This summer there have been many wonderful gifts that bring joy: grandchildren frolicking, nature walks along a creek, new friends, and the soft sounds of poetry flooding the corridors of my heart. It's a new beginning in a new surrounding and quiet blessings come with sweet surprises along the way.
SURPRISE #1: After a nature walk with my grandgirls, I designed a digital collage of photographs I took during our walk. I blended them into a postcard similar to the turn-of-the-20th century ones I have in my collection. My thoughts are in the form of a dodoitsu but I took creative license in only using 4 syllables instead of 5 for the last line.
SURPRISE #2: The long-awaited, face-to-face meet-up with my next-town neighbor, Poetry Friday poet-librarian, Linda Mitchell. I was running late when the doorbell rang but that was fine. We hugged as old friends would after Linda extended an unexpected housewarming gift.
Lunch, chitchat, plans for future poetic outings, and meet-ups were part of the afternoon fun. Linda left with two boxes of professional texts for her teachers, Wonderopolis swag, and books for her library. I happily said goodby knowing that two more boxes were removed from my stack of unopened items.
SURPRISE #3: Linda devised an on-the-spot poem swap for us. I would send her some photos of my antique collection of early 20th-century prints by the famous illustrator, Harrison Fisher. She would write ekphrastic poetry for each print. She suggested that I write about her cookie, brownie, and cupcake treats. I added in the digital artwork, and a selfie of us (which I call an ussie when it is more than one person). A story-poem evolved from the above picture prompt.
SURPRISE #4: I created memories that were encapsulated in digital art and poetry while Linda shared her poetic thoughts through ekphrastic skinnies that you can find at her blog post, Poetic Luncheon.
"Poetry is eternal graffiti written in the heart of everyone."
Perhaps, Ferlinghetti meant that graffiti is a form of visual communication and poetry is the format to communicate the richness of what we see and feel.
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Join me for the Poetry Friday Roundup at EFL teacher and writer Elisabeth Norton's blog, Unexpected Expectations. There's a party of poetic thoughts going on.
