Patchwork Prose and Verse
Amber from Oklahoma is our host today for the fourth day of the February Open Write. She inspires us to write observational haikus, just as the main character in Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo does. You can read Amber’s full prompt and the poems of others here.
life rhythms in taps
fingers counting syllables
taking it all in
making sense this way
of all that’s illogical
poems can do that
Donnetta Norris of Texas is our host today at http://www.ethicalela.com with a LOVEly invitation for this Saturday morning in February to kick off this month’s Open Write. You can read her full prompt and poem here. Her Paul Laurence Dunbar-inspired poem Invitation to Love in turn inspired me to mirror a poem by a favorite black poet. I love so many – Jericho Brown, Maya Angelou, Gwendolyn Brooks, Clint Black, and many more – – but of course, Lucille Clifton captures my soul in every poem. I fell in love with blessing the boats (at St. Mary’s)when its final line was chosen for the National Poetry Month theme a couple of years ago. She inspired me to lower case my letters in an e.e. cummings style, and I have been doing that ever since in most poems I write. Here is Clifton’s mentor poem I took from The Poetry Foundation as my inspiration for the prayer poem I wrote today:
blessing the boats
(at St. Mary’s)
may the tide
that is entering even now
the lip of our understanding
carry you out
beyond the face of fear
may you kiss
the wind then turn from it
certain that it will
love your back may you
open your eyes to water
water waving forever
and may you in your innocence
sail through this to that
Here is my prayer poem, filled with love:
blessing the children (and theirs)
may these prayers
offered each morning
whispered Heavenward
from the Rav4 road to work
(my prayer chamber)
multiply exponentially
with peace, health, safety,
sobriety, love, joy, provision, and
all good things
may these intercessions
meet you where you are and
keep you in God’s grace
may they stir in your heart
blessing you and yours
with a holy head kiss
divine in all love
lingering through the years
forever
Amen.
Fitz wants proof
the bagel is
really truly gone
climbs on chairs
stands on tables
wants the evidence
it’s all gone ~
hops back down
food dreams deferred
Have you ever seen a dog that can flatten himself right into a chair, a bed, or the floor? If our Ollie were a poem, he’d be a skinny poem. He could win an upside-down limbo contest and beat a snake at it.
he flattens out
Ollie
rescued
schnoodle
skinny
Ollie
abandoned
neglected
adopted
Ollie
he flattens out
Taken from The Skinny Poetry Nation blog: The “Skinny” is a short poem form that consists of eleven lines. The first and eleventh lines can be any length (although shorter lines are favored). The eleventh and last line must be repeated using the same words from the first and opening line (however, they can be rearranged). The second, sixth, and tenth lines must be identical. All the lines in this form, except for the first and last lines, must be comprised of ONLY one word. The Skinny was created by Truth Thomas in theTony Medina Poetry Workshop at Howard University.
When my husband goes into the local hardwares store, I never miss a chance to go and admire the paint chips and their color names. Secretly, I want that job. I want to name paint colors based on themes and even literary works. Little Red Riding Hood for the bread baskets in the pantry, lined with Bo Peep White-As-Sheep linen napkins, Little Boy Blue for the nursery, and Green Gables for the metal plant stand. I’m open for any job interviews a paint company would like to offer.
For now, though, while I work my way toward retirement from education as long as my mind will stay sharp enough to think and make sense of logical things, I press on and enjoy the creative side as I piddle in the hardware store while my husband shops for ideas on how to make a flag pole for our camper before camping season gets back in full swing.
I found these colors last night and began arranging them on a theme.
Next, created a chained haiku using the paint chips. I ordered the colors and imagined a countryside with a quaint cottage and a vegetable and herb garden, with a greenhouse right outdoors in the back yard inside a white fence.
And then I wrote in my backpack journal. 5-7-5, lines of haiku, loving the challenge and order of counting syllables and making things fit. I tucked the paint chips into my hand to bring them home and re-order them another time. I could have baskets and baskets of paint chips around the house and never grow tired of arranging them. Magnolia Home chips are my favorite – – they are just the right size and texture, have the most appealing font that even my aging eyes can see, are well-named, and are the most appealing paint colors of any of the other brands.
I could live
in the world
of paint chips and poetry
plants and herbal teas and
English gardens
with quaint countryside cottages
bell-peppered container gardens
wildflowers
a rope hammock
in the shade of a towering oak
and a local library within
walking distance so I
could pull my wagon there
and wheel home the stories.
she began early
random odd texts
throughout her day
photos of soap
rainbow sherbet dreams
mushroom coffee moments
just a prank
to bring smiles
and endless laughter
My daughter sent me a reel earlier this week with some girl on Instagram saying that she was going to send her brother random boring, senseless updates by text the following day – things no one would care about, really. So my older daughter decided to do the same for her own brother. That’s what happened today. I woke to photos of the random texts and spent a day with the best medicine – – laughter!
She has her next “victim” in sight, and I can’t wait!
Sometimes I like to take a stack of books and search for lines that speak to me to create found poems in random order to see if they make sense – kind of like a scavenger hunt. I used the following books and found 4 ten-syllable lines broken into five syllables with line breaks, in this order:
The Lost Spells by Robert McFarlane and Jackie Morris
The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin
James by Percival Everett
North Woods by Daniel Mason
Ghost Spells
the world is sudden
with wonder again
we can go over
the new winter list
I’m sorry to have
barged into your home~
how affectionate
I feel for my ghosts
Jessica of Chicago is our host today at http://www.ethicalela.com, inspiring us to write poems to the theme of “This is the Year.” She writes, “January is a time for self-reflection, goal-setting, and aspirational thinking.” You can read her full prompt and poems of others here. She encourages us to write poems about the changes we wish to see in 2025, structuring it this way:
Enough!
this is the year that
my one little word, enough,
takes on new meaning
helps guide decisions
about life, work, and spending
I don’t want too much
I already own enough
books, shoes, clothes electronics,
and other gadgets
it’s time to pare down
time to use the library
to tone down the noise
family and faith
my focus as I begin
twenty twenty five
time to consider
to give thanks for these blessings
to count all good things
My husband’s work sent a Heavenly Ham to us, and with just the two of us and a ham heavier than a lab puppy, I wasn’t quite sure how to make it work before it spoiled. The life of the poor pig weighed heavily enough on my conscience that I set out to be a good steward of all the readying he did before giving his life for our sustenance. I dug up a bag of black eyed peas and carved the meat from the bone, mixing protein and fiber together. It’s in the crock pot today, and it will be ENOUGH to get us through winter Sunday dinners with cornbread.
Ham Haiku
we don’t eat much pork
but for the sake of the pig
we’ll have ham and beans
Common Threads 