I couldn’t keep up with life, work, and Laura Shovan’s Found Poetry Project, “10 Words Found in the News” this week. A few drafts are hiding in my notebook, and for now, that’s where they’ll stay. Thursday’s words, rural, warm, digester, dumps, compost, hanging, cartel, burial, peels, scraps, were culled by Ruth Lehrer from “The Compost King of New York” in the New York Times. They appealed to me immediately. My grandmother had a compost heap in her back yard for fertilizing her garden, and I initially went down that path. But, as often happens, another possibility presented itself.
Words
bubble up,
seeking my attention.
Some form a cartel,
hanging together
to demand a high
price for their use.
One or two peel away,
shimmering with possibility.
The rest are buried,
dumped along with
scraps of stories
and lines of abandoned poems
to a compost heap in some
rural part of my brain.
In the warmth and darkness
of my unconscious,
as if in a digester,
they ferment,
waiting their turn
to bubble up
to the surface
and bloom.
© Catherine Flynn, 2017
Please be sure to visit Jone MacCulloch at Check it Out for the Poetry Friday Roundup.
Reading to the Core 
Aw, the silence of your words fermenting, waiting to bubble up. Love this!
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This is wonderful, Catherine! I love it! I’ve struggled fruitlessly with this same word list and am so impressed with how you wove these words into this amazing poem.
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Wonderful use of the words. I am having trouble keeping up with Laura’s challenge, too. I think today’s list might be the end of me! 🙂
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Yes, writing often works for me this way. I love “the rural part of my brain.”
I hope you and Brenda aren’t too worried about being behind with the daily poems. I’ve had to bow out most of this week! Life happens.
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The rural part of your brain! What an interesting image. Nice job on the poem.
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I love when you write about writing, Catherine. This is wonderful! Love “waiting their turn
to bubble up.” Yep, they do!
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Your words ‘bloomed’ into this apropos poem, Catherine. Brava! I’m impressed. =)
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Oh, I love this imagery! Thoughts, ideas and inspirations simmering and brewing and fermenting, fertilizing creativity and feeding the creative spirit. Wonderful work!
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Ah, those lines of abandoned poems in the compost heap. So sad, but true! It’s so amazing when they recycle themselves and end up back on the page, isn’t it? Thanks for sharing your process with this one!
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I love the surprises that come with writing. We think the poem is about one thing, but then the words lead us somewhere totally unexpected. Great poem, especially the last stanza!
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Catherine, this is a poem I wish I had written. I love every word and the idea of the words being organic, bubbling up, peeling away, working, digesting becoming a part of what sustains us. Bravo!
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Nice job! Ruth, thereisnosuchthingasagodforsakentown.blogspot.com
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The best part about reading the responses from Laura’s challenge is that they are all different. So many of my words and ideas wait to “bubble up to the surface”…and yes, some never make it there!
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Love this!
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LOVE that last stanza, Catherine…this poetry endeavor intrigued but intimidated me, but you have certainly risen to the challenge.
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I love this poem SO much! It really spoke to me. I appreciate your writing and generous sharing!
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I love the closing of this poem Catherine
“waiting their turn
to bubble up
to the surface
and bloom.”
And we are almost there with only 9 days left on the Daily Poem challenge!
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I love the bubbling of your words, Catherine! And I’ll keep coming back for more. 🙂
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I hear you with keeping up on the found words challenge. I want to go back to the food composting words. Sometimes putting the words in a drawer for awhile helps.
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Words forming a cartel.
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