November 2024 – A(nother) Year of Reading

Poetry Friday: Two Versions

I gave the Poetry Sisters this month’s challenge. We brainstormed our year of challenges in January, just after I began reading a poem a day from Jane Hirshfield’s newish (2023) book THE ASKING: NEW AND SELECTED POEMS. “Two Versions” is on page 9, but can’t be found in its entirety anywhere on line, making it tricky for you to discover the ways her poem inspired our writing. Lucky for you, though, I used the structure of Hirschfield’s poem for mine. So…my poem might give you some hints, in the event that you don’t own her book (which you should, so get to an independent bookstore this weekend and help that small business survive the One Big Store that would weed out all the little stores…in a poignant analogy to my very poem).

I realized, when I was combing through the blog correcting my misspelling of Hirshfield (not sch, just sh), that I also wrote about the oak seedling murders back in May. The guilt is strong enough for two poems, apparently.

I’m not sure who’s in for this month’s challenge, but here are the Poetry Sister links just in case:

Liz @ Liz Garton Scanlon
Laura @ Laura Purdie Salas
Sara @ Read Write Believe
Tricia @ The Miss Rumphius Effect

And here’s Tanita @ {fiction, instead of lies} who has this week’s Poetry Friday roundup!

Next week is December and it will be time to queue up for roundup host positions January-June 2025. Watch for the call!

Poetry Friday: Peace

The Peace of Wild Things
by Wendell Berry

When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things…

…go here for the rest of the poem, and to hear Wendell Berry read it.

Nature is helping me through each day. Also friends, community, mulching leaves, and washing windows.

#haikuforhealing (along with Jone’s #haikuforresilience) feels like…not at all enough. But then I remind myself that there is so very little right now that I have the power to change, and every little bit of peace does add up.

On the subject of every little bit of peace…I am going to back away from Threads and I am going to resist joining Bluesky. I am finding that I need less social media, not more. Instagram is enough.

Karen has this week’s Poetry Friday roundup at Karen Edmisten*.

Poetry Friday: Here We Go Again

In 2016, #haikuforhealing created a community of poets on Twitter. Yesterday, I finally created an account on Threads and just now I put out a call for ~~poets~~ ~~writers~~ anyone who wants to join in for another round of healing. Is that even the best home for such a community? Are you there? I hope you’ll find me and join in, or let me know what’s a better home for our creative outlet.

Here’s the post that launched the original. These are the words that inspired me:

5 Insights for Recording Artists, Performers, and Creatives

1. Make Art for Social Change

2. Channel Your Pain into Art

3. If You See It, Say It, Sing It, or Sculpt It…

4. Be Visible

5. Collaborate

Here’s the video I put together for the 2017 #watchpaintdry movement (an alternative to watching the inauguration).

They aren’t haiku, but here are the beginnings of my healing (along with the banana bread I baked and shared with our neighbors yesterday):

Here are a couple of other offerings to help you move forward:

The Joy Workout: six research-backed moves to improve your mood.

The one song that slows my breathing and centers me every time:

Cathy has today’s Poetry Friday roundup at Merely Day By Day. She shares a powerful poem that encourages us to pick ourselves up (as soon as we’re ready) and “get back to the work.”