The blog of a teacher educator discussing math, science, poetry, children's literature, and issues related to teaching children and their future teachers.
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Monday, October 31, 2016
Monday Poetry Stretch - Ekphrastic
Since it's Halloween, it seemed appropriate to suggest we write about this image.
Shapes of Fear by Maynard Dixon (1930-32)
Smithsonian American Art Museum
So, there's your challenge for the week. Please share a link to your poem or the poem itself in the comments.
This is the way. Don’t listen when they say it’s not. Turn your brilliant faces, cover them and go the way you must. Save yourself for eyes that see. Do not waste your beauty on the circling birds of prey who’d pick your bones and leave them parch. You walk on glass ceilings, now returned to sand. Step by step you will make it. Stay close. Step by step. Spare your dire predictions. Tend each other well. You'll not always be the tree. Sometimes you’re the shade. Know which is which. You will find wisdom in this desert.
October Night
ReplyDeleteWell met, phantom,
well met, wraith,
well met, haunt
without a face.
Slip with shadows,
turn and spin,
sneak and glide
with autumn wind.
Bring the darkness
down the lane,
slide and fall
with autumn rain.
Catch the nightmares,
bring them here,
dance with death
and waltz with fear.
—Kate Coombs, 2016
all rights reserved.
Wisdom of the desert…
ReplyDeleteThis is the way. Don’t listen when
they say it’s not. Turn your brilliant
faces, cover them and go the way
you must. Save yourself for eyes that
see. Do not waste your beauty on the
circling birds of prey who’d pick your
bones and leave them parch. You
walk on glass ceilings, now returned
to sand. Step by step you will make
it. Stay close. Step by step. Spare
your dire predictions. Tend each other
well. You'll not always be the tree. Sometimes
you’re the shade. Know which is which. You
will find wisdom in this desert.
© 2016 Judith Robinson, all rights reserved.
I like your use of the desert!
DeleteThanks Kate.
DeleteRealized my poem would work better in couplets:
ReplyDeleteOctober Night
Well met, phantom, well met, wraith,
well met, haunt without a face.
Slip with shadows, turn and spin,
sneak and glide with autumn wind.
Bring the darkness down the lane,
slide and fall with autumn rain.
Catch the nightmares, bring them here,
dance with death and waltz with fear.
—Kate Coombs, 2016
all rights reserved.
Kate, I'm struck at the difference in mood created by your choice of couplets. Really haunting. j
DeleteHaunting's good! :)
Delete