Hello, my friends, and happy autumn.
I’m in the northeast right now, and I swear I felt the exact moment the seasons turned.
It’s blustery here, and plans are being dashed left and right, and I definitely didn’t pack the right clothes.
What a time for milky coffee and writing poems, hmm?
This month, we took our prompt from Colby Sharp’s The Creativity Project, page 257: “It was all my fault…” I toyed around with both a villanelle and a few haiku but in the end, free verse won the day. Anyway… thanks, Colby… thanks, autumn weather… thanks, Poetry Sisters.
It’s All My Fault
Liz Garton Scanlon
The sky apologizes for the weather –
gusty, wet and ruinous –
and the tree apologizes for the limbs
and leaves and broken branches
dropping down like thunder
and the path apologizes
for the detour
The dog apologizes for barking
his bright, surprised bark,
the baby apologizes for wailing
and the stroller apologizes
for getting tippy tippy tippy
as you pull the baby out,
pull the baby to you,
whispering I’m sorry.
I’m so sorry.
It is all my fault.
To read the others, go here:
Tanita
Sara
Mary Lee
Tricia
Laura
And our very own Tricia is hosting Poetry Friday this month! Lucky us!
Hope to write with us next month? We’re trying terzanelles! What? I know!! You’ll need some rhyming words, and we’ll supply two of them to get you started. Ready? Try working with “slight” and “might”. Go!
There are still some days I wish my 25-year old was a babe in arms, or that I could have just a few of those days back. This poem put me right there. Didn’t we all apologize when they cried? And still do?
Lovely poem.
It is just endlessly unbelievable that they’re grown ups, isn’t it?
Sweetness personified! I love the cascade of apologies!
I think I might keep playing with there. There are more voices calling to me!
I love where you ended up with this…it’s almost a picture book…which I know you know a little about, haha. I hope you can layer up and enjoy the chill. I, too, was caught off guard by the change of seasons, and am huddled under some covers at this moment trying to get warm.
Seriously considering a version for a picture book. I love a kind of cumulative text…
Oh, beautiful and bittersweet, too. I love the flow of it–puts me in mind of All the World. xo
Awww, thanks, pal!
Something in this reminds me of the song, “Rockabye Baby”… It’s all minor disasters, a startled baby, and a mother hushing and rocking, hushing and rocking until sleep and all is forgotten and forgiven.
Hushing and rocking, hushing and rocking… the underlying thrum of it all…
What a lovely lead at the end with “I’m sorry./I’m so sorry./It is all my fault.”
And how humbling are the weather, trees, path, and on in your poem—perhaps it’s time for us human folk to take a cue from them… Lovely, thanks Liz!
Thank YOU, Michelle!
Oh, so beautiful, Liz! We’re all in this mess together, doing the things we were created to do, and apologizing for everything along the way. That final image: *love* it so much.
We really are — such messy imperfect beings!!
Liz, I love your poem. You have nature, a pet, the baby, a stroller apologizing but the most sensitive part in the poem is the mother’s whisper. Well done!
Thanks, Carol.