Slowing Down

Fireflies, summer's magical fairies, are flitting to and fro on humid, summer evenings here on Long Island. I notice their quick bursts of lights blinking in the darkness reminding me of children in search of wonder. Like the children catching fireflies, I search for wonder and notice that is all around me. 

For the first Poem Swap created by Tabitha Yeatts, Jone MacCulloch shares some of her creative spirit with me as she reminds me that summer is a time to slow down. I am definitely in the mood for that, especially since my house has been a revolving door of service repair people and contractors.

Thank you, Jone, for the poetry postcard that combines your artistic talents and graces my desk area. Your words provide me with much to ponder during the hot, humid summer of 2016.

Poetic voice is present in nature, the seasons, and within our hearts. I wait for each evening that the fireflies light up the darkness.

For all my poetry friends, I thank you for continuing to inspire me to wonder. Spring's Seeds Gallery has been released. You can access it here. I am already envisioning my new seasonal venture, Summerscapes, and hope you join me in search of relaxing summer moments to slow down time. 

Now, it is time to visit my poet friend, Mary Lee Hahn at a Year of Reading to catch up on all of the Poetry Friday postings. Please join me.

 

Poetry Friday Round-up at My Garden

Poetry is full of vibrancy, emotion, and life's thoughts, 
fed by the waters of creativity.
Poetry is alive this season, 
like my spring gardens that are blooming. 

Poetry is the splashing of writers' words across a page
and readers' wonderings of those written words.

Poetry is honored by springtime each year.
I celebrate the power of poetry for it brings voice to the world! 

Reminder to those who are intending to send me #imagepoems, digital inspirations, quotes, or spring music videos for my spring gallery, Spring's Seeds:  I am currently in the design process so I am beginning to gather and sort through the offerings now.

To advertise the unveiling of my Spring's Seeds Gallery, I created an iMovie of amazing photographs that colleagues sent from around the world. Join me now to take an inspirational global journey showcasing nature's finest efforts to renew life.

I extend my thanks to my colleagues who sent in photographs of springtime
from the United States, Saskatchewan, Spain, Estonia, Uganda, and Australia.

I am honored to have J. Patrick Lewis, an esteemed poet, the former U.S. Children's Poet Laureate (2011-2013), winner of the NCTE 2011 Excellence in Children's Poetry Award, and one of my favorite writers, featured at my different poetry galleries and here today at Poetry Friday. After several email conversations, Pat sent me his thoughts on what poetry is, along with his offerings for the spring gallery.

Below you will find Pat's poem, Poetry Is..., that he wrote some time ago. I believe it is a wonderful showcasing piece for the Poetry Friday Round-up today. For my spring gallery, Pat said I could choose some pithy lines from his poem for a quote. "A blind date with enchantment" is one of the lines that resonates with me. It is filled with wonder, just like the season of spring. I may not know what to expect of spring each day but I am open to its delight no matter what it offers. Pat has opened my eyes to an array of amazing images that pop out of his poems, starting with the one below.

Let's welcome Pat to Poetry Friday and stay tuned for the unveiling of Spring's Seeds Gallery where you will Pat's poems and some of the Poetry Friday writers' as well.

J. Patrick Lewis at NCTE 14

Poetry Is…

by J. Patrick Lewis

the tunnel at the end of the light.

commotion in the left field stanzas.

frosted fire.

the great flywheel of metaphor.

prose, bent out of shape.

the idiom of the djinns.

experience’s armor against oblivion.

the midwife at the birth of the alphabet.

perfect verbs hunting elusive nouns.

an antidote for the adjective-itis.

words on a busman’s holiday. 

a ladder to the castle in the air.

a blind date with enchantment.

the sound of silence…amplified.

You can also access other delightful poems by Pat at Spring's Seeds when I unveil the gallery. I thank Pat, for providing the world with his inspiring voice and always supporting my efforts. 

At Poetry Friday today you will be treated to a potpourri of poetry entries. They will sprout and spread as writers write and readers read. Enjoy each fragrant delight in my Poetry Friday Round-up garden and stay tuned for the unveiling of my virtual garden, Spring's Seeds.

Please add your Poetry Friday link-up below using the digital tool, Mr. Linky.

Celebrating with Friends

When life comes 

a calling with celebrations, 

what do you do?

You

THANK GOD.

You

SMILE.

You

SHARE.

You

CONTINUE TO

BELIEVE.

Last Sunday, I celebrated the bridal shower of a framily member whom I watched grow up since she was a baby. I was also fortunate enough to help decorate for the event.

On Tuesday, I was interviewed by Larry Jacobs of Education Talk Radio on my perspective of the upcoming International Literacy Association's 2016 Conference. You can read about that wonderful experience here. 

During the week, I noticed, wondered, created digital compositions and image poems, and wrote blogs and poetry in between shopping for additional plants for my gardens. 

*New Celebration Added: I celebrate poet friends who are keen on finding the right accreditation for images. When I found the above vintage piece of artwork, I did not have the name of the artist. On the internet it is listed as Norman Rockwell but Michelle H. Barnes thought it was not. Since the poem was being placed in her persona poem collection for Today's Little Ditty Challenge, she decided to use the label, vintage painting, artist unknown. Diane Mayr, librarian/poet, solved the mystery. The artist is Jack Welch, an illustrator for The Saturday Evening Post. The artwork is actually a 1946 ad for Air Lines of The United States.

All week long, I enjoyed corresponding with colleagues who were sending in their offerings for my upcoming spring gallery, Spring's Seeds. If you go to #SpringsSeeds on Twitter, you can start to see my growing virtual garden of poetry blossoms.

It was a full week of celebrating and now there is more celebrating to do with the start of the Memorial Day Weekend. 

Remember, "The more you praise and celebrate your life, the more there is to celebrate."

Please visit Ruth Ayres at Celebrate This Week, a place where weekly celebrations are posted by the blogging community. 

Refresh!

The time is right, I thought this morning. My garden needs refreshing. After all, it is spring or so I thought as I donned my winter jacket. A chill was in the air  but I was determined to put the plants I purchased in the ground and so the design process began. As I worked, I reflected on the topic, refresh, that Margaret Simon asked the Digilit Sunday blogging community to consider.

Since the day was spent in the endeavor of creating my meditation garden, today I am in replay mode, thinking of ways to reconnect with nature and life, even though it is still very cool outside.

On #CelebrateMonday, a Twitter site started by a colleague Sean Gaillard to accentuate the positives, I ask my readers to think about what spring offers. It is a pathway to renewing, refreshing our thoughts and actions. In springtime, we can gather, sit, and wait for inspiration and then act with positivity to finish the days strong until the summer months come upon us. 

"Spring is in the air" in our minds and hearts even though the weather here on Long Island says differently. If you travel over to one of my previous blogs, you will hear the short ditty song, Spring is in the Air, I created. The link up is here. 

So on this #CelebrateMonday, replay last week's moments to start this week off strong. 

Don't forget to link-up with Digilit Sunday here to read other blogger's thoughts on the topic, refresh. 

Perhaps you would like to see what is blooming in my virtual garden. Travel to the Twitter hashtag, #SpringsSeeds, to view the new blossoms that keep popping up for my spring online gallery, Spring's Seeds.

Curves

Creative arts have always intrigued me but seeing life through a lens has challenged me. My digital art work pathway started when I was in college. The path curved from then to now, allowing a growing appreciation of the photographer's perspective. Throughout my educational career from teacher to administrator to consultant, I have always sought creativity as an outlet to inspire others. I learned that through the lens we can develop a keen eye. Observation leads to inquiry. From there the path opens to a world of wonder where voice has the opportunity to allow us to dig deeper, showcasing the murmurings of the heart. 

Paths curve throughout life. There is usually never a straight road to follow. We meet detours and new directions along the path. Curves allow us to follow the bends, to develop an openness that may not be within the boundaries. It is a bit off the beaten path at times but in its bends we grow as learners of life. Missteps may occur but do not deter us from our journey. We may not see the light beyond the curve at first. Sometimes, we need to retrace our steps to find the right path. All the meanderings and curves along the way build stamina, character, and perseverance.  

Because creativity and voice are imperative in this world of changing perspectives, I design online galleries to explore digital literacy in its various formats. The power of voice captures varying perspectives on nature and inspiration. With a photographer's eye, an artist's renderings, and a poet's love of words and feelings, a new gallery, Spring's Seeds, will evolve connecting the arts, technology, and poetry. Perhaps, a few curves will be showcased. 

This season as seeds of springtime joy spread, a garden of poetry will develop. My passions for creative writing and photography have spurred me on to encourage others, especially students, to find their voices through artistic expressions. Creation of digital inspirations, thoughtful compositions of original art work or photography embedded with poetic thoughts, synthesize the experience of viewing life through a lens on paper. Sharing the digital work is equally as important as creating it for in the shared experience, the individual voice blends with others to form a collective chorus of positivity for mankind. 

Curves are everywhere. It is with keen observation skills that we can view the curves as insights into life to allow for flexibility, new perspectives, and positive thinking. 

This topic for this post is written at the suggestion of Margaret Simon for Digilit Sunday. It also is dedicated to the Two Writing Teachers for a Slice of Life posting. 

Gears in Motion

When a advertisers are ready to introduce a product, they need to create interest with a selective audience. Design and appeal are factors to consider in rolling out the campaign. In the initial stages, information is imported allowing gears to turn and creativity to flow. Remember the creative team in Mad Men and how they spent time deliberating? Brainstorming ideas created a bank of input /data. 

Each time I create a new campaign for my seasonal galleries, I mull over the ideas for weeks, searching for fresh and engaging visuals and thoughts to move creativity forward. When the creative spirit jump-starts the engine of my mind, flow occurs. The end result is a draft of ideas that I review and spend time refining. 

Thinking back on the process for my upcoming gallery, I allowed nature to lead the way. I noticed, observed, and found details on my walks that allowed my gears to turn. While on those walks at the preserve and my neighborhood, I gathered natural objects that I found to create a design. The fun began when I placed all the objects on my work table. Ideas started popping up. With glue gun in hand, I started the process of layering the objects to create my visual design. With the house quiet and only the pitter patter of the rain seeping through, I was lost in thought and design. The outdoors moved closer to me as I created and there it was in front of me. A seed of an idea blossomed into a brightly colored visual representative of springtime beauty. 

Nature, scraps of material, and snippets of artificial flowers provided the raw materials, creativity the spark, and perseverance the tool that led me onward to a finished product worthy to stand alone as an advertisement. 

What function does this ornamental design serve? It not only shows that creativity comes from whatever sparks your passion but that you do not need lots of money to bring an idea to fruition. My Do It Yourself design serves as a representation of nature's gift to us. From this creation, I wove the words to introduce my newest writing challenge for Spring's Seeds Gallery that can be accessed here. 

While this has been a roundabout process for addressing DigiLit Sunday's call to discuss function and my late entry, I had fun thinking through the design for my upcoming spring gallery and new hashtag site, #SpringsSeeds. My hope is that an inspired garden of poetry will blossom by the end of May. Please visit Margaret Simon's blog to read other's thoughts on the topic of function. 

Salute to Spring

While our spring weather seems to be out of touch with Long Island's spring frame of mind, the time is right for an end of National Month Poetry celebration of springtime joy. 

I created the following poem last spring, but since it is Arbor Day

I wanted to share my beautiful Willow Tree Hakura as a digital inspiration.

Happy Arbor Day!

I designed the following image poem in response to Charles Waters' post on the creation of a "new poetry form," the Chisana uta, which means "tiny poem" in Japanese. I like the term tiny poem that is a 3 line poem using the 7-7-5 syllable form.

You can access Charles' post on the Chisana uta/tanshi form here. Below is the poem he created. 

I loved Charles' tiny poem so much that I asked him if I could place it in my upcoming Spring's Seeds Gallery. To honor Charles' words, I was inspired to transform his original poem into an image poem. I am awaiting a thought from the poet on whether the composition I created fits his poetic style. 

While I created a hashtag on Twitter, #SpringsSeeds, to hold the digital inspirations / #imagepoems that have been coming in already, I have not sent out an official invitation. That will follow shortly. The digital poems that are displayed on the site so far are from the following writers:

Kumud Ajmani

Debbie Diller

Kevin Hodgson

Fred Harwood

Irene Latham

Janet Wong

Leia Cator offered a photograph for the Photo Corner of the upcoming gallery and Mark Weston offered a digital quote image. Other writers have sent in their offerings but they are not at #SpringsSeeds yet. 

In tribute to spring, I bid April good by with a little ditty tune that I created with the app, Ditty. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQoDRd39W5g

My offering for Poetry Friday is late since it is now moving into Saturday but it will still be placed at the Poetry Round-Up being hosted by poet, Buffy Silverman. Buffy, our hostess, has beautiful close-up photos of a toad with an accompanying poem, Toad's Swampy Serenade, at Buffy's Blog. Please visit Poetry Friday and be amazed by Buffy's work.