More found poetry from Carrot Ranch

Still catching up (with work, this time) and still finding inspiration at Carrot Ranch.

Pieces

memory is not exact
but combined
with time
rather than being
recent brain activity

it is possible
even if it is not true
remembering creates fiction
a part told truthfully
our life story

identity is not researchable
through our actions, our parents, our name
labelled, repeated, assumed
selective stories keep
who we are over time

(from Irene Waters’ post at Carrot Ranch: https://carrotranch.com/2018/07/13/life-is-a-memoir-what-is-fiction/)

And here’s what’s blooming in the garden this week: Hibiscus moscheutos ‘Lord Baltimore’

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Found poetry from Carrot Ranch

Trying to catch up on several weeks’ worth of e-mail, I was struck by the latest Flash Fiction Challenge at Carrot Ranch. Charli Mills’ introduction provided a jumping-off point for me today, even if it ain’t flash fiction.

The privilege of a lifetime

I want to be that woman bold enough to wear buttons
as a necklace, who can look cool

on a hot summer day. We all want our characters
to be heroes. Like others hit by disaster

before us, we know the word strong but dance
around the word hero. We all resonate

to the journey, the cave, the return, the elixir of hope —
just not the label. We all deny the call.

The hero’s journey is messy: uncomfortable moments
and difficult seasons, a tadpole

in a ray of sunlight. It’s like birth. It’s like death.
We know it can never be the same.

Button up.

 

Day 28, LexPoMo 2018

Late on the evening of the previous post, I ran afoul of some uneven sidewalk while out with the dog. I took a tumble, but thank the stars it was dark (no witnesses) and I got away with nothing more than a skinned knee and a sprained hand. I’ve been sidelined for almost two weeks because it was my dominant hand, but have gingerly started working back into more normal activity.

Last week I began attending a wonderful class on memoir as poetry. Not being able to write has been maddening, but today I was able to participate more fully and produced the following.

Summer vacation

The creek ran beside the yard
next door then under the road
into a wooded ravine we didn’t know
belonged to the Mathews.

We were frontiersmen, brigands, the Swiss
Family Robinson – fending for ourselves
with pocket knives and wits and the odd
piece of string, up and down the creek bed
every day until the mosquitoes
rose at dusk and drove us home.

(Reposted from the Lexington Poetry Month web site: https://lexpomo.com/poem/summer-vacation/)

Day 17, LexPoMo 2018

I think I overdid it yesterday (or maybe I spoke too soon about needing less cough medicine): the cough is back. It’s hard to go slow when you start feeling better after being under the weather for a while.

Listen to the forest

trees with roots entangled
like lovers, joined by soil
bacteria and mycorrhiza

leaves and branches arch
overhead, interlace, form
a bower, a sacred canopy

try to parse the language
of fungus and pheromone,
electron and ion channel

close your eyes and tune
your skin to the wordless
sea of conversation

 

Inspired by an article in the March 2018 issue of Smithsonian Magazine: “The Whispering of the Trees,” by Richard Grant.
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/the-whispering-trees-180968084/

(Reposted from the Lexington Poetry Month web site: https://lexpomo.com/poem/listen-to-the-forest/)

Day 16, LexPoMo 2018

Didn’t need quite as much cough medicine today. Progress is more gratifying when your expectations are low.

Like there’s no tomorrow

it’s in his heart
to be something more
speaking for us
twenty years later

so play it again
the war and the treaty
like water and wildfire
so young and so pure

that’s why we do music
for it to matter
and it brings her to tears
to know it still matters

and it brings her to tears
that it still matters

 

Found poetry from an interview heard on NPR.
https://www.npr.org/2018/06/16/620698921/summer-music-preview-the-war-and-treaty-debuts-healing-tide

(Reposted from the Lexington Poetry Month web site: https://lexpomo.com/poem/like-theres-no-tomorrow/)

Day 15, LexPoMo 2018

The meds are helping, but I think I need more naps and Dr. Who.

What we hold

In all probability, the assumption
of parents does not appear
to be mentioned.

There are, however, a series of facts
about the name on the lips
of an anonymous crowd.

There is no Joseph
until a decade later, drawn from
the reference to a suggestion.

This same theme believes
the genealogy, traces the line
of the most desperate moments.

We turn in search of ancestral
mothers, women known
for their stories.

 

This erasure poem uses text from chapter 14 of Unbelievable, by John Shelby Spong.

(Reposted from the Lexington Poetry Month web site: https://lexpomo.com/poem/what-we-hold/)

Day 14, LexPoMo 2018

I’ve not been posting nearly as much as I’ve been writing, and not writing nearly as much as I would like. Bronchitis and its attendant medications sometimes have that effect. Today I did nothing but nap, poetry, and Dr. Who, so I’m sure I’ve advanced my recovery exponentially.

Acceptance

I don’t know what moves
a poem, makes language in space
unfathomed–simple, open, powerful–
toward which I gravitate

common concern manifests
whatever feels honest and specific
to the thousands that receive
more than we publish

occasions resonate in particular
when the story seems surprised
it can love itself–
whatever that may be

This is an erasure poem derived from an interview at Frontier Poetry with Hannah Aizenman, poetry coordinator for The New Yorker. I recommend reading the entire interview, which may be found here:
https://www.frontierpoetry.com/2018/06/05/editors-talk-poetry-acceptances-hannah-aizenman/

(Reposted from the Lexington Poetry Month web site: https://lexpomo.com/poem/acceptance/)