Happy New Year, poetry people! I'm delighted to be hosting you this week.
I have been working on my cards for the New Year poetry postcard swap hosted by Jone Rush MacCulloch and pulled out my old Smith Corona. There's something magical about a typewriter.
Goofy, I know, but I love them. Sadly, my typewriter ran out of ink as I was typing my 8th postcard. My last three cards are on hold until a new ribbon is delivered.
In honor of the typewriter, I'm sharing a poem by Australian poet David Malouf.
Typewriter Music
Hinged grasshopper legs kick
back. So
quick off the mark, so
spritely. They set
the mood, the mode, the call
to light-fingered highjinks.
A meadow dance
on the keyboard,
in breathless, out-of-bounds
take-offs into
flight and giddy joyflight without
stint. The fingerpads
have it. Brailling through
études of alphabets, their chirp and clatter
grass-choppers
the morning to soundbites,
each rifleshot hammerstroke another notch
in the silence.
© 2006, David Malouf
The Poetry Sisters met on Sunday to map out our writing prompts for the year. We have a plan and a prompt for January. Would you like to try this month's challenge? We will be writing a tanku, a poem that begins with a tanka, followed by a haiku written in response. A tanku can be any length, but each verse should be written in response to the one before. You can find an example at Rattle: Poetry. Are you with us? Good! Please share your poem on January 31st in a post and/or on social media with the tag #PoetryPals. We look forward to reading your poems!
Please join the Poetry Friday party by leaving your link below, and don't forget to leave a comment to let us know you're here. Happy poetry Friday, friends!
**NOTE** - Denise Krebs was kind enough to point out that Inlinkz doesn't work for everyone. If you click on a link and Inlinkz won't connect, go to the upper right-hand corner of the "refused to connect" page and click on the X. That should take you to the site. If that doesn't work, leave me a comment and I'll link those pages here.
