Author: maryleehahn

Poetry Friday: Begin With a Sensory Experience

Molly gave the Inklings our December challenge: “Begin with a specific sensory experience (of taste, sight, smell, sound or touch), and see where that leads you.” This is part of a prompt from James Crews’s new book “Unlocking the Heart.” The experience of seeing wild turkeys at Highbanks provided the perfect answer to her challenge.

Here’s what the other Inklings did with this month’s challenge:

Linda @A Word Edgewise
Molly @Nix the Comfort Zone
Margaret @Reflections on the Teche
Heidi @my juicy little universe
(Catherine @Reading to the Core)

Carol has this week’s Poetry Friday roundup at The Apples in My Orchard.

The call for hosts for the Poetry Friday roundups in Jan-June 2025 is here.

Poetry Friday: Roundup Call

It’s that time again. Six-ish months have passed since last we queued up to host the Poetry Friday roundups.

What is the Poetry Friday roundup? A gathering of links to posts featuring original or shared poems, or reviews of poetry books. A carnival of poetry posts. Here is an explanation that Rene LaTulippe shared on her blog, No Water River, and here is an article Susan Thomsen wrote for the Poetry Foundation.

Who can do the Poetry Friday roundup? Anyone who is willing to gather the links in some way, shape, or form (Mr. Linky, “old school” in the comments, or ???) on the Friday of your choice. If you are new to the Poetry Friday community, jump right in, but perhaps choose a date later on so that we can spend some time getting to know each other.

How do you do a Poetry Friday roundup? If you’re not sure, stick around for a couple of weeks and watch…and learn! One thing we’re finding out is that folks who schedule their posts, or who live in a different time zone than you, appreciate it when the roundup post goes live sometime on Thursday.

How do I get the code for the PF Roundup Schedule for the sidebar of my blog? You can grab the list from the sidebar here at A(nother) Year of Reading, or I’d be happy to send it to you if you leave me your email address. 

Why would I do a Poetry Friday Roundup? Community, community, community. It’s like hosting a poetry party on your blog!

Put your request in the comments (blog URL is appreciated) and I’ll update the calendar frequently. Feel free to share this post on all the various socials.

And now for the where and when:

January
3 Mary Lee at A(nother) Year of Reading
10 Kat at Kats Whiskers
17 Tricia at The Miss Rumphius Effect
24 Tabatha at The Opposite of Indifference
31 Jan at bookseedstudio

February
7 Carol at Beyond LiteracyLink
14 Linda at TeacherDance
21 Laura at Laura Purdie Salas
28 Denise at Dare to Care

March
7 Margaret at Reflections on the Teche
14 Janice at Salt City Verse
21 Rose at Imagine the Possibilities
28 Marcie at Marcie Flinchum Atkins

April
4 Matt at Radio, Rhythm & Rhyme
11 Irene at Live Your Poem
18 Jone at Jone Rush MacCulloch
25 Heidi at my juicy little universe

May
2 Molly at Nix the Comfort Zone
9 Sarah at Sarah Grace Tuttle
16 Ramona at Pleasures from the Page
23 Michelle at More Art for All
30 Karen at Karen Edmisten*

June
6 Buffy at Buffy Silverman
13 Ruth at There is no such thing as a God-forsaken town
20 Carol at The Apples in My Orchard
27 Tanita at {fiction, instead of lies}

Poetry Friday: Two Versions

Photo by Cyndy Sims on Flickr

.

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):

I also got a flu and COVID inoculation…

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.”

Poetry Friday: Ode to the October Garden

Tattered curtain of fennel
Grape Hyacinth foliage in front of what was a Blazing Star

Linda gave the Inklings a most generous and lovely prompt for this month: “Use this poem by Joy Harjo as a mentor text in any way that makes your heart happy.” Thank you, Linda. My heart is, indeed, happy!

Here’s what the other Inklings did with this month’s challenge:

Linda @A Word Edgewise
Catherine @Reading to the Core
Molly @Nix the Comfort Zone
Margaret @Reflections on the Teche
Heidi @my juicy little universe

Patricia has this week’s Poetry Friday roundup at Reverie.

Poetry Friday: Constructing/Deconstructing

The Poetry Sisters’ challenge this month was to write “…a poem in which we literally build and/or take apart something – large or small. Our focus will be on constructing or deconstructing, taking into account technical terms, instructions, and perhaps even material sources.”

I’m not usually a fan of food that needs to be deconstructed on my plate (bone-in chicken, Maryland crabs, shrimp that still have their tails). But I’ll make an exception for fresh mussels. Yum.

Here’s what the others made of this month’s challenge:

Liz @ Liz Garton Scanlon
Tanita @ {fiction, instead of lies}
Laura @ Laura Purdie Salas
Tricia @ The Miss Rumphius Effect

Carol has this week’s Poetry Friday roundup at Beyond LiteracyLink.

Poetry Friday: Surprises

Surprises

Would you have known
to watch for
porpoises and dolphins
as your ferry crossed the Minch
between Skye and Harris?

There’s something to be said for surprises
and also for a guide
generously sharing both knowledge
and binoculars.

(c) Mary Lee Hahn, draft, 2024

Your Scotland might be cities and castles, but mine is the rugged wide open beauty of the Hebridean islands. I experienced Scotland through the soles of my boots, the pain in my knees, and the exhilaration of peaks and beaches; through wind and rain, fog and rainbows; through history, geology, and local wildlife. And, of course, through the food.

I’m back, but a bit of my heart was definitely left behind in the Outer Hebrides.

Matt has this week’s Poetry Friday roundup at Radio, Rhythm & Rhyme.

Poetry Friday: Fun With BLUE Double Dactyls

Here’s my poetic contriBLUEtion to the conversation. (I have no idea why the two images won’t line up. We’ll just let a wonky poetry form have a wonky look on the page.)

Heidi has this week’s Poetry Friday Roundup at my juicy little universe and reminds us that small things can be enormous. Let’s carry that vibe forward.