Thursday, July 9, 2020

Balancing My Days

The heat is oppressive today but a quick lunch outdoors on my patio brings a new sense of balance. Flowers are popping, spreading their own brand of sunshine while some long for a cool shower from the watering can or a quick rainstorm. I move from air-conditioned rooms to outdoor living, admiring the summer plants, and their vibrant colors.

Returning indoors, I find a new post and challenge, This Photo Wants to be a Poem, by Margaret Simon, in my email. It centers around a mesmerizing, long-ago photo from the Library of Congress' G. Eric and Edith Matson Photograph Collection, titled "The bride" and invites us to write a small poem of 16 words or so.



Still'
  eyes.
Those hands.
This woman knows work.
She is there
gazing into the future
hoping.
Margaret G. Simon, found poem







I chose to write a golden shovel poem, The Young Bride. Look at the ending words of each line to see the strike line, gazing into the future, emerge.

For a moment while gazing,
my eyes wander into
a sea of endless thoughts in the 
desert days of my future.
©CVarsalona, 2020

Turning my thoughts back to a hot day in July when I married, I found a beautiful poem, To Be With One Another, by George Eliot and penned another golden shovel poem. This time, it is for my husband to celebrate another anniversary in our lives.

To Be With One Another
by George Eliot

What greater thing is there for two human souls
than to feel that they are joined together to strengthen
each other in all labor, to minister to each other in all sorrow,
to share with each other in all gladness,
to be one with each other in the
silent unspoken memories?

Using the strike line, silent unspoken memories, I wrote the following.


Now I turn my attention to my far-away friend, Ruth Hersey, who is hosting the Poetry Friday Roundup from Haiti. I was excited to gift her with a digital journal, Finding Balance in Troubled Waters. May we all balance our days during our Quarantine Life. Stay safe. Love and Peace to all!

Image result for poetry friday logo

12 comments:

  1. These are all beautiful poems, Carol. I loved your 'desert days' - and how beautiful 'to be one with each other in the silent unspoken memories'. Your hubby is cherished, indeed.

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  2. Happy anniversary, Carol! Thanks for coming to the party and for all the yumminess you brought!

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    Replies
    1. Thank you, Ruth. Since I seem to always be late lately, I decided to pen an anniversary poem early. The July 31st anniversary will be celebrated in a new normal way. Enjoy your weekend. Enjoy hosting your first Poetry Friday Roundup.

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  3. Beautiful! There's something so mesmerizing about this woman. We can't help but to want to know more. She's such a perfect subject for imagining what she's thinking. "those eyes."

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  4. "The desert days of my future" is a beautiful line, Carol.

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  5. Your golden shovel lines capture the women's gaze and desert journey well Carol. Lovely poem for your husband, Happy Anniversary!

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  6. I love the juxtaposition of "desert days of my future" and "wandering memories" in your two poems, Carol. I like the idea of marriage being a journey - sometimes going forward and sometimes reflecting back. Thanks for sharing these summertime gems. :)

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  7. Carol, you poems are lovely. Like Margaret, you made me feel as if I know this woman. The line that really struck me "desert days of my future" because it feels like something she might actually say. So well-written!

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  8. I love how you have taken my poem that was "found" in the writing about the photo and created a golden shovel. It feels like a thread connecting us, like the telephone game that Molly Hogan wrote about. https://nixthecomfortzone.com/2020/07/07/a-seed-of-hope/
    How lovely that you wrote such a dear poem to your husband. That silence that happens when two people have lived together a long time, an understanding and peace.

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