After a drizzly morning, the sun came out and the afternoon air was fresh and inviting. Between bronchitis and the weather, I hadn’t gone for a walk in over a month. I hurried home, changed into my yoga pants and sneakers, then headed for the park. It felt good to be outside.

Here are some images, in words and pictures, from my walk.

winter weary dear
nibble on the stubble left
from last summer’s hay

shrubs begin to dress,
slipping on a halo
of golden green

Thank you to Stacey, Betsy, Beth, Kathleen, Deb, Melanie, Lisa and Lanny for creating this community and providing this space for teachers and others to share their stories every day in March and on Tuesdays throughout the year. Be sure to visit Two Writing Teachers to read more Slice of Life posts.

During February, I participated in Laura Shovan’s Found Poetry Project challenge, “10 Words Found in the News.” I didn’t manage to write a poem every day, but I have drafts floating around that I may get to this month. The words that inspired this poem, smile, knitting, spaniel, power, underpants, staring, rage, drawn, magnets, and always, came from Vanessa Davis’s graphic novel, Spaniel Rage.

Our springer spaniel
used to curl up next to me on the sofa,
drawn like a magnet to my side.
I always worried her dog hair,
weaving its way into the sweaters
and blankets I was knitting, would
cause someone’s allergies
to flare and rage.

I smile now when I think of her,
staring out the window,
dreaming of chasing squirrels,
pulling underpants out of the laundry,
always making mischief.
But she always had the power
to make us laugh.
She always had the power
to melt our hearts.

© Catherine Flynn, 2017

Thank you to Stacey, Betsy, Beth, Kathleen, Deb, Melanie, Lisa and Lanny for creating this community and providing this space for teachers and others to share their stories every day in March and on Tuesdays throughout the year. Be sure to visit Two Writing Teachers to read more Slice of Life posts.

Last year, a friend gave me a bracelet engraved with these words:

“You only fail if you stop writing”

Although I haven’t been posting too much recently, I have been writing drafts and snippets of poems for Laura Shovan’s Found Word Poetry project. These words, from “34 Books by Women of Color to Read This Year,” were last Thursday’s  prompt: unicorn, cabin, glut, cousin, fever, sing, kitchen, flee, perch, & sour. Refuge was the bonus word.

When I first read these words, I thought how easy it would be to write a poem using them. After all, my in-laws had a cabin on a lake in Maine where we spent many happy summers when my children were young. I was confident the poem would write itself.

Wrong.

Sometimes it seems that if I have too many ideas, it’s hard to wrangle them into some sort of shape. When this happens, I usually set the piece aside, move on to other ideas, and let the tangled mess percolate for a few days. Sometimes the idea is ready, but not always. Other times, I have to find the right form for my words. That’s what happened with this poem. After reading Elaine Magliaro’s gorgeous new book, Things to Do (Chronicle Books, 2017), I knew how to write this poem.

Things to do if you’re a cabin:

Perch on the edge of a fish-filled lake.
Wrap yourself in weathered red siding
and dream of summer,
when a glut of cousins
flee the heat and seek refuge
in the shade of soaring pines.

Remember the
mouth-watering aromas
floating out of the kitchen
as Grandma bakes her famous
sour cream peach pie.
Strain to hear whispered stories
of knights and unicorns at bedtime,
then listen to loons sing
their haunting lullaby.

© Catherine Flynn, 2017

Thank you, Laura, for once again being so generous with your time and talents.  Thank you also to Stacey, Betsy, Beth, Kathleen, Deb, Melanie, Lisa and Lanny for creating this community and providing this space for teachers and others to share their stories each Tuesday. Be sure to visit Two Writing Teachers to read more Slice of Life posts.