Featuring cherita!


February 8, 2013

Poetry Friday--"Horizon"


I love the possibilities presented by this poem by Billy Collins:
Horizon

You can use the brush of a Japanese monk
or a pencil stub from a race track.

As long as you draw the line a third
the way up from the bottom of the page,

the effect is the same: the world suddenly
divided into its elemental realms.

A moment ago there was only a piece of paper.
Now there is earth and sky, sky and sea.

You were sitting alone in a small room.
Now you are walking in the heat of a vast desert

or standing on the ledge of a winter beach
watching the light on the water, light in the air.

From The Art of Drowning.

Do me a favor--get a blank piece of paper and draw a line a third the way up from the bottom of the page. Imagine it's a horizon and write a poem!

Here's mine:
It's Raining Worms! Hallelujah!

After a spring shower
leaves earthworms
on the horizon, the
ant looks up and wonders,
for just a moment,
about the sky above.

© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved.
I'd love to see your poem or a link shared in the comments!

The Poetry Friday Round-Up is happening at A Teaching Life.

Photo by WhatiMom.

16 comments:

  1. A third the way up the page
    but more than halfway up my life -
    I'll pause this evening
    for the sunset.

    Thank you for the poems and prompt, Diane!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Replies
    1. Thank you kindly! Keep warm! Keep off the roads, too, after 4 PM it's forbidden and you'd be subject to a $500 fine!

      Delete
    2. Hope everyone is safe up there. Loved your wondering ant, Diane - and I imagine any ants and worms are in bunkers!

      Delete
  3. Diane,
    Thank you for sharing the Billie Collins' poem and for the exercise. I enjoyed your poem.

    golf score yellow stub
    draws the horizon
    ever closer

    at sunset
    we hold hands
    under a rosy blanket.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oooo, Joy, I like them both! Thanks for posting them!

      Delete
  4. Hi Diane. I am thinking about your poem and remembering my kids rescuing stranded worms on the sidewalk after a rainfall. Maybe there is a poem between turf and sidewalk.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Laura, as a fan of Valerie Worth, I'd say there's a poem waiting in every small space!

    ReplyDelete
  6. "In darkness of sorrow,
    salvation divine:
    a future awaits along
    one simple line."

    Thanks for sharing!

    ReplyDelete
  7. With one line drawn
    I think of dawn,
    long roads,
    antelope.

    Growing up in Eastern Colorado, that straight line a third of the way down from the bright blue sky was a way of life for me.

    ReplyDelete
  8. I've never been west of Pennsylvania! One of these days...

    ReplyDelete