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.
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.
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.
I’ve been gone a bit, and will be for a bit more, but I’ll be back…with stories and poems!
A huge thank you to Tabatha (at The Opposite of Indifference) who has stepped in, due to a change in Amy LV’s plans, to host the Poetry Friday roundup on Friday, October 4.
Write on!
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.
I had so much fun writing after Joyce Sutphen’s Next Time, that I offered it to the Inklings for our September challenge.
Here’s what the other Inklings did with this month’s challenge (if back-to-school allowed for time to write) :
Linda @A Word Edgewise
Catherine @Reading to the Core
Molly @Nix the Comfort Zone
Margaret @Reflections on the Teche
Heidi @my juicy little universe
Buffy Silverman has this week’s Poetry Friday roundup.
The Poetry Sisters’ Challenge for this month was to write ekphrastic poems from photos we shared with each other. This happens to be one of the photos I shared, and while it is a glorious and whimsical sky, my poem took me in other, more mournful directions. Such is the nature of ekphrastic poems. Whatever the image prompts is where the poem goes.
Here’s Tricia’s poem, and Tanita’s poem, and Liz’s poem.
Susan has this week’s end-of-August Poetry Friday roundup at Chicken Spaghetti.
Look at that lineup! Be still my poetry heart! And they’re all coming to Ohio!
And…
…I will be helping to lead the Casting for Recovery retreat that weekend!
You can hear my sobs and wailing and gnashing of teeth, can’t you? So. Please go in my stead and tell me all about it. More information and registration is here. Go to the live Poetry Unbound interview. Wander the streets and enjoy the typewriter poets. Swoon for me, please. I’m swooning from afar.
I don’t have a poem to share today, just this sad-for-me / happy-for-you news.
Plus, I would be remiss if I didn’t link to Amanda Gorman’s PHENOMENAL poem delivered at the DNC.
Oh, and the poets.org poem of the day today was my kind of call to action.
Rose has this week’s Poetry Friday roundup at Imagine the Possibilities.
Long walks during the coolest part of the day eat what was once my writing time for breakfast. But they also usually give me back at least one snapshot that I can get a snack of a poem out of. All of my photo-cherita-Stafford Challenge poems can be found @curious.appreciative in the story highlights.
Sealey update: I have finished six books so far, and BLACK GIRL YOU ARE ATLAS by Renée Watson (illustrated by Ekua Holmes) is far and beyond the best of the bunch so far. Put it at the top of your TBR.
Janice has this week’s Poetry Friday roundup at Salt City Verse.
Combine this with a 2-mile walk, a bit of weeding plus the cutting back of the peony foliage, a one-hour zoom, a trip to the library to audition a few more books for the new after-school year, and the usual DuoLingo lessons and 1/2 hour of Sealey reading, and you have a snapshot of my day.
Speaking of Sealey, I’ve finished three books so far, You Are Here by Ada Limón, Grace Notes by Naomi Shihab Nye, and Everything Comes Next by Naomi Shihab Nye. I like this year’s commitment to 1/2 hour of poetry reading per day rather than the unrealistic pressure of finishing a whole book in a day. It gives me more time to read slowly and savor.
Molly has this week’s JOYFUL Poetry Friday roundup at Nix the Comfort Zone.
A(nother) Year of Reading 