Nine years ago we wrote some Want Ad haiku, and they were fun!
So, in the spirit of doing what we love at least once a decade, here we go again, although this time we’re using our neighborhood Buy Nothing groups as inspiration.
Oh, and from me an extra caveat. I’m currently trying to be on vacation, thus the brevity of this post, and the subject matter of my poems. Happy July, all!
This month our theme was wabi-sabi — a Japanese concept recognizing and honoring impermanence and imperfection — in us and in our earthly lives. The Zoom call with my poetry sisters was long and meandering and, if you must know, a bit fumbling and imperfect. As was the practice of writing this poem itself. So meta.
My draft (below) is in honor of my dad — a subtle and exquisite cook-without-a-cookbook kind of cook…
Kitchen Wabi-Sabi
By Liz Garton Scanlon
My dad, when he still had his eyesight, read cookbooks
and then cooked without them
heating the oil crushing the garlic adding the salt
with gutsy abandon, simmering and searing to a timer
of his own making
following his own loose lead, dancing backwards
without assurances that his foot would land as intended
and the meals – each taste a soft-shoe on the tongue – well worth that risk
As for next month? We’re writing haiku (it’s the heat of summer, please forgive our brevity) that resemble classified ads or Buy Nothing Group posts. Fun, right? Please join us — we love it when you do!
Our challenge this month was to write “In the style of…” Lucille Clifton’s homage to my hips. Specifically, we agreed to write in honor of a body part. Well, hello humanity, This Was Hard. I mean, not the poeming part so much as the honoring our body parts part.
Tanita recommended we watch Ms. Clifton read the poem aloud, instead of just reading it ourselves. That helped. She was funny and bold and irresistable. And then we talked about youth and age and society and … I don’t know … I think we got somewhere! Then? We wrote.
homage to my clavicle
after Lucille Clifton
by Liz Garton Scanlon
And Poetry Friday is being hosted by Janice at Salt City Verse!
Looking ahead… in June we’ll be writing poems entitled Wabi Sabi, which refers to the Japanese idea around finding beauty in the imperfect and incomplete. (HOW interesting that this follows on the heels of our body part odes, huh?) Anyway, join us?
The prompt this month? To ask unanswerable questions (inspired by a prompt Georgia Heard suggested while speaking on an NCTE panel as well as the Shel Silverstein poem How Many, How Much). I drafted mine (over our group zoom) as a terza rima (that I broke at the end) and then I set it aside, meaning to come back and work and tweak and polish. Well, that didn’t happen because the week was *muppet hands*. So here, in all its rough hewn glory, is my poem.
The Quill, The Song, The Vine
By Liz Garton Scanlon
How many quills on a porcupine? How many songs in the throat of a bird?
How many twists in the green of a vine?
Is that an answer that I heard? How many nothings do we know? What is nothing divided by thirds?
Where is fast and when is slow? Who are you and are you sure? How many x’s and how many o’s?
Are you mine and am I yours? Ask the quill, the song, the vine if I am yours, if you are mine.
Oh, AND!! Next month we’re writing “In the Style of…” Lucille Clifton! We’ll be writing odes to a body part (a la homage to my hips) but you can do with the prompt what you may.
Enjoy, be safe and well… xo
