Finally a little rain

April 15, 2011 “Poetry must be as new as foam and as old as the rock." Ralph Waldo Emerson

It's already passed, but a cold front with rain moved over our city Wednesday night. I haven't heard rain on the skylight and roof for many months.

Evening Picture

Nearly dusk and drips slither

down the window,

while the evening sky

serves as a dark canvas

of my personal evening picture.

A willow weeps in the distance

and a flicker swoops into

the nearer cottonwood.

He wants a quick peck

before bedtime.

Flowers become sticks, with bobbing heads.

This window art is finished starkly

in only charcoal.

The deft hand of the artist is evident

in each shaded branch, each serrated leaf.

In the final stroke, colors merge.

The curtain drops, and seems to roll up the day;

night arrives.

Students and Poetry

April 14, 2011 “Out of the quarrel with others we make rhetoric; out of the quarrel with ourselves we make poetry.” W.B. Yeats


It's my granddaughter's second birthday--poetry alive!

And it's "poetry in your pocket day"! I hope everyone is sharing a favorite poem today. And that brings me to my query: how do you bring students to poetry without forcing it? In this day of such structured curriculum, it reminds me of a very old movie about tourists in Europe, "If It's Tuesday, It Must Be Belgium". So if on Monday, you must be sure to cover the beginning parts of speech, on Tuesday, it 'must' be poetic devices, and then Wednesday, write, to keep on track. I realize that I'm discounting the many teachers who manage to sneak in the wonder of language, including poetry, and I know they are out there in the thousands. Recently, my grandson told me that he was studying poetic devices. I asked what he was writing. He said, "oh no, Grandma, we aren't writing. We're just learning them so we can identify them on the test."

My poem for this day:

Trying to pluck a poem

from the air

when it’s not there

seems futile,

impossible,

ridiculous!

But—

my teacher says:

“Wednesday, 9am sharp!”

So I keep searching

for those words

up there-

somewhere.

Poem Please Me - A triolet

April 13, 2011 “Poetry is the language in which man explores his own amazement.” Christopher Fry

This is one that kept needing work, but it was a good challenge to write, to keep the structure. Thanks to http://mainelywrite.blogspot.com/ for the great poetry ideas!

Poems please me every time

They sing, at least I hope they sing

peculiar nuance of line.

Poems please me every time

and warble a bit in their refrain.

Though laboring at similes,

Poems please me every time.

The words, the words are just the thing.

My Old Dog

April 12, 2011 Slice of Life Tuesday

“Poetry is a mirror, which makes beautiful that which is distorted.” Percy Shelley

We don’t have pets anymore and I miss having one. As I wrote in an earlier post, sometimes we have grand-dogs visit, but while it’s fun, it isn’t the same. In the last times we had pets, a while ago, we spent three to four years with older animals, a marvelous Olde English Sheepdog called Bentley, a Jack Russell Terrier named Timothy, and a gray shorthair cat, Max. We loved all three and had them, starting with the sheepdog, a total of 18 years. Those final years were both sweet and difficult, holding on to something that wasn’t really there anymore, finding ways to fill both the pets’ needs along with our own. These animals gave much to our family, helped our children grow into adults with compassion and responsibility for living things, gave us many moments of laughter in our lives together, and loved us as we loved them. That last, in itself, is nothing to dismiss. Animals, while needing basic care, offer so much in return—a lick, a wag, a purr—the basic needs of humans, right? I wrote a poem this time to honor all the pets in my life, including those three mentioned above.

My old dog

is now deaf,

and a bit lame,

but he still

nestles his head

beside me

to ask for

loving.

He still loves me.

He will not again

leap the fence,

and be my guard.

Now it’s my turn

to take some care

for my old dog.

I love him still.

Poetry Following the Alphabet

April 11, 2011 "Poetry surrounds us everywhere, but putting it on paper is, alas, not so easy as looking at it." Vincent Van Gogh

I saw a poem once that used only words in alphabetical order, one word per letter of the alphabet. I have worked at writing a poem with this structure often, and also had students do it. In addition to personal inspiration, I believe poetry is basically word work, yet that word work is such a challenge. Finding just the word one wants to communicate a feeling is not easy, as this structure is not easy. But it's been fun to try. Since I love birds and bird watching, I thought I'd write about them.

Alphabetical Aves

Amazing Birds, Cerulean-Dazed, Elegantly-Feathered, Geometrically-Hatched—

Ibis, Junco, Killdeer, Lark, Magpie, Nutcracker, Oriole, Pigeon, Quail—

Random Selection Tallied Under Various Walkabouts--

Xylophonic Yammering Zealots!