Capping the Year With My Poetry Sisters - Wistful Poetry

It's our last challenge for 2020, which this time around  was to write to the theme of "Wish I'd Been There," or to an historical event that incites wistfulness. I'm not sure the event I've chosen incites wistfulness, but this event reminds me of something my mother often said, "Oh, to be a fly on the wall." Or as Burr proclaims in Hamilton, "I wanna be in the room where it happens." 

Let me take you back to 1872 in Rochester, NY. 

Clipped from the Brooklyn Union newspaper, 5 Nov 1872

I'm not sure this poem is finished yet, but it's a start.

November 5th, 1872 - Election Day

I've always admired 
those resolute women
corset wearing
bustled and ruffled
     risk takers
     rule breakers
     history makers
who cast their votes
for Ulysses S. Grant
pushed the boundaries
of the 14th amendment
determined to be heard
who embraced fully
the word citizen
with all the rights
it implied
who broke the law
then marched on

Poem ©Tricia Stohr-Hunt, 2020. All rights reserved.

You can read the pieces written by my Poetry Sisters at the links below. We're missing a sister or two, but they'll be back for other challenges. 

• Tanita Davis
• Rebecca Holmes
• Sara Lewis Holmes
• Kelly Ramsdell
• Laura Purdie Salas
• Liz Garton Scanlon
• Andi Sibley

I do hope you'll take some time to check out all the wonderful poetic things being shared and collected today by Irene Latham at Live Your Poem. Happy poetry Friday friends! Sending you all wishes for a happy holiday season and much awaited new year. 

Poetry Sisters Look Back

It's another looking back month in our year of hindsight/foresight. I chose to revisit a poem from April 2019.  While I didn't revise or talk back to that poem, I did take another stab at the form. In that challenge, we wrote anagram poems. The challenge was inspired by the poem A Garden to Gander, written by Linda Baie of Teacher Dance. Linda's poem included two anagrams in each line. I wanted to play with this idea a bit more. Instead of using words as I did the first time around, my new poem largely uses phrases.

Thoughts on a Sleepless Night 

I went to bed dreaming of 

poems, words, anagrams  

I woke with questions ...

   Is the astronomer just a moon starer? 

   In a cat's dream, are there rats and mice? 

   Is a gentleman always an elegant man? 

   Will asteroid threats be a disaster to Earth? 

   When the eyes are closed, what do they see? 

   When voices rant on in conversation, 

        must you be silent and listen? 

  Are election results lies? (Let's recount!)

Poem ©Tricia Stohr-Hunt, 2020. All rights reserved.

You can read the pieces written by my Poetry Sisters at the links below. As usual, life has gotten in the way for some folks, but they'll be back for other challenges. 

• Tanita Davis
• Rebecca Holmes
• Sara Lewis Holmes
• Kelly Ramsdell
• Laura Purdie Salas
• Liz Garton Scanlon
• Andi Sibley

I do hope you'll take some time to check out all the wonderful poetic things being shared and collected today by Carol of Carol's Corner. Happy poetry Friday friends!

Poetry Sisters Write Naani

This month's challenge was to write a naani with an autumn theme. A naani is a 4-line poem containing between 20-25 syllables. I had a lot of trouble with this one, but then I generally have difficulty with short forms that are rather open-ended, so I shouldn't have been surprised. In the end, I ended up with a longer poem composed of several naani strung together.

An Autumn Naani Story

my favorite maple tree
blushes brilliant red
with immodesty
celebrating fall 

oak stands quietly nearby
cloaked in orange and gold
dropping scads of acorns
for every passing squirrel

both silent witnesses to
a world in upheaval
sentinels of change
outlasting generations

Poem ©Tricia Stohr-Hunt, 2020. All rights reserved.

You can read the pieces written by my Poetry Sisters at the links below. As usual, life has gotten in the way for some folks, but they'll be back for other challenges. 

• Tanita Davis
• Rebecca Holmes
• Sara Lewis Holmes
• Kelly Ramsdell
• Laura Purdie Salas
• Liz Garton Scanlon
• Andi Sibley

If you’d like to write with us next month, the challenge is to pick one of your old poems to revise and/or write a new poem in conversation with it. We will be posting on the last Friday of the month (November 27th, the day after Thanksgiving) and would love to have you join us.

I do hope you'll take some time to check out all the wonderful poetic things being shared and collected today by Linda Baie of Teacher Dance. Happy poetry Friday friends!

Poetry Sisters Ponder the Hippo

The challenge this month was to write to the word ponderous or the image of a hippo. I decided to play around with an old quick write prompt issued by Nikki Grimes at Kate Messner's blog way back in 2014. Based on the examples she shared, I decided I wanted to begin a poem with "Hippo is a __ word." Here's where my poem  went.

Image courtesy of Wallpaper Flare

Hippo is a ponderous word
a barrel-shaped word
a semi-aquatic,
unable to swim word
a yawning, wide open word
a gregarious, booming word
an aggressive and unpredictable word
Keep your hands in the boat
while you float downriver,
observing a bloat of
hippopotamuses and hippopotami
half-submerged
ears twitching, eyes watching
keeping the crocodiles at bay.

Poem ©Tricia Stohr-Hunt, 2020. All rights reserved.

You can read the pieces written by my Poetry Sisters at the links below. As usual, life has gotten in the way for some folks, but they'll be back for other challenges. 

• Tanita Davis
• Rebecca Holmes
• Sara Lewis Holmes
• Kelly Ramsdell
• Laura Purdie Salas
• Liz Garton Scanlon
• Andi Sibley

If you’d like to write with us next month, the challenge is to write a naani poem with the theme of foresight, or autumn, or both. We will be posting on the last Friday of the month (October 30th) and would love to have you join us.

I do hope you'll take some time to check out all the wonderful poetic things being shared and collected today by Jone MacCulloch. Happy poetry Friday friends!

Poetry Sisters Look Back

This month's challenge was to pick one of our old poems to revise and/or write a new poem in conversation with it. I went back to a post from May of 2016. Here's how that challenge was defined.

This month the Poetry Seven crew wrote in the form of the tritina. The tritina is composed of 3 tercets and a final line (envoi) that stands alone. Similar to a sestina, though shorter, it uses a set of 3 alternating end words instead of six. The form is: ABC / CAB / BCA / A, B, and C (final line/envoi).

The words we chose from were selected by Tanita. They were: 
     sweet, cold, stone, hope, mouth, thread

I wrote 2 poems back then, one for my father and one for sheer fun. 

Looking back on these old challenges to find a poem to revisit, I was inspired by the words Tanita selected and decided to have another go at this one. Here's my new poem. It was written to this photo.

Stonewall Jackson's plinth, photo by Ryan Patterson

Running Monument Ave

I hold a spark of hope

as I pass by stone

bases, empty and cold

I know this route cold

run it with hope

I won't trip on the stones

In this city, hearts made of stone

send messages cold

quash seeds of hope

But cold stone statues fall, and hope still rises.

Poem ©Tricia Stohr-Hunt, 2020. All rights reserved.

You can read the pieces written by my Poetry Sisters at the links below. As usual, life has gotten in the way for some folks, but they'll be back for other challenges. 

• Tanita Davis
• Rebecca Holmes
• Sara Lewis Holmes
• Kelly Ramsdell
• Laura Purdie Salas
• Liz Garton Scanlon
• Andi Sibley

If you’d like to write with us next month, the theme is ponderous, or an image of a hippo. You may use any form you like. We will be posting on the last Friday of the month (September 25th) and would love to have you join us.

I do hope you'll take some time to check out all the wonderful poetic things being shared and collected today by Heidi Mordhorst at my juicy little universe. Happy poetry Friday friends!

#MTBoSBLaugust - Moo-ve It Multiplication

Today I'm sharing another multiplication game. This is a variation on a bump game. It has a cow on it, so that's where Moo-ve it comes from.

In the game, players roll 2 dice and finds the product. They find that product on the board and cover it. If the product is already covered, the player may "bump" their opponent's piece off the board. The first player to get 3 in a row, horizontally, vertically, or diagonally, is the winner.

Here is what the print version looks like.

This is the digital version.

If you would like to try this with your students, you can download the PDF or the Google slides version.

That's it for day 21 of #MTBoSBlaugust. I hope you'll come back tomorrow to see what else I have to share.

#MTBoSBLaugust - Multiplication Four-in-a-Row

I have a number of multiplication games that students can play to practice basic facts. I really like Multiplication Four-in-a-Row. Students are give a number strip or table and begin by placing markers on any two numbers. The first player finds the product and covers that number. The second player moves one of the markers on the number table to create a new number sentence, finds that product, and covers the number. Play continues until one player gets 4 in a row, either horizontally, vertically, or diagonally.

I've been using this paper and pencil version for some time.

If you want to try this with your students, you can download a PDF.

I've also just created a digital version.

If you would like to try this with your students, you can download a copy.

That's it for day 20 of #MTBoSBlaugust. I hope you'll come back tomorrow to see what else I have to share.