Sunday was a day well-spent! We watched my dad preach in my childhood church via YouTube, and I texted my brother and his fiancee to check on them as they travel to New Orleans for the week. We had breakfast with our schnoodles by the fire, and then I painted 18 canvases to dress the Chamber of Commerce windows for National Poetry Month. Finally, we had a wonderful Zoom gathering arranged by Lainie Levin to meet other slicers face to face and enjoy conversation.
Part of my role in my school system is to oversee the L4GA Literacy grant, which offers funding for literacy events in the community. National Poetry Month is a fabulous time to plan some Open Mic nights, author poetry readings, and writing workshops. Last year, we created a progressive poetry walk around our town square, featuring a local poet’s poem he’d written about our rural town to the theme of Bloom!
For this year’s theme, Awakenings (our local Arts Council chose this year’s theme), we’re switching from a progressive poetry walk to a window dressing, thanks to our sensational Chamber of Commerce team, who has agreed to allow us to decorate the windows as a town square feature this year. These canvases will have poetry written on them in black letters.
If you are looking for a slice topic sometime this week and enjoy writing poetry, I would love to have some short poems (4-6 lines) on the theme of Awakenings. I’m curating a collection of poems on this theme by living poets to feature in our window. Some will be local poets who share readings in our coffee shop, while others will be from right here in the Slice of Life or another writing group….maybe you! I’ll change them out from week to week, so if yours is featured, I’ll share a photo of your poem on display sometime at the end of May on a Tuesday slicing day. You can add your poem in the comments on any day of my blog throughout March.
I’m sharing our palette color scheme below.
Poetry Invitation Elfchen
painting
bright canvases
National Poetry Month
local business window dressings
~ awakenings ~
Common Threads 
Kim, those bright canvases speak of sun, life, and joy! What a marvelous project – it is so exciting to read about. Your elfchen inspires me to accept the invitation… I shall return 🙂
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Thank you, Fran! I will embrace and cherish any short form on the theme – elfchen, acrostic, quatrain, couplets, you know them all so well! Nothing will give me greater happiness than to share with my county the words of all my favorite poets – – and you are among them, at the top of the list. With a theme like Awakenings, I wanted to spotlight poets who are out there living and noticing things and writing about them! Thank you for participating. I’m curating through March, so any day is fine, and I will be watching your blog for possums and poems.
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Wow. The canvasses are stunning. I’m not sure I’ll be up to the talent level required, but I may try to submit something vaguely poetic.
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Thank you so much, Peter! Yes you ARE up to the talent – don’t listen to that button you pushed on WP. Loved your blog post today!
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what a great grant and project. Hanging poetry in storefronts is kind of monumental- we so often relegate poetry to private, internal, quiet spaces. You can change people’s lives with things like this!
And thanks for the invite, I’ll be thinking about awakenings!
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Thank you, Fran! I look forward to reading poems born for and from awakenings!
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Kim,
This is such a fabulous idea for National Poetry Month and a beautiful gift to our writing community. You bet I’ll find a poem in my pile or write a new one that fits the theme.
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Thank you, Glenda! I appreciate you so much!
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Gorgeous panels! They are “awakenings,” beautiful sunrises, I think. What a wonderful town celebration.
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Your panels are beautiful and will be such a wonderful addition to the poetry walk. You’ve got such great ideas to celebrate poetry. I’m sharing today’s sijo with you. Hope you enjoy it:)
Paradise Flight
carry me, yellow finch wings,
into gold skies, along mountain
icy streams, butterfly fields,
scorching deserts— then drop me quick
into a hellish fiery pit
to rise anew like phoenix
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Barb, gorgeous and thank you so much for allowing me to use it. I love the awakening and overcoming – – the triumphant feeling of rising from the ashes and soaring.
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Oh, my goodness, Barb’s sijo is a perfect awakening poem. That is so awesome. I will think about this too. Thanks for the invitation. I am so impressed with the way you help your city celebrated National Poetry Month!
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