Birthday Gift Magnipoem

Hi, and welcome! During National Poetry Month, I’m posting a magnipoem each day that I can. That’s a poem inspired by my simply looking at an object under a magnifying glass for 1 minute each day, and then jotting a poem. Feel free to try this with students (you can have them just get up close and personal to something and study it closely for a minute). If you want to share online, tag me (@LauraPSalas) or share here in the comments! You can see all my magnipoems here.

Well, it’s April 29, and Poetry Month exhaustion is setting in. In March, April always sounds like a vast prairie of wildflowers and endless views. Anything feels possible. And the challenge I’ve set for myself feels new and exciting. By the end of April, however, I feel like I’m trapped in a crevasse in some dark rock formation, and every direction shows me the same dang confusing view, and the idea of writing one more poem using my chosen method feels like torture. Okay, that might be overstating it a bit. :>D But I am starting to look at my magnifying glass with suspicion!

For today’s poem, I looked at a pair of earrings my daughter made me for my birthday last year. They have snippets of book pages (from A Wrinkle in Time <3 )

And here’s my process.

I really couldn’t figure out what I was trying to say in this poem. It was about the cherished gift my daughter made me. But it was also hinting at the complicated relationship between parents and kids. What’s said and what’s not said. How someone can be both fragile and brave and strong. Those were the slippery thoughts in my head, but I couldn’t really get them to come together in a draft in any coherent way.

Oh well. That’s why it’s a poetry practice! Also, you’ll see two d2 notes–I crumpled up the first one immediately. But then later, I thought–oh, that’s still part of my process, so I should show it. Writing a poem (whether it comes out the way I’d hoped or not) inevitably involves some fits and starts.

And if you’re looking for something different, check out the resources on my Poetry Page for some more ideas.