Filling the Well: Vincent van Gogh and Katsushika Hokusai

 

The Great Wave by Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849)
from the series “Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji (Fugaku sanjurokkei)”
Art Institute of Chicago

 

There is peace even in the storm.

 

– Vincent van Gogh

 

 

Watch Hokusai: Beyond the Great Wave (an interesting three minute film): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8z9zRbwh43I

"It seems to have been Vincent van Gogh and his brother, Theo, who were among the first people [outside of Japan] to discover and articulate what was so great about this print."

Nature Therapy  

(for rest and relaxation)

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xT_M7B6yeiI

 

 

 

April 1: John Muir

April 2: e.e. cummings and enra

April 3: Edith Wharton and Henri Matisse

April 4: Cesare Pavese 

April 5: Anton Chekhov and Cat Stevens

April 6: Ray Bradbury and... cats 

April 7: Oliver Wendell Holmes and Hanjin Song

April 8: Albert Einstein and John Bohannon

April 9: Florence Parry Heide and Andres Amador

April 10: Zelda Fitzgerald and Arvo Pärt

April 11: Elinor Wylie

April 12: David Ault and Imogen Heap

April 13: William Shakespeare and Alice Tzue

April 14: Bruce Garrabrandt and OK Go

April 15: Anne Kent Rush and Bill T. Jones

April 16: Carl Sandburg, Raymond Crowe, and Louis Armstrong

April 17: Jean Houston and Lunch Break Quartet

April 18: John Milton 

April 19: Dante Alighieri, Don Francis, and Gregory Alan Isakov

April 20: Theodore Roethke and Charles Reznikoff

April 21: Octavio Paz and Salvador Dalí

April 22: Vincent van Gogh and Katsushika Hokusai

 

 

DMC: "An Umbrella-Floating Day" by Breighlynn

AN UMBRELLA-FLOATING DAY

An umbrella-floating,
wind-howling,
color-observing day.

It is a sun-shining,
hawk-squawking,
umbrella-looking day.

Yesterday was a rain-falling,
person-frowning,
cloud-covering day.

Tomorrow will be a book-reading,
computer-typing,
person-silent day.

I want to be a queen-smiling,
sun-shining,
notebook-writing friend.

© 2020 by Breighlynn (4th grade) in Mrs. Simon's class. 
All rights reserved.

(Mrs. Simon wrote a poem about a rainy day as well! Read it on our February 2020 padlet.)


Buffy Silverman has challenged us to write a poem that uses combined or invented words. Click HERE for more details and to read this month's Spotlight ON interview.

Post your poem on our February 2020 padlet. All contributions will be included in a wrap-up celebration on Friday, February 28th, and one lucky participant will win a personalized copy of her nonfiction poetry picture book from Millbrook Press:

DMC: "Puddle Wonderful" by B.J. Lee

PUDDLE WONDERFUL

boring brown puddles,
on bring-your-umbrella days,
transform in bright sun
into billowing-cloud skyscapes
or shimmering rainbow art

© 2017 B.J. Lee. All rights reserved.


Click HERE to read this month's interview with Carol Hinz, Editorial Director of Millbrook Press and Carolrhoda Books, divisions of Lerner Publishing Group. Her challenge this month is to write a poem that finds beauty in something that is not usually considered beautiful.

Post your poems on our November 2017 padlet. While some contributions will be featured as daily ditties this month, all contributions will be included in a wrap-up celebration tomorrow, Friday, November 24th. One lucky participant will win a copy of The Sun Played Hide-and-Seek: A Personification Story by Brian P. Cleary, illustrated by Carol Crimmins, and published by Millbrook Press earlier this year.

DMC: "Umbrella" by Elizabeth Steinglass

UMBRELLA

Rain comes.
(It always does.)
You worry your plans
are ruined
like a soggy
piece of paper.

Raise me
over your head.
I will be your shelter
as you go on.
I will turn the rain
into song.

© 2016 Elizabeth Steinglass. All rights reserved.


Ann Rider has challenged us to write poems about places of refuge and solace this month. Click HERE for more details.

Post your poem on our November 2016 padlet. All contributions will be included in a wrap-up celebration this Friday, November 25th, and one lucky participant will win a copy of BEFORE MORNING by Joyce Sidman, illustrated by Beth Krommes, courtesy of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Books for Young Readers.

DMC: "November" by Suzy Levinson

NOVEMBER

When the world's closing in,
way too loud
way too cold
I curl up in my chair,
which is soft
which is old
pull my knees to my chin,
with a book
with a cat
watch the rain as it falls...
pitter-pat
pitter-pat.

© 2016 Suzy Levinson. All rights reserved.


Ann Rider has challenged us to write poems about places of refuge and solace this month. Click HERE for more details.

Post your poem on our November 2016 padlet. All contributions will be included in a wrap-up celebration on Friday, November 25th, and one lucky participant will win a copy of BEFORE MORNING by Joyce Sidman, illustrated by Beth Krommes, courtesy of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Books for Young Readers.

Two Line Tuesday: Frances Hodgson Burnett

First Spring Rain, Nevena Uzuroz, via Wikimedia Commons

"Is the spring coming?" he said. "What is it like?"...

"It is the sun shining on the rain and the rain falling on the sunshine..."

–Frances Hodgson Burnett 

from The Secret Garden

Two Line Tuesday: Bob Marley

 

Some people feel the rain.

Others just get wet.

-Bob Marley