I had prayed for years that Henry would be safe and live happily ever after. My prayers have been answered. His story is both a happy-ending and a new beginning. I am ever-grateful.
Category: Kindness
Be the Flower
I went searching for solace this week. I went hunting for answers. I found them in the form of flowers and poetry. Once destroyed, lives cannot be put back together. Some things cannot be made whole again. But I believe that the solution for violence must be in a turn towards nature, towards beauty, towards the preciousness of life. Consider the flower.
Embracing the Process
The process is the learning, and they are totally engaged and in the flow of creating. The key is to embrace the process.
May Posies
Early spring showers have turned the landscape green with dots of pinks, yellows, and lavenders. My corner of the world is alive with flowers, and I am immersing myself in their glory and hopefulness. This year more than any other I need flowers and the promise of spring. I need something to celebrate. I am in search for beauty.
April Poem #28: When I’m by Myself
I enjoy the childlike qualities of poetry. Playing with rhythm and rhyme often spark the imagination. With this poem, I did have to ponder deep questions, I could just play with the language and imagery. It was fun to do, and poetry most definitely should be fun. Once I wrote the first stanza, I felt it wasn’t quite complete, so I decided to reverse it and make a second stanza. When I’m by myself, I write poetry and make myself happy.
April Poem #26: Woven Words
Many years ago, I came upon teaching annotation through the Annotated Charlotte's Web. Today, I took an old, worn copy of Charlotte's Web and found this poem lying within. Thank you, E.B. White, Wilbur, and Charlotte!
April Poem #25: Everything has a Purpose
Linda’s prompt involved writing a poem using the scientific method for inspiration: make an observation, ask a question, form a hypothesis, make a prediction, test a prediction, use the results to form another hypothesis. Easy-peasy, right? Well, no. This prompt took some thinking and some reading of sample poems.
April Poem #21: April Remembers
© Joanne L. Emery, 2022
April Poem #20: Something’s Burning
My inspiration for “Something's Burning” came from Verse-Love, Ethical ELA, which was created by Sarah J. Donovan. Today’s prompt was from Tammy Breitwiester, who is a literacy coach in Wisconsin. She suggested to take inspiration from Naomi Shihab Nye's poem Burning the Old Year. After reading the poem, what stuck most in my head were … Continue reading April Poem #20: Something’s Burning
April Poem #19: How to be a Sand Dollar
On that visit, I made the acquaintance of a purse of sand dollars. I had never seen them as living creatures enjoying a day in the ocean surf.