Originals

Photo by Don Berquist

Reply to the Question: "How can You Become a Poet?"

by Eve Merriam

take the leaf of a tree
trace its exact shape
the outside edges
and inner lines

memorize the way it is fastened to the twig
(and how the twig arches from the branch)
how it springs forth in April
how it is panoplied in July

by late August
crumple it in your hand
so that you smell its end-of-summer sadness

chew its woody stem

listen to its autumn rattle

watch it as it atomizes in the November air

then in winter
when there is no leaf left


invent one

Tricia hosts the Round up today at The Miss Rumphius Effect.

When Tabatha recently suggested we consider matching a song to one of the Poetry Friday poets' original poem, she asked if we had a way for readers to find our original poems posted on our blog. My answer was a resounding negative. In fact, I had just spent quite a long time the week before searching for a poem that I was certain I had posted on my blog. I did finally find it, but only after scrolling through about seven years of blog posts. Even then, it didn't occur to me to connect the poems and their blog post links. Duh.

The whole process did give me some insight into my own process and the confidence I have gained in posting my work. Some of it has been revised since it was posted. Some of it probably should have remained hidden in a closet somewhere. But a lot of it, I like.

So here is my list, more for my sake than yours! and thank you for your listening ears.

Thankful
Wind Warning
Spinning
Sinking Ship
Joseph
Composing Life
The Ship Speaks
missing things
First to the Pole
Hungry Caterpillar
Sky Celebration
Martha's Choice
Dancer
Nonet at Dawn
Snow Day
Conversion Chart for My Husband
Confinement
Mechanics of Sound
Tortoise or Hare
Cancelled Flight
What My Mother Taught Me
Stanley Remembers

A Month of Cinquains
Rules
Great Falls
Floyd's River
Blackbird's Grave
A Good Friday
The White Pirogue
Corps of Discovery
Water Takes the Mountain
Kon-tiki
Psalm of Joy
Maize Cinquain
Nurture
Thunderstruck
Timely Cinquain
Kingsley, African Explorer: A Found Cinquain
Cinquain for a Broken Piano
Kalahari Crossing
Dinner at Xanadu

Published poems
Allison
Still, She Cannot Write the Spring