Happy Poetry Friday! Welcome, everyone! (Wondering what Poetry Friday is? Click here.)
Y’all, thank you so much for all your kind words and wishes this past month. I can’t tell you what they’ve meant as I’ve dipped into comments when feeling overwhelmed and had a lovely few minutes of respite each time.
I didn’t meet up with my Poetry Sisters last week, but at least I’m posting a poem in the right Poetry Friday–unlike last month. Yep, I’m gonna call that progress.
Our challenge this month was to write a poem in response to a poem by U.S. Poet Laureate Arthur Sze. I’m embarrassingly ignorant of him and his work. After reading a few poems, it’s clear I need to read more. Maybe soon.
I chose his poem “At the Equinox.” Its vivid, natural imagery combined with emotion drew me right in. I especially love this bit:
“Looping out into the world, we thread
and return.”
Yes. Looping out and back, out and back. It could refer to simply getting out the front door into your neighborhood or to taking grand travels or to immersing yourself in perhaps a different layer of the world than the one you live in. I went with travels, and it was so difficult choosing just a few tiny moments from the amazing places I’ve been lucky to visit. This is my first draft.
Meanwhile, here’s what the rest of the Poetry Sisters got up to.
Click here to see most of our previous Poetry Princesses collaborations.
Our Poetry Friday host is the creative bayou poet Margaret Simon. Thanks for wrangling us in the Roundup , Margaret!
17 Responses
I love your last line “to read the wonder in my heart.”
“My heart reminds me to gather beads.” I love this line. It’s such a wonderful reminder.
As someone who is terrible at writing titles, I find this one to be terrific.
Laura, I’m glad you got to check out Sze’s work and write this beauty of a first draft. “to roll them over in my mind ever after / to read the wonder in my heart” I’m loving those beads brought home from your trips will remind you to do these things. Beautiful.
Oh, Laura. This is beautiful. The glossy ribbons of agate, the starlight and feathers. And the lines “Even coming home/is leaving.” I feel the truth and ache and bafflement in that. Sending SO much love to you…
I think we’re all together in correcting our ignorance of Sze’s poetry. I love his and I love yours as much or more. The ebb and flow, out and in, there and back, travel and home, looping looping looping, every strand of our lives precious and woven into something beautiful!
“Even coming home/is leaving.” No truer words. I love that back and forth, the imagery of the heart as a bead collector, telling the beads, a rosary made of wonder and memory worn smooth by time.
Those are some lovely loops–and you’ve threaded them together making wonder and beauty.
“Even coming home/is leaving” is such a resonant line in your amazing poem— every word made my snowbound heart happy!
Laura, I absolutely love the image of our hearts as strings of beads gathered and brought back home. And:
“Even coming home/is leaving.” That grabs my heart.
I know it’s not over in Minnesota (or in this country) but let’s all keep stringing our hearts together for the work ahead.
“Even coming home is leaving.” What a perfect line I can relate to. The anguish of leaving my young family to fly to help my parents, then the difficult goodby to them when I went back home. A heart pulled in two directions. Thanks for sharing.
You are not alone in being unfamiliar with Sze’s work. Reading his poems through these PF posts has encouraged me to seek more. Your response carries beautiful images in “glittering crystals” and “ripples of starlight” and that beautiful ending “to read the wonder in my heart.” Thanks for sharing this, Laura.
Laura, your poem is a gem that reveals such beautiful imagery and feelings. “Anguish is leaving and so is home leaving. There are beads gathering “to roll them over in my mind ever after / to read the wonder in my heart”. Reflecting on these visual thoughts bring a sense of calmness and peace. Your words have touched me in the silence of the night.
So many beautiful colors in this tapestry…I love the ponies and canal and feathers…it’s all a part of the big world. It’s all home.
Beautiful metaphor –travel beads, rolling them over and over, stringing them on your heart.
“Even coming home/is leaving” is such a wise line, Laura. Every single time I feel that paradox when I travel.
Lovely Laura, I like your looping back to your beginning at the end with
“But my heart reminds me
to gather beads,”
Serendipitously we wrote to the same poem of Arthur Sze, thanks!
Having grown up overseas (and then coming to college while my parents were overseas), I feel that stanza about leaving. “Even coming home is leaving.” You have essentially captured my feelings from age 9–25 right there!