Patchwork Prose and Verse
Dr. Leilya Pitre of Ponchatoula, Louisiana is our host for today’s Open Write. She brings us a short form, the sevenling, which you can read about here.
Foxglove Funeral for a Grandson
Foxglove bells chime joy, bring smiles
on Mother’s Day in Georgia, painting gardens
in blush colors: the female womb blooms
Foxglove bells toll grief, stir longing
on Mother’s Day in Kentucky: a petal flips, a
cradle rocks in heaven ~ the female soul cries
empty arms mourning a baby not born
Today our host for #VerseLove is Chea of Texas, who inspires us to write poetry with regional dialect ~ to tell something as it really happened, in our home language. You can read her prompt and the poetry of others here. I’m sharing a phone conversation with my dad one early morning not too long ago and wrote it in prose during the Slice of Life Story Challenge.
Hopin' Folks Out my phone rings early Dad I have a story I need to tell while it’s fresh on my mind before I forget I grab my pen It was back in the old days in rural Georgia when I was preaching at Ohoopee This was down around Highway 19 where you’d go through Wrightsville meander over to Tennille and then head on out to Sandersville a sea of cotton fields roads all red clay Ohoopee was a church of miracles a cured drunk who loved the Lord led the singin' “On Jordan’s Stormy Banks,” only he pronounced it Jurdan’s. and he weren’t wrong. a fellow named Noah in the church needed help finding where to dig his well even with a name like Noah back in those days people were people folks’ existence was all about helpin' their neighbors out now old Elvis heard about it “I’m coming over to hope you out” I went over there too to see Elvis hope his neighbor out Elvis said he had a divinin' rod – a hickory branch – to find water Elvis walked it tremored I saw it with my own eyes they dug that well right there they called this place Possum Scuffle back over in Harrison by Raines Store over yonder by Deep Step and Goat Town by Margaret Holmes's cannery ~ black eyed peas and collards. in Acts 27 Luke is in a ship in a storm using stabilizing ropes ~ also hawsers or helps a help is a hope rope on land or at sea it's Biblical, Kim now you remember that write it down
Fran Haley of North Carolina is our host today at http://www.ethicalela.com for Day 18 of #VerseLove, inspiring us to write a triolet. You can read her full prompt here and see the form for this 8-line short form with rhyme scheme. Fran is a fellow teacher, a bird enthusiast, poet extraordinaire, and she named one of my plants on my front porch: Leafy Jean (which led me to a name for the other plant – Leafy’s brother, Leon Russell – – children both buried in a cemetery Fran visited as a child). Today I am keeping yesterday’s blog writing topic with the Rose of Jericho and changing it to a poem – a triolet!
Choose to Live! Rose of Jericho ~ brittle, brown, dry unfurl your fingers! choose to live! mixed tears of grief and joy I cry Rose of Jericho ~ brittle, brown, dry my gaze drifts heavenward, eyes to the sky reassurance of faith and hope you give Resurrection plant ~ tears green you, oh my! unfurl your fingers! choose to live!
Common Threads 