April is National Poetry Month, and over at Ethical ELA, VerseLove is well underway.
My friend Kim Johnson kicked off the daily poetry writing yesterday by inviting participants to introduce themselves via hashtag poems. Kim shared the process:
Write your name vertically down the left side of a page. You can use your first name, nickname, or full name – your choice!
Place a hashtag in front of each letter of your name.
Jot a list of your hobbies, your passions, and any other aspects that you might use to introduce yourself to someone getting to know you. You can scroll through photos, Facebook posts, or past poems to help you think of some ideas.
Finally, use the letters to make a hashtag acrostic to introduce yourself to your #VerseLove family! You can #smashyourwordstogether or #space them apart.
My hashtag poem (I used my favorite variation of my name, what my granddaughters call me):
#HeyY’all #ThisIsMe
#finchologist
#rise&write
#aweseeker
#naturereveler
#nowletmelookthatup
#anothercupofcoffeeplease
Today, Bryan Ripley Crandall hosts VerseLove with a “Magic Box” poem – the directions are somewhat extensive, but very intriguing; check them out here.
My Magic Box poem:
The Golden Rim
I discovered the jewels
right here at home
whispering rules, awaiting accruals
like longing, lingering talismans
to put in my pockets, protection from fools
I shall not suffer them, removing my saffron socks
barefootedly heading for another world
where winter is fading
adventure, a’waiting
already, I savor the welcoming salt
I wished, and the grail materialized
in my hand, like a poem
capturing the wellspring of my heart
hoping for rhythms of grace
with these words etched around the golden rim:
Write Me
Oh, this spiral shell of Time, wobbling on crustaceous legs!
It’s sweet as honey and bitter as medicine in tentative turn
luring me to press myself
between the musty pages
with my new ink, riding the roaring waves of the past
in the bubbling clean foam of Now.
Fossil nautilus.Hitchster. CC BY 2.0.
Speaking of Now…what will you write?
******
with thanks to Kim and Bryan at Ethical ELA
along with those sharing for Slice of Life Tuesday at Two Writing Teachers
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lit bits and pieces 
Love your writing and your poetry is inspiring. I;m going to have to check this group out!
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Thanks, Anita! Do check out Ethical ELA’s current VerseLove each day plus monthly Open Writes. Lots of poetic inspiration there.
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This is you, writing your memoir. It’s the movie trailer, Narnia as part of your soul, the invitation etched in the golden rim. I can see it. I can see you, your barefoot adventure, taking the new ink and filling the pages with all the stories of your life. This is the preface to your memoir, I hope. It is positively MAGICAL. A glimmer of hummingbirds is sprinkling prayersparkles all over this.
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Now I am wondering about possibilities, Kim…maybe, maybe…thank you for the inspiration-confetti you shower, oh nymph of the green glass beads, invoking these hummingbirds and their prayersparkles ❤
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Amen to what Kim said! I do want to read your memoir before I go to heaven, OK? Did you read Patricia’s Fran-inspired #hashtagacrostic today https://patriciajhollowaystudio.wordpress.com/2024/04/02/hashtag-poetry/ I love the chambered nautilus image you added to your poem. So beautiful, as are all of your precious words.
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Oh, goodness, Denise – your comment about the memoir-! It makes me teary ❤ I saw the pingback to Patricia’s post so I will have to hop over there. I so appreciate your words, your heart, your insight, and YOU.
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Fran, love your image at the end of your poem. I love the sensory appeal your poem offers and the line about welcoming the salt. Your words invite a plunge into an explosion of feelings and emotions.
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Thank you so much, Barb!
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Wonderful poems, I love the hashtag compound words you’ve found! I’m currently working backwards and slightly sleep deprived. I haven’t even read the final day of last month’s challenge!!
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Thank you, Celia – I always appreciate your thoughts! I hope you are catching up on your sleep.
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I like the #Hashtag poem! I’m called many names since I’m a wife, teacher, mother, sister and family member. This was fun completing!
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It is fun – and a little more challenging than expected!
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