Tag Archives: Tania Runyan

A Villanelle for Benny

by

Day 2: NaPoWriMo

A Villanelle for Benny

I taught him how to shake.
Now when he yearns, I get the paw.
I will give him no reason for escape.

Oh, what an ally to ease my ache
to be loved, giving me one to kiddle.
I taught him how to shake

in his middle-doghood shape.
No longer a pup, but a handsome soul,
I will give him no reason for escape.

The Bean will never mistake
my fierce affection.
I taught him how to shake.

In our oneness, how can I forsake
those eyes and heavy paw?
I will give him no reason for escape.

He came to me, I the remake,
his third home to care.
I taught him how to shake
and there will be no reason for him to escape.

…..

“Today, I’d like to challenge you to write a poem based on a word featured in a tweet from Haggard Hawks, an account devoted to obscure and interesting English words. Will you choose a word like “aprosexia,” which means ‘an inability to concentrate’?”

I chose Haggard Hawks Word of the Day: KIDDLE (v.) to embrace warmly, to caress. https://twitter.com/HaggardHawks

And I decided to work through Tania Runyan’s How To Write A Form Poem becuase writing a poem a day for a month isn’t difficult enough…🙄😂😉https://www.amazon.com/Tania-Runyan/e/B0073Z3IDQ…

So, here is my first try at a villanelle. Don’t judge. I’ll get better. 😂

Tania actually does a beautiful job leading you through the process. If you teach poetic forms, I highly recommend this book. And she’s funny.

Random Acts of Poetry Day, Showing the Love

by

 

Sharing the love from yesterday’s Random Acts of Poetry Day. Random-Acts-of-Poetry-Day-Hairpin

Thank you, Tweetspeak Poetry for inspiring us to share the love of poetry randomly around the world. Let’s do it again next year!

My first grade class at Independence Elementary in Colorado spent the day randomly visiting classrooms to share their favorite poems. We wrote our morning and evening chants on colorful sentence strips and placed them on the walls all over the building. Our principal asked us to keep them up because on Friday principals 12115975_10206529840036695_4543547717059554816_nfrom all over the Cherry Creek School District will be visiting us and she wants them to see our love of poetry. So our random acts will continue to spread through the week and, hopefully, other schools.

I also gave a copy of Tania Runyan’s How to Write a Poem to one of our teachers. Ms. Hearne in third grade won the drawing and says she will use it with her class. Yay!12112477_10206528920493707_1837883931268855796_n

And…yesterday, I was presented a copy of the Psalms, the poetry of the bible, by my new “family.” I was named the first Artist-In-Residence at A Church of the Holy Family, ECC in Aurora, CO. I am so grateful to know how Fr. Scott Jenkins, Kelsey, and Jennifer and all in my church community in their passion for Celtic Christianity honor the role of the bard.

My heart is full.

I love poetry. I hope you do, too!

How To Write A Poem

by

August has been a whirlwind for me and the publishing of my work. First my own book of poetry, Filters, hit the shelves of Amazon last week.

Now, I am so very happy to announce that my poem “Permission” is included in Tania Runyan’s new book How To Write A Poem: Based on the Billy Collins Poem “Introduction to Poetry.”

41qIosf73xL._SX311_BO1,204,203,200_

I am honored to be included in this second offering from TS Poetry Press and the talented crew at Tweetspeak in their Field Guide series exploring unique and rich methods of reading and writing poetry.

If you are a teacher or simply someone who wants to deepen your craft, this is a worthwhile stop. It is a practical and delightful book that can be adjusted to all ages and experience. I teach first grade and use it in my classroom just as easily as a college professor could find it useful for her class.

 

Filters, Poems by Lexanne Leonard

by

It is with great joy and gratitude that I announce the publication of my first book of poetry at Amazon. com.

51AXbhseg6L._SX331_BO1,204,203,200_

I discovered my love of writing in 2009 at the Colorado Writing Project. For two weeks teachers of elementary school students gathered to expand our skills in the teaching of writing. What we didn’t know was that we were going to be asked to become writers ourselves. The mornings were filled with research and lesson plans and the sharing of ideas. In the afternoons, we wrote. There I discovered I am a writer.

Fast forward a few years and another milestone in my life came as I stepped away from the Roman Catholic Church and found Fr. Scott Jenkins at A Church of the Holy Family. It is a Catholic, but not Roman, church of the Ecumenical Catholic Communion. The ECC truly welcomes all.

Here I found a love for the arts – poetry, theatre, music, visual. I also found a place that creates space for Passage Meditation and numerous ways to pray and learn to live a Christ-centered life through a Celtic lens.

Soon I was writing and acting in plays, designing liturgy and liturgical space, composing prayers, and most important to my journey, writing lots of poetry. Filters is an encapsulated account of my faith journey.

During this time my monologues were published in two editions of Audition Monologues for Young Women compiled by Gerald Lee Ratliff. My poetry is included in How To Write A Poem by Tania Runyan, published by T.S. Poetry Press. Two of my poems will be seen in Casual next April 2016 in Tweetspeak Poetry‘s e-book for National Poetry Month.

Finally, my Advent devotional commissioned by A Church of the Holy Family will be available on Amazon.com this coming Advent season.

I thank all of my family at Holy Family, as well as my husband, Leroy Leonard, Fr. Scott Jenkins, and Kathleen Gorman for their unwavering faith me. They gave me the encouragement, the hard-ass-stick-to-it-lady-you-can-d0-its, and led me to discover in myself where the Divine resides. I now realize that I actually do have a ministry – sharing the Word though poetry and theatre.

I am deeply grateful for the harvest of this season.

 

 

Pomegranate Beads

by

It has been hot. The heat appeared earlier than usual at summer’s doorstep and is lingering through its regularly scheduled time. Fire has ravaged our foothills. And rain seldom makes an appearance.

This poem is a cento. Piecing poems together from other poet’s words creates a mosaic, a found poem. At Tweetspeak Poetry the theme this month is July Mosaic. My poem is found and patched together from the words of  Monday’s Every Day Poem, Girl with 13 Necklaces by Tania Runyan.

The heat might be getting to me.

Pomegranate Beads

The summer heat arrived
torrid without remorse
he poured the
pomegranate beads
into her parched mouth
a rainstorm of beads
to quench her thirst

Some
tumbling from her lips
spilling down her shirt
glistening ruby jewels
squeezed  slowly
through his fingers
stippling her navel

Some
rolling through
the vented floor
for the inspector
with mechanical arms
whose monitor
fluttered at the muted
harvest

Some
clattering down the stairs
for the praying angels
standing guard
keeping them safe
from the inferno