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Posts Tagged ‘monotetra’

Poetry Friday: Earthworm

Posted in Poetry Friday, tagged , , , on July 28, 2023| 8 Comments »

The round up today is with my friend and fellow poet, Jan at Bookseed Studio.

I am a firm believer that reading poetry begets more poetry. See Billy Collins’ poem The Trouble with Poetry. He understands the problem. Last night I was reading Pádraig Ó Tuama’s book of essays about poetry, Poetry Unbound. I had in the back of my mind the Poetry Sisters’ challenge for this month, a monotetra form about transformation. Mary Lee, a fellow Inkling, presented us with this challenge. Today she shares a monotetra about the pools in her life.

Yesterday I was surprised by 10 monarch caterpillars on some volunteer milkweed near my AC unit. They’ve nearly eaten it all!

At first when I read the essay about the poem Worm by Gail McConnell, I was not inclined to enjoy it. I mean, an earthworm as the topic of a poem? But of course as he does every time, Padraig pulled me in and helped me see it for more than its surface appearance. I found myself swimming in his words and then writing a monotetra right there in my bed into my Notes app. This is only the second draft, but I’m putting it out there for you all to dig into (pun intended).

This poem’s worthless worm making
air holes with its muscle shaking
burying this compost wasting
ground is quaking. Ground is quaking.

I dig in with sharp fingernails.
Worm remembers for whom it hails.
Give me breath to survive this frail
time to heal. Time to heal.

Margaret Simon, draft

To see more monotetra poems, visit…

Liz @ Liz Garton Scanlon
Tricia @ The Miss Rumphius Effect
Tanita @ {fiction, instead of lies}
Sara @ Read Write Believe
Laura @ Laura Purdie Salas
Mary Lee @ A(nother) Year of Reading
Michelle Kogan @ MoreArt4All

If you missed it this week, visit This Photo Wants to be a Poem to see a picture of my youngest, rosiest, 7 month old grandchild, June.

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This Photo Wants to be a Poem: Africa

Posted in This Photo Wants to be a Poem, Travel, Writing, tagged , , , , on July 19, 2023| 8 Comments »

Travel has not been on my summer agenda, but I have been enjoying travels of my friends by scrolling social media. Recently Mo Daley experienced an amazing trip to Kenya with infamous Kwame Alexander. I held down my jealousy and let her photographs take me back to a once-in-a-lifetime trip to Tanzania in 2016. Mo’s photos taken from her iPhone were incredible. You should check them out on Facebook.

I was drawn to the zebras. On my trip with my mother-in-law and sister-in-law, we often talked about which animal was our favorite. It was so hard to choose. The tall majesty of the giraffe. The fierce calm of the lions. The gentleness of the elephants. But the zebras! Zebras feel like a joke from God. The contrast of black and white reflects our natural day to night rhythm. They were always seen in herds, with their friends.

Zebras in Kenya by Mo Daley

I played around with the monotetra form this morning. Each stanza includes 4 rhymed lines, each line with 8 syllables, and the last line repeats the same 4-syllables. I took liberty to slightly change the repeated line. I think it adds more interest to the poem.

Monotetra for Zebras

For its black-white striped attitude,
God is laughing a beatitude.
I speak prayerful gratitude.
Erase bad mood. Embrace calm mood.

Margaret Simon, draft

Please play with words today and leave a small poem in the comments. Encourage other writers with your responses.

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