Collaborative Poems from Participants in Shari Wagner’s 9-25-2019 Workshop for Kids: “Among Sights, Sounds, and Silences: A Writing Workshop”
LOBLOLLY MARSH INVITATION
See the grass in the distance
moving the way a cat
sashays side to side.
Watch the geese flying over,
an arrow that leads us
into the prairie.
Hear the flock’s babble, laughing
at us, and the honking
of its clown horns.
Listen to the crickets’ chirp
and chatter, high-pitched
jingle bells in a cicada choir.
Smell the gold in the goldenrod.
Touch its corn-like tassels
complimented in September
by purple asters’ royalty. Feel
beebalm between your fingers
like the crinkling of tinfoil.
Come to Loblolly Marsh
like a monarch
riding the waves of the wind.
THE SHAGBARK HICKORY
is a rough man
with a shabby beard
and leathery clothes.
His one good eye
is a swollen knot.
Nuts fall
through the holes
in his pockets.
He waves his hands
to the toad at his feet.
THE BUTTERFLY WING
It was by a lot of asters
and laying on the path,
orange and black and white.
I walked with it for a minute.
It made me happy
like a gift.
By Maggie
The Catydid Choir
Hear the Catydid Choir
chirping, singing, deafening.
Feel the wind blowing
cool and refreshing.
See the goldenrod blooming
bright, tall, and yellow.
Smell the different flowers
perfumy and sweet.
Taste the sweet berries
black and juicy.
Don’t ignore it. Explore it!
By Callie Shaffer
HAIKU
Red mosaic leaf
Flitting, bouncing
Monarch butterfly
White, hard aged
Cracked open, honeycombed
Deer Bone
By Simon Brainerd
Friends of the Limberlost 