Today’s writing inspiration comes from Kimberly Johnson, Ed.D. She is a literacy coach and media specialist in a public school in rural Georgia. A former public school classroom teacher for 20 Years, she taught all grades except 4th and 12th, and she is the author of Father, Forgive Me: Confessions of a Southern Baptist Preacher’s Kid. Meet Dr. Johnson at NCTE 2019 in Baltimore where she will be giving two presentations: Adventure Book Clubs and Project-Based Learning.
Inspiration
Mashed Potato Bar Poems: Mash-up poems by our favorite poets- many, a few, or just one- making new poems from borrowed lines
Process
Consider your favorite poet(-s) and the opinions, orienteering, and observations that you treasure from their works. Select cherished lines and create a poem filled with advice or other significant revelations. You might use one borrowed line, several borrowed lines, or all borrowed lines.
- Which poets have inspired you?
- Are you more drawn to poems containing advice, observations, opinions, stories?
- What are some stand-out lines your favorite poet(-s) has/have used?
- You can also do this with music or books?
Kim’s Poem
Mary Oliver Mash-Up Poem Example
Orienteering Mary Oliver Modestly Offers Me
Listen, are you breathing just a little, and calling it a life? (“Have You Ever Tried to Enter the Long Black Branches”)
Consider the orderliness of the world. (“Flare”)
Consider the other kingdoms. (“The Other Kingdoms”)
Come with me into the woods. (“Bazougey”)
Sit now very quietly in some lovely, wild place and listen to the silence. (“A Lesson from James Wright”)
Notice something you have never noticed before. (“Flare”)
Do your best. (“Ropes”)
Have you noticed? (“Ghosts”)
Live with the beetle, and the wind. (“Flare”)
Imagine everything you can imagine, then keep on going. (“At the River Clarion”)
Keep some room in your heart for the unimaginable. (“Evidence”)
I want you to fill your hands with the mud, like a blessing. (“Rice”)
Accept the miracle. (“Logos”)
Let God and the world know you are grateful that the gift has been given. (“The Gift”)
Visit the garden. (“To Begin With, the Sweet Grass”)
Count the roses, red and fluttering. (“From the Book of Time”)
If you suddenly and unexpectedly feel joy, don’t hesitate. Give in to it. (“Don’t Hesitate)
Just keep on liking things. And praying. (“You Never Know Where a Conversation is Going to Go”)
Be good-natured and untidy in your exuberance. (“Flare”)
In the glare of your mind, be modest. (“Flare”)
Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it. (“Sometimes”)
Things! Burn them, burn them! (Storage)
Eat, drink, be happy. (“Logos”)
Eat bread and understand conflict. Drink water and understand delight. (“To Begin With, the Sweet Grass”)
Love yourself. Then forget it. Then love the world. (“To Begin With, the Sweet Grass”)
Scatter your flowers over the graves, and walk away. (“Flare”)
Think about what it is that music is trying to say. (“Drifting”)
Put your lips to the world and live your life. (“Mornings at Blackwater”)
-Mary Oliver, newly-arranged by Kim Johnson
(Note: I you can list the poems alongside each line or just list the poem titles at the bottom if it makes it less distracting.)
Post your writing any time today. If the prompt does not work for you today, that is fine– make-up your own prompt or a twist on this one. All writing is welcome. Please be sure to respond to at least three writers. Below are some suggestions for commenting with care. Oh, and a note about edits: The comment feature of this blog (and many blogs) does not permit edits. Since we are writing in short bursts, we all are understanding (and even welcome) the typos that remind us we are human.
I saw the best minds of my generation
Destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked
They said they’d never lose their gumption
Woke up one morning to find that it was taken
Who talked continuously seventy hours from park to pad
To bar to Bellevue to museum to the Brooklyn Bridge
Raising glasses to the cadavers of restlessness they never had
“Here’s to the hours we’ll never get back spent restocking the fridge!”
Who vanished into nowhere Zen New Jersey leaving a trail
Of ambiguous picture postcards of Atlantic City Hall
Of tidal waves of rum spilt onto the envelopes of email
Of corporate conversations too casually claptrap to recall
Ah, Carl, while you are not safe I am not safe
And now you’re really in the total animal soup of time
The predatory predecessor of a generation of waifs
Complete with an umbrella straw, salt, tequila and lime
*First two lines of each stanza from “Howl” by Allen Ginsberg
Stopping to Smell the Roses
The happiest man is he who learns from nature the lesson of worship. (1)
How little that which thou deniest me is; (2)
I’ve heard it in the chillest land – (3)
And on the strangest Sea – (3)
And places with no carpet on the floor– (4)
Bare.(4)
You are at home, a stranger,(5)
But I could not both live and utter it. (6)
1.“Nature” by Ralph Waldo Emerson
2.“The Flea” by John Donne
3.“Hope” is the thing with feathers – (314) by Emily Dickenson
4.“Mother to Son” by Langston Hughes
5. “To Live in the Borderlands” by Gloria Anzaldua
6. “My life has been the poem” by Henry David Thoreau
Good selection of poets! I like how cohesive you made all these lines feel.
Kim — I sure do love Mary O. The lines pulled out feel like a ritualistic mantra …hearing them guide. She was one VERY wise woman.
I wish I had WiFi. …my scrawny old iPhone is squeezing the life out of my eyeballs. I’ll try to do better tomorrow.
[NOTE: I’m up in the mountains and no WiFi, but hoping satellite will send this.
I don’t have my poetry books w/me, but I do have my music. So, I’ve incorporated lyrics from Paul Simon, Guy Clark, Townes Van Zandt Carrie Newcomer, Danny Schmidt, Carrie Elkin, Miranda Lambert, and Shawn Colvin.
PRICE OF SILENCE
Grandpa Steinbach
made a choice, dared
to board that ship near century ago,
behind him Austria grown dark
with a silence
like a cancer
grew;
before him hope,
he chanced a dream.
At the border he joined the numbers,
standing in line,
poked and sorted and scared,
steeled his resolve,
wore his skin like iron,
and knew impossible
just takes a little more time.
He gave me the gift of this country
and the look in his immigrant eyes.
A century later
I measure my silence,
my breath growing hard
as kerosene.
Let my tongue be light as thieves
as men hear what they want to hear,
fighting causes long ago forgotten,
and silence
like a cancer grows.
My prayers like letters,
I’ve ink on my fingers —
way too much to lose
to stay one cool remove away.
by Susie Morice
“before him hope, he chanced a dream.” and “and knew impossible just takes a little more time.” resonates with me, reminding me of one of our vice principals as she tried to convey to new teachers that “time” is the constant that will bring about academic results for our students because it allows for reflection, modification, and resubmission of work, building confidence in students in their ability to achieve more. Thanks for sharing.
Susie, you’ve blended the lines seamlessly to create a poignant story. I love the contrast of the silence like cancer and the hope of a new place.
Oh wow! This was a challenge–though an indulgent one!
A poem that moves me every day is “Twenty Questions” by Jim Moore. His first question, Did I forget to look at the sky this morning? inspires my frequent #IowaSky tweets. I decided to try “Twenty Questions” as my frame for tonight, but I came up short in my slef-allotted 20 minutes. However, as I scanned beloved poems, I did find questions in several of them. I am less than satisfied with how they spool together, but I had a lovely time thinking about and re-reading dozens of favorite poems!
Eight Questions From My Poets:
Did I forget to look at the sky this morning?
Do you have any advice for those of us just starting out?
How do you know if you are going to die?
How could something significant occur?
What would folks say to hear my mother singing me to sleep all day in such a daft way?
How do I love thee?
What will you do with your one wild and precious life?
Did I already ask that?
From
“Twenty Questions” by Jim Moore
“Do You Have Any Advice For Those of Us Just Starting Out?” by Ron Koertge
“Making a Fist” by Naomi Shihab Nye
“Did I miss anything?” by Tom Wayman
“The Ballad of the Harp-Weaver” by Edna St. Vincent Millay
“How Do I Love Thee?” by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
“The Summer Day” by Mary Oliver
“Twenty Questions” by Jim Moore
Allison, I really appreciated taking the time to look over some much loved writing, too. I love what you’ve done with the questions, and I love your #IowaSky, too!
Thank you, Mo! I just followed you back on Twitter! Certain lines of poetry ring through us daily, and “Did I forget to look at the sky this morning?” is a powerful one for me.
What a wonderful sentiment to start the day!
Totally enjoyed these questions! Susie
“Did I forget to look at the sky this morning?”
I have no idea? Did I? Omg. I need to go back outside! These lines are going to stick with me for quite some time! Thank you for sharing!
30 is the New Old by Rachel B
“I know it’s a bad title
But I’m giving it to myself as a gift” (Self-Portrait At 28)
“I a smiling woman. I am only thirty.” (Lady Lazarus)
“But still, like dust, I’ll rise” (Still I Rise)
However, “each limb grow stiffer, every function less” (Growing Old)
I love the title–and how you used “Self-Portrait at 28” to propel you into examining 30. When I was 34 I wrote a poem about that age, and six months ago I wrote about turning 59. Thank you for this lovely mash-up!
Rachel, I like the title of your poem. It is catchy and made me want to read it. And then I find that it is about growing old but staying positive – “But still, like dust, I’ll rise” – despite one noticing physical changes as a result of aging. Inspiring. Love it! Thanks for sharing.
Very nice selection of poems to string together. Well done collage!
Kim, what a terrific prompt. Your example is just fabulous and inspiring. I’m sorry to say I don’t own any of Mary Oliver’s work, but I will soon! Thank you!
Unexpected Words from Billy Collins
The dead are always looking down on us, they say.
Everything is in its place
but so precariously
As usual, I was thinking about the moments of the past,
letting my memory rush over them like water
rushing over the stones on the bottom of a stream.
You tell me it is too early to be looking back,.
I say to the ghosts of my family,
Come knock on my door!
But it is hard to speak of these things.
I cannot leave you without saying this:
If there is only enough time in the final
minutes of the twentieth century for one last dance
I would like to be dancing it slowly with you,
then we will slip beneath the surface of the light.
*These lines can be found in “The Dead,” “Days,” “Nostalgia,” “On Turning Ten,” “Design,” “Directions,” “Some Final Words,” “Dancing Toward Bethlehem,” and “Osso Buco.”
I, too, love Billy Collins’ work. I recognized several of the lines and will now read all the poems you referenced. You linked them together beautifully. I especially liked the three-poem sequence of “You tell me it is too early to be looking back.
I say to the ghosts of my family,
Come knock on my door!”
Wonderful!
Mo — I love Billy Collins, and your poem conveys a sense of sweet melancholy with the “one last dance” and “water rushing over stones” and “slipping beneath the surface.” A wistfulness. Inviting the ghosts to come knocking is a particular image that I love. Lovely poem! Thanks, Susie
The opening lines of this are especially beautiful. I can imagine the dead looking at us, recognizing how precarious everything is. You link this so well by landing the ghosts right in the middle of the piece and again at the end, perhaps a reference to death? I could hear Billy Collins voice as I read this too. Thank you for sharing.
Kim, I loved the second stanza and how that idea builds throughout the piece. I want to join her in the woods, “listening to silence” long enough to “live with the beetle and the wind.” This is the reminder we need to spend more time visiting the gardens. We need to “put our lips to the world.” You have selected beautiful lines! Thank you for this reminder.
Found Poet Poetry (Naomi Shihab Nye)
The span of time is long and gracious. (1)
The days are nouns: touch them. (2)
In a dance of lips, (3)
a story was sewn. (4)
Answer if you hear the words under the words (5)
Letters swallow themselves in seconds, (6)
tugging rich threads without understanding. (7)
Each mind a universe swirling as many details as yours. (8)
Everything we love is going away. (9)
Someday we will learn how to live (10)
1. Next Time Ask More Questions
2. Daily
3. The Man Whose Voice Has Been Taken from his Throat
4. The Tent
5. The Words under the words
6. Burning the Old Year
7. Arablc
8. Mediterranean Blue
9. Loving Working
10. What Changes
Jennifer, I like how your poem starts out so expansive, with the span of time, but then jumps into the detail of the mouth and words, and then back out again to the universe and learning how to live. It made me think of the life cycle. Very clever!
Kim, your wonderful poem set a very high standard for me today, and I swam in your and Mary Oliver’s words several times as I contemplated how to approach today’s poem challenge. I don’t know why, but I don’t own a copy of Mary Oliver’s collected poems, something I must remedy. I can’t pick a favorite line. They are all my favorites. Thank you.
Glenda, for me, Mary O is that poet whose work I want to read every day. I cherish her collection entitled Devotions, because it contains selections throughout her life, divided by years. I’m glad you enjoyed the poem challenge today, and I’m even “gladder” that you found the time to write while you are teaching summer school! Have you ever done the poetry activity where you pass the paper around the room and the person who is adding the next line can only see the line appearing right before the one being added and not the collective poem until the end? When everyone finishes, you read the class poem that has been constructed somewhat blindly, line by line. I’d love to try this sometime and see how it works!
I have not done that activity. I don’t know that it would work w/ my summer school classes, which are small and populated w/ students repeating the course. I had them compose their own version of Clint Smith’s Something You Should Know, and many found that very difficult. I’ll run the mystery poem idea by them and see if they want to try it.
I didn’t expect to have an opportunity to respond to today’s prompt because I’m teaching summer school this month.
This poem’s inspiration comes from poems and poets referenced in Bronx Masquerade by Nikki Grimes.
“American Montage” (a poem mashup by Glenda Funk)
Lately, I’ve become accustomed to the way (3)
Men journey far to seek (5)
Grave men, near death, who see with blinding light (6)
And dig all jive. (7)
The world at large is home (2)
to whoever listens, (4)
But he was dying for a dream. (5)
We must meet the common foe! (1)
Things have come to that, (3)
Like men we’ll face the murderous, cowardly pack, (1)
& when nobody is around (4)
Rage, rage against the dying of the light (6)
Here lies the one unlabelled (2)
I am the American heartbreak; (9)
Ain’t you heard? (8)
The admission is free. (4)
1. “If We Must Die” by Claude McKay
2. “Common Dust” Georgia Douglas Johnson
3. “Preface to a Twenty-Volume suicide Note” by Amiri Baraka
4. “Traffic Misdirector” by Pedro Pietri
5. “Simon the Cyrenian Speaks” by Countee Cullen
6. “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night” by Dylan Thomas
7. “Montage of a Dream Deferred” by Langston Hughes
8. “Dream Deferred” by Langston Hughes
9. “The Panther and the Lash” by Langston Hughes
Glenda, your title pulled me right in, and when I got there I smiled a knowing and agreeing smile as I interpreted the lines, all the while realizing that a diverse chorus of voices all chimed in with matching sentiments. My favorite line: I am the American heartbreak. What a powerful arrangement of lines! Thank you for sharing this, and I like the way you used a collection from Grimes for your montage.
Glenda,
I really enjoyed the variety of authors and poems you used to create this montage of voices! The poem’s general mood, but especially in the last stanza, reminds me of many of Bruce Springsteen’s songs (one of my favorites!)–dying for a dream, the American heartbreak, and raging against the dying light. The thought put into line selection is apparent and done beautifully. Thank you for sharing!
“Grave men, near death, who see with blinding light” – the imagery is powerful to me. Death vs light, and blinding light at that. I have always been touched experiencing the contrasting elements in Dylan Thomas’ poems. My interpretation of your poem is that man/humanity pushes forward through the good, bad, and ugly. The last stanza ties in nicely, as if, at last a hero who can make a difference appears. Love it! Thanks for sharing.
Glenda- So many lines here pulled me in. And some real favorites: “rage against the dying of the light” is so so real, that sense that we could fight the inevitable end of something. And Langston Hughes’ “I am the American heartbreak” still wells up inside me with a gut sorrow. I really love this “mashup”! Susie
I’m trying to keep my “work time” short. These lines are from poems I make into bookmarks to give seniors at graduation.
Hope your road is a long one,
full of adventure, full of discovery. (4)
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll. (1)
Live not for battles won. (3)
Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole, (1)
Come, my friends,
‘Tis not too late to seek a newer world. (2)
Live not for the-end-of-the-song. (3)
But don’t hurry the journey at all.
Better if it lasts for years. (4)
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it. (5)
Live in the along. (3)
_________
1. “Invictus” by William Ernest Henley
2. “Ulysses” by Alfred, Lord Tennyson
3. “Speech to the Young…” by Gwendolyn Brooks
4. “Ithaka” by C.P. Cavafy
5. “If” by Rudyard Kipling
I learn so much from you all – this group is full of not only talent, but creativity in using the talent as well. I love your inspiration for the seniors, and bookmarks are a great way to keep the inspiration and memories of favorite teachers right in front of them! Your selections are so fitting for reminding them that life is to be enjoyed! Thanks for the great idea and for sharing your lovely words!
What great choices! This poem works for a well wish for someone, as well as advice. I find myself uplifted and this put the David Foster Wallace speech of “This is Water,” especially with your line of “But don’t Hurry the journey at all.” Thank you for sharing!
Jessica,
What a great idea to gift a quote-filled bookmark to your students. This is such a stunning collaboration of voices in harmony to inspire and comfort. I love the last line: “Live in the along” and want to spend time with this to imagine all the ways it means.
Sarah
I think my wording may have been a bit confusing. I don’t give my students this mash-up poem; I give them the full poems. Sorry about the confusion!
You’ve chosen some of my favorite poets and poems. I like the single line stanza and the way they stand alone both as a parallel to individuals and as a point of emphasis.
I come to this 5-day writing invitation as both a poet and a teacher. I love how you share poetry in bookmarks for your seniors. #brilliant
I to find this very creative. Each stanza and line are very powerful.
Jessica – How cool that you collect and give these to your graduating seniors! Marvelous! So perfect to let kids know how connected they are to the poignant lines of these poets and to you who know these young men and women so well. Thank you for sharing this whole idea. Susie
I thank whatever gods may be (“Invictus”)
For my unconquerable soul (“Invictus”)
TO see a world in a grain of sand, (“Auguries of Innocence”)
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand, (“Auguries of Innocence”)
I have not winced nor cried aloud. (“Invictus”)
Under the bludgeonings of chance (“Invictus”)
Because Hope is the thing with feathers – (“’Hope’ is the thing with feathers”)
And sings the tune without the words – (“’Hope’ is the thing with feathers”)
And never stops – at all – (“’Hope’ is the thing with feathers”)
I am the master of my fate, (“Invictus”)
I am the captain of my soul. (“Invictus”)
Kate, I adore your choices! Invictus is one of those poems that can raise hairs on the backs of our necks with its beauty, and I enjoy the shift from the bludgeoning – sandwiched between lines of hope- to triumph and victory in a chosen fate. Masterful! Thank you for sharing this with us today!
Kate,
I am just swimming in every line here — seeing and hearing them anew in your weaving. It is so comforting to have the familiar alongside the unfamiliar, as I imagine your readers will find some of both. It’s like you are saying to me that “this poem is for you,” as if you know what will resonate and what is needed. I think that might just be the key for choosing poems to share with our students — that every person can find a line that speaks to them.
Thank you, Kate — Sarah
“Invictus” is such a powerful poem, and you’ve selected wonderful lines. I hold “Hope is the thing with feathers” in my heart each day in these seemingly hopeless times. I like the way you’ve woven it into your poem.
I love this! You have woven these together beautifully. You bookend this with powerful lines and selecting Emily Dickinson to sit wonderfully inside of all of these weighty lines works so well – there is weight in the simplicity of her lines too. Thank you!
Kate,
I find your poem to be pure talent. To be able to use Invictus the way you did is amazing.
As you may come to notice, most of my writing and communication happens in the morning, so I am taking this opportunity to read through the poems that were posted the second half of yesterday to render the first lines of each into a new poem because, well, you are the poets who inspire me.
It started outside” (Anna)
beautiful rivers (Judy)
heading to the east, (Tiffany)
a journey away. (Martie)
June, July, August — (Jessica)
my heart beats faster. (Jennifer)
Five a.m. airport: (Allison)
three states in three days. (Kate)
Peyton traveled, too. (Glenda)
Broke, confused, tired. (Jessica)
In a London pub, (Kim)
afternoon rain line. (Susie)
I sit. I rest. Peace. (Candace)
I’ve traveled the world. (Mo)
Your quilted lines honoring the poets who inspire you are so creatively orchestrated! It’s a whole new poem and is so beautifully written. I envy your ability to see the fragments of first lines and turn them into a work of beauty! Thank you, Sarah, for honoring us with your poem!
I am in awe of your ability to take 14 different lines from our poems and weave them into a wonderous 15th poem! I really like how the poem starts with the excitement of travel but moves quickly to weariness (as many of our trips do!), and ends with the serenity of a completed journey. Thank you for sharing our poems in a new way!
Such a lovely tribute to this writing community, Sarah. I feel a sense of peace revisiting Monday’s poems and poets in your mashup. Thank you.
Ahhh! So good of you to do this! What a clever and fun way to bring all of this work together. You wove them together so beautifully. The first and last line bring everything full circle too. Thank you for sharing this idea too. (I think it would be a good writing challenge for my students as well)
Wow, Sarah! I so admire your creativity, especially so early in the morning! You’ve really inspired me to write more, but also to write differently. I am going to steal all of your ideas and keep a journal of poetry writing prompts with me at all times. Thank you!
Sarah,
I love this idea. It would be a great strategy to use in the classroom.
THANK you! I immediately searched for my own line (as we all did), and then settled in to see how you wove our efforts together. I loved this–and the community you build here. Thank you.