’s blog, Pleasures from the Page, for the Poetry Friday Roundup.

Heidi Mordhorst @ My Juicy Little Universe
Linda Mitchell @ A Word Edgewise
Margaret Simon @ Reflections on the Teche
Mary Lee Hahn @ A(nother) Year of Reading
Molly Hogan @ Nix the Comfort Zone

“A little maple tree in the swamp heard the cricket song and turned bright red with anxiety.” (Charlotte’s Web) Photo by Lisa Leo via Morguefile

Poetry Friday: “The World Book”

Catherine Flynn15 Comments

Some of you may remember that Garrison Keillor used to begin his weekly news from Lake Wobegon with the phrase “It’s been a quite week in my hometown…” That does not describe life in my neck of the woods this week. In addition to getting ready for the start of school, my hometown is getting ready for the fire department’s annual Country Fair. This is a major fundraiser for them and everyone pitches in to help make it a success. (Read more about the Fair in a previous post here.)

In addition to my Sealey Challenge reading, I’ve been scouring poetry websites for poems to use with my students. While I may not share this one with them, this poem struck a cord with me.

“The World Book”
by Patricia Hooper

When the woman in blue serge
held up the sun, my mother
opened the storm door, taking
the whole volume of S
Into her hands. The sun
shown as a sun should,
and we sat down at the table
leafing through silks and ships,
saints and subtraction. We passed
Scotland and Spain, street-
cars and seeds and even
the Seven Wonders until
the woman who owned them skipped
to the solar system and said
It could be ours.
Read the rest here

This weeks Sealey Challenge titles:

  • The Maine Coon’s Haiku and Other Poems for Cat Lovers, by Michael Rosen
  • Heroes and She-roes: Poems of Amazing and Everyday Heroes, by J. Patrick Lewis
  • The Way Things Are, and Other Poems by Myra Cohn Livingston
  • We Are Branches by Joyce Sidman
  • Galapagos: Islands of Change by Leslie Bulion
  • Counting in Dog Years & Other Sassy Math Poems by Betsy Franco
  • Today at the Bluebird Cafe by Deborah Ruddell

Please be sure to visit my friend and fellow Inkling Molly Hogan at Nix the Comfort Zone for the Poetry Friday Roundup.

A good omen for the Fair during preparations Wednesday evening!

Poetry Friday: I Remember…

Catherine Flynn13 Comments

The Sealey Challenge is “held every august, The Sealey Challenge is a community activity in which participants read a book of poetry each day.” This has always felt overwhelming to me. August is a month of growing panic about what hasn’t been accomplished at home and all that needs to be done before school starts. Throw in a week with my grandchildren, and you see why this is a true challenge! 

This year, I decided to focus mainly on books of poetry for children. This was easy because I read them to my grandchildren. I had less time and energy to study these collections closely. As a way to reflect about the collections I’ve read so far, I created a cento of both titles of the collections and titles of individual poems. 

Here’s What I remember:
Quiet mornings.
Our cats.
The window.
Tree whispers.
A Butterfly puddle party.
Recess 
friends and foes.
Winter in the park.
Amazing Auntie Anne,
The breakfast boss.

I remember…

Source of lines:

“Here’s What I Remember” by Kwame Alexander,  I Remember: Poems and Pictures of Heritage, compiled by Lee Bennett Hopkins

“Quiet Morning” by Karen B. Winnick,  I Am the Book, selected by Lee Bennett Hopkins

“Our Cats” by Wes Magee,  Where I Live: Poems About My Home, My Street, and My Town, selected by Paul B. Janeczko

“The Window” by Walter de La Mare, Where I Live: Poems About My Home, My Street, and My Town, selected by Paul B. Janeczko

Tree Whispers: A Forest of Poems, by Mandy Ross

“Butterfly Puddle Party: by Jane Yolen & Heidi E.Y. Stemple, Yuck, You Suck: Poems about Animals That Sip, Slurp, Suck

“Recess” by Avis Harley,  Where I Live: Poems About My Home, My Street, and My Town, selected by Paul B. Janeczko

Friends and Foes: Poems All About Us, by Douglas Florian

“Winter In the Park” by Charles Ghigna  Where I Live: Poems About My Home, My Street, and My Town, selected by Paul B. Janeczko

“Amazing Auntie Anne” by Cynthia Leitich Smith I Remember: Poems and Pictures of Heritage, compiled by Lee Bennett Hopkins

“The Breakfast Boss” by Janet Wong, Where I Live: Poems About My Home, My Street, and My Town, selected by Paul B. Janeczko
I Remember: Poems and Pictures of Heritage, compiled by Lee Bennett Hopkins

Other books read for the Sealey Challenge:

Leaf Litter Critters, by Leslie Bulion
Once Around the Sun, by Bobbi Katz
Be a Bridge, by Irene Latham and Charles Waters

Please be sure to visit Tabatha Yeatts at The Opposite of Indifference for the Poetry Friday Roundup.

Poetry Friday: The Silver-Spotted Skipper

Catherine Flynn16 Comments

The first Friday of the month means it’s time for another Inkling challenge. This month it was my turn to pose a prompt for my writing group partners to respond to. 

I read Robin Wall Kimmerer’s brilliant book, Braiding Sweetgrass several years ago and have revisited its wisdom many times since then. One of Kimmerer’s main points is that “It’s a sign of respect and connection to learn the name of someone else, a sign of disrespect to ignore it…Learning the names of plants and animals is a powerful act of support for them. When we learn their names and their gifts, it opens the door to reciprocity.” 

Using this idea as inspiration, I encouraged the Inklings to “look closely at the flowers, birds, trees, or other natural features in your neighborhood (or if you’re traveling, a new-to-you species) and write a poem about your chosen species. Free choice of format.”

Not long after I read Braiding Sweetgrass, I discovered the “Seek” app from iNaturalist. Taking Kimmerer’s teaching to heart, I became a bit obsessed with cataloging every plant and insect I see! Some insect names are completely charming. Did you know that hummingbird moths are also known as snowberry clearwings? Neither did I!

My original idea was to write about a double-striped bluet, a type of damselfly, that my granddaughter and I discovered while we were collecting rocks at a lake in Wisconsin. But then I discovered “This Is the Honey” by Mahogany L. Browne. The first line of this poem cried out to be a striking line for a Golden Shovel. This is the poem that emerged:

Draft, © Catherine Flynn, 2023

Judy Gallagher, CC BY 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

Please be sure to visit my fellow Inklings to read their responses to this challenge:

Mary Lee @ A(nother) Year of Reading (Mary Lee is also hosting Poetry Friday this week)
Linda @A Word Edgewise
Heidi @my juicy little universe
Molly @Nix the Comfort Zone
Margaret @Reflections on the Teche