Poetry Friday--2014 Summer Poem Swap

The 2014 Summer Poem Swap, the brainchild of the lovely Tabatha Yeatts, is concluding today. Participants sent a poem to a different person every two weeks over the course of the summer. What follows are the poems I sent out (please click on the images to enlarge them for easier reading).


June 20, to Jone MacCulloch:

"Still Life with Flowers in a Vase" by Christoffel van den Berghe (1617), courtesy The Athenaeum. Poem © Diane Mayr, all rights reserved.

Jone is someone who takes "Solace in Nature" (that's the name of her book), and has roses and other flowers around her home (Facebook can be so revealing). I hoped this buggy poem would appeal to her!


July 4, to Irene Latham:

Photo by Russell Lee, courtesy Library of Congress. Poem © Diane Mayr, all rights reserved.

If you haven't read Irene's novel for children, Leaving Gee's Bend, I recommend it! Irene uses quilt-making as an essential element in her story.

I had the experience of seeing a lovely old quilt on the beach, and, my grandmother had a yo-yo bed cover that I remember fondly (and wonder where it might be today).


July 18, to Anastasia Suen:

"Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose" by John Singer Sargent. Painting and various studies, courtesy The Athenaeum. Poem © Diane Mayr, all rights reserved.

For many years I had a postcard of Sargent's "Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose," stuck on my refrigerator. When our Poem Swap fairy godmother, Tabatha, sent us the painting as a prompt, I knew I would use it.

In looking through The Athenaeum's offerings, I found several studies that Sargent had done for the work. I feel certain that Sargent recognized when the work was finished. (Read the Wikipedia article on the painting and tell me if the paragraph beginning "Sargent's painting can be read as a botanical allegory" creeps you out--it did me! And, I can't un-read it!)


August 1, to Heidi Mordhurst:

Haiku © Diane Mayr, all rights reserved. "Fence" photo courtesy U.S. Customs and Border Patrol.

Heidi wrote about a summer project of writing "copy tributes," and asked for suggestions of women poets and their poems that a teen might find familiar. She mentioned Emily Dickinson, and that got me thinking about haiku I had written a few years ago, which were inspired by Dickinson poems (click here and here). I decided to write more, and, as I often do, I got carried away and embarked on yet another project. I sent two to Heidi, and I have a bunch more waiting to be put together with illustrations. I thought about trying my hand at an ebook, but after several tries, and being totally put off by the formatting, I've decided to go with the illustrated poems. When I'm done, I will try again. I think it will be easier to make a book of jpgs than individual poems!

I put the cart before the horse and came up with a cover first! Here it is:

August 15, to Keri Collins Lewis :

Poem and photo © Diane Mayr, all rights reserved. Excerpt from "Blueberry Pie" blog post © Keri Collins Lewis.

Keri and her husband keep bees (and make a wonderful honeycomb soap). I had a photo I had taken of a bee on a blueberry bush in my backyard (I don't believe it's a honeybee, though). The recipe I found on Keri's old blog, which sadly has disappeared. Fortunately some "snapshots" are accessible on The Way-Back Machine. I melded the images together and wrote the poem to go with it. I think it speaks to Keri's generosity, and, her love of food!

I will be posting some of the poems, which I received, next Friday, so come back again!

Meanwhile, Heidi awaits you at My Juicy Little Universe where she is hosting this week's Round-Up.