Teaser for Oskar's VoyageAn adventurous storytellerand a creative artistfollow an unexpected voyageron a heavy-duty freighter.What happens while sailing on the Great Lakesis a frolicking tale of mischief, worry,and longing to refind home.©CVarsalona, 2024
Beyond LiteracyLink
A dedicated space to ponder, reflect, and converse about life, literacy, and learning
Friday, April 26, 2024
Oskars Voyage Anchors Here!
Tuesday, April 23, 2024
Celebrating Earth Day 2024
With ups and downs in weather, Spring, the season of rebirth, broke out afresh after being quiescent throughout the winter months. Nature welcomed spring rains that brought verdant landscapes and blossoming flowers. Even the calendar has celebrated springtime each year on April 22nd. Since 1970, billions of people across the globe have celebrated Earth Day, an annual event to support the cause of environmental protection.
This year's Earth Day theme is "Planet vs. Plastics". It is a theme that has been wrestled with for years. According to earthday.org, the goal this year is "to reduce the production of plastics by 60% in 2040 and ultimately build a plastic-free future". Our children deserve a better world and so does our planet. As residents of the earth, we are its stewards. This year's initiative strives to rid the earth of plastics "for the sake of human and planetary health." Many educators have created lessons and events to honor the earth by bringing the message of stewardship to their students. The artwork below is the 2024 NASA Earth Day poster that can be visible in classrooms. "It is composed with real satellite imagery from NASA's Terra, Aqua, and Landsat missions."
In 2019, a 32-foot, 2500-pound hand-crafted metal sculpture was installed at Jones Beach on Long Island, NY. Jonesy the Whale has its own Twitter (X) account. I remember when it was first installed. Recycled plastic bottles were stuffed inside to remind us of our civic duty to protect our world.
Stewardship
Friday, April 19, 2024
Spring Blossoms
This morning, sunlight streamed into my bedroom. I felt the need to stretch before waking so I started to move with flow, as we do in yoga class. I reflected on my baby grandgirl's adorable manner of pandiculation when she wakes from slumber. I thought of birds stretching their wings to dive into my neighbor's feeder. Nature awakened the earth.
As I opened the door, I smelled the freshness of a spring day. Tiny purple petals on my tree surprised me and white buds on my bush squeezed forward in little pockets of joy. No matter where I looked there were signs of spring's rebirth. I soaked in the efflorescence of my flowering trees and welcomed nature's springtime celebration.
efforescence bloomssprout openadorning a quiet community of nestled homes flowering trees sing praise to nature's palettesky blue marshmallowed cloudsawaken earth©CVarsalona, 2024
Digital art photo + Trinet poem format = Image Poemfor the Poetry Parade Padlet - Click here to view the padlet.
Tuesday, April 16, 2024
Invitation to Write Breathings of Your Heart
Sunday, April 14, 2024
Traveling Progressive Poem
The Progressive Poem has traveled for 13 days this month. It is my turn to add lines to the community poem that is a journey of courage. Reading through Days 1 through 13, I am reminded of a poignant story told by one of my elementary students years ago. Amid civil unrest in El Salvador, the child and his siblings left their homeland to move to Long Island.
Join me as I integrate the student's story into my lines for Day 14. I also added the art of Juan Lopez-Bautista's Border Stories presented at the Sella-Granata Art Gallery, Woods Hall, UA campus (October-November 2021). Be sure to click here and here to view the full exhibition that touched my heart.
cradled in stars, our planet sleeps,
clinging to tender dreams of peace
sister moon watches from afar,
singing lunar lullabies of hope.
almost dawn, I walk with others,
keeping close, my little brother.
hand in hand, we carry courage
escaping closer to the border.
My feet are lightning;
My heart is thunder.
Our pace draws us closer
to a new land of wonder.
I hum my own little song
like ripples in a stream
Humming Mami's lullaby
reminds me I have her letter
My fingers linger on well-worn creases,
shielding an address, a name, a promise-
Sister Moon will find always us
surrounding us with beams of kindness
But last night, as we rested in the dusty field,
worries crept in about matters back home.
Day 14
I huddled close to my brother. Tears revealed
the no-choice need to escape. I feel grown.
I pass on the torch of writing to Rose Cappelli at Imagine the Possibilities.
The Kidlithosphere Progressive Poem was started in 2012 by Irene Latham as a way to celebrate National Poetry Month as a community of writers. In 2020, Margaret Simon became the organizer of the Progressive Poem. Margaret created the above gorgeous graphic for the 2024 Progressive Poem .
Meet the writing team creators of the community Progressive Poem 2024.
April 1 Patricia Franz at Reverie
April 2 JJone MacCulloch
April 3 Janice Scully at Salt City Vers
April 4 Leigh Anne Eck at A Day in the Life
April 5 Irene at Live Your Poem
April 6 Margaret at Reflections on the Techee
April 7 Marcie Atkins
April 8 Ruth at There is No Such Thing as a God Forsaken Town
April 9 Karen Eastlund
April 10 Linda Baie at Teacher Dance
April 11 Buffy Silverman
April 12 Linda Mitchell at A Word Edgewise
April 13 Denise Krebs at Dare to Care
April 14 Carol Varsalona at Beyond LiteracyLink
April 15 Rose Cappelli at Imagine the Possibilities
April 16 Sarah Grace Tuttle
April 17 Heidi Mordhorst at my juicy little universe
April 18 Tabatha at Opposite of Indifference
April 19 Catherine Flynn at Reading to the Core
April 20 Tricia Stohr-Hunt at The Miss Rumphius Effect
April 21 Janet, hosted here at Reflections on the Teche
April 22 Mary Lee Hahn at A(nother) Year of Reading
April 23 Tanita Davis at (fiction, instead of lies)
April 24 Molly Hogan at Nix the Comfort Zone
April 25 Joanne Emery at Word Dancer
April 26 Karin Fisher-Golton at Still in Awe
April 27 Donna Smith at Mainely Write
April 28 Dave at Leap of Dave
April 29 Robyn Hood Black at Life on the Deckle Edge
April 30 Michelle Kogan at More Art for All
INVITATION
I hope more of my poetry friends, plus writers, bloggers, artists, photographers, and friends join in the Poetry Parade. The Poetry Parade Padlet is available for your artistic expressions. Laura Purdie Salas and Denise Krebs added their image poems to the gallery.
Friday, April 12, 2024
Life Awakens in Spring
Morning Springs Openmorning lightstreams inunfolding spring's verdant palette of greenhidden buds buried in earthen soil sproutbreathe innature's perfumepeace surrounds©CVarsalona, 2024, trinet poemAre you ready to sing praises for a spring morning?I invite you to be creative.Snap a spring photo that speaks to you.Write a poem and mesh the two together.JOIN ME at ThePadlet, the container for my nextThank you, Denise Krebs, for being the first colleague to add your spring image poem to the Poetry Parade Padlet.
Wednesday, April 10, 2024
Solar Eclipse 2024
Parts of North America silently waited for nature's moments of totality. on April 8, 2024. News stations aired programs. Libraries distributed solar eyeglasses. People huddled in parks, yards, and special event areas to watch a spectacular sight, the moon passing between Earth and the sun. News stations captured the event minute by minute as the moon blocked the view of the sun. We watched ABC News coverage. Each area from Mexico to Maine shared their 4 minutes of totality as the sun darkened the sky followed by sunlight.
My son, husband, and I moved between the news and our backyard as we waited for the event. Then, the sky clouded. What would we see? My son asked Siri, "What time will the eclipse occur here in Northern Virginia? Much to his surprise, we would only see a partial eclipse. Regardless, I decided to capture the event even without solar glasses. How did I do this? I cleverly moved my iPhone toward the sky but did not face the sky. I started clicking my iPhone camera. Click! Then, I remembered the Pink Floyd song, Total Eclipse of the Sun, that my husband likes. You can listen to it below and then read my trinet poem introduced to me by the Australian poet, Alan J. Wright during a Poetry Friday Roundup. This poem has seven lines and lines three and four have six words in each line. All the other lines have two words per line. The trinet has no restrictions for rhyme, subject, or syllable.