Haiku Sticky #284

© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved.

Happy Haiga Day!

© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved. Photo by Kaz Andrew. Flu information courtesy CDC.gov.

Poetry Friday--A Double Shot of Ekphrasis

I've been participating in Spark challenges for two years now. I'm not sure who introduced me to them, but, I'd sure like to thank her! If you're not familiar with SPARK Art from Writing: Writing from Art, it's a quarterly online project run by Amy Souza, herself a talented poet. Amy describes the project:

During each 10-day project round, participants create a new piece of work using someone else’s art, writing, or music as inspiration. All resulting work is then displayed online, alongside the piece that inspired it.

I didn't work directly with a partner, but asked to be assigned an inspiration piece. I received a poem by Kamika Cooper, which you can read here. What stuck in my mind were broken wings, trash, and a city street. This is my response:

"Everything Is Recyclable!" © Diane Mayr, all rights reserved.


For today, I thought I'd write a poem to go along with my picture. You're getting a double shot of ekphrasis--art inspired by art inspired by art! Here's my story poem based on the picture above.

A Christmas Card Night

Late night holiday
shoppers head home
as do I.
An uneventful day
not even a shoplifter.
Or maybe a more clever one
than usual.

'Tis the season.

Damn, it's frigid!
--with wind
but clear and bright
with stars...
whole galaxies
of stars.

A Christmas card night
except for the trash
put out in advance
of tomorrow's pick-up.

I turn the corner.

A feather.

Another
whips around my legs.

In an otherwise empty
recycle bin a pair of wings.
A pair of wings!

What creature pinioned?

Whoosh--a gust--
and the wings appear
to be lifting.
Ready to go.

Do I take them?
For what?
Dressing for the window?

Only two more shopping days.

I'm tempted. Sorely tempted.
But it will be one more
piece of display clutter.
Might someone else
use them instead
to fly?

I leave them behind
in this poem and head home
to sleep.

There's no time for dreams
in retail.

© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved.

Kamika Cooper's poem was also given to another artist to be used as an inspiration piece. You can see the results here.

I would encourage you to join the next Spark challenge, which I assume will come in February. "Like" the Spark Facebook page and click on "get notifications," and you will see when the next challenge comes up.

I also encourage you to visit Paul at These 4 Corners for the Poetry Friday Round-Up!

Haiku Sticky #283

I forgot to post a haiku this morning! After the wild weather of today, I've decided a haiku wasn't big enough. Here's today's sticky poem--only 16 hours later than usual:

© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved.

Happy Haiga Day!

© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved. Photo by Carol M. Highsmith, courtesy Library of Congress.

Poetry Friday--"Nothing in Moderation"

Cigarette card, ca. 1934-1939, courtesy NYPL Digital Gallery. See below for the back side of the card.
Last Friday I posted a tanka and a video about starling murmuration. In one of the comments, Mary Lee wrote, "And I love it that nasty annoying starlings can make something so movingly beautiful." I replied to her comment with a link to an article from the New York Times, "100 Years of the Starling" by Ted Gup and I also said, "There's an ironic poem here, methinks!" Of course, the wheels started turning and I wrote "Nothing in Moderation," which I'll dedicate to Mary Lee (happy birthday, Mary Lee!):

Nothing in Moderation

"Starlings do nothing
in moderation," the
ornithologist wrote.

Yes, they reproduce
like wildfire. Yes, they
lay waste to fields.

They carry disease &
torment innumerable
air traffic controllers.

But, do not blame
the iridescent bird
for being what it is.

Immoderation in
a lover of the Bard
let them loose here.

Our need to command
the heavens above
made them a hazard.

Humans' desire to
procreate like...like
...well, like starlings,

brought us to a state
where we freely bitch
slap Mother Nature

and, continue to
think we will
get away with it.

© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved.

The poem is based completely on the article, but it reflects what I've come to understand--human beings never do anything in moderation if they can "supersize" it. It's the reason the world is in the state it's in--climate change, corporatocracy, American exceptionalism, obesity, etc. I don't know if I should thank, or curse, Mary Lee for making me think of all this stuff!

A little aside here, the name of the author of the starling article sounded familiar to me, and I realized he also wrote, A Secret Gift: How One Man's Kindness--and a Trove of Letters--Revealed the Hidden History of the Great Depression [Penguin, 2010]. I read the book when it first came out and I loved it. It's the story of a man who truly was a "secret Santa" who helped people survive one of America's darkest periods. The book would make for a good discussion group choice.

The Poetry Friday Round-Up is being held at Anastasia Suen's Booktalking #kidlit.

Haiku Sticky #282

© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved.