I am a great fan and long-time reader of Smithsonian Magazine because it offers so much: beautiful writing, brilliant images, and fascinating stories about science, culture, and history from all over the world. I’ve found inspiration (and words) for many a poem in those shiny, colorful pages.
Day 3, LexPoMo 2020
Posted in Poetry
Tagged Dara Horn, found poetry, Lexington Poetry Month, LexPoMo, Smithsonian Magazine
Day 2, LexPoMo 2020
I’ve been working my way through Stephen Burt’s The Poem is You for a couple of months now. It has been difficult to focus, between everything going on in the world and my own anxiety, but two or three pages of a poem and commentary have been just enough. For reference, this poem is taken from comments on p. 155.
Posted in Poetry
Tagged Lexington Poetry Month, LexPoMo, Stephen Burt, The Poem is You
Day 1, LexPoMo 2020
June is Lexington Poetry Month, and each year since its inception, local small presses have sponsored an online community of writers to celebrate.
And so it begins…
The prompt is the poem
More inspiration from a Lightning Droplets prompt:
https://lightningdroplets.wordpress.com/2020/05/27/shelter-and-write-prompt-27-good-news/
Redirecting
Find a headline or story that is good
news, a very small silver lining.
Dive deep into the possible
implications; imagine all the neighbors
were helping. What happens
when this explodes into goodness?
It changes the course of everything.
Tradescantia ‘Sweet Kate’
Posted in Poetry
Tagged Lightning Droplets, prompted poetry, Tradescantia 'Sweet Kate', writing prompts
More found (prompt) poetry
Again I found inspiration in a journal prompt at Lightning Droplets:
https://lightningdroplets.wordpress.com/2020/05/13/shelter-and-write-prompt-14-everything-changes/
Describe in one small detail the change in your life
Think of one very small change
that offers a window into this time:
a crayon drawing, seeds
you planted, a mountain
of toilet paper.
Write down whatever comes
to mind; leave nothing
out. How does this small
detail relate to everything
else in your world?
Show us the colors and textures
you notice when you look
closely. What is the history
behind this? What meaning
does it hold for you?
Tell us why you noticed
this change, what captured
your attention. Show us how
it connects to something
larger in your life.
April Queen daffodils, a lovely gift from my lovely daughter
Prompt as poetry
Lightning Droplets has been posting journal prompts, but as we all know, prompts are prompts. 😉 Here’s a sort-of found poem from Monday’s post.
https://lightningdroplets.wordpress.com/2020/05/18/shelter-and-write-prompt-18-the-plot-twist/
Prompt 18
Shelter and write
the pandemic as a turning
point: on what trajectory
was the year before the outbreak?
How does the virus change
things? It should alter life
decisions and goals, reshape
relations, spaces, and time,
transform who we are
as people.
Allium schubertii almost ready to bloom
Posted in Poetry
Tagged Allium schubertii, Lightning Droplets, prompted poetry, prompts, writing prompts
A derangement of Celtic wisdom
Derangement of a quote from Anam Cara: A Book of Celtic Wisdom posted yesterday at Latitudes of a Day.
https://latitudesofaday.wordpress.com/2020/05/14/commonplace-may-2020/
Blessing for the road
after John O’Donohue
In your journey
a kindness of rhythm
will teach you
but more important
where you need to go
it will take you
if you do.
Yourself
indirect, oblique
you can trust this
your future, therefore
has the map
your soul alone.
Your destiny
knows the geography of
your soul.
chives, curiously untouched by the freeze
Posted in Poetry
Tagged chives, derangement, John O'Donahue, Latitudes of a Day, poetry exercises
When you can’t write
Today’s post at Brevity is timely because a lot of creatives I know are struggling (though others are finding plenty of inspiration in these strange circumstances). Sometimes we are so eager to mine our experiences for creative potential that we neglect to live them first, kind of missing the point.
https://brevity.wordpress.com/2020/05/13/when-the-muse-doesnt-come/
Jilted by the muse
after Sarah Eshleman
But I tell you: do not write
about the experience
— not yet. Let go
your feverish pursuit
of instant transcendence
and ready inspiration.
Silence holds its own
substance and purpose.
Delay is essential
as momentum, and motion
does not equal progress.
We live now and divine
significance later, rarely
absorbing the full weight
of a moment within itself.
Something that wasn’t killed by the freeze
Anxious weather
It has been a lovely spring overall, though we’re about to get blasted with a late hard freeze certain to kill almost everything that has emerged. I feel so sad and powerless; I expect a cherished magnolia will die as a result, as it has already lost all leaves twice this spring to previous unseasonable hard freezes.
Meditation on my morning walk
‘Tis a grey day in May,
much colder than anyone
expects, with a hard freeze
predicted for the end
of the week. I long to throw
a blanket over the whole
yard, big enough to cover
even the mature ashes
with pinnate leaflets unfurling
tiny and chartreuse.
other likely victims of the impending freeze – naturally, this is the most blooms we’ve ever had on the yellow irises
Day 23, NaPoWriMo 2020
This is a found poem from Kelly Thompson’s post on Brevity: https://brevity.wordpress.com/2020/04/23/come-together/
Speaking from the sixties
“The world is acting like it’s going to lose us,” I said.
His smile was wry. As was mine.
Tender wry.
“Well, they’re losing us anyway,” he said.
No, I won’t die for capitalism, for Trump, for Wall Street.
I would for my girls, for my grandbabies.
But for consumerism? For the lie that there is not enough?
Not a chance.
Like my husband said, “You will lose us anyway.”
We are in the third act.
Age is a construct and so is time.
But death is not.
Posted in Poetry
Tagged Brevity, found poetry, Kelly Thompson, NaPoMo, NaPoWriMo, National Poetry Month, National Poetry Writing Month
The Daily Compost 