I have enjoyed the prompts — pictures, videos, articles and more — in Laura Shovan’s February Daily Poem Project. But I have not been able to keep up this week. Life has come too fast. At the first of the week, we learned of the deaths of two friends, and my heart has been heavy. I am grateful for my community that comes together in times of grief and crisis and for poetry that gives me ways to process all the feelings. This photo of Crater Lake shared by Alice Tabor-Nine provided a metaphor just when I needed it.

Craters

a heart erupts
with grief
spewing ashes
of loss
that cover life,
leaving
a gaping hole.
Overtime,
love filters
through icy days
to fill the craters
with love
again.

Each Friday, I am excited to take part in Poetry Friday, where writers share their love of all things poetry. Karen hosts the Poetry Friday Roundup today at Karen Edmisten. She offers a peace offering to February with a poem by Jane Hirshfield. Hurry over and check out all the poetry morsels offered up today.

This month I am taking part in the February Daily Poem Project hosted by Laura Shovan. For her birthday each year, Laura invites poets to write daily in community. This year participants are sharing prompts exploring the theme of water. From photos to videos, from songs to news articles, the prompts have been rich and varied, as have the poetic responses to it.

So far I’ve mostly kept up with the prompts. I’ve missed a few days here and there that I’d like to catch up on with. I’m also at that point where I sit down to look at the daily prompt and think, “I’m not sure I have any more poems left in me.” But somehow I manage to put a few words down on paper. Some of them surprise me. Some of them are words that might lead to something I want to say later on. Either way, I look forward to reading the contributions from everyone else and being part of the community. Thank you, Laura, for letting us all play along with you for your birthday!

Today’s poem is one I wrote in response to the prompt I shared. For the past 15+ years, my husband, daughter and I have joined with the Friends of the Muscatatuck River Society to pick up trash from the rivers in our community. Through its beginnings in 1998 through 2019, volunteers have pulled 273,026 pounds of trash and 2510 tires from the Muscatatuck River (and every year volunteers can cover more miles of the river since fewer people seem to be littering). For our daughter and her friends, it is a day of fun. When they were younger, they competed to see who could get the wettest/muddiest or who could dig the biggest/most tires out. This photo is of my husband the year we used canoes to float out larger items (tires, iron from cars and other machines) to a place they could be removed.

Monster Catch

Went fishing today
but took no bait.
I didn’t have too
long to wait
‘fore I reeled in
a monster catch
of iron and tires
along this patch.

As FMRS says, “Mother Nature thanks you!”

Each Friday, I am excited to take part in Poetry Friday, where writers share their love of all things poetry. Cheriee hosts the Poetry Friday Roundup today at Library Matters. She introduces Avis Harley, a children’s poet from Vancouver, Canada. Hurry over and check out all the poetry morsels offered up today.

I am glad to be taking part in Laura Shovan’s annual birthday celebration with the 8th Annual Daily Poem Project. For the month of February, poets come together around a theme (WATER, this year) and share poems written to daily prompts posted by members of the group. We’re only a week in, and already I have been amazed and inspired. And I have learned things about water that I did not know.

Yesterday’s prompt was on slurpee waves–a phenomena that I had never seen or even heard of. A few years ago, cold weather in New England turned the waves to slush. Here’s an amazing video by Jonathan Nimerfroh. These images combined with my feeling completely overwhelmed by the rush of noise and news these past days (or is it week, months, years?) and an article on disinformation I read this morning from The Atlantic. (The article is long, but well worth the time to read to understand some of what is going on with all that noise.)

waves of noise
surge into slushy half-lies
freezing truth

Each Friday, I am excited to take part in Poetry Friday, where writers share their love of all things poetry. Laura hosts the Poetry Friday Roundup today at Laura Purdie Salas. She shares a delightful poetic invitation to sing your song–inspired by (and writing started at) an orchestra concert. Hurry over and check out all the poetry morsels offered up today.