After the Workmen Leave

 

They Aren't All Gone. Yet.

 

Chant of the June Garden

 

Chant of the June Garden

Boneset
hummingbird
Bowman’s Root
bee

zinnia sprout
hollyhocks
Cardinal Flower
weeds

coral bells
baby dill
fennel fronds
tree

clematis
foxglove
primrose
me

(c) Mary Lee Hahn, 2025

We Do Not Care

 

Letter to an Awkward Sixteen Year-Old Dragging Main

 

A golden shovel using a line from Elizabeth Bishop’s “Letter to NY” 

Hello!

 

Fuel

Counter

 In typography, the small space inside letters is called a counter.

A Count. Account. Counter.

I’m
mapping
all the words
for what I’ll say
twenty years from now.
I consider their shapes,
their volume, their urgency,
even the nearly hidden space
in each letter, known as the counter.

(c)Mary Lee Hahn, draft 2025

Trauma

 

Wind Power

 

Bioenergy

 

Identity

 

Pollution

 

Historically

 

Definition

 

DEI

 

Equity

 

Barrier

 

Autism

 

Accessible

 

Victim: BRING ABREGO GARCIA HOME

 

Measles

 

Activism

 

Minority

 

Belong

 

Female

 

Promote

 

Identity

 

Elderly

 

Hate

 

Gay

 

Pronouns

 

Community

 

Activism

 

Biases

 

This poem is a Shadorma, a Spanish 6-line syllabic poem of 3/5/3/3/7/5 syllable lines respectively. So today's poem, "Biases," is a Shadorm-acrostic!

Transgender

 

Climate Crisis

 

Diversity

 

Clark Kent Writes Back

 

It’s time again for the Poetry Sisters’ Challenge! Here’s the scoop, via Tanita’s blog: “We’re writing back to four Lucille Clifton poems, in her notes to clark kent series: “if i should;” “further note to clark;” “final note to clark;” and “note passed to superman.” We’ll be ‘in conversation’ with Ms. Lucille’s poems – talking to them, talking back to them, or talking about them, whether that’s all of them, or any of them, either in form or in substance.”

I think these responses work without reading Lucille’s poems, but just in case, take a minute to read what she said to Clark before you read what Clark wrote back.

Wordle-imericks

 

Sometimes I write a Wordle poem using my word choices, but I ALWAYS write a haiku (a Wordle-ku) if I get the answer in three guesses. (I rarely get the answer in three.)

I made up a new rule yesterday. If I get the answer in five, I will write a limerick. Or, as the case may be, a Wordle-imerick. (I often get the answer in five. Maybe this should be a suggestion, rather than a rule…)

3/12 party, laugh, mange, manga, mango

The party was held in Durango.
For a laugh, we danced a wild tango.
So wild we caught mange,
wrote a manga quite strange,
then went to the store for a mango.

(I didn’t say they’d always make sense. But I did get better.)

3/13 chair, champ, chalk, chase (yes, I broke the rule and used a four-word win)

There once was a child in a chair.
Said child had some gum in his hair.
He wasn’t a champ.
Chalk him up as a scamp
chased down with a threat and a glare.

3/19 glory, stare, shark, snark, spark

The ocean — a vast blue-green glory.
I stare at its unfolding story.
The fin of a shark,
and its sharp toothy snark
spark panic before beaches get gory.

Dilated

 DILATED

Devil’s in the details.
Ideally, anyway. But
Leave it to the Big Picture
Archetype to force us to
Try to see everything all at once
Even when we hardly
Dare to open our eyes.

(c) Mary Lee Hahn, 2025 

Grandma Hahn's Bread

 

Grandma (Clara) Hahn’s Bread

4 cakes compressed yeast

Almost a century separates us

and yet time compresses –

you are here with me

in my kitchen.

1 cup lukewarm water

I cup my hands around the story

that you once held infant me.

6 tablespoons sugar

It would have sweetened our lives

had the car wreck not happened –

my father anchored by family

my mother loved as a daughter

we children connected to ancestors

1 qt. skimmed milk

but all those possibilities were skimmed away

like the thick, rich cream

that rises to the top of the morning milking

brought straight to the kitchen from the barn.

4 tablespoons shortening

I made your bread once for Dad,

attempting to shorten the distance

that had formed between us.

It was good, he said, but

about 14 ¼ cups Mother’s Best

not the same as yours.

7 ½ teaspoons salt

It’s not the same as yours,

but this three-rise half-day project

is as close as I’ll ever get

to the flavor of your love,

Grandma Hahn.

© Mary Lee Hahn, 2025

...is a word

 

.