Happy November! This is the first day and first Friday, so it’s time for a new challenge from the Inklings. This month Linda, who is also hosting Spiritual Thursday, selected a poem by Joy Harjo Fall Song. She asked us to respond in some way to the poem. I collected words that pleased me for their sounds: blue, you, divine, mind, behind. I was thinking of my mother’s blue eyes.
Her Eyes Blue like the Sky
(after Joy Harjo “Fall Song”)
All you leave behind
is blue–
blue lace wings–tinted with night sky.
Your divine sign
forever will be a blue bird.I cry for more–
more of your soft touch,the gleam
of love
lightingfrom your crystal blue eyes.
Margaret Simon, draftLinda's One Little Word for 2024 is "World". She has been writing poems all year on a padlet using her word. I admire her dedication to this daily writing. Since she sent out the prompt for Spiritual Journey, I have been noticing that poets often use the word "world".I recently read Evie Shockley’s poem “job prescription ” and striked a line for a golden shovel: “poetry may not change the world, but might change you.” I believe in poetry. I want to believe that it could change the world, but I’m satisfied knowing that it has changed me. I am a better person, a better teacher, a better child of God because I breathe in poems every day.
What is poetry?
An acorn that may
or may not become an oak, change
leaves for the
next season of the world.
We read & write, but
are never sure which words might
sprout to change
and inspire the deepest you.
Margaret Simon, draft
Links to other Inklings:
Catherine Flynn
Mary Lee Hahn
Heidi Mordhorst
Molly Hogan
Linda Mitchell
Reflections on the Teche 