Monday, July 05, 2010

Monday Poetry Stretch - The Sky's the Limit

While waiting for the fireworks to begin last night I was doing a bit of stargazing, or not, given how cloudy it was. Even on clear nights in the summer I find myself missing Orion. His reappearance is just another of the many things I love about fall. Yes, I know it's summer, but it's hot and my least favorite time of year, so I'm trying to think cool thoughts.

Are you a stargazer or skywatcher? What is your favorite thing in the sky? I'll have to admit I'm most fond of birds in flight, the harvest moon, and winter stars. Let's write about the sky this week and the things you find most appealing in it. Leave me a note about your poem and I'll post the results here later this week.

19 comments:

  1. Tonight

    Tonight I feel empty and yearning
    as a black hole, so I come outside
    and sit by myself looking up at you,
    night sky. And even though
    your hair, your face and your clothes
    are covered with jewels, I can feel
    the vastness of your loneliness.
    Can we be lonely together,
    me with my small dark sadness,
    you with your broken heart
    the width of a universe?

    --Kate Coombs, 2010, all rights reserved

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  2. I was earth, you sky
    and all the birds writing their songs
    across the blue.
    I was ground and you air,
    with wings beating out your heart rhythms
    while I merely rhymed leaves.
    Did I envy you the names, the notes, the songs,?
    Sometimes, when words on paper
    were not enough, were never enough.
    But we made a whole world together,
    and now I must read the blue
    without you, whose eyes were the skies
    I saw myself in.

    ©2010 Jane Yolen All rights reserved

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  3. Oh, oh, oh--

    How sad and bereft your sky poems are! Mine (unearthed, not fresh, which is enough stretch for me today) is also tinged with loss...

    Black Under Blue


    We cycled on,
    debating whether to prefer

    the unbroken blue of a
    cloudless sky hurtling away into space

    or the textured, nearer depths
    of the same sky brushed with clouds,

    and meanwhile, beneath
    our wheels we crushed

    dozens of plush black caterpillars
    boldly crossing to the other side.



    -- Heidi Mordhorst
    all rights reserved

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  4. Oh, my, I'm only going to add to the sadness. I'm not sure this works. It certainly isn't me, except for the impatience part, but, it's what appeared on the screen when I sat down to write!

    SUMMER SKY

    Looking up at the summer
    sky--I know only the dippers.
    I learned them back when stars
    were an attraction to the child
    I was then. But, my interest
    in sparkle was short-lived.

    I'll not add to my knowledge
    of the heavenly lights since
    I have no patience. I do not
    have hours to spend starring
    off, imagining radiant belts
    on mythic persons and creatures.

    I do not have the fearlessness
    of the ancients for whom light,
    at night, was unknown except
    for that which was cast by the moon
    and stars. I see only the darkness
    in the night. Only the boogie man.

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  5. That's weird--I went in to read other people's poems, and mine had disappeared. Here it is again. And by the way, I like these poems; they feel poignantly unexpected, redefining the sky.

    Tonight

    Tonight I feel empty and yearning
    as a black hole, so I come outside
    and sit by myself looking up at you,
    night sky. And even though
    your hair, your face and your clothes
    are covered with jewels, I can feel
    the vastness of your loneliness.
    Can we be lonely together,
    me with my small dark sadness,
    you with your broken heart
    the width of a universe?

    --Kate Coombs, 2010, all rights reserved

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  6. Aaand, now it's back! Oh well.

    --Kate

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  7. Tricia,

    Here is one of my "things to do" poems:

    THINGS TO DO IF YOU ARE THE MOON

    Live in the sky.
    Be bold…
    OR
    be shy.
    Wax and wane
    in your starry terrain.
    Be a circle of light,
    just a sliver of white,
    or hide in the shadows
    and vanish from sight.
    Look like a pearl
    when you’re brim-full
    and bright.
    Hang in the darkness
    and dazzle the night.

    © 2010 Elaine Magliaro. All rights reserved.

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  8. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  9. Sunrise

    I leave the dark dungeon
    of the wage slave,
    and wait for the sun.
    It bursts from the earth like a flower,
    full-blossomed and bold,
    gold as a Krugerand,
    pink as a magnolia blossom,
    orange as breath blown embers,
    reincarnated each morning
    and I with it.

    Nightshift.
    It has its perks.

    ~~Barbara J. Turner

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  10. What a great bunch of poems everyone!

    Just for your information, today, July 7, is Star Festival in Japan (Tanabata). http://gojapan.about.com/cs/japanesefestivals/a/tanabata.htm

    Did you plan the sky poems to coincide, Tricia?

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  11. Hello,

    I recently compiled a list of the Top 15 blogs on reading and literacy, and I
    just wanted to let you know that you made the list! It
    is published online at
    http://www.onlinedegrees.org/top-15-blogs-on-reading-and-literacy/

    Thanks so much, and if you think your audience would find useful
    information in the list or on the site, please feel free to share the
    link. The blog is just starting up, so we always appreciate a linkback
    as we're trying to increase readership.

    Thanks again, and have a great day!

    Maria Magher

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  12. Hi Tricia,

    Not sure if I have told you, but anyway I have been enjoying your fabulous blog for several months now. I love all the features especially the Monday Stretch. My students liked trying the challenges too. Now that I have a bit more time I am dipping my toes a little deeper and posting my own attempts at poetry. Here is my Blue Sky Day poem for blue skies are my favorite! Thanks.

    http://lookingforthewritewords29.blogspot.com/2010/07/poetry-friday_09.html

    ~Theresa

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  13. OOPS - take 2!
    Blue Sky Days
    In every season
    Find a reason.
    Just listen.
    As our closest star
    Proclaims
    It’s a blue sky day
    Come out and play!
    Ski down my mountain,
    Build a snowman,
    Dive in my leaves,
    Pick a plump pumpkin,
    Walk the dog,
    Plant a glorious garden,
    Shoot some hoops,
    Build a castle in the sand,
    Toss a ball,
    Stay away from the mall!
    Take a hike,
    Ride your bike,
    Catch a fish,
    Make a wish,
    Pour some tea
    Come join me
    It’s a
    Blue sky day.
    ~Theresa

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  14. Thank you, Tricia, for another exercise! A.

    Words Out On Water

    Sky is a poet
    jotting lines in deep lakes.
    She blows a cool breeze
    to erase her mistakes.
    She whispers to fishes.
    A still pond reflects
    her thoughts in its mirror.
    The ocean connects
    rhythms to people
    who never will meet.
    Sky’s river journal
    flows on incomplete.
    So study a sea or a creek
    to know air
    for sky keeps her innermost
    dreams written there.
    She scribbles in ripples
    pours words out on water.
    How do I know this?
    I am her daughter.

    © Amy Ludwig VanDerwater

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  15. My first participation in the Poetry Stretch and first poem ever shared online. If you like, please visit my new poetry blog, The Small Nouns ( http://thesmallnouns.blogspot.com )

    "Not For Us To Know"

    There is talk amongst us
    of what’s above.
    Analysis of stars and satellites
    and the heavens.
    Gaseous nebulae reduced
    to formulas.
    Predictions of collision and
    implosion.
    Those sparkling shards--
    that darkness--
    calling to us, daring us
    to unravel the science within.
    The unwritten
    chapter of the night--
    it is not for us to know.

    Children’s arms reach upward,
    the skies just within their grasp.
    They marvel at
    the moon’s majestic glow
    and worship its light.
    They know
    the majesty fades
    each dawn,
    the sequel arrives
    each dusk.
    There is more
    to know. There is no
    more to know.

    This mystery.
    This distant palette.
    This celestial regalia.
    Ours only to admire,
    to wish, to hope,
    to imagine.
    There is
    beauty
    in not knowing.

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  16. I love it, Amy!
    My favorite line is"she scribbles in ripples pours words out on water."

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  17. I love it, Amy!
    My favorite line is"she scribbles in ripples pours words out on water."

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  18. Ok, I'm a week late, but what the heck. I needed a nudge for my daily poem and stopped by to visit. I loved sky-watching on our trip last week to Lake Superior's North Shore, and this is what came out for my poem. Thanks, Tricia!

    Sky

    Vast and empty
    above me
    when I move

    But when I’m still
    and watchful
    it spills its treasure
    of twinkling lights
    and contrail ribbons

    Cloud ships
    sail on spacious seas

    Owls hold star after star
    aloft on their twilight wings

    Airplanes, space shuttles, satellites
    sneak past sky’s locked doors

    If I refuse to think, to reason,
    I might fly up to explore

    Sky

    --Laura Purdie Salas, all rights reserved

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