Poem #30- People

Woooo Hoooo! 

Poem #30! 

Poem the Last! 

Poem We Did It! 

If you have been following my blog this month, you know I've spent the past 30 days writing poetry with Mary Lee Hahn and Kevin Hodgson. Mary Lee dreamed up this crazy poetry challenge, "Our Wonderful World" and the three of us have wandered the world writing poems about wonders old and new.

The past few days, Mary Lee has focused us to think about the small wonders in our daily lives and we have written about sunrises, chocolate, and imagination. Today's wonder is people and I actually wrote two poems.

The first is about writing poetry with Mary Lee and Kevin. This is our second year together-- Mary Lee organizes the whole shebang on her blog and then Kevin and I just sort of show up clutching our poems every morning.

This morning, as I was thinking about our month, the image that occurred to me was the clubs that we used to have when we were kids. Someone's family would get a new refrigerator or washing machine and we'd spend days building a club house out of the box. We'd cut out windows and doors,  gather rugs and curtains and pillows and somehow, there was always a vase of plastic flowers. Then we'd forage for food- peanut butter sandwiches and koolaid and cookies, and settle in for long afternoons of reading or playing games. Did anyone else have those cardboard box clubs? That's my first poem…


 "Poetry Club"

And so
three of us
(and an occasional passerby)

found an old refrigerator box
cut out a door
and a couple
crooked windows

dragged in a rug
a few pillows
and a vase of plastic flowers

foraged for peanut butter sandwiches
and grape koolaid
apples and of course
a little chocolate

then crawled inside
with notebooks
and pencils

and had ourselves
a poetry club.

(c) Carol Wilcox, 2014


And then a couple of weeks ago, Mary Lee organized a tribute for Franki's birthday. Franki is another fabulous friend and I was delighted to honor her on her special day. At the same time, I kept thinking that we also needed to honor her co-blogger, Mary Lee. And so I've decided to write about one of the most wonderful people I know-- Mary Lee!


"You Were There"

Decided to start a blog
Didn't know anything
Couldn't add book covers or links
Had never heard of CYBILS or Poetry Friday
And you were there
Patiently coaching
a total stranger

Solitary confinement
for twenty days
banished and
even my family didn't know
where I was
you were there
sending notes of encouragement
and upbeat DVD's.

"I'm coming to Denver.
Let's go to Tattered Cover"
you were there
with a box of red velvet cupcakes
(that even now, years later,
my boys still talk about)
and we wandered the aisles
talking books
and teaching
and life.

Writing poetry
every Friday
an entire month in April
you were there
setting up the calendar
choosing a theme
doing all the grunt work
so the rest of us could enjoy
a community
of poets

Amazing teacher
brilliant poet
heart-giving friend
How grateful I am
for your "thereness"
in my life.

Hugs and poems,
Carol 

Poem #29- Imagination

Harvard, Annenberg Hall, by Jacobolus, found on Wikimedia Commons

 All month, I've been writing poetry around the theme, "Our Wonderful World" with Mary Lee Hahn and Kevin Hodgson. Today's topic is imagination and Mary Lee's poem made me cry. Be sure to visit Mary Lee and Kevin's sites.

"Imagination"

You bring the shirt
to  me
in the lunch line
burgundy
with white letters

Harvard.

"Look,"  you say.
"Look what I won."

I look into your
dark, dark eyes.

And I think about
how far Harvard
is from Denver.
Two thousand miles
east on I-70.
Roughly thirty hours driving. 

But more importantly
I think about
how far Harvard
is away
from your world.

you
oldest of three
speaker of Spanish and English
lover of books and math and science

two weeks ago
you told me
how your hotel cleaning mother
helps you hide books 
from construction worker father
who tells you to
stop reading so much

you are a respectful boy
who wants to obey your father
but you cannot stay away from
the printed word
just this month
you have devoured
the Lord of the Rings series
and two Christopher Paolini tomes

I look into your
dark, dark eyes.

And I know this is a holy moment.

"You could go to Harvard,"
I declare.

"You could
definitely

go to
Harvard."

(C) Carol Wilcox, 2014

POEM #28- Chocolate

Hershey's Chocolate, by Spaspoo, from Wikimedia Commons

I've celebrated National Poetry Month by traipsing all over "Our Wonderful World" with Mary Lee Hahn and Kevin Hodgson. We've written about wonders ancient and modern, natural and human-made, and now are spending the last few days on the smaller stuff, the wonders we find in our everyday lives.

Today's wonder is supposed to be chocolate cake. I like chocolate cake,  but it's actually only a small component of what I see as one of the four essential food groups (chocolate, hamburgers, Diet Coke, and everything else you are supposed to eat).  I'm just as happy with a 79 cent bag of m and m's as with a fancy chocolate cake, so I've expanded the category beyond chocolate cake to chocolate.


 "I Like My Chocolate Simple"

Chocolate?
I'm a little particular.
I like my chocolate simple.
None of those
dipped truffles
purchased individually
from a white coated choclatier
who uses sterling silver tongs 
to lift individually wrapped pieces
from doily covered plates
inside a glass counter

instead give me a Hershey bar
an afterthought slipped into the shopping cart
as a reward for dealing
with a crowded grocery store
or a 79 cent bag of m and m's
(ok sometimes the $1.29 cent bag
supposed to be shared bag)
bought at 7-11
when I pump gas

Dark chocolate?
I hate it.
Give me milk chocolate
or give me death
ok well maybe not death
but definitely not dark chocolate.

Chocolate with nuts?
I love nuts
consumed in handfuls
greased and salty from the jar
or purchased from a vendor
at a baseball game
and I love a good homemade
peanut butter and jelly sandwich
or a hunk of homemade
peanut brittle at Christmas time.
But  nuts in chocolate?
OK, maybe an occasional Almond Joy
but Peanut m and m's.
Never. Nope.

Chocolate ice cream?
Nope. Hate that blandish pseudo chocolate flavor.
Just give me a bowl of vanilla
with hot fudge or Hershey's chocolate syrup.
And I hate tootsie rolls
Another form of pseudo chocolate.
But I do like an occasional tootsie pop.
Red or orange are my favorites.
Once in a while grape.
But never the chocolate ones.
  
Chocolate cookies?
Definitely yes to chocolate chip.
But cookies that are pure chocolate?
Ummm, not so much.
Oreos?
Will eat them.
Don't love them.
And given the choice
I'd rather have the middle part
and give the chocolate cookie to the dog
yes, I know dogs aren't supposed to eat chocolate
but once in a while
it doesn't seem to hurt her.

OK, well what about brownies?
Brownies are pure chocolate.
Yeah, brownies are good.
I like 'em best without frosting
And a little undercooked and gooey.
Please don't overcook them
until they are dry and crumbly.
And I'd really rather have the ones from the middle of the pan
And again, you can leave out the nuts.

Chocolate?
I'm a little particular.
I like my chocolate simple.

Carol Wilcox, (c) 2014

POEM #27- SUNRISE

Sunrise at Twin Sisters, Leila N., from Wikimedia Commons

 I am participating in Mary Lee Hahn's Wonders of the World Poetry Challenge over at Year of Reading and at Mary Lee's new blog, Poetry Repository. Stop over and read Mary Lee's Sunrise poem, then swing by Kevin's Meandering Mind to read a sunrise/sunset mirror poem.

Today's wonder is sunrises. I inherited my dad's genes and morning is my favorite time of day. It's a holy time- the time I write, the time I pray and worship, the time I think. I started out writing a prayer poem, but it felt really hokey, and so I tried a second time. The metaphor that kept coming into my head was one of entering a theater, waiting for a play to begin. Not sure I quite got it, but here's today's draft.


"Sky Show"

each morning
I take my seat
for the show
theater is quiet

and then bird orchestra
peeps and cheeps
toward harmony

black fades to gray
and curtain begins to rise
burning orange yellow orb
tips horizon 
infusing pale gray cloud ceiling
with blue pink lavender
Creator's glory

yellow light
is dragged
into sky
show is over
and a new day
begins.

(C) Carol Wilcox, 2014

Poem #26- Polar Ice Caps

I've joined Mary Lee Hahn and Kevin Hodgson in Mary Lee's Poetry Challenge, "Our Wonderful World."

This week, I've been kind of limping along in poetry land. I like to write in the morning, but this week  I have had way too much going on at school and with my mom and my boys and it's been 8:00 every evening before I put on my poetry hat. And as anyone who knows me can attest, by 8:00, I'm more pumpkin than poet.

Anyway, today's topic is Polar Ice Caps. And I'm determined to write a poem this morning and not to have to struggle through that night writing thing today…

"Will People Care…?"

How do you write about global warming?
How do you make people care?

What about rising seas?
If I write about how major cities
like London, Amsterdam, Berlin,
Washington D.C.; Miami
and New Orleans
could be underwater
Will people care about that?

What about fresh water?
If I write about how
thousands of people in Peru
might not have drinking water
by 2100
because the Quelccaya ice cap is melting
Will people care about that?

What about drought?
If I write about how
rainfall in Ethiopia,
where drought is already common,
could decline by
ten percent
over the next fifty years
Will people care about that?

What about ecosystems?
If I write about how global warming
causes species to move north
and changes entire ecosystems
and how some species
will adapt and survive
but others will become extinct
Will people care about that?

What about polar bears?
If I write about how polar bears
are becoming hungry and skinny and desperate
because of a shortened hunting season
or about how a mama polar bear
recently swam for nine straight days to reach sea ice
and lost twenty percent of her body weight
and her cub
Will people care about that?

Or what about spruce bark beetles?
If I write about how the
population in Alaska has increased
and consumed four million acres
of spruce trees
used for lumber
and paper
Will people care about that?

How do you write about the polar ice caps?
How do you make people care?

(C) Carol Wilcox, 2014

Poem 10,025- Victoria Falls

Victoria Falls, taken from a helicopter, by Ferdinand Reuss, from Wikimedia Commons

 "Victoria Falls"

All that water
booming, bouncing bounding down
chasm after chasm
Devils Cataract, Main Falls, Rainbow Falls,
Eastern Cataract
Finding way through
gorge after gorge
hurling, heaving, hurrying
ignoring invitation to meander
just rushing downward
keeping eternal appointment
leaping, listing, lurching

Mosi Oa Tunya-
natives called it, Smoke that Thunders
only Livingston thought it should be named after Victoria
Pulsing, pushing, pounding
Quickening, quivering
Rushing, running, racing
Spectacularly plunging over basalt lip
Thunder roars
Up ends lions hippos giraffes
Vines, ferns, palms abound in rainforest ecosystem
Wide river cascades over basalt lip
exploring options, 
yearning, yawning river
Zambezi.

Poem #24- Amazon Rainforest

Cloud Forest- Ecuador, by Hjvannes, found on Wikimedia Commons

Oxygen rich planet

Amazon rainforest gift

 Lungs of mother earth

 ************

"Rainbow"

Red eyed tree frog

Orange tamarin

 Yellow keel-billed toucan

Green anaconda

Blue morpho butterfly

Indigo poison dart frog

Violet crowned woodnymph 

Rainbow of the rain forest!