Welcome to Poetry Friday, this week hosted by the wonderful and talented Heidi Mordhorst HERE. I look forward to seeing what she will be sharing with us. This week felt like a good week to keep busy doing things that bring you joy.. I am cherishing my principals in the light of the Smithsonian news and so much else, and try my best to be kind to others. It’s hard to fathom the kind of people who would remove Harriet Tubman’s prayer book from the Museum of African American History.
I sat on my porch earlier this week. It was about 90 degrees and I was looking for a poem. I found this and drew this picture:
.
THE BRINK
My pen is heavy, full of ink,
while on a shady porch I think.
Ice in my coffee melts and clinks,
and a poem peeks across the brink.
Janice Scully 2025
For some reason I was trying to write a quatrain with the end of each line rhyming. Something fun, trying to create images.
I mentioned I love the work of Wayne Thiebaud. In the book WAYNE THIEBAUD: Art Comes From Art, published by the the De Young and Legion of Honor fine arts museums in San Francisco. He painted with oil. I found this painting entitled “Coffee” from 1961:
So I painted a small watercolor copy which didn’t turn out well but tried again, remembering to wet my paper first, which I’d forgotten to do on my first try.
But I liked my second try:
I’ve feeling a bit on the brink, and finding even a small poem helps me feel more positive.
Thanks for this place of community. Have a great weekend! Thank you, Heidi!