(ad)ventures in poetry
“Even God cannot fill what is full.”
–Mother Teresa of Calcutta
And still I stand
before those overflowing Hands
gazing at the mercy Face
asking the grace of a drenching.
© Stephanie Malley
NaPoWriMo21 Day 22 – I didn’t use the prompt from NaPoWriMo.net.
A poem written earlier this month and asking to be posted today. Peace to your ♥!
“You cannot depend on your eyes if your imagination is out of focus.” –Mark Twain
“Every word was once a poem.” –Wilfred Funk
I used to enjoy reading murder mysteries–Diane Mott Davidson’s Goldy Schulz catering series, The Cat Who… books by Lilian Braun Jackson, Agatha Christie, Ngaio Marsh–but gradually became disenchanted. There’s enough real-life violence that I can do without the virtual kind. Happily for me, some writers focus on the mystery without the bodies and blood. My two favorites are Nancy Atherton’s Aunt Dimity books and Alexander McCall Smith’s The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series (located in the library under ‘M’ not ‘S’).
McCall Smith sets his series in Botswana and artfully (and with heart) captures a culture moving away from traditional values. Mma Ramotswe, the traditionally-built (i.e., not the skinny-model type) and traditionally-minded owner of the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency, regularly muses about life and living it in a way that resonates with my soul. A sample:
Sometimes it was important simply to get out. It did not matter where you went, as long as you got out of the office, or the kitchen, or any other place where duty required you to be, and went to some place that you did not have to be.”
from The Minor Adjustment Beauty Salon by Alexander McCall Smith
Amen to that! The library is one of my top go-to places, doubly delicious in that, once I come home with more books than I planned on, I can further escape while reading them. I hope you have some good getaway places, too. Peace to your ♥ !
The Kids are Driving Me Crazy
I
need to
get a way
to get away
for a getaway.
I need a getaway car.
© Stephanie Malley
NaPoWriMo 2018 Day 20 - Write a poem that involves rebellion in some way.
Hold out your hands to feel the luxury of the sunbeams.
Helen Keller
Isn’t that a lovely thought? Ever since I wrote Helen Keller’s observation in my notebook of quotes, I’ve wanted to use it in a poem. Despite being intangible, sunbeams have a way of draping themselves across your body as cloth does. The contrast between brocade’s heaviness and the lightness of sunbeams works, for me, because of the connecting “thread” of luxuriousness (couldn’t resist that :) ).
Brocade
Sometimes you have to make your own sunshine.
You have to roll out the gold gossamer-thin
To feel the luxury of sunbeams on bare skin.
© Stephanie Malley
Peace to your ♥!
Did you know that poems about poetry are called metapoems? I not only love to read metapoems, I also really love to write my own (see “Family Tree“). So far I’ve written more than 50 poems about poetry and the creative process that I’ve gathered into a collection called A Poet Muses. You’ll find it listed under the Poetry Collections tab. As I post poems from the collection, I’ll add them to that page for easy reading.
Below is the poem I wrote to lead off the collection. If you’ve written a poem yourself, perhaps you feel as I do. It’s incredibly satisfying to create something from scratch, something that has your personal stamp on it. The poem was originally in four lines, but now I think it looks better as a quote. One of the benefits of being author, editor, and publisher is getting to do what you want. :)
Peace to your ♥!
Better than a book of poems on a library shelf is a poem you wrote all by yourself.
Stephanie Malley
Serendippity 