Why I write poetry- Library

When we need filler in the Library newsletter, BY THE MILLPOND, Ian asks if I can come up with a poem or story. Many of my pieces come from having a deadline and a theme to work toward.

Nature’s Easter Bonnet Parade

The Snowdrops shyly start the march
    Their white hats peeking out,
From under snowdrifts
    Or the leaves that blow about.

The Crocus follow slowly with
    Their caps of purple and gold
Waving gaily in the wind
    What a sight to behold.

Then suddenly the Daffs are up
    Across the town so strong.          
Their brassy trumpets playing
    A familiar Springtime song.


And Tulips slide up next in line,
    Their rainbow bonnets high.
They smile up at the cheering birds
    Who call down from the sky.

Hyacinths bring up the rear,
    Regal in their crown.
The bumblebees come flying by
    And knock them upside down.

Hope you catch this yearly show
    The colorful bulb brigade.
Humans have nothing to compare
    To Nature’s Spring Parade.

As the rain pours down again in the Hudson Valley, New York area...

At the Library where I work, we join other libraries in our area every 2 years or so and hold something called 

THE BIG READ

We celebrate one title, an author or a genre.

Several years ago the featured book was Grapes of Wrath.

Libraryland, (as my best friend who is not my daughter or sister, Carol, calls our working world), had book discussions, films, plays, craft workshops, etc.- all to give the readers a feeling of what it was like to live during that time of American history, the Dustbowl era and resulting abandoning of the plains for greener pastures. I wrote the following as part of a Literary project at that time and with the glut of rain we have had in the last few weeks here in NY and the dearth of rain in Texas, this seemed like a good time to add this poem.

I Dream of Rain

Dried out, parched, barren, broken, stripped of life....

I dream of rain...
A drop, from a cloud, maybe three
Maybe a little more or less or maybe a heavy dew.
A mist building over time, soft on my earth, caressing, coating all in its finely dampened... misting...

A change in the air, a heaviness, thickening...
A charging between the molecules, thunderous crashing in the sky, forked lightening climbing up from the ground, up, up the ground/cloud highway, piercing the cloud, thrusting, forcing.... a gushing of water pouring forth, pouring forth, pouring forth....

The mist, the drenching, the wetness, cooling the dirt, sinking into the dry, reaching through the layers, giving, giving the liquid, the life, feeding the roots, roots drinking the water...

A growing... a small trickle, a small running over the dry, over the dirt, the rocks, a gathering of other drops together...

Washing away the dust, lifting the dirt, moving the dirt, moving the dirt, moving the soil, this pebble, this rock, this leaf, this branch...

Moving all in its path, its path spreading out... spreading, spreading to reach other trickles, other rivulets, other creeks, rivers... pouring, moving, moving the dirt, the layer, the fragile layer of growing soil, the fragile layers, tumbling over the rocks, over the leaves, over the stumps of dead trees, over the land...

Flooding over the ground, one drop, many drops, hundreds, thousands... millions upon millions...

The earth a sponge, a sponge, soaking, soaking in the wetness, overflowing with the wetness, stealing the soil, stealing the layers, flooding, flooding the land... giving, giving and taking my layers, my cover, my skin, my precious life.

I am Mother Earth and before, during and after the drought...

I dream of rain.

                         

Today...

Today is 9/11/11. I hope all of you remembered the day in your own private way. We will never forget and we should shout our loss to the sky every day. I am an American and I am more conservative than the Tea Party. May reason, common sense and the Constitution rule over my country forever.

DJ's Kindergarten Album...

 Finally, I got the album photographed and uploaded. Yeah for me.
I'll caption tomorrow so you know what you are looking at.

Thank you for stopping by.

Cover of accordion book. I painted the kraft paper pages with 2 coats of acrylic.

Page 1.Waiting for the bus, the preppy look.

Page 2. Today DJ has spiked hair and new sneakers.

Page 4. Upper right, coming home the first day. I was waiting on the porch to hear all about it.

Page 5 and 4 show his desk (that was his Dad's many years ago) and all the work he brought home through the year.

Page 6 and 7 show some of DJ's projects. His Dad and I helped him with the turkey- made in part with corrugated cardboard.

Dad and DJ at my house working on the 100th day of school idea. Dad worked,  DJ had ideas- lots of ideas, most not related to 100 anything.

Page 8 and 9. DJ's class went to a local state park with a small zoo. His Dad was a helping parent.

These pages are about his classroom last year. I volunteered on Thursday mornings, cutting pasting, listening to the kids read, helping with printing skills.

Many of these pictures are from the last day of school. The kids were so eager to play with everything one more time. Shortly after I left, they boarded the buses for home.

Last page of book. I created a pocket to hold extra snaps. Hope he looks through the book now and again. I had fun creating it using primary colors, stickers, rubber stamps and paper collected over the years.

Thanks for stopping by to see the finished project.

A Rainy Holiday...

If you live near me, this Labor Day did not turn out to be the glorious end of the season day so many people look forward to to finish off their summer in style, unless you like drenching rain most of the day.Many areas around here have not recovered from Hurricane Irene. These areas certainly did not need more rain.

I settled in with a good Martha Grimes mystery, Jerusalem Inn. I love to read, especially British mysteries that make me work for the killer. I haven't prematurely solved Grimes' cases yet. And, I love to read straight through if possible. This was the right day for it, nothing pressing, just did the occasional wash load between chapters. I used to read so much more, now reading is preempted by my crafting and my day job.

Speaking of job, some bad things at work got in the way recently and I never started the album I showed you in my last conversation. Work sapped all the creative joy out of me for several weeks, but, hopefully I will be back to myself soon.

I did get to finish my grandson's Kindergarten book. It started as a kraft papermachie accordian  8" x 8" book that I painted with acrylics. I then used matching primary colored patterned paper, stamps and stickers to complement photos of his first day, last day and good times in between. I was a volunteer in his class so the book is a remembrance for me, too. I hope he will like to look at it as he goes through first grade.

Magazine editors often ask their readers what starts the creative process for them, photos, a certain paper, colors or designs in a magaizine ad. For me, it was seeing a photo of him that I took the last day of school. There is a certain look about him that I knew would never be there again and I so wanted to keep it and this first year of him struggling with being away from Mom and Dad; going on the bus; being with new friends; teachers giving him orders; and on top of all that, learning all that work they teach in kindergarten. It was overwhelming for him in some places, he was under five and without preschool when he started.

I'll take photos of the album before I give it to him and I'll get around to posting it here sometime. It is not one of my best works creatively, but definitely one from my heart.

Enjoy the rest of your Holiday and I hope this is one you'll remember with fondness.