February 2017 archive

Poetry Friday: Our Life’s Anthem

This month I’m taking part in Laura Shovan’s annual poem project, which invites poets to write a poem a day during the month of February. This month’s challenge is #10FoundWords. Each day someone from the community shares a news story, speech or current event and chooses ten words from it for us to use to write a poem. You can find out more about it here and still join in the fun.

Confession: I have not been keeping up with the poem a day this past week. Instead, I spent a week in Puerto Rico. I wrote a poem the first few days, but then vacation brain took over, and I just enjoyed the sun, sand, surf, rain forest, snuba experience, paddleboarding, kayaking and lots of good Puerto Rican food. I suspect there will be many poems to come form the trip, but the #10FoundWords just aren’t lending themselves to my vacation experience. Here are a few picture from the trip. I can’t wait to go back.

Now that I’m back, I plan to get back in to the swing of a poem and day (and maybe two to catch up). I wrote this one from Day 19 in honor of the upcoming 25th wedding anniversary for me and my husband. I can’t believe it’s been that long. I plan to come back to this one to revise it and present it as a gift to him on August 1.

Our Life’s Anthem

Twenty-five years ago
we clasped hands before an altar
to join our hearts and hopes
in allegiance to a life together.
We recited ancient vows
in a sacred ceremony
and swore an oath
to love, honor and cherish
one another
till death do us part.
Through the years
of climatic trials
and sweet victories,
we still wear the rings
we first exchanged
as symbols of our undying love.
Each day we clasp
hearts and hands and hope anew
as we create together
our life’s anthem.

Here are the words and links to the article:

Our day 19 article and words took us on the path to citizenship. Than you, Carol Wilcox

Words: oath, soulful, ceremony, allegiance, photogenic, symbolically, hopes, climactic, anthem, victory.

Article: Reborn in the USA: Inside a Citizenshp Ceremony.

Each Friday, I am excited to take part in Poetry Friday, where writers share their love of all things poetry. Karen has the Poetry Friday Roundup today at Karen Edmisten. Drop by and see what poetry morsels are offered this week.

Poetry Friday: With Apologies to Elizabeth Barrett Browning

This month I’m taking part in Laura Shovan’s annual poem project, which invites poets to write a poem a day during the month of February. This month’s challenge is #10FoundWords. Each day someone from the community shares a news story, speech or current event and chooses ten words from it for us to use to write a poem. You can find out more about it here and still join in the fun.

I’m over halfway through the month-long poetry challenge, and it’s still hard. It’s also lots of fun, especially as I’ve tried on different voices in different poems. Even better is reading the wide variety of good poems using the same set of ten words.  It also helps that I’m in Puerto Rico for a week, soaking up lots of sun. I will catch up on reading and commenting once I return.

As soon as I saw the article and ten words for Valentine’s Day, I knew exactly what I wanted to do. I don’t go for sappy or sweet Valentine’s Day cards or romantic poetry, but I have always loved Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s “How Do I Love Thee? (Sonnet 43).” What could be more fun than a spoof of it? Especially when I saw the word “multi billion.” Even though I felt slightly guilty at what I was doing to a classic poem, I had fun with it. I hope you enjoy it, too.

With Apologies to Elizabeth Barrett Browning

How do I love thee? Let me count the multi-billion ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
my purse can spend when chasing out of stores
For the end of sweetness and perfect deals.
I love thee to the level of each commercial’s
Most romantic dinner, by sun and candlelight.
I love thee freely, as I seek the perfect card.
I love thee purely, as I declare undying love.
I love thee with the passion that fires up
My old dreams and hides within my personal disguise.
I love thee with a love I seem to lose
with my hefty bills. I love thee with the candy,
cards, flowers, of all my gifts, and if we choose,
I shall but love thee better after this is done.

Here are the words and link to the article:

Happy Valentine’s Day! Heather Meloche is our word finder. Thanks, Heather.

#10FoundWords

sweetness
disguise
romantic
declare
chase
fire up
commercial
hefty
spend
personal

BONUS: multibillion

Source: Valentine’s Day, so lucrative for business, has a naughty history

Each Friday, I am excited to take part in Poetry Friday, where writers share their love of all things poetry. Jone has the Poetry Friday Roundup today at  Check It Out. Drop by and see what poetry morsels are offered this week.

Poetry Friday: Common Ground

This month I’m taking part in Laura Shovan’s annual poem project, which invites poets to write a poem a day during the month of February. This month’s challenge is #10FoundWords. Each day someone from the community shares a news story, speech or current event and chooses ten words from it for us to use to write a poem. You can find out more about it here and still join in the fun.

So far I’ve made it through nine days of the challenge. (I haven’t tackled today’s poem yet.) Some poems are less than my best (and maybe should never see the light of day again), but some of them surprise me. I’ve had the opportunity to play with forms and techniques I don’t normally try. I’ve had the opportunity to try on new voices and new topics. I’ve found that when I think I’m writing about one thing, other layers of meaning emerge as well.

Here is one poem where I consciously tried to think about multiple layers of meaning as I wrote:

 Common Ground

Buoyant expectations
lie buried beneath
a rockslide of disruption
as the dispossessed cheer
the relocation of power.

An icy chasm yawns
between them and us.
Jagged edges and stormy weather
discourage any exploration
that might tow us back
to common ground.

from Day 6: February 6, 2017

#10FoundWords selected by Heather Meloche

ice
chasm
buoyant
exploration
relocation
disruption
buried
edge
tow
weather

Source: UK completes Antarctic Halley base relocation

Each Friday, I am excited to take part in Poetry Friday, where writers share their love of all things poetry. Katie has the Poetry Friday Roundup today at  The Logonauts. Drop by and see what poetry morsels are offered this week.

Poetry Friday: Who Is My Neighbor?

This month I’m taking part in Laura Shovan’s annual poem project, which invites poets to write a poem a day during the month of February. This month’s challenge is #10FoundWords. Each day someone from the community shares a news story, speech or current event and chooses ten words from it for us to use to write a poem. You can find out more about it here and still join in the fun.

I find this challenge to be quite difficult. How am I supposed to figure out what to write about using a list of ten words? Somehow, some way, it eventually clicks as I start doodling random phrases. Sometimes I’m surprised by what flows out of the pen or keyboard. Sometimes the poems are better than expected, sometimes they are not so hot. But I am learning through the challenge of writing in this way, every day, and in community.

Here is a poem I wrote with one of the Warm Up prompts earlier this week.

Who Is My Neighbor?

Let me tell you a story
that seems impossible today.

Once a man hurried down a city street
that cut through a troubled neighborhood
where drug dealers plied their wares.
Gang members hollered from the back of a truck
with a Confederate flag slapped across the rear window,
swerved past the man, stopped, backed up.
The beat the man, took his wallet
and his phone, the one with the volume turned up
so he would never miss an important call.
They left him lying in the gutter, nearly dead,
battered and bruised. But good luck.
A priest walked directly by where he lay,
but ignored him as he crossed to the other sidewalk,
answering his call to attend a rally
where posters communicated his dedication to life.
Next a preacher rushed down the same street.
He saw the man and began a rant
against the irresponsible addicts
who littered the streets.
Next a Syrian refugee crept
along the sidewalk, eyes peering
out underneath the hijab that covered her hair.
She saw the injured man
and responded with compassion.
She helped him up and took him
to her family’s apartment
where she wiped the blood from his face
and offered him a simple meal
and a phone to call his family or the police.
“I saw what happened,” she whispered.
“I will speak up for you.”

Now I ask you,
Which of these three became a neighbor
to the man lying in the street?
Who had the greatest impact?
What do you think?
Now go and do the same.

Mary Lee Hahn shared the article “Here’s why you should call, not email, your legislators” from the New York Times. The ten words are below.

#10FoundWords:
rant
ignore
directly
answering
simple
volume
impossible
impact
respond
communicate

Each Friday, I am excited to take part in Poetry Friday, where writers share their love of all things poetry. Penny Klosterman has the Poetry Friday Roundup today at  A Penny and Her Jots. Drop by and see what poetry morsels are offered this week.