Happy Poetry Friday! Welcome, everyone! (Wondering what Poetry Friday is? Click here.)
It’s the first Friday of the month, so it’s Poetry Princesses Friday! This month was my choice, and I chose the Things to Do form with a seasonal angle. (See page 4 here for a lesson plan.) This is the poetic form of my new book If You Were the Moon and a form I’ve done a lot of over the past few years. Of course, we always mix it up, so different people interpreted that in their own ways. I think you’ll like the variety!
I am NOT really a fan of summer, so to challenge myself, I wrote about summer.
Huh. That is kind of small. :>( I wanted to use my image of a couple of people crossing the Mississippi River in northern Minnesota, where the river begins, but I guess I should have cropped it vertically. Oops. Here is the text:
Things to Do if You Are a Minnesota SummerArrive fashionably late, say half past JulyWear blooming colors and a clear blue capBring a hostess gift of greenSpritz your signature scent:sunscreen, campfire, and night jasmineSkip a golden stripe across the skySketch misty rainbows with your tearsPerform for swarms of adoring fansParty from dawn to dusk,then slip on your spidersilk shawls andleave the party earlyIgnore those gathered at the door,begging you to stayjust a little while longerYou have other places to be,and timegrowsshort–Laura Purdie Salas, all rights reserved
Kelly
Liz
Sara
Tanita
Tricia
Non-poetry demands are keeping Andi away this month, but she’ll return :>)
Click here to see all our previous Poetry Princesses collaborations.
And for the delicious Poetry Friday Roundup, visit Jama Rattigan’s Alphabet Soup!
20 Responses
Oh, this is simply wonderful, Laura! I love how you’ve wrapped up the essence of your Minnesota summer and given her such personality and presence. Great alliterative word choice, too–skip, sketch, spritz. A delight from start to finish!
Thanks, Molly! I appreciate it:>)
Love the line “sketch misty rainbows with your tears.” This is a fun format to play with. I think I would love a Minnesota summer. Ours are just too dang hot! I recently wrote “Things to do if you’re the sky.” https://reflectionsontheteche.wordpress.com/2017/04/28/poetry-friday-kyrielle-and-lists/
Ours are too hot, too, in my opinion. But not as long as yours…Thanks, Margaret!
I would love to see the faces of children when you present to them and share that summer is not your cup of strawberry juice.
This poem is ripe with the tease that your summer is, from “arrive fashionably late” to the clever end. Love it.
Hope you don’t mind my sticking my oar in:
Things to Do if You Are a New England Spring
Change with the wind,
jibe across winter,
tack toward summer,
set sails scented with hyacinth,
before veering to look aft
at the slumbering pines
as they disappear
into waking maples.
Luff leeward,
sheets flapping:
pile snow one last time
after the Canada geese
honk home. Play
hide and seek
with the brown grass.
Then lower the sails,
clear the decks,
swab the rails,
time to dry dock and
hit the trails.
Wow, what a great poem. Love the diction, the images, the humor. 🙂 Especially like “blooming colors and a clear blue cap.” Sheer delight.
(LOVE that, Brenda. Your New England spring’s parallels to sailing are quite fitting!)
I would trade you for a spidersilk shawl a spider, Laura… but somehow, I don’t think that’s quite a fair swap…
Ha! Your spider adventures gave me shudders!
Minnesota summers seem quite short. I guess that’s a good thing if you’re not a fan. I enjoyed how your vision of summer teases and then leaves the party early.
Oh how I long for summer. Ours are hot, too, here in Massachusetts, but I love escaping to the ocean to cool down. Thank you, and wonderful job, considering it wasn’t your favorite topic!
Oh summer, still so very far away, and how I miss it so!
I think it would be fascinating to have a collection of poems about summer in different latitudes. Summer seems universal, but it’s so very different depending on how far north or south you are!
Oh, wouldn’t that be cool?!
I am swoony over your poem, Laura, top to bottom!
I saw images while reading your summer inspired poem, it would be fun to illustrate. I love the “spidersilk shawls.” And Minnesota is lovely in the summer.
Laura, this line stands out for me. Sketch misty rainbows with your tears. The poem is so descriptive and filled with a great visual of your Minnesota summer. I really like the image poem you created and the backdrop is stunning. I want you to know that my daughter unwrapped your beautiful book, If You Were the Moon, at her baby shower. Thank you so much. I can’t wait to read the book to our little one in her nursery.
Please save this poem for my summer gallery. I would love others to use this format and send me poems from their perspective.
Thanks, Carol! So glad you will be sharing MOON with a baby soon!
On a side note re your galleries–I’m always happy to contribute, but I don’t always see the announcement, etc. I wonder if it would save you time AND get more submissions if you had a Padlet or a Google Doc or somewhere you could have open for future gallery submissions. That way, when you see one you love, and say something, people could immediately pop the poem into wherever you have available for storage. Just a thought to use or ignore:>)
I love the “swarms of adoring fans.” Ruth, thereisnosuchthingasagodforsakentown.blogspot.com