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Margaret challenged the Inklings this month to write a kenning poem — a poem in which “A figurative compound word that takes the place of an ordinary noun.” I started my brainstorm list of compound words while sitting in a Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams shop for an Ice Cream Social fundraiser for Casting for Recovery. But as joyful as it was to be infused with the scent of waffle cones and delighted by the giggles of children, I couldn’t shake the dark cloud of the deaths of Dolly Parton and Wendell Berry, Pierre Damas Bel, and now Gloria Steinem, too. Life seems determined to remind us that grief is the flip side of joy. Sigh.
No Catherine this week, and maybe no Heidi, who is in the midst of her big move. Here are all the possible Inkling links. We’ll see who manages to join in!
Heidi @my juicy little universe
Linda @A Word Edgewise
Margaret @Reflections on the Teche
Molly @Nix the Comfort Zone
Patricia has this week’s Poetry Friday Roundup at Reverie.
(The image is via Unsplash.)
“Brain-filing” the “eye-twinkles” is replenishment for sure. Wrapped in the grief of Parton, Berry, Steinem is a reminder of the best of us, how much we are gifted literacy, poetry, freedom by strangers. I just looked up Bel and that is horrific. xo
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Yes, lots to remind us of how fleeting it all is…. Humid-sauce is exactly what we’ve been swimming in around these parts! xo
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Wow! What a delightful collection of kennings. I love “sun-spice” while getting a bit weary of “humid-sauce”. But “shock-box” takes the cake.
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I kind of went overboard with the kennings, but I was having such fun!!
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I don’t know…I like the plethora of different thinking starting with sun-spice. Yes, please. I’d like a big jar of sun-spice. I think it’s what the laundry detergent makers have been chasing always! I can tell you were having fun and there is a voice in this poem that IS fun.
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Swimming in kennings — and that is joy-food for the grief-soul!When the weary-world weighs, turn to poetry (and waffle-cones)!
I am reminded, Mary Lee, that we have to pause and allow ourselves to feel all the feelz — We can hold two things (or more) at once. I hope the coming week finds you leaning in to the joy. xoxo
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This poem and your artful kennings, especially “sticky-joy” and “shock-box” have moved me, speaking so deeply of the seasons of grief and joy. Thank you, Mary Lee!!!
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finding those moments to “brain-file” for when the need comes feels like good advice, Mary Lee. I enjoyed all the ‘figurative compound words’!
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There are so many spot-on kennings throughout your poem! “Sun-spice” is an evocative favorite of mine, but “shock-box” is so apt. We have been inundated with loss lately. It’s so important to remember that grief doesn’t stand in isolation but does have that flip side. Sometimes it’s so tough.
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Such fun, Mary Lee! your opening pulled me in with “sun-spice” and “humid-sauce” – such a great description of this time of year. And “shock-box” is so right-on!
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Mary Lee, wow, you are opening up the kennings world for me. “shock-box”, “wise-elders” and “breath-stopped” really tell about this past couple of weeks. So many powerful images in your poem. I love the near-autumn sun-spice. Really good.
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THANK YOU for slinging so many true kennings that you’ve made up for my one not-exactly-figurative one! I’m feeling the burlap-blanket right this moment because I hadn’t known about Wendell Berry somehow. *sigh* I’m brain-filing lots of new and nuanced town-flavors, though!
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Ohmygosh, I love your kennings! I can’t pick just one favorite but I do love sun-spice and humid-sauce and sticky-joy.
And yes, so much sadness lately with so many losses.
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Sun-spice, humid-sauce…these words! And this poem is going into my journal. I took Georgia Heard and Irene Latham’s class on word joy. I’m working on my word game.
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Mary Lee, smiled all the way through the word play of your Kenning, with a stretch-face and an eye-twinkle:) Yes, all of the recent deaths remind us of the flip-sides of joy and grief. I find myself trying to be more mindful lately amidst those reminders.
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