Tanka

rain again last night

temperatures above freezing

two cocoons wait

it's been a long, dark winter

the right moment is coming

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2015

This tanka is for Margarita Engle's ditty challenge at Today's Little Ditty.

It can also serve as a companion PO-EMotion for the first word in my Poetry Month challenge: ANTICIPATION.

Quench

YOU

Like the relief of water
after salty popcorn
your smile
quenches
my thirsty spirit.

Like a bucket of water
on the campfire embers
your calm
quenches
my spicy temper.

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2015

Snatch

On Learning That Today I Will Get My SEVENTH New Student This Year

Snatch me back from the edge.
I might jump
or I might fall
and I'm not sure that thing about growing wings
on the
way
down
will actually work.


©Mary Lee Hahn, 2015


True story.

7 of my (now) 27 students were not with us on the first day of school. That means about one-fourth of my class is comprised of new students. We are in about the 26th week of school, so that means I've averaged about one new student every month. No big deal? Imagine what that does to the classroom community you've worked so hard to build...and rebuild...and rebuild...

Sigh.

Crouch

Wikipedia

TIME STOPS

That moment when the pitcher waits,
catcher crouches at home plate,
silence settles like a weight...

...all breaths are held,
no ball propelled,
no cheers are yelled...

...and then beneath the wide blue sky,
the pitch is flung, the ball glides by,
and time, again, begins to fly.


©Mary Lee Hahn, 2015

Next Read Aloud

NEXT READ ALOUD

Book wanted:

Must
grip listeners,
hold interest.

Make them
clutch cliffhangers,
cling to characters.

Encourage
relaxed conversations,
and unloose imaginations.

Culminate
a community of readers
and an elementary school career.

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2015

Hatch

Wikimedia

SACRIFICE

How does
the buzzing
hummingbird
sit still enough to hatch

the two
(not three)
(size of a pea)
eggs that are in her batch?


©Mary Lee Hahn, 2015

Museum Guard

MUSEUM GUARD

It's a good enough job, I guess.
I tell my friends it's dead boring,
walking around watching old ladies
who pretend to look at art
until it's time for lunch
in the museum cafe.

You don't know art
until you spend an 8-hour shift with it;
until you put in a 40-hour week
studying every brushstroke out of the corner of your eye.

In the afternoons,
couples come,
sometimes standing close,
heads bent together,
murmuring.
Sometimes one drags the other by the hand to a painting,
points,
and they laugh softly at an inside joke.

That girl stands with her nose
way too close to the Monet.
I walk by so she knows I see
but she is lost in the mystery
of light and shadow and color,
stepping forward, stepping back,
as I have done so often
when the gallery
was empty.

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2015

Botch

ADVICE

Don't be afraid to botch it,
Or you'll sit sidelined and watch it.

You might have to say, "I blew it."
But you won't find out 'til you...DO IT!


©Mary Lee Hahn, 2015


Here are some Growth Mindset resources to go with this poem:

Zen Pencils: Great People Do Things Before They're Ready

Zen Pencils: The Gift of Life

List of Picture Books

Carol Dweck's TED Talk

Lurch

Wikimedia

15 ½ Year-Old Learning to Drive 

a 1960 Ford Falcon 

With "Three-on-the-Tree:" 

A Play in Five Acts

ACT 1 -- First Lessons

Vroom!

Rev, rev, rev...

Lurch-cough-die.

Vroom!

Rev, rev, rev...

Lurch-cough-die.

 ACT 2 -- After Weeks of Practice

Vroom!

Rev, rev, rev,

Creep, creep, lurch-cough-die.

Vroom!

Rev, creep, 

Rev, glide,

DRIVE!

ACT 3 -- Newton's First Law

Vroom!

Rev, creep, 

Rev, glide,

Drive.

Stop!

Brake-lurch-die.

Vroom! 

Rev, glide, drive.

Slow, clutch, stop.

ACT 4 -- Finishing Touches

Vroom! 

Rev, glide, drive.

Slow, clutch, stop...hillside.

Vroom!

Rev, REV, REV...

Lurch-squeal-drive.

ACT 5 -- Gray Hair and Sleeplessness

Vroom!

Rev, glide, drive.

Bye!

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2015

Inch

an inch of green

above the brown

where just last week

was snow

makes me believe

in hidden things

like nature's urge

to grow

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2015

Poetry Month 2015

SKEPTIC

Head tilted,

one eyebrow arched,

lips pinched:

Are you sure?

Seven days a week?

Really?

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2015

That skeptic lives inside my head, but I'm going to ignore her.

Will writing a poem a day that either uses an emotion word or evokes that emotion be any harder than writing a poem a day about obscure wonders of the world?

("Um...yes," says my skeptic in my ear.)

Sorry, skeptic. We're doing this. And any of YOU who want to come along for the ride are invited to join us for an April that will LITERALLY be an emotional roller coaster!

I've created a list of 30 emotions that various researchers have identified, using this resource.  I'll publish the list next week. I made my graphic for this year using a public domain, no-attribution-necessary image and the graphic design site Canva.

My poem today is for Heidi's MarCH CHallenge.

Last, but not least, Laura (who coincidentally shares a perfect PO-EMotion for today) has the Poetry Friday roundup at Author Amok.

Grrrr...

RIGHT AND WRONG

The customer is always right
except when they're wrong
and so determined to get their way
that they go over your head to your boss
and next will be your boss' boss
if you don't pitch your scruples
in order to keep the peace.
The customer who is the biggest bully is always right.
And that's just wrong.

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2015

Snail

SNAIL

My snail is mostly foot.
His mouth is really small.
So does he scale, or does he smooch
the glass of the fish tank wall?


©Mary Lee Hahn, 2015

Flight

FLIGHT

Outside my apartment
is a small patch of grass
and a parking lot.
Beyond that is a ditch
full of dirty snow and trash.

But across the road
are power lines
where a hawk often perches
long enough for me to sketch.


©Mary Lee Hahn, 2015

Preach

A Note to My Students

Stop me if I start to preach.
That’s not my job;
I’m here to teach.

And if I talk and talk and talk,
remind me — gently –
I should stop

and listen more
and let you speak,
discover, wonder,

think,
think,
think.

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2015

Good Dog!

Flickr Creative Commons photo by L Church

What to do if You Are a Retriever

Freeze until the command is given.
Explode from the down-stay.
Tear across the lawn at lightning speed.
Catch the frisbee, mid-air.
Hustle back, tail high, ready for more.

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2015

Brrr...

Pre-Dawn Walk, Winter Edition

It's more than just a punch.
I'm hit by a powerful blow
as I turn north
into the bitter wind.

It slams me back,
rakes my face,
tears away breath,
tears up my eyes.

Seventy steps,
head bent,
then I turn west
and am sheltered.

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2015

Hunter

HUNTER

Cat at the window
silent and still
squirrel on the porch
oblivious until...

twitch goes the tail,
smack goes the paw,
zoom goes the squirrel
now crossing the lawn.

©Mary Lee Hahn



This poem was written for Heidi Mordhorst's MarCH CHallenge.

Perspective

PERSPECTIVE

Orion's arms and legs and sword
stretch clear across the sky.

Yet if I hold my thumb to him
he seems to be that high.

Why?


©Mary Lee Hahn, 2015



This poem was written for Heidi Mordhorst's MarCH CHallenge.

March

MARCH

March swoops in low
on the wings of a crow

caw caw cawing
at a hawk.

March flashes red --
cardinal's head

in a bold show
contrasting the snow.

March sings, when
at the feeder, wren

points joy to the sky,
lets notes fly.


©Mary Lee Hahn, 2015



This poem was written for Heidi Mordhorst's MarCH Challenge.