PO-EMotion -- Hope

Wikimedia

SNAPSHOTS

The chemicals begin to drip.

She can feel her veins burning.

Fish are rising

in the deep pool across the stream.

Mother waves from the screen door

as the car pulls out of the drive.

Fingertips rest lightly on the keyboard.

Screen glows impassively.

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2015

Carol, at Carol's Corner, will join me again this year as often as possible.

 "Hopehymn"

Kimberley, at iWrite in Maine, is joining me this month. 

Lots of school hopes.

Kay, at A Journey Through the Pages, is joining, too!

"Hope Pokes"

Steve, at inside the dog, is sharing his poems 

in the comments at Poetrepository.

Heidi, at my juicy little universe, will join us when she can.

Linda, at TeacherDance, will join as often as she can.

Check the comments at A Year of Reading or Poetrepository for her poems.

Kevin (Kevin's Meandering Mind) is back this year,

leaving poetry trax in the comments.

Carol, at Beyond Literacy Link, is writing alongside us when she can.
"Gentle Stroll"

Jone, at DeoWriter, is doing a "double L" challenge. 

She and I are cross-poLLinating our challenges whenever possible.

PO-EMotion -- Desire

THE WHOLE SPECTRUM, PLEASE

tulip petal

monarch wing

forsythia's shock

first leaves in spring

prairie sky

shadows on snow

thunderhead's tower

dogwood, crow

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2015

Carol, at Carol's Corner, will join me again this year as often as possible.

"Longing"

Kimberley, at iWrite in Maine, is joining me this month. 

Sometimes desire takes will power.

Kay, at A Journey Through the Pages, is joining, too!

"Ode to Morning Mocha"

Steve, at inside the dog, is sharing his poems 

in the comments at Poetrepository.

Heidi, at my juicy little universe, will join us when she can.

Linda, at TeacherDance, will join as often as she can.

Check the comments at A Year of Reading or Poetrepository for her poems.

Kevin (Kevin's Meandering Mind) is back this year,

leaving poetry trax in the comments.

Carol, at Beyond Literacy Link, is writing alongside us when she can.
Hers is the desire to write!

Jone, at DeoWriter, is doing a "double L" challenge. 

She and I are cross-poLLinating our challenges whenever possible.

PO-EMotion -- Hate

image from The Home Gardener

VERMICULTURE

human headline news

chewed indiscriminately

shat out as rich soil

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2015

Carol, at Carol's Corner, will join me again this year as often as possible.

Her poem is here.

Kimberley, at iWrite in Maine, is joining me this month. 

She has another perfect classroom vignette.

Kay, at A Journey Through the Pages, is joining, too!

Hate Brings

Steve, at inside the dog, is sharing his poems 

in the comments at Poetrepository.

Heidi, at my juicy little universe, will join us when she can.

Linda, at TeacherDance, will join as often as she can.

Check the comments at A Year of Reading or Poetrepository for her poems.

Kevin (Kevin's Meandering Mind) is back this year,

leaving poetry trax in the comments.

Carol, at Beyond Literacy Link, is writing alongside us when she can.
Today's poem is here.

Jone, at DeoWriter, is doing a "double L" challenge. 

She and I are cross-poLLinating our challenges whenever possible.

PO-EMotion -- Aversion

Flickr Creative Commons photo by Larry Hoffman

VERSIONS OF AVERSION

crowds

conflict

powerpoint

lollygagging

liver and onions

being in the spotlight

committee meetings

folding laundry

gossiping

oysters

golf

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2015

Carol, at Carol's Corner, will join me again this year as often as possible.

Carol has an abecedarian aversion to housework!

Kimberley, at iWrite in Maine, is joining me this month. 

She wrote a diamante.

Kay, at A Journey Through the Pages, is joining, too!

Kay has a limerick-y aversion to greens!

Steve, at inside the dog, is sharing his poems 

in the comments at Poetrepository.

Heidi, at my juicy little universe, will join us when she can.

Linda, at TeacherDance, will join as often as she can.

Check the comments at A Year of Reading or Poetrepository for her poems.

Kevin (Kevin's Meandering Mind) is back this year,

leaving poetry trax in the comments.

Carol, at Beyond Literacy Link, is writing alongside us when she can.

Jone, at DeoWriter, is doing a "double L" challenge. 

She and I are cross-poLLinating our challenges whenever possible.
Today's word is LOLLYGAG.

PO-EMotion -- Despair

Flickr Creative Commons photo by Mike Bitzenhofer

DESPAIR--A FIB

I 

curl

into

a tight ball,

pull covers over,

wail and wallow in darkness.

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2015

Carol, at Carol's Corner, will join me again this year as often as possible.

mariana trench

Kimberley, at iWrite in Maine, is joining me this month.
Despair of a child...and her teacher.

Kay, at A Journey Through the Pages, is joining, too!

Despair all the way into your soul.

Steve, at inside the dog, is sharing his poems 

in the comments at Poetrepository.

Heidi, at my juicy little universe, will join us when she can.

Linda, at TeacherDance, will join as often as she can.

Check the comments at A Year of Reading or Poetrepository for her poems.

Kevin (Kevin's Meandering Mind) is back this year,

leaving poetry trax in the comments.

Jone, at DeoWriter, is doing a "double L" challenge. 

She and I are cross-poLLinating our challenges whenever possible.

PO-EMotion -- Dejection

Wikipedia

WHINE OF THE MEDUSOZOA

I belong to a bloom of jellies,

we've adapted to the tidal flux,

you'd think after 500 million years

we'd have brains...no such luck.

No brains, no eyes*, no stomach, no lungs,

just a floating gelatinous blob.

We drift with the current eating plankton and such,

hunting passively...a boring job.

I'll never see mountains or prairies or sky,

never walk on dry land with real legs,

never soar with a butterfly, bluebird or hawk,

never sing...my life is the dregs.

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2015

*"Certain species of jellyfish, such as the box jellyfish, have been revealed to have more advanced vision than their counterparts. The box jellyfish has 24 eyes, two of which are capable of seeing color, and four parallel information processing areas or rhopalia that act in competition, supposedly making it one of the few creatures to have a 360-degree view of its environment." --from Wikipedia

Carol, at Carol's Corner, will join me again this year as often as possible.

Carol finds dejection in the middle school cafeteria.

Kimberley, at iWrite in Maine, is joining me this month. 

Kim's dejection is poignant.

Kay, at A Journey Through the Pages, is joining, too!

Kay shares the dejection of a reader.

Steve, at inside the dog, is sharing his poems 

in the comments at Poetrepository.

Heidi, at my juicy little universe, will join us when she can.

Linda, at TeacherDance, will join as often as she can.

Check the comments at A Year of Reading or Poetrepository for her poems.

Kevin (Kevin's Meandering Mind) is back this year,

leaving poetry trax in the comments.

Jone, at DeoWriter, is doing a "double L" challenge. 

Jone, at DeoWriter, is doing a "double L" challenge. 

She and I are cross-poLLinating our challenges whenever possible. 

Today's word is JELLYFISH.

Laura has the Poetry Friday roundup today at Writing the World for Kids

2015 Progressive Poem -- My Line

Welcome to latest installment of the 2015 Progressive Poem! I'm going to honor the changes Irene, our fearless leader, made to the layout. She writes,

"You'll notice a couple of changes in this version of our poem. Jone's first line has been edited slightly, at Jone's request. (She and Joy decided "deposits" was redundant.) Also, I've broken the lines into couplets (one way to add white space to long lines.)"

I'm a flatlander from the arid prairies of eastern Colorado. I know nothing about deltas, let alone mermaids. This will be a stretch for my imagination! Excuse me for a minute while I go do some research!

...I hope Irene won't mind if I change her period to a comma! I'll leave my line unpunctuated for Michelle (Today's Little Ditty) to do with as she will!

She lives without a net, walking along the alluvium of the delta.
Shoes swing over her shoulder, on her bare feet stick jeweled flecks of dark mica.

Hands faster than fish swing at the ends of bare brown arms. Her hair flows,
snows in wild wind as she digs in the indigo varnished handbag,

pulls out her grandmother's oval cuffed bracelet,
strokes the turquoise stones, and steps through the curved doorway.

Tripping on her tail she slips hair first down the slide... splash!
She glides past glossy water hyacinth to shimmer with a school of shad,

listens to the ibises roosting in the trees of the cypress swamp

PO-EMotion -- Courage

SENECA ROCKS, WV

It's not enough

just to crawl to the top

plastering yourself to the rocks

in a smear of gravity.

Once you get there

you have to stand up

on your own two perilously unstable feet --

valiant and vertical.

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2015

Carol, at Carol's Corner, will join me again this year as often as possible.

Kimberley, at iWrite in Maine, is joining me this month. 

Kay, at A Journey Through the Pages, is joining, too!

Steve, at inside the dog, is sharing his poems 

in the comments at Poetrepository.

Heidi, at my juicy little universe, will join us when she can.

Linda, at TeacherDance, will join as often as she can.

Check the comments at A Year of Reading or Poetrepository for her poems.

Kevin (Kevin's Meandering Mind) is back this year,

leaving poetry trax in the comments.

Jone, at DeoWriter, is doing a "double L" challenge. 

She and I are cross-poLLinating our challenges whenever possible. 

PO-EMotion -- Joy

Flickr Creative Commons Photo by dutchy_42

QUILTING

In the last patch

of evening-lit sky

above the river,

a single heron

stitches one bank to the other

with steady wingbeats.

Bats zigzag

the seams of the day

to prevent unraveling.

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2015

Carol, at Carol's Corner, will join me again this year as often as possible.

Dog joy at Carol's Corner today.

Kimberley, at iWrite in Maine, is joining me this month. 

She finds joy in read aloud.

Kay, at A Journey Through the Pages, is joining, too!

Kay is hunting joy.

Steve, at inside the dog, is sharing his poems 

in the comments at Poetrepository.

Heidi, at my juicy little universe, will join us when she can.

Linda, at TeacherDance, will join as often as she can.

Check the comments at A Year of Reading or Poetrepository for her poems.

Kevin (Kevin's Meandering Mind) is back this year,

leaving poetry trax in the comments.

Jone, at DeoWriter, is doing a "double L" challenge. 

She and I are cross-poLLinating our challenges whenever possible. 

PO-EMotion -- Acceptance

UNTIL SUCH TIME

My trio of tubes
were machined
to make music.

I hang inside
silent
dreaming of breezes
gathering dust.

In my bones,
I hum.


©Mary Lee Hahn, 2015

Carol, at Carol's Corner, will join me again this year as often as possible.

Carol adds a few verses to the Serenity Prayer.

Kimberley, at iWrite in Maine, is joining me this month. 

Kim's acceptance comes from the classroom.

Kay, at A Journey Through the Pages, is joining, too!

Of maple leaves and hawks...

Steve, at inside the dog, is sharing his poems 

in the comments at Poetrepository.

Heidi, at my juicy little universe, will join us when she can.

Linda, at TeacherDance, will join as often as she can.

Check the comments at A Year of Reading or Poetrepository for her poems.

Kevin (Kevin's Meandering Mind) is back this year,

leaving poetry trax in the comments.

Jone, at DeoWriter, is doing a "double L" challenge. 

She and I are cross-poLLinating our challenges whenever possible. 

PO-EMotion -- Sadness

seven paper boats

a single candle in each

flotilla of grief

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2015

Carol, at Carol's Corner, will join me again this year as often as possible.

Carol's sadness takes the form of a kite.

Kimberley, at iWrite in Maine, is joining me this month. 

Her poem is heart-wrenching.

Kay, at A Journey Through the Pages, is joining, too!

Kay ponders the place of giggles in the midst of sadness.

Steve, at inside the dog, is sharing his poems 

in the comments at Poetrepository.

Heidi, at my juicy little universe, will join us when she can.

Her poem is "Why I Keep a Diary."

Linda, at TeacherDance, will join as often as she can.

Check the comments at A Year of Reading or Poetrepository for her poems.

Kevin (Kevin's Meandering Mind) is back this year,

leaving poetry trax in the comments.

Jone, at DeoWriter, is doing a "double L" challenge. 

She and I are cross-poLLinating our challenges whenever possible. 

Her sadness is of a food chain sort.

The roundup of 2015 Poetry Month projects throughout the Kidlitosphere can be found at 

Jama's Alphabet Soup.

PO-EMotion -- Disgust

Flickr Creative Commons Photo by Quinn Dombrowski

ODE TO THE EASTER EGG WE FOUND IN MAY

Along with a dust bunny from in back of the shelf

the innocent cat rolled you out.

In the dark, shoeless Dad stepped upon you

and let out a startled shout.

Your elliptical shell crunched and shattered,

a noxious stench rose and oozed,

the cat wisely galloped away

as the stink cloud spread and grew.

We opened all of the windows,

shooed the stink cloud out of the door.

Next Easter there will be no hunt.

To quote Dad: "Nevermore. Nevermore."

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2015

Carol, at Carol's Corner, will join me again this year as often as possible.

Her poem summarizes the rest of ours!

Kimberley, at iWrite in Maine, is joining me this month. 

Teachers, especially of younger children, will relate. Ew.

Kay, at A Journey Through the Pages, is joining, too!

Questions for a Litterbug

Steve, at inside the dog, is sharing his poems 

in the comments at Poetrepository.

Linda, at TeacherDance, will join as often as she can.

Check the comments here and at Poetrepository for her poems.

Kevin (Kevin's Meandering Mind) is back this year,

leaving poetry trax in the comments.

Jone, at DeoWriter, is doing a "double L" challenge. 

She and I are cross-poLLinating our challenges whenever possible. 

The roundup of 2015 Poetry Month projects throughout the Kidlitosphere can be found at 

Jama's Alphabet Soup.

PO-EMotion -- Anger

"Wild Platypus 4" by Klaus - Flickr: Wild Platypus 4. Licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons 

WHY CAN'T YOU ACCEPT ME FOR WHAT I AM?!?!?

I'm an

egg-laying

duck-billed

beaver-tailed

otter-footed

evolution-confounding

naturalist-baffling

real-life

no-joke

Australian-born

coin-featured

MAMMAL!

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2015

The first four hyphenated pairs in my poem today are borrowed straight from the Wikipedia article on the Platypus. Just goes to show that you can find your inspiration just about anywhere!

Carol, at Carol's Corner, will join me again this year as often as possible.

Kimberley, at iWrite in Maine, is joining me this month. 

She finds anger on the playground.

Kay, at A Journey Through the Pages, is joining, too!

Kay WAS spittin' mad!

Steve, at inside the dog, is sharing his poems 

in the comments at Poetrepository.

Linda, at TeacherDance, will join as often as she can.

Check the comments here and at Poetrepository for her poems.

Yay! Kevin (Kevin's Meandering Mind) is back this year,

leaving poetry trax in the comments.

Jone, at DeoWriter, is doing a "double L" challenge. 

She and I are cross-poLLinating our challenges whenever possible. 

The roundup of 2015 Poetry Month projects throughout the Kidlitosphere can be found at 

Jama's Alphabet Soup.

PO-EMotion -- Surprise

DRAGONFLY'S SURPRISE

All you can see
is the agile,
iridescent
aviator
I have become:
emperor of
the pond's airspace.

Imagine this:
in my nymph-hood,
I ruled below,
terrorizing
pond's murky depths,
spent years hunting
insects, tadpoles,
even small fish.
Extending my
overgrown lip:
flashing, snatching,
holding, munching.

Molting revealed
larger wing buds
each time, but no
hints of future
aeronautics.

Until one day,
in early dark,
I climbed a reed,
stopped with my head
above water,
learned to breathe air.
That accomplished,
I morphed from a
water creature
to the wonder
you see today.

Never, ever
undervalue
a lowly start.


©Mary Lee Hahn, 2015

Carol, at Carol's Corner, will join me again this year as often as possible.

Kimberley, at iWrite in Maine, is joining me this month. 

Her surprise will make you smile!

Kay, at A Journey Through the Pages, is joining, too!

Today, she has a gorgeous series of similes for surprise.

Steve, at inside the dog, is sharing his poems 

in the comments at Poetrepository.

Linda, at TeacherDance, will join as often as she can.

Check the comments at A Year of Reading or Poetrepository for her poems.

Yay! Kevin (Kevin's Meandering Mind) is back this year,

 leaving poetry trax in the comments.

Jone, at DeoWriter, is doing a "double L" challenge. 

She and I are cross-poLLinating our challenges whenever possible. 

She has an unwanted surprise today.

The roundup of  2015 Poetry Month projects throughout the Kidlitosphere can be found at 

Jama's Alphabet Soup.

Amy has today's Poetry Friday roundup at The Poem Farm.

PO-EMotion -- Fear

Flickr Creative Commons photo by Don deBold

FEAR

A shadow passes over my voice

like a hawk circling a field mouse,

like a heron targeting a bullfrog.

I freeze.

I didn't even raise my hand!

Why did she call on me?

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2015

Carol, at Carol's Corner, will join me again this year as often as possible.

She's got three very different poems for today.

Kimberley, at iWrite in Maine, is joining me this month. 

She shares school fears, too.

Kay, at A Journey Through the Pages, is joining, too!

Strong girls overcome fears in her poem.

Steve, at inside the dog, is sharing his poems 

in the comments at Poetrepository.

Linda, at TeacherDance, will join as often as she can.

Check the comments here and at Poetrepository for her poems.

Yay! Kevin (Kevin's Meandering Mind) is back this year,

 leaving poetry trax in the comments.

Jone is doing a "double L" challenge. 

She and I are cross-poLLinating our challenges whenever possible. 

Today I have a bullfrog for hers and she has fear for mine!

The roundup of  2015 Poetry Month projects throughout the Kidlitosphere can be found at 

Jama's Alphabet Soup.

PO-EMotion -- Anticipation

Flickr Creative Commons photo by eric lynch

ANTICIPATION

The end of the very last day of school,

standing poised on the edge of the pool,

smell of curry as I'm opening the door,

excitement of Christmas on the night before,

next in line for the roller coaster,

when will the toast come out of the toaster?

jitters, dread, a lack of patience,

waiting and waiting...anticipation.

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2015

The roundup of  2015 Poetry Month projects throughout the Kidlitosphere can be found at 

Jama's Alphabet Soup.