“Floating Lantern, Patong” by enjosmith is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
I love that I get a pleasant and inviting email every month from the folks at Ethical ELA, enticing me to come back to the community there to write for just five consecutive days each month.
It’s like a little lantern of creative spirit burning that I almost always forget is there, and then it’s dark, and there’s this light, and each time, I wonder why I forgot the lantern that helped me write poems is there. And I remember again why it’s powerful when so many teachers-as-writers come together to share and comment.
Here, then, are my five poems from December’s five days, each with a theme. Reading them again, with fresh eyes, I realize that I like them best in reverse chronological order, but I am not going to mess with the days here.
Day One (Gift)
Her frosted fingers,
pink with purple eyebrows
along the edge of nails,
gently pulls on the tube,
the wrapping paper of red
and green and yellow trees
rooted in a white forest
now dancing like confetti
with the winds of tomorrow,
as today sleeps forever on,
dreaming of yesterday,
while she revels in her role
as goddess of the earth
https://www.ethicalela.com/a-gift/
Day Two (Compass)
Whether
North bring us here or
South sings us there or
East lures us home or
West leaves us alone,
this tiny needle of hand-made iron and Earth’s faint p / u / l / s / e
still, and always will, spins
for us
https://www.ethicalela.com/find-your-compass/
Day Three (Translation)
Maybe language is no longer
useful, and what we need most
to believe in is to breathe in
the winds, for us to sing and hum
some ancient hymns, together
Now, let us begin …
https://www.ethicalela.com/found-in-translation/
Day Four (Map)
It’s not so easy to see
how this map is tree,
and the tree, a map,
connecting you, to me –
roots touching underground
fiber filaments stretched
in darkness, with faith,
so that when I falter, you won’t,
and I won’t, when you falter, either,
for I depend upon you
and you, upon me:
This map is tree
not always easy to see
https://www.ethicalela.com/mapping-our-voices/
Day Five (Before)
Before the first letter I typed before this one
and then the one before that one, too,
and then another, typed chiseled scratched,
as well,
Before this invisible shape of poem of
gathering of lost and loose thoughts
tangled themselves together, like magnets
on the hill
Before even wonder, the string
of the balloon I’ve been holding appears,
and the poem appears, and remains,
motionless and still
Before there’s any indication what shape
my words might take in the moments
of just starting to write something,
I think I will
https://www.ethicalela.com/before-picture/
Peace (in sharing),
Kevin