Six Strands

SIX STRANDS

I.
summertime clothesline
sun-bleached swimsuits and towels
functional design


II.
taming tough jute
	knot
after follow-the-diagram 
	knot
precisely forming each
	knot
every creation now
	lost
to time. Unraveled.


III.
Simplicity patterns and fabric on bolts –
Orth’s Department Store –
a place for dreaming.
Later, pinning pattern pieces –
cutting carefully –
no place for dreaming.


IV.
counting cross stitches
design emerges slowly
meticulously
time-lapse with needle and thread
if you follow the pattern


V.
The Conundrum of Patterns

They are everywhere.
They are beautiful.
They teach discipline.
They limit creativity.
They encourage innovation.
They connect us.
They are thread;
we are needles.


VI.
pull
one thread
at a time
to unravel
the apron string's knot --
a tangle of patterns,
precision, and perfection.
Examine each beautiful strand.
Make them into something wholly...you.


 

© Mary Lee Hahn, 2022 

Not a Joke

Not a Joke

Isn’t it funny
(not a joke
no humor
no puns)
Isn’t it funny
how war creates a necessity
that strips away all the labels
previously preventing a person’s
life work?

Isn’t it funny
(not a joke
no humor
no puns)
Isn’t it funny
how the devastation of war
creates industries
and builds an economy out of
destruction?

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2017



“My mother was writing her dissertation when I was little and got her Ph.D. in 1939. But it was the middle of the Depression; she was Jewish, a socialist, and a woman; and she couldn’t get a job teaching. But when the Second World War broke out, she got a job on an assembly line in a bomb factory, and Bud went to work as a carpenter in a shipyard.”

http://www.harvardsquarelibrary.org/biographies/malvina-reynolds/

Teacher

photo via unsplash

Teacher

Nothing prepared her for
the psychology of the actors,
the unfamiliar narrative framework,
the doubt she barely concealed
that bravery would ever find her.

And no one told her about
the tears that would suddenly pool,
the ache she couldn’t heal,
the glory of the learning
that would transcend it all.


©Mary Lee Hahn, 2017

This is a poem for Laura Shovan's Annual February Writing Project. The words/phrases for this poem

psychology
actors
narrative
framework
pool
bravery
transcends
capture
conceal
doubt

originated here.

Homesick

Flickr Creative Commons Photo by SB

HOMESICK

The pears on the kitchen counter
are probably ripe by now,
and the basil in the raised bed
ready to be ground into another batch of pesto.

Perhaps the coneflowers and gayfeather have bloomed,
and certainly the morning glory vines
have locked the back gate.

But when I return, the afternoon sun will glow
through the west windows

as it always does.

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2016

Perpetual Impasse

Flickr Creative Commons photo by Vincent van der Pas

Perpetual Impasse

Outstretched arms reach,

hail,

implore,

shrug.

Open hands caress

tenderly,

fleetingly, 

forgivingly.

Blank face stares.

Unresponsive,

emotionless,

frozen.

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2014

Our Wonderful World: The Amazon Rain Forest

Details of my Poetry Month Project can be found here.

24. The Amazon Rain Forest

Leaf Cutter Ants

SYMBIOSIS

Ant agriculturalists

harvest leaf bits,

feeding them to fungus,

growing their food source.

But there's more.

The fungus needs the ants.

Mold threatens the fungus,

so worker ants wear 

a coat of bacteria --

living antibiotics that protect their food.

But there's more.

The rainforest needs the ants

who prune vegetation

which stimulates growth;

who break down leaves

which renews the soil.

But there's more.

The earth needs the rainforest.

The green, 

living,

breathing

jewel of biodiversity

which holds keys to the balance

of life on earth.

Keys that may be lost 

before we even know how much we need them.

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2014

Some aurora poems from yesterday:

Carol's at Carol's Corner

Catherine's at Reading to the Core

Margaret's (Reflections on the Teche) can be found in yesterday's comments.



Kevin's Amazon poem is here.

Our Wonderful World: The Grand Canyon

Details of my Poetry Month Project can be found here.

20. The Grand Canyon

For the Grand Canyon (and Franki)

You're amazing.

I like to watch people's faces

when they first experience you.

There's no mistaking the power of your energy.

You're inspiring.

We see what you've accomplished,

the vigor and potential in all you do,

and we know we could do more and be more.

You're incredible:

the reach of your influence;

your stamina, your spirit, your passion;

the bubbly joy at your core.

You're a wonder.

You make the world a better place.

You are a force for good.

We are lucky to have you in our world.

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2014

Carol has two poems and a process post about Chichen Itza at Carol's Corner.

Catherine joins us with a Grand Canyon poem at Reading to the Core.

Kevin pays tribute to the Colorado River in his poem at Kevin's Meandering Mind.

Colette's Grand Canyon poem at 100 Words a Day will give you gasps of wonder AND fear. 

Our Wonderful World: The Panama Canal

Details of my Poetry Month Project can be found here.

16. The Panama Canal

PRANK

Snow is falling --

a mid-April joke

not meant to do real harm --

just a jest,

a parody of the pollen

that will soon sneeze up the air.

Bright green grass grins

through the dusting of snow.

Magnolia blooms chuckle

under caps of white.

Daffodils sigh,

sorry to be gone so soon.

Muffler and mittens snicker

at shivering shorts-wearing Springsters.

Forsythia half-heartedly bloomed

only just last week.

Everyone knows her punchline is

one more snow.

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2014

Yeah, I know. That poem has exactly nothing to do with the Panama Canal. But it's the poem I wanted to write, and it's the poem I wrote, and there aren't enough hours in the day to write another.

Yesterday I didn't get Carol's poem in two voices for the Itaipu Dam linked in, nor Kevin's flowchart poem for the Delta Works. Be sure you check them out. Both are amazing in their own unique ways.

Carol's poem for the Delta Works is here, and Kevin's Panama Canal poem is here.

Our Wonderful World: Stonehenge

Details of my Poetry Month Project can be found here.

2. Stonehenge

Wikipedia

We stand.

Sun warms us,

wind pushes us,

people stare at us.

We wait.

Moon comforts us,

rain gouges us,

people stare at us.

We know.

Tools made us,

ancients moved us,

people stare at us.

We endure.

History created us,

future sustains us,

people admire us.

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2014

S t o n e h e n g e

feels              hard,

can                lift,

sounds          silent

very              strong

reaches         high

to the            sky

feels             rough.

©JB, 2014

We did another two-column brainstorm for today's poems. This time we thought about what moods the picture evoked, and what sensory images we might include in our poem.

There's so much we don't know about Stonehenge. I tried to capture the solid silence of the stones, and the wonder and amazement that we continue to feel in the presence of this mighty ring of standing stones.

EDITED AFTER SHARING WITH MY CLASS: The last line of my poem used to read "people stare at us." AH suggested that perhaps since the poem shifts in that stanza to bigger themes, the last line could be "people admire us." I totally agreed and have made that change! Thanks, AH! (This is what I love about being a part of a community of writers...in my classroom!)

Carol and Kevin both wrote poems yesterday for The Great Pyramid of Giza. Check them out at Carol's Corner and Kevin's Meandering Mind.

Sweet Little Kitty

Photo by Mary Lee Hahn

Sweet Little Kitty

Cat curls up tight,

closes eyes, purrs.

Disguised by sleep,

sinks down deep where

cat dreams are found

and stalks, soundless,

huge now, lethal.

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2014

This is the poem I wrote for this week's Poetry Stretch at The Miss Rumphius Effect. The form is called "Climbing Rhyme." Each line can either have four words or four syllables. I went for syllables. The rhyme is internal. For more details, read this post. Here's a nice visual Tricia gave us to track the rhymes:

xxxa

xxax

xaxb

xxbx

xbxc

xxcx

xcxx

Indoor Recess

Indoor Recess

Too cold again.
Too snowy for outdoor recess.
Too many days spent with the same twenty classmates.
Too limited without electronics.

We already built with blocks.
We already played board games.
We already made up a storytelling game.
We already finished four jigsaw puzzles.

Let's play all together!
Let's play a whole class game!
Let's play Heads Up Seven Up!
Let's play!

***

It's amazing to see them ALL play together.
It's amazing -- first time in my career it's happened.
It's amazing to know that collaboration can emerge so naturally.
It's amazing to have faith and hope reaffirmed during indoor recess.

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2014

The Poetry Stretch at Tricia's blog was a new form to me -- anaphora, "the repetition of the same word or phrase in several successive clauses." There are some spectacular examples in the comments. Mine describes what happened at recess this week.

Common Inspiration--Uncommon Creations.20

Map of San Antonio, Texas
(Image is in the Public Domain, from Wikimedia Commons)

For the third Saturday in a row, I am not at home, enjoying the leisure and luxury that is sometimes known as Saturday. 

I am in San Antonio, Texas at the International Reading Association conference. As I'm out and about today, I'll be thinking about San Antonio's past, the river that runs through it, and maybe those flat, dry plains that spread to the horizon from its edges. Maybe today's image is about the known and the unknown. So many possible directions to go with your writing, when you've got a map in mind.

winding ribbon of water

fed by natural springs

lined by hundred year-old cypress trees

polka-dotted by restaurant umbrellas

serenaded by mariachi bands

cruised by tour boats

beloved heart of San Antonio

©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!

Common Inspiration--Uncommon Creations.18

Ansel Adams [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

ANSEL ADAMS IN CANYON DE CHELLY

meandering 

eroding

grain by grain

rising

towering 

from the plain

lighting

shadowing

changeable sky

framing 

shooting

artistic eye

©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!

Ode to the Word on the Tip of My Tongue

Ode to the Word on the Tip of My Tongue

You're so...
(I'm speechless)

Whenever you...
(I'm mum)

The best thing...
(I'm silenced)

I love how you...
(struck dumb)


© Mary Lee Hahn, 2013

West on I-70

Flickr Creative Commons photo by Chedder

WEST ON I-70

The horizon circles me

like a coyote

warily

watchfully

remotely

The road shoots me

like an arrow

impassively

relentlessly

directly

Pikes Peak greets me

with a nod

discreetly

solemnly

distantly

© Mary Lee Hahn, 2012