Hello, and welcome to the first poetry sisters' exercise of 2024! This month the challenge was to write a poem to an image chosen from the work of piñata artist Roberto Benavidez. Sara sent us the link to his Hieronymus Bosch Piñatas as a starting point. There were so many to choose from!
Normally, when faced with a monthly challenge, I research the subject, the form, the poet, or whatever else might relate to the topic. During our Zoom session on Sunday, I went down the rabbit hole into researching The Garden of Earthly Delights, the triptych by Bosch that inspired some of Benavidez's pieces. While it was interesting, it didn't help my writing AT ALL. I suppose research is antithetical to the form of ekphrastic poetry. Laura suggested I look at the image and write about what I saw and felt. I brainstormed a number of ideas, and then, since I'd decided to write in the triolet form, I took my notes and wrote a draft of a poem.
Here's the image that inspired my poem.
Triolet for Roberto's Bosch Cat
orange tabby is on the prowl
loses all time in a garden
chasing fish and fowl
orange tabby is on the prowl
slinks past the rake and the trowel
never asks for leave or pardon
orange tabby is on the prowl
loses all time in a garden
Poem ©Tricia Stohr-Hunt, 2024. All rights reserved.
You can read my Poetry Sisters' work at the links below.
Would you like to try the next challenge? In February, we’re writing Epistolary poems in the form of love letters or Valentines. Are you in? Good! You have a month to craft your creation and share it on February 23rd in a post and/or on social media with the tag #PoetryPals. We look forward to reading your poems!
Please take some time to check out all the wonderful poetic things being shared and collected today by Susan Thomsen at Chicken Spaghetti. Happy poetry Friday, friends!
There's some kind of big metaphor in your process -- the rabbit hole of research versus the immediacy of experience. I love that you got the earthly garden into your poem, even if it wasn't the Garden of Earthly Delights!
ReplyDeleteOh to be an orange tabby losing all time on the prowl in a garden! This makes me smile. Thank you!
ReplyDeleteThis is the perfect form, Tricia, and as orange tabby loses time, so do we -- happily!
ReplyDeleteTricia, I read your very late last night and decided to return to read it again. I thought about using the tabby cat artwork but then switched my mind. I am loving this challenge because we are seeing the artwork but coming at it from so many different directions. Yours is a form I don't use but perhaps I shall in the future.
ReplyDeletePerfect triolet for the pinata that you chose. It fits the cat's body language and captures its sense of duty!
ReplyDeleteOoh, I love this Tricia! I think I know the cat in your poem.
ReplyDeleteTricia, what a lovely form. Mary Lee wrote a triolet too this week about a butterfly pinata. I didn't know what it was called there, and now here you have named it for me! (Thanks) "Orange tabby is on the prowl" is a perfect repeating line for that cat!
ReplyDeleteI'm terrible about going down a research rabbit hole. But I love the one you chose and all of those "owl" sounds.
ReplyDeleteoh, that tabby---he's going to prowl wherever and whenever! I wrote to one of the "Beasts" too, and I know exactly what you mean about research not helping much with this challenge. I think the art is so vibrant in itself that Laura was right---we can simply respond to the riches right in front of us.
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ReplyDeleteSorry, misspelled a word! When one starts down, it doesn't seem to end, does it? There's just more & more! I, too, like that you included the 'earth' in your poem, Tricia, one more of those "earthly delights" to imagine when out in the real world!
DeleteWow! I love the rhymes you worked with--a bit unusual, but they feel totally natural. I love this tabby on the prowl!
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