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

Poetry Friday: Sudoku Challenge

Catherine Flynn11 Comments

My stepfather passed away last week after a long illness. While not unexpected, his death turned our world upside down. The first Friday of the month is when we Inklings post our monthly challenge responses, but I know you’ll understand why I’m posting my effort on the second Friday. Our July challenge came from Heidi.

SUDOKU POEM! YES!  Make yourself a grid at least 4×4. Reread Mary Lee’s sudoku poem post from June 1 for information and inspiration and create your own sudoku poem.

This this challenge stumped me for several weeks. Then I just dove in and began having fun with it. I’ve tinkered with this quite a bit, and I’m still not sure I’ve got it right. But here’s what I came up with.

Draft, © Catherine Flynn, 2023

Cabbage white butterfly. Photo via Wikimedia Commons
Azure damselfly. Photo via Wikimedia Commons

You can read my fellow Inkling’s responses here:

This week’s Roundup hostess, Linda Mitchell @A Word Edgewise
Heidi Mordhorst @my juicy little universe
Molly Hogan @Nix the Comfort Zone
Mary Lee Hahn @ A(nother) Year of Reading
Margaret Simon @Reflections on the Teche

Poetry Friday: Celebrating the Moon

Catherine Flynn9 Comments

Today I’m happy to help the week’s Poetry Friday hostess, dear Irene Latham, celebrate the moon in honor of her upcoming book, The Museum on the Moon. I have very clear memories of the Apollo missions and have been fascinated by the ever since.

The Moon

Mysterious shape-shifter,
perpetually circling
overhead
swayer of oceans,
guardian of dreams.

Draft, © Catherine Flynn, 2023


Photo by Ganapathy Kumar via Unsplash

Poetry Friday: Made it to “Y”

Catherine Flynn12 Comments

I know. It’s Saturday. But the end of the school year kicked. my. butt. And my friend and fellow Inkling Linda Mitchell is hosting this week at her lovely blog, A Word Edgewise. So here is the next to last installment of my search for hope. (My National Poetry Month project)

Hope is…

lemon yellow goldfinches
feasting on thistle seed.
A sound startles.
They rise as one,
a small diaphanous cloud,
then scatter in a shower of sunsine.

Draft, © Catherine Flynn, 2023

The italicized line is from Carlo Rovelli’s book, Reality is Not What It Seems: The Journey to Quantum Gravity. I previously used this line here.

Poetry Friday: X is for Hope

Catherine Flynn9 Comments

I loved the A.P. Biology class I took in high school. Believe it or not, I remember much of what I learned all those years ago. So when I was planning this project, I didn’t have to think twice about the word I would use for x. Xylem was right there, just waiting to be celebrated in a poem. Fast forward to this week of testing, planning for next year, and caring for my family and you have…a very brief poem acknowledging the hard work xylem does.

X is for Hope

Why?

Because…

Water + xylem + sunlight =

GREEN

Vibrant or muted,
bursting from stems supported
by strong, thirsty straws

Draft, © Catherine Flynn, 2023

Xylem cells stained red
Nicholas.H.Hale, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Thank you to Laura Purdie Salas for her brilliant book, Snowman – Cold = Puddle, for the inspiration! Please be sure to visit Janice Scully at Salt City Verse for the Poetry Friday Roundup!

Poetry Friday: More Poems of Hope

Catherine Flynn10 Comments

I am determined to finish my National Poetry Month project, 26 poems of hope. I’m nearing the end of the alphabet and this week am sharing poems for v and w.

V is for Hope

Why?

Because…

Caterpillars that will soon
transform into fritillary butterflies
feast on the heart-shaped leaves 
of meadow violets,
whose petals of vibrant
purple satin
are fit for a queen’s crown.

Draft © Catherine Flynn, 2023

These violets greet me each morning.

A few weeks ago, I came across the last stanza of “Inversnaid,” by Gerard Manley Hopkins, the last line of which includes the word “weeds.” I originally thought I might write about a woodpecker for w, but decided a Golden Shovel using this line was more appropriate. Hopkins’s poem was inspired by a visit to the town and stream of Inversnaid on the bank of Loch Lomond, which appealed to my Scottish roots.

W is for Hope

Why?

Because…

Draft, © Catherine Flynn, 2023
Inversnaid Falls by Tim Heaton, CC BY-SA 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Please be sure to visit Robyn Hood Black at Life on the Deckle Edge for the Poetry Friday Roundup.

Poetry Friday: Hope, Continued

Catherine Flynn12 Comments

Like last year, my NPM project was a few poems short. My goal was to write 26 poems, one for each letter of the alphabet, for some element of nature that gives my hope. The letter U really stumped me. I went through our old World Book Encyclopedia and came up with ungulate. The only ungulates in my neck of the woods are white-tailed deer. Although the deer don’t usually eat my hostas, and I’ve never hit one with my car, I couldn’t imagine how I would write about deer. Then I startled a rabbit as I walked out the back door one morning earlier this week and she scurried back into the bushes. Hmm. The bushes…the undergrowth.

I thought undergrowth and understory were basically the same thing, but they aren’t. The layers of temperate forests, like what’s left of the forest here in the eastern U.S., correspond to the layers of tropical and temperate rainforests. Each has difference species of plants and animals, of course, but the structure is similar.

It’s also the first Friday of the month, which means the monthly Inkling challenge. Linda Mitchell gave free rein this month when she asked us to:

Write a poem from your O-L-W for 2023
Or
Find a piece of artwork that has a word(s) embedded and write an ekphrastic poem inspired by the piece
Or
Go to Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day (any similar site) and be inspired by a word from there
Or
Just write a poem–about anything that needs to be written

This week, I need to write a poem about undergrowth. I will work on poems for the rest of the alphabet over the coming weeks.

U is for Hope

Why? 

Because…

the undergrowth
at the edge of the woods
teems with life:

birds forage for seeds 
and insects,

bees gather nectar
and pollen,

cottontails hide 
in a tangle of branches

and an oak sapling
finds a ray of sunlight,
and reaches toward the sky.

Draft, © Catherine Flynn, 2023

Be sure to visit Linda Baie at Teacher Dance for the Poetry Friday Roundup, then read how the other Inklings responded to Linda’s challenge here:

Heidi Mordhorst
Linda Mitchell
Molly Hogan
Mary Lee Hahn
Catherine Flynn

NPM & Poetry Friday: T is for Hope

Catherine Flynn6 Comments

Here we are at the last Poetry Friday of National Poetry Month. I am in awe of everyone who shared a new poem daily. Congratulations! I have a few letters left to round out my alphabet of hope, which I’ll keep working on these into May. Why should April get all the fun?

T is for Hope

Why?

Because…

Taproots 
sink 
deep 
into
the Earth,
soaking 
up water,
anchoring
dandelions, 
milkweeds,
and more.

Sustaining 
life.

Draft, © Catherine Flynn, 2023

‘Wysauke’; known commonly as milkweed, pods at top and root cut off and drawn at side, 1906
John White, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Please be sure to visit Ruth at There is no such thing as a God-forsaken town for the Poetry Friday Roundup.

Previous NPM Posts:

Day 1: H is for…
Day 2: A is for Hope
Day 3: B is for Hope
Day 4: C is for Hope
Day 5: D is for Hope
Day 6: E is for Hope
Day 7: F is for Hope
Day 8: G is for Hope
Day 9: Hope is
Day 10: I is for Hope
Day 11: J is for Hope
Day 12: Hope is…
Day 13: L is for Hope
Day 14: M is for Hope
Day 15: N is for Hope
Day 16: More Poems of Hope
Day 17: Q is for Hope
Day 18: R is for Hope
Day 19: Hope is… Silvopastures