Monday, December 31, 2018

A TRIO FOR NEW YEAR'S EVE


A TRIO FOR NEW YEAR'S EVE

hark back 
(@MerriamWebster word of the day today) 
flip through old calendar 
new blank replacement 


©Mary Lee Hahn, 2018



New Year's Eve rain 
desperate refugee is trapped 
mouse in the attic 


©Mary Lee Hahn, 2018



gusty wind 
unraked leaves switch yards 
vagabonds 


©Mary Lee Hahn, 2018



Thursday, December 27, 2018

AFTER A DAY-LONG MARATHON OF GRADING


procrastination 
sooner or later you pay 
in this case...today 


©Mary Lee Hahn, 2018



Wednesday, December 26, 2018

Time



past meets present
decorations on the tree
time flows two ways


©Mary Lee Hahn, 2018



Tuesday, December 25, 2018

School Work


Photo via Unsplash


Christmas Day school work
piles sorted, dross recycled
enough for today


©Mary Lee Hahn, 2018



Monday, December 24, 2018

Full Moon


Photo via Unsplash



full moon
not a star, not in the east
still glorious


©Mary Lee Hahn, 2018



Sunday, December 23, 2018

You will find me





today you will find
notebook, pencil, Christmas tree
cup of tea and me


©Mary Lee Hahn, 2018


In her Solstice post, Amy LV invited readers to borrow the line, "You will find me." So I did.



Saturday, December 22, 2018

Shut Off My Internal Alarm Clock, Please




why can't I sleep in
longest night of the year
cats have all the fun



©Mary Lee Hahn, 2018




Friday, December 21, 2018

Solstice


Photo via Unsplash

how can Earth orbit
when all revolves around me
preadolescence


©Mary Lee Hahn, 2018



Thursday, December 20, 2018

Cutting Snowflakes


I can't believe I took pictures of the mess...but not the finished flakes!


folding thirds is hard
but opening the snowflake
reveals magic


©Mary Lee Hahn, 2018



Wednesday, December 19, 2018

Priorities


Photo via Unsplash


pruney fingers
almost ready for Solstice guests
school work waits again


©Mary Lee Hahn, 2018



I'm Already Late So I Might As Well Sing!


Photo via Unsplash

train blocks the crossing
Christmas carol sing along
merry and bright

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2018



Tuesday, December 18, 2018

Haiku-ish


Photo via Unsplash


avocado toast
(practice mindfulness)
four days until winter break
(sipping my hot tea)
new student today


©Mary Lee Hahn, 2018


And for the other side of the story, this beautiful response haiku by Amy LV:


Honey Nut Cheerios
 (a little scared) 
four days until winter break 
(drinking orange juice) 
will my new teacher be kind?

©Amy Ludwig VanDerwater, 2018



Monday, December 17, 2018

Last Luminaria



six a.m.
the last luminaria
shines bravely on


©Mary Lee Hahn, 2018



Sunday, December 16, 2018

Holiday Decorating




micromanager
big job needs supervision
until - yawn - nap time

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2018



lights and ornaments
evergreen visitor holds
childhood memories

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2018




Friday, December 14, 2018

A Visit From Poets!




My class was lucky enough today to visit with Irene Latham and Charles Waters via Zoom! What a generous gift of time for Irene and Charles to answer the students' questions.

Here are two found #haikuforhope from their talk:


nothing will change if
we shut our mouths and refuse
to talk about race

(Irene's words)


writing
is telling
the truth

(Charles' words)



Tuesday, December 11, 2018

Winter Swim


natatorium
so steamy the ceiling drips
gratitude practice


©Mary Lee Hahn, 2018



Monday, December 10, 2018

Hope


photo via Unsplash

every small action
of resistance and hope
matters


©Mary Lee Hahn, 2018



Friday, December 7, 2018

Ripe


photo via unsplash


sweet and juicy
just a bit gritty
red winter pear


©Mary Lee Hahn, 2018






Thursday, December 6, 2018

Time




earth spins
earth orbits
time flies


©Mary Lee Hahn, 2018



Wednesday, December 5, 2018

Tuesday, December 4, 2018

Monday, December 3, 2018

Holiday Open House




noisy crowd in back
a cappella choir up front 
harmony wins


©Mary Lee Hahn, 2018


(I know it's a bell choir and not the a cappella choir, but I got a picture of the one,
 but not the other.)



Sunday, December 2, 2018

Creativity




creativity
the well is never empty
fling your bucket in


©Mary Lee Hahn, 2018



Saturday, December 1, 2018

December Rain


via Unspalsh

Welcome, December
windshield wipers slap-a-slap
steam rises from tea


©Mary Lee Hahn, 2018




Friday, October 12, 2018

Autumn Cadenza


Unsplash photo by NordWood Themes

Autumn Cadenza

Oak leaves drift down, a brown rustle.
Crickets are hushed.
Only sound --
plop --
acorns bonk roof.
Steady
drop.
Winter is here
when they
stop.


©Mary Lee Hahn, 2018


This poem is a Zeno, a form invented by J. Patrick Lewis. It has 10 lines with a syllable count that goes 8, 4, 2, 1, 4, 2, 1, 4, 2, 1. The single syllable words rhyme.


Thursday, September 27, 2018

Choosing Teams

Flickr Creative Commons photo by VirtualEyeSee

Choosing Teams

There are owls in the neighborhood now.
Two barred owls wondering,

“Who cooks for you?”

They wake us in the middle of the night.
We worry about the littlest skunk.

The one with white angel wings.

The silent puff of scent who cleans up dropped seed
beneath our bird feeders each dusk.

We are simply spectators in this backyard drama.

Is it bad form to cheer equally
for predator and for prey?


©Mary Lee Hahn, 2018


Thursday, August 23, 2018

The More You Love



The More You Love

The more you love,
the harder you work.

The harder you work,
the more you accomplish.

The more you accomplish,
the greater the expectations.

The greater the expectations,
the more epic the fail.

The more you fail,
the harder you work.

The harder you work,
the more you love.


©Mary Lee Hahn, 2018



(I think this poem might work as a reverso!)



Thursday, August 9, 2018

New Again




New Again

The world is layered.
Just when you think you understand
a split appears
a layer pulls back
is shrugged off
and the world is new again.


©Mary Lee Hahn, 2018


Friday, August 3, 2018

Life on the Top


Unsplash photo by Joshua Earle

Life On Top

Make a mess
Make a life

Life is sweet
Life is bitter

Bitter end
Bitter pill to swallow

Swallow it whole
Swallow your pride

Pride before a fall
Pride that bursts

Bursts of anger
Bursts of joy

Joy in a bundle
Joy mixed with tears

Tears your heart out
Tears it to pieces

Pieces of pie
Pieces of writing

Writing on the wall
Writing it off

Off the cuff
Off balance

Balance and checks
Balance the books

Books we rewrite
Books a flight

Flight of wine
Flight of fancy

Fancy that
Fancy up

Up my spine
Up in the air

Air your grievance
Air it out good

Good grief
Good as gold

Gold standard
Gold can't stay

Stay put
Stay ahead

Ahead of time
Ahead of the game

Game changer
Game over

Over easy
Over the top

Top heavy
Top flight

Heavy
Flight


©Mary Lee Hahn, 2018



This poem is written in the Blitz Poem poetic form.

I made extensive use of The Free Dictionary, which has a tab for idioms. I also needed an exhaustive list of prepositions to craft my title. Because the title comes from the 3rd and 47th lines of the poem, I revised the last ten lines four times because I couldn't find a preposition I liked that linked life with blood, back, or easy. And I sure wasn't going to go all the way back and change line 3!



Tuesday, July 31, 2018

Aria




aria of flight 
each note composed in silence 
wingbeats await wind 

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2018




Messy




before chrysalis 
creativity and change 
are messy 

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2018

The Power of One




one butterfly 
one flower in one garden 
the power of one 

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2018




Thursday, July 26, 2018

When the Moon is One Day From Full

photo via Unsplash by Stan Mart!n!

When the Moon is One Day From Full

and the kitchen counter is crowded
with jars containing caterpillars
and chrysalises,
it is nearly impossible to resist
the words
transformation
or
miracle.


©Mary Lee Hahn, 2018



Thursday, June 7, 2018

High Plains Wind


Unsplash photo via Matthieu Joannon

High Plains Wind
     (after Wind by James Arthur)

     it's true sometimes I cannot
stop myself from lifting
     the roof shingles

unleashing tumbleweeds snapping
tree branches
muddying the pool I'm nothing
     until I happen
barreling down from the North
     filling eyes with grit
     nostrils too
pelting the streets with dusty sleet

above wheatfields
    surfing the waves of grain
so full of high excitement howling
I borrow the arid topsoil
     and fling it into the ditch

arriving with news of the bindweed
     and the horseflies
at times buffeting you so violently
in ways you register
     as fists


©Mary Lee Hahn, 2018



I am blessed to live in a climate where we have day-long gentle rains that allow the oaks to tower and the corn to grow without irrigation. We are currently several inches over the average rainfall for the year, and yet in the High Dry Plains of Eastern Colorado, even an inch of our rain could save crops and livelihoods. It's desperately dry there, and the wind is unrelenting. When I read Wind by James Arthur, I knew I wanted to tell the story of a more savage and remorseless wind than his rascally wind whose antics include turning umbrellas inside out (I never owned one until I moved to the midwest), stealing hats, and embracing as light as a touch. The wind back home is downright mean-spirited and vengeful.

Monday, April 30, 2018

High Flight



Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard.
~Kevin Durant


High Flight

The last day of school is in sight. You can’t imagine how hard
it is to release my masterpieces, say goodbye to my best work.
Launching you, I imagine the sigh of wing-beats
as you fly away, soaring with your talent,
your sense of humor, your desire to set the world right. When
you alight again next fall, don’t you dare hide your talent,
head under wing, letting others lead. Genius doesn’t
need adult plumage to rise and spiral. All genius needs is work.
And remember, the work of flight is joyful, not hard.


©Mary Lee Hahn, 2018






Sunday, April 29, 2018

Word Game Wednesday




Do not go where the path may lead. Go instead where there is not path and leave a trail.  ~Ralph Waldo Emerson


Word Game Wednesday

What would you like to do?
Play Word Around? Rhyme Out? Bananagrams? Do not
dawdle; find a group and go
tinker with words! Play Scrabble; observe where
the
words intersect, criss-crossing a path
of letters that may
lead
to unexpected mergers. Perhaps go
online instead
and play Free Rice, where
you earn kernels of rice for nuggets of knowledge. There
is
no
guarantee, but Word Game Wednesday could have been the path
that led us to be homophone, homonym, and
homograph hunters. Words open the world. Using them, we leave
a
splendiferous trail.


©Mary Lee Hahn, 2018



Saturday, April 28, 2018

Winter Memory



Life is not measured by the breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.  ~Unknown

Winter Memory*

When you consider the life
of another creature, it is is
often humbling. The temperature that day was not
much above zero. We measured
the cold by
the
frost on our scarves from our breaths.
We
were by the lake to take
winter pictures, but
we became fascinated by
the
geese in the water. After a few moments
of observation, we could see that
the cold didn’t seem to bother them. We had begun to take
our
photos when we saw it – goose breath
puffing in the cold air. Blew us completely away.


©Mary Lee Hahn, 2018



*Mr. Wald, our classroom stool-repairer, provided the memory that became this poem.



Friday, April 27, 2018

Poetry Friday



Whatever you are, be a good one.  ~Abraham Lincoln


Poetry Friday

Pick a poem about whatever
captivates you
endangered animals, a hotdog car, dinosaurs, or ants – you are
in charge of choosing and practicing. Be
an attentive audience for others. Then, be a
positively excellent performer. Make us sigh, or laugh and say, “Good
one!”


©Mary Lee Hahn, 2018




Thursday, April 26, 2018

Endless Winter



You're never a loser until you quit trying.  ~Mike Ditka


Endless Winter

Indoor recess AGAIN? You’re
kidding me! Spring is never
going to get here! Oh, well. Grab a
board – mancala, chess, Clue – there’s no loser
in a never-ending game. We’ll play until
…what’s that you
say? The snow has quit?
The sun is shining…or at least trying?!?


©Mary Lee Hahn, 2018




Wednesday, April 25, 2018

Go Ahead and Give It Your All


Life is short. Make it amazing.  ~Hugh MacLeod (gapingvoid.com)


Go Ahead and Give It Your All

Making a Valentine box is like making a life.
The amount of effort you put into it is
the amount of fun you get out of it. Don’t be short-
sighted. Use every bit of imagination to make
it
(your life or your Valentine box) amazing!


©Mary Lee Hahn, 2018



Tuesday, April 24, 2018

Collaboration



We all have the same roots and we are all branches of the same tree.  ~Aang (in Avatar: The Last Airbender)


Collaboration

Testing means work silently (all by yourself) but we
are accustomed to collaboration. We know we are all
smarter when we work together, but we have
to take the
test alone. It is not the same
as (all those times) when we discovered how our (very different) roots
could lead us to common understanding. Testing is too quiet and
the air is filled with tension. We
struggle silently (on our own) until we are
all finished. At last we get our voices back and we are all
of us (once again) like branches
(grafted from many nations and cultures) of
the
(strong enough to support us all and tested by time) same
(collaboration makes us all smarter) tree.


©Mary Lee Hahn, 2018



Monday, April 23, 2018

Easier Said Than Done



Treat people the way you want to be treated.  ~The Golden Rule


Easier Said Than Done

Learn to treat
yourself with kindness, because other people
might not. Believe the
truth contained in your heart. Get out of your own way
and become the person you
were meant to be. If you want
to, you can fix what’s broken. You can be the one to
make sure every injury will be
treated.


©Mary Lee Hahn, 2018


Sunday, April 22, 2018

Persona


Everything that can be counted does not necessarily count; everything that counts cannot necessarily be counted.  ~Einstein


Persona 

I’m interested in everything.
The world is full of ideas and wonders that
blow my mind. I can
make amazing connections, be
the one who sees what others cannot, be counted
on to be the one who does
not take a statement for granted – the one who is not
afraid to question (but also who does not necessarily
think before I put my opinion out there). However, you can count
on me to understand that everything
I do or say matters, and that
admitting my mistake counts.
I have a keen sense of humor, and although I cannot
necessarily
time my jokes accurately, I keep trying. My best might be
the Poetry Friday ant rap. That definitely counted.


©Mary Lee Hahn, 2018