I’ve been following a number of different poetry projects this month. My friend and fellow Inkling Catherine Flynn is using a form she is modeling after a book Q is for Duck to write short poems about Hope. We can all use more hope these days, so today I am borrowing her form.
I’m traveling today in Mississippi from Jackson where I grew up and my mother and brother still live to Hattiesburg for the Fay Kaigler Book Festival where I’ll be presenting on Friday. I won’t have much time to respond to poem posts, but I invite you to drive along the southern highways and see the buttercups in bloom. Write your own poem in whatever form you choose in the comments. Support other writers with encouraging responses.
B is for Hope
because
buttercups bloom
Margaret Simon, draft
along the roadside,
opening pink palms
to a foggy morning
inviting me to … presence.
The Progressive Poem is with Dave Roller, Leap Of Dave.
Reflections on the Teche 
Oh I love the B is for Hope and buttercups are so pretty. I did not realize the came in colors other than yellow, so have learned something. Enjoy the wonderful poetry festival it always sounds so good to me. They are lucky to have you. PRESENCE, an issue in the rushed pace we sometimes or too often forget to be. Their foggy palms lifted, a beautiful picture and pose , almost a prayer. Thank you, Margaret.
Here is mine. I have been to see Catherine’s blog. I love it and that you incorporated it here.
F is for Hope
Forsythia.
My father’s favorite.
Bursting yellow
dotting roadsides
gentle branches
waving to us
twisty and elegant
telling us spring has sprung.
He smiles like the sun.
Enjoy everything and your presentation which I wish I could see.
Lovely poem for your dad remembering a favorite bloom of his, and you’ve captured the wispy movement of them too, thanks Janet!
Thank you, Michelle. I miss my dad almost always though it has been so long, but it is a kind of missing I can cope with and rejoice in his love, guidance, sacrifice, teaching and music so it is not the awfulness it could be. I appreciate your lovely comment. I was thinking of how I could describe that sort of free flowing beauty of the natural and not “trimmed” forsythia!
I also didn’t realize that buttercups aren’t always yellow.
I have forsythia in my yard that always welcomes spring. Your poem’s tribute to your father is lovely. “He smiles like the sun” is a beautiful ending.
Lovely…and I especially like how the blooms bring memories!
The connection between Forsythia and your father’s smile is heart-warming.
Lovely poem and animated pic Margaret, thanks for sharing all! Hope you enjoy the Book Fest.
B is for hope
Because
It invites an
Imaginary field
Filled with buttercup’s
Pink puff delight
Touching us all!
Michelle Kogan, draft
Thanks for inviting me to this imaginary field filled with buttercups, Michelle!
I didn’t read your poem before writing (honest!) but we both saw pink puffs!
Yes to these imaginary fields filled with buttercups and all their delightfulness, Michelle. This reminds me of I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud by Wordsworth, “for oft upon my couch I lie in vacant or in pensive mood, they flash upon that inward eye which is the bliss of solitude and then my heart with pleasure fills and dances with the daffodils” or buttercups or forsythia!!!! Noticing, being present, honoring, soothing, all the rest. Poets and artists and writers and others who notice are the lucky ones in this respect I think!!!! I like your sweet poem and bet you could make some lovely art for these poems today!!! All best!
Thanks Janet, I like the Wordsworth connection/passage and yes they’d make a lovely image—short on time presently though…
Ah yes, the Wordsworth thing at work then!!! I think we really need to find happiness however we can do it!! End the despair of too many maybe…..
“Inviting me to presence”–yes!
Enjoy the book festival, Margaret. And thanks for inviting us to travel down thoe southern roads with you.
Buttercups wave
hello,
greet passersby
who stop
for the joy
of just being.
Love those final two lines–they capture spring!
Another joyful moment of presence or being. I think wildflowers do that naturally.
Love your poem, Margaret. I will play:
P is for Joy
Radiating the joy of springtime
pink petals perfume
the air,
petioles puffing
in the breeze.
Love all those P’s
Oh the pretty scenes spring brings. My favorites besides the yellow bursts of daffodils and forsythia are the beautiful pink buds on trees all around. Even though they only last a short while, they make my heart sing and my eyes rejoice from the “pleasant” sights.
Love the alliteration! And I learned a new word–petioles! Love when that happens.
Enjoying Janet’s gently waving Forsythia and Michelle’s imaginary pink puffs…also love Margaret’s B is for Hope… lovely photo too. Thanks all.
Here is mine…
Pink petals
fling hope
heavenward,
then bask
in bright
expectation
Karen Eastlund, draft
Lovely alliteration.
I love “bask in bright expectation” it brings into perspective the hope that nature and the change of seasons (for some of us) and the beauty of the outdoors can be great for our health! And those petals flinging hope heavenward…..so true!
I love these flowers although they spread quickly and can take over flower beds. I love how you wrote that the flowers are an invitation to presence. This is something I am trying to be more aware of.
native wildflower
from wayward wind-caught seedlings
primrose tsunami