Last week I was lucky enough to attend a taping of Krista Tippett‘s podcast On Being at Symphony Space in Manhattan. Krista’s guests were Joy Harjo and Tracy K. Smith, two of the most acclaimed poets of our time. The evening, billed as “a conversation,” was enlightening, thought-provoking, and inspiring. I tried to take notes on my phone, but quickly realized I couldn’t keep up with the brilliance shining from the stage. Still, I managed to capture a few nuggets of wisdom, which I have tried to distill into a poem. Fortunately, at some point in the near future, we will all be able to listen to this conversation and learn all the “beautiful things” these women have to teach us.

As we move through time,
year after year,
new layers of meaning
accumulate
like pages
In a manuscript–
each sheet containing
some small surprise
or contradiction
to all that came before.

Remember this:
Don’t be afraid.
Witness new wonders.
Feel with radical compassion.
Find a deeper
and more resonant
truth.

Draft, © Catherine Flynn, 2025

Please be sure to visit Linda Mitchell at A Word Edgewise for the Poetry Friday Roundup.

This month, Linda prompted the Inkings to respond to Ethical ELA’s September Open Write by Kelsey Bigelow: “What is the happiest thing you’ve ever tasted?”

I thought long and hard about this prompt. My family is full of excellent cooks, and I love bake. I know what foods I adore, which recipes of mine that people love. But the happiest? I was stumped. Then, as often happens, this memory came to be in a dream.

Pinwheels

Before she crimped the edges of her pies, 
Grandma ran a knife around the rim 
of the pie plate,
trimming the extra crust.

Expertly, she rerolled the scraps,
cut them into triangles.
Then, like a snow flurry, 
soft and silent, 
she coated the waiting dough 
with cinnamon and sugar.

She scooped raisins out of a box,
scattered them over each one,
topped it all with a dollop of butter,
and rolled the pastry into crescents, 
sealing all that savory goodness inside.

Soon the air was filled with a heavenly
aroma, and I could hardly wait to
feast on those spirals of sweetness.

Draft, © Catherine Flynn, 2025

Please visit my fellow Inklings to see what they’ve cooked up this month:

Mary Lee Hahn @ A(nother) Year of Reading
Linda Mitchell @ A Word Edgewise
Molly Hogan @ Nix the Comfort Zone
Margaret Simon @ Reflections on the Teche
Heidi Mordhorst @ my juicy little universe

Then stop by Laura Purdie Salas’s blog for the Poetry Friday Roundup.

The first month of school is in the books and it was a hectic one! Now that I’m back into that routine, maybe I can find a way back into a writing routine. Fingers crossed!

This month, Margaret challenged the Inklings to write a poem inspired by a photo shared by a fellow Inkling. I was lucky to receive three options from photographer extraordinaire, Molly Hogan. While all the images were intriguing, I couldn’t stop thinking about this one:

Here is my response:

In September,
dried filaments of
Queen Anne’s Lace
curl inward
like careworn hands
folded in prayer.

A dragonfly, maybe
a wandering glider,
lands on the boll
of seeds and stems
to rest,
reviving, reenergizing
for the journey ahead.

Draft © Catherine Flynn, 2025

Please be sure to visit the other Inklings for their responses to Margaret’s challenge:

Heidi @my juicy little universe
Margaret @Reflections on the Teche
Linda @A Word Edgewise
Mary Lee @ Another Year of Reading
Molly @Nix the Comfort Zone

Then head over the Radio, Rhythm, and Rhyme where Matt has the Poetry Friday Roundup.

This month, Molly challenged the Inklings to “Write a love note to something or someone or some place. Go big or go small!” She gave us several suggestions to use as mentor poems and shared that her real motivation was to “look at the world through a lens of love.”

There are so many things in this world that I love: my family, trees, birds, books, knitting. The list is long (how lucky am I?) I even considered writing about the kitchen table! (I will come back to this idea soon.) In the end, though, time ran out and I found myself searching my notebook for anything that filled the bill. This poem, written last summer, isn’t exactly a love note, but I sure did love this bike.

A New Bike

I stumble off the bus into another summer 
confined to our dusty driveway 
on my rusty red bicycle.

Suddenly, I see a shiny new bike waiting. 
I scream with joy, drop everything and run.

“You’re old enough to ride on the road.”
Mom’s words echo as I hop onto the silver seat
and pedal away.

Smooth asphalt glides beneath me.
I’m a blur of sparkly green paint,
blending into the kaleidoscope of
summer leaves.

Streamers – a rainbow of red, yellow,
blue – fly out from the handlebars
like a flag, proclaiming my independence.

This bike and I are going places.

© Catherine Flynn, 2025

Margaret Simon has the Round Up today at Reflections on the Teche. After you read her love note to silence, visit my fellow Inklings to read their love notes.

Heidi @ My Juicy Little Universe
Linda @ A Word Edgewise
Molly @ Nix the Comfort Zone
(Mary Lee is on a brief hiatus)

On a recent trip to Maine, my husband and I spent an afternoon at the Farnsworth Art Museum in Rockland. One of the exhibits, Re-Indigenizing Sacred Landscapes: From the Wigwam at Catawamkeag, included this graphic by Norma Randi Marshall, an indigenous artist and member of the Passamaquoddy, MHA Nation. (Sorry for the poor quality of the photo.)

For the first Round Up of July, Mary Lee challenged us to write “poems of protest for our nation’s birthday. Let’s use our voices and our art to make some noise! Feel free to write in praise of democracy and patriotism if you’re so moved, or write in frustration and befuddlement over the “leadership” in the White House and/or Congress and/or the courts and/or and/or and/or.“

I love the simple way Marshall presents the deeply complex ideas, so I decided to mine her words to create two opposing acrostics, one that offers hope, the other expressing the outrage I feel over the events of this week.

Respect: What It Isn’t

Reprehensible
Evasion of a
Sworn oath
Putting millions in peril,
Ensuring suffering,
Claiming lie after lie, incapable of
Telling the truth.

Respect: What It Is

Respectful relationships
Ensure our ability to
Sustain and
Protect our precious planet
Earth. It is our duty to
Care for our home and each other,
Treading lightly so we all can flourish.

© Catherine Flynn, 2025

Please be sure to visit Mary Lee for the Poetry Friday Roundup, then check our how my fellow Inklings responded to this challenge:

Heidi @ My Juicy Little Universe
Linda @ A Word Edgewise
Margaret @ Reflections on the Teche
Molly @ Nix the Comfort Zone

Life throws us curve balls all the time. Some are minor upsets that we deal with and move on. Some completely upset the balance of our lives and take longer to recover from. Over the past year, two big curve balls have kept me from writing and posting regularly. Last year, after working as the literacy specialist in my school for 17 years, my assignment was changed to middle school language arts. I did my best to rise to this challenge. Then, last November, my mother fell ill and required round-the-clock care. This meant finding a nursing home, selling her house and all the headaches that went along with that. At first, it seemed like Mom was doing okay and we were prepared to settle into a new normal. Sadly, though, she took a turn for the worse and passed away in February. In addition to dealing with grief, there were now a myriad of other details to attend to, some of which are still unresolved. Through all of this, there were still lessons that were completely new to me to prepare and papers to grade. I had nothing left for poetry.

What I did make time and space for was my family, especially my grandchildren. They have buoyed me up when I needed it most. They never fail to make me smile, and they inspired this poem.

At the Creek–a nonet

Screams
of joy
erupt as
kids plunge into
a rain-swollen creek.
Jumping, laughing, splashing;
sprays of water cascade through
the air. Everyone is drenched.
Teeth chatter; campfire and s’mores await.

© Catherine Flynn, 2025

I’ve missed you all and am working on getting back to writing and blogging more often. Please be sure to visit Carol at The Apples In My Orchard for the Poetry Friday Roundup.

Someday I hope I’ll be able to get back to posting more often, but for now, I’m happy to keep up with the Inklings monthly challenges. This month, Linda challenged us to use “Fall Song” by Joy Harjo “as a mentor text in any way that makes your heart happy.”

This gorgeous poem could have taken me in many directions, but I kept coming back to this line: “Forever will be a day like this.” Since shorter is much more manageable for me these days, I decided to write a Golden Shovel using Harjo’s words as a strike line. Here is my “Fall Song”

Please be sure to visit my fellow Inklings to read their responses to Linda’s challenge:

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

Then head over to Patricia Franz’s blog, Reverie, for the Poetry Friday Roundup.