Poetry Friday--Winter Swap Delight!

This year my swap partner in the Winter Poem Swap, organized by Tabatha Yeatts, was Robyn Hood Black. Tabatha sent along a prompt to give the swappers inspiration. It is a painting by Claude Monet, "Le train dans la neige" ("Train in the Snow") painted in 1875.

Robyn wrote a lovely ekphrastic haiku:

© Robyn Hood Black, all rights reserved.

Robyn also explained her poem's origins,

The bare branches on the right made me think of cross-hatching, and I started wondered about what tracks from wee creatures might be cross-hatched under the snow as well...That got me thinking about how those little animals are still moving themselves around, pretty much the same was they have for thousands of years, while the locomotive depicted in the scene helped lead humanity into a new phase of the Industrial Revolution.

She then proceeded to tell me about Bill Bryson's book, At Home: A Short History of Private Life, and Bryson's writing about how iron, and then the process of making steel, basically changed lives in the mid-nineteenth century.

The haiku, although seemingly short, incorporated a whole lot of learning and thought! A difficult task, masterfully done!

To encourage me to explore At Home, Robyn sent me a copy of the book, and a handcrafted bookmark to keep my place! If you don't already know about Robyn's Etsy shop, artsyletters, click here and prepare to be wowed!

Many, many thanks to Robyn Hood Black for the gifts and poem that so perfectly fit me! (The wings are a nod to my Sketchbook Project angels.)

Tabatha Yeatts, whom I mentioned above, is also this week's Poetry Friday Round-Up host!

I'm traveling today, so I may not get to your comments in a timely manner, I apologize ahead of time.