Welcome to Poetry Friday! This week we are hosted by our friend, author, and poet Irene Latham HERE. Thank you, Irene!
I’ve been celebrating NPM by writing a haiku and sharing it on Facebook each day. I find an haiku a day doable and it also keeps me paying attention to the beauty I see around me every day. I also have found poems in my photo library and using them to inspire a poem. Here are my first four haiku..
April 1
With springtime comes mud, clouds, rainstorms, even snow squalls. But then . . . daffodils.
I look forward to the next line of the Progressive Poem, soon to be revealed by Irene Latham on her blog Live Your Poem . Thank you Margaret Simon for organizing it. It’s really fun to see the poem develop each day. Below is a list of poets to help you follow along during National Poetry Month.
April 1 Patricia Franz at Reverie April 2 Jone MacCulloch April 3 Janice Scully at Salt City Verse April 4 Leigh Anne Eck at A Day in the Life April 5 Irene at Live Your Poem April 6 Margaret at Reflections on the Teche April 7 Marcie Atkins April 8 Ruth at There is No Such Thing as a God Forsaken Town April 9 Karen Eastlund April 10 Linda Baie at Teacher Dance April 11 Buffy Silverman April 12 Linda Mitchell at A Word Edgewise April 13 Denise Krebs at Dare to Care April 14 Carol Varsalona at Beyond Literacy Link April 15 Rose Cappelli at Imagine the Possibilities April 16 Sarah Grace Tuttle April 17 Heidi Mordhorst at my juicy little universe April 18 Tabatha at Opposite of Indifference April 19 Catherine Flynn at Reading to the Core April 20 Tricia Stohr-Hunt at The Miss Rumphius Effect April 21 Janet, hosted here at Reflections on the Teche April 22 Mary Lee Hahn at A(nother) Year of Reading April 23 Tanita Davis at (fiction, instead of lies) April 24 Molly Hogan at Nix the Comfort Zone April 25 Joanne Emery at Word Dancer April 26 Karin Fisher-Golton at Still in Awe April 27 Donna Smith at Mainly Write April 28 Dave at Leap of Dave April 29 Robyn Hood Black at Life on the Deckle Edge April 30 Michelle Kogan at More Art for All
Welcome to Poetry Friday, this week hosted by Susan at Chicken Spaghetti Here. Thank you, Susan, for hosting!
Several things.
First of all, I received the proof pages of my poems from the diligent Carol Labuzzetta. She is composing an anthology of ekphrastic nature poems. I sent three photos and poem and was thrilled to see them dressed up and on the page! She improved on the clarity of my three photos and made my poems look good. I am so grateful.
I also received New Years postcards from Marcie and Linda M. this week. Marcie sent an amazing winter photo accompanied by a haiku. The postcard shines brighter than my photo of it. I love the idea of these red berries as frosted ornaments.
Linda sent this collage postcard with a wonky, sweet hand-fashioned paper clip attached, accompanied by a poem about peace:
Peace Four Ways 2024
by Linda Mitchell
How to write a peace poem
when our world knows only war?
Millions wander with no home
How to wrote a peace poem?
as bomb-dropping drones
pollute our skies and more?
How to write a peace poem?
when our world knows only war?
Peace
quiet covers
this warring world
we fight
ourselves
this peace at twilight
this refuge from day's worries
a breath for this world
In 2024, let
us remake the world for peace
Let us take a moment to begin
again the notion that with
a new year there's no war for you or me.
Since I received Linda’s poem, I watched the New Hampshire primary where the victor insulted his female opponent’s dress. Not fancy enough. He insulted her as a creepy predator would. I may not be a Republican, but she deserves respect and admiration for her talent and courage to run for president.
I saw on TV three young college women, voting for the first time in New Hampshire, declared they will vote against her and for a sexual predator. Really?
All I know is that I want my children and grandchildren to live in a free society like I did, where they can read what they want, say what they want and live in safety.
It’s a good time to remember George Washington. Several years ago I wrote a series of “Presidential Haiku and Tanka” about each American President. It still sits on my computer.
Have a great weekend! I want to thank those who recommended the novel “Bright and Remarkable Creatures” by Shelby Van Pelt.” I listened to it on audiobooks and loved the story. It’s really heart warming!
Welcome to Poetry Friday! Bridget is hosting today and she invites us to a dance party, acknowledging that all of us need occasional respite from the troubles and worry in the world. Check out her happy post and video:
https://weewordsforweeones.blogspot.com
Thank you Bridget, for hosting! It has been a tough week with war a constant preoccupation.
I spent the last three weeks with my son and his wife in Pacifica, California, so have been away from Poetry Friday. But I’ve been gathering photos and thinking about posts. I look forward to catching up on the poetry goodness this week that I know is waiting.
While on the west coast, My husband and I walked the quiet beach nearby almost daily to check out the wild life. Western squirrels were a little different.
This little friend doesn’t live in trees like the squirrels in New York State do. They live in burrows and we saw them darting into cracks between the boulders by the ocean. Ground squirrels have a less fluffy tail and are known for their strong hind legs that allows them, like this squirrel, to keep a sharp lookout for predators. My husband, quick with his phone, was lucky to snap this.
This week we are hosted by Linda Baie, book aficionado and poet. Thank you for hosting, Linda! Be sure to check out her post for today at her blog, Teacher Dance, http://teacherdance.org.
First, I want to recommend a new picture book.
I hope everyone will have a chance to read A BOOK FOR BEAR, written by Ellen Ramsey ( http://ellenramsey.com) and illustrated by MacKenzie Haley (http://mackenziehaley.com). Though Ellen is also a poet, this book is written in prose.
The book begins with the sentence, “Bear loved books.”
Bear, who has been listening to a girl named Ellen read stories out loud in the forest, has fallen in love with books. He loves books so much one day he says, “I want a book of my very own.”
For Bear to acquire a book of his own, will not be easy.
Together the bear and Ellen search and search for a book for Bear. They look in the obvious places, such as the library and in stores, where bears aren’t all that welcome. Still, they work hard at it, but he fails to find a book to call his very own.
Does Bear finally succeed?
Ellen’s storytelling and the colorful illustrations will keep you turning pages to discover what happens.
As a book lover, I could relate well to Ellen and Bear and loved these ardent characters. And I know there are many kids who will, too.
The back book cover.
This week, it just so happens to have just received a poetry swap gift from Linda Baie. Besides a lovely journal, a packet of words to prompt future poems, and a book of poems, she sent me an sweet and imaginative poem she wrote that she nestled in a scene she created with paper, cut-outs and a bit of cotton for clouds.
FOR WEAVING TOMORROWS
by Linda Baie
Remember gentle thoughts, when rising--
more comes with brainy exercising.
Your pen will sweep a nimbus cloud
over the waiting Gulf Stream sky.
Clouds will become the sky mail
sent from way up high.
Use them for your air-tales,
words parading by.
Now add a solar-powered smile.
Writing takes me places. I know that a pen can “sweep nimbus clouds” and become “sky mail” even if only for myself.
I read Linda’s poem as a reminder of what I have been missing this summer, that is, time with my pen poised, head in the clouds, thinking about words.
I’ll end with a haiku inspired by weather today here in Central New York.
Welcome to Poetry Friday, this week hosted by Molly at her blog: Nix the Comfort Zone.
I have been away from Poetry Friday for a while and found I missed, not surprisingly, this community and its celebration of words, writing, and all things artistic.
I want to thank Tabatha Yeatts for organizing the summer Poetry Swap. Patricia Franzen sent me an amazing poem about a sugar pine tree, which is a beloved Sierra species. The poem came just after I visited California and had seen a Redwood forest that was returning to life after a forest fire. Patricia’s gratitude for her beloved Sugar Pine tree, which she has been observing over time, resonated.
pinus lambertiana
In death as in life
you find your home in a mixed-conifer forest
a fallen sugar pine’s twisted remains
nestled between friends
generous to a fault
you sacrificed cone and seed
to feed the insatiable
pocket mouse or ground squirrel
benevolent ruler of this alpine slope
stripped bare, yet steadfast
cavity nesters find a home
in your heartwood
Patricia Franzen July 15, 2023
She also sent a card with one of her photos of Lake Tahoe and some whimsical stickers. It was wonderful to hear from her!
This week I’m sharing a series of haiku inspired by an August of summer vegetables, brought to me in abundance from a generous neighbor. These, of course, are leeks.
Welcome to Poetry Friday! This week Poetry Friday is hosted by poet and artist Michelle Kogan HERE. Thank you for hosting.
Today, I am beginning a brief couple of week’s break from posting on Salt City Verse. It’s because I’ll be with my family celebrating our oldest son’s wedding. It seems a long while since we’ve had an important momentous event, besides holidays, to bring us together. I am excited!!
Sometimes good things happen at once. That is the case with the Flowering Dogwood blooming outside my office window. The tree is right against my window so when it blooms, it fills the window and I imagine a forest of dogwoods, though it’s only one tree.
Flowering Dogwood.
Why the name Dogwood? According to Google, one theory on the tree’s name is: “The common name dogwood comes from one colonial description of the fruit as being edible but not fit for a dog.”
I have noticed each year the small very pretty knobby red round fruit that comes after the flowers are gone. I guess I will assume that things not fit for dogs are not fit for humans, and though edible are not very tasty.
Happy Poetry Friday. We are hosted here by Robyn, at Life at the Deckle Edge. Thank you, Robyn for hosting.
As I write this it is beautiful in Central New York. To make things even better I received my Summer Poem Swap list from Tabatha and look forward to sending and receiving summer poems. Thanks, Tabatha!
During National Poetry Month I posted a haiku about the lilacs flowering in my yard. They were tight little purple buds on April 23, seen Here. Now they are I think at their peak and deserve a final haiku.
This is my last haiku for this month. I’ve learned there are are a limitless number of ideas in the world, ideas you don’t see if you don’t really look. This lovely egret, in a photo by Kat Borland who lives in San Antonio, took my breath away, standing so proudly.
