Poetry Friday is Here!

Welcome! I'm happy you are here to celebrate all things poetry today.

The first Friday of the month is always one of my favorite days because I get to share writing that I've engaged in with my poetry sisters. This month the challenge Kelly presented us was to write in the style of Aphra Behn, "one of the most influential dramatists of the late seventeenth century, was also a celebrated poet and novelist." (Or so says the Poetry Foundation. I had not heard of her until this challenge.) You can learn more about her at the Poetry Foundation site.

I ditched my original poem because it sucked. Since I spent all day yesterday at Busch Gardens, I decided that's what I needed to write about instead. I'll admit that I find iambic tetrameter hard. It seems incomplete, so some of my lines are actually 9 syllables long. Here's my offering for this month's challenge, along with a video of my favorite ride from the day.

Roller Coasters After Fifty
I can’t contain the scream that falls
or squelch the laugh from deep within
from high to low my world a spin,
"Again!" the roller coaster calls.
Hard and fast my heart pounds out a beat
surely you can hear it thumping
holding to the bar feels like a cheat
loud and bumpy, cars are jumping.
Fifty-something's not too old to ride.
Live a little on the wild side.

Poem ©Tricia Stohr-Hunt, 2018. All rights reserved.

You can read the pieces written written by my poetry sisters at the links below.

• Legacy by Tanita Davis
• Let Flowers Fall by Liz Garton Scanlon
• Poor She-Spye by Kelly Fineman
• The Sixth by Sara Lewis Holmes
• Things I Will Miss When We Move by Laura Purdie Salas

I'm thrilled to hosting this shindig today. I'm rounding this up old-school style, so leave a link and I'll get you listed. Happy poetry Friday friends!

*****
Original Poetry
Kay McGriff is offering up a poem entitled Sunflowers.

At Random Noodling, Diane Mayr is sharing an ekphrastic poem entitled Iconography.

Over at A Word Edgewise, Mitchell Linda has a series of haiku that tell the story of a Flamingo named Bob.

Over at Nix the Comfort Zone, Molly is sharing some light-hearted verse.

Catherine Flynn of Reading to the Core is sharing a poem that begins with the line "All is in flux."

JoAnn Early Macken is sharing a bevy of haiku.

Heidi Mordhosrt of my juicy little universe is sharing a metaphor poem and thoughts about using metaphor dice to generate ideas.

Over at Wild Rose Reader, Elaine Magliaro is sharing some poems on beetles.

Amy Ludwig VanDerwater is sharing a poem on Monarchs, some lovely photos, and writing advice.

Matt Forrest Esenwine of Radio, Rhythm & Rhyme shares a poem entitled Standing at the Door, Mid-Summer.

Carol Varsalona of Beyond Literacy Link is sharing a gardening poem inspired by a Twitter chat.

Irene Latham of Live Your Poem shares some thoughts about The Lost Words by Robert Macfarlane and Jackie Morris. That book inspired an original poem, Skunk, written in the form used in the book.

Mandy of Enjoy and Embrace Writing shares a poem entitled Inside and Out.

Over at Mainely Write, Donna is sharing some acrostics and other poems on the theme of looking back/looking forward.

Poetry of Others
Mary Lee Hahn of A Year of Reading is sharing a haiku by Issa.

Over at Bildungsroman, Little Willow is sharing A Song on the End of the World by Czeslaw Milosz.

Tara Smith is swinging open the doors on a new blog, a new phase in life, a new adventure, and sharing Mary Oliver's poem Going to Walden.

Ruth from There is no such thing as a God-forsaken town is sharing thoughts of home and a bit of poetry by Wislawa Szymborska.

Over at Carol's Corner, Carol is sharing a trio of Naomi Shihab Nye poems.

Ramona of Pleasures From the Page is sharing the poem Moments of Summer by Racael Hadas.

Poetry Swap Goodies
Linda B. of Teacher Dance is sharing her latest poetry swap surprise.

Tabatha Yeatts is sharing her poetry swap swag, origami with poems!

Michelle Kogan a poem about the Plein Air event she's participating in, as well as sharing some poetry swap goodness.

Over at Wondering and Wandering, Christie is sharing her poetry sway swag.

Other Poetic Tidbits
Over at Kurious Kitty's Kurio Kabinet, Diane Mayr is sharing some spider poetry.

Kimberly Hutmacher continues the Bayou Song blog tour.


That's a wrap! Happy poetry Friday all.