I am writing poems each morning (so far, so good). Here is what I came up with today, inspired by an image of a blizzard at Bud Hunt’s blog page.

I walk amidst the storm

blindly following instinct towards home

never questioning that my body, my spirit,

and even my imagination

won’t know where to go

when the winds of change kick in.

And the podcast:

 

Peace (in the storm),
Kevin

I am writing poems this month, as much as I am able, using images to inspire words. This morning, Bud Hunt posted a picture of NASA’s Curiosity rover. Here’s what I came up with:

Curiosity kills … stamps down into defeat

old ideas forced into retreat

from the status quo.

 

You never know when the laser beam of insight

might blow apart the past

opening up the world into something new.

 

Set the stage for discovery

and be ready

for the rumbling wheels of change.

And here is the podcast:

Peace (in the roaming),
Kevin

I’ve been sharing some poems I am writing this month with Bud Hunt, but I should mention an amazing project that Mary Lee Hahn has been doing over A Year of Reading. Mary Lee has been exploring the use of Creative Commons and attribution, and each day, she shares an image she finds, with information about the image and how to use it. And then, she urges us to write poems inspired by the image.

Here’s what Mary Lee says:

“Common Inspiration–Uncommon Creations.” 

Each day in April, I will feature media from the Wikimedia Commons (“a database of 16,565,065 freely usable media files to which anyone can contribute”) along with bits and pieces of my brainstorming and both unfinished and finished poems.
I will be using the media to inspire my poetry, but I am going to invite my students to use my daily media picks to inspire any original creation: poems, stories, comics, music, videos, sculptures, drawings…anything!
You are invited to join the fun, too! Leave a link to your creation in the comments and I’ll add it to that day’s post. I’ll add pictures of my students’ work throughout the month as well.

Yesterday, she shared this interesting b/w photo of a woman fishing. The image got me thinking about who took the photo and who is watching her fish, and I came up with this poem:

“There’s some metaphor at work here,”
the first whispered to the other,
who lounged against the rotting log,
watching, waiting, wondering.
“Oh,” the second replied, handing the first
a sandwich she had made for them to savor
while she fished solo from the rock,
“and what is that?”
The first took a thoughtful bite, and leaned back,
eyes scanning the sky
as the sound of the line from her pole
zinged its way into his mind.
“I don’t rightly know,” he admitted,
“but surely there is a metaphor swimming in that river.”
The second nodded,
“And if anyone will catch it,
it will be her.”
The two men sat up now, dazzled by her expertise
as she pulled and twisted the pole,
the lure sliding and slinking along the water’s surface,
guiding the fish towards her
through some unspoken magic that neither the fish
nor the men,
nor even the father who had once taught her,
could even begin to fathom,
and then, as was her want, she let them all go,
set them loose,
so she could walk home alone, and free,
without their thoughts and talk crowding her head.

I am also doing some podcasting with Vocaroo, which is a free no-registration podcasting site. Here is the podcast for this poem:

Record and upload voice >>

Peace (in poetry),
Kevin

I am writing poems this month with Bud the Teacher (and also, periodically with Mary Lee over at A Year of Reading). This morning, Bud had a cupcake theme, and it reminded me of our son, who eats the wrapper off the cupcakes, too.

I watched her eat the whole wrapper of the cupcake,

chewing slowly on the paper,

eyes closed, as if in rapturous delight

of the memories of the angels in the cake,

crunching on halos.

 

When she swallowed, she gulped for air

as if the savoring took more out of her than expected,

but she smiled at me,

as if noticing her audience for the first time,

and almost apologetically, whispered,

“It’s been years …”

And the podcast:

Peace (in the cake),
Kevin
 

Bud posted an image of a QR code this morning for his poetry prompt. It may be that the QR means something but I looked at it simply as an image, only, and noticed that three of the corners had boxes. One corner did not. And it led me to this poem.

You went missing when they made the code -

The vacant corner

in the bottom of file

Upsetting the symmetry

of the Quick Response stamp

 

and the three of us sat, waiting,

we wondered why we there, too,

and if perhaps your act of defiance

wasn’t another digital signal to us

 

to move along

to steal back our data while we could

and leave this place

just another empty space

 

so that imagination could fill it in

with stories and poems and drawings

instead of cold information that never caught

who we were anyway.

We left …

And the podcast:

Peace (in and out of the code),
Kevin

I am writing poems this month over at Bud the Teacher’s site. Today, Bud put up an image of a glass house.

I stand inside with catcher’s mitt,

grabbing stones

thrown by all of those

looking in at me through the windows of this

house of glass.

 

I slowly recognize the shadow

of the one way in the back

of the crowd, stooping low,

as if searching for something

to grasp.

 

It’s me, myself,

I am now aiming high with a fury

I barely recognize before the shattering glass

rains down upon me like shards of

disappointment.

Here is the podcast of the poem:

Peace (in the poem),
Kevin

Bud Hunt is hosting poetry this month at his blog, using images to spark poetry. Come join us.

Here is my poem for today (Bud posted a photo of a runner, with a city as the backdrop):

I wish my feet moved as fast as my mind

’cause if it did,  I’d be in a marathon

every minute, every hour,

even in sleep where dreams exhale ideas

as I inhale the events of the day,

pushing through the ribbons of time,

with the finishing line still miles and miles ahead of me,

and me, still running, still always running,

the photo-finish always inches away.

And the podcast:

Peace (in the poems),
Kevin

For the past few years, Bud Hunt (aka, Bud the Teacher) has been posting images throughout the month of April, asking us to be inspired to write poetry. I usually jump on board, if I can, and this month started with an image of a rock and roller on stage, so how could I resist?

Here’s what I came up with:

There, on the stage, marks the time -

there, amidst the noise and the lights -

he flies high, dancing amidst internal rhymes

along the edge of words of the poet’s lines

he’s stolen for this song; passion as musical crime.

I also try to podcast my poems, if I can.

That was from Day One. Day Two brought another image — that of folks looking for something on the waterfront.

Here’s what I wrote:

There’s always something there,

he’s thinking,

head down, eyes on the ground,

thoughts tumbling into the lips of ocean

as the tide pulls him in

with its restless chatter.

And the podcast:

I hope you can write some poetry this month, too. Come join us at Bud the Teacher, where Bud will post something new every day.

Peace (in the lines of the poems),
Kevin