Poetry: Take A Line and Write

Sommer's basteln
Sommer’s basteln flickr photo by Isaszas shared into the public domain using Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication (CC0)

I continue to write a Solstice-themed poem each day this month, inspired by mentor poems shared by my friend, Deanna, at her Solstice Advent Poetry Calendar. I would not say all of my poems are directly related to Winter and the Solstice, but they are the soft heartbeat behind the writing.

I have long found the method of reading a mentor poem, then pulling out and centering on a single line or evocative phrase, and then writing a poem riffed off that original is a creative and productive method for me. It’s as if my poem response is swirling around the original, even if the line I have borrowed is not the true center of the mentor poem (often, it isn’t).

Here is today’s poem (inspired by a line in a poem by Sara Teasdale) and here is a link to my own calendar, as I share words and voice.

They took the wind and let it go
— Sara Teasdale

I become all pocket
when you
become jacket

This gale wind, captured,
sure makes such
a racket

in protest
toward surrender –
no matter the outcome,
remember:

nothing makes us
happier than when
chaos will cease,

jiggling with change,
in the moment
before release

Inspired by Places (iii. Winter Sun) by Sara Teasdale
https://poets.org/poem/places-iii-winter-sun

Prompt via Winter #SolsticePoem Prompts (via Deanna): https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1ZjzQCxAlSozwsiWI-KBWYmTv6AdFEME4V9AQwrATcnE/present?slide=id.p 

Peace (and poems),
Kevin

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