Patchwork Prose and Verse
Today’s poem is a nonet, a nine-line poem in descending or ascending same-line-number-as-syllable order. This one is inspired by a fraud.
#thesmartestoneintheroom
don't read enough to be dangerous
read enough to have influence ~
there is a marked difference
between coercion and
living example
that defines fraud
for all those
who read
deep
Wendy Everand is our host today for the August Open Write, and she inspires us to write odes to our favorite poets. You can read her full prompt here.
This brought to mind the first poet I ever knew. We lived next door to a retired school teacher in Reynolds, Georgia, and one day I got loose and barged into her house (no one locked their doors in that town back then)…..and the rest is history. After she died, two of her granddaughters compiled a collection of her poems, and I got a copy as a gift. I still believe that she pulled my poetry strings out and brushed them…..maybe even crocheted them.
Ode to Mabel G. Byrd (December 10, 1900-1/20/1987)
Mama Byrd’s poems
mainly quatrains
ABCB rhyme scheme
Crafting 4-line verse veins
Born in 1900, Taylor County
Little Sweet Georgia Peach
Died 1987, Taylor County
Lived her life to write and teach
I barged right in, in ‘69
(She was 69, I was 3)
I still remember visiting
Listening to poems at her knee
She went blind
But still knew color schemes
She’d crochet blankets as gifts for folks
In gilded yarns, bright blues, and creams
She still wrote, even blind
Poems were her favorite forms
And when I read her words today,
Time turns back, my heart warms
In 1987, I went for one last visit
Dad and I, next to her bedside
Told me she’d meet me at Heaven’s Gate
About a month before she died.
The very first poet I ever knew
Still speaks to me today
In rose gardens and peach blossoms
…..and in Granny Square crochet.
Common Threads 