This month, we had the pleasure of writing “In the style of…” Valerie Worth. A spare, careful, tender observer of things, Valerie Worth may have been best known for her Small Poems (and all the subsequent collections of small poems that followed!)
I find this kind of work hugely satisfying to read and to write (and, I know, the hugely reads a bit ironic since we’re talking about very, very spare work.) I so love zooming in and attending to something — anything — with a focus so particular it pretty much is the same as love.
As always, our larger thematic focus for the year is transformation, and I have been looking through a slightly more scientific lens, too, using a scientific term or process to further describe or define what’s happening in each of my poems. (Although I’ve admittedly been a little more loosey goosey around that than I intended to be.)
Anyway, here are two of the handful of poems I tried this week.
Flour Scoop
(solder/a verb)
Tin can cut
on the bias
becomes
a scoop
at once edgy
and old
fashioned
Book Mark
(cleave/a verb)
A dog-eared page
creased like a collar,
like a paper crane,
waits for the end
of the day to come
undone, to fly open
and let loose
all the stories
For other Worth-inspired poems, go here:
Mary Lee
Tanita
Tricia
Sara
Kelly
Laura
And enjoy Poetry Friday hosted by Ruth at There is no such thing as a God-forsaken town.
In December, we’re closing out the year with a funny little thing called an Elfchen! Give it a go with us! And in the meantime, stay safe and well…
These are both lovely, but I so love the Book Mark poem, even though I never dog-ear my pages!
Somehow I knew that about you!
I laugh at the immediate cringe we all had from the bookmark. NEVER DOG EAR YOUR PAGES, something shrieks inside of me. And yet, I feel like if someone loves a page enough to embrace it in that way, more power to them.
Thanks for getting your folks to take that picture! You are SO RIGHT that the scoop is somehow hardcore edgy. I LOVE that thing — I’d never seen the like, so clearly they missed that in my Dad’s shop class. Now I want to make one myself…
PLEASE make one and tell us all about it!
So much to love here. Your subtitles add volumes without burdening the poems. Confession time: I’m a dog-ear-er, so I love that you’ve captured how that small crease saves and then, when opened back up, releases story.
Confession time, me too. Only my own books, of course.
Do I own that book? Yes? Then yessirree I’m going to dog-ear that page if I want to! You are all doing a darn good job of channeling VW, and I like your sparest of the spare take on these small
“waits for the end
of the day to come
undone,” just lovely.
You are in good company … I know it’s sacrilege for lots of folk, but there is something very intimate about dog earring to me….
oops
on these small, surprising objects.
You’ve captured the essence of VW…simple, spare, small. And, yet so meaningful that life would not be the same without these details.
thank you!
Ok, I confess, I cringed. My grandmother was a Chicago librarian and would have broken my fingers if I dog-eared a page. But I love the image of the stories letting loose!
don’t tell your grandmother!! (PS — I have a chapter book series coming out next year and the grandmother is a retired librarian!!)
Oh, Liz, one of my grandfathers had a scoop like that, love the way you’ve brought it back to us and I tried to find a favorite part of the bookmark poem but it’s so perfect, I cannot, except that ending. . .
Oh you are dear, thank you! My dad actually made the tin scoop in shop class!
I want that edgy scoop! These are haiku-like but with more room for inner life. Love imagining that dog ear releasing stories.
I think it’s the “haiku-like” that I like!
You brought the dog-ear to life! And I can’t wait to share it with my son, who is horrified whenever I employ them. 🙂
Very opposed camps on this topic!
Oh, Liz, those spare moments you captured here. I so love the dog-earred corner coming alive as it does in your second poem. “waits…to come undone” is so very fabulous!
thank you!
The flour scoop made me laugh, but how I love that book mark flying open and setting the stories free!
Will there ever be enough poems about books?
I like the edginess of “Tin can cut” but oh how I love every line of your “Book Mark–” Marvelous, thanks Liz!
Aww, thanks…
I agree that Worth’s poetry is hugely satisfying and that’s just the word. I try to be as condensed as I can and she is a master of that. I love your dog eared page like a paper crane waiting to be flung open. Thanks, Liz, and Happy Holidays!