Showing posts with label Jan Godown Annino. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jan Godown Annino. Show all posts

Monday, July 8, 2024

Fourth of July Weekend

"The Fourth of July should be celebrated with big hearts." - Camila Alves

family gathers
America celebrates
sparkles for freedom
©CVarsalona, 2024, haiku
 Fourth of July 2024

bursts reverberate
crowd cheers at dazzling sky show

noise scares little baby
until a family shares glow sticks
big hearts joyfully celebrate with one-year-old
©CVarsalona, 2024, cherita

Besides the fireworks, the family weekend was filled with other fun events:
  • my son's first gig as a standup comedian at a Fourth of July event
  • our little grandgirls enjoy the community pool and an indoor picnic
  • an afternoon trip to Middleburg, Virginia for lunch and ice cream with
  • both sets of grandparents

Now that the weekend is over, I send my Poetry Friday blog to my Floridian friend, Jan Godown Annino, who hosted the post 4th of July Roundup this weekend. She offers an interesting watermelon image from the Monticello, Florida watermelon parade, a link to the PBS 4th of July celebration, and poetry goodness from many Poetry Friday friends. Join me to celebrate with Jan at her blog Bookseedstudio.

SPARKLE ON with Poetry!

Thursday, July 27, 2023

Hold Summer In Your Hand

As the summer heat continues, air-conditioned living is a must. Yesterday, I entered a large store and was surprised that the air conditioning system was not working properly. It is difficult for staff to work all day in these conditions. Air conditioning is a mood booster that most people are used to but it was not always this way. With a positive look at summer life, I offer a quote shared by Linda Baie"Hold summer in your hand, pour summer in a glass, a tiny glass of course, the smallest tingling sip for children; change the season in your veins by raising a glass to lip and tilting summer in." -Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury 

I am tilting summer in with The Poetry Sisters whose challenge this month is to write a poem in the form of monotetra and tag it with the label, #PoetryPals. You can learn more about it at Writer's Digest

I never tried writing a monotetra before so this challenge has been more challenging than I thought. The heat has been on my mind, the bounty of the flowers, and the urgency of watering. Besides that, I am participating in the summer poem swaps. These ideas found a way into my poem along with some inspiration I need.

hydrangea's summer blush smiles
underneath heated, cloudy piles 
waiting for rainy-day lifestyles
let go of trials, let go of trials

find beauty in the crystal drops
that flip-flop across, settle, and plop
breathe in summer's sweetened swaps
share peaceful ops, share peaceful ops
©CVarsalona, 2023, draft

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Image Poem

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Jan Godown Annino is the host of Poetry Friday this week. Click here to find a wonderful assortment of summer information on books, poetry, and poetic goodness. Enjoy all that she offers from Florida. (Stay cool, Jan!)

Friday, July 8, 2022

Fourth of July 2022 Memories

The 4th of July is always a festive event. Baking, enjoying time with family, having barbecues, and watching fireworks are traditional expectations. This year brought another set of photos and great memories. 

cook ready
hands steady
picnic treats
frosted sweets
outdoor fun
children run
flags waving
songs playing
evening sky
Fourth of July
cheers, applauding
sparklers soaring
celebration
our proud nation
©CVarsalona, 2022

The above poem was written after reading Fran Haraway's poem, The Fourth of July Parade.

The Fourth of July Parade

Stripes and stars,
Antique cars,
Pretty girls,
Baton twirls,
Spangled gowns,
Friendly clowns,
Smiling folks,
Papered spokes,

You can read the rest of the short poem at the Poetry Foundation.

🎆🎆🎆

The following poem was written for Slice of Life Tuesday at Two Writing Teachers. My blog post, Firework Magic, shares more digitized photos of Fireworks 2022 in Reston Virginia.

dazzling fireworks
dart into evening sky
pop, whizz, sizzle
like popcorn kernels bursting
showstopper entertainment
©CVarsalona, 2022

🎆🎆🎆

It is time to join Jan Godown Annino, this week's Poetry Friday host at her blog, Bookseed Studio. Jan is showcasing author Linda Sue Park's book, Tap Dancing on the Roof SIGO (Poems). Jan is also sharing her own sijo poems that include good twister lines. Enjoy the poetic goodness that can be found in the Poetry Friday Roundup.

Friday, January 29, 2021

Creativity Sparks and Connections

Brene Brown says, "Creativity is the way I share my soul with the world." As a writer, I certainly agree with this thought. Creativity is my spark, illuminated by desire and passion that begins a new thought, idea, or project. It is my venture into the unknown, a design that takes shapes into a digital inspiration. It is often art with a dash of technology that lifts my sparks to finished pieces.

Join me as I share various creativity sparks and connections with fellow creative friends that brought joy this week.


Poetry Postcards:
Poetic goodness arrives with a new group of postcards. The creativity of three poetry friends, Linda Baie, Robyn Hood Black, and Becky Herzog, brings sunshine in winter with special artistic messages for a bright new year.

Becky Herzog shares a musical theme to ring in the new year.
Linda Baie welcomes the new year with an inspirational image poem,
One leaf drops..., and a quote by Rilke.
Robyn Hood Black offers a poem from a different era with one of her current haikus.

Sanctuary of Thought:
Once again, I present One Word 2021 Sanctuary of Thought slide share and padlet. Participants of #SlowK12ArtChat offer their #oneword artistic expressions for silent reflection.


Poetry Note Card:
Carving silent space is essential for mindful practice. In the stillness, I mix different fonts and sizes with thoughts and images to create a poem of reflective action.

Rest assured
your sanctuary 
inspires
rejuvenation.
Pause.
Gather
in creative spaces.
Reflect!
©CV, 2021


🍥
Poetry Friday:
Jan Godown Annino hosts Poetry Friday this week at her blog, Bookseedstudio. Jan's one word 2021 is Sing and she is singing with joy throughout her post today.

Storm brewing.
Winter wish:
Fill your day with cozycalm,
Mindful practice.
©CV, 2021

Thursday, July 16, 2020

Clunker Line Poem

There are three questions that I have been reflecting upon lately. I throw these questions out to everyone to hear how you feel.
  1. Do you feel that your "Quarantine Life" is in overdrive? 
  2. Is there tension in the air in your household? 
  3. Do you need a reminder to stay positive?
I created a poem, Tension in the Air,  from a list of clunker lines that my librarian-poet friend, Linda Mitchell provided at her blog site, A Word Edgewise. I chose #13, Sounds of the pandemic and #15, a script we know by heart

Tension in the Air 
   screams of quarantine boredom
   slice through a silent house
   cabin fever woes rise
   too-hot-to-handle heat sizzles
   drenching drip-drops rain down
   pandemic sounds RAGE-
   as a script many now know by heart
         How can we end the maddening sounds?
                                                                                                 ©CVarsalona, 2020

Then, I transformed my poem into a Lumen 5 video poem using the title from the music the site provided that fit well as a title, Tension in the Air.


Now, it is my pleasure to give Linda a couple of unfinished lines to play with: "relentless seeker of life", "golden beam of luminous lightand "rainsoaked blossoms".


Since it is a hot summer day, I decided to bring an ice cream float to surprise my poet friend, Jan Godown Annino who is hosting Poetry Friday at Bookseed Studio. Check out her original poem Float as she reminisces about her mother.
I am adding the link to Spiritual Journey Thursday where I am hosting. You will find more poetic goodness written by Poetry Friday friends there. Feel free to write a post on balancing your days or the word balance. 

Thursday, October 4, 2018

Morning Message

Last week when I was in Fort Lauderdale to present, "Get Your Wonder On," at the National Center for Families Learning Conference, I experienced a natural wonder, a gorgeous morning surnrise. 

When I woke for beach yoga, there was a pitch-black darkness settling over the ocean. I chuckled, "How will I ever see make my way to the shoreline for beach yoga?" Upon entering an empty lobby, I approached the front desk attendant who replied to my line of questioning. 
"Follow the group to the beach." 
"But how will I see in the dark?"

Surprising enough, others felt the same way. I was not alone. The greeter at the top of the beach stairway understood our dilemma and provided us with glow bracelets to light the way. "We want to be able to see each one of you in the dark." As we descended the stairway to reach the beach, our glow bracelets glistened as we made our way to the yoga teacher, Lisa Pumper, who greeted us with a positive, calm spirit and grace. 

We began the class facing the moon and then, midstream the sun started to rise. At the end of class, Lyn DuBois, a conference attendee whom I met previously, and I engaged in a series of partner poses guided by Lisa. In the midst of the poses, I fell backward and laughed. Determined to keep my balance in the sinking sand, I popped back up. Lyn graciously supported me in a "beyond my comfort zone" pose. This reminded me that we need each other to support us through life.

I recall the sunrise that took my breathe away, a practice that was full of inspiration, and a morning message to carry serenity off the mat into my day.



We all know that life has twists and turns that can be challenging but starting your morning with a chuckle or engaging others in laughter is one way to positively greet each day. At each day of beach yoga, I positively filled my morning with inspiring messages and now wish to send additional ones your way.




May you start each day with a smile, a sense of humor, and a glorious sunrise.
We all need to let some sunshine into our daily lives.

"A good laugh is a mighty good thing, a rather too scarce a good thing."
Herman Melville

Enjoy this compilation of comedy sketches from the Lucille Ball Show and start your day off positively.


Today is Spiritual Journey First Thursday and our amazing host, Jan Godown Annino, is ready with her Gandalf-type walking stick to spark some magic on her topic, "Humor". Jan, I hope Lucille Ball, warms your senses up for a good laugh. 

  

Thursday, January 11, 2018

Special Mail Delivery

Oh my, where does my time go! I need my 2018 one word hope to rescue me because I am always a "day late and a dollar short". Time management seems to be on my immediate list of improvements for this year.

When I received a package in the mail from Linda Mitchell, I was perplexed. I know that I missed the Winter Poetry Swap that Tabatha Yeats initiated and I was not sure if I had the instructions for Jone MacCulloch's Poetry Postcard Exchange so Linda's package was a wonderful surprise. 


Her swap centers around the theme of journey and travel. The map in the background was of Italy. Little did Linda know that Italy has been a long-standing dream place to travel to with my family so how serendipitous this is! Maybe my #oneword2018 will fulfill my wish at some time in the future. For the present, Google Maps and Waze are doing a wonderful job of getting me from Long Island to Reston, Virginia for my awaited visits with my granbaby. 

Getting back to the map poem -- another interesting point about the map theme is that Linda lives in Virginia and I plan to map out how far her home is from my daughter's. Perhaps, there will be a meet-up in the summer when I am in Virginia.

Now, I am ready to take a closer look at what was sent in the package. Linda's postcards remind me of the early 20th century cards etched on wood. They are durable. They have corner tabs as were common in the 1940s-50s. 

The above poem is informative and pairs well with the one below that starts of with 
"A map is a hand held journey--
beatific links between 
star points of some galaxy of thought, word, or action."

Ah, reading that opening put me in a happy state which may have been the point. While the next few lines bring me back to reality with an informational piece, the words "heart held" and the ending words, "between hearts", took me back to a wondering state of bliss. 


I thank Linda for her craft project and research that produced two interesting poems that filled my heart with joy. I am now hoping for a year of wonder-filled travels wherever they may be. 

I'm sending Linda a special wish for a summer meet-up:
To see the animated version of this Buncee go togoo.gl/WhZn8L.

It is Poetry Friday time and  my colleague, Jan at Bookseedstudio, is hosting. I am off to see what she has in store for the poetry roundup.

The January thaw is melting our snow
but there may another storm on its way.

Tuesday, February 23, 2016

Noticing and Wondering

Did you know that there is a long underground tunnel connecting the U.S. Capitol Building with the Library of Congress? When I visited my daughter in Washington, D.C. my family walked through the tunnel but I never saw this mail cart in the hallways. Jan Godown Annino did and submitted the following photo for Laura Shovan's Found Object Poem Project. Jan is hosting the project today at Bookseed Studio.

Laura Shovan's #foundobjectpoem Day 23
submitted by Jan Goodwin Annino

The first draft poem below is based on a bit of research. Since I did not have a chance to visit the building, I searched for information on the Library of Congress before writing. 

Rolling, rolling, rolling down the hallway.
A long tunnel I travel
to sort the mail-
millions of copies of
books,
recordings,
photographs,
maps, 
and manuscripts
fill the
Library of Congress,
my prestigious home.
An important job I have.
Take a peek.
I'm full today.
©CVarsalona, 2016 

Images convey meaning but sometimes we need background information to create a piece of writing. Providing students with several unfamiliar photographs allows them to not only notice the details but wonder about them. Wonder leads to inquiry and inquiry leads to writing. Voice  is the medium that enriches the writing and engages the reader. What excitement there is in allowing students to find their voice through the written word.