The Miss Rumphius Effect

Sunday, April 18, 2021

NPM 2021 - Found Poem 18

Today's poem comes from The Street Beneath My Feet, written by Charlotte Guillain and illustrated by Yuval Zommer.

Beneath My Feet

walking the city streets

stop and look down

what's deep in the ground

under your feet?

pipes, wires, and cables

earthworms loosening soil

centipedes and microorganisms

the sewer where wastewater goes

rats!

history, objects left behind

coins, pottery, swords

skeletons

loud rumbling noise - train!

passengers, stations, tunnels

limestone cave

stalactites and stalagmites

underground river

rock plates

partly melted rock

liquid iron and nickel

solid iron crystals

at the center

the hottest place on the planet

I hope you'll come back tomorrow and see what new poem I've found. Until then, you may want to read previous poems in this series. I'm also sharing these found poems as images on my Instagram in case you want to see them all in one place.

April 1 - Flotsam

April 2 - A Warm Wind

April 3 - Zentangle Poem

April 4 - Soap Bubbles

April 5 - Following Butterflies

April 6 - Mount St. Helens

April 7 - Beautiful Buildings

April 8 - Muir in California

April 9 - Night on the Reef

April 10 - The Greatest Story Ever Told

April 11 - Archaeologists Look for Clues

April 12 - Slow Thoughts
April 13 - Snowflake Bentley

April 14 - Walter Rothschild and His Museum

April 15 - Ben Franklin, Inventor

April 16 - One Well

April 17 - Phytoplankton

Saturday, April 17, 2021

Onward with the Progressive Poem

I can't believe we're more than halfway through National Poetry Month. It's been a while since I've participated in this endeavor, so I'm glad to be back as a participant in the progressive poem. I am following in the footsteps of many talented poets and have loved following along so far.

Heidi Mordhorst of my juicy little universe gave me these two lines to choose from:

With acorns and moss could we fashion a critter?
OR
Let's find pine needles, turn into vine knitters!

Why did she have to make it so hard?! Read on to see which one I chose!

I’m a case of kindness – come and catch me if you can!
Easily contagious – sharing smiles is my plan.
I’ll spread my joy both far and wide,
As a force of Nature I’ll be undenied.

Words like, “how can I help?” will bloom in the street.
A new girl alone on the playground – let’s meet, let’s meet!
We can jump-skip together in a double-dutch round.
Over, under, jump and wonder, touch the ground.

Friends can be found when you open a door.
Side by side, let’s walk through, there’s a world to explore.
We’ll hike through a forest of towering trees
Find a stream we can follow while we bask in the breeze.

Pull off our shoes and socks, dip our toes in the icy spring water
When you’re with friends, there’s no have to or oughter
What could we make, with leaves and litter?
Let's find pine needles, turn into vine knitters!

I'm a nature girl at heart, so choosing where to go next left so many possibilities. Here are the lines I came up with ...

We'll be swingers of birches and climbers of trees
OR
We'll lie on our backs and find shapes in the sky

I'm happily handing this off to Linda Baie at Teacher Dance and can't wait to see which one she'll choose and where she will take us on this collaborative adventure.

*****

Here's where the poem has been and where it's going!

April 1 Kat Apel at Kat Whiskers
2 Linda Mitchell at A Word Edgewise
3 Mary Lee at A Year of Reading
4 Donna Smith at Mainly Write
5 Irene Latham at Live your Poem
6 Jan Godown Annino at BookseedStudio
7 Rose Cappelli at Imagine the Possibilities
8 Denise Krebs at Dare to Care
9 Margaret Simon at Reflections on the Teche
10 Molly Hogan at Nix the Comfort Zone
11 Buffy Silverman
12 Janet Fagel at Reflections on the Teche
13 Jone Rush MacCulloch
14 Susan Bruck at Soul Blossom Living
15 Wendy Taleo at Tales in eLearning
16 Heidi Mordhorst at my juicy little universe
17 Tricia Stohr-Hunt at The Miss Rumphius Effect
18 Linda Baie at Teacher Dance
19 Carol Varsalona at Beyond Literacy Link
20 Robyn Hood Black at Life on the Deckle Edge
21 Leigh Anne Eck at A Day in the Life
22 Ruth Hersey at There is No Such Thing as a God-forsaken Town
23 Janice Scully at Salt City Verse
24 Tabatha Yeatts at The Opposite of Indifference
25 Shari Daniels at Islands of my Soul
26 Tim Gels at Yet There is Method
27 Rebecca Newman
28 Catherine Flynn at Reading to the Core
29 Christie Wyman at Wondering and Wondering
30 Michelle Kogan at More Art 4 All

NPM 2021 - Found Poem 17

Today's poem comes from Ocean Sunlight: How Tiny Plants Feed the Seas, written by Molly Bang and Penny Chisholm and illustrated by Molly Bang.

Phytoplankton

blue water

green plants

everywhere

countless shapes

and sizes

so small

tiny plants

drifting

invisible pasture

feeds all life

in the sea

April 1 - Flotsam

April 2 - A Warm Wind

April 3 - Zentangle Poem

April 4 - Soap Bubbles

April 5 - Following Butterflies

April 6 - Mount St. Helens

April 7 - Beautiful Buildings

April 8 - Muir in California

April 9 - Night on the Reef

April 10 - The Greatest Story Ever Told

April 11 - Archaeologists Look for Clues

April 12 - Slow Thoughts
April 13 - Snowflake Bentley

April 14 - Walter Rothschild and His Museum

April 15 - Ben Franklin, Inventor

April 16 - One Well

Friday, April 16, 2021

Poetry Friday and NPM 2021 - Found Poem 16

Welcome Poetry Friday friends! This year for National Poetry Month I'm writing and sharing found poems, most of which are science- or nature-themed. You can learn more about this form and my plans in this post describing the project. I'm also sharing these found poems as images on my Instagram in case you want to see them all in one place.

Today's poem comes from pages 4, 8, 26, and 28 of One Well: The Story of Water on Earth, written by Rochelle Strauss and illustrated by Rosemary Woods.

One Well

all water on Earth

is connected

the water you drink today

may have

rained down on the Amazon

been steam escaping a teapot

flowed in an underground river

water has the power to

sprout a seed

quench a thirst

provide a habitat

generate energy

every splash

means life

April 1 - Flotsam

April 2 - A Warm Wind

April 3 - Zentangle Poem

April 4 - Soap Bubbles

April 5 - Following Butterflies

April 6 - Mount St. Helens

April 7 - Beautiful Buildings

April 8 - Muir in California

April 9 - Night on the Reef

April 10 - The Greatest Story Ever Told

April 11 - Archaeologists Look for Clues

April 12 - Slow Thoughts
April 13 - Snowflake Bentley

April 14 - Walter Rothschild and His Museum

April 15 - Ben Franklin, Inventor

I do hope you'll take some time to check out all the wonderful poetic things being shared and collected today by Jama Rattigan at Jama's Alphabet Soup. Happy Poetry Friday all!

Thursday, April 15, 2021

NPM 2021 - Found Poem 15

Today's found poem comes from How Ben Franklin Stole the Lightning, written and illustrated by Rosalyn Schanzer.

Ben Franklin, Inventor

thunderstorms brewing

ring church bells for all they're worth

steal lightning from the sky

pure electricity

a kite string, key, silk ribbon

famous lightning ro

April 1 - Flotsam

April 2 - A Warm Wind

April 3 - Zentangle Poem

April 4 - Soap Bubbles

April 5 - Following Butterflies

April 6 - Mount St. Helens

April 7 - Beautiful Buildings

April 8 - Muir in California

April 9 - Night on the Reef

April 10 - The Greatest Story Ever Told

April 11 - Archaeologists Look for Clues

April 12 - Slow Thoughts
April 13 - Snowflake Bentley

April 14 - Walter Rothschild and His Museum

Wednesday, April 14, 2021

NPM 2021 - Found Poem 14

Today's poem comes from Strange Creatures: The Story of Walter Rothschild and His Museum, written and illustrated by Lita Judge.

Walter Rothschild and His Museum

unusual boy

spent time collecting

bugs, birds, animals

loved every creature

dreamed a museum

hired explorers to

collect specimens from

the far corners

of the globe

new discoveries!

beautiful and strange creatures!

crowds lined up to see

the zoological collection

that forever changed

our understanding

of the world's creatures

April 1 - Flotsam

April 2 - A Warm Wind

April 3 - Zentangle Poem

April 4 - Soap Bubbles

April 5 - Following Butterflies

April 6 - Mount St. Helens

April 7 - Beautiful Buildings

April 8 - Muir in California

April 9 - Night on the Reef

April 10 - The Greatest Story Ever Told

April 11 - Archaeologists Look for Clues

April 12 - Slow Thoughts

April 13 - Snowflake Bentley

Tuesday, April 13, 2021

NPM 2021 - Found Poem 13

Today's poem comes from Snowflake Bentley, written by Jacqueline Briggs Martin and illustrated by Mary Azarian.

Snowflake Bentley

a boy loved snow

more than anything

found intricate patterns

more beautiful than imagined

to share what he had seen

learned to cut away

dark parts of the negative

waited hours for the right crystal

never found two alike

universal hexagonal shape

infinite designs

April 1 - Flotsam

April 2 - A Warm Wind

April 3 - Zentangle Poem

April 4 - Soap Bubbles

April 5 - Following Butterflies

April 6 - Mount St. Helens

April 7 - Beautiful Buildings

April 8 - Muir in California

April 9 - Night on the Reef

April 10 - The Greatest Story Ever Told

April 11 - Archaeologists Look for Clues

April 12 - Slow Thoughts

Monday, April 12, 2021

NPM 2021 - Found Poem 12

Today's poem comes from p. 8, 12, 14, 16, 30, 41, 50, 144, 161, 163, and 168 of The Slowest Book Ever, written by April Pullley Sayre and illustrated by Kelly Murphy.