This is the Open Write, a place for educators to nurture their writing lives and to advocate for writing poetry in community. Today Patricia Franz, one of the contributors to the anthology for students, Picture Perfect Poetry, is our host. Next month the Open Write will be September 18-21. (Learn more here.)
Our Host
Patricia lives with her husband and her Bernese Mountain dog in two beautiful places: the Arizona desert and California’s Sierra Nevada mountains, both of which inspire her love for the natural world. Working with children for over 25 years shaped her child’s heart and led her to writing poetry and picture books. Her adult poetry has been published in Consilience (2025) and The Write Launch (2023). She has children’s poems that appear in numerous Pomelo Books anthologies and two poems in Picture Perfect Poetry: An Anthology of Ekphrastic Nature Poetry for Students, the inspiration for today’s prompt. Patricia is represented by Lisa Amstutz of Storm Literary Agency. You can find more of her poetry at www.patriciajfranz.com.
Inspiration
Two years ago, I snapped a photo of this mama bear. Over the course of a few days, she had begun to forage closer and closer to my house. Then one morning as dawn broke, I awoke to find her and her two cubs rummaging through my kitchen! Once I was safe, and my adrenaline subsided, I replayed the experience over and over in my mind.
I knew what I was feeling at that moment. But I wondered: If the bear could speak, what would it say? In unwittingly juxtaposing both of our roles as mothers, I was confronted with the paradox “This is my home.” The whole experience disrupted my beliefs and assumptions about coexisting with wildlife. (Image of bear by Patricia Franz.)
Process
Poetry done well should lead to a deeper understanding of, and perhaps challenge, the nature of truth. Putting literary devices to work can help create a contrast between what we believe and reality. Four such devices are:
Perspective: foster empathy by looking at something through a different lens
Paradox: contradiction that illuminates truth and challenges conventional understanding
Juxtaposition: compare two things that appear unlikely and explore their relationship
Irony: verbal, situational, or dramatic encounter that changes one’s outlook
Here is a rather tongue-in-cheek example that incorporates all of these.
Tetrapod Perspective
I wonder if it strikes them odd,
your ordinary tetrapod,
carnivorous or grass-fed,
to see such an enormous head,
on a creature with, but, two feet,
who kills when he don’t have to eat.
Copyright © David Crandall
Perspective. Paradox. Juxtaposition. Irony. Now it’s your turn to see anew. Write a poem that employs one or more of these devices. Below is the ekphrastic poem I wrote after my bear encounter.
Patricia’s Poem
spring visitor
by Patricia J. Franz
you stand, stare
a mama’s steel eyes
nose lifts, sniffs
danger
teddy-round ears, so cute
cinnamon-spring coat…WAIT!
Go! Scram!
ladle-to-pot-CLANGGGG! CLANGGG!
This is my home!
you
barely blink
my babies are here
their tree
quiet forest spot
we will stay
this is our home
first published in PICTURE PERFECT POETRY © Carol J. Labuzzetta 2024
Your Turn
Now, scroll to the comment section below to write your own poem. (This is a public space, so you may choose to use only your first name or initials depending on your privacy preferences.) Not ready? That’s okay. Read the poems already posted for more inspiration. Ponder your own throughout the day. Return later. And, if the prompt does not work for you, that is fine. All writing is welcome. Just write something. Oh, and a note about drafting: Since we are writing in short bursts, we all understand (and even welcome) the typos and partial poems that remind us we are human and that writing is always becoming. If you’d like to invite other teachers to write with us, tell them to subscribe. Also, please be sure to respond to at least three writers.