The first Friday of the month means it’s time for another Inkling challenge. This month it was my turn to pose a prompt for my writing group partners to respond to.
I read Robin Wall Kimmerer’s brilliant book, Braiding Sweetgrass several years ago and have revisited its wisdom many times since then. One of Kimmerer’s main points is that “It’s a sign of respect and connection to learn the name of someone else, a sign of disrespect to ignore it…Learning the names of plants and animals is a powerful act of support for them. When we learn their names and their gifts, it opens the door to reciprocity.”
Using this idea as inspiration, I encouraged the Inklings to “look closely at the flowers, birds, trees, or other natural features in your neighborhood (or if you’re traveling, a new-to-you species) and write a poem about your chosen species. Free choice of format.”
Not long after I read Braiding Sweetgrass, I discovered the “Seek” app from iNaturalist. Taking Kimmerer’s teaching to heart, I became a bit obsessed with cataloging every plant and insect I see! Some insect names are completely charming. Did you know that hummingbird moths are also known as snowberry clearwings? Neither did I!
My original idea was to write about a double-striped bluet, a type of damselfly, that my granddaughter and I discovered while we were collecting rocks at a lake in Wisconsin. But then I discovered “This Is the Honey” by Mahogany L. Browne. The first line of this poem cried out to be a striking line for a Golden Shovel. This is the poem that emerged:
Draft, © Catherine Flynn, 2023
Please be sure to visit my fellow Inklings to read their responses to this challenge:
Mary Lee @ A(nother) Year of Reading (Mary Lee is also hosting Poetry Friday this week)
Linda @A Word Edgewise
Heidi @my juicy little universe
Molly @Nix the Comfort Zone
Margaret @Reflections on the Teche
Reading to the Core 
Perfection…the inspiration for the prompt, the prompt, and all the reflection that you wrapped up with a line from Mahogany Brown’s poem. I will be taking the “clarion song” with me into today’s busy-ness. Thank you.
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Love the challenge and your poem, Catherine! I have been trying to learn plant names and it is funny to see all the alternate names. (Dandelion, for instance, has an alternate name of “wet-a-bed” because it’s a diuretic.)
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I love how you seamlessly connect lavender trumpets to clarion song, which is a daily miracle. Such beauty and wisdom in this poem. Thanks for the challenge.
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Gorgeous! “Silver spotted skipper” is a poem all by itself. Thanks for the app rec, too! xo
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I love this close look at one creature that can teach us the big lesson in your last line — we are truly surrounded by “daily miracles.”
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And now, thanks to your poem (credit where credit due…certainly NOT a coincidence!!!!), I’m seeing silver spotted skippers in my garden! Zebulon skippers, too!
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Gorgeous poem, Catherine; especially “clarion song, a daily miracle.” You did a beautiful job with that strike line.
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I love the Seek app, though it doesn’t work quite as well for me since we last moved a couple of years ago. This is a beautiful poem!
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Your poem offered us the universe of the silver-spotted skipper with abundance and lilting music –what a wonderful moment to get lost in, thanks Catherine!
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I love it all, especially the “patch of planet”! Thanks for the new name for hummingbird moths- new to me!
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Beautiful, Catherine – I have a special passion for the names of our companions in Nature, and I’m loving the Inklings posts this week! Well done!!
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Oh, I love this! I have a poem about a skipper this week too. And a lot of my naturalist acquaintances actually prefer Seek over iNaturalist. Easier to use.
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My apologies if this is a double comment (my computer did something odd). I also posted about a skipper this week! 🙂 Your golden shovel poem is just lovely. I love thinking about butterfly cousins.
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I’ve just started using the Seek app too! So far only for plants, but I love that I might–if I slow down sufficiently–also catch some critters too. Reading this again, I feel like I’m swimming in the slow honey of appreciation, a lilies-of-the-field kind of Being. The song is quiet but constant!
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That strike line and your emerging poem are the perfect response to your challenge. I love all those powerful verbs–how your little skipper “plunges into the lavender trumpets” and “feasts” — and also your “clarion song”. Then there’s the counterpoint of that environment message, seamlessly woven in. Well done!
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