Summer is here with peaceful mornings before temperatures rise. This image popped up on my Instagram feed. My friend, Jen Gray, owns a farm in Breaux Bridge, LA where she rents two houses for artist retreats. Unfortunately, I haven’t made my usual retreat there this year. I miss this place.
Jen’s photographic eye fascinates me. This photo has so much to offer, a foggy sunrise and dewdrop spider web. What will you write about? Please leave a small poem in the comments and comment on other poems. Thanks for stopping by.
What remains from
Margaret Simon, flash draft
a slow walk in the field?
Dewdrop tears
for a peaceful world.
A note about process: While writing my flash draft, I typed in about 21 words. In cutting it to 15, I found what the poem really wanted to say. There’s something to be said for small poems.
What shape?
asked spider
spinning her web
Me, said Sun
Drops, drawled Dew
Cloud, cried sky
Spider has many
friends.
-Linda M. draft
Spider and Friends create something beautiful together, Linda – just as you have!
I can hear Dew’s drawl!
Spider has friends in important places… That’s fun and ominously telling too…
This poem made me think of Charlotte’s Web and all her friends!
What a fun poem!
I love the playful direction of this poem.
Oh Linda, I can hear spider and his friends conversing and making plans to beautify the world not only with his web but also your poem!! I love the fun of it and how children will relate and enjoy it. It will lend itself to a fun interpretive read or maybe some part-taking, too. A poem that can live on the page and the stage. Delightful.
Linda, I like how your personification makes your poem fun. Perfect for young children!
I love all the voices! Ruth, thereisnosuchthingasagodforsakentown.blogspot.com
Love this photo and the dew drop tears…peaceful world. Amen
Beautiful photo and beautiful flash draft, Margaret. Powerful testimony to less words being more. Almost a prayer. Mine’s not quite as trimmed – first attempt at a non-rhyming loop poem:
Sunrise feels like hope
Hope for a new day
Day of repairing damage done
Done to one another
Another day to try
Try starting afresh
Afresh with distilling dew
Dew droplets glittering like diamonds
Diamonds of dedication in the light
Light illuminating the torn web
Web of our intricate interconnectedness.
-Thank you for such inspiration this morning.
I will have to try this format, Fran. Love how it kept your thoughts circling – lovely.
Thank you, Rose ❤️
“Sunrise feels like hope.” Yes, yes it does. Ruth, thereisnosuchthingasagodforsakentown.blogspot.com
I like the turn in the closing lines of your poem Fran, our web of “interconnectedness.”
This is deeply beautiful. This makes me think about how our actions, or damage done to one another, affect others in that interconnectedness. Your words always make me think and feel and reflect. Thank you!
I love how each poet sees a detail I missed. I missed the tear in the web. This is a great form, like a chorus, yet each new line leads to a new thought. It’s important for us to realize our interconnectedness.
Fran, I have never tried a loop poem and you have done a wonderful version. I agree with the others and that interconnectedness exists and if we could only feel it and thrive in it rather than rail against others, it would be a much better world and happier place. Starting afresh….that is hopeful. Your poem followed its own clever webbing.
Fran, I hope you can see my comment on your poem that I love. I must have not clicked on reply by your name. My comment came up way down after everyone’s comment. Sorry. Your poem has inspired me to try this challenging form. Thank you.
I went back to see and I thank you so much for every word, Gail – delighted to see you sharing your work!
I love this photo, Margaret. Thank you for sharing it and your wish for a peaceful world.
dew on a web
beckons to a world
drenched in possibility –
what will we choose?
I love the call to action in your last line and by the words ‘drenched in possibility.” This is where hope rises!
drenched in possibility is lovely
Rose, I love “drenched in possibility.” I hope we can begin to see the possibilities and not just the limits.
I love how your day and your web beckons to so much possibility. Hope gives us possibility and we do need to choose wisely. Each moment is valuable.A lovely poem for a lovely photo.
Beautifully true, Rose. Each day IS drenched in possibility – the key word to me is “choose” – what will we make of this world?
Rose, ooh you have packed in so much meaning! Love how you have given us a possibility and a choice. I can’t get your, drenched in possibility, out of my mind.
Webs of Hope
Sunlight spoke silently,
day slipped on her dewy gown.
Silvery silken threads of light.
washed dark away.
I wrote after only viewing the photo and now have read the other poems. This beautiful photo sparked a lot of thinking about connection and beauty and life. The lessons we can learn from nature, if only we listen, absorb, act. Thank you, Margaret for this.
The personification of “her dewy gown” is perfect! And wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could wash all the dark away!
Love the idea of Day getting dressed in finery.
I love the personification of the sun and the day. Thanks for joining in.
Thank you, Margaret. I love your line about the dewdrop tears we are shedding for a peaceful and just world. You honed your flash poem to a clear essence.
Such lovely personification, Janet – I think of the Sun and its gentleness in Aesop’s fable … and Day being a great lady … and overcoming the night. There’s healing in it.
Janet, I love how your personification and alliteration of nature wash away the dark! Powerful. I agree with you about the lessons from nature. Thankfully, so many of you pass nature’s lessons to the children in your lives.
Thank you, Gail. Nature, Mary Oliver’s writing among others and also the work of Brian Cambourne, a leading learning theorist, do you know him? He was working on writing about literacy using the lens of biology. He gave a talk on it but not sure it is yet published. Intriguing. I think (as a lifelong teacher) that in forgetting the essence of development in its natural state we do harm to children. Especially in the testing era. I would love to see more help for new parents on literacy and learning in the infant and at home and then schools that do not insist on rigid curriculum (while maintaining the highest standards for children’s growth in a child-centered way). And of course for me poetry would be the heart of the classroom. I will look for you on fb, if you are there. I am Janet Clare there. I loved the poems and photo for today. I am so glad Margaret is carrying on this wonderful tradition after Laura Purdie Salas decided to “retire” this year. Margaret is something!!! Brilliant teacher and writer. And noticer.
Thanks Margaret for the intriguing image, with layered imagery—and for your “ Dewdrop tears” filled with hope.
I like the challenge of fewer words.
pearlized web
unravel, and shower
light and change…
Michelle Kogan
And may our world be showered with light and change!
I love the image of a “pearlized web.”
I love the pearlized web…Thanks for joining in today.
The idea of showering “light” and “change” is both energetic and peaceful … action lying in the unraveling … so much in so few words, Michelle!
Yes, Michelle, the spreading of light and change….your poem touches the essence of what I felt when I saw this photo right away. Lovely.
Michelle, wow, so much meaning in eight words! It’s like a powerful prayer. I love how you saw the dew droplets as pearlized! Each word flows beautifully to the next word.
Good morning! When I participate in this Thursday spark of writing, I always write mine before I read the other poems because I don’t want to be influenced. But it seems as though this picture has brought out similar sentiments!
dew-laden hope
stands strong
in the morning mist
and rises above
broken dreams
Beautiful picture! Margaret – your “dewdrop tears for a peaceful world” is such an important wish. May we all find peace in today.
I understand this process. Now that I am the one posting, I have the advantage of being first. Sometimes when you read others, you can be intimidated to try it. I like when our poems interconnect in this way. Thanks for joining in.
Oh I so agree, Leigh Anne. Isn’t it interesting how so many of our poems follow such a similar line? I love that hope can rise above broken dreams. It must, it must. Your poem stands strong for hope.
I love this phrase “dew-laden,” Leigh Anne. And the hope contained in “stands strong” and most of all rising above “broken dreams” – maybe daring to dream anew.
Oh my, Leigh Anne, I love each line and your alliteration! “Dew-laden hope” drew me in and then it “stands strong” like a web does, in “morning mist,” such imagery “and rises above broken dreams” amazing! Your whole poem is a powerful metaphor.
Gray looms over
a tattered tangle
of wrongs
New light emerges
shifting views
Era of justice born
Be the light
I like that rising above
Oh my, the photo, everyone’s poems and comments are all sunshine! Jen’s photo perfectly captures nature’s beauty! I agree about a small poem; each word has a purpose. Margaret, I like how you start your poem in a question. Your, dewdrop tears/ for a peaceful world are so powerful they almost brought me to tears. I wrote my haiku right after I read yours, before I looked at anyone else’s poem, and all I could think about was the beauty.
sunrise
dew droplet spiderweb
beaded jewelry
Now, after I have read everyone’s poems they definitely influenced me to write two more poems with more meaning! Wow, this has been an amazing workshop! Thank you, Margaret, Jen, and everyone else! Margaret, are you still looking for pics for your, This Photo Wants to Be a Poem?
Oh my, the photo, poems, and comments are like sunshine! I feel like I went to an amazing workshop! Thank you Margaret, Jen, and everyone. Margaret, I like how you start your poem with a question, which draws the reader in. Your next two lines are powerful! I wrote my haiku before I looked at anyone else’s poem and all I could think of was the photo’s beauty.
sunrise
dew droplet spiderweb
beaded jewelry
After I read everyone’s poems and comments I wrote two meaningful poems. Thank you all.
I love beaded jewelry. Nice imagery. This photo invites a haiku, poem of presence. Thanks for participating.
Thank you, Margaret. All of you inspire me so much!
Yes, Gail. I saw those diamonds and did not want to use the word, tried to come up with an image that could fit with the other bits I was thinking about. I love your choice of beaded jewelry….those beads held the hope I was seeing. So perfect in their orb. This was a wonderful exercise and I try to participate when I can. It is nice to see how it all plays out and I learn a lot, too.
Thank you, Janet. I agree it was a wonderful exercise and exciting how it turns out. Your images are indeed “webs of hope.” Now, I see a woodland fairy in your poem, also!
I would love jewelry like this to wear
Thank you, Linda. It would be unique.
Gail – I thought of beads also, and what they might represent – the creation of something beautiful, and adorning. Your poem imparts that.
Fran, wow! Your words ring with truth of our world. Yet, you have weaved in hopefulness, beauty, and connected us all!
[…] Morning Web by Jen Gray on “This Photo Wants to Be Poem,” Reflections on the Teche, Margaret […]
Spiderweb doorway
Leads out into morning light
Through sparkling droplets
Ruth, thereisnosuchthingasagodforsakentown.blogspot.com
Hi Ruth,
Yes, that has a doorway, I see it now…..it’s like an arch of clarity to start the day. Lovely haiku. Hope you are doing ok. Have not seen your postings of late, will go and check.