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Robyn Hood Black - children's author, poet, artist

Life on the Deckle Edge

Poetry Friday - More Poetry Postcards! (mine included)

February 3, 2022
Tags: --poetry, -Poetry Friday, Jone MacCulloch, New Year Poem Postcard Project, Robyn Hood Black, Sarah Grace Tuttle

Greetings, Poetry Lovers!  

 

Happy Lunar New Year.  This week I'm sharing two more postcards from our New Year Poem Postcard Project swap, and my own, too, which I finally mailed out last week. ;0)

 

First up, one from our fearless leader, Jone Rush MacCulloch, who organizes this postal shindig each new year.

 

Her intriguing image features this haiku:

 

divergent pathways

a new year

alive with wonder

 

 

©Jone Rush MacCullocch

 

I'm sure that like me, you're a fan of Jone's mean camera skills as well as her poetic prowess.  I love the texture in this picture and asked her about the tracks.  She said they were bird tracks on her deck, made during the first light snow.  Beautiful!

 

Side note - I'm super excited to have learned that Jone's own "pathways" are going to drift over toward my side of the world for a trip soon, and I'm planning to hop in the car and go meet up with her!  (We live on opposite coasts.)  Jealous?  Yep, thought you might be - we'll snap a picture! ;0)

 

Second, I received a beautiful card late Thursday from Sarah Grace Tuttle.  The postcard features a colorful, inviting painting of Commonwealth Books in Boston, Massachusetts by Bob Ecksem.  Makes me want to walk right into that shop and not come out for hours!  Sarah's poem on the back offers a celebration of snow.  I know - many of you all have probably had your fill already this year, but here's a fresh and lovely perspective:

 

Let the Snow Come

 

A cool pressure blanket

to soothe the frantic world,

made of fabric in

a purple shadow pattern

threads of moonlight glitter

seams of bare branches

that can cradle me

as I rest.

 

©Sarah Grace Tuttle

 

Well, the frantic world could definitely use a cool comforter!  And we could all do with some rest under threads of moonlight, couldn't we?  Sigh. 

 

Many thanks to Jone and Sarah Grace for these gifts.

 

This year, as I was receiving so many gorgeous, inspired, and inspiring poem postcards (see the last few posts), I got a wild hair.  I thought I'd toss in a chuckle.  So in honor of the Year of the Tyger, which came padding in at the beginning of the week, I had a little fun with "The Tyger" by William Blake (1757-1827).  

 

Poet Poet, burning bright

In the blue computer light

What immortal hand or eye

Could frame thy fearful syntax-y?

...

Did he who made Iambs make thee?

 

©Robyn Hood Black, after, and with apologies to, William Blake

 

(You can find Blake's original illustrated poem, from his Songs of Innocence and Experience, here and the text only here.)

 

To my pen and ink tiger sketch, I filled in with stripes which are actually snippets from Blake's draft of "The Tyger" from one of his notebooks  (copied from a reproduction in Peter Ackroyd's book, BLAKE).  It was helpful to me that Blake had so many scratch-throughs in several lines.  These offered bold horizontal darks, and also gave me comfort that even poetic geniuses make mistakes...;0)

 

Thanks again to Jone for organizing the swap, and here's to poetry running wild in 2022!

 

Now, go pounce on Unexpected Intersections, where Elisabeth is kindly rounding up Poetry Friday this week.

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Poetry Friday - Couple More New Year Poem Postcards!

January 27, 2022
Tags: --poetry, -Poetry Friday, New Year Poem Postcard Project, Carol Labuzetta, Gail Aldous

 

Greetings, Poetry Lovers!

 

More New Year Poem Postcard love this week, thanks to the yearly swap organized by Jone Rush MacCulloch. Lucky for me and my usual time-challenged nature, we can either go the traditional Western New Year's route or pay homage to the Lunar New Year, with its representative animal.  (Feb. 1 will usher in the Year of the Tiger.)  My postcards, finally, are crouched and ready to pounce into the mail this morning.  ;0)

 

Today I share a pair of gems with breathtaking landscape images on one side, and inspiring words on the other. 

 

First, many thanks to Carol Labuzzetta for her gorgeous photograph of the setting moon at Turret Arch in Arches National Park in Utah.  I am drawn right in to that natural wonder in her photograph, and I love how the circle in the rock is mirrored by the bright, round moon on the right!

 

On the other side of her card, beneath a fetching jumping tiger, is this haiku:

 

Eye of the tiger

Keenly seeing the future

Blinking honestly

 

©Carol Labuzzetta

 

(I would welcome more keen eyesight and honesty in the world these days - just sayin'.)

 

Next, please give it up for Gail Aldous, who explains on her postcard that she took this stunning photograph in the Adirondack Mountains, where she and her husband hike and cross-country ski.  She also offers a nod to her cat, whose name is - wait for it - Tigress!

 

The beautiful natural "layers" in her photograph inspired this poem:

 

cloud layers

mountain layers

life layers

joy

 

(draft  ©Gail Aldous)

 

Boy, do those thoughts resonate with me this year!  Layers, indeed.

 

I feel so blessed to be able to do some armchair traveling with these poem postcards - The warm words and wishes inspire me, and the glimpses of life in other ecoysystems and landscapes is magical.  Thanks, Carol and Gail!

 

 

Fellow Southerner Irene Latham has the Roundup this week - and always a million amazing, wonderful things - at Live Your Poem. Thank you for hosting, Irene!

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Poetry Friday - Blue Horizons in Postcards from Margaret And Linda B.

January 20, 2022
Tags: - poetry, -Poetry Friday, Linda Baie, Margaret Simon, New Year Poem Postcard Project, Jone Rush MacCulloch

 

Greetings, Poetry Lovers!  A couple more postcards from our New Year's Poem Postcard Swap, coordinated by the wonderful Jone Rush MacCulloch.

 

Speaking of Jone, please see her poignant haiku featured on The Haiku Foundation's "Haiku of the Day" page for Jan. 13 here - Congratulations, Jone! 

 

This week's additions to the refrigerator door have complementary visuals - I  love that!  Margaret Simon sent a photo postcard with a collage on the front in beautiful blue celestial and warm earth hues.  Having recently seen the traveling interactive Van Gogh exhibit, I enjoyed the bits of Starry Night in this piece!  These envelope a wonderful quote from Emily Dickinson.  The image includes some mountain-y layers in the background under the sun, and a yoga enthusiast under myriads of stars, among other delights.  

 

Her original poem reads:

 

    A new year

     new ideas

  growing buds

 to find a garden

already blooming

 

I love that surprise at the end; the kind of "relief" to feel that we don't always have to start everything from scratch.  I/we might need to take a look around and appreciate what's there. 

 

Linda Baie sent a gorgeous expansive photograph from Colorado - look at those majestic Rockies!  Her greeting reads:

 

     Happy New Year!

Blue Skies Smiling at YOU!

 

I'll take those smiling blue skies, thank you!

 

On the back of her card is a poetic quote from Chandra Kochhar, sentiments that seem to me in keeping with Margaret's inspiring words, too.

 

Here's to smiles and blooms and noticing - wishing you inspirations as you make your way through these winter days. 

 

(And, no - I still haven't sent my poem swap postcards out yet, but working on it.... ;0) )

 

Many thanks to our beloved and multitalented Tabatha for hosting the Roundup this week at The Opposite of Indifference - Enjoy the treasures!

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Poetry Friday - Go See Mary Lee!

January 14, 2022
Tags: -Poetry Friday

 

Hi there - Friday snuck up on me this week, what with working on some freelance writing and Etsy orders and having a hubby under the weather and other family members farther away juggling Omicron (fortunately mild for them). But be sure to enjoy all the tasty poetry being rounded up by our fearless leader, Mary Lee, at A(nother) Year of Reading!

Stay warm and safe this weekend.  Active winter weather looks to be pretty dicey for us Southerners, after it sweeps across the Midwest and before it heads North. Brrr.

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Poetry Friday - Into the LIGHT with Poetry Postcards from Linda M & Mary Lee...

January 6, 2022
Tags: - poetry, -Poetry Friday, Linda Mitchell, Mary Lee Hahn, Sara Teasdale, light poems

 

Greetings, Poetry Lovers!  I hope you're having a good start to the New Year.  

 

I was too smothered in holiday Etsy orders to participate in the Winter Poem Swap this year, but I usually can't resist the call of Jone Rush MacCulloch to join in the New Year poem postcard swap. (It's a lovely way to start the year, and there's usually an optional nod to the Lunar New Year, meaning I have a few extra weeks to get my act together....)

 

What a delight to already receive two postcards from poets way more on the ball than I.  And they both celebrate one of my favorite things:  LIGHT.  (How much am I drawn to light?  I'm probably part moth....)

 

Linda Mitchell has been busy with her art supplies again, including vibrant stampings/printings on her card, and a gorgeous collaged star ornament.  On the front of the postcard, she included a mesmerizing poem by Sara Teasdale from 1926:

 

 

Dark of the Moon

 

There will be stars over the place forever;

Though the house we loved and the street

we loved are lost,

Every time the earth circles her orbit

On the night the autumn equinox is crossed,

Two stars we knew, poised on the peak of mid-night

Will reach their zenith; stillness will be deep;

There will be stars over the place forever,

There will be stars forever, while we sleep.

 

 

And on the back, an original poetic message:

 

Between joy and sorrow,

all I need to do is look up

to know the stars are above you too.

Remember to look up.

Happy New Year!

2022

 

And on the handcrafted star, a found/haiku poem also taking its inspiration from Teasdale's (direct quotes, in fact):

 

stillness will be deep

stars forever while we sleep

circles on the night

 

©Linda Mitchell

 

While Linda's gift has me gazing at the mystical and magical night sky, Mary Lee Hahn's beautiful card has me warming myself in the glow of close-by candlelight. (I love the immediacy of the flames and the texture of the bricks in the background of her original photograph on the card's front.)

 

Mary Lee's poem also takes a haiku turn:

 

each flame provides light

we illuminate this world

us all - together

 

©Mary Lee Hahn

 

Oh, how I hope 2022 can bring the world some much-needed togetherness and warmth for its human inhabitants, guided by starlight and all kinds of light.

 

For more poetic illumination, head over to Beyond Literacy Week, where Carol has 2022's first Roundup!  Thank you, Carol. 

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Poetry Friday - Rainer Maria Rilke Quote for the New Year

December 31, 2021
Tags: - poetry, -Poetry Friday, Rainer Maria Rilke, New Year quote

 

Greetings, Poetry Lovers!  I hope you are enjoying your holidays.  We are still in and out visiting family and grateful for time together.  Just a quote from a poet today - the beloved Rainer Maria Rilke. I discovered the words and their source on this curious quote-gatherer's website here.

 

Here's the whole sentence, written by Rainer Maria Rilke to his wife Clare in a 1907 letter:

 

          And now let us believe in a long year that is given to us, new, untouched, full of things that have never been, full of work that has never been done, full of tasks, claims, and demands; and let us see that we learn to take it without letting fall too much of what it has to bestow upon those who demand of it necessary, serious, and great things.

 

If you like the clicky-tap-tappy sound of a typewriter, feel free to check out the video I put on Instagram (artsylettersgifts) - and click the little volume symbol to unmute it -  or Facebook (artsyletters) with a portion of the above quote.  Just my wish for us all for 2022. (Note - for the first video version I posted, I used my laptop's video editor and added background music from their list of options. It was a Ravel string quartet.  I got an email saying it was removed because of a copyright violation - I didn't know those built-in tracks could violate copyright!  Wouldn't ever do that intentionally.  So, version 2 here is just the keys tapping - and an occasional bong from the windchimes!) 

 

Enjoy this week's Poetry Friday Roundup at Carol's Corner - Thanks for hosting, Carol!

Here's to good health and joy (& lots of poems!) to you and yours in the New Year.

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Poetry Friday - Go Visit Cathy!

December 9, 2021
Tags: -Poetry Friday

Howdy - Still happily covered up in Etsy orders over here and burning too much midnight oil.  I didn't get a post conjured up, but I hope to drop in a few others this weekend.  Enjoy all the poetic goodness over at Merely Day by Day, where Cathy is hosting this week! 

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Poetry Friday - Grandmothers, Yes!

December 2, 2021
Tags: -Poetry Friday, grandmothers, grandmother poem
Vintage illustration courtesy of grandmasgraphics.com

 

Greetings, Poetry Lovers!

 

I hope you and yours had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday last week.  Had such a good time with my kin I didn't even get a chance to check into Poetry Friday!  

 

One of the highlights for our gathering - at our new place on the other side of our state (SC), up in the hills - was that our daughter Morgan and hubby Matt brought a special little box for us to open.  Hint:  they had filled it with items either pink or blue!  And - drumroll.... - it had blue goodies!  We are all expecting the next generation to arrive at the beginning of June, which is convenient for Morgan as a third-grade teacher. ;0)  And we are all grateful for faith and for science and medicine, as that wee little one has been more than three years in the making. 

 

So Jeff and I are about to enter the adventure of grandparenting, and we couldn't be more thrilled. 

 

Naturally, a recent Poem-a-Day from poets.org in my inbox caught my eye.  Maybe you saw it? The title is "no more grandma poems" by Yolanda Wisher. 

 

Here is the opening, and a link for the rest....

 

 

no more grandma poems

 

by Yolanda Wisher

 

they said
forget your grandma
these american letters
don't need no more
grandma poems
but i said
the grandmas are
our first poetic forms
the first haiku
was a grandma

...

 

click here for the rest. 

 

 

My grandmothers were very different from each other.  I loved them both dearly, and see glimpses of both of them in the mirror these days. And I just recently heard about the anthropological research suggesting that grandmothers have been very important in evolutionary history, helping to get the youngest generations on their way to adulthood.  Also, I hadn't even heard of "The Grandmother Hypothesis" - but evidently it's been around as long as I have, (since the '60s).  Just Google it if you're intrigued.

 

Here's to the next generation, and the ones after that.  Let's try to keep the world habitable for them, shall we?

 

Many thanks to my fellow Etsian Michelle Kogan for hosting Poetry Friday this week, with her usual creative panache!

 

PS - I did manage to get an artsyletters newsletter out - Click here if you'd like to read.  And though the CyberWeek savings are over, feel free as a Poetry Friday friend to use Coupon Code NEWSY10 for 10 percent off in my Etsy shop. ;0) It's been a busy place this season!

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Poetry Friday - Wild Peace by Irene Latham and Inversnaid, Too....

November 18, 2021
Tags: -Poetry Friday, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Irene Latham, nature, peace

 

Greetings, Poetry Lovers!  Oh, I've missed you so.  I'm still spinning more plates than logistically possible, but I wanted to express my GRATITUDE for Poetry Friday peeps new and old right here before Thanksgiving, and offer a glimpse into a new book I'm grateful for, too.

 

Last weekend we made a trip over to our new-to-us second home (for which we are beyond thankful) in the colorful foothills of the SC Upstate.  We bought a place on two acres last summer as a way to more readily connect with our busy grown kids, not too far from Asheville (where our son and his girlfriend are) and just a couple of hours up the road from our daughter and her hubby's home in north Georgia.  It's become a welcome respite, not terribly far from civilization but woodsy enough to evoke a sigh, rocking on the front porch gazing at the trees.  Trees which were still blazing gold and red and magic last weekend.

 

I had tucked into my bag the copy of WILD PEACE I'd just bought, written by our own wonderful Irene Latham and illustrated by Il Sung Na (Roaring Brook, 2021.) Our last morning there, though I needed to get back to beat the post office closing time because of Etsy orders, we scheduled a Spectrum repair/service call because that's when we could make it happen.  After the young man left, I stole away for a scant few moments of quiet outside, Irene's book in hand.  (We'd actually spent the whole weekend catching up with friends and family who were either coming through, staying nearby, or otherwise free to meet up in the area.  Blissful visits, but not much downtime!)

 

On a previous trip I'd discovered this random little rock outcropping in the front yard, crouched near trees. I dubbed it "Frog Rock" because, to me, it calls to mind a frog - what do you think?  Anyway, it makes a handy seat for resting and solitary pondering, so I claimed it.  (Though I'd share, too, if you ever come to visit....) I took WILD PEACE down the hill to read and savor it there, even if only for a short time.

 

When the world fills with noise and fury,

and the days pass, 

all rush and scurry, it's time to step into the forest.

 

So begins our character's escape from her busy home - with her loud and busy siblings - into a joy-filled journey through the natural world. The illustrations lead us on, from initial surroundings rendered in gray, into the child's colorful and exubrant artwork, which leads us further still into the vivid, wild woods.

 

I love that all creatures are celebrated:

 

Peace rises on

spindly legs

and coils around

a nest of eggs.

 

Peace expresses itself in all kinds of wondrous ways in the wild - you'll have to read the book yourself to discover more! Here's Irene's post about it from a few weeks ago. 

 

While enjoying the lilting and energetic poem-story, I also thought this book would pair perfectly with (again) our own wonderful Amy Ludwig VanDerwater's FOREST HAS A SONG, illustrated by Robbin Gourley (Clarion/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2013). Learn more about this book here.

 

So I'm grateful to Irene for encouraging me to pause this week for some colorful, quiet moments out in the "wild" - which always take me back to the childhood I've never outgrown, in which I rambled for endless hours in the scrubby, piney, perfect Florida woods. 

 

In our mountain house, which is kind of a Celtic Cabin as it were (rustic decor with nods everywhere to our Scottish, Irish, and British roots), I put up the picture of an excerpt of the Hopkins poem I've shared before, delighted to have discovered it in a public space in Edinburgh during our 2018 family trip. I never tire of it, so please indulge me in another sharing.  (We had the good fortune of visiting Loch Lomond, the site of this poem's subject.)

 


Inversnaid

 

by Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844–89)

THIS darksome burn, horseback brown,
His rollrock highroad roaring down,
In coop and in comb the fleece of his foam
Flutes and low to the lake falls home.

A windpuff-bonnet of fáwn-fróth 
Turns and twindles over the broth
Of a pool so pitchblack, féll-frówning,
It rounds and rounds Despair to drowning.

Degged with dew, dappled with dew
Are the groins of the braes that the brook treads through, 
Wiry heathpacks, flitches of fern,
And the beadbonny ash that sits over the burn.

What would the world be, once bereft
Of wet and of wildness? Let them be left,
O let them be left, wildness and wet; 
Long live the weeds and the wilderness yet.


Yes - Long live the weeds and the wilderness!  

 

Wishing you and yours a Thanksgiving of joy and good health, or comfort in the absence of those.  If you need a little peace, I know just the book to suggest... it would make a great gift! And Irene kindly sent on this link which includes WILD PEACE, FOREST HAS A SONG, and more woodsy wonders.

 

(Speaking of gifts, I'm still planning on getting a holiday artsyletters newsletter out - I've been covered up in orders for weeks, but want to wave hello!  If you'd like to sign up, just click here.)

 

The multi-talented Carol has our Roundup this week at Beyond Literacy Link - Thanks, Carol!  She also has a dazzling autumn gallery to share with contributions from many talented folks, and this Wordsworth quote in the mix:

"Wild is the music of autumnal winds amongst the faded woods."

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Poetry Friday - Go See Matt!

November 11, 2021
Tags: -Poetry Friday

Hi, Friends - First, don't give up on me! ;0). I'm once again tapping out a howdy from the road but plan to be back on track next week. Happily covered up in Etsy orders & trying to get a wee newsletter out. I hope your November is going well! 
Matt has this week's Roundup over at Radio, Rhythm & Rhyme: https://mattforrest.wordpress.com/

Thanks, Matt! 

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