Poetry Friday--"To Make a Prairie..."

Photo by Guerito

To make a prairie it takes a clover and one bee,--
One clover, and a bee,
And revery.
The revery alone will do
If bees are few.

~ Emily Dickinson ~

Don't you love the utter simplicity of this poem? Dickinson wrote dozens of poems about bees, but the above one is my favorite.

Here's a fun exercise. Write your own "to make a _____ it takes a _____" poem.

I tried to do justice to Dickinson's form. I hope it works!

With Apologies to Emily

To make a cat it takes a purr and a bit of fur...
A purr and fur.
Neurosis? Sure!
Within the angel's paw
Must hide a devil's claw.

© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved

If you write one of your own, please share it with us in the comments!

Biblio File is the host for this week's Poetry Friday Round-Up.

Inadequacy

The Miss Rumphius Effect blog has a poetry "stretch" on Mondays. I always read the stretch and on occasion I participate. This week's challenge is to create a Zeno. What's a Zeno? It's a new form created by J. Patrick Lewis.

A 10-line verse form with a repeating syllable count of 8,4,2,1,4,2,1,4,2,1. The rhyme scheme is abcdefdghd.

There were a number of examples to look at and I said to myself, how hard can this be?

Oh my. I spent at least three hours writing and rewriting and rewriting and starting over and writing. I'd get the syllables right, but find I had the rhymes in the wrong place. I'd get the rhymes right but find that the whole thing made absolutely no sense. By the time it hit midnight, I deleted it all and went to bed feeling totally inadequate, absolutely convinced that I am not a poet and never will be!

I'd encourage you to head over to Miss Rumphius Effect and give a Zeno a try. Good luck!

Haiku Sticky #16

© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved

R.I.P. Soupy Sales

In my youth, I used to watch Soupy Sales. He was a favorite even though his jokes weren't always for kids. Soupy Sales died on Thursday at the age of 83.

Rather than talk about him, I thought I'd let you watch.



Simple and silly--YES!--but I laughed until tears ran when I watched it yesterday.

He was so much a part of the culture of the mid-60s. It wasn't a simple and silly time, but we needed his type of humor, and I thank him for the memories and the music..."Pachalafaka. Pachalafaka. They sing it all over Turkey."

Poetry Friday--What Happens Next

I was browsing through a book by Alison Hawthorne Deming called Genius Loci (Penguin Books, 2005) and came across a short poem that I found intriguing.

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT

Burned and wounded
he turns from her.
He is a god
and does not know
pain though now he
feels it where the
hot oil of her
lamp has spilled at
the juncture where
his wings begin
to bud and fledge.

It's the title that hooked me. There is no question mark. Is the wounding what happened next? If so, the reader is free to imagine what came before to bring it about--was it accidental or intentional? Or, should the reader speculate what will happen next? Will He remain earthbound since his wings are damaged, or will they heal allowing him to fly away from Her? So many possibilities! I like being able to construct a whole story from what we are given in these 41 words.

Another poem, "New Shoes, 1939," also invites the reader to speculate. It is evident from the opening lines that there is ambiguity ahead.

Is that a receipt
or a love note folded
on the open box?

Look for Genius Loci--there is more waiting to be discovered!

The Poetry Friday Round-Up is taking place at Big A little a.

Here's a Fun Idea!

At the Bath Central Library in the U.K., a month-long poetry event is taking place. Poet-in-residence, Alan Summers, has begun a challenge to produce a renga of 1,000 verses. You can read about it in this recent article.

Alan Summers looks over some of the verses contributed to the 1,000 Verses Renga project.

Summers is "Haikutec" on Twitter, and according to an 10/19 update, the project is "Already heading towards 600 verses..."

A renga is a poem written through a collaborative effort, in this case, the collaboration comes from poets around the world not just from those in Bath. You too, can take part. All you need do is submit a short 2 or 3 line verse. Follow the directions at Area 17.

If you're interested in learning more about the Japanese form of renga, a good place to start would be Jane Reichhold's AhaPoetry page on renga.


Photo courtesy Alan Summers.

Haiku Sticky #15

© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved