Cascading Along With Words

Join me as I continue to add poetry to my "Spring Seeds Gracing April Gallery and Padlet". I invite you to add at least one original image poem (or other options) to the padlet I created. You can find the invitation here.

Spring Graces Our Earth

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early spring unfolds

golden rays sparkle

zephers whoosh along

lush azaleas burst

renewing post-winter gardens

early spring unfolds 

in afternoon splendor

blossoms spread beauty

golden rays sparkle

dusk's colors dance

awakened buds rest  

zephers whoosh along

©CVarsalona, April 2026, poem and photo

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I was inspired yesterday to use a new poetic format, the cascade poem, shared by Margaret Simon's This Photo Wants to be a Poem. 

Spring's Meet-and-Greet at the Pond

baby ducklings splish and splash

in the pond at the end of the street

grandgirls frolic while watching ducklings play

—–

But Mother Duck hides in the shadows of day

observing her little ones

baby ducklings splish and splash

—–

few more minutes to watch and dash

rows of ducklings follow the leader

in the pond at the end of the street

—–

sunshine warms our meet-and-greet

time to say goodbye-no one wants to leave

grandgirls frolic while watching ducklings play

CVarsalona 2026, first cascade poem.                     Duckling Nature Photo by Margaret Simon

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Margaret Simon stated: "At Ethical ELA, Erica Johnson is leading us in writing a “Playful Cascade” which is a poem form that takes each line of the first stanza making them the last line of the next stanzas. I decided to use tercets, 3 lines per stanza."

Thank you to Heidi Mordhorst for hosting the Poetry Friday Roundup here. I appreciate that Heidi has gathered two other poetry friends, Margaret Simon, and Jone MacCulloch to create a lively conversational video on poetry with and for kids! The key thoughts they explore are: 

1. Approaches to the teaching of poetry with elementary-aged kids 
2. Why it's important
3. How writing with kids inspires and sustains us, three middle-aging white ladies

Nature and Writing Nurture My Soul!

May it do the same for you.

Navigating Reality - IF Poem

Life continues to be full of bumps in the road, creating an uncertain journey. Piles of paperwork sit in different rooms, waiting for me to add to the accomplished box. Beautiful sympathy cards with sentiments from family and friends lay in another box. I look through them often. They are reminders that support comes from family and friends. It is quiet in my home now. Loneliness floats through the rooms of our beautiful house, designed together.

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Puffy grey clouds circulating through the morning sky wash away streams of sorrow. Sunshine opens a new day, but the big IF haunts my thoughts. I look for ways to open my heart to the whispers of my soul. I remember the peace found at the beach so with pen in hand, I write a poem for my husband, Richard, centering on the word if.

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This month, the Poetry Sisters, Liz Garton Scanlon, Tanita at {fiction, instead of lies}, Laura Purdie Salas, Tricia at The Miss Rumphius Effect, Sara at  Read Write Believe, and Mary Lee Hahn, challenged poets to "write in conversation with a vintage photograph". Since I was preoccupied by the sudden, silent, cancerous disease that aggressively attacked my husband and led to his passing, I did not have enough time to plan out a poem that applies to one of my vintage photos. Instead, I kept thinking of my husband and our love of the Long Island beaches near our house. We made memories with family and friends at the South Shore beaches. The above photo shares our days of walking and sitting at the boardwalk. The poem is dedicated to Richard since our last conversation before his passing was short but memorable.

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Thank you to our poet-teacher, Heidi Mordhorst, who is hosting Poetry Friday today. She is honoring the last Friday of National Poetry Month, our community's Kidlit Progressive Poem, and all the poetic goodness that follows at the end of Heidi's blog. Please click here to relax while reading.

Spring Blossoms

This morning, sunlight streamed into my bedroom. I felt the need to stretch before waking so I started to move with flow, as we do in yoga class. I reflected on my baby grandgirl's adorable manner of pandiculation when she wakes from slumber. I thought of birds stretching their wings to dive into my neighbor's feeder. Nature awakened the earth.

As I opened the door, I smelled the freshness of a spring day. Tiny purple petals on my tree surprised me and white buds on my bush squeezed forward in little pockets of joy. No matter where I looked there were signs of spring's rebirth. I soaked in the efflorescence of my flowering trees and welcomed nature's springtime celebration.

Nature Celebrates Springtime

efforescence blooms
sprout open
adorning a quiet community of nestled homes 
flowering trees sing praise to nature's palette
sky blue 
marshmallowed clouds
awaken earth
©CVarsalona, 2024

Digital art photo + Trinet poem format = Image Poem
for the Poetry Parade Padlet - Click here to view the padlet.

Please consider offering one image poem of 

for my 2024 National Poetry Month Project

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Padlet and Gallery of Artistic Expressions

like Diane Anderson did this week.

It is now time to join the environmentalist poet, Heidi Mordhorst for Poetry Friday at her blog, my juicy little universe. Thank you for hosting Heidi and bringing the topic of diversity, unity wonder, and belief to us this week.

Everybody Counts!

Diversity is about embracing one another's uniqueness. - Ola Joseph 

While the word diversity may be difficult for children to understand the talented author/poet Matt Forrest Esenwine shares a simple way of understanding with his newly released nonfiction picture book, Everybody Counts.

This fabulous children's picture book was launched on January 1, 2023. 

Everybody Counts! is a creative effort by the author to blend mathematics, art, story, and content together in order to emphasize the concept of diversity. Each page offers toddlers to Kindergarten children the opportunity to count in English and early elementary children to learn their numbers in foreign languages or perhaps their own language while gathering fun facts about different international countries and types of food.  

This book is an imaginative departure from the typical counting books created for young readers. The author's decision to include foods around the globe and numbers in different foreign languages adds to an immediate appeal for children and adults. Illustrator Emma Graham brings the book to life with bright colors and delightful images of animals enjoying foods from different countries. Everyone sits together at a large table and shares their country's foods. This image highlights the concept of diversity while honoring the words, "Everybody Counts".

Prior to the publication date, I asked Matt to respond to a few questions to unveil his backstory.

1. Matt how did your book come to be? 

I wrote the original rough draft way back in June 2013 and began sending it out on submissions a few months later, so it's been a while since I've thought about what inspired me to write it! As I recall, the phrase, "everybody counts" popped into my head for some reason and I immediately noticed a double entendre: that everybody matters and that everybody literally counts numbers. So I think the concept came about pretty quickly, once I figured out a way to have children of different ethnicities teaching the reader, which was using food.

2. What age group are you targeting?

I hope parents and educators recognize that it can appeal to a broad age group! Young children who are only 4 or 5 can understand the process of counting and can begin to see how others in the world do something they themselves do:  count, eat food, and spend time with family. Meanwhile, older elementary readers, 6-9, can read the book on their own and study the numbers more closely and practice memorization, if they choose.

3. Have you had experience reading the book to children yet? 

I hope to share it with at least a few schools in a couple weeks for World Read Aloud Day on February 1st. 

Throughout the book, each page shares a rhyming introduction and informative content about the country being featured beside numbers 1-10 in the foreign language of each country highlighted. Due to Matt's research skills, we find out what is the luckiest number from one to ten in the Chinese language and what is a favorite drink in India. This book could be an incentive for older children to research on their own and create their own booklet with researched facts, a poem similar to Matt's ending poem (see below), and their favorite numbers. Matt originally created this poem as a summary emphasizing the double intent of the book, that everybody counts.

Come join your friends and make some new;
eat up and have a drink!
The world is just outside your door
and closer than you think.

You might see foods you’ve never tried,
hear words you can’t pronounce,
you might meet kids you’ve never known, but…
everybody counts!

– © 2013, Matt Forrest Esenwine

Teachers, Parents, ESL specialists, and Children:

This nonfiction picture book is sure to be a unique crowd-pleaser!

Come sit at the international table for a dazzling array of foods from different countries while counting in English and various languages because everybody literally and figurately counts.

What better way to learn numbers in English while honoring other countries, their language, and foods, than through this imaginative picture book! Thank you, Matt, for your incredible talent and The Little Fig company for the publication of this delightful book. experience. I can see why Matt would choose this book to read on World Read Aloud Day.

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Today is the Poetry Friday Roundup at Heidi Mordhorst's blog, my juicy little universe. 

Join the fun of reading a range of poetry.

 Then, check in with Two Writing Teachers 16th Annual March SOLSC-Slice of  Life Writing Story Challenge.

Happy Valentine's Day!

It's Valentine's Day and that means treasured items, plus new ones are strategically placed as decorations throughout my house. The weather adds to the ambiance of this lovely day with bright sunshine and warmth. Love is everywhere from fresh flowers to cards and mementos. I think about a saying from Voltaire, "Love is a canvas furnished by nature and embroidered by imagination." As I sit in my great room, I look around and see the beauty of nature outside my tall windows. My imagination is in overdrive thinking of all the beautiful ways to acknowledge that love is alive.

Throughout today, I pondered the writing prompt provided by Heidi Mordhorst on Laura Shovan's 11th Annual February Poetry: give a story about love between you and a tiny object you still have. Sitting on my mantle are various handmade hearts created by my mother. Her talent always amazed me so naturally, some of her creations adorn my house on various holidays. The image poem below honoring my mother will remain at the bottom of my Valentine's Day container to remind me each year of her legacy of love.

I join Two Writing Teachers with my Slice of Life.

Reflacting During Gratitude Month

Reflect + Act = Reflaction

Reflection:

Lately, I am in fast mode, moving from event to event. I am acutely aware of the lack of just-for-me and slow-down time. I wonder if I can deprogram myself from racing through life?  

Actions:

Just be and enjoy being!  (Eckhart Tolle)

Be full of gratitude!

More yoga time!

Write!

Forward Steps:

Last night, I presented my second keynote address to the Reading Specialists Council of Suffolk via Zoom. I felt relieved when I finished the presentation, The Power of Writing: Inviting and Encouraging Students to Discover the Writer Within because this week was one of constant motion. Despite the exhaustion of a jam-packed week, I was grateful and honored to present my keynote to a group of interested teachers. Needless to say, I decided to relax and just be.

This afternoon, I share my thoughts through digital art, nature photography, and writing poetry. This work has had a calming effect on me.  Below is what I call a digital inspiration from the past that influences my writing since it is about gratitude.

Inspiration often comes when I look out the window and see the colors of autumn but sometimes portions of life are not inspiring. Yet, the desire to write is still there. The following quote addresses how a writer proceeds without instantaneous inspiration. Upon reflection, I realize that most of the time I am an impatient-doer writer, not a waiter.

If you wait for inspiration to write, you're not a writer; you're a waiter.

~Dan Poynter

Here is my 18th slide from last night's presentation, Inviting and Encouraging Students to Discover the Writer Within. I started with a prose piece, then followed with a free verse poem with the topic, The What of Writing.

The poem below was penned one night this week when I felt like an insomniac.

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It's time to finally join my Poetry Friday friends at Heidi Mordhorst's blog, my juicy little universe. Heidi is sharing her thoughts on the importance of voting. The piece of digital art showcased explains the reasoning for Heidi's naming this year as a "life-or-death election year". Heidi also reminds us that it is Folktale Week 2022 and the writing group, the Inklings critique group's, monthly challenge.

Rudeneja

Today marks the end of September, a transition time for summer as nature's winds mingle with crisp leaves to celebrate the brilliant new season of autumn. When the Poetry Sisters decided to use Heidi Mordhorst's new poetic format, the definito, as the September challenge, I felt autumn in the air. The weather changed today as the newest hurricane forced its way from Florida northward. Autumn whooshed through Northern Virginia with heavy rains and a chill in the air. It brought with it sweater weather and the longing to snuggle in a cozy, low-lit room heated by a fire. 

My thoughts led me to create a Heidi Mordhorst's definito poem of 8-12 lines aimed at readers 8-12 years old that highlights wordplay as it demonstrates the meaning of a less common word, which always ends the poem. Here is my offering for the challenge that I will share under the hashtag #PoetryPals.

Autumnity

is not summer weather
dipped in steamy temps
nor nature tipping
its branches in sunlit glow
it is the way nature
mingles with weather-
a transitional pattern,
the feel of change

in the air-

end of September

rudeneja

©CV, September 2022

Rudeneja is weather for the soul to glow golden with... -Ella

The word, rudeneja, describes the way nature and/or the weather begin to feel like Autumn.

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While it is late for a Poetry Friday entrance, I humbly offer my definition for the Poetry Sisters' September Challenge. Thank you, Tabatha Yeatts, host of the Poetry Friday Roundup this week, for adding my post to the Roundup. I look forward to reading other posts during the weekend and enjoyed Tabatha's pussy willow poem with a quick notice about her Winter Poetry Swap.

March Musings Day 31: A Sweet Ending

It is the last day of writing with the Two Writing Teachers community of reflective writers during the March Slice of Life Story Challenge. I started the journey by creating. and connecting with new slicers or friends whom  I've written alongside for years in artful ways. 

Writing is a practice of the heart on a journey of self-discovery. It "brings us back to the uniqueness of our minds and an acceptance of it." (Natalie Goldberg)

31 Days of Writing

Waking very early,

connecting with my thoughts:

scattered singed ashes,

dazzling winter greetings,

namaste, quietness, and the big bad wolf.

International Women's Day passes.

I breathe in Grandma love

trying to make sense of the nature of March.

Snowflakes dance and

nuggets of thoughts float along.

I write my day in six-word memoirs,

pause for right eye cataract surgery

and a few weeks of post-surgery.

The creative process continued

with a touch of green and baking.

I'm ready for the slicers' party

that welcomes springtime,

the shot of inspiration needed

to continue to write.

Late night thoughts surface

before the stroke of midnight.

I write new formats.

An ekphrastic dodoitsu evolves.

Winter in spring roars in.

I dream of capturing the 

sensitivity of the moment

in family pictures,

especially when birthdays are special.

A rambling autobiography

leads to soul-calming moments

and this sweet ending

to yet another month of daily writing.

©CV, 2022

Note

The above index poem catalogs my past month of daily writing for the Two Writing Teachers 2022 Annual Slice of Life Story Challenge. You can click on the words in green to link to my daily slices at my website, Beyond LiteracyLink. 

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What's Up Next?

Since writing is a journey of the mind and heart, I will continue to write poetry throughout April, National Poetry Month, and as a priority, unveil my Winter's Embrace Gallery of Artistic Expressions. Each creation will focus on capturing the "humanity of the moment" in photos as stated by photographer Robert Frank.

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Thank you poet-teacher, Heidi Mordhorst for hosting Poetry Friday. I am heading over to see what poetic goodness she has for April 1st. 

Thank you Two Writing Teachers for this daily meeting place to connect with a community of reflective writers and thank you Amy Ellerman on behalf of Two Writing Teachers for your congratulatory send-off on this last day of the 15th Annual Slice of Life Story Challenge. 

Readers, thank you for joining me at my March Musings 2022 this year.

I appreciate your comments and commitment to writing.

It's been a wonderful experience exchanging slices with you.

Summer Evening Recollection

When the Poetry Sisters add a challenge to the Poetry Friday Roundup, it is fun to try out a new move. Today their theme is hindsight and the directions read: "Pick one of your old poems to revise and/or write a new poem in conversation with it...(any form)." 

Thinking of a recent trip to Jones Beach, I reflected on how the darkness of evening could immerse the shoreline in stardust.  Since no one can linger on the boardwalk past 8 pm, I could only imagine the effect. In a serendipitous moment,  I found a scratchings of a could be a poem from 2019:

reflecting on

nature holding court 

in its sanctuary 

of stillness becomes

an early writer's recollection

(I am not sure what I was thinking of by inserting the word early.)

The above thought moved me to write a last line, lit by fireflies, but then, I made another decision.  In my latest blog post, I photographed an empty bench and Rose Cappelli commented. "I especially loved the image of the empty boardwalk bench. I think that could be a photo that needs a poem." With that I decided to transform the poem and photo into an image poem illuminating what a starlit night might look like at the historic Jones Beach on Long Island.  You can see the finished product below.

I chose a poetic form, 15 words or less poem, that Laura Purdie Salas, one of the Poetry Sisters, has used many times to prompt writers to create.  This exercise made me wonder what I had in mind last year when I penned my original thoughts and tucked them in my notebook.  Does nature change our perception of an event after it has happened or make us understand its ever-present magic when reflecting?

Now, I am off to join Heidi Mordhorst, poet, teacher of little ones, and climate activist, who is the Poetry Friday Roundup host for this week.  She is sharing news of a California shoe strike that symbolized a unique protest against climate change and showcases an original poem, Back to School with memories of 2001.  The end of the year is going to be one filled with many different emotions and this is why I need to bring positivity into focus and add poems that bring a sense of tranquility to my busy days.

Note:

With summer around the globe estranged in many ways due to COVID-19, I am gathering a collection of image poems for my #EmbraceableSummer Gallery Collection.  If so inclined, join in the fun of creating image poems on the topic, Summer 2020 in the Midst of Quarantine Life. I am hosting Poetry Friday at my blog on September 4, 2020 where I will share creative work to showcase the beauty of summer even during trying times.  My image poem above is an example of what you might try if you are inclined to use digital art to convey your message.