It’s highly ironic that this is the poem I’m sharing today…a cloudy, cool, drizzly-morning day with the windows open all day long. Suffice it to say, this poem is a highly accurate representation of the August we were experiencing when I wrote it!
I’m taking a blog break until September 26 when I’m planning to be back for the Poetry Sisters challenge. Happy September! See you on the other side!
That’s my TED talk for today. I’m over all the shaming that implies that if you’re not doing all the things someone else thinks you should be doing then you’re not doing enough to stop the fascist regime that’s taking over our country. We’re all in the same boat and all the responses are valid, especially the ones that BUILD community instead of creating even more layers of stratification and binary us vs them hoo-hah.
Post written on Thursday, but edited now on Friday morning to add: I support (100%) what Gavin Newsom and other Democratic governors are cooking up right now, which is a bit two-faced of me, since they are DEFINITELY using the “us vs them binary” in quite a powerful, in-your-face way. I guess the difference in my mind is that they are shaming the ones who actually deserve it, while us little folk without the power they wield, need to keep doing what we can with who we are and what we have. And in a way, they are doing what I advocate: building a community of leaders with the hutzpah to fight back.
I’m having more fun with my personal Sealey Challenge this year than ever before! Right when it came out, I bought the big hunka-munka A CENTURY OF POETRY IN THE NEW YORKER 1925-2025. It’s been sitting on my desk ever since…until now. My challenge is to spend 30 minutes a day reading from it. I usually open to a random spot and go from there, keeping my notebook open to jot juicy words (including ones I’ve never heard and need to look up, as was the case for scaturient), titles of possible mentor texts, memories that are sparked by my reading, connections between poems, etc. I am also keeping my notebook open when I read through the Poetry Friday roundup, which is how I wound up writing this poem, which was inspired by “On Starting” by Phil Kaye from Tabatha’s post last week! The photo is via Wikimedia Commons. I’m too proud to use a picture of my yard, but it would certainly do.
Molly has this week’s Poetry Friday roundup at Nix the Comfort Zone. Remember, next week Heidi is subbing in for Margaret, who will take Heidi’s original spot on September 5.