Digestion
Haiku 8

Teeth, tongue, down the hatch –
and the journey’s just begun.
Chewing this over…

#lizsharespoems
#30daysofhaiku
#nationalpoetrymonth

It’s the grand finale of weather week for me, folks.
Next week I’m moving onto the scientific processes of the body (digestion and reproduction and the like…)
I still feel like I’m getting my haiku feet under me, a week in. Am I wrong that it was easier in years past?
For those of you writing along with me, how are y’all feeling?
If the answer is breezily confident, I promise I won’t be jealous out loud.
Well, anyway. Here’s my haiku on convergence, an answer (sort of) to yesterday’s divergence.
See you tomorrow!

Convergence
Haiku 7

You come breezing in,
the answer to emptiness.
The storms are worth it.

#lizsharespoems
#30daysofhaiku
#nationalpoetrymonth

I’m learning a lot about weather dynamics this week. For example, divergence is a phenomenon that occurs when air is pushed out of an area (by wind), resulting in low atmospheric pressure, aka very little air, aka emptiness, aka a vacuum. And it’s related to tomorrow’s word – convergence – so stay tuned!

Divergence
Haiku 6

Today races by –
nature abhors a vacuum.
What will take its place?

#lizsharespoems
#30daysofhaiku
#nationalpoetrymonth

Spring really keeps a person on her toes, huh?
I love that I’ve chosen to write about weather this week and the weather is being so very… creative!!
Today’s word? Oscillation!

Oscillation
Haiku 5

The temperature swings
like a trapeze, snug to brisk.
Dog wakes, sniffs, flies!

#lizsharespoems
#30daysofhaiku
#nationalpoetrymonth

Hello, friends…

As I mentioned earlier, I’m writing my haiku this year about various scientific processes, beginning with some (lesser known) weather terminology. I promised a whole list, though, in case any of you wanted to use the same (or similar) prompts for your own poems. So, drum roll please, here goes:

WEATHER
1 – Evaporation
2 – Occlusion
3 – Saturation
4 – Combustion
5 – Oscillation
6 – Divergence
7 – Confluence

THE BODY
8 – Digestion
9 – Circulation
10 – Sensation
11 – Metabolism
12 – Reproduction
13 – Excretion
14 – Respiration

GEOLOGY
15 – Erosion
16 – Eruption
17 – Deposition
18 – Glaciation
19 – Liquefaction
20 – Metamorphism
21 – Sedimentation

THE SCIENTIFIC PROCESS ITSELF
22 – Observation
23 – Classification
24 – Measurement
25 – Inference
26 – Prediction
27 – Experimentation
28 – Interpretation

END OF THE MONTH EXTRAS
29 – Purification
30 – Rotation

That’s it, folks. Do with the list what you may!
#lizsharespoems
#30daysofhaiku
#nationalpoetrymonth

My phone sent me two alerts at the same time today, a Red Flag warning (conditions right for fire) and Trump’s arraignment. Talk about weather!

Combustion
Haiku 4

A blustery day,
wind sparking speculation:
This whole thing might blow

#lizsharespoems
#30daysofhaiku
#nationalpoetrymonth

Saturation 4/3/23
Haiku 3

Tear ducts, strands of hair,
every cell saturated
till (cloud-like) I burst

#lizsharespoems
#30daysofhaiku
#nationalpoetrymonth

Hi friends, I’m getting a little bit of a bumpy start this month because I didn’t have all my prompts figured out in advance and then I was away for the weekend. (Don’t feel bad for me — Mother-daughter Taylor Swift fun!)

Anyway, I’ll say more about haiku this week, to remind everyone about some of the subtleties and nuances of the form. But for now, let me say that my monthly poetry group is working with the theme of transformation this year and, within that, I’m looking more closely at certain scientific processes. (If you look back at the last several entries here, you’ll find a cascade poem I wrote in January on melting, an ekphrastic poem on oxidation in February, and an etheree on decomposition in March!)

So, what’s next? Well, I’m starting with haikus on weather-related processes (evaporation yesterday and occlusion today) and hope to stick with them for a week. Then I’m moving onto body-related processes, and we’ll see after that! I hope to have a full list of prompts in a few days and you’re welcome to use them, too. Otherwise, just stay open and observant and you’ll find plenty of fodder on your own!

Occlusion
April 2, 2023

winds and boundaries shift
cold front overtakes your warmth:
our weather report

#lizsharespoems
#30daysofhaiku
#nationalpoetrymonth

I am away from my desk and my typewriter this weekend, but I’m kicking off national poetry month and 30 days of haiku anyway. Can’t wait to read all of yours! #lizsharespoems #30daysofhaiku #nationalpoetrymonth

The Poetry Sisters’ prompt this month was to write an etheree, a relatively straightforward ten-line poem, with each line growing by a syllable, so that the first line has just one syllable and the tenth line has ten. That’s it! Fun, right? And hugely accessible for poets of all ages and experience.

(As an aside, I really love this form. I once became so enamored of it that I composed an entire, relentless chapter book out of etherees that, shockingly, did not sell. I did share a single etheree as part of the Thanku anthology that published several years ago, and I talked about that in this video I shared with students during early pandemic lock-down days.)

OK, back to our current prompt. Not just an etheree, but an etheree that somehow touches on transformation, the word we’re using as our overarching theme for the year. And, you might remember that I’m drilling down within that theme in order to explore various scientific processes. (So far I’ve looked at melt and oxidize.)

This month, as snow begins to melt all over the country and the squishy ground opens up to spring, I decided to write about decomposition. Which, I’m slightly horrified to say, made me think about true crime. So welcome to the place where mycelium meets My Favorite Murder, or something like that. The mind is a curious thing…

DECOMPOSE/decompose/verb
Liz Garton Scanlon

March
(melting)
putrefies
and disappears
winter’s evidence,
breaking forensic clues
down into strands of secrets,
covert carriers of what’s next.
Never mind everyone’s reaction,
just consume each story along the way.

You’ll find more etherees here:
Sara
Laura
Tanita
Tricia
Mary Lee
Kelly

and Poetry Friday is being hosted by our own Mary Lee at (A)nother Year of Reading.

If you’d like to write along with us next month, we intend to write poems “In the Style of” Pablo Neruda. Do with that what you will!