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Life on the Deckle Edge

Poetry Friday - Poem by Stephanie Salkin and Poetry by the Sea Shout-Out!

 

Greetings, Poetry Lovers!

 

The photo and poem above are by my good buddy and partner-in-poetic-crime across multiple venues and states, Stephanie Salkin. The image of yours truly at the breaking waves came from the Poetry by the Sea retreat led by Georgia Heard and Rebecca Kai Dotlich in Jupiter, Florida, nearly four years ago.  What a treasure of a time!

 

Stef is very active in her arts community in north Florida. (And the whole state, too; she along with Jude Mandell led the campaign to get Lee Bennett Hopkins inducted into the Florida Arts Hall of Fame two years ago!) A photographer as well as writer, her work is often seen in shows there. 

 

That's how the above combination of image and words came to be.  Having attended our recent Haiku Society of America Spring National Meeting in St. Augustine, Stef wanted to incorporate haiku into her photography for a show, and - Voilà!  She used a picture she took which included me immersed in my own poetry writing down in Jupiter.  (I've shared it with permission.)

 

The poem reads:

 

 

waves break on shore

    making tidal music

          who writes the lyrics?

 

 

Many thanks to Stephanie for sharing! She also shared a link about how a day at the beach boosts health and creativity: https://1md.org/article/beach-day-brain-benefits

 

If all of this whets your appetite for poetic inspiration at the beach, you're in luck! Georgia and Rebecca are offering the Third "Poetry by the Sea" next month! (I'd go every time if the piggy bank and calendar were willing....) Find details here at Georgia's website

 

And find this week's Poetry Friday Roundup with the always-inspiring Buffy at her spankin' newly redesigned website.

 

Happy Fourth next week! 

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Poetry Friday - A Couple of Browning Lines & 35th Anniversary

 

Grow old along with me!
The best is yet to be

 

Pretty sure my husband wooed me with that Browning couplet a time or two back in the day.  On Saturday, we celebrate our 35th anniversary! (We were babes of 21 when we got married.  My mother made my dress from scratch, with 2,000 seed pearls and no time to spare.  Seriously, a half hour before the ceremony, I was wearing a tee shirt and gym shorts. I come by my life-on-the-edge habits honestly.)

 

These are the opening lines to a long poem titled "Rabbi Ben Ezra."  Here's the first stanza:

 

 

Grow old along with me!
The best is yet to be,
The last of life, for which the first was made:
Our times are in His hand
Who saith "A whole I planned,
Youth shows but half; trust God: see all, nor be afraid!''

 

 

You can read the whole poem here

 

It's not a romantic poem, actually, but a poem told in the voice of a 12th century rabbi and scholar, about being molded throughout life by the hand of the divine Potter.  And it's a good read if you have a few decades under the soles of your shoes!

 

It was published in Browning's Dramatis Personae in 1864.  My old Norton Anthology of English Literature from college notes, "The speaker, Abraham Ibn Ezra (ca. 1092-1167), was an eminent Biblical scholar of Spain, but Browining makes little attempt to present him as a distinct individual or to relate him to the age in which he lived. Unlike the more characteristic monologues, Rabbi Ben Ezra is not dramatic but declamatory."

 

A little heady, no?  For a more breezy poetic welcome to summer, visit our wonderful Linda at A Word Edgewise for this week's Roundup!  Clunkers welcome... you'll see.  ;0)  (I'm a little late to the party this Friday; our internet was down all Thursday night. I will be away from the computer most of the weekend but look forward to catching up in snatches.)

 

HAPPY SUMMER SOLSTICE!

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Poetry Friday - Highlights Hello Poem & More!

 

Greetings, Poetry Lovers!  Missed you last Friday.  We were winding up a week at the beach with our kids (& I was running around getting my shop ready for First Friday after 5 downtown.)

 

I had a lovely surprise in our mailbox when we got back - two contributor copies of HIGHLIGHTS HELLO with another of my poems inside!  Perfectly themed for our personal life, too - the new issue is "A Wavy Hello" with all kinds of fun words and pictures about the ocean, for the very youngest little readers and listeners. Here's my contribution:

 

 

Seaside

 

Wave after wave

Splashes to shore.

After each wave,

There's always one more. 

 

©2019 Highlights for Children.  All rights reserved. 

 

 

If you know or have a little one, a subscription to HIGHLIGHTS HELLO will surely become a highlight for him or her!

 

Speaking of this little gem of a magazine, one poet frequently featured in its pages is Heidi Bee Roemer. If you know Heidi, you know she's busy as a bee.... She and Poetry Friday Regular Kimberly Nuthatcher have just launched S.T.E.A.M. Powered Poetry with Free Videos for K-8.  I've already told Morgan (poetry-friendly Third-Grade-Teacher-Daughter) about this new resource.  Check out the Facebook Page (& if the photo in the top left corner looks familiar, it's one of my vintage text poetry-themed necklaces from artsyletters! It was a recent birthday gift to Heidi from another poetry friend, Linda Dryfhout, and their critique group.  Thanks for the picture-love, ladies!) 

 

Here's to waves of poetry for all ages, and wishes for sunshine in your corner.  And speaking of third graders, enjoy some wonderful student poetry over at Laura Shovan's place, where she is kindly rounding us up this week.

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