Welcome to Poetry Friday, this week hosted by Mary Lee at A YEAR OF READING, here. Thank you, Mary Lee, for hosting! Be sure to stop by to discover what poetry she has for us today.
This week, it seemed unreal that I was going to a friend’s house for a small gathering. It was lovely to sit around a table without masks, as we all had been completely vaccinated. It was warm outside and it seemed winter was over. Perhaps we were like owls having survived a forest fire, coming forth from the haze. Besides an owl, I thought of another creature to compare us to.
Later, I wrote this:
CHECKING ON SPRING Today at someone else's kitchen table, mask-less, nibbling on bagels: post vaccination party. After a year of solitude, we seemed more groundhog than human, fresh from our dens, eyes round and searching for signs that winter will not return, but in the chatter, I saw or heard nothing definitive. © Janice Scully 2021
This came in the mail today: Naomi Shihab Nye’s EVERYTHING COMES NEXT. As I read, I was struck by how powerful the beginnings of her poems are.
Whether it be prose, a poem or a play, the beginning has to convince the reader to read on. As Billy Collins says in his MasterClass, the beginning of a poem has to welcome you in and make you feel safe in the hands of the poet. And it has to do more, of course. It has to give a reader the impression that what comes next is well worth the reader’s time.
Nye’s beginnings in this book surprised me, which is something else I love in a great poem. I’ll share two fabulous beginnings from this amazing book. Even with such short excerpts by Nye below, what surprised you? When you read them, do you want to read more?
WEDDING CAKE
Once on a plane
a woman asked me to hold her baby
and disappeared.
I figured it was safe,
our being on a plane and all.
How far could she go?
She returned one hour later . . . .
___________________
CAT PLATE
That’s what we used to do in our house,
says Lydia, when we were mad at our dad–
we served him on the cat plate.. . . .
There are many more poems in this book and they all draw you in right away, surprise you and teach about craft as well: how to welcome a reader and hook them so they keep reading.
Here’s another beginning by Nye:
THE ART OF DISAPPEARING
When they say, Don’t I know you?
say no.
____________________
I hope you all have a great weekend, and may we gradually enjoy more time with friends and family, mask-less, not socially distanced, when we’re vaccinated and it’s safe.
What is Poetry Friday? Learn more about it here.