Greetings, Poetry Lovers! One of the best things about starting a new year is looking forward to mailbox surprises thanks to the New Year Poetry Postcard Swap. This adventure is organized by Jone Rush MacCulloch; you can scroll to the end of her recent post to get a sense of the "rules" (and put it on your to-do list for next year, if interested, if you're not participating this year.)
One reason I love this Swap is that it indulges my put-it-off-til-the-last-minute tendencies, as poets can send cards for the Chinese/Lunar New Year if desired. (Give me an inch, and - well, you know.) ;0) This year, the celebrated animal is the wood dragon.
I found a website called TheChineseZodiac.org which says, The Wood Dragon is the most creative and visionary of the dragons.
Others among us are much more together, and I'm already enjoying receiving cards, though mine aren't yet in the mail. I'm sharing three today. (A fourth just arrived - will round it up soon!)
From Patricia J.Franz, a dragon image on one side, and this imagery-filled poem on the other:
Benevolent One
Bless the desert hare your winged shadow,
the thirsty herd safe river cross.
Replenish the lakes your rippled tears,
toss the seas - ships demure
And bless us wide horizons,
the health and strength to cross them.
©Patricia J. Franz
Janice Scully sent a beautiful photo of the Pacifica, California, coastline with this poem:
The New Year begins
as quiet and inevitable
as a wave
©Janice Scully
As you might know, Mary Lee Hahn has been creating all kinds of wonderful art and items since retiring a couple-few years ago from being a regular classroom teacher, among other endeavors. Her wonderful card features a handmade print in blue ink: YOU CAN DO HARD THINGS. Its delicious carving marks offer the texture I adore in printmaking.
Here is her handwritten poem on the reverse:
Summon up bravery...
dismantle hesitation...
BEGIN!
(you've got this)
©Mary Lee Hahn
Many thanks to these three fine humans and talented poets/artists for these gifts. I'm always inspired by these greetings, and in need of the inspiration and encouragement they bring! I'll appreciate blessings, acknowldege the quiet inevitable, and summon up some bravery here at the beginning of a new year, and a new year around the sun for me starting next week. ;0)
Now head over to Chicken Spaghetti, where the insightful Susan is helping us celebrate the Año Nuevo, with a poem inspired by a prompt from The Writing Sisters. And, she's rounding us all up! Thanks, Susan.