Poetry / Writing

NPM & Poetry Friday: F is for…

Catherine Flynn25 Comments

Spring break has begun! The last few weeks have been a whirlwind, and I’m looking forward to having time to catch my breath. Somehow I have managed to keep up with my poetry project. Because it’s the first Friday of the month, it’s also the Inkling challenge. This month, Mary Lee randomly chose these words: knuckle, denial, turn, cautious, then asked us to “use three or more …in a poem.” At first, I had no idea how I was going to work these words into a poem about hope and keep the alphabet pattern I’m using. But I kept thinking. When I was scrolling through photos on my phone, looking for something else, I found this:

Problem solved! My plan for this project wasn’t completely clear when I began, but I have decided to try to write about plant or animal species native to my area. This picture was taken on a walk last spring. I also have been playing with different forms. A Fib seemed like a natural fit for a poem about ferns. Today’s poem is a variation, beginning with one syllable, building to eight, then working back to one syllable.

Ferns,
green
spirals,
uncurl like 
a fist, cautiously
at first, one knuckle at a time, 
then swiftly turning into a 
wide sail, soaking up 
sustaining
light from
the 
sun

Draft © Catherine Flynn, 2023

Please be sure to visit my fellow Inkling, Margaret Simon at Reflections on the Teche, for this week’s Poetry Friday Roundup AND the next line in the Progressive Poem. Then check in with the rest of the Inklings to see how they responded to Mary Lee’s challenge.

Heidi Mordhorst @ My Juicy Little Universe
Linda Mitchell @ A Word Edgewise
Mary Lee Hahn @ A(nother) Year of Reading
Molly Hogan @ Nix the Comfort Zone

Previous NPM Posts:

Day 1: H is for…
Day 2: A is for Hope
Day 3: B is for Hope
Day 4: C is for Hope
Day 5: D is for Hope
Day 6: E is for Hope

25 thoughts on “NPM & Poetry Friday: F is for…”

  1. Catherine, this is beautiful! I love how you start off with the fist simile and how you cleverly weave the challenge words into the fib. Great ending “wide sail, soaking up sustaining light from the sun”. Love how you hear your /s/ consonance and /s/ alliteration through the poem. Thank you for sharing your inspiration. Nice photo, too.

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  4. I love that, Irene! ” ‘Knuckle’ is the money word.” It has been SO fun to see all the ways these random four words have unfurled into poetry! I LOVE your double fib!!

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  5. I love how the words led you through the middle section of the poem:
    “a fist, cautiously
    at first, one knuckle at a time,
    then swiftly turning into”

    What a wonderful image of a fib fern! Aren’t ferns a fib in nature?

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  6. Beautifully done with the fib form and its variation, the connection to the fern, and the included words. I will now think of knuckles when I see a fern unfolding!

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  12. Oh, beautifully done, Catherine! Your poem unfurls as gracefully as the fern frond, AND you worked in Mary Lee’s words…
    “then swiftly turning into a
    wide sail, soaking up
    sustaining
    light”—lovely, that wide sail!

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