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Thursday, December 27, 2012

POETRY FRIDAY




Welcome to Poetry Friday!

It's the last Poetry Friday of 2012
and I'm honored to host 
from cold and snowy Denver.

Seems like it should be a time 
for deep profundity
or great levity
or the reviewing of resolutions.

Leave your poems, (deeply profound or otherwise) 
in the comments 
and I will round them up periodically 
throughout the day tomorrow.


"Questions Before Dark"
Day ends, and before sleep
when the sky dies down, consider
your altered state: has this day
changed you?  Are the corners
sharper or rounded off?  Did you
live with death?  Make decisions
that quieted?  Find one clear word
that fit? 
Jeanne Lohmann

Read the rest of the poem here.



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 Mary Lee needs people to sign up to host the Poetry Friday Roundup in June 2013.  You can sign up here.
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Just spent a couple of hours compiling the morning's offerings. What gifts people have brought to us.

This time of year brings many celebrations of family and traditions…

·      Tara celebrates her season of family traditions with Mary Oliver’s “Poem of the One World.”

And Mary Oliver fans can read "I Asked Percy How I Should Live My Life" at Miss Erin's blog

·      Fellow Denverite Linda captures a joyful Christmas moment with her granddaughter at Teacherdance.

·      Elaine Magliaro dedicates her original poem, “Things to Do if You are a Book” to her granddaughter

·      At Inside the Dog, Steve Peterson honors his grandfather with an original poem, “The Measure of a Life.”

·      Margaret is writing a series of poems in response to Christmas cards her father has created for the last nine years. I loved “Out of Egypt” during Two Writing Teachers Slice of Life on Tuesday. Today Margaret gifts us with a triolet, “Songs of Angels.”

·      Matt Forest Esenwine honors his wife with a special poem and provides blog readers with some information about the history of haiku and tanka.

·      Joy bakes up a fortune cookie haiku, and a challenge to try writing one of your own.

Lori Ann Grover has an original holiday haiku here.

·      Margaret is writing a series of poems in response to Christmas cards her father has created for the last nine years. I loved “Out of Egypt” during Two Writing Teachers Slice of Life on Tuesday. Today Margaret gifts us with a triolet, “Songs of Angels.”

·      At Bald Ego, Charles Ghigna brings us not one, not two, not three, but seven original poems from his boyhood in the South. The vivid detail in these poems reminds me of Don Graves’ BASEBALL, SNAKES, AND SUMMER SQUASH, which is one of my favorite books to use to draw poetry from children and adults.


Today’s postings also brought lots of poetry “gifts.”

·      Laura Shovan is gifting 44 lucky people with postcard poems for her 44th birthday in February. Today, she gifts all of us with “Speedway.”

·      At “The Opposite of Indifference,” Tabatha Yeatts shares both sweet and serious. Her “sweet” is a gift poem written for Tabatha by Robin Hood Black. The serious is sobering news about the plight of journalists around the world in 2012.

·      Robin Hood Black stopped by to say she has been buried in family, and is only sharing her poetry gift to Tabatha Yeatts.

·      At The Write Sisters, Diane Mayr gifts Mary Lee with an original birthday poem. 

Violet Nesdoly gifted children's author with "Wear a Scarf," a poem all you fashionistas out there will definitely want to read. 

·  Jone is gifting people with poetry books for her 26 Acts of Kindness. I don’t have 26 books, but I could definitely give away 26 poems. Hmmmm.


There are several gorgeous images from nature…

·   Matt Goodfellow journeys all the way from the UK to share two original poems, “Midnight Hare” and  “The Hill. Matt’s words evoke images of mystical, dark, evenings.

·   And more images from the natural world in Steve Withrow’s “Taunton River in December. ” Steve’s words make it easy to imagine the sound of those hungry geese honking for handouts.

And of course there are wishes, hopes, and dreams for the New Year…

·  At Growing Wild, Liz Steinglass shares an original New Year’s Poem, “This New Year.”

·   Mary Lee features Linda Pastan’s “Clock.” When I finish the first iteration of the roundup, I’ll be heading out to visit a friend and her new baby in the hospital. The friend is actually a young woman I have mentored since she was in second grade. She is now 22! Yikes!

·  At Drift Record, Julie Larios brings us “Blessed Illusion,” a perfect wish for the New Year.

·   At Bildingsroman, Little Willow posted D.H. Lawrence’s poignant, “A Passing Bell.”

·   At  Kurious Kitty’s Kurio Kabinet, Diane Mayr sends out the old year with Robert Louis Stevenson’s “Where Go the Boats?” Diane rings in the New Year with a haiku postcard exchange to celebrate  the coming of the New Year at Random Noodling

**********************************************
Friday evening (9:30 MST)
OK, I think I've got everyone (if I left anyone out, it was totally unintentional, just email me and I will fix it!), it's been a pretty quiet Poetry Friday. Think I'll end tonight's festivities with a found poem from Parker J. Palmer.


What if we spent 2013 
focusing more 
on our shared human condition 
than on our differences? 

What if we cultivated 
the capacity 
to feel for each other's losses 
and developed a deeper awareness 
of our mutual mortality? 

Surely we'd want to spend more time 
working with others 
to bring a better, 
more beautiful 
world
 into being...  

Parker J. Palmer

27 comments:

Diane Mayr said...

Hi Carol! Thanks for letting us post links early (mine will be live after midnight)! Have a fabulous 2013!

At Random Noodling I explain the haiku New Year's card exchange that I participate in each year.

Kurious Kitty has Robert Louis Stevenson's "Where Go the Boats?" And KK's Kwotes has a Stevenson quote.

At the The Write Sisters I share an original poem that I sent to Mary Lee Hahn for a holiday poetry swap.

Steven Withrow said...

Thanks for hosting, Carol!

Today I have an original poem, "Taunton River in December," at Crackles of Speech:
http://cracklesofspeech.blogspot.com/

Charles Ghigna said...

Happy New Year! Thanks for hosting, Carol. We're saying goodbye to 2012 with "Southern Bred," a little memoir of prose poems at The Bald Ego blog

Matt Forrest Esenwine said...

Thanks for hosting, Carol! I try to warm things up a bit with a tanka I wrote a few weeks ago: http://mattforrest.wordpress.com/2012/12/28/poetry-friday-with-her-at-midnight/

(It'll be live just after midnight)

Gathering Books said...

Hi Carol,

Thanks for hosting. The poem you shared is quite apt, something to think about as the year ends.

Here's our poem for today...a bit of Neruda

http://gatheringbooks.wordpress.com/2012/12/28/19142/

Linda B said...

Hi Carol, thank you for hosting! I like the poem's line "are the corners sharper or rounded off?" Something to consider every day, right? I have an original poem, inspired at our Christmas, a special moment!

Unknown said...

Hi Carol, thanks for hosting.

I have two original poems this week:

The Hill

http://www.mattgoodfellow.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/the-hill_6269.html

and Midnight Hare

http://www.mattgoodfellow.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/midnight-hare.html

best wishes,

Matt

Julie said...

Hi, Carol - The poem you share today is so quiet and lovely with the way it asks questions...I especially like "bewilderment that invites / the possible."

Over at http://julielarios.blogspot.com/2012/12/poetry-friday-blessed-illusion-for-new.html I have a poem by Antonio Machado (via Naomi Shihab Nye.)

Julie said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Author Amok said...

Hi, Carol. I love the question "Has this day changed you?"

The second poem in my postcard project is up today. The postcard a 1960s photo of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway of Indy 500 fame.

http://authoramok.blogspot.com/2012/12/poetry-friday-poetry-postcard-2.html

Mary Lee said...

Good morning! I have a post about the relentless passage of time here:

http://readingyear.blogspot.com/2012/12/poetry-friday.html

There are still slots to be filled on the Jan-June Poetry Friday roundup shedule here (scroll down):

http://readingyear.blogspot.com/2012/12/poetry-friday-sensing-solstice.html

Tabatha said...

Thanks for hosting, Carol! You picked a great poem to end the year. I will be re-reading that.

My post is here: http://tabathayeatts.blogspot.com/2012/12/the-sweet-and-serious.html

Margaret Simon said...

Carol, Thanks for hosting Poetry Friday today. I am writing poems about my father's Christmas card drawings. Listen to the angels sing. http://reflectionsontheteche.wordpress.com/2012/12/28/listen/

Liz Steinglass said...

Carol,
Thanks for hosting. I'm sure I'll be thinking about these questions tonight and many others.
I have an original poem "This New Year" at www.lizsteinglass.com
Liz

Steve Peterson said...

Thanks for hosting the party!

From the poem you posted, I LOVE the lines: Did you set a straw / parallel to the river, let the flow / carry you downstream?

Here's a poem I wrote recently that seems to fit the end of one year and the beginning of another.

http://insidethedog.wordpress.com/2012/12/28/poetry-friday-the-measure-of-a-life/

Robyn Hood Black said...

Carol, Thanks for hosting! And thank you for sharing that wonderful poem. The writer in me loves the line, (Did you)..."Find one clear word that fit?"

We've been happily covered up in family all week so I didn't find a blog post that fit today, except sharing a link to Tabatha's. Wishing you and everyone a Happy Poetry Friday and Happy New Year.

Robyn Hood Black said...

Thank you for hosting, Carol, and for that wonderful poem! The writer in me loves the line, (Did you...) "Find one clear word that fit?"

We've been happily covered up in family all week, so I didn't find words for a blog post today that fit except to link to Tabatha's and yours. Happy Poetry Friday and Happy New Year!

Linda B said...

Sorry, I forgot the link! http://www.teacherdance.blogspot.com/2012/12/one-bright-christmas-moment.html

Tara @ A Teaching Life said...

Hi Carol, thanks for hosting today! Today I have another poem from Mary Oliver's latest:
http://tmsteach.blogspot.com/2012/12/poetry-friday-poem-of-one-world-mary.html

Jone said...

I have 26acts here: http://maclibrary.wordpress.com/2012/12/28/poetry-friday-twenty-six-acts/

Elaine Magliaro said...

Thanks so much for doing the roundup at such a busy time of the year!

At Wild Rose Reader, I have an original list poem titled "Things to Do If You Are a Book."

http://wildrosereader.blogspot.com/2012/12/things-to-do-if-you-are-book-original.html

Little Willow said...

Thanks for doing the round-up!

I posted A Passing Bell at Bildungsroman.

Happy holidays, everyone!

Joy said...

Carol,
I've been so busy with the holiday, (I'm in Kauai on the beach) that I almost forgot it is Friday. I have a haiku about fortune cookies up today with a writing exercise for writing your own fortunes. Everybody is welcome to leave their fortune in my comments. I'd enjoy having you come visit today. Please drop by.

Joy said...

Oops, I too forgot to put my link in --
www.poetryforkidsjoy.blogspot.com

Violet N. said...

Hi Carol!
Thanks for hosting during this holiday time!

My poem today is one I wrote for Tabatha's winter poem swap. It's called "Wear a Scarf" and is here: http://wp.me/pC77F-lK

Violet N.

Lorie Ann Grover said...

Thanks for hosting the last round up! At On Point I have:

http://lorieanngrover.blogspot.com/2012/12/poetry-friday-snuggled-holidays.html

a holiday haiku. Happy New Year!

Erin said...

Another Mary Oliver, from me--! http://www.misserinmarie.blogspot.com/2012/12/i-ask-percy-how-i-should-live-my-life.html