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Last Wednesday Wisdom for April - Poetry Month Wrap-up

4/27/2016

11 Comments

 
Once again, it's time for Last Wednesday Wisdom. On the last Wednesday of every month, I serve up a potpourri of advice, inspiration and other tidbits I've come across in recent weeks. We've been celebrating National Poetry Month all of this month, so today I'm sharing poetry-related morsels.

And if you're wondering how I did with the poetry month challenge I introduced at the beginning of the month, read to the end for a report. 
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Poetry is truth in its Sunday clothes.
-- Joseph Roux
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If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry.
​-- Emily Dickinson
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Poetry is eternal graffiti written in the heart of everyone.
​-- Lawrence Ferlinghetti
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We all tell stories and write poems . . . to keep awe and aspiration and comprehension and the other components of hopeful lives bright in each other's hearts.
-- Barry Lopez in Poets & Writers​, Jan/Feb 2016
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If you can't be a poet, be the poem.
-- David Carradine
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Poetry is the journal of a sea animal living on land, wanting to fly in the air.
​-- Carl Sandburg
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When I first started writing poetry as a high schooler, I adopted what I call "The Seven Layers of Enigma" model. I wrote a verse that I did not understand, but was sure that others would marvel at simply because it was so inscrutable.
-- Joseph Bathanti in The Writer, April 2016
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We make out of the quarrel with others, rhetoric, but of the quarrel with ourselves, poetry.
​-- William Butler Yeats
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Poetry is like a bird, it ignores all frontiers.
-- Yevgeny Yevtushenko
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So, about that challenge. At the beginning of the month, I vowed to read poetry every day. That I did. I read my way through David Tucker's poetry collection, Late for Work and dipped into Trumbull Ave. by Michael Lauchlan, whom I met at this year's Rally of Writers in Lansing, Michigan. I also discovered Ada Limón and John Brehm,  whose poems appear in  the May 2016 issue of The Sun. And of course, I loved reading the work of HeartWood guest bloggers Jonathan Riedel and Sandra Bernard.
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​But there was another part to that challenge. I pledged to write a poem a day. I did write poems, more than I've ever written in one month (fifteen so far, and the month isn't over). But some days slipped by poem-less. Other days, I deliberately followed the advice of Ansel Adams, quoted in last month's installment of Last Wednesday Wisdom: 

When words become unclear, I shall focus with photographs. When images become inadequate, I shall be content with silence.

I guess there were quite a few fuzzy-word days and not many silent ones, because I took a LOT of photographs. For example:

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​​But even if I missed some days, I kept coming back to writing poems--trying different forms and sometimes making a game of it. One of the most fun things I tried was taking random words from someone else's poems and trying to make my own poem from those words. I won't go into detail here, but if you'd like to read more about the process and what I came up with, click here.

​Now that I've given you my report, tell me how you did with your poetry month challenges. I know some of you planned to read poetry, others were inspired to write their own or paint pictures. Let's hear how that went!
11 Comments
rlh
4/27/2016 07:35:14 am

Responding to your exercise, a "found" poem from craigslist posts written years ago:

[email protected]

small christmas tree/used once
Lizard/Rodent Tank Complete
Compact Dorm/Cell Sized Fridge
art student seeking bed with roof
space in my uhaul
Lions/Bears
HUGE dresser
14 pound Urbonite Urethane Bowling Ball
Beauty Artist
Can you sell
Runs Great Very Clean
Nobody wants to be Lonely
Does this even work?
All your hair regrown!

Reply
Nan
4/27/2016 07:38:42 am

Love the idea -- and the poem!

Reply
J.Q. Rose link
4/27/2016 08:31:05 am

Awesome photos--I certainly thought the leaf and sun photo was a professional one. For some reason, it spoke to me. Perhaps I should write a poem about it? And so many great quotes. I'll probably swipe some. Now I must go back and click the links for more tidbits from you. Love your Wednesday Wisdom.

Reply
Nan
4/27/2016 04:40:08 pm

Thanks, JQ. That photo was one of my favorites, too. Glad you're enjoying Wednesday Wisdom!

Reply
Jan Ross
4/27/2016 09:15:01 am

I saw Billy Collins last night - does that count?
He was great!

Reply
Nan
4/27/2016 04:41:06 pm

Live poetry counts double. At least!

Reply
Tonya Howe
4/28/2016 07:10:05 am

I like your creative eye with photos, expecially the oil cans; and it made me realize that I too express my poetry through photography.Thankyou! Also, Eldon and I wrote a song a few days ago called" they burned the baithouse down". Does that count? ♡

Reply
Nan
4/28/2016 08:24:08 am

That's really true about your photos, Tonya. And yes! The song you and Eldon wrote certainly counts BIG in the poetry challenge. (I want to hear it!)

We need to get you and Eldon on this blog. I'm thinking of an upcoming post (or maybe a series!) on creative couples. Are you in?

Reply
Tonya Howe44
4/28/2016 09:15:12 am

If I can find enough good material, yes. I'll see what the other half of this couple thinks (and thanks for compliment) ♡

Play Pokies Aristocrat link
10/5/2016 03:35:19 pm

I was just struck by the superficial similarities to the more famous paintings.

Reply
Nan
10/26/2016 07:10:14 am

I confess, I don't know the paintings to which you refer. Enlighten me, please!

Reply



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    Nan Sanders Pokerwinski, a former journalist, writes memoir and personal essays, makes collages and likes to play outside. She lives in West Michigan with her husband, Ray.

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