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Poetry Friday  *  Celebrate This Week

I am celebrating National Poetry Month by reading poetry, writing poetry, and reflecting on poetry.

Reading Poetry.

Each morning this past week I’ve opened my screen to read a poem by Amy Ludwig VanDerwater at The Poem Farm where she’s sharing 31 ways to write poetry. And each morning, I also read a poem on  Reflections on the Teche where Margaret Simon is sharing her ekphrastic poetry written in response to her father’s drawings.

On Wednesday, Margaret shared Afternoon.

It reminded me of my girlhood. Of hours spent on my bike. First on the streets of a sleepy mid-western town, going to the public library, delivering newspapers, or just riding for the sheer joy of the wind in my face and freedom. And then we moved. There my rides were on country roads, stirring up the dust behind me. loving the sound of the planks of the little wooden bridge that crossed a quiet stream where we always stopped to explore . . .

On Margaret’s page, I commented.

Writing Poetry.

I did not accept a poetry writing challenge. However, I am watching words, noticing poetry everywhere, and randomly writing poetry in my journal. So, when I read my words in my reply to Margaret, I saw a poem.

Balance

This is the place
I spent girlhood hours,
testing my balance,
riding free.

Now . . .  thinking free,
balancing my tests,
I seek to spend hours
in this space.

I searched for a photograph to fit my memories, repainted it with Waterlogue, and inserted my poem.

 

Reflecting on poetry.

On Thursday, I wrote  “My Journey,” a reflection of my #SpiritualJourney and how it has been saturated with poetry in the form of hymns and sermons and prayers and Scriptures.

I have committed to a personal challenge for National Poetry Month. Each day I’m pairing a quote about poetry with an image. I’ve titled the series Poetry is . . .

1. Poetry is…  plucking at the heartstrings, and making music with them -Dennis Gabor

2. Poetry is.. an echo asking a shadow to dance.  –Carl Sandburg

3. Poetry is…   an act of peace. –Pablo Neruda

4. Poetry is…  language at its most distilled and most powerful.  –Rita Dove

5. Poetry is… a form of mathematics, a highly rigorous relationship with words. –Tahar Ben Jelloun

6.  Poetry is… the journal of a sea animal living on land, wanting to fly in the air.  –Carl Sandburg

 

 



Amy at The Poem Farm is hosting
the week’s Round-Up.
Thank you, Amy!
#PoetryFriday
Poetry Friday Schedule
January – June 2018


Celebrate this Week
with Ruth Ayres,
Thank you, Ruth!
#Celebratelu.