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!
