Weathered Conversations

Are there some topics that are not for family discussions? Perhaps, they belong in a debate forum or are kept for like-minded individuals. In my house, there is one topic that becomes a heated conversation every time the news or a political event is viewed. It rises like storms. Needless to say, as far as I am concerned, some conversations are part of a great divide.

While planning to join Taylor Mali's Golden Die Contest + Anthology challenge, I searched all over my house for my Metaphor Dice kit that I purchased from Taylor Mali at an NCTE Convention several years ago. It was hard to believe that I have been in the new build for a year and I still cannot find some items. (Cluttered boxes are still scattered around.) In order to play along with Taylor Mali and my poetry friends, I needed to find a substitute for my dice. I uploaded the app and then found the official list of words for the contest. In case you are not familiar with Taylor's writing tool, he states that his metaphor dice "randomly group CONCEPTS, ADJECTIVES, and OBJECTS together to form metaphors and similies worthy of consideration and exploration." My choices for a metaphor poem were politics (concept), looming (adjective), and tsunami (object). I stretched my thoughts about politics within my house to deal with the world. 

Each month, I follow and join the Poetry Sisters' challenge under the hashtag, #PoetryPals. This month's challenge was to write poems in imitation of Taylor Mali. Since my mind was thinking in terms of shorter poems, not longer ones like Taylor writes, I created an image poem. The skinny poem was not one that I submitted to the contest. 

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Thank you to Janet Fagal, for chairing a Zoom workshop with Taylor Mali and emailing me about the Metaphor Dice poetry contest. 

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It's Slice of Life Tuesday so I am heading over to Two Writing Teachers to celebrate writing with a reflective community of writers.

Slicers, there is still time to add your image poem to my Poetryliscious Gallery here.

Roll the Dice-Create a Poem

Recollecting how intrigued I was at the NCTE Conference with Taylor Mali's demonstration of his Metaphor Dice, I decided to enjoy some #quarentainment fun today. After all, it was a rain-sweeping, wind-howling day and I needed a bit of inspiration. I gently shook my dice so that they would fall gracefully on my desk. The word hope popped out and became the central concept for today's National Poetry Month poem-of-the-day. 

I liked the idea that hope is a gentle songbird so I decided to turn this metaphor into a poem of hope. Since the rain was pelting down and the trees were swaying with vigor, the birds were not singing their songs. Luckily, FotoJet has a library of beautiful photos to use. I chose the photo that inspired me and created a digital inspiration for my #NatureNurtures2020 Gallery of Artistic Expressions. Not only has this poem been added to the collection under the hashtag noted above, but it is showcased at my Nature Nurtures! Padlet. You can find many other digital inspirations on the padlet. Please consider creating your own image poem for the collection. The invitation can be accessed here.