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.

Read the others here:
Laura
Tricia
Mary Lee
Tanita
Sara

And Ruth has the Round-Up this week!

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

Haiku 25

Warm as a welcome
The sky opens like an eye
I breathe it all in

#lizsharespoems
#30daysofhaiku
#nationalpoetrymonth

When you’ve lived in a place for a long, long time and the place has morphed from funky college town to fancy high tech hub, there’s some grief and surprise and a fair amount of complaining from everybody who lived here back in ‘the day.’ But honestly, not a day goes by that I am not grateful for my life in Austin, my luck and friendships and memories. All the beautiful places and fun things to do. The trails. The sunshine. The wildflowers. It’s morphed all right, but so have I.

Haiku 24

I can read this map
with my eyes closed, my feet bare
and find my way home

#30daysofhaiku
#lizsharespoems
#nationalpoetrymonth

Haiku 23

Playfulness, beauty,
dragon-like ferocity: 
Art says it out loud

#30daysofhaiku
#lizsharespoems
#nationalpoetrymonth

Hey everyone,

Thanks for sticking with me this April, now 2/3rds gone. I haven’t been able to really dig into my haiku the way I do most years, but I’m still grateful for the regular practice and required pause.

I used gratitude as a prompt this year (everyday writing about something I’m grateful for) and here’s the key to those gratitudes so far:

• 1 – Spring
• 2 – Rain
• 3 – Flowers/Roses
• 4 – My birthday
• 5 – Coffee
• 6 – Friendship
• 7 – The Moon/Eclipse
• 8 – Seeds/Possibility
• 9 – Meditation
• 10 – Eggs/Possibility
• 11 – Slowness/Patience
• 12 – Yoga
• 13 – The Trail/Running/Hiking
• 14 – To Do Lists/Getting Things Done!
• 15 – Myth and story
• 16 – Butterflies/Cocoons/Evolution
• 17 – My dog/All dogs
• 18 – Backyard birds
• 19 – Glass blowing/Trying new things
• 20 – Going with your gut/Also? Sweet potatoes
• 21 – Trees/Heartwood

And now we’re kicking off the fourth and final week with Earth Day! I’m grateful for  the intrinsic light of possibility that allows us to keep our promises on Earth Day, to Earth and to each other.

Haiku 22

Looking for the light
the center of everything
at my fingertips

#30daysofhaiku
#lizsharespoems
#nationalpoetrymonth

Haiku 20

Put some feelers out.
Assess. Read the room. and then…
Let your freak flag fly!

#30daysofhaiku
#lizsharespoems
#nationalpoetrymonth

A squirrel’s mobile
swinging high and out of reach.
This is for the birds!

#lizsharespoems
#30daysofhaiku
#nationalpoetrymonth

Loyal protector
on guard, ever vigilant
He’s sure earned his rest

#lizsharespoems
#30daysofhaiku
#nationalpoetrymonth