My stepfather passed away last week after a long illness. While not unexpected, his death turned our world upside down. The first Friday of the month is when we Inklings post our monthly challenge responses, but I know you’ll understand why I’m posting my effort on the second Friday. Our July challenge came from Heidi.
SUDOKU POEM! YES! Make yourself a grid at least 4×4. Reread Mary Lee’s sudoku poem post from June 1 for information and inspiration and create your own sudoku poem.
This this challenge stumped me for several weeks. Then I just dove in and began having fun with it. I’ve tinkered with this quite a bit, and I’m still not sure I’ve got it right. But here’s what I came up with.
Today I’m happy to help the week’s Poetry Friday hostess, dear Irene Latham, celebrate the moon in honor of her upcoming book, The Museum on the Moon. I have very clear memories of the Apollo missions and have been fascinated by the ever since.
The Moon
Mysterious shape-shifter, perpetually circling overhead swayer of oceans, guardian of dreams.
I know. It’s Saturday. But the end of the school year kicked. my. butt. And my friend and fellow Inkling Linda Mitchell is hosting this week at her lovely blog, A Word Edgewise. So here is the next to last installment of my search for hope. (My National Poetry Month project)
Hope is…
lemon yellow goldfinches feasting on thistle seed. A sound startles. They rise as one, a small diaphanous cloud, then scatter in a shower of sunsine.
I loved the A.P. Biology class I took in high school. Believe it or not, I remember much of what I learned all those years ago. So when I was planning this project, I didn’t have to think twice about the word I would use for x. Xylem was right there, just waiting to be celebrated in a poem. Fast forward to this week of testing, planning for next year, and caring for my family and you have…a very brief poem acknowledging the hard work xylem does.
X is for Hope
Why?
Because…
Water + xylem + sunlight =
GREEN
Vibrant or muted, bursting from stems supported by strong, thirsty straws
I am determined to finish my National Poetry Month project, 26 poems of hope. I’m nearing the end of the alphabet and this week am sharing poems for v and w.
V is for Hope
Why?
Because…
Caterpillars that will soon transform into fritillary butterflies feast on the heart-shaped leaves of meadow violets, whose petals of vibrant purple satin are fit for a queen’s crown.
A few weeks ago, I came across the last stanza of “Inversnaid,” by Gerard Manley Hopkins, the last line of which includes the word “weeds.” I originally thought I might write about a woodpecker for w, but decided a Golden Shovel using this line was more appropriate. Hopkins’s poem was inspired by a visit to the town and stream of Inversnaid on the bank of Loch Lomond, which appealed to my Scottish roots.
Like last year, my NPM project was a few poems short. My goal was to write 26 poems, one for each letter of the alphabet, for some element of nature that gives my hope. The letter U really stumped me. I went through our old World Book Encyclopedia and came up with ungulate. The only ungulates in my neck of the woods are white-tailed deer. Although the deer don’t usually eat my hostas, and I’ve never hit one with my car, I couldn’t imagine how I would write about deer. Then I startled a rabbit as I walked out the back door one morning earlier this week and she scurried back into the bushes. Hmm. The bushes…the undergrowth.
I thought undergrowth and understory were basically the same thing, but they aren’t. The layers of temperate forests, like what’s left of the forest here in the eastern U.S., correspond to the layers of tropical and temperate rainforests. Each has difference species of plants and animals, of course, but the structure is similar.
It’s also the first Friday of the month, which means the monthly Inkling challenge. Linda Mitchell gave free rein this month when she asked us to:
Write a poem from your O-L-W for 2023 Or Find a piece of artwork that has a word(s) embedded and write an ekphrastic poem inspired by the piece Or Go to Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day (any similar site) and be inspired by a word from there Or Just write a poem–about anything that needs to be written
This week, I need to write a poem about undergrowth. I will work on poems for the rest of the alphabet over the coming weeks.
U is for Hope
Why?
Because…
the undergrowth at the edge of the woods teems with life:
birds forage for seeds and insects,
bees gather nectar and pollen,
cottontails hide in a tangle of branches
and an oak sapling finds a ray of sunlight, and reaches toward the sky.
Here we are at the last Poetry Friday of National Poetry Month. I am in awe of everyone who shared a new poem daily. Congratulations! I have a few letters left to round out my alphabet of hope, which I’ll keep working on these into May. Why should April get all the fun?
T is for Hope
Why?
Because…
Taproots sink deep into the Earth, soaking up water, anchoring dandelions, milkweeds, and more.
Today’s poem was inspired by this story I heard on NPR last week. I wanted to create a found poem from the story, but I couldn’t make that work. Ultimately, I gathered words and phrases from multiple sources (Aeon, USDA, and Plant With Purpose) to craft this poem.
My grandmother grew up on a farm (our home is built on what used to be one of the cow pastures) and she once told me about helping her mother rub the fuzz off the quinces from their quince orchard so she could make jelly. Sadly, the part of the farm with the quince orchard was sold before I was born, so I’ve never had any quince jelly on my toast. My mother remembers though, and she loved it!
Reading to the Core 