It’s Poetry Friday and make sure you check out Jama’s delicious offerings at Jama’s Alphabet Soup, here. Thank you so much, Jama, for hosting.
Today, while working on an INKTOBER prompt, I encountered the word “wisp.” (Notice I haven’t gotten too far down my list!)
I had already written a short poem using the word FISH, which I’ll share:
HORS D'OEUVRE PARTY Salmon paté on plates painted with fish— to the eye was so fetching some guests ate the dish.
I like writing short and hopefully humorous poems, but when I came to the word WISP, I came up with something of a different tone. Today, I felt quite sad hearing the point of view of someone interviewed on NPR who had no hope. He’s not planning to vote. I understand, as best I can, why some, including many African Americans like the discouraged interviewee, might feel that way. But I hope he can change his mind.
I have several friends and family members who are painfully hopeful that things will improve. Painfully, because hope. though necessary, can make a person vulnerable. So those thoughts inspired a Golden Shovel poem.
Here’s a link that describes the Golden Shovel form. The last words in each line read vertically comprise are a quote from another poem. I needed a quote to use and also wanted poems with the word wisp for my Inktober prompt. I discovered poet Florence Maude. You can read her poem, LITTLE WISP OF HOPE, here.
In a previous post here, I mentioned British playwright Simon Stephens. He said that the only mature way to deal with tragedy is through optimism. That requires hope. So I wrote this thinking of friends and family who are on the edge of their seats, maintaining hope, this election.
TO MY FRIEND A Golden Shovel Poem from a line in a poem by poet Florence Maude “Little wisp of hope, I wish you would stay.” It seems that some, like you and me, other’s too, don’t feel in little amounts; no mere wisp of love for us passionate ones. No small sense of injustice do we feel today about America. So, hope, must always be in our hearts as well. I can’t imagine, can you, love with no hope? Or a wish for something that can never, ever be? No, you and me, we must imagine a better world and what it would be like to have dreams like miracles that stay.
I hope everyone has a good weekend. Nine days till Halloween! Thank you Jama, again for hosting.