WRITEOUT DAY 4
Again, I walked Guthrie at our usual spot in North Dam Park –in the rugged areas of the small grove of old elm surrounded by bushes and bushes of rabbitbrush. We walked away from the path to capture this large American elm tree surviving still in our semi-arid area. The silver clouds behind it bordered in lighter streaks from the sun above cast an eeriness to the darkened trunk and branches lit with yellow and browning autumn leaves. It seemed like a perfect Halloween tree.
ADAPTING A HAIKU
And so I adapted from Day 1 of the Choice Board, “try a haiku,” and turned it into a tanka, which is a syllable pattern of 5-7-5-7-7. Go ahead and watch the “try a haiku” video with Willeena Booker, a poet and teacher consultant of the Philadelphia Writing Project, then simply add two more lines of seven syllables each.
I started with my field notes on which I wrote a draft tanka:
Then I revised with the idea of a Halloween tree included:
Halloween Tree
Carpet of yellow
Sheri Edwards
softens elm’s eerie black bark
garnished in golden
leaves reaching to the grey sky
lightened by ghostly spiritswriteout
Photography/Poetry/Tanka
10.16.24
JOIN IN!
This post is part of the October WRITEOUT adventure, October 13 through the 27th, partnership of the National Writing Project and the National Park Service — a chance to enjoy the outdoors with poetry, prose, and parks for Write Out 2024. Organized as a public invitation to get out and create, supported by a series of free online activities, Write Out invites educators, students, and families to explore national parks and other public spaces. The goal is to connect and learn through place-based writing and sharing. Check out this infographic for the flow of the this week and the Choice Board to get you started for WriteOut’s Poetry for the Planet.
Learn more and sign up: https://writeout.nwp.org
This is my seventh year with WriteOut with all my WriteOut posts here.
Cross post at What Else: Halloween Tree
I wonder, if I draw a line... 