Original – Page 6 – A(nother) Year of Reading

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.

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.

Poetry Friday: Next Time

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.

Poetry Friday: Ghazal for the Sky

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.

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: What a Day

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.

Poetry Friday: #youarehere

The Inklings’ challenge this month was simultaneously issued by Catherine, by Ada Limón, and by Mo Daley at Ethical ELA.

Catherine charged us with joining Ada Limón’s Poet Laureate project, “You Are Here.” The Library of Congress website describes it as a “project is for everyone, and I hope people of all ages—poets and nonpoets—will feel moved to write their own response to the “You Are Here” prompt. It’s simple: What would you write in response to the landscape around you?

On Day Three of Ethical ELA’s Open Write last week, Mo Daley challenged writers to try an X Marks the Spot Poem: “Find a print article from a magazine that interests you…Once you have chosen your article, simply draw an X through the page. You will then write your poem using the words touching your X.” I printed the full text of Ada Limón’s challenge to receive my X, and the words that touched the X are italicized in my poem:

“I believe the way we respond to this crucial moment on our planet could define humanity forever. In conceiving of my signature project, I wanted something that could both praise our sacred and natural wonders and also speak the complex truths of this urgent time. It’s my hope that You Are Here will do just that,” Limón said. “You Are Here: Poetry in the Parks aims to deepen our connection to nature through poetry, and You Are Here: Poetry in the Natural World is an anthology that speaks to the many different ways we are nature too. It may seem easier to surrender to the overwhelm of the world’s challenges right now, but I believe that singing out, offering something back to the earth, noticing our connection to the planet, could help us all move forward together in a powerful way.”

Limón said this project is for everyone, and she hopes people of all ages — poets and non-poets — will feel moved to write their own responses to the You Are Here prompt. It’s simple: What would you write in response to the landscape around you? People can share their responses on social media if they choose, using the hashtag #YouAreHerePoetry.

“Above all, this project is about rising to this moment with hope, the kind of hope that will echo outwards for years to come,” Limón said.

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

Laura has a book birthday and this week’s Poetry Friday roundup at Poems For Teachers. Congratulations, Laura!

**Make a note that Amy LV with have the October 4 Poetry Friday roundup, not me. We’ll be traveling, and Amy generously agreed to host the roundup that week.

Poetry Friday: Classified Ad Haiku

Funny thing happens when family visits for the week: suddenly it’s Friday and you haven’t even begun the Poetry Sisters challenge! Luckily, this is the month we chose classified ad haiku/senryu.

These poems could also work for Ada Limon’s #youarehere project, because they give two glimpses of our back yard: three kinds of milkweed, empty again this year of monarchs, and a back porch covered with acorn litter. The tree next door, which overhangs our yard, is heading into a mast year — the branches are heavy with clumps of acorns that look like bunches of tan grapes. Lots have begun to fall and get nibbled by the resident squirrels and chipmunks, along with the hickory nuts from neighbor’s OTHER overhanging tree.

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
Tanita @ {fiction, instead of lies}
Laura @ Laura Purdie Salas
Sara @ Read Write Believe
Tricia @ The Miss Rumphius Effect

Marcie has this week’s Poetry Friday Roundup.

Poetry Friday: Intelligence

Reading back in my notebook, I found this draft I wrote after the Poetry Sisters’ discussion of wabi-sabi. I was thinking about human intelligence vs. artificial intelligence, and I doodled around on RhymeZone looking at rhymes, near-rhymes, definitions, and synonyms. I rather like it that there is no rhyme for intelligence. Ranks it right up there with orange.

Robyn is popping back in from her summer blogging break to host the Poetry Friday roundup this week at Life on the Deckle Edge.

Poetry Friday: Wish You Were Here

Heidi’s challenge for the Inklings this month was to “write a short postcard poem with choice details of your vacation/holiday/getaway/escape location and activities. Conclude with “Wish you were here” or some variation!”

This past week, I spent two unplanned days in NYC. The actual plan was to go to an in-person workshop at Tatter on Saturday and then come right home that evening. But mid-afternoon on Saturday, my flight was cancelled. No problem, except that the two known-to-me hotels were booked up for the night. My third choice, the Hotel Beacon, was A-Mazing, so that made up for it all and I looked forward to a fun bonus museum day on Sunday before returning home that night…which was not to be, though, because my flight was cancelled AGAIN. After a trip out to The Mayhem Known as JFK in the Midst of Numerous Flight Cancellations (see photo taken from the AirTrain), I wound up back at one of my known-to-me hotels with a flight booked for Monday afternoon. I was just about over making lemonade, but I (metaphorically) sucked it up and spent a delightful couple of semi-cool morning hours walking in Central Park before spending the rest of the afternoon and evening in airports and airplanes.

My response to Heidi’s prompt is not a short postcard poem. It long, like my trip became.