Tintinnabulation

This year, like other years, Christmas rings in the good news. Bells jingle, hearts mingle, and all decorations are merry and bright. The tree is always the central focus and as a glorious dedication to the birth of the tiny savior, my tree tells a story. Birds announce the good news. Beads adorn the layers of the tree. Ribbons flounce. An angel watches over and vintage ornaments dangle against the lights.  Faith ties the family together. Late at night, Santa tiptoes in with a ho, ho, ho, and before he leaves rings one of the bells collected over the years. 

In the great room, bells from an old carriage, a cowbell, and jingle bells

are nestled in the tree waiting for Santa's touch.

The Ringing of the Bells

Ding-a-ling.

Birds sing.

Let's rejoice!

Hear the voice.

Santa shouts ho-ho

Coming in from snow.

Ding, dang-

Ring-rang.

Rudolph is aglow.

Bells tinkle to go.

Into the sky,

Deer and sleigh fly.

Bells tinkle with joy

For every girl and boy.

Bells ring

Angels sing.

Christ is born

On Christmas morn.

©CV, 2021, draft

Christmas at My New House in Virginia

Grandgirls decorate their tree on

Christmas Eve and sight two snowprints

by their fireplace on Christmas morn.

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Listen to Aretha Franklin sing "O Christmas Tree" here.

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Thank you to the Poetry Sisters who challenged everyone to write a poem dealing with bells and share it on Poetry Friday. They also suggested ringing in the New Year on social media with the hashtag, #PoetryPals.

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Thank you to Carol Wilcox for hosting Poetry Friday at her blog, Carol's Corner.

She is sharing sad news about the wildfires that broke out 10 miles from her home in Colorado. There is devastation and families without homes. My thoughts and prayers are with Carol who is tracking down people she loves and also with the families who lost their homes in the fire. 

May the New Year bring us to a more peaceful place.

New Year's Day Thoughts

My thinking exploded on New Year's Day Mass when the priest decided to end his homily with a poem, In Memoriam, (Ring out, wild bells) by Alfred Lord Tennyson. This beautiful elegy provided time for me to contemplate about the old year and the new one.

In Memoriam, (Ring out, wild bells)

Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky,
The flying cloud, the frosty light;
The year is dying in the night;
Ring out, wild bells, and let him die.

Ring out the old, ring in the new,
Ring happy bells, across the snow:
The year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true.

Ring out the grief that saps the mind,
For those that here we see no more,
Ring out the feud of rich and poor,
Ring in redress to all mankind.

Continue reading the poem here.

The church fell silent after the poem ended and I was filled with the positives of what can be in 2020. When I returned home, I reread the poem and found this beautiful song that lifts Tennyson's words. When I hear the church bells ringing in the future I will think of Tennyson's poem that inspired me to write about my one word 2020, balance here.

I plan on keeping a healthy assortment of positivity around me to balance my lifestyle. Will you join me in the one word quest? For the time being, I will follow the Poetry Friday Roundup road to  Carol Wilcox's blog site. Our host has an inspirational poem by Maya Angelou that makes me wonder if this was a tribute to the use of one word to guide the yearly journey.

Being in the Creativity Zone

Being in the creativity zone is such a wonder-filled experience!  Sparks fly; mind races; thoughts pass by in streams of bright-colored digital inspirations.  When I start creating, I am lost in time, transfixed until I suddenly look up. "Oops! I am almost late for ..."  

The zone is in a wonder space, a creativity playground. It is not a fancy place. Unlike a child's playground, any spot will do that has a place to write, create, and revise. Digital tools, a computer, and iPhone are necessities in my wonder space. In addition, fancy paper, colored pens, and a glue gun are tucked into my literacy toolbox for any spontaneous DIY projects. I shared my wonder space with grad student teachers last week at my ELA Summer Institute. With a bit of passionate prompting, they entered the zone to create their digital designs and digipoetry. You can see what they created while in the zone here.

Giving and receiving is part of the creative process. Beside designing summer poetry swaps for Donna Smith and Linda Baie, I have been inspired to create digipoetry while observing nature. A couple of days ago my family took a quick jaunt to the beach. Our stay was short for the afternoon heat was rising and we noticed a dramatic difference in the sky. From gloriously bright to cloudy gray, it changed its look and sent us off trudging through the sand back to the car.

For the Embraceable Summer Gallery collection

Being in the zone, means that there are other poet colleagues there as well, creating in their wonder spaces.  A couple of weeks ago, I was pleasantly surprised by an email from Ruth Hersey.  A postcard arrived but it was not from Haiti.  Ruth was visiting family in Kentucky where she was visiting family and decided to create a summer poetry swap for me as part of the exchange started by Tabatha Yeatts. On the back of a serene picture postcard, James Archambeault's KENTUCKY, Ruth wrote the following poem. 

Spring to Summer 2019

Where Carol lives,

the seasons how up

one after another,

each beautiful in its own way.

She collects snippets of each

to fill a gallery.

Where I live

the seasons don't change much;

each month is hot and sunny

with alternating mud and dust.

I collect snippets of tropical blooms

for my own gallery.

This year I'm visiting my parents,

waiting for summer

in a world more like hers;

each morning is chilly and damp

and you can almost hear the grass growing.

I take pictures of all different flowers

from the ones at home,

snippets to fill a gallery

both Carol and I

could love.

©Ruth Hersey, 2019

Ruth's Garden of Blooms and Poem

will grace my Spring Splendor Gallery collection.

Today, I am joining the Poetry Friday Roundup at Carol Wilcox's blog site, Carol's Corner.  For those who have puppy love, you will love to see 8-week-old Rooney and the poem she wrote about him.  

March Musings ‘19: All Things Poetic

As March draws to a close, I look to April for all things poetic to come to be. 

march on morning
softly past daybreak hours-
spring stillness surrounds
©CV, 2019

Poetry has always been close to my heart. It has been my comfort, my joy, and even a cathartic fixer-upper. With pen in hand at an early age, I crafted thoughts from a bank of noticings and wonderings. During April, National Poetry Month, I will continue to write poetic thoughts and curate the poetry of others. Join me as I celebrate all things poetic with others around the world.

"National Poetry Month each April is the largest literary celebration in the world, with tens of millions of readers, students, K-12 teachers, librarians, booksellers, literary events curators, publishers, bloggers, and, of course, poets marking poetry's important place in our culture and our lives." (poets.org) 

To bring digital awareness of poetry to social media, I will devote this month to unveil my global galleries of artistic expressions, Abundant Autumn and Winter's Embrace. You may even see an invitation to write about springtime splendor.

Special Announcement: On Monday, April 8th #NYEDChat and #WonderChat will combine to discuss "Creating A Positive School Culture With Poetry." Sylvia Vardell and Janet Wong, poets and publishers, will co-host the Twitter chat from 8:00-8:30 pm EST so please mark your calendar.

 

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SAVE the DATE - Join Us!

I will also join Irene Latham's Progressive Poem group who will create a collaborative children's poem during National Poetry Month.  April 16th is my day to add a line.



I am looking forward to a vigorous and exciting National Poetry Month.

Now it is time for the Poetry Friday Roundup. Carol Wilcox is hosting at Carol's Corner.

Day 29 of 31 days of writing

March Slice of Life Story Challenge

Two Writing Teachers

Student Voice

As fall settles in for hot cocoa, outerwear weather, and a winter nap, I breathe a deep sigh. It has been a glorious autumn of variegated, dancing leaves, scampering squirrels, and changing temperatures. Now, as I prepare to design another seasonal gallery, Abundant Autumn, I look back upon the nature photos, image poems, and artwork from across the globe that will be featured. 

As a fitting close to a month of gratitude, I would like to showcase some of the student additions to my upcoming fall gallery. I shared the following poetic offerings at NCTE 18 as a tribute to student voice for each young poet wondered about earth's seasonal beauty and expressed their thoughts poetically. 

Young Poets Showcased on Social Media at C. Varsalona's 

Past and Upcoming Fall Galleries

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Kindergarten Students from Christie Wyman's Former Class in Massachusetts

Marin, Arlan, and Camilla from Kay Couvillon's Class in Louisiana

Madison from Margaret Simon's Former Class in Louisiana 

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I recently received a beautiful fall treat for my upcoming Abundant Autumn Gallery from Christie Wyman and her amazing Kinders

who enjoyed an abundant autumn season. 

f you click here you will see the Spark Video that Christie made of the fall leaf watercolors from her Kindergarten class. This will be shared in the upcoming gallery. 

Included in my NCTE 18 presentation, "Imagine the Possibilities If All Voices Were Honored In Every Classroom Around the Globe," is a thought I believe in and foster during professional development sessions.

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I am extending the deadline to accept offerings for Abundant Autumn Gallery for another week since I have not started to design the gallery. 

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The Poetry Friday Roundup is at Carol Wilcox's blog site this week. What she has to offer about novels in verse from K. A. Holt is very interesting (I attended a session at NCTE 18 where this author presented).

"One more thing... did you know that according to an NEA study in 2017, more people are reading poetry now than at any point in the 15 years the NEA has been conducting the survey? People seek out poetry in times of resistance and strife. We need it now, more than ever."

Watering Can Memory

"Gardening is the art that uses flowers and plants as paint, and the soil and sky as canvas." - Elizabeth Murray

With that quote in mind, I whimsically created a palette of colors to salute a summer's day. I used the apps MobileMonet and FotoJet to render an artistic touch to the photo, similar to what an artist would do when painting a still life.

"Painting is but another word for feeling." - John Constable

Creating digital art allows me to artistically express myself and use the end-products as prompts for writing poetry. I flip-flop between original photos to slightly digitized ones to digital art pieces to create an array of "painted" images to evoke different feelings and moods. Below is my first attempt at a writing a cherita, a poem that tells a story, from my latest rendering of digital art. I have been admiring the cheritas that fellow poet friends have written and today I am pleased that I moved past my comfort zone to try one.

midday heat respite

petunias perfectly posed

wait patiently

afternoon ritual

remembering childhood summers

with watering can in hand

©CV, 2018

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Each day I use my Nonnie's watering can, thoughts of my childhood summers with my grandmother flashback to decades ago when I would playfully dance around her beautiful gardens. Each bed was filled with fragrant aromas from gorgeous flowers. When I watered the flowers they stood tall to salute the sun. This ritual brought much joy to me. My grandmother's watering can has been painted and repainted over the years to preserve it as an artifact of childhood happiness.

Poetry Friday is being hosted by Carol Wilcox today. Carol, not only is greeting the writing community with a dazzling summer blossom but is introducing the poetry of Lynn Ungar, a poet that "uses small details to share big truths".

So Much to Be Thankful For

Autumn Is:
The season for enjoying the fullness of life -- partaking of the harvest, sharing the harvest with others, and reinvesting and saving portions of the harvest for yet another season of growth.
-Denis Waitley

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Using the above quote, I created my own thoughts on Thanksgiving 2017.

Thanksgiving is:
The holiday for enjoying 
life living moments --
partaking of life's harvest,
sharing life's harvest with family and friends,
and reinvesting and saving
each part of life's bountiful harvest
 for the end of this season and
yet another one as I
understand there is so much
to be thankful for.
©CVarsalona, 2017

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Thanksgiving Songs to Listen to:

Thank You by Brianna Hayes

Thanks to living.

Thanks to life.

Thank you for the joy inside of me.

Your give us hope.

You plant the seed.

You harvest every heart in need.

Thank you for the love you give in me.

-Brianna Hayes

Thankful 
(A Josh Groban Song)

(The Perfect Thanksgiving Song sung by Dallyn Vail Bayles with Scott & Ryceejo)

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Thanksgiving by Ella Wheeler Wilcox

We ought to make the moments notes

Of happy glad Thanksgiving;

The hours and days a silent phrase

Of music we are living.

And so the theme should swell and grow

As weeks and months pass o'er us,

And rise sublime at this good time,

A grand Thanksgiving chorus.

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I am signing off with an attitude of gratitude for Day 2 of the
Thanksgiving festivities begins again tomorrow when my grandbaby Sierra arrives at Grandma and Grandpa's house.


From today's Google Hangout

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I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday with family and friends. Now it is time to enjoy the Thanksgiving after-party with our Poetry Friday host, Carol  Wilcox at Carol's Corner.

Life

At dusk, the world finds rest 

under the canopy of sunset.

Nature shares its evening colors.

On my way to Virginia, I was graced with the image of a sunset in progress. It was not a sunset that I have witnessed on Long Island by the beach or in my neighborhood. It was one that filled a mighty expanse with softness while a glaring sun shot its lights upon the water. I was lucky enough not only to witness the beauty of evening's call to commune with nature but to capture several photos while my husband drove. What I saw beyond the sunset was a river still and silent waiting for its story to unfold. Were it not for the sun glaring in the sky, I would not have noticed the tranquil scene.

I learned a lesson from witnessing this sunset. Life is not a steeplechase, rushing from one event to another, although many times it feels that way. I thought about the metaphor, life is like a river. Is it about meandering through life or is there more substance to the statement? Do I regularly notice the flow of life, feel its natural course or do I resist the patterns? Do I veer here and there? Do I recognize that in order to maneuver great distances, I must abide by the laws of nature, accept the challenges, and move past the rocks. I think I do but sometimes, I do not notice the sunsets. There needs to be a more consistent flow on my journey, like the river's flow. There needs to be more notice and wondering time for there is so much beauty in the natural world.

Listen to Life is Like a River

Meanwhile, Carol at Carol's Corner is hosting Poetry Friday here. She provides readers with a brief introduction to the new poet laureate, Tracy K. Smith.

My spring gallery, Springsations, is still under construction. Stay tuned for more details about the unveiling.