Parking here to edit and revise
Belied
The woods, late spring
pond at sunsets
bat-skimmed surface
white tail pulled down
new leaves. The hawk flew low
as well.
Over the walking path
my shadow squat and low
No wings
no hooves, no wild thing.
Even the blue jay flew low
that night, while grasshoppers
jumped quickly across the path
my short shadowed sadness and dread
belied the flood of gold.
I submitted five persona poems to a favorite journal tonight, written in the voices of five distinct others: a coyote, a baby, Macduff from Macbeth, Simon from Lord of the Flies, and two strangers. It was fun to find and edit the poems, as well as working on a few others I just could not include at this time.
I love writing persona poems; I am both a a daughter of storytellers and a current poet, and persona poems combine poetry and stories. It’s tricky for me to write in a persona not female, not human, not me at all, but I love to try doing this.
Now I wait many months to find out if any of these poems will be published. In the meantime, I know I will be writing more persona poems, since I am taking a writing class this summer.
What’s the most interesting voice you have written in?
Link: My Publications Include
A kinder atmosphere in my world with the teachers out for summer. It’s just nice to know good people are out there. And I know such good teacher colleagues and friends.
*~*~*~
I would have returned the email, even between terms. Yes, I judge her for not replying. Yes, I know she wasn’t being paid to check emails between terms.
But I would have. And I always did.
Because of being like that, so hyper-vigilant, I will never relax. I have never relaxed. Always on. Retirement would kill me.
*~*~*~
Some people are multi-talented in music and art and writing. It’s amazing. It’s great to see.
*~*~*~
I wish I’d thanked my parents for moving us from a middle-class existence in a high-crime area to a poor existence in a much safer one. I never thanked them, but rather blamed them for making us poor by moving. I am ashamed I didn’t appreciate how much better a safe life would be for all of us, and especially for someone as sensitive as I am. I am decades too late for they have died, but I wish I could tell them: “Thank you for this sacrifice.”
*~*~*~
One of the joys of being a highly sensitive person is that I can find great joy in simple beauties, actions, sounds, smells, sights. To me, nothing is simple, and I am grateful for all beauty of person or nature.
Because I am off-the-chart highly sensitive, I also find life to be greatly complicated and difficult at times, exhausting often.
A gift and a curse, but I don’t know how to be otherwise.
Someone laughed at me chuckling over ducks recently, but that’s all right. It was delightful to hear them quacking and see them flying overhead on an otherwise cool and quiet spring afternoon.
That’s me, sometimes flying, often quacking. Never graceful, but often feeling grace.
*~*~*~
This aging is a hoot. I remember things so clearly that turn out to be decades ago.
*~*~*~
Kindness matters. I would advise against ambition over compassion. In the long run, if we are human, we need each other more than another thing. Yes, that’s a privileged point of view, for many struggle to survive, and I’ve been there. When I was struggling so hard just to keep a roof over my head, I was all ambition.
But after survival, and during survival, I do believe compassion is paramount.
*~*~*~
What’s with so few people reading poetry? Language is so magical and poetry the most possessed!
*~*~*
I like the free photo/ image I found from pexels.com more than anything I have created. Talk about evocative!
*~*~*~
In my dreams, I can paint. And sing. And dance. Also in my dreams, I awaken and realize I cannot do any of those.
*~*~*~
Just some random (or not) thoughts on a lovely quiet and cool late spring evening before the riot of summer heat sets in.
Laura Lee
Poets, another good site for reading poetry and for celebrating poetry is Palette Poetry. Palette states its mission is:
…to uplift and engage emerging and established poets in our larger community.
The world is eager for poets. In 2016, more people spent their hard earned money on poetry books than any other year on record. When times are dark, the world always turns to poets for empathy, for answers, for words, bucking and new.
Palette Poetry is here to paint our small part of the world with truth through poetry, as hopeful and eviscerating as truth can be.
Palette sponsors contests, publishes poetry, promotes fun with and improvement of poetry. I love Palette’s lack of pretension, as shown by these words:
Our goal is to simply find and publish the best poetry we can, no matter its roots in craft.
If you love to read and or write poetry, this would be a great site to visit. If you hope to be published there, the editors note that they publish only the best poetry, so be sure to submit only your best.
Their site is inviting and exciting. Why not visit Palette Poetry?
As I wrote earlier and as this article declares, “In half a decade, the number of U.S. adults who are reading poetry has nearly doubled.” Read all about it on the NPR (National Public Radio) site, where they quote from the NEA (National Endowment for the Arts) study here: Poetry is making a comeback
If a comeback, not even 12% of Americans reading poetry is a paltry figure to me. How can poetry not be a part of so many lives? And do we even have 12% of Americans buying/ supporting poets and poetry?
I’m not sure about that. I’d love to see America support its poets and truly embrace poetry, but we have a long way to go.
As promised, I’ll keep posting links to sites I find interesting, important, or both.
A dear friend introduced me to Foundry Journal online, and I was impressed with the superb poems and beautiful presentation of the site. I read the poetry of love, nature, politics, and more. I saw carefully selected images that enhance the site. If you love poetry, why not go there?
It’s obvious Foundry loves poetry and has found fine poets to publish.
From their site:
Poems are manufactured objects — the intangible cast into forms. Foundry showcases poems crafted by writers at all stages of their practice. We are interested in poems as made things, and we are interested in their making.
Poems published in Foundry have been awarded a Pushcart Prize, selected for Bettering American Poetry, and featured on Verse Daily.
Poets! According to this NEA (National Endowment for the Arts) study, poetry-reading rate is up, to about 12% in American, up from 6.7% in 2012. Alas, this means that MOST Americans–88%–do not read poetry at all. Hmm… from my own acquaintances, I thought more than that percentage WRITE poetry. And if you write poetry? You do need to be reading poetry.
Come on, American–we can do better.
Find the article here : NEA Study on Poetry-reading rates in USA
From the study: The 2017 poetry-reading rate is five percentage points up from the 2012 survey period (when the rate was 6.7 percent) and three points up from the 2008 survey period (when the rate was 8.3 percent). This boost puts the total rate on par with 2002 levels, with 12.1 percent of adults estimated to have read poetry that year.
Growth in poetry reading is seen across most demographic sub-groups (e.g., gender, age, race/ethnicity, and education level), but here are highlights:
• Young adults have increased their lead, among all age groups, as poetry readers. Among 18-24-year-olds, the poetry-reading rate more than doubled, to 17.5 percent in 2017, up from 8.2 percent in 2012. Among all age groups, 25-34-year-olds had the next highest rate of poetry-reading: 12.3 percent, up from 6.7 percent in 2012.
• Women also showed notable gains (14.5 percent in 2017, up from 8.0 percent in 2012). As in prior years, women accounted for more than 60 percent of all poetry-readers. Men’s poetry-reading rate grew from 5.2 percent in 2012 to 8.7 percent in 2017.
• Among racial/ethnic subgroups, African Americans (15.3 percent in 2017 up from 6.9 percent in 2012), Asian Americans (12.6 percent, up from 4.8 percent), and other non-white, non-Hispanic groups (13.5 percent, up from 4.7 percent) now read poetry at the highest rates. Furthermore, poetry-reading increased among Hispanics (9.7 percent, up from 4.9 percent) and non-Hispanic whites (11.4 percent, up from 7.2 percent).
• Adults with only some college education showed sharp increases in their poetry-reading rates. Of those who attended but did not graduate from college, 13.0 percent read poetry in 2017, up from 6.6 percent in 2012. College graduates (15.2 percent, up from 8.7 percent) and adults with graduate or professional degrees (19.7 percent, up from 12.5 percent) also saw sizeable increases.
• Urban and rural residents read poetry at a comparable rate (11.8 percent of urban/metro and 11.2 percent of rural/non-metro residents).
So we write to be published, right? Erm… sometimes. I submitted three poems today to a journal a dear friend recommended, and it hurt to let them go. What’s wrong with me?
I have heard you need to kill your darlings or something similar, meaning don’t hold on to the art… share it. I have to believe I will write more, I will write poems as good or better.
Yet I’m not sure I believe that, and I remember why I wrote each poem.
So I sent three poems I believe are good as poems, but that didn’t punch me to let go.
I’ve never felt this way about fiction or nonfiction; perhaps it’s the compressed nature of poetry that packs this type of punch?
We shall see; I read many poems in this journal, and they are good! I would be lucky to be included.
Do you ever feel “too close” to something you have written or created?
This time a poem is personal. Arm teachers? No, so much could go wrong….and there is the personal cost to arming someone who is supposed to nurture and teach…
Anyway, I am pleased to learn that my poem “Teach to Kill” was published here today: Tuck Magazine
Laura Lee 