Poetry Friday: “Stanzas for a Sierra Morning”

June 24, 2016June 24, 2016 Catherine Flynn6 Comments

Sometimes when we read a poem there’s an instant connection between us and the poet. Someone we’ve never met, maybe even never heard of, has managed a magical transformation of words into phrases into stanzas that reach into our heart, like the first rays of sunlight bathing the tips of tree branches in its yellow glow. In that moment we know we’ve found a treasure worth keeping.

In her poem “Wish”, Linda Sue Park captures this process perfectly:

Wish
by Linda Sue Park

For someone to read a poem
again, and again, and then,

having lifted it from page
to brain– the easy part—

cradle it on the longer trek
from brain all the way to heart.

From Tap Dancing on the Roof; Sijo Poems (Clarion, 2007)

Not every poem we read, and certainly not every poem we write, makes that journey. And yet, we soldier on. We keep reading, we keep writing, because, as Katherine Bomer reminds us, “the journey is everything.”

When I first read this poem by Robert Haas, I knew I’d found a treasure that made that journey.

“Stanzas for a Sierra Morning”
by Robert Haas

Looking for wildflowers, the white yarrow
With its deep roots for this dry place
And fireweed which likes disturbed ground.

There were lots of them, bright white yarrow
And the fireweed was the brilliant magenta
Some women put on their lips for summer evenings.

The water of the creek ran clear over creekstones
And a pair of dove-white plovers fished the rills
A sandbar made in one of the turnings of the creek.

You couldn’t have bought the sky’s blue.

Read the rest of the poem here.

Please be sure to visit Diane Mayr at Random Noodling for the Poetry Friday Roundup.

Poetry Friday: A Bale of Turtles

June 17, 2016June 19, 2016 Catherine Flynn12 Comments

“A Bale of Turtles”

After months of hibernation
buried in the mud and muck,
a bale of turtles emerge
into a world of glimmering green.

Heads raised high in jubilation,
they bask in the glittering sunshine,
silent and still,
chasing away winter’s chill.

I took this picture at the end of April at a pond near my house. Since then, I’ve been working on this poem, trying to find just the right form, words, and phrases. During that time, I’ve felt like I’ve been buried in the mud and muck of school busyness, which has drained my writing energy. Now that school is over, I decided to revisit these happy turtles, and emerge into the sunshine with them.

Please be sure to visit Carol at Carol’s Corner for the Poetry Friday Roundup!

Poetry Friday: “The Arrow and the Song”

June 2, 2016June 3, 2016 Catherine Flynn7 Comments

Some weeks I have my Poetry Friday poems picked out early in the week, especially if I’m sharing an original poem. Other weeks, when work and life in general threaten to get the best of me, as this one has, I’m scrambling to find a poem that speaks to me. But when I saw this on a friend’s Facebook page today, I knew instantly this was the right poem for this week.

“The Arrow and the Song”
by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

I shot an arrow into the air,
It fell to earth, I knew not where;
For, so swiftly it flew, the sight
Could not follow it in its flight.

I breathed a song into the air,
It fell to earth, I knew not where;
For who has sight so keen and strong,
That it can follow the flight of song?

Long, long afterward, in an oak
I found the arrow, still unbroke;
And the song, from beginning to end,
I found again in the heart of a friend.

Be sure to visit Jone MacCulloch at Check It Out for the Poetry Friday Roundup!

Poetry Friday: “Through an Open Window”

May 27, 2016June 3, 2016 Catherine Flynn7 Comments

Today I’m sharing the latest draft of the persona poem I’ve been working on for Laura’s Ditty Challenge over at Michelle’s blog, Today’s Little Ditty. I’ve loved this painting for years, so it wasn’t hard to decided to write a persona poem for this young woman. The more I studied the painting though, the more contradictions I saw and the more questions I had. This draft answers some of them, but not all.

"Morning Glories" Winslow Homer 1873 — “Morning Glories” Winslow Homer 1873

Through an open window,
the wide world beckons
me.

I toss my crewel work aside,
its neat silk stitches
no match for the ropes of green
twining up outside the sill,
toward the sky,
where a menagerie of clouds
is parading by.

I watch them skitter and shift,
morphing into fantastic creatures.

I wish I could transform
into a hummingbird.
I’d dart and hover
among the morning glories
and geraniums,
sipping their summer sweetness.

But like this philodendron, I’m
trapped inside, bound to this place,
never allowed to roam free,
never allowed to touch the sky.

Please be sure to visit Julie Larios at The Drift Record for the Poetry Friday Roundup.

Poetry Friday: “A Flower-Piece by Fantin”

May 20, 2016May 20, 2016 Catherine Flynn10 Comments

Maybe it’s because I recently spent a day at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, soaking in the beauty of two millennia worth of collected treasures. Or maybe it’s because of Laura Shovan’s ditty challenge to write a persona poem. Whatever the reason, I’ve been thinking about art a lot lately. But because of the nature of teaching, life hasn’t allowed me more than snatches of stolen time to write.

I’ve also been reading in those stolen moments, and found this lovely little poem in Art and Artists: Poems (edited by Emily Fragos; Everyman’s Library Pocket Poems).

“A Flower-Piece by Fantin”
by Algernon Charles Swinburne

Heart’s ease or pansy, pleasure or thought,
Which would the picture give us of these?
Surely the heart that conceived it sought
Heart’s ease.

Surely be glad and divine degrees
The heart impelling the hand that wrought
Wrought comfort here for a soul’s disease.

Deep flowers, with lustre and darkness fraught,
From glass that gleams as the chill still seas
Lean and lend for a heart distraught
Heart’s ease.

Henri Fantin-Latour [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Please be sure to visit Margaret at Reflections on the Teche for the Poetry Friday Roundup.

Poetry Friday: David Whyte’s “The Lightest Touch”

May 13, 2016 Catherine Flynn10 Comments

“Alertness is the hidden discipline of familiarity”
~ David White ~

Krista Tippet’s show “On Being” is one of my favorite podcasts. Recently, Krista interviewed poet David Whyte. I was only vaguely familiar with Whyte’s name, but in the days since I listened to this interview, I’ve been seeking out more of this wise man’s poetry.

Here is one of my favorites:

“The Lightest Touch”
by David Whyte

Good poetry begins with
the lightest touch,
a breeze arriving from nowhere,
a whispered healing arrival,
a word in you ear,
a settling into things,
then like a hand in the dark
it arrests your whole body,
steeling you for revelation.

Read the rest of the poem here.

Please be sure to visit Violet Nesdoly for the Poetry Friday Roundup.

Poetry Friday: Finding Beauty, Even in a Snake

April 28, 2016April 28, 2016 Catherine Flynn13 Comments

When I was a kid, I loved hanging out on my swing set. One day when I went out to play, there was a huge snake, so black he was blue, sunning himself under the swings. I ran screaming back into the house, and have been terrified of snakes ever since.

Then one of my boys turned into a lover of all reptiles, especially snakes. On our first trip to the Bronx Zoo, he made a bee-line to the Reptile House. So I had to learn, if not to like snakes, at least not be petrified when I saw one.

So I wasn’t at all surprised to see this on Michael’s Instagram feed last week:

And even though I still really don’t like snakes, it was hard to ignore the beauty of this one.

His scales polished
to a glossy shine,
green glimmers,
blue-black shimmers
as rat snake slithers
over sun-warmed slate
like lightning flashing
across the sky.

Please be sure to visit Buffy Silverman at Buffy’s Blog for the Poetry Friday Roundup!

Poetry Friday: Desertbells

April 22, 2016April 22, 2016 Catherine Flynn10 Comments

“The beauty of the natural world lies in the details.”
~ Natalie Angier ~

Today is Earth Day. I wanted to write a poem specifically to commemorate that, but trying to write a poem about the whole Earth overwhelmed me. Then I remembered this photo from an Arizona Highways desk calendar. The beauty is in the details.

Photo by Tim Fitzharris in 2016 Arizona Highways Calendar

Cradled like newly hatched
crocodiles,
desertbell vines
run rampant
through the jaws of an agave,
weaving their blossoms
between its toothy thorns.

Please be sure to visit Jama at Jama’s Alphabet Soup for the Poetry Friday Roundup.

Poetry Friday: Laughter Across the Years

April 7, 2016April 10, 2016 Catherine Flynn17 Comments

Hats off to all of you who’ve been writing a poem each day in celebration of National Poetry Month. I have been working on a couple of long-term projects that have made it impossible to keep up with all the inspiring projects people have going. I admire your fortitude and creativity.

Today’s poem was initially inspired by Mary Lee Hahn‘s project, Bygones. When I started writing, though, I soon saw how this could work for Marilyn Singer’s April ditty challenge at Michelle Heidenrich Barnes’s blog to write a “poem inspired by the word ‘echo.'”

Laughter from two little boys
echoes across the years:

On your first set of wheels
you pedal down the garden path,
feet pumping
hands gripping
heart soaring

A glint of mischief in your eyes
An impish grin across your face

your heart soaring
hands gripping
feet pumping
as you pedal down the garden path
on your first set of wheels

your laughter echoing across the years.

Please be sure to visit Laura Purdie Salas at Writing the World for Kids for the Poetry Friday Roundup.

Poetry Friday: A Day Full of Poetry

April 1, 2016April 1, 2016 Catherine Flynn8 Comments

“The best-laid schemes o’ mice an ‘men
Gang aft agley”
~ Robert Burns ~

I started working on the poem I planned to share today on Monday. I drafted two versions and played with them both throughout the week. I recorded different lines on my phone on the way to work. But when I sat down last night, nothing worked. The poem just wouldn’t come together and it’s still a muddled mess.

My day was filled with poetry, though. I shared Amy Ludwig VanDerwater’s poem, “Wonder,” with teachers at our Language Arts Committee meeting this morning:

“Wonder”

Water the wonder
that lives in your brain.

Water your wonder
with questions like rain.

Read the rest of the poem, and more about Amy’s 2016 poetry project, here.

Then the principal and I read this Douglas Florian poem during morning announcements:

Find this poem and more poetry ideas in Penguin's Guide to Poetry in the Classroom here. — Find this poem and more poetry ideas in *Penguin’s Guide to Poetry in the Classroom* here.

I shared many poems with my students throughout the day, but didn’t have a minute to think about my own poem. By the time I left work, my prime writing hours were long gone. The weather was writing it’s own poem, though. Dark gray clouds piled up in the northwest, while the sky was still bright blue in to the south. Impatient rain drops were falling and the wind was picking up. It was a gorgeous sight that made me think of this Emily Dickinson poem:

“A Drop fell on the Apple Tree” (794)

A Drop fell on the Apple Tree –
Another – on the Roof –
A Half a Dozen kissed the Eaves –
And made the Gables laugh –

A few went out to help the Brook
That went to help the Sea –
Myself Conjectured were they Pearls –
What Necklaces could be –

The Dust replaced, in Hoisted Roads –
The Birds jocoser sung –
The Sunshine threw his Hat away –
The Bushes – spangles flung –

The Breezes brought dejected Lutes –
And bathed them in the Glee –
The Orient showed a single Flag,
And signed the fête away –

Emily Dickinson

Please be sure to visit Amy Ludwig VanDerwater at her lovely blog, The Poem Farm, for the Poetry Friday Roundup.

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