Friday, December 13, 2013

Plowing


Flickr Creative Commons Photo by richardghawley


Another row plowed.
Seeds are planted behind me.
So much work ahead.

One more row, then rest.
Free the horse from the harness;
leave the plow ready.


©Mary Lee Hahn, 2013


Friday, December 6, 2013

Ode to My Big Toe



Dear Big Toe,

We've been together since before I was born.
You've helped me balance;
I've taken you for granted.

Now I'll give you the pampering you deserve...
at least until the bandages come off
and we get back to normal.

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2013


Thursday, November 21, 2013

Pomegranate


Flickr Creative Commons Photo by Minneapolis Moose

POMEGRANATE

I was so very ready 
to leave it all behind.

A red-rinded pomegranate waits 
on the kitchen counter:

insurance that I will
return.


©Mary Lee Hahn, 2013


Friday, November 8, 2013

Autumn








Try to
capture Autumn's
color with paint, collage.
Today's art will be forgotten,
not lost.


Dark sky
Children's laughter
Brilliant colors of fall
Collect beauty strewn by the trees
New art


Brilliant
color against
heavy dark purple skies:
red, gold, green, orange, yellow, brown.
Rain begins.

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2013


Friday, November 1, 2013

Leaf Hurricane


Flickr Creative Commons photo by Paul Stevenson

LEAF HURRICANE

Clouds darken
Wind gusts
leaves swirl
I twirl

          My wild spinning dance
          Is magic to me
          I dance with the wind
          I dance with the leaves

Rain spits
wind gusts
leaves swirl
I twirl
   
          I dance with the wind
          I dance with the leaves
          With every spin
          My spirit flies free

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2013


Friday, October 4, 2013

Best



BEST

What does that mean,
"Do your best?"
Push myself
without any rest?

No time for play?
Never have fun?
Don't take a break
'til it's done, done, DONE?

Here's what I've learned
(disagree if you will)
sometimes...
occasionally...
it's best
just to
chill.

© Mary Lee Hahn, 2013


Friday, September 13, 2013

Seeds




The tomato squirts in my mouth.
"You can't have seeds 
without a flower."

The clock ticks incessantly.
Time happens 
because the earth spins.

The students arrive in a burst of chatter.
I feel the earth move
as I watch them bloom.


©Mary Lee Hahn, 2013

Friday, August 30, 2013

Thug


As seen/passed around on FaceBook

THUG

All summer it's been cool
but just in time for school
the heat comes back,
like a big muggy bully.

One afternoon, regardless of the math lesson,
the air conditioning goes out.
Just up and leaves.
Walks out of the room without permission,

leaving the door open
for the bully to swagger in,
disrupt the lesson,
and make us sweat ourselves.

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2013

Friday, August 16, 2013

Fly Fishing


Sun on the Mad River, by Mary Lee Hahn

Fly Fishing

The small stream
and its bank-side buffer of trees
winds through corn fields.

Do not be tricked --
the current's pull is swift.
Step slow and steady. Don't trip.

Cast with patience.
Relax and find a kind of grace
in the rhythm, in the day.

Driving home, watch --
today you might catch
not a fish, but a glimpse of a fox.

© Mary Lee Hahn, 2013


Friday, August 9, 2013

The Space Between Breaths


by Hugh MacLeod at GapingVoid


The Space Between the Breaths We Take

Movie ticket, untorn;
popcorn box full.

Swimmers crouched;
pool still smooth blue glass.

Clean sheet of paper;
pencil, freshly sharpened, hovering.

Bus brakes hiss;
driver grasps the door handle.


© Mary Lee Hahn, 2013

Friday, August 2, 2013

Like a Bad Habit


by Hugh MacLeod at Gaping Void


Like a Bad Habit

The ivy is overtaking the front bed.
It approaches the lamb’s ear insidiously.
It has overwhelmed a pair of stepping-stones.
Clearly, the whole driveway is within the scope of its ambition.

I admire its tenacity.

But my will
will dominate.
My pruner and I
will reestablish
boundaries.


©Mary Lee Hahn, 2013


Friday, July 26, 2013

A Teacher Turns the Calendar Page From July to August


Photo by Mary Lee Hahn


A Teacher Turns the Calendar Page From July to August

It's the same feeling you get
just after you've nudged the sled 
over the shoulder 
of the hill.

Movement becomes momentum
and quickly shifts 
to catapulting and careening.

You relinquish control
and hold on 
for the ride.


©Mary Lee Hahn, 2013

Friday, July 12, 2013

Reclamation and Exaltation


Creative Commons Photo by Mary Lee Hahn

RECLAMATION AND EXALTATION

The air is cool;
sun sits low behind the trees.

My tea is hot;
one last sip before I start.

The garden is large;
weeds are plentiful and vigorous.

* * *

I turn my head slowly;
two hummingbirds argue over coneflowers.

I sit back on my heels;
chickadees and bees ignore me.

I stand and stretch;
the air is hot, the tea is cold, the garden is weeded.


©Mary Lee Hahn, 2013


Friday, June 21, 2013

High Plains in Summer



HIGH PLAINS IN SUMMER

Yesterday it rained.
Fifty-five hundredths
over a three-hour period.
High plains equivalent
of a good, soaking rain.

Today it's clear and hot.
Winds gusting to 39 out of the south.
At least the dirt's not blowing.

Forecast's calling
for high nineties
the next three days.

Tourists driving through on I-70
see flat, boring, brown fields.
They don't realize
those are their groceries
burning up.

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2013

Friday, June 7, 2013

The Day After the Last Day of School




The Day After the Last Day of School

It's like you've been on a long hike
through deep mud
in boots that don't fit
with a pack that has gotten progressively heavier
(the weight was added gradually;
you didn't notice so much).

Then suddenly before you
there is a grassy meadow
a cool brook
tall trees and deep shade.

The pack evaporates,
the muddy boots disappear.
With the weight gone, it feels like you are floating.

You are very tired.
You lean back against a welcoming tree and sleep.
You dream of hiking.

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2013


Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Common Inspiration--Uncommon Creations.30

Zipper animated
Animation by DemonDeLuxe (Dominique Toussaint), from Wikimedia Commons


Z IS FOR THE END

The month has zipped by,
although some days
the writing was
much zippier than others.

Like the teeth of the zipper
we writers came together,
locking ideas to make a chain.
The prompt was our slider.

I thank you, fellow poets,
for joining me
in binding word to word, 
thought to image.

This common daily work,
putting one word after another,
has brought us close,
will link us forever.

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2013




The theme of my 2013 National Poetry Month Project was 

"Common Inspiration--Uncommon Creations." 


I used the media to inspire my poetry, but I invited my students to use my daily media picks to inspire any original creation: poems, stories, comics, music, videos, sculptures, drawings...anything!

Here are some of my students' creations:

Inspired by the fire breather

Inspired by the fire breather

Inspired by the fire breather


Volcano cake inspired by the fire breather



The above three inspired by Le Silence

Foodscape/sculpture of the Broadway Tower with an imaginative landscape surrounding it!



To go with the Rubik's Cube animation

And the poems that were inspired by the harp music:


that sound calms
me down every
time I hear
it going past
nice and fast
just the
way I
dream 
it

--B


SOUND OF BEAUTY

The brush of a harp.
The melody.
The sound.
The feeling.
The beauty.

--No


ANGELS

It feels like
angels are flying
over me,
playing their soothing harps,
sounds relaxing.

--Na


FLOWERS AND HARPS

When I think of flowers
    I remember the
sound of harps. They are
    both peaceful and
relaxing. They make me feel
              safe.

--Jo


peace    harmony

freedom
happiness

Litmus
Lozenge

vengeance    sorrow
pain              agony

honor    courage

respect

--Re


TWOs

Two harps
play
two beautiful
sounds

like two flowers
twirling around and
around

like two friends
caring for
each other

like two blue jays
singing
sister and brother

like two people
giving gifts on special days

like two children
wanting 
to play

like two angels
watching 
for us

like two harps 
playing
two
beautiful 
sounds.

--Ra


Had to remember
A loved one.
Running my fingers on the strings making 
Peaceful music.

--M


NICE SOUNDS
That sound, what is that
it's so...peaceful.

It makes me calm down,
overjoyed, I went to where
it came from.

It was at a church
it was a girl playing 
her harp.

I walk in and 
she stops, she looks
at me then looks away
and starts playing
again.

--G


HARPS

The music from heaven
letting us know the right way
like a rainbow in the clear sky
it is quiet music that
makes us feel safe.

--Y


HARP

The music is peaceful
like crickets making music.

All the sounds come together
like every feather of a bird.

This piece had harmony
like a two instrument symphony.

Playing my harp
making beautiful music.

Plucking the strings,
playing something inspirational.

Inspiration,
that made this poem.

--J


no stopping

back and forth, forth and back.
no stopping; for there is no
time in this new world.

back and forth, forth and back.
as i lean against ellis,
i try to remember those days.

back and forth, forth and back.
one year more until
this war is out of my head.

back and forth, forth and back.
my life is full of melodies,
and i need them to live.

--S




Monday, April 29, 2013

Common Inspiration--Uncommon Creations.29


Photo by Sara&Joachim, from Wikimedia Commons

MEERKAT JUMP ROPE RHYME

eenie
meenie
miney
mo

three little meerkats
all in a row

one looks left
and one looks right
and the third won't 
let you out of his sight

three little meerkats
all in a row

eenie
meenie
miney 
mo

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2013




The theme of my 2013 National Poetry Month Project is 


"Common Inspiration--Uncommon Creations." 


Each day in April, I will feature media from the Wikimedia Commons ("a database of 16,565,065 freely usable media files to which anyone can contribute") along with bits and pieces of my brainstorming and both unfinished and finished poems.

I will be using the media to inspire my poetry, but I am going to invite my students to use my daily media picks to inspire any original creation: poems, stories, comics, music, videos, sculptures, drawings...anything!

Sunday, April 28, 2013

Common Inspiration--Uncommon Creations.28




Photos by Gideon Pisanty (Gidip) גדעון פיזנטי, from Wikimedia Commons

This photographer has five photos of this female long-horned bee collecting nectar and pollinating this flower. Yesterday's photo prompted poems about work, and perhaps today's will, too. That seems fitting, because today is Workers' Memorial Day, "an international day of remembrance and action for workers killed, disabled, injured or made unwell by their work."


BEES

clamber
climb
pry

nectar 
pollen
sky

home 
hive
fly

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2013





The theme of my 2013 National Poetry Month Project is 


"Common Inspiration--Uncommon Creations." 


Each day in April, I will feature media from the Wikimedia Commons ("a database of 16,565,065 freely usable media files to which anyone can contribute") along with bits and pieces of my brainstorming and both unfinished and finished poems.

I will be using the media to inspire my poetry, but I am going to invite my students to use my daily media picks to inspire any original creation: poems, stories, comics, music, videos, sculptures, drawings...anything!


Saturday, April 27, 2013

Common Inspiration--Uncommon Creations.27


Breakfast Break of the Scaffolders
Bundesarchiv, Bild 102-09409 / CC-BY-SA

Work and rest. That's what's on my mind today.




The trick 
is learning to rest
in the midst 
of your work.

That,

and balance.

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2013








The theme of my 2013 National Poetry Month Project is 


"Common Inspiration--Uncommon Creations." 


Each day in April, I will feature media from the Wikimedia Commons ("a database of 16,565,065 freely usable media files to which anyone can contribute") along with bits and pieces of my brainstorming and both unfinished and finished poems.

I will be using the media to inspire my poetry, but I am going to invite my students to use my daily media picks to inspire any original creation: poems, stories, comics, music, videos, sculptures, drawings...anything!