Life on the Deckle Edge
Greetings, Poetry Lovers!
Short and sweet today with a big shout-out to Stanford Forrester and bottle rockets! Congrats on 25 years (50 issues) of this wonderful journal. Here's to the next 25....
Always honored to have a poem included, and here's one I have in this issue:
just a number
rainwater seeps into
my boots
The amazing Tabatha has the Roundup today at The Opposite of Indifference. Thank you, Tabatha!
Greetings, Poetry Lovers! I'm finishing up my annual crazy week north of Atlanta doing school author visits, as part of Cobb EMC & Gas South's Literacy Week. More than a dozen authors and illustrators fan out across the region reaching around 20,000 kids. My personal tally this week is more than 2500 students, in 24 presentations. Whew! (It's been fun sharing the new book of Fables I wrote for Core Essential Values with all these young readers & writers.)
So a very short post today, with an even shorter poem. Next week brings us All Saints Day on Wednesday.
This haiku appears in the most recent issue of bottle rockets.
all saints day a trickle of wax
©Robyn Hood Black
bottle rockets, #49. Vol. 25.1, August 2023.
Enjoy all the wonderful poems over at The Apples in My Orchard, where Carol is kindly hosting the Roundup today. Wishing you and yours a fun Halloween, and also comfort as we remember our own "saints" especially missed this time of year.
Greetings, Poetry Lovers! Happy February...
Last Friday I was on the road back and forth (again!) to our Upstate SC house, where we are moving permanently in coming weeks. Though life has been chaos for many weeks (Okay, months...) somehow my hubby pulled off a surprise party on Saturday for my 60th birthday (on Monday). I knew my kids would be visiting, but I didn't know that several dear friends who live in that general region - plus our contactors who are making our basement into a magical living/working space there - would be showing up for lunch & cake! What a treat, and getting to share the surprise and celebration with the Baby Grand - who enjoyed my gift of a wonderful old Remington typewriter - made it even more special.
Another fun surprise was the new issue of bottle rockets which came a little early, ahead of upcoming postal rate hikes. Honored to have a poem in it, which kinda relates to this whole getting older thing. [I'm grateful for every birthday, and I loved what one friend commented on Facebook: "Welcome to the next level." Ha!]
Also, I suppose this haiku relates to moving as well, as I remember composing it during a gentle rain here in the Lowcountry. I will miss this place.
just beyond
memory's reach
soft rain in the woods
©Robyn Hood Black
bottle rockets, #48, February 2023
Many thanks to the oh-so-talented Laura for hosting us all this week, and for filling February with poetry all month long....
Greetings, Poetry Lovers! I've missed everyone the last week or two as I was traveling for my annual (completely crazy) week of author school visits as part of Cobb EMC and Gas South Literacy Week north of Atlanta. Always great to catch up with folks there, and the dozen or more of us authors end up seeing between 20,000 and 30,000 kids in those five days. I had 22 presentations between Monday and Friday. Whew! But thrilled to share the poetry love.
Today I'm sharing a couple of recently published haiku. I couldn't help featuring the adorable picture of my daughter, Morgan, and their precious little one, Sawyer. He made an awfully cute pumpkin for Halloween. The first poem was written when I was with them this summer, helping out during his first month.
new mother's whisper
the strength
of spidersilk
Frogpond, Vol. 45:3, Autumn 2022
And this one, well - I guess it speaks for itself.
resurrection fern
my long list
of shortcomings
bottle rockets #47, Vol. 20, No. 1 (August 2022)
Poems ©Robyn Hood Black. All rights reserved.
I hope your November is off to a good start. The ever-amazing Heidi at My Juicy Little Universe is hosting Poetry Friday this week. Thank you, Heidi!
Greetings, Poetry Lovers!
I had something else planned for this week, but, alas - glitches and car issues and such, so it can emerge later.
And speaking of plans yet to come to fruition, I had many more Valentine-y items I was going to make for my artsyletters shop this year, but they'll keep, too. I did get some new things in the shop and posted on Instagram, including the freshly baked necklace above with vintage letter charms I couldn't resist working with. (Listing coming this eve.)
On a heavier note, I've tuned in to a fair bit of the impeachment trial this week. I can't imagine the trauma felt by those who were there, as they relive the events of the insurrection and perhaps learn new things themselves about it. I generally keep politics out of my blog posts, but I do not agree with one my state's (SC) vocal US Senators, who recently stated he is "ready to move on." Regardless of the trial's outcome, as a country we need to acknowledge what happened, give voice to lives lost and others forever altered, with gratitude for the amazing courage and bravery shown on Jan. 6 by those who faced the mob. Oh, and make the effort to preserve our democratic republic.
So now that I've changed the tone, I'll share a somber haiku just published in bottle rockets.
one blue feather
then another
then the pile
©Robyn Hood Black. All rights reserved.
bottle rockets Vol. 22, No. 2 (Issue #44)
I was hoping to make this the year I jumped back into Cornell's Great Backyard Bird Count, but that might have to wait another year, too. Or maybe I can participate a little bit?! Anyone can join in and help keep track of our amazing feathered earthly comanions. (I did learn to identify a new visitor to my new bird feeder this week, using The Cornell Lab's wonderful phone app- a pine warbler!)
Thanks for reading along and making safe spaces for the gamut of human (and bird) experiences. Be sure to visit the lovely Molly at Nix the Comfort Zone for this week's Roundup. (She happens to include a Mary Oliver poem about one of my favorite birds, the Carolina Wren.)
Greetings, Poetry Lovers! I'm still catching up after "losing" a month-plus of work/outside life (see last week's post), but I look forward to catching up on Poetry Friday rounding, and here's a muster of a short post for this week.
You know I'm a big fan of Stanford Forrester and his journal of short verse, bottle rockets. I'm always delighted when a poem of mine appears in its pages. Here's my haiku in the latest issue, bottle rockets #43:
solitary walk
the rhyming couplets
of a brown thrasher
©Robyn Hood Black. All rights reserved.
bottle rockets, Vol. 22, No. 1, August 2020.
(I just love the cover of this current issue!)
I also love birds, and am particularly fond of the glorious music provided by the Brown Thrasher, state bird of our former digs in Georgia. One game I play on walks is to see how quickly I can determine if the notes I'm hearing are from a Northern Mockingbird or a Brown Thrasher. The lovely gray Mockingbirds are easier to spot, as they perch out in the open and frequently engage in flashy chases. Brown Thrashers, with their speckled russet garb and striking yellow eyes, are more likely to be kicking around in the scrub or tucked behind leaves in a treetop. But ther songs - Oh! Listen for complex imitations of other birds, but usually with each line repeated once. So, two lines of this song, two lines of that.... :0)
Current affairs can feel overwhelming. Maybe a walk to listen to birds would be good medicine for us all.
Wishing you birdsong among the din this week! The lovely Ramona is rounding up lots of poetic sounds for us at Pleasures From the Page. (Thanks, Ramona!)