Inspired by ‘Walking Parker Home’ by Bob Kaufman via https://poets.org/poem/walking-parker-home
Peace (in flight),
Kevin
Category Archives: Poetry
Daily Haiku: A Few Poems
Open Write: Five Days/Five Poems
I joined in for this month’s Open Write at Ethical ELA (although I came a day late and stayed a day longer with my poetry writing). It was another interesting round of poetry prompts.
The open above is in the form of a Naani (Indian) poem, and a form I was not familiar with. It’s sort of like a Haiku in terms of character limitations, but a bit more open in structure. I wrote about waiting for the call on a wintry day (which came minutes after I finished writing the poem).
This next poem was prompted to rethink a person in your orbit. I had a student in mind.
A “why?” poem had me pondering why I write songs.
The prompt I missed and then returned to suggests using fictional characters from a book, put into some recent situation or technology theme. I used the main characters from Jake Burt’s The Right Hook Of Devin Velma, which we are reading in class, and it already has a social media theme to it.
And this was another school-related poem, retold of an incident that a colleague shared.
I look forward to next month’s five days of Open Write.
Peace (and poems),
Kevin
Roots (Still) Take Hold
I revisited this poem last year with an art adventure with Simon, and now with Sarah and others thinking of launching a Rhizomatic Learning for 2024, I went back, and did another version. Why? The poem captures for me a moment in Rhizo14 that anchors me in that learning time, and makes me wonder at what we can do now, ten years later.
Peace (Digging Deep),
Kevin
PS — hat nod to Dave Cormier’s long tail in helping many of us to learn in open spaces … or is it his long tale?
Radio Poem
Gathering Poems: Write Across America (Baltimore)
I have shared some of these poems during the days I wrote them, but I wanted to gather them together. These are all inspired by the National Writing Project’s Write Across America: Baltimore marathon. I mostly ignored the official prompts and instead, focused on the artist and their work.
Peace (and poems and place),
Kevin
Jazz Music and MLK Jr.: A Found Poem
My wife and I were at a music club last night, listening to two very fun jazz bands. One of the band leaders noted that in 1964, Martin Luther King Jr. addressed the Berlin Jazz Festival with a short speech connecting Jazz music to Civil Rights, and the power of the arts and expression. The band leader read a few lines of the speech and I was intrigued, so I found the speech this morning.
Much of the power of our Freedom Movement in the United States has come from this music. It has strengthened us with its sweet rhythms when courage began to fail. It has calmed us with its rich harmonies when spirits were down. – MLK Jr.
I used a section of the speech for a found poem with a blackout poem platform, for this Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
Peace (and poems),
Kevin
Poetry: Clay Face
Here’s another in a series of short poems inspired by the National Writing Project’s Baltimore stop for its Write Across America project. This poem is inspired by the clay sculpture work of Paula Whaley — learn more about her with this video.
Peace (smoothed out),
Kevin
Poetry: Inspired By Tintype
Yesterday, I shared a few poems from the latest National Writing Project Write Across America Project (focus: Baltimore artists) and today’s poem is another piece inspired by that same collection. This time, it’s about Elena Volkova, who works with tintype photography on her Anacostia Portrait project.
Peace (Sitting and Waiting),
Kevin
NWP Write Across America: Baltimore
The National Writing Project’s Write Across America place-based adventures continues into the school year, and I continue my practice of using the resources — when the resources get shared beyond the Zoom sessions that I nearly always miss — for some morning writing. This week, the project focused on artists in Baltimore, and it is a pretty fascinating collection.
Here are three poems (so far), inspired by three Baltimore artists and their work.
The first was from the work of Kathleen Fahey, who does old cranky-style videos, which are spooled stories that someone literally cranks to move along. Pretty cool and gives a story a forward motion.
The second poem came after exploring the work of Joyce Scott, who works with beads and glass and fabrics and more.
The third was focused on visual artist Ernest Shaw Jr., whose work is inspired by West African tradition and who does a variety of styles of art, including street murals. I listened to a video profile, taking notes on his words and then remixed his words into an art-themed poem.
Peace (in explorations of art),
Kevin