Well, this was my kind of prompt. Some miracle combination of playfulness and empathy. One part “walk a mile in someone else’s shoes” and another part “what if”. I could’ve written a hundred of these if I’d had a less nutty week and if we hadn’t been going on two weeks without air conditioning (which kind of sucks the playfulness out of a gal in Texas in the summer).

Anyway… here’s the specific prompt. We were to write a poem in the style of Jane Yolen’s What the Bear Knows and/or Joyce Sidman’s Deeper Wisdom poems, both of which are really about imagining the inner life of someone or something you’re not.

I didn’t write a hundred poems, but I did write a handful of ’em and I’m going to share two of them here:

THE PENNY
By Liz Garton Scanlon

What does the penny know?
The bottom of a pocket, the drier’s metal bell
The crack between the cushions, the sewer’s eggy smell
And the finger-crossing splash into a magic wishing well

What does the penny know?
That one’s a lonely number, never near enough
That even when you’re shiny-proud, you still might be rebuffed
But wishes, when you mean them, can deliver mighty stuff

THE PEACH
By Liz Garton Scanlon

What does the peach know?
The morning orchard, sunbeam-lit
The rows like dancers, fruit befit
The farmer’s secrets, whispered, writ

What does the peach know?
The branch and blossom, perfect fit
The fresh-faced fuzz, the heavy pit
The beetle eating, bit by bit…

If you liked these, check out my pals’ poems here:
Mary Lee
Tanita
Tricia
Sara
Kelly
Andi
Laura

As for next month, we’ll be writing tankas. Tankas were originally take-offs on other poets haiku, so we invite you to dig into the Poetry Friday archive, find a poem you admire (haiku or not) and compose a tanka based on it or inspired by it or in conversation with it (obviously given credit where credit’s due). Fun, right?

Now, go enjoy the rest of Poetry Friday at Unexpected Intersections and have a great weekend, y’all.

Wow, I feel like I haven’t seen y’all forever. I had to miss the June prompt thanks to life, but I’m showing up this month, brave and fumbling.

Our assignment for July was to write a villanelle (and for more on this gorgeous, French, fixed form, see here) to the theme of dichotomy. Well. I brainstormed opposites. I considered conflicts. I thought the flip side of the same coin, comparing apples and oranges, things as different as chalk and cheese.

But then I remembered this therapeutic modality — Dialectical Behavior Therapy — that asks patients to cultivate habits like mindfulness and distress tolerance, in part via a willingness to hold more than one truth, to accept seemingly contradictory ideas or circumstances. This is, it’s fair to say, not easy. But ok, then. Neither is writing a villanelle! Here goes, anyway. (*A note: I cheat a little at the very end, changing one of the fixed lines. But I figure since Dialectical Behavior Therapy aims for both acceptance and change, it’s meta-acceptable!)

Two Truths
(for my child at 20)
Liz Garton Scanlon

I hold two truths, brand new and grown,
as you stretch further from your source,
inscrutable and so well known,

But I am just your chaperone –
you are your own – a vital force,
remaking truths – brand new and grown,
inscrutable and so well known.

We are beyond tickled to welcome the amazing and eloquent Mary Lee Hahn to our ranks this month! Her retirement from teaching freed up a little space in her life, and here she is!

See also poems by:
Sara
Tanita
Laura
Tricia

And Poetry Friday is at Sloth Reads (thanks, Becky!)

Now, what’s next? For August, we’ll be working on WHAT THE _________ KNOWS poems, in the style of Jane Yolen (see here). Joyce Sidman uses a similar form for her poem What Do The Trees Know, and she explains it well in this blog post (scroll down to the end). Please try it with us if you’d like!

That’s all, folks. Stay safe and well — Liz

It’s been awhile since we’ve done an ekphrastic poem — a poem based on or inspired by a piece of art — so here we go. We had two images to choose from — the first being El Hombre Grande (a mixed-media piece by Roy de Forest, 1989, photo by Tanita Davis) and the second, Spider Dress (a brass wire sculpture designed by Isamu Noguchi in 1946 for Martha Graham dance productions, photo by Sara Lewis Holmes). As you can see, they’re both quite evocative!

I ended up choosing Spider Dress because it begged and embodied a story, even before I discovered it really was designed for the character of Medea in Graham’s performance of Cave of the Heart. Also, feeling like I needed a little more support, I wrote a tritina, a ten-line poem with repeating words that is almost like a mini-sestina. I wished, actually, that I’d chosen other words as my repeating ones but time crept on me so it is what it is. Enjoy.

Medea, Caged
Liz Garton Scanlon

Anchored fast to earth (with tattered wings!)
a mesh of expectations make the cage
from which I watch days set and set and rise

the wing’s a myth, the heart’s a cage we rise each day within.

You can find my pals’ poems here:
Kelly
Tricia
Sara
Laura
Tanita

And Poetry Friday is at Michelle Kogan’s this week!
Stay well, everyone.

This week is all about celebrating Mary Lee, retiring from teaching after 37 years, after so many lives inspired and touched. Here’s to the days ahead, friend — the days of poetry on the page and on the river. Knowing that the ripple effects of all the good you’ve done will last forever.

This Beam of Light
for Mary Lee Hahn – Poet, Teacher, Flycaster, Friend

Laying the long line upon the water
with such quiet care
it might as well be a beam
of light, a bit of a poetry (just
a few words, just the right ones)
landing as if they’d always been there,
waiting to be plucked up
by a thousand children, hungry
for what’s right in front of them –
the whole world in a drop
of water, barely
making a ripple
on the surface,
but patiently
steadily
faithfully
dropping
way
down
deep.

(Art by Marcus Cline)

#MarvelousMaryLee
#PoemsforMaryLee

Poetry Friday is at Wondering and Wondering today — and you’ll find lots more love for Mary Lee there!

The Prompt: To write ‘In the Style Of’ Linda Hogan’s Innocence!

That (exquisite!) poem opens like this:
There is nothing more innocent
than…

I started similarly, and ran with it. My poem is far less lovely and much more annoyed than Hogan’s but, to be fair, hers was an awful lot to live up to for us mortals! Anyway, here goes.

BAMBOO
By Liz Garton Scanlon
After Linda Hogan’s Innocence

There is nothing more determined
than the subterranean shoots
of backyard bamboo, rhizomes advancing
like an electric grid, like an army,
disregarding fences and foundations.
There is no compromise, no working it out
or slowing it down, no way to say
what was determined now feels
aggressive to me, I feel
attacked

that culms become stalks, hollow and wooden.
In the face of that windswept tenderness,
I forget, forgive, relax –
a whole determined world beneath my feet.

Go read the others!!
Sara
Tanita
Tricia
Andi

And enjoy Poetry Friday at Radio, Rhythm and Rhyme!

Haiku 29
April 29, 2021

Tying up April —
a spring green ribbon of love
for my sweetheart’s day

#lizsharespoems #30daysofhaiku #nationalpoetrymonth

Haiku 28
April 28, 2021

All of the world’s rain
like wet flannel overhead
but not a drop falls

#lizsharespoems #30daysofhaiku #nationalpoetrymonth

So happy to be featured over at Twinkl with a whole bunch of other poets and writers this week.

The more ways we can celebrate National Poetry Month, the better. Especially with teachers!

So thanks, Twinkl — and go HERE to have some poetry fun!

Haiku 27
April 27, 2021

I’m up so early
it’s like it’s still yesterday.
The pink moon agrees.

#lizsharespoems #30daysofhaiku #nationalpoetrymonth

Haiku 26
April 26, 2021

Migrating birdsong
over the train’s long, low cry…
No one stays for long.

#lizsharespoems #30daysofhaiku #nationalpoetrymonth