Happy Poetry Friday! (Wondering what Poetry Friday is? Click here.)
Today, I’m sharing a poem I wrote years ago, because on Michelle Heidenrich Barnes’ blog, my Lerner editor, Carol Hinz, challenged us to write poems about things not typically considered beautiful.
As someone who thinks about life and death a lot, I have learned to embrace some things that people find sad. Not that I love them, but I appreciate their role in making life precious. I have to, or I’d walk around sad all the time!
And for lots of wonderful poetry, don’t miss the Poetry Friday Roundup with Jane at Raincity Librarian, who has a new picture book I’m anxious to read!
10 Responses
“Without” speaks to me, Laura. Maybe I can say it is a relative of the reverso as a way of examining feelings.
Without the chill blast of rain last Tuesday in D.C. I would not be relishing the warm sunshine here in North Florida as much.
More serious is that I’m having a struggle in ending the first d r a f t of a novel where I’ve sweet a long time, not wanting to leave the people in the story. I’m going to copy out your couplet & put it around my world — Post Its, aqua paper heart & on top of paper journal & more.
Appreciations.
And, in this month of giving thanks I am so full of love & thanks for the Poetry Friday Friends.
I loved the poem there, on Michelle’s blog and I love it here. It has a gentle reminders for living inside beautifully arranged words.
Beautiful words that remind me (like you said) about the things that make life precious.
While I might not enjoy some things, I do appreciate how those (often sad) things deepen the beauty and value of life.
Love your outlook, Laura—your appreciation for those things that make life precious. And I love this poem. (But you knew that. 🙂 )
I commented on Michelle’s post, Laura, and again will write to you how much I love the idea you’ve created, how much the connection of things makes all the difference.
Beautiful, Laura. I’m in a reflective mood today.
I remember this poem from before — it’s a favorite of mine!
I like this, Laura. I think if we are thinking about death, it can leave off thinking about us for a little while. 😉 I love your poem, and how it starts with a waterfall, a rushing thing of beauty, a not-stopping, a thinking-of-the-sea, here and yet plunging to get there. There’s magic in a waterfall’s inbetweenness that can inform how we think about death, as if death were a rushing toward the sea, instead of a leaving home behind.
My favorite couplet here, if I were to pick only one would be:
“Without ending, the story is ever unfinished
Praise the held breath, the fear, the delight of The End”
Endings are difficult, in both story and especially life. Thanks for your sensitive journey into this area Laura.