Linda Mitchell challenged the Inklings this month to write a prose piece and use it to create a poem. I thought of how much the Poetry Friday community nurtures me and keeps me writing, so my prose and poem are in praise of you, my Poetry Friday peeps.
Because our kindred spirits meet each week, we read, internalize, explore words, thoughts and meanings from our virtual friends who write their hearts out, who transform small things into murmurations echoing through cyberspace.
In the sky of our world, words are offered up like kites in the wind, flipping to and fro, and sometimes taking flight, yet always tethered to its person– a human trying to make sense of the world, to take an ordinary day and make it shine like the sun or peek out from the clouds like the full moon.
I am honored by their presence inside my computer, by their comments that urge me onward or rest with me in grief. I cannot measure their worth with a single gesture. I can only take it all in as a gift, a surprise, or a nod that means everything will be fine. I am not alone. Hope is with me.
Kindred spirits meet
Margaret Simon
Move like a murmuration
Spreading cyber-hope.
To see how other Inklings approached this challenge, visit these sites:
Linda @A Word Edgewise
Heidi @my juicy little universe
Molly @Nix the Comfort Zone
Catherine @Reading to the Core
Mary Lee @A(nother) Year of Reading
Reflections on the Teche 
Margaret, I love the passage — those kites we lift! — and the way you distilled it in your poem. Here’s to murmuration and cyber-hope! xo
Beautiful Margaret, your closing haiku flows and ties all thoughts together effortlessly, and I especially like the alliterating m’s, thanks!
Margaret, your prose is just as lovely as your poem. Thank you for sharing. You are an inspiration.
Lovely to think of us in far flung places still managing to move gracefully together.
I love your comparison to a murmuration, Margaret, all who fly together, and in the prose piece, “in the sky of our world”.
Oh, this is really wonderful Margaret! I’ll definitely think of this when I’m interacting with my online activism and writing networks– a murmuration spreading cyber-hope indeed! Thank you for sharing!
Ah, Margaret — poetry friends as murmuration! What a beautiful visual! And all this, such a witness to hope and goodness in the cyber world!
Margaret, this post is such a wonderful tribute to the PF community of writers “who transform small things into murmurations echoing through cyberspace.” Hope is a gift that floats through PF voices-thanks for your special way of sharing this message. I hope your students are the hope connectors that keep you well.
I love how you recognize the PF community, those that make sense of our world and make it shine, that spread cyber-hope. Lovely words, and oo that murmuration!
This is so lovely, Margaret–if only ALL murmurations were spreading cyber-hope instead of cyber-hate.
Your passage lifted my spirits. I love the cyber-hope of our PF community too.
‘move like a murmuration,’ so beautiful. Wonderful message.
I love being part of your murmuration, Margaret!
Oh, Margaret, what a wonderful prose of praise you wrote. I love how you described those of us who share here, so generously, so wisely, so poetically: “a human trying to make sense of the world, to take an ordinary day and make it shine like the sun or peek out from the clouds like the full moon.” So beautiful. Thank you!
Your words are beautiful and humbling. Thank you, Margaret. I am honored to be part of this murmuration.
Margaret, what a beautiful tribute to the uplifting Poetry Friday community. Your words play such a huge part in building that community. Thank you!
Three cheers for the “cyber-hope” of the PF community! I’m nearing the end of the roundup and feeling filled to the brim!
So much gratitude in your prose and poem. To have a place like PF to encourage creativity and to provide a place to share is such a wonderful gift and nicely reflected in your writing. Love the connection to murmuration.
This is such a lovely tribute to the PF community and I feel it so strongly, too. I love how you were inspired by the word “murmuration” and reimagined it in this way.
What a brilliant comparison! I love being part of this murmuration of inspiring poets!
You are melting my heart, wonderful Margaret.
Wishing you a sweet & smooth week in this time of Giving Thanks.
your fan,
jan