Monday, April 20, 2009

Monday Poetry Stretch - Outside the Window

Last week's poetry stretch was to write about something you'd find "behind the museum door." This week's challenge is to write about something you can find or see outside your window.

I sit beside an enormous picture window that looks out on a yard full of birds and feeders. It is where I stare while I'm trying to write, though I've never written about it. I can also clearly see the view outside the picture window in the house I grew up in, as well as the view from the kitchen window. It's one I spent years looking out over while washing and/or drying dishes.

Do you have a favorite window from a home you live in today or from one in your past? Share a poem with us about something outside that window. Leave me a comment about your poem and I'll post the results later this week.

12 comments:

  1. Looking Out My Bedroom Window

    Once a field where day and night
    rabbits, possums, turkeys, deer,
    even bobcats and bears crossed the long grass,
    predator and pray, you know—
    that old exciting story full of danger.
    Now my daughter’s cozy Cape,
    the slatey blue of a February sky,
    let’s me know with window light
    that she and my granddaughters
    are safe, eating, showering, reading
    the homey stuff, not fight and flight.
    The bobcat still crosses, unafraid,
    through her back garden some days.
    The bear occasionally strides down her driveway,
    glancing hungrily at the kitchen door,
    exclamation point reminders of times passed.
    We give away wild for comfort,
    for safety, for family, forever,
    but sometimes it is a story,
    the story, we need to hear.


    C Jane Yolen 2009

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  2. This comment is for Jane: Last year, I heard you read Encounter with the Symphony in Springfield. It was quite an experience for the children at my school since we'd been studying Puerto Rico and using art to tell the story. Several of my students' drawings were projected behind you. Your reading was amazing, the pacing with the music was excellent as well as the interpretation. What happened to the recording?

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  3. It was a recording just for internal use because in order to make an actual recording, it would be incredibly expensive, getting permission from everyone in the orchestra, how to split up royalties, etc.

    Jane

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  4. Love this idea...perfect for all the garden I did this weekend outside my living room and bedroom window.

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  5. Nice poem, Jane.

    Well, I think Spring has made it to Seattle - but here's what I saw for quite a few days this winter:

    Wide window -
    Lady Snow
    leaves her glove
    on the mullion
    as she goes.

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  6. Just Outside My Window

    tiny buds on trees
    lift their faces to the sun
    drinking in the day

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  7. April Outside My Window

    Yesterday was spring.
    Today high winds bring winter.
    This should be March.


    c 2009 Jane Yolen

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  9. Not a very literal window this -- but then the invitation was to poetry's window...
    http://naturalworlds.blogspot.com/2009/04/leaving-lost.html

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  10. Very rich prompt this week! I am loving these poems (especially the haiku). I wrote a triolet for Earth Day here.

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  11. Absolutely loved this challenge, I went haiku crazy, you will find these at http://theweekthatwas.wordpress.com

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  12. Here's my attempt:

    WINDOW SIJO

    Dear husband closes shutters
    on days when temperatures soar.

    All day. Empty house. Who worries
    about dark shuttered windows?

    Late afternoon. I open blinds to:
    Light! And a room with a view.

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