Do you love to travel? I do, but my travel this year has been vicariously through a Facebook group called “Women Who Keep Traveling.” This week, Jan posted a call for photos in different color schemes. “Show us something green from the travel pics on your phone. The more random the better.”
I enjoyed scrolling through the random photos. This one appealed to me for our week’s prompt. The photo comes from Crystal Bridges Museum in Bentonville, AR taken by Aimée Dominique.
Would you like to try a new form? My student Chloe invented a form she calls a Penta-poem with the syllable count of 5,4,3,2,1,2,3,4,5. She also thought about calling it an hourglass poem because the resulting poem looks like an hour glass.
Please share your poem drafts in the comments and write encouraging replies on other poems.
A maze of red hills
Margaret Simon, draft
dancing landscape
ribbon stream
Seuss-like
dream
wonder
fantasy
hallway jungle
unique artistry
Reflections on the Teche 
I like hallway jungle! I’ve seen a few of those in my day. Chloe, I love the idea of an hour glass in your new form…what a neat way to play with words and time. Way to go, YOU! Bravo. You and Mrs. Simon must have so much fun together!
Veins
pumping
Blood away
from our center
to our horizons
lub dub lub dub
seeking paths
rounding
bends
Oh, a reverse pento! Lub dub, lub dub…I see your perspective of veins coming from the heart. Isn’t it fun how abstract art can have so many different impressions?
I like your poem a lot, Linda. Especially “to our horizons” and “seeking paths” and “rounding bends”….the poem stands alone yet is enhanced by the lovely artwork in the photo Margaret chose. Did you write it this am as a reverse pento on the fly? Wonderful. I want to try. PS In the computer chaos that is my life currently I lost my first reply to you…..I hope there are not triples that will magically appear later!
Janet Clare F.
Wow, Linda! Your poem is fascinating. I love the beating “lub dub lub dub” and I hear it! Good POV. I can see “seeking paths” and “rounding bends” in the mural. Well done, thank you.
Oops. It did not format. I have a new computer and had to sign in again to WP and forgot the password and had to do that again, so at least I have learned to copy my comment so as not to lose it.
So here’s my poem.
Mind Dance
Thoughts unspoken
spill deep inside.
Tiny nerve cells,
intricately patterned,
react and fly.
Letting in light.
Comment:
So interesting I saw brain cells and Linda saw circulatory ones. Margaret’s ribbon hills of art and wonder. How delightful this photo. I love that group you are part of. AND Chloe’s poem form. That is fabulous and I want to try. Margaret, have you or are you planning a post on your blog about that? I want to share her idea and give full credit!!! Thanks for your energy, Margaret. I love when I am able to write on Thurs. mornings!!
I hope I deleted the right comments. I do love how all of our perspectives are different. I like how you kept the dance metaphor going.
Mind Dance
Thoughts unspoken
spill deep inside.
Tiny nerve cells,
intricately patterned
react and fly.
Letting in light.
So interesting that I saw brain cells and Linda saw circulatory ones. Margaret’s ribbon hills of art and wonder, too. How delightful this photo. I love that travel group you are part of And Chloe’s poem. How creative to invent a form, and I want to try to write one. Have you or are you planning to feature Chole’s form on your blog? Thanks for your energy, Margaret. I love when I am able to write on Thurs. mornings!!
Janet, I love your whole concept and “Mind Dance” seems like a perfect name! “Spill deep inside” jumps out at me. I can see that line and it’s so true, especially since the pandemic started. Love your positive ending “letting in light.” Great job.
Thank you, Gail. I have been interested in learning more and there is so much written about the amazing function of the brain and the mind. Almost from the time I was in college…….but beginning in earnest in the later 1970s. I have read a lot and taken courses. Yet so much to learn. I particularly am interested in memory and also in helping my students (though retired, I sub and on occasion will tutor which I love) recognize how they can work to grow their brains. I have good success with that. I could go on so this photo spoke to me immediately about those tangled cell photos of neurons and their dendrites!!!! And the split second ability of our thinking and reacting….it is amazing and to watch our grandchildren growing. (PS were/are you a teacher, Gail?)
Janet, this is a response to your response below. I enjoyed reading your response and hearing your excitement. Yes, I was a teacher and now I substitute, also, though I’m not currently. I have always been interested and fascinated with the functions of our brains and minds, too. Yes, there is so much to learn about our brains and it’s amazing they haven’t even discovered everything our brains are capable of doing. I agree that the split second ability of our thinking and reacting is amazing to watch in children. I don’t have grandchildren, yet. Hopefully in a few years.
Margaret, thanks for sharing Chloe’s new pento poem. It was fun to ponder where my thoughts would take flight. I chose life paths since my journey is leading in that direction.
life in the fast lane
series of curves
overhanging
swirling
roads
endless
life pathways
to cross over
in the new normal
©CV, 2020
Thanks for taking on the challenge of this form. I’ll share with Chloe. I understand that endless pathway to cross over. I hope things get easier for you on this journey.
Thank you, Margaret. I appreciate your support.
Carol, are you implying a roller coaster? I saw a roller coaster in the painting. When I read your poem aloud, your words ending in letter /s/ and /ing/ seem to have the effect of making the poem read faster as your first line “life in the fast lane” implies. Impressive. I wish you positivity, light, and a slower pathway.
Gail, while I like the idea of a roller coaster image, I did not think of this when writing. I live on Long Island, NY and life always seems to be in the metaphorical sense, in the fast line-a hurried life. In my case, I have many personal issues and pathways to take and the balls I am juggling are too many. Thanks for responding.
Carol and Gail….having grown up where Carol now lives and she grew up near where I now live….talk about flip-flop, I can understand how Gail would feel the roller coaster. Driving on some of those Long Island roadways….phew….the traffic makes it feel like a true roller coaster. Main roads are different from when I grew up there where I lived in a slightly sleepier time road-wise. There are also gorgeous more country roads up north near LI Sound and the Gold Coast area where I am from, and then the roads out by the ocean and east end both forks……and then all that juggling of life. But there is such peace at the ocean, right? PS I am going to try to work mine into a Pento. I didn’t have time yesterday. Or try another. Thanks to Chloe and Margaret!
To Margaret, Linda, and Janet, your pathways to a pento poem were different but held such creative thoughts.
Margaret: dancing landscape/ribbon stream
Linda: from our center/to our horizons
Janet: intricately patterned/react and fly
Imagine our world
Created in
Curves, rather
Than straight
Lines
Defined
By greens, browns
Oranges. Alive.
Imagine that world.
I love the circular structure of this. It reminds me of think outside the box but better, think in curvy lines!
Amanda, I like imagining our world “created in curves” and “alive.” “Alive” speaks out loudly to me here. Are your “straight lines” referring to a flat line when someone dies? Powerful poem! Thank you for making me think and imagine.
Amanda, a world of curves is filled with many sleek turns as opposed to a straight pathway. “Alive” is a key word. Right now the world does not seem alive. Life is tough. People are isolated. I do imagine a world alive again with options and curves.
I think that the curves life sends our way make those straight lines sometimes take a back seat to reality. Maybe even creativity. Some love the precision and comfort of a schedule and the straight way to a goal . It’s a comfort. But curves, they make us wonder what is around the bend…and so often a surprise. Your poem made me think, Amanda. And a nice Pento!
[…] « This Photo Wants to be a Poem […]
Margaret, please tell Chole I enjoyed writing with her new form and congratulations! The painting does look like “a maze of red hills” and “Seuss-like.” I love “ribbon stream” and “dancing landscape.” Thank you, Margaret and Chloe.
When I looked at the mural all I could think of was mountains, leaves and hiking because Autumn is my favorite time to hike in the Adirondack Mountains. I saw myself hiking up the mountain on the left side of the painting. At the top of the painting on the left side, I’m on the summit gazing at the mountains below.
I gaze at mountains
painted red, gold,
orange, blue sky
from the
top,
summit,
meditate,
write poetry,
my happy escape.
Gail Aldous 2020
Thanks for trying out the form. I love your ending with “my happy escape.”
Thank you, Margaret. It was fun.
Ah, the Adirondack Mts. – a happy place to feel peace away from the maddening crowd. You took me there, Gail.
Good, I’m glad, Carol.
Ah, the beauty of the glory of fall atop a mountain especially in the Adirondacks……and to write poetry there. Do you hike the peaks? I don’t but love being close enough to visit and enjoy the scenery. I dream about being able to go into a cafe and write my poetry. So nice to see a Pento poem, too.
Yes, Janet, I do hike peaks. I love being immersed in nature and hiking a mountain is a great way to keep your senses alert and be in the moment of all nature. After the exertion of the climb, when you finally reach the summit you feel euphoric. Thank you.
I tried a Pento by subtly changing my poem.
Mind Dance
Thoughts still unspoken,
spill deep inside.
Nerve cells
laced
richly
intricate,
react and fly.
Letting in the light
Margaret,
I hope you might share this with Chloe and let her know she had an affect on me! And a thank you for her creativity!
JCF
*in the light.
I will definitely share this with Chloe. Don’t you love how a form helps you to hone in on word choice? I love the addition of laced richly.
Janet, perfect Pento! I agree with Margaret. I love the lines “laced richly intricate.”