Our Poetry Sisters Prompt this month was to write “In the Style of…” Taylor Mali. Originally (mostly, I think) a spoken word poet, Mali tends toward longer form stuff, which (after a full month of haiku) felt a little daunting.

But then I found the section of his website where he offers prompts of his own, and in one of them, he appears to have written “In the Style of …” Nikki Giovanni! And I thought, how very meta! Plus, nice and short!

So, here goes, in the style of Nikki Giovanni’s Winter Poem and Taylor Mali’s This All Once Was Field. You might want to go here to read those first.

(Oh, also, I’ve based today’s haiku on this slightly longer poem because, two birds, etc. etc. And interestingly, both poem-versions are about a really big, dramatic experience in our family’s lives that happened more than 20 years ago but that I’ve never really dug into in writing. So, no time like the present, right?)

The Flood
In the Style of Nikki Giovanni and Taylor Mali

Once, the creek rose,
slipped inside like a shadow,
changed the shape of everything
and stretched out time till it just stood still.
I held up my hands and couldn’t see them
except for what they did, lifting the baby,
holding her above what was lapping at our ankles,
and I was a tree then, these were our roots
and we grew from there.

The Flood, As Haiku

The creek came inside
and my arms became branches,
lifting baby high

#lizsharespoems
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To read the other Mali-inspired poems, go here:
Laura
Tanita
Mary Lee
Tricia
Sara
Kelly
Andi

Thanks to Jone for hosting Poetry Friday this week!

And, in case you’re interested in joining us next month, we will be writing poems around the words string, thread, rope, or chain. You’ve got a month to craft your creation(s), then share your offering with the rest of us on May 27th in a post and/or on social media with the tag #PoetryPals. We look forward to reading your poems!

Y’know how once you see something, you can’t unsee it?

This morning, on a run with a friend, we came upon a night heron hunkering near a kind of half-full swimming hole on our drought-thirsty greenbelt. And y’all, I swear to you, he looked EXACTLY like Statler from the Muppets.

Night Heron

Hunched as a Muppet
night heron looks skeptical,
demands the last word

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After complaining about poison ivy, I thought it only right that I celebrate the beauty winding all over every fence and trellis in town right now.

Star Jasmine

Each bright vine of stars
a heady constellation
Generous Jasmine

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I love the neon green pop of spring every year but I am very, very, very allergic to poison ivy and it makes its presence known in a big way here, lining the edges of every trail, reaching for my ankles, leaping onto the dog’s coat. Ugh. No, thank you.

Poison Ivy

Spring’s marquee trumpets
poison ivy’s arrival –
creepy headliner

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#NationalPoetryMonth

What’s the living thing in this poem? Well, honestly, when it’s been this long since it’s rained, the rain itself feels alive. And instantly, instantly, everything else comes alive too.

Thirst-quenching nectar
We open like birds or buds
Rain during a drought

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#NationalPoetryMonth

For this final week of April, a slightly looser set of prompts than colors or days of the week or planets: to each day write about any living thing. Or, in this case, living things. Sort of.

Dog

Like a wrecking ball
first one on the trail at dawn
slaying spider webs

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Today’s the final color prompt — the V in ROY G. BIV.
What a lush and regal color!
Violet showed up early, in emperor’s robes and ancient art.
Intense, expensive, coveted.
And then there’s that pretty little flower…

Violet

Aristocratic
and ecclesiastical:
extravagant bloom!

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NOTE: Today is the final day of color exploration. Our last prompt for the month (after planets, days of the week, and colors) is the most wide open — 7 living things! I’m here for it, starting tomorrow. Are you?

It’s Earth Day.
So much to celebrate and so much to grieve.

Today’s prompt — indigo — this deep and simple color — is a good reminder of the former.
Earth’s gifts of beauty and usefulness are overwhelming, this color among them.
I’m grateful.

Indigo

Indigofera:
Blue is boiled, transferred, dried
Deepened on repeat

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#NationalPoetryMonth

“Why is the sky blue?” is one of the world’s most common questions.

The answer is that sunlight is actually made up of all the colors in the rainbow, but when it hits the Earth’s atmosphere, the light scatters. Blue light, with it’s short, small waves, scatters the most (attention-grabber that it is) so that’s what we see.

And next in our list of common questions: “Why is the ocean blue?”

The answer is that water absorbs the colors with longer wavelengths first. So the blue (again! show off!) is the color we see.

Y’all probably already knew all that, and I did too, but for some reason it’s one of those things I need a regular refresher on. The details escape me. So here they are again, scattered waves and all.

Blue

Waves of blue scatter
overwhelm the elements
till it’s all we see

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#30daysofhaiku

It’s funny how being green to something, being new, is both fresh and exciting and full of possibility, but also unschooled and innocent and even a little foolish. It’s funny, isn’t it?

Green

Are you new to this?
I ask each leaf, bud, new shoot,
each naive idea

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#30daysofhaiku
#NationalPoetryMonth