Collard Green Seed Savers Give Me Hope

 

This is a found poem from the NPR article “A community of seed savers has a recipe to revive rare varieties of collard greens”

In the section of ALL WE CAN SAVE titled "Nourish," there are essays about Black cultural ties to the soil, and the need to reimagine agriculture so that we can save our vanishing soil and protect our (mostly Hispanic or Latinx) farm workers. Large industrial farms need to be replaced by smaller farms and more robust home gardens. More people need to get their hands dirty raising their own food. If we are intimately connected to the soil, or to the seeds and their history, as the members of the Heirloom Collard Project are, we will be more invested in saving the whole planet.

Culture Change Work Is Climate Change Work

 

This non-rhyming villanelle is a found poem, created with lines used both directly from and paraphrased from ALL WE CAN SAVE, mostly from the essay “Harnessing Cultural Power” by Favianna Rodriguez. The lines can be found on these pages:
278, 125, 123;
125, 124, 278;
125, 125, 123;
126, 126, 278;
126, 127, 123;
127, 127, 278, 123.

Now, More Than Ever

Now, More Than Ever

Breathe
in hope,
then exhale
your gratitude.
Remember these truths:
students over standards,
patience over procedures,
compassion over compliance,
care over content, and grace over
gimmicks. We must humanize our teaching.


©Mary Lee Hahn, 2020


This poem is an etheree.  It is also a found poem, comprised of bits of a post I read on the Nextdoor app, and this tweet by Shana V. White:

Found Haiku -- On a More Hopeful Note

Unsplash photo by Andre Hunter

To change the world, you

must start out by loving it.

Don’t forget to dance.

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2019

Found in Garrison Keillor's column "The pleasure of running into Stan on Sunday,"
http://www.garrisonkeillor.com/running-into-stan-on-sunday/

This haiku and the one from yesterday were written in response to Linda Mitchell's challenge on Today's Little Ditty. It's pretty addictive.

Found Haiku

something was missing

where had all those insects gone

a feeling of loss

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2019

Image and words found in this article: "The Insect Apocalypse is Here: What Does it Mean for the Rest of Life on Earth?" by Brooke Jarvis, November 27, 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)

Working for Change

Working For Change

“Anyone
who puts his or her talent and effort
toward changes for the better
has tremendous
muscle.

(Much more than the negative people,
the destructive people.)

Because they have history
on their side
and they have the desires of the people
on their side
so they really can be very powerful
without all that much effort.

If you want to change
you can’t be desperate
even if the situation is difficult.
The fact that it’s good for the cause,
it’s good for you.
Because you become part of a community
that’s working to change
and that’s a very healthy thing.

You’re not just
grousing
and
complaining
but you’re working.

That will take away your blues.”

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2017


This is a found poem, a direct quote from Malvina Reynolds, taken from “Love it Like a Fool: A Film About Malvina Reynolds” at 25:35.

https://archive.org/details/loveitlikeafoolafilmaboutmalvinareynolds

Found Poem

For a moment,

everything was clear,

and when that happens

you see that the world

is barely

there

at all.

Don't we all secretly know this?

It's a perfectly balanced mechanism

of shouts and echoes

pretending to be wheels and cogs,

a dreamclock

chiming beneath a mystery-glass we call life.

Behind it?

Below it and around it?

Chaos, storms.

Men with hammers,

men with knives,

men with guns.

Women who twist

what they cannot dominate

and belittle

what they cannot understand.

A universe of horror and loss

surrounding a single lighted stage

where mortals dance

in defiance

of

the

dark.

from 11-22-63: A Novel

by Steven King

Scribner, 2011

p. 615-616