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Life on the Deckle Edge

Poetry Friday - My PERFECT Poem Swap Gifts from Patricia J. Franz

 

Greetings, Poetry Lovers!

 

I received the most wonderful gift in the mail yesterday – my poem swap goodies from this year's swap partner, Patricia J. Franz.  (The Winter Poem Swap is organized by the amazing Tabatha Yeatts, whose blog is here.  You can learn more about Patricia here.)

 

Full disclosure – I am so overextended this year that I JUST mailed Patricia her poem and gifties from me yesterday, too. (Insert face-slap emoji here.) No excuses, but an explanation – I/we recently made a crazy decision to put our house on the market sooner rather than later, so we are temporarily moving to an apartment here next week. That way, we can show the house without all – cough-cough – my, um, artistic piles o' stuff, and without having to manage a wee doggie, etc., etc.  Also, if it sells quickly as we hope, then we'll have a place to live while Jeff finishes his job here before starting his new one in the Upstate. I mean, moving is so easy and fun that everyone should do it twice for each move, right? 

 

So it was an especially perfect treat to open Patricia's package and slow down and savor her gifts.  She included some beautiful, fancy sticky notes – how could she know I LIVE by sticky notes?! – and the most charming tiny replica music box that plays "Hey Jude" when you turn its handle.  She explained in her lovely note that the song came to her while working on my poem, and then she said, "the universe made a house call, as I found this in the gift shop at the Whitney Museum in NYC."  I was floored!  How special, and you bet it will have an honored place in my new studio (being formed as we speak in a basement renovation at our Upstate house that we'll move to in a couple-few months.)

 

As for the poem Patricia sent, I was moved to tears upon reading it.  First, she tackled a ghazal, though she added, "Truth be told, I'm certain this is not a true ghazal!  In my  mind, I was channeling your artful spirit – letting the poetic form become what it needed to contain the words."

 

You see, she wrote a poem about… artsyletters! No one has ever written a poem about my art endeavors before, not even me.  Talk about affirmation, and with my favorite kind of writing – poetry!

Not to mention that the presentation – printed to look it's on faded, foxed, glorious old paper, and with some of my items – absolutely speaks my aesthetic language.  What a gift, and to think we've never met in person before.  But that's the magic of Poetry Friday, isn't it?

 

I'm beyond delighted to share:

 

 

artsyletters:  a  ghazal

 

what sound speaks?  What reaches your ear?

asking to be transformed – the trinket, the trifle

 

finger a curl of your hair, pause to hear

art unaware, setting free the trinket, the trifle

will you be jeweled? Beheld by a book?

re-membered eternal, no trinket or trifle

 

work of your hands, heart's possibility

becomes twinkle delightful – the trinket, the trifle

 

©Patricia J. Franz

 

This was just what I needed but didn't know I needed, grounding my art adventures as I'm trying to keep them all together during this bit of transition and chaos.  I'm so excited to hang up this poem in my studio space when it's finished, a heart-sent gift from a poet friend. It's just perfect as I reflect on this 10th anniversary year of starting my art business and Etsy shop and anticipating its landing, finally, in a perfect and personal home space.  Thank you, Patricia!

 

The perfect place for poetry today is with Karen Edmisten, who is rounding up Poetry Friday this week.  Thank you, Karen! And Happy Holiday blessings to all; I'll be taking a wee break as we work on the move stuff and also travel - multiple times - to see family over a stretched-out holiday season.  Extra prayers for those missing loved ones this season, and those who don't have homes to move to or from this winter. See you in January!

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Poety Friday - WATCH Out- It's a New Pomelo Poetry Book!

 

 

Greetings, Poetry Lovers! Just in time for holiday gifting, there's a brand new book from Pomelo Books, THINGS WE WEAR. Part of the "THINGS WE" series, this poetry collection features poems created and honed as part of the wonderful online Anthology workshops offered by Sylvia Vardell and Janet Wong, the FORCES behind all things Pomelo.

 

I've had the good fortune to participate in a couple of these workshops, along with several Poetry Friday regulars and new faces and voices, too!

 

The books in this series (THINGS WE DO,THINGS WE EAT, and THINGS WE FEEL) contain a poem for each letter of the alphabet.  Proceeds from book sales go to the IBBY Children in Crisis Fund, another reason to add these to your gift lists for the youngest readers and listeners.

 

THINGS WE WEAR, with poems by 26 authors, features some expected topics, such as "Pajamas" for P and "Dress" for D.  But how about "Earmuffs" for E, "Kippah" for K, and "Yukata" for Y?  Learn more about this collection and find ordering info here

 

My poem is about one of my favorite things, a watch!  I've always worn one myself (& got a new one from my hubby last Christmas).  I'm somewhat obsessed with old watch parts – the older the better – and have enjoyed using them in artsyletters creations.  I don't have a lot of timepiece-parts-laced collages and such in my Etsy shop at the moment, but You Just Wait (another terrific Pomelo title): after we move early next year and I get to embrace a new studio space in our house, I'll have lots of room for lots of art projects.  And, hopefully, more TIME for making since I'll have the space part worked out!

 

Here's my poem, pictured above in the fun poem card created by Sylvia and Janet, and pictured below that, embellished with vintage watch parts because I couldn't help myself.

 

WATCH

 

Skinny hands

move on its face

second by second – tick, tick.

 

A clock with a band

always in place

never too slow or too quick, quick.

 

There isn't a buzz

a beep or a chime

but watching my watch –

I can tell time!

 

©Robyn Hood Black

 

 

Our multi-talented Michelle Kogan has this week's Roundup.  So glance at your watch later, and for now go enjoy some great poetry!

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Poetry Friday - Emily Dickinson's "Winter is Good"

New ornament featuring a vintage Emily Dickinson postage stamp- listing is here in my Etsy shop! (I have William Shakespeare, too. ;0) )

 

Greetings, Poetry Lovers!  I hope you had a good Thanksgiving weekend last week, wherever you were.  Prayers for all with an empty chair at the holidays this year.

 

Over here  on the South Carolina Coast, Friday morning temps will be in the 40s, which is chilly for us. (Then we'll warm back up.)  But pictures of growing piles of snow from the Northwest to the Plains are something else altogether, like the pictures posted online recently by our own Amy Ludwig VanDerwater up in New York state. 

 

So here's a little poem by Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) for the new season.  (Love the last line... we were happy to say goodbye to the hurricane season, by the way, on Wednesday!)

 

 

Winter is good - his Hoar Delights (1316)


Emily Dickinson 

Winter is good - his Hoar Delights
Italic flavor yield -
To Intellects inebriate
With Summer, or the World -

Generic as a Quarry
And hearty - as a Rose -
Invited with asperity
But welcome when he goes.

 

Happy December! 

 

Grab your snowshoes and shuffle on over to see our lovely Catherine at Reading to the Core for this week's Roundup!

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