National Poetry Month 2018
I didn’t post yesterday. I needed a day off. The week was long, and my well was dry. I took the day for myself. I started with a much needed yoga class. I’d been away from this practice for too long. I had lunch with my daughter and son-in-law, then ventured over to an art show, The Big Easel. There I saturated myself with art and art talk. After the art show, I had a luxurious massage. I feel a twinge of guilt about this indulgence, but my monthly massages keep me healthy and pain free.
When I arrived back home, I watched hummingbirds at the feeder and other birds around the bayou and just chilled out. My notebook was nearby, so I did write a poem. I was comforted in knowing the muse hadn’t left. I just needed to fill the well back up.
Quilt painting by T. Chase Nelson
One of the artists I talked with painted the painting I am featuring today for ekphrastic poetry, T. Chase Nelson. When I first saw the painting, I thought it was a quilt. He explained to me that his inspiration was the quilts of Gee’s Bend. I am familiar with these quilts through a fellow poet-blogger Irene Latham who wrote Leaving Gee’s Bend.
For my poem, I took a line from Elisabeth Ellington’s Poem “Where do you Come From?” She wrote that each line of her poem was the translated name of a real place. I responded that each line sounded like the title of a poem, so I took one to begin my poem and used it as a title first line.
Land Beside the Silvery River
where Nettie sews pieces
together like a life
of patchy soil, a garden with
a shady oak and a rope swing
for the grandchillen’ coming
for supper.Across the river, life
rolls onto a highway.
But in Gee’s Bend,
an inlet of fertile soil,
life slows to the rhythm
of the silvery river.–Margaret Simon (c) 2018
Reflections on the Teche 
I like the circularity of your poem Margaret, and how it slows down and finds its home in “Gees Bend.”
Sounds like a full and rich day Saturday! I spent some time yesterday with family also, at the Lincoln Park Conservatory—indoor gardens built at the turn of the century. One room has huge palms and tropical plants, another ferns and moss, and another orchids—it’s gorgeous!
Michelle, Sounds like a lovely place to visit. My youngest daughter lived in Chicago for 4 years doing graduate work. We visited the Lincoln Park Zoo on one of our visits.
I love the multi-faceted inspiration behind this poem. It all fits together so well that without your explanation, I never would have guessed that inspiration came from a little of this & a little of that. I also really like the opening lines of the poem “where Nettie sews pieces
together like a life
of patchy soil”
That image, the specificity of the name, the sewing and the soil, it really hit me. I felt that I knew exactly what you were talking about.
Thanks. This is high praise. I find when I use specificity, the image of the poem becomes more real. Thanks for seeing that.
Like Amanda, I liked hearing the way you put the poem together. Despite the artist saying his painting was not a quilt but inspired by those of Gee’s Bend, your poem is a quilt, all those parts (words) sewn together beautifully.
This poem sent me to research quilts of Gee’s Bend–just gorgeous! So glad you found a line in my found poem. I enjoyed the story of inspiration here and Linda’s connection of quilting to the way you put the poem together.