Common Threads

Inspiration

Jason Reynolds, recently named the National Ambassador of Young People’s Literature, captures the way he felt about news of a death in Long Way Down in his verse “The Way I Felt.”

Process

Raise a Glass to the Literary Avant-Garde by writing your own version of “The Way I Felt.”  The “ul” feature in the comment box will help you indent if you wish.
If you are feeling nostalgic, keep the past tense and direct address.
If you are feeling connected to the present, move to present tense.
The “I” need not be you, but could invite another perspective in human form or an abstract concept like Love, Joy, Grief, Regret.

Kim’s Poem

The Way I
felt when your
tail thumped three
times was heartbroken.
I never had
a dog as
loyal as you.
I stood on
the front porch
waiting for you
to look up
but you were
too weak to
lift your head.
Three tail thumps.
And I understood.
It was time.
“Just this side
of Heaven is
a place called…
Rain…bow…bridge”
*Quoted lines are attributed to Paul C. Dahm from the original “Rainbow Bridge Poem.”

Inspiration

Jericho Brown recently won the Pulitzer Prize for his poetry collection The Tradition, in which he invented a new style called a Duplex. The Duplex blends the musicality and structure of the ghazal, the sonnet, and the blues. You can read a couple of Brown’s poems here:
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet/2019/04/invention

Process

 Raise a glass to the Literary Avant-Garde by writing a Duplex today on any topic of your choice. I chose my favorite line from my favorite Eagles song to help me get started. The duplex starts with a couplet of two distinct lines. The second line is repeated and a new line is added, and then the format is repeated until there are seven couplets of nine to eleven syllables in each line.  Each new couplet’s first line ends with the final word in the preceding line, and the final word is the last word of the first line. 

Kim’s Poem

I’m hosting this week at http://www.ethicalela.com, so here is my prompt and my poem for today:

Inspiration

In The Last Avant-Garde: The Making of the New York School of Poets by David Lehman, readers learn that Joe Brainard went to spend the summer of 1969 in Vermont, where he began writing short anaphoristic snippets of memories, all beginning with the words, “I Remember,” thus defining a new poetic form.

Process

Raise a Glass to the Literary Avant-Garde by writing an “I Remember” verse today. Ponder! Unearth! Ruminate! Reminisce!
Reminisce: This can be a time and place in your life that you want to revisit, that will bring you joy or comfort in these unprecedented times.
Ponder! Unearth! Ruminate! Or this can be a time and place in your life that you want to re-imagine with new eyes and perspective. Maybe you will write this from another’s point of view.
Imagine: Spring into the future and imagine what you will or want to remember. Or go for fiction — write something sci-fi, fantasy, or fairy tale-ish.
Your poem can be as short or as long as you need it to be today. A few lines will do. Give yourself permission for “good enough.” And give yourself permission to reject this idea all together and write whatever you need today.

Kim’s Poem

The Family Circle

I remember clutching her warm hand as the death rattle beat the drum of her final march
deferring to my brother, “I picked the spot. You pick the plot”
I remember pleading, “Lord, I need a sign she can rest in peace”
confessing I’d prayed for a sign: a majestic bird in flight, wings outstretched, assuring peace
I remember fighting tears, wanting to shoot three birds circling overhead
resisting the urge to punch my brother, who was fighting his own tears……of laughter?
I remember eyeing him, raising one questioning brow, tightening my lips, muttering obscenities
wondering if he was drunk as he whispered sideways, “She showed up! With her parents!”
I remember feeling the full force of her humor, her sign: sending buzzards in place of an eagle
I remember my animal-loving mother – prankish and ever-present. Even now.

Hope is for the unknown chocolate,
hidden and forgotten,
 to be discovered and devoured.

Challenge from Sarah Donovan:  Celebrate the end of National Poetry Month today in our group by writing as you wish. 

My response:

Challenge from Jessica and Kole: write a poem about the process of your writing.  What do you do?

coffee first, then
computer: power up
check prompt and grab
Cross fountain and Moleskine, then seek
comfy chair in reading room to
craft the scraps and fragments and swatches
coming together on the left to
compose on the right as thoughts, swirling,
cook and simmer with alliterative Csonings
capturing a word
collision before deciding I need a second
chance and a
coffee refill

Challenge from Susie Morice:  Write a poem of renewal – – a new cycle, a watershed moment….

Write a 6-Word Memoir today!
Visit The Six Word Memoir Project online to read some inspiring memoirs, and create your own. Ernest Hemingway’s famous example – “For sale: baby shoes, never worn.” A long-married, happy spouse – “I still make coffee for two.”

Kim’s 6-Word Memoir:

read, write, share, eat, sleep, repeat…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bx3bcFfvr_A

Yesterday was National Tell a Story Day! You can roll a poem or story with Rory’s Story Cubes (available on Amazon).

Miriam