From Aloe to Zinc: 2014 Poetry Project

Writerly Friends, I skipped yesterday’s Pantone®   Poetry post. The kids were home from school. It was a good day for cleaning out the basement, and – to be honest – I needed a day away from the computer.

Let’s count today as Day 5 of the Pantone ®  Poetry Project. All this month, I invite you to write or draw in response to interior paint colors.

(Need the deets? Find them here.) Tomorrow, Poetry Friday, we’ll combine Day 6 (Kombu Green, Sugar Coral) and Day 7 (Jazzy).

If we can forget about my lapse, I promise not to tell you about the dead beetles, dried to the color of Bronze Mist, which I had to vacuum out of the basement window sill. Ew.

I promised you Jane Elkin’s Aloe pants first. Totally ew.

PANTone Aloe

By J. C. Elkin

Aloe, jeans I had to return.
You looked like pearl on the screen.
So much for shopping online
Where colors are not what they seem.

Aloe
Pantone ®  17-0620

Margaret Simon used the aloe plant, instead of the drab Pantone®   shade, to write her poem.

She says, “I used Google images to find an image of an aloe.  It was a spiral, so I decided to try a Fib poem. After a hard rain today, this is what came.”

From BlueSci Magazine

Winter Rain (or February Fib)

By Margaret Simon

Zinc

sky

begins

to glimmer

fermenting shadows

into humidified bronze mist.

If you have never heard of Fibs, or Fibonacci poems, read this New York Times article about their inventor, Poetry Friday blogger Greg Pincus.

A few weeks ago, I won a copy of Margaret Simon’s new book, Illuminate. The poems in this small volume were written in response to a collection of Christmas cards hand-drawn by Margaret’s father, John Gibson.

I asked Margaret for permission to share her poem, “Annunciation.” The poem spoke to me because it called to mind one of my favorite paintings:

The Annunciation
by Henry Ossawa Tanner, 1898
Oil on Canvas 57” x 71.5”
Philadelphia Museum of Art

I met this painting nearly 20 years ago. My high school students and I were on a field trip at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. I was raised Jewish, so it wasn’t the religious aspect of the painting that spoke to me. Instead, I was moved by its simplicity. In Tanner's image, Mary looked like a real girl of the ancient Middle East. The angel was not a winged, haloed human, but a glowing shaft of warm, bronze light.

Annunciation

            An angel appeared out of the night.

I am not real

I am a dust, a shadow,

a sprinkling of dots on a page,

A lonely seraphim

with open arms

at the royal gate.

I am crowned

by the moon’s light,

draped in the darkness of forewings.

I pray

my message is welcomed.

I conceal lost edges.

The sacrament,

this new birth

unveils me, makes me real

as breath.

"Annunciation," from Illuminate by Margaret Gibson Simon, all right reserved. 

The poem was written in response to this image by John Gibson, which also appears in Illuminate.

Illuminate is available at Amazon.

Margaret’s lines “I am a dust, a shadow/ a sprinkling of dots on a page,” calls to mind today’s second color: Bronze Mist.

Bronze Mist
Pantone ®  17-0843

Thanks to all of you who sent in a poem for Day 5, and for giving me permission to share your work at Author Amok.

Clever Linda Baie noticed that Aloe, Bronze Mist, and Zinc take us from A to Z.

Finding Face

From aloe to zinc,
she bought her beauty 
at the nearby Walgreen’s,
filling the cart
with an alphabet of 
make-up,
rejecting Mother Nature’s
paint job.

Linda Baie ©All Rights Reserved

Zinc
Pantone ®  17-2601

Patricia VanAmburg used the metallic nature of Zinc as inspiration for her poem.

Commodity Market (for zinc)

I asked my broker to buy
silver and gold but he
only offered shares of 
mining and manufacture—no
now I need a krugerrand
in my hand—and some
100% non-toxic zinc sinkers
that won’t leach like lead
or words from my dead father:
“Don’t take any wooden nickels.”

I had another kind of Zinc (Oxide) – and the wintry weather – in mind when I started playing around with this senryu.

Version 1

snowman in summer

lifeguard slathered with sunblock

zinc ointment

Version 2

hot beach, snowman

concentrates, folds zinc white arms

sunblocked lifeguard

Let me know which one you like best and why.

Let’s get out of the cold and snow for a moment. The Day 6 colors are a little more tropical. And Day 7 – it’s downright hot.

Day 6: Sugar Coral
Pantone ®  16-1640

Day 6: Kombu Green
Pantone ®  19-0417

Day 7: Jazzy
Pantone ®  18-1950

If you’d like to share your writing, or doodling, in response to any or all of these colors, read the instructions (with writing prompts) onhow to join this project here. Or simply leave a comment with your contribution.

Poetry Postcard 11

Descansando en una Palapa en la Playa Gaviotas.
Relaxing in a grass-hut at ‘La Gaviotas’ Beach.
Mazatlán, Sinaloa, México.

Nonchalant (Senryu)

Turquoise suit, tanned thigh

lashes curled as a wave's crest

I do not see them

by Laura Shovan

This was one of the first antique postcards I bought for the project. I found it in an antique shop in historic Ellicott City, which is just up the road.

Could not resist this card. It has a built in story. The girl in the hammock with her blank expression. The boy and girl in the background, holding hands on the beach. I knew I wanted to write about them.

But when it came time to write, I felt stuck. The story was already on the card. Adding anything seemed too -- what? heavy? distracting?

That's why I went with a senryu for this postcard. (Read about senryu form here.) While I'm not in love with this poem, it's kind of fun. The card so perfectly (in my imagination) captures teen angst, it doesn't really need a poem.

I also committed a haiku/senryu foul. Similes are frowned upon. In haiku, subtle metaphor is the aim.

Speaking of teen angst, my daughter turns thirteen today. (A birthday poem/card for her is coming up!) Which means I am officially the mother of two teenagers. So far -- knock wood -- the teens have been more fun than angst-inducing.

Additional postcard information: 

Tarjeta Postal
“Vista Color”
Lito en Meixco

©Litografica Turmex, S. A., Apdo. 53-060, Mexico, D. F.

“¡Coleccione Tarjetas Postales!”

It's another gray, rainy day in Maryland.
Here's some eye candy!
La Gaviotas Beach at www.tripadvisor.com

Non-Spanish speakers, La Gaviotas translates as "the seagull." Probably a reference to the bird and not the play by Anton Chekhov.

Poetry Friday: Keeping a Senryu Journal

In the fall of 2010, when everyone else was complaining about Hurricane Irene as "the storm that wasn't," central Maryland was deluged.

I started following the blog of local poet Kay Weeks. Kay lives up the road from me in Old Ellicott City, where she observed a river flowing down Main Street. (Her Hurricane Irene series is here at her aptly named blog, A Walk into the Past. Old EC is a pre-revolutionary American mill-town. It was the terminus of the first 13 miles of track laid by the B & O Railroad.)

Lower Main Street, Ellicott City during Irene -- www.baltimoresun.com

Kay was journaling about her storm experience online with a combination of prose, little poems called senryu, and yummy illustrations by artist Margaret Scott. The result was something beyond a typical journal. The senryu highlighted Kay's experiences, providing bite-sized insights. The poems were small windows into how one person's life has universal moments that speak to what it means to be human.

Here are two of Kay's observations from the storm:

Irene rages on

but my two cats are sleeping.                      
How I want their ease!

August 28…Morning…No power!  

Talking to myself, cats, birds.

Buy ice, try to save food.

Wet towels scattered around.

A senryu, simply put, follows the form of haiku but focuses on human nature, rather than "capital n" Nature. They're known for being humorous or satiric, poking fun at human foibles, but modern senryu can be -- according to the Haiku Society of America -- "more like serious short poems in haiku form."

HSA also shares this pronunciation note:  "In Japanese, the word 'senryu' sounds like the English phrase 'send you' with a Spanish flipped-r in place of the d. For those unfamiliar with this sound, a three-syllable word, 'sen-ri-you' may be substituted in English, with the medial 'i' sound as diminished as possible."

Kay turned her satirical eye on herself again last fall, during a trip to Spain which was fraught with mishaps. They seem funny now. You can read the whole series, "Time Zones," here.

Kay hadn't event arrived at her destination yet when this happened (art by Margaret Scott):

Málaga

Arrive Málaga,

but luggage is in Frankfurt.

What more can happen?

But luggage is in Frankfurt...

Should not have asked that!

Deficit of Euros now

And I need a cab.

Finally, Kay was able to relax:

Costa del Sol sound –

Waves rolling into the shore:

Such gentle music.

No Luggage or Money

Recalling Wendy,

“You have everything you need.”

Ocean, flowers, friends.

And this poem written to her cat.

The days come at me

like a series of rolling waves.

No time to miss you.

I've been swept away by Kay's senryu journals. The project would adapt well to the classroom. Here are some possibilities:

• Field Trip Senryu Journal
• Science Lab Senryu Journal
• Book Senryu Journal (instead of a reading log)

If I were to do a Kay Weeks' style Senryu Journal now, it would have to be about my garden. I've been neglecting it for several years, and the gloves are finally back on.

This is what my raspberries should look like, according to gardeningmags.net-genie.co.uk

This week, I began weeding the raspberry patch. It's so overgrown with grass that my husband wanted to dig it up.

Yanking long, dead grass --

like pulling a mean girl's hair.

She's gone! Room to grow.

Keeping a Senryu Journal for a specific span of time (a trip, a project) is a manageable poetic habit. During National Poetry Month, I'll be looking at many writing rituals and habits -- munching while writing, listening to music, scheduling dedicated writing time, even strange habits of famous poets. Look for a new post every day, beginning April 1. Several Poetry Friday regulars will be chiming in about their writing rituals.

Today's host is my dear friend Heidi at My Juicy Little Universe, our last Poetry Friday before National Poetry Month!

Poetry Friday: Haikubes

I admit to buying myself an occasional gift. It might be for my birthday. (Mine is the last of our four family birthdays, which all happen within five weeks, and is at constant risk of being forgotten -- the victim of birthday malaise.)

Our birthdays are 1/16, 1/31, 2/13 and 2/22. Even the dog is in the mix, 2/17.

During the holidays, I might gift myself with a Hanukkah goodie, or something tucked under the Christmas tree, where no one will see it until it is too late.

Which is exactly where I put my set of Haikubes this year. Think Magnetic Poetry meets Mah Jong, and you'll get the idea.

Haikubes come with a variety of verbs, adjectives, nouns and two red "suggested theme" blocks.

I ordered these from one of my favorite book-lovers' catalogs, Bas Bleu.

My daughter and I have been  having a great time with these. Some of my friends in education use them as poetry starters. For Poetry Friday, I am sharing some of our favorites. Here are the photos, and a transcription if I thought punctuation was needed.

fast wind whispers hmmm --
promises grace my window,
inside: a lame tiger

curvy heart candy
oozing over your wet lips
I shiver, villain

Strictly speaking, you end up with more of a senryu than a haiku.

 My daughter felt this one required a little revision:

 I point into
dripping grass eyes, trouble
licks the gentle ground

Interesting. I never would have thought of autumn leaves as "candy-esque blocks."

I hope you had as much fun with these as we did. (We've sort of abandoned the red "theme" blocks and let the dice roll how they may.)

Jim at "Hey, Jim Hill," is our host this week. Thanks, Jim!

National Poetry Month Issue 5

Last week, I posted a wordplay lesson.

The middle schoolers I was visiting had a great time with the prompt, which is kind of like filling in a jigsaw puzzle with no clues and a handful of filled in words. Their poems are here.

When we were editing the Maryland Writers Association poetry anthology, poet Douglas William Mowbray (Towson, MD) and I talked about the importance of wordplay.

He'd changed two lines in his "Another Love Poem." The submitted version read, "You ain't up/ No point in the sun getting up." Doug revised those lines to sound more formal and poetic, but sometimes, bending the rules of form and grammar -- wordplay -- create voice in a poem.

We returned the lines to their original, sassy diction.

Doug sent us two wordplay poems for his National Poetry Month, classroom-friendly selection.

Fall Isn't Falling
by Douglas Mowbray


The still dead dry leaves dance.
The dead dry leaves dance still.
The dry still dead leaves dance.
The dry dead leaves still dance.

HS Writing Prompt:
Write one good sentence, not too long. Try re-ordering the words, creating new sentences. See how the meaning changes.

Life's Not Pair
by Douglas Mowbray


All the missing socks
cling on inside of sweaters
rarely ever worn.

MS/HS Writing Prompt:
This poem is a senryu. It follows haiku form but takes human (or sock) behavior as its subject. In five lines, reflect on something you find odd.

There are many events going on for National Poetry Month. The Academy of American Poets has information here.

Douglas is a proprietor of twentythreebooks, a Towson Arts Collective Board Member, and co-founder of the Baltimore Center for the Emerging Text. TAC has a great NPM program, the Cruellest Month reading series. Here is the schedule.

Hope to see you at the April 25 reading.