Tag: Poetry Friday

Poetry Friday: A Landmark Birthday

Huge Old Cottonwood at Scioto Audubon Park, Columbus, OH

Today is Sir David Attenborough’s 100th birthday. If you haven’t watched the new PBS documentary Life on Earth: Attenborough’s Greatest Adventure, put that at the top of your TBW list!

Here is David Attenborough’s thank you card to the world for all of kerfluffle over his kerluffle-worthy birthday.

And here is Brian Bilston’s poem for this occasion. As usual, he nailed the ending, but you’ll have to visit his website to read it!

Life of a Naturalist

it’s his birthday
and the sloths are up early for once
the flamingos line up in pink, long-legged salute
the birds of paradise parade in their finest
the elephants blow their trumpets
the blue whales gush with joy
the gorillas act out stories of his visits
the lions lay off the wildebeest for one day
and stand together on the Serengeti plain
the lyre birds sing his voice in tribute
the seals cannot stop clapping

(the last few lines are here)

Happy birthday to ALL who celebrate another trip around the sun in May, and even though few of you (us) will have had the impact that Sir David has had, let’s all take a minute and reflect on all the positive we have done and can still do in our human circles, and for our beloved planet.

Cathy has the Poetry Friday roundup at her blog Cathy Stenquist.

Poetry Friday: MAY!

Happy May Day! Today is an Inklings challenge day, and Heidi challenged us to “Celebrate May by writing a poem that Maykes use of the verbs may, might, could, can, ought.” It felt SO good to use more words, syllables, and lines!

Here’s how the rest of the Inklings met this month’s challenge:

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

Rose has this week’s Poetry Friday roundup at Imagine the Possibilities.

The image is via Unsplash.

Poetry Friday: This Week In the News and an Ekphrastic Challenge

This final Friday of National Poetry Month is also a Poetry Sisters challenge week! We’re writing ekphrastic poems, so I chose an image from today’s NYT morning newsletter. Such a different spring view from my window and from his. When will this madness end?

Here’s what the rest of the Poetry Sisters came up with this month:

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

Here are the rest of my poems from this week:

April 17  As If We Needed One More Example of What Narcissism Looks Like
April 18  Making Good
April 19  Primatology
April 20  Shooting Spree
April 21  A River Runs Through It
April 22  Today’s News is Outside Your Front Door

Irene has this week’s Poetry Friday roundup at Live Your Poem.

Poetry Friday: Another Week in the News

Today (Thursday, April 16) I needed a break from the unrelenting frazzlement of the U.S. news cycle, so I popped over to Al Jazeera for headlines from Europe. It was quite refreshing.

Here are the rest of my poems from this week:

April 10  News Fatigue

April 11  National Poetry Month

April 12  You Are a Crew

April 13  Orban Concedes Defeat

April 14  President vs. Pope

April 15  War in the Middle East

I didn’t bother linking into the roundup last week because I knew I wouldn’t be able to comment. Here’s last week’s post/poems.

Heidi has something special planned for this week’s Poetry Friday roundup at my juicy little universe.

Poetry Friday: This Week in the News

April 4  Perspective

April 5  Nostalgia

April 6  Paying Attention, Then Looking Away

April 7  Bright Spot

April 8  Breaking News from Paleontology

April 9  July 5, 1978

I’m traveling and won’t be able to comment this week. Happy Poetry Friday! Happy NPM!

Jone has this week’s Poetry Friday roundup at Jone Rush MacCulloch.

Poetry Friday and Poetry Every Day

Happy National Poetry Month! My daily poems are at Poetrepository here and on Substack here and in IG stories here if you want to follow along. Or just check in here on Fridays for my weekly roundup!

March 31  “That’s a Bridge Too Far”
April 1  Supreme Court Birthright Citizenship Case
April 2  Making a Difference in a Distracted and Divided World
April 3  Finally, Some Good News

Today is also Inklings Challenge Day. Linda challenged us to write an ars poetica poem, “A poem that explains the ‘art of poetry,’ or a meditation on poetry using the form and techniques of a poem.” I think mine fits best in the second category.

A few phrases in my poem were borrowed from Pádrig Ó Tuama’s 3/29 Poetry Unbound Substack “Belief and Wonder.”

Here’s how the rest of the Inklings met this month’s challenge:

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

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

Poetry Friday: Celebrating Twilight

This is a double-duty poem. First, it celebrates the Book Birthday of Marcie Flinchum Atkins’ new release, WHEN TWILIGHT COMES. Congratulations, Marcie!

Second, it’s a Poetry Sister challenge poem. This month we tried our hands at Ovillejos. According to Writer’s Digest, “The ovillejo is an old Spanish form popularized by Miguel de Cervantes (1547-1616). This 10-line poem is comprised of 3 rhyming couplets (or 2-line stanzas) and a quatrain (or 4-line stanza).” Easy, right? Oh…there’s more: “The first line of each couplet is 8 syllables long and presents a question to which the second line responds in 3 to 4 syllables–either as an answer or an echo.” (I think we mostly ignored that part…but there’s still more!) “The quatrain is also referred to as a redondilla (which is usually a quatrain written in trochaic tetrameter) with an abba rhyme pattern. The final line of the quatrain also combines lines 2, 4, and 6 together.” WHEW!

I pretty quickly discovered that in order to have a final line that made sense, I would need to start there and reverse engineer the whole poem. It felt like part puzzle, part fill-in-the-blanks. But I’m not sad about how mine turned out in the end!

Marcie has this week’s Poetry Friday roundup at Marcie Flinchum Atkins, and I can’t wait to see all the ways the community is lighting up the twilight skies in honor of her new book!

Here’s what the rest of the Poetry Sisters came up with this month:

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

Poetry Friday: The News in Poetry

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I’ve found my way back into a regular poetry writing routine and simultaneously I might have found my NPM project. As I read the NYT or other assorted news sources, I borrow bits and pieces and write a tricube.

I’ve also been playing with haiku-comics.

There’s room during NPM for both, right?

Tanita has this week’s Poetry Friday Roundup at {fiction, instead of lies}

Poetry Friday: Yesterday

I’m in a bit of a writing slump, so thank goodness for Audrey Gidman’s Poetry Prompt Calendars! Here is the prompt for 3/11, which was the ninth anniversary of our mom’s death. Today, 3/12, is the 32-year anniversary of our dad’s death.

Write two short, separate, unrelated poems, 4-5 lines each. One describing a body of water you’re standing beside. One about a relative—a parent, a sibling, a child, or another relative (alternately, a person very dear to you—a lover, chosen family etc.) Once complete, stack the poems so the first line of one of the poems is first on the page, then the first line of the second poem is next. Weave them together in this way until you have one poem that contains two poems. You may consider weaving the poems again, so the second begins first. Notice what happens. Adjust as needed. It’s okay if the poem isn’t a success, it’s not about that, but you might be surprised by what “success” looks like.

Here are my two short, separate, unrelated poems:

Here is how the wove together, with a few necessary adjustments:

Linda has this week’s Poetry Friday roundup at TeacherDance.

Poetry Friday: Becoming

Ever since Sara Teasdale’s poem “There Will Come Soft Rains” was the Poem of the Day this past week on Poets.org, I’ve been going back to it over and over again, working to memorize it. Sara T. and I go way back. My fourth graders and I memorized “Barter” my first year of teaching. I wish I had memorized a poem a year with every class. Just think of the library of words and images I’d have at my beck and call.

The turn in the middle of “There Will Come Soft Rains” comes as a gut punch. Especially now. I know that Nature wouldn’t miss humankind, but I desperately want her to know that I am mourning all that humans have destroyed, all that the current administration is determined to destroy. I want to bear witness to her ordinary miracles (cue Sarah McLachlan) and celebrate the life force that makes and heals our planet.

Margaret gave the Inklings this month’s challenge to write a poem using the word “becoming” somewhere in it. You might be able to feel the influence of Sara T. in my writing.

Here’s how the rest of the Inklings met this month’s challenge:

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

Karen has this week’s Poetry Friday roundup at Karen Edmisten*.