My Words Echo

Sometimes in life, our words, meaningful in their intent, are uttered and fall on deaf ears. At other times, they find a listening ear. At those times, a listener not only hears but responds. 

My poet friend, Michelle Heidenrich Barnes, hosts a ditty challenge each month. April's creative project is to write an echo poem. My first attempt at this poem type based on reversos by Marilyn Singer is written in two voices, a speaker and a responder who warmly receives a floating message. 

"For those new to this form, reversos are poems that can be read forwards or backwards to express two sides of one story." ~Michelle Heidenrich Barnes at Today's Little Ditty. (You can read the discussion between Marilyn Singer and Michelle about the reverso here.)

In the pair of poems below, I played with the verb brush and its various synonyms to echo a thought. Another Poetry Friday friend, Margaret Simon, created a synonym poem as a model for us to create our own so I decided to take up that challenge as well.

My image for the poem pair started as cloud formations in the sky but I decided to digitalize them to allow the words to "brush" on by.

While a Marilyn Singer reverso stays true to the backward form, mine deviates a little to add a new line. (Please remember that this is my first attempt.)

For Today's Little Ditty April Challenge:

Speaker 

 

                                                                

   

                                                                                                          Responder

Now for a Marilyn Singer's reverso from her book of reverso poems, mirror mirror. I was fortunate to not only meet Marilyn at her NCTE 15 book signing but to end the conference listening to an engaging workshop presented by her. 

 Reverso poem by Marilyn Singer

You may be interested in trying your own echo poem and offering it to Michelle Barnes at Today's Little Ditty.