Tag: open write

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An American Sonnet: Knit One, Purl Two

Glenda Funk of Idaho is our host today at http://www.ethicalela.com for the first day of the July Open Write. She inspires us to write Double Consciousness American Sonnets, which are looser forms of the traditional Shakespearean or Petrarchan Sonnet with the Volta, or shift, around line 8 or 9. Come visit the page today and read the poems of others, and perhaps write your own to share!

Hands knitting a multicolored wool sock with wooden needles indoors

Instructions for Knitting a Poem

knit one, purl two, I hook words as I write

cool peace, with shades of panic-level fright

these variegated colors of yarn skein

like phases of moon cycles: wax and wane

crack of thunder harkens a derecho

aftermath: look up and see a rainbow

cast on, bind off ~ weave from all this SABLE

knit one, purl two, count along a cable

change skeins ~ dye lots show unstable jogging

tug trail legs: necessary frogging

sometimes we can’t undo what has been done

new leading legs knit common threads as one

a cozy mitten pair: rich mosaic

poetry can change the dull prosaic

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Journey to Knowing

We’ve all heard it said that love is blind, and I’ve sure been a champion and a victim of that a time or two. But when it comes to our own family members and their relationships, it hits home in deeper ways. Someone I care about has recently broken off a year-and-a-half engagement. I’d had my suspicions about things when the wedding planning never got started and there was a wrinkle or two of bickering for a week or so another time, but I kept praying that things would work out as they should. And they did. The one who said, “I didn’t break it off sooner because I just kept hoping it would all work out” has experienced that rocky road of discovery where we must accept that even love that is blind can still see the truth when it has looked long enough.

Journey to Knowing Another Person

who we see is

who we choose to see

who we want to see

who we believe we see

…but are we ever really right?

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Embarking on Retirement: The Next Journey

Retirement

I’ve found the door

started looking last year

made my way through the room

straightening my files

smoothing my skirt

changing shoes

grabbing my hat and sunglasses

moving toward the portal

reaching, turning, pushing

toward the next chapter

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Traveling the Journey


Looking in the Mirror

I look in the mirror

see the gray hair

see the neck wrinkles

see the crow’s feet

see the lazy thyroid laying down on the job

and thank God I’m here to show the wear

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Homeless in Portland: Outside the Zone

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Powell’s City of Books in Portland, Oregon

I was in Portland, Oregon at the first annual Stafford Challenge Poetry Conference, and I’m not sure how one can feel exhilarated and exhausted at the same time, but I did. The days of writing held such magic here in the Pacific Northwest. From Powell’s City of Books to Lewis and Clark College to the Willamette River and the 30th floor of the Portland City Grill, I’ve breathed the air of artists everywhere.

This is a city of literature, visual art, music and dance. Have you ever been immersed in a city so filled with the unexpected?

But one humanitarian challenge is the homeless population here. All these years I’ve walked past, minded my business, tried not to look. But something has tugged at my heartstrings on this trip, and I’m rethinking my stance. Something must change.

Outside the Zone in Portland, Oregon

oh my ~ he was there/ on the street / outside Powell’s City of Books in Portland /this young man/

locking his white-blue eyes with mine/ pleading / Excuse me, Ma’am? / as I walked past/

outside the zone/a few blocks later it smacked my heart wide open/ this is someone’s child/ a mother’s baby boy/ and I? I have neglected this soul / a disco ball of fragmented pieces/ reflection’ll do that/

refracting in pieces that scatter and haunt my being as I walk on/ ripped apart / outside the zone/ wanting even now to return to hear his story/ a sermon of life there on the street/ giving more than he requests/ listen: he has a story/ we all have a story/

this poem knows regret can do a 180/ change a line like an edit/ a tide of change/ one small act of knowing someone/ asking their story/ seeing, listening, validating humanity/ on a concrete city sidewalk/ where someone needs a human outside the zone/ to enter the zone and see them, hear them, understand them

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June Open Write Day 3: Souvenirs

Today’s host of the third and final day of the June Open Write at http://www.ethicalela.com is Leilya Pitre of Louisiana. She inspires us to write poems about the souvenirs we bring home from trips. You can read her full prompt here, along with the poems of others and the feedback given. I have written mine today as I await a flight home from Portland, Oregon to rural Georgia, fresh on the heels of a delightful writer’s conference trip with my friend Glenda Funk of Idaho. I’ve used the style of Ada Limon’s Instructions On Not Giving Up.

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Horsetail Falls

Souvenirs from Portland, Oregon

more than the t-shirts and canvas bags

more than the keychains and shot glasses

more than that obnoxious prayer request card

cussing to God about the souls

of His other children

in the pew back compartment

someone intentionally forgot

to put in the offering plate

that I claimed as a bookmark

so I can pray the same sort

of prayer for Sam, Gavin, Kellen and all of us sinful humans

(yes, all of us !*(^ing %*m#@$$es)

more than the signed books of other writers

more than the leather shopping treasures,

it’s the photographs that really get to me

that keep the memories alive

stances of trees, slants of slate rooftops,

smiles of strangers and those we love

(yes, all of us !*(^ing %*m#@$$es)

standing beneath waterfalls

in the bend of the rainbow

God’s promise of hope for all His children

cloaked in the prayer shawl of His grace and mercy

(yes, all of us !*(^ing %*m#@$$es)

yes, I’ll take them. I’ll take them all.

Actual prayer request found in a church pew back in Portland, Oregon
Bridal Veil Falls

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Summer Travel Companion for the Open Write

Leilya Pitre of Louisiana is our host today at http://www.ethicalela.com for the June Open Write. She asks us to write a poem about the person we would choose to ask to go traveling with us this summer if we could take someone. I’ve been awaiting the release of Lauren Hough’s Monster of a Land for months. She takes a Travels with Charley journey, modern day, with her dog, Woody Guthrie. So instead of pre-ordering, I waited to buy the book at Powell’s City of Books in Portland. This bookstore is an entire city block and when you’re waiting on a book about a monster of a land, it makes sense to buy it in the monster of all bookstores.

Let’s Go, Lauren Hough!

a Steinbeck-like is Lauren Hough
an author I would ask to go
to join my summer travel band
to see this Monster of a Land!

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Taking Notes in Portland, Oregon

I’m in Portland, Oregon for the Stafford Challenge Poetry Conference, and Glenda Funk and I have been out meeting people on the streets, taking notes of what to do while we are here.

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Glenda, Ellie, Me

Taking Notes

Glenda and I went people-ing

on the streets of Portland

asking folks

What’s your favorite thing

to do here?

then smiled for quick snapshots

to remember these kind souls

Ellie likes parks ~ waterfalls and Pioneer Square

Josh likes fishing ~ salmon and rivers

Joe likes running and showed us to a garden

Cheriss likes staying home (she attracts dead ancestors)

Arthur yawns ~ he likes sleeping

Higinio likes remembering Venezuela and Miami

Librarian poet Leslie likes reading and eating Ethiopian food

Matt likes adventure ~ camping on Mt. Hood (he has a feral cat named Big O)

Scott’s favorite thing to do is eat

we are all a human tribe~

how can we not be filled with

such a vast love,

this diverse and unified living of life?

Cheriss, Me, Glenda
Me, Josh, Glenda
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Open Write

Erica and Jessica of Arkansas are our hosts today for the third and final day of the Open Write for May 2026 at http://www.ethicalela.com. They inspire us to write “found” poems not by finding lines or words from other poets by collecting thoughts and ideas of things we find. You can read their full prompt here. It’s a lot like taking a nature walk and instead of collecting pine cones or stones or feathers, poets collect moments and feelings to share.

I visited my brother on Lake Hickory over the weekend, so this morning I’m scrolling back through my photos for my “walk” back through the weekend.

Welcome to North Carolina

Welcome sign greets us into the state

we pull into the driveway overlooking the lake

artist’s palette sunset, dock, pool,

a sloping hill for dogs to play

Mojave sun hat on the boat

tritoon power fast afloat

Ospreys soar and dive for fish

songbirds, praise chimes, fountain wish

boats on sandbar, toasting dreams

wallowing in warm sunbeams

but one more stop while traveling home

Malaprops for treasure-tomes

And then two more,

Black Rock Mountain, Tallulah Gorge

but back to work, a life to forge…..

.

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Open Write Day 2 of May 2026: Trees

Erica of Arkansas is our host today for the second day of the Open Write at http://www.ethicalela.com. She’s shared an inspirational prompt about trees and invites us to write about them. You can read her full prompt here. Come join us and read the poems of others or write your own!

I’ve been dabbling in watercolor lately, and one thing I’ve realized is that leaves are not easy to paint. I’ve also tried drawing my own pictures to paint, but concluded I’m a long way away from that technique. So pages in the watercolor books that guide and tell. how to paint the subject are my best option for building confidence and learning techniques.

And while ferns are not trees, it’s a Watercolor Weekend! Here is a fern I painted (not dark enough, but at least it turned out somewhere in the green color family). I recently brought a fern in a turtle planter home from St. Simons Island, where we are cleaning Dad’s house and yard to prepare it to go on the market, and ferns were one of my mother’s favorite plants.

To My New Turtle Fern

Fern: from 322 Magnolia Avenue in a concrete turtle planter

Everything about you

Reminds me of Mom – and Fitz, who

Never met a turtle he didn’t like