poetry

Given the Answer

The following is based upon the NaNoWriMo prompt, The Answer is Blue, and written by Writers in the Grove member, Ann Farley.

Question, if you will, the sky,
at turns sapphire, robin’s egg, pink-gray
glistening like scales down a salmon’s side,
shifting with the wind and rain, sun and moon.

Question the ocean, a lake, this small pond
reflecting an opalescence, shimmering,
or suddenly so flat it pulls you in deep,
just a trick of light, playing into the dark.

Question the eyes of a newborn
searching for focus, watery wash of pigment,
unaccustomed to all this brightness,
delicate orbs that deepen and set in time.

Question those favorite jeans of yours,
washed and worn beyond softness,
a sort of ready comfort rarely found;
at their very finest just before the fray.

Question, even, your own sweet mind
and its tenuous tether to your heart,
a relentless tugging, calling for change,
those low places you go to sort it all out.

Question all of it, again and again.
Keep quiet watch, for the answer is blue.

October 22,2015

Dancing in Water

The following was written by Writers in the Grove member, Lorelle VanFossen, inspired from the Prompt: Palindrome Meets Pantoum.

Giggles and grins
Droplets tinkle and fall
Sun flashes gold
Hands windmill
Droplets tinkle and fall
Splashing diamonds
Hands windmill
Dancing in water
Sun flashes gold
Dancing in water
Giggles and grins

Prompt: Palindrome Meets Pantoum

This week’s prompt is a palindrome, a word, phrase, number of other sequence that reads the same way backward or forward. Our prompt challenge limited us to 6 short lines, written forward then reversed, in the style of a pantoum, to complicate things.

Here are the specific instructions:

Write six very short lines describing something, a thing, an event, a moment.
Number each line 1-6.
Rewrite them in the following order: 1, 2, 3, 4, 2, 5, 4, 6, 5, 3, 6, 1.
See what happens.

As an example, and to push this even further, we took a line from several member’s attempt at this prompt and put it together into a single poem using the same line structure:

It is a misty moisty morning
In the merciful shade of a big elm,
Freezing cold, freezing snow,
the trees lost their zest.

Life is fits and starts of growth.
No mud flaps on my coffin.

In the merciful shade of a big elm
Life is fits and starts of growth.
The trees lost their zest.
No mud flaps on my coffin.

Life is fits and starts of growth,
Freezing cold, freezing snow.
No mud flaps on my coffin.
It is a misty moisty morning.

Frozen Fire – Chihuly Glass Speaks

The following was written by Writers in the Grove member, Bev Walker. It is dedicated to Dale Chihuly, the internationally acclaimed hand-blown glass artist from Seattle.

I wasn’t always this beautiful.
I wasn’t always such glorious colors.
I started my life’s journey, and speak to you now,
as a quite drab mere speck of sand.

The Vacation

The following was written by Writers in the Grove member, Bev Walker.

His friend said kindly, “Why don’t you take a vacation, some place quiet.”
So he did. He went hunting. A walk in the woods would be just the place.
He was going along when all of a sudden a giant jumped out in front of him.
The hunter quickly bellowed like a mating alligator, a terrible sound.
The sound scared the giant so bad he flew up into the nearest tree.
There, sitting on a limb sat a real live dinosaur eating a kumquat.
The giant scared the dinosaur so bad he dropped his kumquat.
It hit the hunter on the head knocking him out cold.
The giant jumped down from the tree, grabbed the kumquat for his breakfast and ran away.
Just as the hunter was coming around, the dinosaur jumped down from the tree,
grabbed the hunters red hat, (his ears were cold), and took off after his kumquat.
The terrified hunter immediately called a policeman
reporting there was a giant running loose in the woods
who could turn himself into a dinosaur! He’d seen it himself!
They could spot him because this dinosaur was wearing a red hat!
Policeman kindly said, “Why don’t you take a vacation friend, some place quiet.”

Prompt: Positive or Negative Effects on Love and Kindness

The prompt came from the book “Art as Experience” by John Dewey. In one section he describes that for art to be whole, it has to have its own unity. Each word in a poem has to come from what came before it, and contribute to the words that come after.

The example is an excerpt from Wordsworth’s “The Prelude.”

…the wind and sleety rain,
And all the business of the elements,
The single sheep, and the one blasted tree,
And the bleak music from that old stone wall,
The noise of wood and water, and the mist
That on the line of each of these two roads
Advanced in such indisputable shapes.

The wind as the noun is not described in adjectives but in the descriptions of what followed in the poem, the single sheep, blasted tree, bleak music from the stone wall, noise of wood and water…all paint the sense and emotional quality of the state of the wind.

Part one of the prompt was to write at least 7 words that leave you with a negative feeling, each one building upon the other. Then write at least 7 words that leave you with a positive feeling, building upon the previous one.

Part two of the prompt was to write something about the negative or positive effects on the topic of love and kindness, growing the feeling as the word choices push the reader forward with the growing emotions.

Diana Lubarsky’s Holocaust Images Presentation September 1

Diana Lubarsky, member of Writers in the Grove, will be presenting a program of story and poetry at the Forest Grove Library in Forest Grove, Oregon, on Tuesday, September 1, 2015, at 7PM in the Rogers Room.

Diana Lubarsky (D.K. Lubarsky) is world renown for her sculpture and poetry on the subject of the Holocaust. A sculpture for over 35 years, her work is on display around the world and a permanent collection at the Florida Holocaust Museum in St. Petersburg, Florida. She will bring six of her more than 60 works from her Holocaust Images collection to the library as well as the poetry pieces that accompany each work.

The event is free, a part of the Cultural Series Events at the Forest Grove Library, 2114 Pacific Avenue, Forest Grove, Oregon 97119. For more information, contact the library at r503-992-3247.

When Pigs Fly

Bev Walker, a long-time member of Writers in the Grove, contributed this poem. Bev specializes in writing stories and poetry with a bright and lighthearted spirit. an accomplished painter and writer, she’s published books on her family’s history and genealogy, and contributed to many anthologies. She is currently working on a memoir.

There once was a man most curious
who went from silly to serious
when the town he was happily in
was met with a great big wind.
He went up in the might swirl
of a hurricane – and with a girl.
Round and round in terrible weather
Went cow, pig and house all together.
Said the man to the spinning sky,
“Oh, oh, my, look! Pigs can fly!”
They came down in a far off land
set down by a gentle hand.
Man and girl married in a jig,
fixed the house, milked the cow, styed the pig.
And because of their whirlwind romance,
Everyone knew how to dance.
And it never caused a moment’s stir
that they never knew where they were.
So don’t fret if your life is a jumble
one day it will land all a tumble
in a haven where all things come right,
and even pigs dance with delight.

Prompt: Haiku in 3 Lines

This week’s prompt was based upon a workshop by our sister writer’s group in neighboring Hillsboro, Conversations With Writers. Their most recent workshop featured Maggie Chula, author of Living In The Moment: A Haiku Life and current president of the Tanka Society of America, a haiku association. She spoke about how to capture a moment, mostly in nature or using nature, to tell a story without describing the emotions. Called objective haiku, as opposed to directive haiku that describes emotions, the descriptions emote without the author telling you how to feel.

Another key to writing haiku this way is to have a surprise twist or ending.

Examples of her work included:

Warblers song
Welcomes me home
The prowling cat

Smell of Narcissus
My 13th Spring
And mother’s tumor

Sento Palace burnt
Again and again
Flaming azaleas

Our prompt inspired by her workshop was to not write in traditional and formal haiku as most of us are not trained to do so, but to use the haiku examples above to emulate haiku.

The prompt was to write haiku style in 3 lines beginning with the line Pebbles clatter.

Homework Prompt: Because

The following is a homework prompt, presented by Mark Thalman in his workshop on June 22, 2015. Please complete the prompt and bring it to share on the Monday morning workshop, June 29.

Because.

Start with the word “because” and tell us how something happened, and another thing happened, and another thing, all because. Described as the Rube Goldberg machine or domino effect.