Friday, April 03, 2020

Poetry Friday: National Poetry Month, Day 3

You know how you always wished you could be home all day every day during National Poetry Month so you could savor all the poems? Your wish is granted! Hope you are enjoying NPM, the Coronavirus Edition. Or at least surviving it.

I'm attempting daily posts again this year, and I managed day one and day two, so I'm feeling pretty pleased with myself so far. (I'm also posting and reading many poems on Facebook during the #PoeticQuarantine.) My plan for my daily blog posts is to share tabs that are open on my desktop, so that, in a yearly act of spring cleaning, I can close them. (I explained it a little more in my post on the first day.)

I'm not sure how long this one has been open, but I know I referred to it in a post back in July 2018. At that point I was traveling away from home, so thinking about home more. Now I'm locked in my home, so thinking about home more. Home: it's a constant preoccupation, I guess.

In this poem, Maggie Smith begins with a line from Wisława Szymborska's wonderful poem The Joy of Writing. My idea was to take a line from Maggie Smith's poem and write my own, and I actually started the attempt yesterday, but didn't get far enough to have anything to post. Maybe next week? Meanwhile, here's Maggie Smith's meditation on home.

Written Deer
by Maggie Smith

Why does this written doe bound through these written woods?
- Wisława Szymborska

My handwriting is all over these woods.
No, my handwriting is these woods,

each tree a half-print, half-cursive scrawl,
each loop a limb. My house is somewhere
here, & I have scribbled myself inside it.

What is home but a book we write, then
read again & again, each time dog-earing

different pages.

Here's the rest of the poem.

One of the NPM activities I always look forward to is the progressive poem. Jone has today's line, offering two options for the next poet again. Raising the bar this year!

Here's the whole schedule:

1 Donna Smith at Mainly Write
2 Irene Latham at Live Your Poem
3 Jone MacCulloch, deowriter
4 Liz Steinglass
5 Buffy Silverman
6 Kay McGriff at https://kaymcgriff.edublogs.org/
7 Catherine Flynn at Reading to the Core
8 Tara Smith at Going to Walden
9 Carol Varsalona at Beyond Literacy Link
10 Matt Forrest Esenwine at Radio, Rhythm, and Rhyme
11 Janet Fagel, hosted at Reflections on the Teche
12 Linda Mitchell at A Word Edgewise
13 Kat Apel at Kat Whiskers
14 Margaret at Reflections on the Teche
15 Leigh Anne Eck at A Day in the Life
16 Linda Baie at Teacher Dance
17 Heidi Mordhorst at My Juicy Little Universe
18 Mary Lee Hahn at A Year of Reading
19 Tabatha at Opposite of Indifference
20 Rose Cappelli at Imagine the Possibilities
21 Janice Scully at Salt City Verse
22 Julieanne Harmatz at To Read, To Write, To Be
23 Ruth, thereisnosuchthingasagodforsakentown.blogspot.com
24 Christie Wyman at Wondering and Wandering
25 Amy at The Poem Farm
26 Dani Burtsfield at Doing the Work That Matters
27 Robyn Hood Black at Life on the Deckle Edge
28
29 Fran Haley at lit bits and pieces
30 Michelle Kogan  

Heidi has the roundup today, and she's sharing sheltering poems. I can't wait to read them, and to see what everyone else has today! Stay safe and healthy, everybody!

10 comments:

Tabatha said...

Isn't it lovely that both Maggie Smiths (the poet and the actor) are so brilliant? This poem knocked my socks off. Thanks, Ruth.

jama said...

Wow, what a unique poem. Must read more of Maggie Smith's work. Thanks for sharing!

Carol Varsalona said...

Love these lines from Maggie Smith's poem: What is home but a passage
I’m writing & underlining every time I read it.
Home is where we wait and hope and pray this year, Ruth. Thanks for sharing your thoughts and links.

Linda B said...

I always love your tabs, Ruth! Writing is a piece of Maggie Smith that she so beautifully shows us. It makes me wonder what others might write about their homes during this time we are locked in? I'm looking forward to yours! Enjoy your weekend!

Mary Lee said...

I love the play between WORLD, WORD, and WOODS.

Kay said...

I love Maggie's poem. Thanks for sharing it. I also like your idea of taking a line from it and writing my own reflection on home. We are realizing these days just how fragile our world is.

Liz Steinglass said...

I have scribbled myself inside it!

Michelle Heidenrich Barnes said...

What a wonderful poem.

"Still, written fawns
lie in the written sunlight that dapples <--swooning!!!
their backs."

You did this same project last year, didn't you? Such a great way to get rid of "tab clutter," which goodness knows, I have WAY to much of. You are one smart cookie, Ruth.

Michelle Kogan said...

Enchanting poem Ruth, I liked this line very much,
"What is home but a book we write, then
read again & again, each time dog-earing

different pages." and her closing line too, thanks. Good luck with your poem!

Heidi Mordhorst said...

Ruth, it has taken me all week, in between bouts of online PreK, to make the rounds. You found a very sheltering poem, in more ways than one, and I adore any way that a poet can find to write about writing that sounds fresh. I have to think you know this song, which your post also made me think of (and course Harold and his purple crayon.) Be well, fri
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7k0a5hYnSIend.