Random Access Poetry: Day Thirty


Silky – Soyeux flickr photo by monteregina shared under a Creative Commons (BY-NC-SA) license

Random Access Poetry: Day Thirty

Some words just drift
upon air, a cluster
of potential
from a translucent
flower seeking soil for
root, all with hope
that a new poem
might yet emerge
from where another
nurtured —

one idea seeds
a
n
o
t
h
e
r

(NOTE: OK, so the letters of “another” as the last line of the poem are meant to be scattered across the page but the blog keeps formatting it to flush left and I have given up making it work. Imagine those letters scattering to the wind …)

Peace (in the flowering),
Kevin

PS — this is the last poem for this month’s poetry adventure I called Random Access Poetry, in which I used different paths to find images to inspire poems each morning. Thanks to Alan Levine, John Johnston, Bud Hunt, Sheri Edwards, Terry Elliott, Kim Douillard, Raymond Maxwell, Algot Runeman, Margaret Simon, and others for all of the places I have used to write poems and leave poems. Some of those pieces ended up here, as daily poems, and some just drifted into the comment bins of blog posts. Thanks, too, to all the photographers whose images helped inspire me. I tried to leave notes of appreciation where I could.

Random Access Poetry: Day Twenty Nine

Photo via Bud Hunt

Random Access Poetry: Day Twenty Nine

Where X might be you
and Y might be me;
Where the equation
comes apart, the decision
tree of these numbers equals
the sum of all of us,
plotted in pencil upon a cartesian
graph; each single data point,
an inverse universe, arcing
skyward, ever up, ever up,
to a place where we take
the time to laugh at our language
to play with these poems

Peace (in people, not numbers),
Kevin

PS — the image for inspiration comes from Bud at his blog, where he regularly has been posting images for poetic inspiration this month.

Remix Poem with a Remix Message

My friend, Bryan, asked at his blog about views on remix. Bryan fuses remix into his Remixer Machine site, which is fun to use (and something I support via Patron). The poem above came after thinking about how to respond to him. I guess maybe it resonated with folks, since it has nearly 8,000 views on Twitter, where I first shared it. Huh.

Peace (remix it and make it better),
Kevin

Random Access Poetry: Day Twenty Eight


Photo evaluation flickr photo by pedrosimoes7 shared under a Creative Commons (BY) license

Random Access Poetry: Day Twenty Eight

My eyes are always looking
elsewhere, just beyond
the eyesight of others;
for where the world turns
west, I turn east, capturing
the faint shadows of objects
others are looking at, as if
by seeing the false, I might
find the true

Peace (beyond sight),
Kevin

PS — this poem was inspired by the daily image at the Flickr Promptr site created by John Johnston. You can write a poem there, too.

Random Access Poetry: Day Twenty Seven


[Portrait of Sid Catlett, New York, N.Y., ca. Mar. 1947] (LOC) flickr photo by The Library of Congress shared with no copyright restriction (Flickr Commons)

Random Access Poetry: Day Twenty Seven

Go on and catch it
catch it on the beat
snap it on the snare
watch with disbelief
as in the gap of the solo
in the pause of the song
the stick seems to hover
but the drummer’s
never wrong

Peace (on and off the beat),
Kevin

PS — this photo was found doing a search for “writing” in the Library of Congress photo archives on Flickr. I find it amusing that writing led to jazz drummer Sid Catlett, but I love his expression and apparently, he had just caught a stick tossed into the air.

Making Music: Sold Out

My latest rock and roll band is Sold Out! and we had our first gig the other weekend, rocking to raise money for an animal shelter. We had the nervous energy of a new band playing for a real audience for the first time after weeks of practice, but we ended up getting the whole place dancing and moving, and now we’re shifting ahead with booking other gigs this summer. Making music sure is something magical! (That’s me singing above and playing sax down below)

Sold Out! band icon

You can follow us at Facebook if you are local to Western Massachusetts and shout hello at our next show.

Peace (sounds like rock and roll),
Kevin

Random Access Poetry: Day Twenty Six

(Note: The photo that inspired this poem is not a Creative Commons licensed photo, so I have left the photographer a note at their Flickr site, asking permission to embed the photo or for them to change the licensing for sharing. You can go to the photo itself, however. — Kevin)

Random Access Poetry: Day Twenty Six

It’s only
in the moments
after the tide
when I finally see
what it is
you’ve built
and left behind
for me

Peace (in structure),
Kevin

PS — this poem was inspired using Alan Levine’s Don’t Look at My Photos random search for Flickr photographers.

Random Access Poetry: Day Twenty Five

Photo by: Me in ME : under a Creative Commons (BY) license https://flic.kr/p/2emUKdT
Photo by transport131 : under a Creative Commons (BY) license https://flic.kr/p/JxZpF8

Random Access Poetry: Day Twenty Five

You are the nozzle
I am the brush
I pause to paint
You push to rush
I dab with the oils
You cover with the spray
You are the night and
I am the day

Peace (in the difference engine),
Kevin

PS — I used John Johnston’s Random Flickr Blendr for the inspiration for this poem

 

Random Access Poetry: Day Twenty Four

 


Dream flickr photo by la_febbra shared under a Creative Commons (BY-NC-ND) license

Random Access Poetry: Day Twenty Four

Some days wash colors
away, leaving us only with
shadows and light, in black
and white; we wander
through, not sure what to do

Peace (along the landscape),
Kevin

PS — I found this photo with the Flickr CC Stampr search tool by John Johnston. I used the keyword “sleep” to see what might emerge.

Earth Day Celebration: Making Blackout Poems to Surface Ideas

EarthDay BlackOut Poem Blend

We came back yesterday from our week-long April break to Earth Day, and to a double environmental issue of Time for Kids magazine, and in the midst of our poetry unit. It seemed like a good time to bring in Blackout Poetry, for what sixth grader can resist the power of the Sharpie?

After reading some of the pieces in the Earth Day special edition of TFK, I explained the nature of Blackout Poems  — remove text to reveal text, as a found poem inside the redactions. After finding words and phrases, I had them move to their writing notebooks to compose a short poem (at this point, they could re-order words and phrases and add words, if needed).

The picture above is my sample, from an article about re-using bridges and machinery to create coral reef ecosystems. Some students did get a chance to share their poems, and they were wonderful in their eccentricity, as free-style poems with an environmental theme. Perfect writing for Earth Day!

Peace (to this planet),
Kevin