I love reading poetry. When I read in poetry, I start thinking in poetry. And this is always exciting. Until I start speaking in poetry, and people start looking at me like I’m weird. About three years ago, I gave myself a challenge: to write and post an original poem a day for 30 days…
Tag: 30 Days of Poetry
The Daily Turn #30: The First Day of Homeschool
Bringing life down to the abcs is likea fresh startwhere all questionsare not stupid questionsand you, the teacherare allowed to learnalong with the children.Today I stared at a long lime greenjumping bug that I have neverbefore in thirty-one years ofgoing outside ever seen.I examined the paper-thinflakes of mica that my daughterhad split and scattered along all the…
The Daily Turn #29: On any other day we would have been strangers
On any other day we would have been strangers,moving like slow ants along the same linefrom the grocery store door to the car.But today, in full heat and sweltering sunwe were thrust suddenlyinto great drops of unexpected rain,and we all became childrenrunning to carsumbrellaless,laughing as we passedon the street.
The Daily Turn #25: This Pencil
No matter how muchI shake this pencil,I can’t get the wordsto come out.I will take it backto the store first thingin the morning.But tonight,I am just going to sleep.
The Daily Turn #20: I Have Tried So Many Times To Memorize Your Face
I have triedso many timesto memorize your face.But loving you, I have learnedthat in one facethere are a thousand faces–Revealed,one by one,by light and shadow,the changing colorsof a thousand days.The impressions of joyand sorrow are markedby lines that lift and pull.There is the nuance of eyebrowand the deepening groovesof a lifetime of questionsanswered and unanswered.There is passion…
The Daily Turn #17: What Does a Poet Do All Day?
What does a poet do all day?I can only speculate,but have the feelingthat in this particular thick Georgia summer,it has something to dowith cataloging the daily intensitiesof rain.He studies and recordsin a landscape ofbuckets and beakers,prisms and pyrex(for the sake of the future),the effects of rainon the fragranceand colorof the world.
The Daily Turn #12: Tribe
There is a little tribe of peoplein this worldwho do not walk–they only run,and they have developeda sophisticated systemof survivingoff what they can reach(by moving step-stools,chairs, piano benches,laundry baskets, etc.)and what big peoplewill get for them. They have invented their own languageby exploring all possibleranges of the human voice,combining words fromoverheard conversations,foreign to them.Their language,unintelligible to us,is…
The Daily Turn #11: the exact opposite
sometimes I wonderif it is the exact opposite– instead of opening up the worlddoor by doorentering virtual roomsof texted talkingand mirrored projectionsof our public selves,our carefully constructed conversationstraveling fasterthan the speed of sound–the history of every relationshiptranscribed, day by day,line by line,summing up its failurein speechless abbreviations, (((Once, while we were taking a walk,we passed…
The Daily Turn #10: Glow
When I look back years from now on this particular summer I will remember the taste of lavender the laughter of children the sweat on my husband’s brow not furrowed, but soft rainbows over sunflowering eyes– A warm yellow memory, like spilled-out sun– the same brightness I have felt right in the core welling up…
The Daily Turn #9:The Lament of the Prince
the King and Queen, believing they were acting in the boy’s best interest, turned down girl after girl. “She’s not a Real Princess” obviously. Only a commoner could sleep in conditions like that– to a Real Princess, the intensity of feeling! the piercing perception! the pea, masked by mattresses one-hundred-fold, was perfect pain. nevertheless, the…
The Daily Turn #6: Scribble
Scribble Some thoughts can by typed with whole hands like hellos and how are yous the birth of a baby, the recipe for spice cake, the exchange of addresses, and the table of contents. Some thoughts can be typed with thumbs– abbreviations for you and tonight exclamations, commands NOW! HURRY!!! I’m here, plz call. But…
The Daily Turn #5: Grandma
Today is my Grandma’s birthday And also the anniversary of her death. As if she’d planned it– To live exactly 98 years and then Retire from this life And the weary work of wearing A failing body To do all the things she had missed: Traveling to new places, Visiting with childhood friends, Laughing with…