Tag: Cherita

Poetry Friday: Fire

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I’ve adopted Molly’s strategy of using Wordle guesses as writing prompts. Thursday’s final word sparked deeper thinking about fire. The images from Los Angeles are haunting as are the stories of the loss of Black middle class neighborhoods that embodied the American dream of generational wealth. I grieve all the non-human lives that have been extinguished and uncounted and which float now in the air as smoke and ash.

Fire destroys, yet fire is also how we describe love and passion, the urge to create, and the desire to do better. We sing around campfires and we light candles in our religions. Giant sequoias and lodgepole pines need fire in order to release their seeds and regenerate.

Fire is complicated.

Process notes:
I’ve been writing mostly haiku for the first month and a half of #poemsforpersistence, but I’m feeling the urge to return to cheritas.

Today’s poem is comprised of three linked cheritas in which I answered my question of despair, “How is this all going to turn out?!?!” with what can seem grim in stanza/poem one; with the conundrum of the two faces of fire in stanza/poem two (and I’m pretty sure you’re savvy enough to realize I’m not just writing about literal fire); with, in stanza/poem three, the necessity for some kind of answer that can be ongoing and joyous (since…see stanza/poem one).

The image is another from The Public Domain Image Archive.

Tricia has this week’s Poetry Friday roundup at The Miss Rumphius Effect.

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: Late Summer Edition

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.

Poetry Friday: Snippets

I’ve been having fun pairing my (mostly) daily Stafford Challenge cheritas with photos from the garden and/or neighborhood. You can find these poems ephemerally in my Instagram stories or archived on my Instagram profile page.

Back story for the first one — our sweet peas are learning to lean INTO the garden from the fence where they climb to avoid being pruned by the deer that come through the easement and nibble.

The second is a closeup of a mimosa tree — I found one on a recent walk that had branches low enough to let me get a picture of those gorgeous blooms.

The last are balloon flowers from a plant in my garden.

Tabatha has this week’s Poetry Friday roundup at The Opposite of Indifference.