Poetry Friday: NPM Spring Cleaning Day 23, Happy Blog Birthday to Me!

 

Today I've been blogging for fifteen years. Happy Blog Birthday to me!

 

I love having this little spot on the internet that's mine. I love writing down what I'm thinking about and reading. I love being part of a community of bloggers. I've made friends through blogging I never would have met any other way. Fifteen years of regular blogging, more regular at some times than others, but mostly regular: this is something that has given me so much joy through these years. I'm proud of sticking with it. 

I couldn't decide how to celebrate my blog birthday, but I knew that fifteen years deserved some kind of celebration. Then I read this post over at the TeachingAuthors blog, which is celebrating twelve years of blogging. Esther Hershenhorn wrote that the gift for twelve years is silk. That's it, I thought! I'll look up the gift for fifteen years!

The gift for fifteen years is crystal, and since it's National Poetry Month and Poetry Friday, I'm giving myself some crystal poems. You may read them too, Reader. And have some cake. 

Here's Lines to Some Crystallized Violets, by Marvin Solomon. Sounds sort of festive and delicious, don't you think? I've never had crystallized violets, but I do keep a container of crystallized ginger by my stove and I often add a couple of pieces to a plain cup of tea.

 

And here's And Later...  by Jen Bryant, who writes of a kaleidoscope:

 

letting the crystals shift into strange 

and beautiful patterns, letting the pieces fall

wherever they will.

And here's Releasing a Tree, by Thomas Reiter, in which the crystals are snow:

 

Those grace notes

of the snowfall, crystals giving off

copper, green, rose—watching them

I stumble over a branch, go down

and my gloves fill with snow.

 

But I think my favorite crystal poem I found was this one:

 

What to Count On

by Peggy Shumaker

 

Not one star, not even the half moon         

       on the night you were born

Not the flash of salmon

       nor ridges on blue snow

Not the flicker of raven’s

       never-still eye

Not breath frozen in fine hairs

       beading the bull moose’s nostril

Not one hand under flannel

       warming before reaching

Not burbot at home under Tanana ice

       not burbot pulled up into failing light

Not the knife blade honed, not the leather sheath

Not raw bawling in the dog yard

       when the musher barks gee

Not the gnawed ends of wrist-thick sticks

       mounded over beaver dens

Not solar flares scouring the earth over China

Not rime crystals bearding a sleek cheek of snow

Not six minutes more of darkness each day

Not air water food words touch

Not art

Not anything we expect

Not anything we expect to keep

Not anything we expect to keep us alive

Not the center of the sea

Not the birthplace of the waves

Not the compass too close to true north to guide us

Then with no warning

       flukes of three orcas

                 rise, arc clear of sea water

Do you notice that most of that poem is about what not to count on? I think that's kind of perfect for this fifteenth birthday, remembering what not to count on, and then reflecting on what to count on, all the time wondering how to fix the formatting of the post. That's blogging, right? Thank you, Readers! Thanks for reading, and commenting, and coming back again. If you wish, leave me a comment with a birthday greeting or a poem with crystals in it!

 

 

Here's what I posted this week:  On Saturday, a Sara Groves song. On Sunday, an interview with Thanhha Lai. On Monday, Tim Gels' poem about his empty school. On Tuesday, "A Hymn for These Times." On Wednesday, a webinar on nature poetry, plus an article.  And on Thursday, my lines for the Progressive Poem.

 

This is the ninth year of the Progressive Poem! See the schedule below to find where to go for today's line and to see who's participating this year.

April 1 Kat Apel at Kat Whiskers
2 Linda Mitchell at A Word Edgewise
3 Mary Lee at A Year of Reading
4 Donna Smith at Mainly Write
5 Irene Latham at Live your Poem
6 Jan Godown Annino at BookseedStudio
7 Rose Cappelli at Imagine the Possibilities
8 Denise Krebs at Dare to Care
9 Margaret Simon at Reflections on the Teche
10 Molly Hogan at Nix the Comfort Zone
11 Buffy Silverman
12 Janet Fagel at Reflections on the Teche
13 Jone Rush MacCulloch
14 Susan Bruck at Soul Blossom Living
15 Wendy Taleo at Tales in eLearning
16 Heidi Mordhorst at my juicy little universe
17 Tricia Stohr Hunt at The Miss Rumphius Effect
18 Linda Baie at Teacher Dance
19 Carol Varsalona at Beyond Literacy Link
20 Robyn Hood Black at Life on the Deckle Edge
21 Leigh Anne Eck at A Day in the Life
22 Ruth Hersey at There is No Such Thing as a God-forsaken Town
23 Janice Scully at Salt City Verse
24 Tabatha Yeatts at The Opposite of Indifference
25 Shari Daniels at Islands of my Soul
26 Tim Gels at Yet There is Method at https://timgels.com
27 Rebecca Newman
28 Catherine Flynn at Reading to the Core
29 Christie Wyman at Wondering and Wondering
30 Michelle Kogan at More Art 4 All

 

And here's a roundup of some of the amazing, creative projects going on during NPM this year.

 

Today's Poetry Friday roundup is here.