Meeting a new pup…
getting to know each other…
the whole thing’s a blur

#lizsharespoems #30daysofhaiku #nationalpoetrymonth

I do not know what we got ourselves into this month.
This was the hardest thing! An anagram poem.
(Curses, Linda Baie for making this look so fun and easy last month!)
Why did I find it so so so hard? OK, impossible.
But the clock’s run out of time so here goes….
a pair of anagrams per line.
Aaaaaaak!

What can I glean from the angel
at my elbow about what lies below?
What can I parse from her spare
verse (that veers toward
danger), what garden does she
steer me through, what hooked trees
loom in stark detail?

My eyes dilate
as I gaze over the acres that scare me,
at the serpents earth presents.
But then at the bluest sky, too – not subtle,
that goodness. It cannot stifle itself,
this earth – its heart whole, like mine.

Now go check out the others!
Tanita
Tricia
Sara
Andi
Laura

And go enjoy Poetry Friday at The Blog With the Shockingly Clever Title!
Happy weekend everyone….

There’s no gift so great
as the last months with a chick
before she fledges

#lizsharespoems #30daysofhaiku #nationalpoetrymonth

P.S. Yes, it’s my birthday. Yes, my youngest made me this birthday card. And yes, she’s a senior in school and ready to launch. My birthday will be quiet next year….

Sky’s a still gray sea…
waiting for the rain to come
can take the whole day.

#lizsharespoems #30daysofhaiku #NationalPoetryMonth

Spring cold snap surprise:
What’s a poor blossom to do
but dress in layers?

#LizSharesPoems #30daysofhaiku #NationalPoetryMonth

Haiku everyday
requires many long hikes.
The dog licks his lips.

I’d love for you to join me in celebrating National Poetry — either by reading or writing a haiku everyday! I’ll be here, on facebook, on Twitter and on Instagram. #LizSharesPoems #30daysofhaiku #NationalPoetryMonth

Masks. Masks we hide behind. Masks we dress up with. Masks we use to deceive or decorate.
Masks we make of our own faces. This is what we explored this month. Masks and what lies beneath them.
Enjoy!

Egg Speaks

Like a globe
on its axis, like
the sun, like
garden basil,
like a day
split into
perfect parts,
I shine.

You can read some of my poetry sisters’ mask poems here:
Laura
Tanita
Sara
Tricia
Rebecca

And Linda Baie is hosting Poetry Friday at Teacher Dance!

Tanita was in charge of our challenge this month, and ya’ll?
It was a doozy, not just poetically but emotionally.

The idea was that we should write a poem inspired by — or in the style of — the poem Minor Miracle by Marilyn Nelson, which you can read by clicking here, and believe me, you should.

It’s a beautiful thing, right?
But also, there’s nothing minor about it.
It is one big long hold-your-breath moment of fear and horror and humanity.
Not to put too fine a point on it, but that’s a bit much live up to.

Still, we each sat down to reckon with miracles in our own way.
Here’s mine….

Knock on Wood
(after Marilyn Nelson’s Minor Miracle)

Knock on wood, says the guy
in front of me, knock on wood,
like it’s a little thing,
a minor miracle, the luck
that plucked us from the sky
complete and unharmed.

In the middle of that, in the middle
of all of that, I did not whisper
or pray or knock. I just thought
about what I had to lose.
I paid attention to what we all
had to lose, and it was a lot.
.

Now, here’s where you can read the others.
And we’ve been joined by a new poet — Sara’s daughter Rebecca!
Yay for the passing on of poetry!

Sara
Rebecca
Tricia
Kelly
Tanita
Andi
Laura

And Tabatha Yeatts is hosting Poetry Friday over at The Opposite of Indifference. Enjoy!

It seems that my Poetry Sisters and I have officially been writing together for a decade.
Which is nearly impossible to me, in that time flies when you’re having fun.
But also, we didn’t exactly set out to do this — whatever this is — long term.
It just sort of… happened.

It is so often the way with life that really brilliant plans are only obvious in retrospect.
That in looking back we see patterns we didn’t notice at the time.
That in our successes, some plan or mastermindery becomes vividly apparent.
So much actually happens by gut or instinct or luck, at least for me.

For some reason these are the thoughts that emerged as I looked at one of this month’s artistic prompts (thanks to Tricia and an exhibit last year at the University of Richmond). These thoughts of patterns amidst chaos, of making our way through one while attempting to find the other. Which, when you think about it, is also what poetry is. So here’s my attempt at just that…

Color Equation 2 — Janine Wong

Life’s a Hard Job
Inspired by Color Equation 2 — Janine Wong

If you see a whole thing, it seems that it’s always beautiful. Planets, lives… But up close a world’s all dirt and rocks. And day to day, life’s a hard job, you get tired, you lose the pattern. –- Ursula K. Le Guin

From that initial bang
you’ve been beautiful
offering up a careful
constellation
of stepping stones
through this chaos
of soil and subatomic
particles, offering up
a predetermined
path to follow –
no – to hang onto
like an astronaut
does a safety-tether.

From that initial bang
you’ve unrolled choices
in front of us, row
after orderly row
of equally good choices
but when we make
the leap toward one
or the other, we discover
we are weightless
we are improvising
we are – yes, it must be
said – hurtling through
space and it is – it must be
said – a hard job.

Find my pals’ work here:
Tanita
Laura
Tricia
Kelly
Sara
Andi

And it’s Poetry Friday over at Poetry for Children. Enjoy!

My poetry sisters and I have a larger poem-project underway but we need to kick that can down the road a bit. So, for December, we decided on a list poem using at least 2 of the following words: paper, stars, messages, promises, dirt, flour, rum, hope. Here’s mine!

Commitment
By Liz Garton Scanlon

When you’re on a mission
to Mars, you pack carefully

You take it all, because once you’ve gone
there’s no hope of going back
to get what you’ve forgotten

And here are the others:
Laura
Tanita
Sara
Kelly
Tricia
Andi

Poetry Friday’s being hosted over at Elizabeth Steinglass’ blog!

Enjoy, and happy Friday!