Poetry Friday - Long Time Connecting

     Poetry Friday is hosted by Molly Hogan here at Nix The Comfort Zone! She's lamenting the splintering of Maine's one area code in a new poem form and sharing a special swap from Tabatha. Thanks for hosting, Molly!

     Four years ago on Poetry Friday here I took Amy Ludwig VanDerwater's challenge on Michelle Heidenrich Barnes' Today's Little Ditty to write about small things. I wrote the following poem for my granddaughter Ingrid, then seven, who noticed and was sad that a wire wastebasket in my office seemed lonely, never used for its intended goal, to fill with trash!

The Lonely Wastebasket

A woeful wire wastebasket

sits lonely by my desk,

dejected and rejected.

Waiting for work.

Crumpled scraps of abandoned words

find home with another group nearby.

In the kitchen, 

a charming red metal can  

holds a colorful collage of trash,

ripe for making assorted acquaintances.

Linda Baie ©All Rights  

        Now Ingrid is eleven and while we now spend time together most every week, the pandemic first lessened some of the time and we began sharing poems back and forth via text or email. This past Wednesday as I was spending the day with her sister Imogene, Ingrid sent us both a poem. She still remembers!

untitled

How is the lonely wastebasket

sitting over there?

Tell Imogene to treat

him well and with lots of care.

Fill up his bucket with love

How is the lonely wastebasket

sitting over there?

Ingrid Krahling ©

#SOL16 - 25/31 - Poetry Friday - Discovering Loneliness

SOL16 #25/31 - 

      I'm slicing with the Two Writing Teachers community for Day Twenty-Five of Thirty-One of the Slice of Life Challenge in March.  Thank you Stacey, Tara, Anna, Betsy, Dana, Kathleen, Beth, and Deb.  

      And, it's Poetry Friday, today hosted by Heidi Mordhorst at her blog,  My Juicy Little Universe. Heidi is also sharing a poem for Michelle Barnes' challenge. See the explanation below.

Every month, Michelle H. Barnes at Today's Little Ditty interviews a special guest who offered a poetry challenge. This month, this guest is Amy Ludwig VanDerwater from The Poem Farm. Here are Michelle's words about the challenge: "Amy has challenged us to write poems about small things— animals or objects you see everyday and don't give much thought. Click HERE for more details." 

Amy is a master when writing about small things. I know she sees things I miss, and celebrates them often in her poems. I do try to notice, but often they skip right by.

This time I wrote a poem about something my granddaughter Ingrid has noticed. She visits me at least once a week, if not more, and each time she tells me how sorry she feels for the wire wastebasket in my office. All the hours at my house, whenever trash is concerned, she "feeds" this basket, hoping it won't feel lonely anymore. Ingrid is a child who holds many things, mostly living ones, close to her heart, but others, too. She makes sure she visits the extra bedrooms that are not used very much. She hugs the stuffed animals, and pats the large ceramic dog that sits in my living room. I am grateful for her eyes. She notices, as Amy asks, the small things.

The Lonely Wastebasket

A woeful wire wastebasket

sits lonely by my desk,

dejected and rejected.

Waiting for work.

Crumpled scraps of abandoned words

find home with another group nearby.

In the kitchen,

a charming red metal can 

holds a colorful collage of trash,

ripe for making assorted acquaintances.

Linda Baie ©All Rights Reserved