The Miss Rumphius Effect

Friday, March 31, 2023

Poetry Sisters Write Etherees

This month's challenge was to write in the form of the etheree. An etheree is a poem of ten lines in which each line contains one more syllable than the last. Beginning with one syllable and ending with ten, this unrhymed form is named for its creator, 20th-century American poet Etheree Taylor Armstrong.

Variant forms of the etheree include the reverse form, which begins with 10 syllables and ends with one. The double etheree is twenty lines, moving from 1 syllable to 10, and then from 10 back to one. (I suppose a double etheree could also move from 10 syllables to 1, and then from one back to 10.)

You can learn more about the etheree at The Poets Garret and Shadow Poetry.

Since our theme for the year is transformation, I tried to think through topics that would lend themselves to the building structure of the etheree. I settled on alchemy. Here's what I came up with.

Alchemy

What

magic

power lives

in this base stone

that channels water,

fire, air, and earth to make

transmutation possible

some call it sorcery, changing

lead to gold, nature and elements

altered through alchemy's mystical art

You can read the pieces written by my Poetry Sisters at the links below.

Would you like to try the next challenge? Next month we are writing in the style of Neruda. Pick a poem you like and use it as inspiration for a poem of your own. We are still working on the theme of transformation, so perhaps you can squeeze this into your poem. We hope you'll join us. Are you in? Good! You’ve got a month to craft your creation(s), then share your offering with the rest of us on April 28th in a post and/or on social media with the tag #PoetryPals. We look forward to reading your poems!

I hope you'll take some time to check out all the wonderful poetic things being shared and collected today by Mary Lee Hahn at A(nother) Year of Reading. Happy poetry Friday, friends!

Friday, February 24, 2023

Poetry Sisters Write Ekphrastic Poems

One thing we can count on as we make our annual poetry plans is that ekphrastic poems will be in the mix. We usually share photos with one another and often will write to a photo that is not our own. Since our theme for the year is transformation, I posted photos related to an exhibit at the Montclair Art Museum entitled Transformed: Objects Reimagined by American Artists. I've seen this exhibit twice now and am endlessly fascinated by it. Here is the plaque that describes it.

I love that it was inspired by this note Jasper Johns wrote in his sketchbook in 1964.

Take an object

Do something to it

Do something else to it

The inspiration for my poem is a piece from this exhibit entitled Conversation, created by Marie Watt, a contemporary artist enrolled in the Seneca Nation of Indians. This work is made from reclaimed wool blankets, satin binding, and thread.

There is so much I love about this piece, but the mathematics of the shape has captured my attention. Here's my poem.

Möbius Magic
impossible shape
two sides, two edges -- transformed

this infinite curl

one surface, no boundaries

where math and art collide

You can read the pieces written by my Poetry Sisters at the links below.

Would you like to try the next challenge? Next month the form we are tackling is the etheree. This is a ten-line form that begins with a one-syllable word and grows by one syllable each line until you arrive at line ten (which has ten syllables). You can learn more about this form at Poetry Magnum Opus. We are still working on the theme of transformation. We hope you'll join us. Are you in? Good! You’ve got a month to craft your creation(s), then share your offering with the rest of us on March 31st in a post and/or on social media with the tag #PoetryPals. We look forward to reading your poems!

I hope you'll take some time to check out all the wonderful poetic things being shared and collected today by Tabatha Yeatts at The Opposite of Indifference. Happy poetry Friday, friends!

Friday, January 27, 2023

Poetry Sisters Write Cascade Poems

Happy 2023. I'm thrilled to kick off another year of writing with my poetry sisters. We met at the beginning of January to plan our challenges and talked about forms, themes, and prompts for the year. The theme guiding our writing for the year is transformation.

The challenge this month was to write a cascade poem. You can learn more about this form in Robert Lee Brewer's column at Writer's Digest. This is a repetitive form where each line from the first stanza becomes the final line of each stanza that follows. Therefore, if the first stanza has 3 lines, the poem will have 4 stanzas. For this poem, I went with exploding stars.

Galactic Chemical Evolution*

Stars go supernova
expelling elements into space
we are made of stardust

time passes - in billions of years
cascading elemental changes
stars go supernova

seeding future generations
stars burn and die
expelling elements into space

carbon, nitrogen, oxygen
formed, reformed, remade
WE are made of stardust

*Galactic chemical evolution is a real field of study. Here's a brief introduction.

Stars and interstellar gas in galaxies exhibit diverse chemical element abundance patterns that are shaped by their environment and formation histories. The aim of Galactic Chemical Evolution (GCE) is to use the observed abundances to unlock earlier epochs in the Universe, probe the mechanisms of galaxy formation, and gain insight into the evolution of stellar systems.

The quote above came from Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia in a paper entitled Galactic Chemical Evolution. If you want to learn more about this topic, The Journal of Physics: Conference Series has a paper entitled Introduction to Galactic Chemical Evolution.

You can read the pieces written by my Poetry Sisters at the links below.

Would you like to try the next challenge? In February, we are writing ekphrastic poems. You get to choose the topic, form, meter, length, etc., but your poem must be based on an image. We hope you'll join us. Are you in? Good! You’ve got a month to craft your creation(s), then share your offering with the rest of us on February 24th in a post and/or on social media with the tag #PoetryPals. We look forward to reading your poems!

I hope you'll take some time to check out all the wonderful poetic things being shared and collected today by Jan Annino at Bookseed Studio. Happy poetry Friday, friends!

Friday, December 30, 2022

Poetry Sisters Write "Box"-Inspired Poems

For our last challenge of 2022, we let the word box inspire our poems. I made a long list of phrases that included the word box and hoped I would find some inspiration there. Two items on that list really stood out for me. One was "tackle box." I have fond memories of poking around in my father's tackle box while we were fishing. The other was a button box, which immediately reminded me of this.

This old candy tin was my grandmother's button "box." It was the one I spent hours playing with when I was young because "children were meant to be seen and not heard."

I also thought a lot about the shape of a box and wondered if I could write a poem in the shape of a box (or square). I did some searching and found that Lewis Carroll wrote in a poetic form where the number of words per line is equal to the total number of lines in the poem. What's challenging about this square poem is that each of the six lines was meant to be read horizontally OR vertically from top to bottom. Here is the poem Carroll wrote.

I Often Wondered

I often wondered when I cursed,
Often feared where I would be –
Wondered where she’d yield her love
When I yield, so will she.
I would her will be pitied!
Cursed be love! She pitied me…

It's a bit easier to see how this works in the image below.

I decided to give this form a go. I started with 6x6 and found it incredibly difficult to write a poem that made sense across all the lines. Frustrated, I tried a 5x5 and then a 4x4. Ultimately, I landed on a 3x3 and wrote two stanzas. This isn't what Carroll had in mind, but I'm a rule-breaker. I did use the word box in my poem, so I feel as though I met the challenge posed.

I created a grid to aid in writing my poem. It helped align the words and made reading the horizontal and vertical lines much easier.

Here's another way to read the poem. I've highlighted the words in various ways to make the vertical lines stand out. Even though the poem is actually 2 individual square poems linked by a theme, I quite like the way the 6 words across the stanzas work together to create 3 entirely new lines. I did cheat with the singular/plural form of button(s). I'm not sure "buttons box" works, but there you have it.

Sorting Grandma’s buttons

Grandma’s buttons box

Buttons box bounty

Assorted beautiful buttons

Beautiful buttons speak

Buttons speak history

I am still working on a tackle box poem and hope to share that soon. In the meantime, if you are into nerdy mathematical poetry connections, I came across a conference paper while researching square poems that I am fascinated with. You may be too. It is entitled Graeco-Latin Square Poems.

You can read the pieces written by my Poetry Sisters at the links below.

I hope you'll take some time to check out all the wonderful poetic things being shared and collected today by Patricia Franz at Reverie. Happy poetry Friday, friends!

Friday, December 16, 2022

Poetry Friday - Poetry Swap Joy

It's been a while since I participated in a poetry swap, so I was determined to get involved this year. Tabatha Yeatts at The Opposite of Indifference has been generously coordinating summer and holiday swaps for years. It's a lovely way to "meet" someone new that you may only know through blogging. This year I was paired with Carmela Martino, author, poet, teacher, and blogger at Teaching Authors.

I got home late in the evening and found her package waiting for me. Because I have been mired in grading, I decided to wait to open it until my grades were submitted this morning. So, at 9:01 am, after closing the semester, I sat down with a pot of tea (cacao chai from In Pursuit of Tea) and my gift.

One of the things I love about these swaps is that the participants write poems for one another. Imagine receiving a poem written just for you! There's something magical about it. When I learned Carmela had been a math major in college, I knew I wanted to write a Pi poem for her. For her part, Carmela took one of the recent Poetry Sisters' challenges to write a dansa and crafted this poem. (Click to enlarge.)

Isn't it lovely?

Carmela also generously sent along the BEST calendar ever!

I adore both Frost and Dickinson, so this is a real treat. Perhaps just as wonderful is that Carmela has introduced me to an Etsy shop that produces delightful creations. Just look at the card Carmela's note came in!

There was also a calendar card in the package.

That right there is one of my favorite poems. I have it memorized. It hangs on my wall. This is perfection.

These items all came from Farmhouse Greetings. The shop is on a break right now, but I know I'll be stopping by frequently to see what they're sharing.

Thank you, Tabatha for organizing the holiday swap, and an even bigger thank you to Carmela for making this experience so special.

I hope you'll take some time to check out all the wonderful poetic things being shared and collected today by Karen Edmisten. Happy poetry Friday friends!

Friday, November 25, 2022

Poetry Sisters Write Recipe Poems

The challenge we undertook this month was to write recipe poems. I had a lot of starts and stops on our Zoom call Sunday. I wasn't really loving any of my poems. (Isn't this how I always begin these posts?) I was prepared to share a draft of at least one poem, but then I received some profoundly sad news and started thinking about the path to healing we all walk in the face of unimaginable loss.

This poem is my response to this news.

Recipe for Healing

marinate in denial
gradually absorb this terrible news

broil in anger
briefly, to avoid bitterness and resentment

stew in bargaining
with just a pinch of "if only" and "what ifs"

simmer in depression
until the fog of sadness lifts

steep in acceptance
acknowledging change and loss

knead and fold
shape and prove
REST and RISE

You can read the pieces written by my Poetry Sisters at the links below.

Would you like to try the next challenge? In December we are letting box inspire us. Your poem can be about a box, in the form of a box, about Boxing day, a boxing match, etc. Let your imagination run wild! We hope you'll join us. Are you in? Good! You’ve got a month to craft your creation(s), then share your offering with the rest of us on December 30th in a post and/or on social media with the tag #PoetryPals. We look forward to reading your poems!

I do hope you'll take some time to check out all the wonderful poetic things being shared and collected today by Ruth at There is no such thing as a God-forsaken town. Happy poetry Friday friends!

Friday, October 28, 2022

Poetry Sisters Write Dansas

The challenge this month was to write in the form of the dansa. We took our cues about the form at Writer's Digest. I had trouble starting this one, so I did a little more digging into the form to see if there might be some other ways to approach it. I found the explanation at Poetry Magnum Opus to be particularly helpful because it showed related forms.

The dansa is a poem generally written in 3 stanzas with a refrain at the end of each stanza. The first stanza is a quintain, while the rest are quatrains. While there is no set meter, these poems as originally conceived were written in lines of 6 or 7 syllables. The rhyme scheme is AbbaA/bbaA/bbaA, where A is the refrain.

As you might guess from the name, the dansa was actually a poem set to music meant for joyful dancing. I found the joyful part hard to come by. Every poem I attempted turned to some heavy topic, even if it didn't start there. Nothing worked. I finally gave up on all the ideas I tried out when our group met on Zoom this week and decided to look for a line of poetry to use as my refrain. This actually yielded a lot of good ideas. Ultimately, I turned to Emily for inspiration and used a line from the poem Forever – is composed of Nows – (690).

Forever is Composed of Nows

Forever is composed of nows
Seize the day, be brave and try
Do some things that terrify
Sheer a sheep, milk some cows
Forever is composed of nows

Take a lesson, learn to fly
Join a contest eating pie
Climb a live oak’s beckoning boughs
Forever is composed of nows

Sing your child a lullaby
Find a church and testify
Dance on tables, raise eyebrows
Forever is composed of nows

You can read the pieces written by my Poetry Sisters at the links below.

You're invited to our challenge in the month of November! Here's the scoop: we're creating recipe poems! Your choice of form, length, meter, or topic, but each poem will be an assemblage of elements, using recipe text/cooking instructions to create …something. From a recipe for disaster, to your favorite aperitif, you have a month to craft your creation and serve it forth on November 25th in a post and/or on social media with the tag #PoetryPals. We look forward to reading your poems!

I do hope you'll take some time to check out all the wonderful poetic things being shared and collected today by Jone Rush MacCulloch. Happy poetry Friday friends!

Friday, September 30, 2022

Poetry Sisters Write Definitos

The challenge this month was to write in the form of the definito. Head on over to Heidi Mordhorst's place, my juicy little universe, to learn more about the roots of this form. Essentially, this is a poem that focuses on the meaning of a "less common" word through wordplay. It is written in free verse and consists of 8-12 lines, with the word being defined as the last word of the poem. These poems are aimed at readers ages 8-12, so getting this right was a challenge.

I spent some time perusing vocabulary lists for 4th- and 5th-grade students. I found a few words I liked, but none that really struck a chord. Then I pulled out the book L is for Lollygag: Quirky Words for a Clever Tongue, written by the Chronicle Books Staff. Within minutes, I had a gaggle of words to write about.

The word that I ultimately settled on was betwixt. During our Zoom meeting Sara suggested I break the word and put the poem in between the word parts. I just couldn't get that out of my mind. I don't usually title my poems, but I decided to try some variation of her suggestion. Here's what I came up with.

Be- (insert definition here) -twixt

not engine or caboose
but railcar

not elementary or high school
but middle

not once upon a time or happily ever after
but the action in between

not Oreo chocolate
but vanilla cream

not first base or second
but playing a game of pickle

when you're stuck in the middle
you're BETWIXT

You can read the pieces written by my Poetry Sisters at the links below.

Would you like to try the next challenge? In October we are writing in the form of the Dansa. You can learn more about this form at Writer's Digest. We hope you'll join us. Are you in? Good! You’ve got a month to craft your creation(s), then share your offering with the rest of us on October 28th in a post and/or on social media with the tag #PoetryPals. We look forward to reading your poems!

I do hope you'll take some time to check out all the wonderful poetic things being shared and collected today by Tabatha Yeatts at The Opposite of Indifference. Happy poetry Friday friends!

Friday, August 26, 2022

Poetry Sisters Write Bop Poems

This month's challenge was to write a Bop poem. This form requires 3 stanzas, each followed by a refrain. The first and third stanzas each have 6 lines, while the second stanza has 8. What's interesting about this form is that presents a problem, explores it, and then resolves it or describes the attempt to solve it. You can learn more about this form at Writer's Digest.

We decided that we would use the common refrain "Let's kick that can down the road."

I spent some time brainstorming ideas, and they were all political, and depressing. When I dug a little deeper and more literally, I couldn't stop thinking about summer nights playing Kick the Can. Do you know this game?

With this game and others in mind, this is the poem I came up with. I'll admit I did alter the refrain a bit.

Choosing teams was always hard

no one wanted a little sister tagging along

but mom insisted

they were so much older

I adored them

what could they do?

They kicked that can down the road.

I didn’t think I was annoying

though they often swore it was true

running faster than I ever could

they tried to lose me or hid

but I heard their whispered voices

wondered how I could fit in

wanted so badly to play their games

what could they do?

They kicked that can down the road.

In the fading light of summer

they sometimes humored me

let me join for hide and seek

but they never searched me out

eventually, they moved away

no thought for the sibling left behind

They kicked that can down the road.

You can read the pieces written by my Poetry Sisters at the links below. Tanita also happens to be our hostess extraordinaire this week.

Tanita Davis
Mary Lee Hahn
Sara Lewis Holmes
Kelly Ramsdell
Laura Purdie Salas
Liz Garton Scanlon
Andi Sibley

Would you like to try the next challenge? Next month we are writing Definito poems. You can learn more about this form at Heidi Mordhorst's place, my juicy little universe. We hope you'll join us. Are you in? Good! You’ve got a month to craft your creation(s), then share your offering with the rest of us on September 30th in a post and/or on social media with the tag #PoetryPals. We look forward to reading your poems!

I do hope you'll take some time to check out all the wonderful poetic things being shared and collected today by Tanita Davis. Happy poetry Friday friends.

BTW, Tanita's blog is a bit wonky this weekend. You can check out all the Poetry Friday posts here.

Friday, July 29, 2022

Poetry Sisters Write Phrase Acrostics to Maya Angelou

This month's challenge was to write a phrase acrostic. Is that even a thing? We chose our phrases from the poem Still I Rise by Maya Angelou. Whew! Talk about a challenge ... I tried to approach this as a "backwards" golden shovel, with the words at the beginning of each line instead of the end. This was a bad analogy for me, as I couldn't get the golden shovel form out of my mind. I wrote several drafts and tried to write someting that reflected the spirit of Angelou's poem, but couldn't seem to make it work.

Instead, I challenged myself to use not one, but two lines in each poem. After some tinkering, I wrote two poems that include two lines from the Angelou poem, with one forming the beginning words of each line, and the other forming the end words of each line. They need work, but I have solid drafts to play with.

Poem 1
With an open mind and heart, with just
the whisper of an idea, she wrote with what felt like
certainty ... a first draft tinged with hopes
of literary magic, of a perfect twist of phrase like springing
tides ... rising, rising, lifting words on high

Poem 2
Just another day of asking why
like that time he wondered if stars are
moons or could be … he looked at you
and before you could answer you were beset
like moths to a flame with more questions … do all planets dance with
suns and on and on … the incessant chatter and his smile erased the gloom

I missed our Zoom this week, so I have no idea what my sisters have written or how far off the mark I might be. I can't wait to read them! You can read their pieces at the links below.

Would you like to try the next challenge? Next month we are writing Bop poems. You can learn more about this form at Writer's Digest: The Bop. We hope you'll join us. Are you in? Good! You’ve got a month to craft your creation(s), then share your offering with the rest of us on August 26th in a post and/or on social media with the tag #PoetryPals. We look forward to reading your poems!

I do hope you'll take some time to check out all the wonderful poetic things being shared and collected today by Marcie Clinchum Atkins. Happy poetry Friday friends.

Friday, June 24, 2022

Poetry Sisters Write Byr a Thoddaid

This month's challenge was to write in the form of Byr a Thoddaid. You can learn more about this form at Writer's Digest. It has a lot going on in terms of rhyme and meter and frankly, looked a bit complicated. Once I got started, it wasn't so bad. The form I used was this suggested option:

xxxxxxxA
xxxxxxxA
xxxxxxxBxc
xcxxxB

I was inspired to write to this photo Liz Garton Scanlon took while hiking the West Highland Way.

Photo by Liz Garton Scanlon, 2022.

I couldn't get this sweet image out of my head. Since I have a hard time writing to form without a topic, I decided to focus on these lambs. Here's my poem.

West Highland Lambs

Lambing season arrives each spring
when tender-hearted little things
roam the Scottish countryside. Rain or shine
they twine beside the lane

two undisturbed by those who pass.
A mother and her bonnie lass
quietly witness with wonder this pair
under a sky so fair.

Interestingly, after writing this poem I found a different description of this form that I actually like a bit better. Instead of 3 rhymes, it uses only 2. You can read more about this version at Poetry Magnum Opus. Here is the form they suggest:

xxxxxxxA
xxxxxxxA
xxxxxxxA-xb
xxbxxA

Needless to say, I decided to try again with this form. Here's a second poem written to the photo of the lambs.

they followed the West Highland Way
discovering beauty each day
mother and daughter under gray skies spied
in a hide in the hay

two lambs twined together asleep
this sight made their open hearts weep
mother and daughter felt bone-deep wonder
found oneness with wee sheep

I'm not sure I followed the rules exactly, as the guideline is "the main rhyme appears somewhere near the end of a longer line and the end word is a secondary rhyme... The last syllable is echoed somewhere in the first half of the next line as secondary rhyme, alliteration, consonance or assonance." I didn't use the same approach in each stanza. In the first the words rhyme (spied/hide). In the second I've used assonance (wonder, oneness). I'm not sure I like this as much as the first, but there are ideas here I like. I'll need to keep playing with this form.

You can read the pieces written by my Poetry Sisters at the links below.

Would you like to try the next challenge? Next month we are writing acrostic phrase poems. Choose any line from the poem "Still I Rise" by Maya Angelou and use each word in the phrase to begin a new line of your poem. We hope you'll join us. Are you in? Good! You’ve got a month to craft your creation(s), then share your offering with the rest of us on July 29th in a post and/or on social media with the tag #PoetryPals. We look forward to reading your poems!

I do hope you'll take some time to check out all the wonderful poetic things being shared and collected today by Catherine Flynn at Reading to the Core. Happy poetry Friday friends.

Friday, May 27, 2022

Poetry Sisters Write to the Theme of String/Thread/Rope/Chain

This month's challenge was to write a poem using the words or theme of string, thread, rope, and/or chain. I thought a lot about kites and sewing, but none of my ideas really hit the mark. Yesterday I spent a few minutes watching an industrious spider and decided that was what I wanted to write about.

Spider Triolet

They swing and dangle in the air
spiders spinning webs of string
patterned with unconscious flair
They swing and dangle in the air
perfect traps designed to snare
insects walking or on the wing
They swing and dangle in the air
spiders spinning webs of string

You can read the pieces written by my Poetry Sisters at the links below.

Tanita Davis
Mary Lee Hahn
Sara Lewis Holmes
Kelly Ramsdell
Laura Purdie Salas
Liz Garton Scanlon
Andi Sibley

Would you like to try the next challenge? Next month we are writing poems in the form of Byr a Thoddaid. You can learn more about this form at Writer's Digest. We hope you'll join us. Are you in? Good! You’ve got a month to craft your creation(s), then share your offering with the rest of us on June 24th in a post and/or on social media with the tag #PoetryPals. We look forward to reading your poems!

I do hope you'll take some time to check out all the wonderful poetic things being shared and collected today by Linda Mitchell at A Word Edgewise. Happy poetry Friday friends.

Friday, May 06, 2022

Poetry Friday - More Primary Source Poems

I'm still working my way through family documents and still writing every day, though not strictly in Japanese poetic forms as I did for this year's National Poetry Month project on poems and primary sources.

Here are the poems I've written for May 1-6. (Click images to enlarge for a better view of the documents.)

I do hope you'll take some time to check out all the wonderful poetic things being shared and collected today by Jama Rattigan at Jama's Alphabet Soup. Happy poetry Friday friends.

Saturday, April 30, 2022

NPM 2022 - April 30

I can't believe it's the last day of April. Where has the month gone? I feel like I have so many more primary sources to share.

Today's poem is written to a photo of my brother and sister with our Semmelmayer cousins. This was taken Christmas day, 1960, five years before I came along. I missed some awfully good times.

This poem is written as a choka. The choka is a Japanese form of unrhymed alternating five and seven syllable lines that ends with an extra seven syllable line. It can be any odd number of lines. You can learn more about this form at Poets Collective.

Here is a listing of all the poems I've written this month. I've also shared these poems on my Instagram, which is a good place to go to see them altogether.

April 1 - Senryu to a photo of my grandmother as a child
April 2 - Haiku to my mother's recipe
April 3 - Dodoitsu to a war memento
April 4 - Choka to my mother's engagement announcement
April 5 - Gogyohka to the receipt for my mother's engagement ring
April 6 - Senryu to a student's drawing of my dad
April 7 - Tanka to a photo of my grandmother and her mother by a car
April 8 - Dodoitsu to a piece of V-mail from my great uncle
April 9 - Senryu to a Christmas card from Paris during the war (1944)
April 10 - Somonka to a war letter to my father
April 11 - Dodoitsu to an early family portrait of my mother
April 12 - Senryu to a photo of WWII nose art
April 13 - Senryu to a pair of postage stamps issued in 1934
April 14 - Somonka to a war letter to my father
April 15 - Senryu to a photo of my mother as a child
April 16 - Senryu to an Easter card my grandmother sent my grandfather
April 17 - Senryu to an Easter card my grandfather sent my grandmother
April 18 - Tanka to a First Day Cover celebrating NATO's 10th anniversary (1959)
April 19 - Somonka to my grandparent's wedding photo
April 20 - Dodoitsu to a list my grandfather made of the cars he owned
April 21 - Haibun to a newspaper story about a car accident my father was in
April 22 - Tanka to a newspaper masthead from NAAS Jacksonville (1945)
April 23 - Senryu to my grandfather's christening photo (1899)
April 24 - Senryu to a photo of my father and his parents at the beach (1929)
April 25 - Senryu to a letter my father's sister sent him during the way (1945)
April 26 - Senryu to a button envelop (1950)
April 27 - Sedoka to a photo of my grandfather and his twin sister
April 28 - Senryu to my dad's navy photo
April 29 - Dodoitsu to a family photo (1946)

Friday, April 29, 2022

Poetry Friday - Poetry Sisters Write In the Style of Taylor Mali

This month the challenge was to write in the style of Taylor Mali. If you've ever seen the video What Do Teacher's Make, you know who he is. Mali is largely a spoken word poet. When you read his print poems, they are long and recursive. I wasn't sure I'd be able to pull off a poem like this, so I went to his Writing Exercises page and found a poem on the Rhyme Time Lesson that I thought would be good to emulate. The directions were to use his poem as a model, and then write about "thoughts, memories, fears, joys, and mostly OBJECTS that generally fill your head each day." His model poem is really a list poem. I didn't follow his directions exactly, but I'm not too far off.

Insomnia Brain Remembers

When I can’t sleep at night and my brain won’t shut down

I feel like a tourist in memory town

Remembering people, places, and more

Reliving the bits that will not be ignored

My grandmother Stohr in her yellow housecoat

The day I was published for something I wrote

My father’s wry wit, my mother’s quick laugh

The first time my son fed a captive giraffe

The day that my sister packed up and moved out

The first job after college that filled me with doubt

The yellow VW owned by my brother

The last day in June when I lost my mother

The mountains, Tibet, and the glorious view

Sundays in church on a hard wooden pew

The first day of school when I started to teach

The jar of treats grandma kept high out of reach

The winter the dog was found caught in a trap

Charting our trips on an unfolded map

Try too hard to rest and it all rushes back

But I’ve lived and been loved, so there’s nothing I lack

(only sleep!)

You can read the pieces written by my Poetry Sisters at the links below.

Would you like to try the next challenge? Next month we are writing poems using the words or theme of string/thread/rope/chain. We hope you'll join us. Are you in? Good! You’ve got a month to craft your creation(s), then share your offering with the rest of us on May 27th in a post and/or on social media with the tag #PoetryPals. We look forward to reading your poems!

In addition to today's Poetry Sister collaboration, I'm close to wrapping up my National Poetry Month where I'm writing poems in Japanese poetic forms to primary sources. Today's poem is written to a family photo. I'm also sharing these poems on my Instagram in case you want to see them all in one place.

I do hope you'll take some time to check out all the wonderful poetic things being shared and collected today by Jone MacCulloch. Happy poetry Friday friends.

Poetry Friday: NPM 2022 - Day 29

Today's poem is written to a photo of my grandparents, great grandmother, and great aunt and uncle. The back of the photo is stamped June 17, 1946.

This poem is written as a dodoitsu. I haven't really followed the form too well this time. While I have followed the pattern (a 4-line poem with a syllable count of 7-7-7-5), I have not focused on "love or work with a comical twist." The post What is a Dodoitsu? contains more information about this Japanese form.

I hope you'll come back tomorrow and see what new inspiration I've found for a poem. Until then, you may want to read previous poems in this series. I'm also sharing these poems on my Instagram in case you want to see them all in one place.

In addition to today's National Poetry Month poem, I'm also in with the poetry sisters challenge to write in the style of Taylor Mali. You can find my poem here.

I do hope you'll take some time to check out all the wonderful poetic things being shared and collected today by Jone MacCulloch. Happy poetry Friday friends.

Thursday, April 28, 2022

NPM 2022 - Day 28

Today's poem is written to my father's navy photo. I didn't often see him write his full name, so it makes we wonder if my grandmother called him Frederick.

This poem is written as a senryu. Senryu is a three line poem written in the 5-7-5 form like haiku. While haiku focus on nature, senryu focus on human foibles. You can read more about senryu at How to Write Senryu Poems: Understanding the Senryu Form.

Wednesday, April 27, 2022

NPM 2022 - Day 27

Today's poem is written to a photo of my grandfather and his twin sister. Born in 1899, my guess is that this photo was taken when they were 3 or 4. I wish it had a date. My grandfather had 6 siblings, his twin Edna, and 5 other sisters. Twenty years separated Mamie, the oldest born in 1888, from Dorothy, the youngest born in 1908.

This poem is (loosely) written as a sedoka. Sedoka is a form that contains two stanzas, each a Katauta with a syllable pattern of 5-7-7. The first generally asks a question and the second answers. These poems were generally question and answer conversations between lovers with the stanzas being written by different people. You can learn more about the sedoka at Writer's Digest or Shadow Poetry.

Tuesday, April 26, 2022

NPM 2022 - Day 26

Today's poem is written to an envelope with buttons inside. That is my mother's handwriting on the outside. She would have been 20 when her grandmother died. I have no way of knowing if she made this note at the time of her grandmother's death or some time later. This small remembrance of my mother's grandmother got me thinking about my grandmothers, both of whom are described in this poem.

April 1 - Senryu to a photo of my grandmother as a child
April 2 - Haiku to my mother's recipe
April 3 - Dodoitsu to a war memento
April 4 - Choka to my mother's engagement announcement
April 5 - Gogyohka to the receipt for my mother's engagement ring
April 6 - Senryu to a student's drawing of my dad
April 7 - Tanka to a photo of my grandmother and her mother by a car
April 8 - Dodoitsu to a piece of V-mail from my great uncle
April 9 - Senryu to a Christmas card from Paris during the war (1944)
April 10 - Somonka to a war letter to my father
April 11 - Dodoitsu to an early family portrait of my mother
April 12 - Senryu to a photo of WWII nose art
April 13 - Senryu to a pair of postage stamps issued in 1934
April 14 - Somonka to a war letter to my father
April 15 - Senryu to a photo of my mother as a child
April 16 - Senryu to an Easter card my grandmother sent my grandfather
April 17 - Senryu to an Easter card my grandfather sent my grandmother
April 18 - Tanka to a First Day Cover celebrating NATO's 10th anniversary (1959)
April 19 - Somonka to my grandparent's wedding photo
April 20 - Dodoitsu to a list my grandfather made of the cars he owned
April 21 - Haibun to a newspaper story about a car accident my father was in
April 22 - Tanka to a newspaper masthead from NAAS Jacksonville (1945)
April 23 - Senryu to my grandfather's christening photo
April 24 - Senryu to a photo of my father and his parents at the beach (1929)
April 25 - Senryu to a letter my father's sister sent him during the way (1945)

Pages

Friday, March 31, 2023

Friday, February 24, 2023

Friday, January 27, 2023

Friday, December 30, 2022

Friday, December 16, 2022

Friday, November 25, 2022

Friday, October 28, 2022

Friday, September 30, 2022

Friday, August 26, 2022

Friday, July 29, 2022

Friday, June 24, 2022

Friday, May 27, 2022

Friday, May 06, 2022

Saturday, April 30, 2022

Friday, April 29, 2022

Thursday, April 28, 2022

Wednesday, April 27, 2022

Tuesday, April 26, 2022