Poetry Sisters Write In the Style of Lucille Clifton

This month the challenge was to write a poem inspired by four Lucille Clifton notes to Clark Kent. Our theme for the year is "in conversation," so this was a terrific mentor poem for talking to someone. I haven't written much lately because I'm finding it hard to put pen to paper in these strange and challenging times we are living in. Because of this, I decided to take on the #100dayproject and am creating some type of small artwork each day. It's been a good way to quiet my mind and nerves. While most participants work on one project for 100 days, I follow a different creative prompt every week. You can check them out on my Instagram. 

I wasn't sure how to approach this poem or who to address my notes to. I toyed with writing to another comic book or mythological character (Thor, Spiderman, Batman, Zeus), but none of those sparked anything of interest. Since I can't seem to get politics off my mind, I thought I would try writing notes to a president. I tried writing to JFK and FDR, but finally settled on our 16th president. Here's my poem. 

four notes to abraham lincoln
     after four Lucille Clifton notes to Clark Kent

they call you honest
like it is easy to be
like the truth won’t split you
worse than an axe
but i have seen the weight of it
hunched in your shoulders

another note to lincoln
you wrote freedom down
penned it clean
sent it marching into history
but the confederacy would not yield
your paper trembled
before the ink dried

a final note to lincoln
they had it wrong
they say you held our country together
stitched it with your hands
bled for it in words
but i see it breaking
the torn places
the ones that never healed

a note to mary todd
you prayed over his body still
your house in mourning
while a nation watched
today, i see his face on pennies
heads up
waiting for luck

Poem ©Tricia Stohr-Hunt, 2025. All rights reserved.

You can read the poems my Poetry Sisters have written at the links below. 

• Tanita Davis
• Mary Lee Hahn
• Sara Lewis Holmes
• Laura Purdie Salas
• Liz Garton Scanlon

Would you like to try the next challenge? We're writing ekphrastic poems to vintage photographs. Are you in? Good! You’ve got a month to craft your creation(s), then share your offering with the rest of us on April 25th in a post and/or on social media with the tag #PoetryPals. We look forward to reading your poems! 

I do hope you'll take some time to check out all the wonderful poetic things being shared and collected today by Marcie Flinchum Atkins.

On another note, National Poetry Month is just around the corner. I generally tackle some themed poetry project during this time. You can learn more about all my previous projects here. Inspired by the article 20+ Different (& Wild!) Poetry Forms for Inspiration, I've decided to write to different (and unusual) forms. I can't wait to share a month of poems with you.

Happy poetry Friday, all!

Poetry Sisters Write Wordplay Poems

The challenge this month was to write a wordplay poem. This challenge is based on one offered up by Nikki Grimes in May 2015 at Today's Little Ditty. Here's an excerpt:

When I first began to write poetry at age six, it was the result of wordplay.  So try this wordplay exercise and create your own free verse poem.

When I talk about wordplay, I'm talking about studying a word from top to bottom, and inside out, considering every aspect of the word:  What it looks like, sounds like, feels like.  What it does, how it's used, etc.  The idea is to bring all of your senses into the act.  The poem you create may end up being complex and sophisticated, or very simple.  But whether you're writing a nursery rhyme, or a complex prose poem for adults, wordplay is a valuable skill in the process of creating dynamic, original, poetry, or lyrical prose.

Since our theme this year is "In conversation," we were encouraged to choose a related word. Here's my first attempt at this.

Whisper 

Whisper is a
hushed word
a shhhhhhhhhh
between the library stacks
and in church pews

Whisper is a
heart pounding word
finger pressed to lips
hold your breath
so you can't be
discovered
(but it's just an
active shooter drill)

Whisper is an
intimate word
forehead to forehead
nose to nose
lips to ear
sharing hearts and
secrets

Poem ©Tricia Stohr-Hunt, 2025. All rights reserved.

You can read the pieces written by my Poetry Sisters at the links below. 

• Tanita Davis
• Mary Lee Hahn
• Sara Lewis Holmes
• Laura Purdie Salas
• Liz Garton Scanlon

Would you like to try the next challenge? We're writing poems inspired by four Lucille Clifton notes to Clark Kent - Are you in? Good! You’ve got a month to craft your creation(s), then share your offering with the rest of us on March 28th in a post and/or on social media with the tag #PoetryPals. We look forward to reading your poems! 

I do hope you'll take some time to check out all the wonderful poetic things being shared and collected today by Denise Krebs at Dare to Care. Happy Poetry Friday, friends!

Awesome Earth - Talking with Joan Bransfield Graham

I have been a science nerd and teacher of science for a very long time. Earth science was one of my favorite classes to teach. In middle school, I often wrote poems (bad ones, generally) for my students as an introduction to scientific ideas. There was a lot of nature poetry then, but not much about Earth's form and structures. I can count on one hand the number of titles since then that have made it to my bookshelf. I'm happy to report that this sad situation has been remedied with the release of Joan Bransfield Graham's new book AWESOME EARTH. A terrific addition to her collection of concrete poetry titles, SPLISH SPLASH and FLICKER FLASH, AWESOME EARTH celebrates landforms and the processes that shape the earth's surface. In fact, the subtitle for the book is "Concrete poems celebrate caves, canyons, and other fascinating landforms." 

The first poem, "Fantastic Forces," describes the earth's surface as ever-changing. After this, readers will find poems about continents, mountains, deserts, islands, volcanoes, and more. There is helpful back matter in the book that describes more about each landform. Readers will also find a glossary of terms and additional resources to explore. One of the things I love about studying landforms is how much fun so many of the words are to say: archipelago, peninsula, hoodoo. You'll find all of these in this volume.

The artwork of Tania García pairs beautifully with Joan's poems. The artist used digital techniques combined with handmade ink textures created from sponges, scourers, old brushes, wrinkled plastics, and old eyelash mascaras to create digital illustrations for the book. You can see these beautiful textures in the mountain and metamorphic rock poems.

I have so many favorites in this volume, but if I had to pick one or two, it would be the poems Stalactites and Stalagmites. I used to teach students that stalactites (with a C) form from the ceiling, while stalagmites (with a G) form from the ground. Most students only remembered the difference about half the time. This pair of poems will go a long way to helping students see and understand the difference between them. 

As someone who works with teachers and kids, I see many opportunities for sharing this book in the classroom. I don't know if any of you read the LOC CIP data on the publication page, but I'm often surprised by what I find there. While it lists the audience for this book as ages 4-8 and grades preschool-3, I know these poems will be enjoyed by students through middle school. 

Joan kindly answered some burning questions I had for her. Here are her thoughts about AWESOME EARTH, her poetry writing process, and more.

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How does writing concrete poetry inspire and/or challenge you?

Joan: It adds another dimension to the poem, a visual aspect which can be fun. I am a very visual person, and I like to think outside the box or “create the box” that a poem lives in.  Teachers have told me my poems work well for their students who are acquiring English as they provide many clues to unlocking the words.

In writing concrete poetry, do the words or form come first? (Can you describe a bit about your process for writing a concrete poem?)

Joan: The words, what you are saying in the poem is always the most important consideration. If a shape can enhance that in any way—great; if it doesn’t, I don’t shape the poem. Actually, I once sold “audio” rights to a shape poem, and so I guess they liked what I had to say!  I’ll write things down first on paper and see if the poem can find its shape. If I think it might work as a concrete poem, I’ll type it on my computer, experiment with various fonts (which can make a big difference) and spacing, and, of course, I always use my Poetic License. 

In what ways do you think Awesome Earth complements Splish Splash and Flicker Flash?

Joan: The three books are about our natural world and our appreciation and understanding of it, and I think they look terrific together. The four Classical Elements are Earth, Air, Fire, and Water.  I’ve written and submitted a manuscript “Amazing Air” and am hoping it could make a set of four books:  Earth (AWESOME EARTH), Air (AMAZING AIR), Fire (FLICKER FLASH), and Water (SPLISH SPLASH).  What do you think?

Do you have favorite poetic forms to write in? What about those forms appeals to you?

Joan: Like Ryan O’Brian in my book THE POEM THAT WILL NOT END, I am enamored with ALL forms (I really enjoyed writing “Is There a Villain in Your Villanelle?” for Paul Janeczko’s A KICK IN THE HEAD) and the challenges they present, but I do appreciate the succinctness of haiku.  It seems to me, if you are writing fiction, you start with an idea which you spin out in many different directions.  With poetry, you make multiple observations and try to distill everything to its very essence.  Haiku appeals to me for its incredible economy and insight.  

Are there any poets or works of poetry that have mainly influenced your writing style or themes? How have they inspired you?

Joan: Besides reading poets’ books, I’ve enjoyed hearing them read their own work, and I’ve had an opportunity to do that on quite a few occasions. When I lived in Virginia near Washington, D.C., I went to a reading at the Library of Congress and heard many former U.S. Poet Laureates read. In California I met Marie Bullock, the delightful founder of The Academy of American Poets, at an amazing reading at the gorgeous Huntington Library. I’ve also heard Lucille Clifton, William Stafford, Joy Harjo with her sax, Mary Oliver, Edward Hirsch (How to Read a Poem and Fall in Love with Poetry), Seamus Heaney, and Billy Collins. 

How has your writing evolved over time? Can you discuss specific poems or collections that mark significant points in your development as a poet?

Joan: Taking Myra Cohn Livingston’s Master Class in Poetry at UCLA, I not only learned from her but from the other wonderful poets in the class. I’ve learned from joining SCBWI, from being in an excellent critique group, from doing School Visits and meeting my readers, and from writing poems for anthologies.  Also, my husband and I attended Toastmaster meetings and completed the training, which proved to be extremely useful. It’s one thing to express yourself on the page and quite another to speak in front of hundreds of people. I found it is important to refine both your craft and your communication skills.

What are you most looking forward to in launching this new book into the world?

Joan: I hope it brings readers joy, surprise, information and inspiration. May it widen the world for those who haven’t seen it yet, deepen their understanding that we all share this beautiful world and need to appreciate it, care for it. I’ll always remember the little boy who came up to me after one presentation and said, “That was the fun-est thing I’ve ever seen.  I’ve never seen a waterfall before.” There are many children in Los Angeles who have never seen the ocean, and we are so close.  Some schools take field trips to see this marvel. Our ever-changing Earth has been at work for centuries.  It is astonishing and deserves our awe, doesn’t it?

Would you like to share the details of any new poetry project(s) that you’re working on?

Joan: As I mentioned, I have a manuscript called AMAZING AIR.  Another project, THE LANGUAGE OF LIGHT, pairs my poetry and photography.  A WHISPER OF WINGS, bird poems, OUT OF THE PARK! and a few others.  

Thanks, Tricia, for being a teacher of teachers and recognizing the power of poetry!

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I had the pleasure of interviewing Joan in 2014 when THE POEM THAT WILL NOT END was released. I also interviewed her for a National Poetry Month series in 2009. You can read that interview at Poetry Makers - Joan Bransfield Graham.

AWESOME EARTH is a welcome addition to the world of science and children's poetry. I do hope you get a chance to enjoy it. If you haven't seen SPLISH SPLASH or FLICKER FLASH, now is a good time to check out all three titles!

Thanks so much to Joan for inviting me on this blog tour. You can check out the other stops on this blog/media tour at:

• Monday, Feb. 17-- Poetry for Children – Dr. Sylvia Vardell, Professor Emerita, Texas Woman's University, Past President of IBBY, author, and publisher.
  
  
• Tuesday, Feb. 18 – Georgia Heard, poet, educator, author, and inventor of Heart Maps ®, 2023 NCTE Excellence in Poetry for Children Award on Instagram and Facebook.
  
  
• Wednesday, Feb. 19-- Simply Seven Interviews with Jena Benton, Alaska SCBWI Illustrator Coordinator, author-illustrator, poet, teacher.
  
  
• Friday, Feb. 21-- Jama's Alphabet Soup — Jama Kim Rattigan, Virginia-based author, blogger, foodie, alphabet lover, picture book nerd.

Joan was kind enough to send a copy of AWESOME EARTH, which I'll send to one lucky winner. Please leave a comment to enter. 

Poetry Friday is Here!

Happy New Year, poetry people! I'm delighted to be hosting you this week.

I have been working on my cards for the New Year poetry postcard swap hosted by Jone Rush MacCulloch and pulled out my old Smith Corona. There's something magical about a typewriter.

Goofy, I know, but I love them. Sadly, my typewriter ran out of ink as I was typing my 8th postcard. My last three cards are on hold until a new ribbon is delivered.

In honor of the typewriter, I'm sharing a poem by Australian poet David Malouf.

Typewriter Music

Hinged grasshopper legs kick
back. So
quick off the mark, so
spritely. They set
the mood, the mode, the call
to light-fingered highjinks.

A meadow dance
on the keyboard,
in breathless, out-of-bounds
take-offs into
flight and giddy joyflight without
stint. The fingerpads

have it. Brailling through
études of alphabets, their chirp and clatter
grass-choppers
the morning to soundbites,
each rifleshot hammerstroke another notch
in the silence.
     © 2006, David Malouf

The Poetry Sisters met on Sunday to map out our writing prompts for the year. We have a plan and a prompt for January. Would you like to try this month's challenge? We will be writing a tanku, a poem that begins with a tanka, followed by a haiku written in response. A tanku can be any length, but each verse should be written in response to the one before. You can find an example at Rattle: Poetry. Are you with us? Good! Please share your poem on January 31st in a post and/or on social media with the tag #PoetryPals. We look forward to reading your poems!  

Please join the Poetry Friday party by leaving your link below, and don't forget to leave a comment to let us know you're here. Happy poetry Friday, friends!  

**NOTE** - Denise Krebs was kind enough to point out that Inlinkz doesn't work for everyone. If you click on a link and Inlinkz won't connect, go to the upper right-hand corner of the "refused to connect" page and click on the X. That should take you to the site. If that doesn't work, leave me a comment and I'll link those pages here.

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Ruth from There is no such thing as a God-forsaken town is sharing an original poem entitled Bedtime.

Poetry Sisters Write Haibun and/or Haiga

For the last month of the year, the challenge was to write a haibun or haiga. 

The haibun is is a poetic form first created by Matsuo Basho. It is a form that combines two modes of writing—prose and verse. Here are some of the "rules" of writing haibun, as suggested by the Haiku Society of America.

Prose in Haibun

• Tells the story
• Gives information, defines the theme
• Creates a mood through tone
• Provides a background to spotlight the haiku

Haiku in Haibun

• Moves the story forward
• Takes the narrative in another direction
• Adds insight or another dimension to the prose
• Resolves the conflict in an unpredictable way, or questions the resolution of the prose.
• Prose is the narrative and haiku is the revelation or the reaction.

In a haibun, the prose can come first, last, or between any number of haiku.
Haibun also have a title, something haiku generally do not.

You can read some examples and see different haibun forms at More than the Birds, Bees, and Trees: A Closer Look at Writing Haibun.

Haiga are poems that blend an image and haiku. Here is an introduction written by Ray Rasmussen.

Haiga is a mix of image and either haiku or tanka poetry. Its origins are in Japan where poet-artists used a mix of brushstroke painting and calligraphy to compose their images and poetry.

The poetic spark of haiga has to do with four elements:

• the quality of the image and its type
• the quality of the haiku (or tanka or short poem)
• the quality, type and placement of the text
• the quality of the framing of the image

Of course, the relationship of the haiku to the image is incredibly important. Do they enhance each other, making the haiga greater than the sum of its two parts?

This is a lot of background for a tiny poem. I have been playing around with block printing this month, so I created my own image and then wrote an introduction and a haiku, so this poem is a bit of haibun and haiga, though I'm not sure I followed the rules for either with any kind of fidelity.

Longing for Winter 
In my youth, winter days were filled with endless hours outside, sledding, skating, shoveling, and building snow forts and an endless parade of snowmen. Whole families populated the yard, festooned with coal, carrot stick noses, and the scarves and hats we could sneak out of the house. Cold and lake effect snow ensured families lasted through the season, disappearing only with the blossoming spring. 

climate change no myth
blizzards lamentably rare
snowmen live in dreams

Poem and Image ©Tricia Stohr-Hunt, 2024. All rights reserved.

You can find the poems shared by my Poetry Sisters at the links below. 

• Tanita Davis
• Mary Lee Hahn
• Sara Lewis Holmes 
• Kelly Ramsdell
• Laura Purdie Salas
• Liz Garton Scanlon

Michelle Kogan is hosting Poetry Friday this week. I hope you'll take some time to check out all the poetic things being shared today. Happy Poetry Friday, friends! 

Poetry Friday - Holiday Poetry Swap and a Poem

For years, Tabatha Yeatts, who blogs at The Opposite of Indifference, has coordinated both a summer and winter (holiday) poetry swap. I appreciate what a labor of love this is and am always happy to participate. This year my swap partner was Linda Mitchell of A Word Edgewise, who just happens to be hosting Poetry Friday at her blog today! Linda lives only about 90 minutes from me, but we haven't crossed paths here in Virginia. Here's hoping we do one day.

Linda sent me the most wonderful swap package. It contained a beautiful bag (a teacher can NEVER have too many totes), a gorgeous handmade card that was collaged and stitched, a cool pencil holder that was folded and handmade (I love papercraft), and, of course, an original poem.

I was thrilled to see that Linda wrote a poem in the 4×4 form. Denise Krebs at Dare to Care invented this form. Here are the rules.

• 4 syllables in each line
• 4 lines in each stanza
• 4 stanzas
• 4 times repeating a refrain line–line 1 in the first stanza, line 2 in the second stanza, line 3 in the third stanza, and line 4 in the fourth stanza.
• Bonus: 4 syllables in the title
• No restrictions on subject, rhyme, or meter.

Here is the poem Linda sent me.

And here's a closeup of the beautiful card she made.

Thanks, Linda! And thanks to Tabatha for arranging the swap.

Today, I'm sharing a favorite poem by Ted Kooser, which feels like a lovely companion for this poetry swap goodness.

Christmas Mail

by Ted Kooser

Cards in each mailbox,

angel, manger, star and lamb,

as the rural carrier,

driving the snowy roads,

hears from her bundles

Read the poem in its entirety.

I do hope you'll take some time to check out all the poetic things Linda is sharing today at A Word Edgewise. Happy Poetry Friday, friends! 

Poetry Sisters Write to Jane Hirshfield's Two Versions

I missed our Zoom this week, so I went into this challenge blind. Mary Lee set this back in January when she was enamored of a new-ish poem by Jane Hirshfield. If you have access to The Threepenny Review, you can find it in the Summer 2023 edition.

I used Hirshfield's poem as a mentor text and followed her structure very closely. I tried writing about several different topics, but I've been a bit melancholy lately, so when every poem came back to the same subject, I ran with it. 

Two Versions 
(after Jane Hirshfield's Two Versions)

In the first version, I held my mother’s hand.

Hospital staff traveled in and out of her room.

One no-nonsense nurse nodded after checking her respiration.
Another patted my shoulder with empathy after wetting her lips.

What was my hand doing, I now wonder
gripping hers so tightly
as it once did in childhood while crossing the street?

Was it disbelieving? fearful?

And why, when I conjure a lifetime of whispered moments,
over Scrabble boards, in the kitchen, on the phone,
do I think, after all our glorious days together, of this?

In the second version, there is only guilt,
of which I know everything.

Except to have been there in her final days.

So much time, so many tears. In darkness
and in light, I am still begging pardon.

Poem ©Tricia Stohr-Hunt, 2024. All rights reserved.

You can find the poems shared by my Poetry Sisters at the links below. 

• Tanita Davis
• Mary Lee Hahn
• Sara Lewis Holmes 
• Kelly Ramsdell
• Laura Purdie Salas
• Liz Garton Scanlon

Would you like to try the next challenge? In December we are writing Haibun (prose + haiku) or Haiga (art + haiku). Are you with us? Good! You have a month to craft your creation and share it on December 27th in a post and/or on social media with the tag #PoetryPals. We look forward to reading your poems!  

This week, my poetry sister Tanita Davis is hosting Poetry Friday. I hope you'll take some time to check out all the poetic things being shared today. Happy Poetry Friday, friends!