Poetry Doodles & Daring

Poetry Friday/Poetry Doodles/Cinquain/Daring

Autumn Roots (Cinquain)

Gingko

living fossil

maiden hair fans, flutter

Persephone’s golden Autumn

goodbye

Happy Poetry Friday! So how are poetry, doodles and daring related? It’s a personal journey.

First, I love the combination of words and pictures, poetry and visual expression. Doodles are fun! They are also kid friendly to draw, so here comes the daring part. After many (many) years of teaching elementary curriculum (other people’s stuff.) I’m working on poetry workshops for students this fall – which do include doodle art, poems, and more…

I was surprised by the butterflies! I currently have that new and nervous feeling about teaching “my own stuff.” I’ve narrowed down what I’d like to teach, but it feels so new – which feels weird after writing so many lesson plans over the years. I’m working through workshop options this July and have interest in running some workshops in the district where I worked for most of my teaching career.

Back to the Gingko tree… once on an Autumn walk with my husband, we rounded a gravel and wooded path. There on the trail’s edge were hulking old oaks and slimline maples and one little Gingko tree. All the other trees had done the usual thing and overtime dropped their leaves in smatterings and scatterings – but not the Ginkgo…

Every single leaf, surrounded its bare branches and trunk, a complete circle on the ground. The leaf-ring glimmered in the late afternoon sunlight like a golden fairy skirt. The Gingko is all in! So on this Poetry Friday, I hope whatever you “dare” to write, or do next – you feel a little bit of the Gingko. A go-for-it attitude, even if it’s new and may give you butterflies. I’m channeling my inner Gingko- excited to try out poetry workshops with students, this coming school year, and see where this new adventure goes.

Linda Mitchell is hosting the Poetry Friday Roundup, check out her wonderful Substack: Linda Mitchell filled with an inspiration childhood quote collection and this week’s Poetry Friday poems.

Happy creating, Jill