Our Wonderful World: Chichen Itza

Details of my Poetry Month Project can be found here.

19. Chichen Itza

Dominating the North Platform of Chichen Itza is the Temple of Kukulkan (a Maya feathered serpent deity similar to the Aztec Quetzalcoatl)...On the Spring and Autumn equinoxes, in the late afternoon, the northwest corner of the pyramid casts a series of triangular shadows against the western balustrade on the north side that evokes the appearance of a serpent wriggling down the staircase, which some scholars have suggested is a representation of the feathered-serpent god Kukulkan. --Wikipedia

What To Do If You Are a Feathered Serpent Deity

Wear plumage to mitigate your fangs

to imply flight

suggest softness

Wear scales to camouflage your tenderness

to announce might

define dominance

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2014

Kevin has an amazing interactive poem today at Kevin's Meandering Mind.

Our Wonderful World: Machu Picchu

Details of my Poetry Month Project can be found here.

18. Machu Picchu

HOW?

No wheel for rolling,
or draft horse for pulling,
and hills too steep,
with trees thick and deep.

So how to move countless
stone blocks up a mountain?
A hundred-man force
up an inclined plane course.

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2014


After a week that featured wonders of the modern world chosen by The American Society of Civil Engineers -- the Empire State Building (my favorite of my poems this week), the Golden Gate Bridge, the Itaipu Dam, the Delta Works, and the Panama Canal (I cheated and wrote a non-wonder poem that day) -- it's been nice to return to some ancient wonders: Petra yesterday and Machu Picchu today.

And what fun to learn about unknown or little-known places around the world, and to marvel, day after day, at the ingenuity of the human race!

Kevin wrote a pensive ransom note poem for today. It's at his blog,Kevin's Meandering Mind.

Carol Wilcox's poem for today focuses on a tiny detail to get at the big picture. It's simply masterful.

Carol Varselona at BeyondLiteracyLink wrote a poem for the Panama Canal.

Carol Wilcox's poem for Petra is at Carol's Corner. I immediately thought of the cliff-dwellers of the American Southwest when I looked through the pictures of Petra!

Our Wonderful World: Petra

Details of my Poetry Month Project can be found here.

17. Petra

Petra

The rose-stone buildings stand

with their backs to the mountains

shot by Bedouins

ransacked by tomb-robbers

photographed by tourists

shaken by earthquakes

eroded by flooding

disappearing as imperceptibly 

but as certainly

as the dimming of our sun.

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2014

It was nice yesterday to have a break from writing about the Wonders of the World, and instead write about the wonder of my world. The insatiable urge of humankind to build, build, build (and in the process destroy, destroy, destroy) was wearing me out. At the same time, the enormity of our planet makes our little human scrapes and scratches, ditches and dams and monuments seem tiny and temporary. I am sorry that the amazing city of Petra will not last forever, but at the same time I am heartened that the desert will reclaim its mountains.

Carol's poem from yesterday, "On Building the Panama Canal" is a powerful metaphor.

Kevin's poem today is "Rose City," which you can see in final draft and in process at Kevin's Meandering Mind.

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: The Delta Works

Details of my Poetry Month Project can be found here.

15. The Delta Works

The Delta Works along the coast of the Netherlands are fascinating works of engineering. 

I have a couple of Fibs for today.

The Netherlands

Low,

flat,

Holland,

diked and dammed.

From sea, polders rise:

a Mondrian of tulip fields.

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2014

Delta Works

Walled,

diked,

blocked up,

occluded,

barricaded shut:

the Netherlands holds back the sea.

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2014

Our Wonderful World: The Itaipu Dam

Details of my Poetry Month Project can be found here.

14. Itaipu Dam

Compromise

Hungry for energy,

we sacrifice wild splendor,

harnessing the river's power,

taming it with concrete and steel,

satisfied with this compromise.

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2014

When the Itaipu Dam was built, the sacrifice was the Guaíra Falls, the world's largest waterfall by volume. Was it worth it? Depends how you determine worth, I guess...

image from The Misanthrope's Journal

Carol wrote two poems for the Golden Gate Bridge yesterday. They are atCarol's Corner.

Kevin has an unusual poem for today. But it's also perfect for the wonder. The Itaipu Dam converts the energy of water into electricity. To understand Kevin's poem, you'll have to translate it. Check it out here. For more poetry fun, check out the Grant Snider's Poetry Posters that Kevin is highlighting.

Our Wonderful World: The Golden Gate Bridge

Details of my Poetry Month Project can be found here.

Wikipedia

13. Golden Gate Bridge

I'm photogenic

posing with waves, fog, sunsets

expensive "steel harp"

©Mary Lee Hahn

Carol has a pair of poems for the Empire State Building at Carol's Corner.

Kevin also has a haiku today for the GGB.

I wanted to write short today so I would have time to share some of my students' writing.

For our Poetry Friday lesson, I shared my poems for the week with my students. (They didn't write with me this week. They were doing micro-research cause/effect paragraphs on slow and fast processes that change the earth.) I announced the theme of "Places" for their Poetry Friday reading or writing of poetry and sent them off to work. As always, they blew me away when we got back to share.

We heard poems from a wide range of poetry books:

Dinothesaurus: Prehistoric Poems and Paintings by Douglas Florian (the one about the T-Rex, perhaps at a museum or on site at a dig)

National Geographic Book of Animal Poetry: 200 Poems with Photographs That Squeak, Soar, and Roar! collected by J. Patrick Lewis ("City Mouse/Country Mouse")

Stampede!: Poems to Celebrate the Wild Side of School by Laura Purdee Salas (the one about getting lost in a new school -- very appropriate since they visited their middle schools this week and are a delicious mixture of excitement and dread)

A Strange Place to Call Home: The World's Most Dangerous Habitats & the Animals That Call Them Home by Marilyn Singer (the one about the mountain goats)

Out of This World: Poems and Facts about Space by Amy Sklansky (the one about blasting off -- our space expert has read a poem from this book just about EVERY Poetry Friday all year long!)

A World of Wonders: Geographic Travels in Verse and Rhyme by J. Patrick Lewis (I don't remember which poem, but perfect choice of books, eh?)

And we heard these originals (among others a bit too rough for publication just yet):


Catacombs

Here I go
off by myself
just a donkey
without a doubt.
Then I tripped
into a place.
It felt as if
I went 100 feet deep.
Then I realized
it was a tomb.
Three cheers for the donkey!
They thought I didn't have a clue.

by HF


Riddle

I am at a place where you can get whatever you desire.
You can have something as cool as the wind, or as spicy as fire.
I bet you will admire
the ones we have hired.
So can you guess where I am?

(Subway..."eat fresh")

by CS


If You Use Your Mind

China holds a conga line,
Egypt makes chocolate kisses,
Home is what's yours and mine,
America has famous Miss-es.

Earth holds land, sea, and sky,
but it would be nothing without creation.
Earth holds those who walk, swim and fly,
creatures of all ages.

Jungles are a line of I's,
pines are cones of ice cream,
snow makes lands of sparkly white,
ice cream that stands on tall mountains.

Liberty is a welcomer of copper green,
the sea is a place you long to see.
Palms hold food and water, too,
all these things are on earth for you.

by MC


Here's another MC wrote, inspired by Stonehenge:


Rain was falling on me,
only one place left to go.
Stone.

I sat against the smooth stone,
shaded slightly from the rain.
Alone.

The place seemed erie,
I wondered if anyone was there.
One.

I thought I could hear whispers,
but
it's just my imagination.

I thought I could see figures.
I thought I could feel hands.
I thought I could hear voices.

I thought.
I knew.

I knew there was someone --
no,
it's not my imagination.

I knew I could see figures.
I knew I could feel hands.
I knew I could hear voices.

I knew.
I wondered.

I wondered if it was my imagination --
maybe,
maybe not.

I wondered who the figures were.
I wondered if they were like me.
I wondered what they were trying to say.

I wondered.
I thought.

by MC

Our Wonderful World: The Empire State Building

Details of my Poetry Month Project can be found here.

Wikipedia

12. The Empire State Building

The Empire State Building

A peach kabob¹
A home for gods²
At the very tip
Kong loses his grip³

Fourth in height⁴
Icon of might⁵
Symmetrically planned
Art deco-ly grand⁶


©Mary Lee Hahn, 2014

¹ In the book James and the Giant Peach, the peach ends its journey with a great squelch atop the pinnacle of the Empire State Building.

² In Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson series, Mount Olympus is the Empire State Building.


³ King Kong tried to escape his captors by climbing the Empire State Building, but it didn't work out the way he planned.

⁴ In North America...for the time being.

⁵ The nickname of the state of New York is "The Empire State," a reference to its wealth and resources.

⁶ The Empire State Building's art deco style is typical of pre-WWII architecture in New York City.



Carol's "Edgewalk" from yesterday's CN Tower is a must-read at Carol's Corner.

Kevin annotated his poem for today, "Empires Rise and Fall," on Poetry Genius. (He is one, by the way.)

Our Wonderful World: The CN Tower

Details of my Poetry Month Project can be found here.

Wikipedia

11. The CN Tower

Stand Up Straight

Okay, Mom.
I get it now.
All those
"Stand
up
straight!"s
were your way
of saying,
"Be proud!"
"Be confident!"
"Be yourself!"

I wish
I had listened.
I'd like to
go back
and tell my
teen self
those very same
things.

And now,
as I watch
you bend
and shrink
with age,
my own
"Stand up straight!"s
take on
new urgency,
as does
my own reminder to
"Listen to your mother"
so I can soak up
every story.
every bit of wisdom
before it's too late.

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2014

What a week. More than once, I've grumbled, "Who thought up this crazy Wonders of the World poem-a-day challenge?" 

Oh, yeah. I did. 

One of the things I've done to keep myself sane (and keep the poems coming) is to not write exactly about the wonder itself. 

Today Carol shares an arun about the Channel Tunnel from yesterday's wonder.
Kevin added humor to his poem for the CN Tower by making a webcomic.

Our Wonderful World: The Channel Tunnel

Details of my Poetry Month Project can be found here.

Wikipedia

10. The Channel Tunnel

The Song of the Overworked

There’s a light at the end of the tunnel.
We thought it would never appear.
We toiled and we moiled ‘til we thought we would drop.
When we saw it we gave out a cheer!

Now we know we can make it the whole way.
Our steps have new vigor and zeal.
We’ll skip and we’ll prance and we’ll sprint to the end.
We can outlast this wretched ordeal.

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2014

The Channel Tunnel is a fascinating feat of human engineering. I love that cross-section that shows how deep it goes. 

But my poem for today refused to be about this exact tunnel. First it wanted to be about earthworms and moles. Then I got the phrase "There's a light at the end of the tunnel" stuck inside my head. Maybe because it's been such a long week. Maybe because our state's "blessed event" is within sight at the end of this month. Maybe because I am starting to plan out my professional development and travel plans for the summer. 

No matter what you're working your way through, this poem is for you -- I hope you can see the light at the end of your tunnel.

Kevin has a visual poem today.

Carol's found poems for the Taj Mahal yesterday are at Carol's Corner.

Our Wonderful World: The Taj Mahal

Details of my Poetry Month Project can be found here.

Wikipedia

9. Taj Mahal

W is for Wonder

From the far end of the reflecting pool

the Taj Mahal is a W.

Unanswered questions carved in white marble:

What? Where? When? Why? and are you able

to fathom the love the emperor felt

when he had this tribute built?

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2014

Kevin's Taj Mahal poem is about the blues singer of the same name.

Carol and Catherine have Leaning Tower of Pisa poems from yesterday at Carol's Corner and Reading to the Core.

Our Wonderful World: The Leaning Tower of Pisa

Details of my Poetry Month Project can be found here.

Wikipedia

8. The Leaning Tower of Pisa

A Note From the Architect

I didn't mean

for my tower to lean --

my work is usually not sloppy.

At least I know

that history will show

my creation will never be copied.

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2014

A note about the architect: there is actually controversy about the architect of the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Imagine that. No one made sure to leave concrete (pun intended) evidence that this mistake was his.

Be sure you go over to Carol's Corner and read her poem about the Hagia Sophia from yesterday. Wow.

Kevin used a Google tool to make his Leaning Tower poem today. It's atKevin's Meandering Mind.

Our Wonderful World: The Hagia Sophia

Details of my Poetry Month Project can be found here.

Wikipedia

7. Hagia Sophia

The Hagia Sophia began as Greek Orthodox church, then it became a mosque, and now it's a museum in Istanbul, Turkey.

The whole time I was swimming my mile yesterday, I was thinking about religions. About how different religions fight to say that theirs is the true one, about the wars throughout human history that have been waged in the name of religion. There are many places (case in point, the Hagia Sophia) that have been declared holy by one religion, and the invading culture says, "Yes, this is holy...but now in OUR religion." Holy can't ever seem to be a shared holiness. Humans and our civilizations are fairly new to the planet and maybe the things we think are so important that we would kill for them are actually as fleeting as a cloud passing across the sun. It is that idea that gave me the image for my haiku today.

clouds block the sun

spires and domes are shadowed

brief darkness passes

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2014

Carol's lovely and heart-wrenching poem for the Porcelain Tower of Nanjing yesterday is at Carol's Corner.

Kevin's poem for today is at Kevin's Meandering Mind.

Our Wonderful World: The Porcelain Tower of Nanjing

Details of my Poetry Month Project can be found here.

6. Porcelain Tower of Nanjing

Unmuseum.org

The Eight Gratitudes

I hope you won't think I'm wasting

one of my eight

by choosing daffodils.

They hold hope

in their cup-and-saucer blooms.

If I choose

books -- 

the ones I bought yesterday,

plus the ones that line nearly every wall of every room --

can they also stand 

for the authors,

and my fellow readers,

and a quiet afternoon 

spent curled up on the couch reading?

Is that cheating?

How could I not

include chocolate?

Or my mug of hot tea 

first thing

in the morning?

When I close my eyes

and think of home,

I picture my mother, 

looking out the window above the kitchen sink,

calling me 

to come and see

the sunset.

Yes, that's worth three:

home, mom, sunsets.

Number eight is silence,

which was broken just now

by the train's whistle,

and earlier

by the robins and wrens 

singing in the dark.

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2014

As I read about The Porcelain Tower of Nanjing, trying to find a starting point for a poem, I came across these names for the pagoda: "Bao'ensi, or "Temple of Gratitude," and I learned that the base of the tower is octagonal. That's all I needed. My poem would be, "The Eight Gratitudes," which is a poem I could probably (should probably) write every day of my life with eight different gratitudes per day. After all, there's a growing body of research that shows an "Attitude of Gratitude" is actually good for your health.

The original tower, built to honor either the Emperor's parents or just his mother, was destroyed in the 19th Century, but was rebuilt in 2010.

Amy has been writing about her mentor poems in her process notes for her daily poems at The Poem Farm. I didn't have a particular poem in mind as I wrote, but I tried to imitate the conversational tone of Billy Collins' or George Bilgere's poetry.

Kevin's Notegraphy is here.

Be sure to visit Carol's Corner to read the fabulous abecedarian Carol wrote about The Great Wall of China yesterday.

Our Wonderful World: The Great Wall of China

Details of my Poetry Month Project can be found here.

5. Great Wall of China

Wikipedia

My Uncle's Getting Married

My uncle's getting married

in the church at Broad and High.

He's wearing a tuxedo,

cummerbund and bolo tie.

After all the boring stuff,

it's off to the party house.

We'll eat a fancy dinner

and we'll toast his brand new spouse.

The fun will really start then,

the groom will dance his bride,

we'll do the Macarena,

chicken dance, electric slide.

We'll boogie woogie, bump and grind,

we'll limbo way down low.

We'll shimmy, shake, we'll shuffle, swing

we'll do our best disco.

And when the bride says, "One more dance!"

the conga line she leads.

We ribbon all around the room,

we curve, we swerve, we weave.

A snake of happy revelers,

the young and old alike,

connected hand to waist to back,

we dance away the night.

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2014

I'm giving myself permission to have more fun with this project. I don't think I can write 25 more poems that are exactly about the wonders. So anything at all about the wonder that inspires me is fair game. 

Can you tell how I got today's poem from the image of the Great Wall? I hope you can see the conga line in the photo!

Here's Kevin's beautiful poem, Walls Won't Hold Us.

Here's Carol's poem about the Catacombs from yesterday, at Carol's Corner.

Our Wonderful World: The Catacombs of Kom el Shoqafa

The details of my Poetry Month project can be found here.

4. Catacombs of Kom el Shoqafa

Tripadvisor.com

We All Wait

What's a forgotten catacomb to do?

My tunnels sprawled,

my columns endured,

my stairways persevered.

What's a forgotten catacomb to do?

I cradled the bones of the dead

in silence.

My statues stood guard

in secrecy.

And I waited.

We all wait.

Sometimes

we even know why,

or what for.

Never

in all my centuries

would I have imagined

what would break the monotony 

and end my waiting.

What's a forgotten catacomb to do?

A thousand years I waited.

Then a donkey fell through my roof

and the silence, the secrecy, and the waiting were over.

Who would have guessed?

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2014


This is the first wonder I knew absolutely nothing about. Based on my experience yesterday, I knew we would need to do a bit of research before we started writing. I showed my students the image above and we brainstormed the questions we hoped to have answered by our research:

What are catacombs?
Are there traps?
Can tourists go there?
Are there kings, or treasure?
Where are they?
How old are they?
How big are they?
What are they used for?

My reading minilesson plans called for us to think about how we can determine the speaker in a poem (or a text), and in writing, we would try to write from an interesting point of view.

Turns out this was the perfect wonder for personification. You could write from the point of view of the catacombs themselves (as I did) or from the point of view of the donkey that fell through the roof in 1900, leading to the rediscovery of the catacombs. You could be a serpent guarding the doorway, a statue, a dead person buried there, or one of the shards for which the catacombs are named: "Mound of Shards." You could be the desert around it, the sky above it, or the water that's flooded the lowest level.


Carol has a Colosseum poem from yesterday at her blog, Carol's Corner.

Kevin's poem today is multimedia.