Quilchena Library – Page 3 – You are what you read

Poetry Month Day 28

Today feels like a day to share some calm and lighthearted poems that let you feel the fresh wind on your skin.

Have you been to the sea shore lately? Have you climbed to the top of a hill? If you have been staying close to home, don’t worry: the ocean and the hills will wait for you.

Until I Saw the Sea

Until I saw the sea
I did not know
that wind
could wrinkle water so.

I never knew
that sun
could splinter a whole sea of blue.

Nor
did I know before,
a sea breathes in and out
upon a shore.

by Lilian Moore

How To Tell the Top

of a Hill

The top of a hill
Is not until
The bottom is below.
And you have to stop
When you reach the top
For there’s no more UP to go.

To make it plain
Let me explain:
The one most reason why
You have to stop
When you reach the top–is:
The next step up is sky.

by John Ciardi

Poetry Month Day 27

Some poetry is serious and solemn, while other poems are silly and playful. Both types of poetry are important.

Ogden Nash is known for a particularly playful style. Here are four of his poems. I chose all poems about animals to share with you today.

The Duck

Behold the duck.
It does not cluck.
A cluck it lacks.
It quacks.
It is specially fond
Of a puddle or pond.
When it dines or sups,
It bottoms ups.

The Firefly

The firefly’s flame
Is something for which science has no name
I can think of nothing eerier
Than flying around with an unidentified glow on a
person’s posteerier.

The Ostrich

The ostrich roams the great Sahara.
Its mouth is wide, its neck is narra.
It has such long and lofty legs,
I’m glad it sits to lay its eggs.

A Flea and a Fly in a Flue

A flea and a fly in a flue
Were imprisoned, so what could they do?
Said the fly, “let us flee!”
“Let us fly!” said the flea.
So they flew through a flaw in the flue.

Poetry Month Day 26

Today: reversible poems

File:Duck-Rabbit illusion.jpg - Wikimedia Commons — Is it a rabbit? Or a duck?

A reversible poem is one that can be read fro the top OR from the bottom!

Often the message in the poem is different, depending on which direction you read it. I have never tried to write a poem like this but I think it would be tricky. I’d like to try one day.

This poem was written by a girl named Chanie Gorkin when she was in high school! Amazing!

Don’t forget to read the lines from bottom to top after you read it the regular way.

“Worst Day Ever?”

Today was the absolute worst day ever
And don’t try to convince me that
There’s something good in every day
Because, when you take a closer look,
This world is a pretty evil place.
Even if
Some goodness does shine through once in a while
Satisfaction and happiness don’t last.
And it’s not true that
It’s all in the mind and heart
Because
True happiness can be obtained
Only if one’s surroundings are good
It’s not true that good exists
I’m sure your can agree that
The reality
Creates
My Attitude
It’s all beyond my control
And you’ll never in a million years hear me say that
Today was a good day.

*Now read from the bottom to the top*

Poetry Month Day 25

Poets exist all around us. I guarantee that you know someone who practices their poetry writing.

Image may contain: 1 person, close-up My friend Amanda is a poet. She teaches grade seven at another school in Vancouver and performs her poems at events around the city. Her ability to choose a topic and to capture her thoughts, reactions, and feelings impresses me every time I hear or read her poetry.

This year for Poetry Month, while I have been writing daily posts for our Quilchena Library blog, Amanda has been sharing a new poem every day on Facebook. I asked her permission to share a few of them with you:

From day 15:

Being curious

I’m cultivating my curiosity
As much as I possibly can.
I’m feeding it questions and opinions,
I’m making fertilizer of my certainties,
Reminding myself that the unknown isn’t necessarily unknowable
Dark
Or foreboding.
It could be limitless,
Possibilities.
Cultivating this curiosity gives me labour to do
In this untethered time.
I yearn for the sweat of doing.
When I start spinning
I remind, rebody myself
So that I sit in curiosity
Then dig deep into the rich, rich, earthy soil
Of that garden.

From day 22:

Unruly

My thoughts as they zing around bumping into each other in most unexpected ways, forging unlikely bonds.
My feelings as they tangle, roll into each other, change colour and texture.
My body as it desires, unwilling to follow the rules I have set out as it pulls me through the world.
My desires as they lead me into unknowns and all too familiars, asking me for blind allegiance.
My intellect, my warrior heart dragging my battered self into the arena again and again.
My softenesses becoming softer.
My hunger rampant.
My joy explosive.
Unruly.

From day 24:

What matters

Tell me the story that matters.
Take my hand, lead me through
The marshes of what scares you.
Allow me to wander there, with you.
I can just be there,
I can move my way through, gently.
Lean your tired head on my heart;
It is strong, practiced.
Let the rhythm root you in some kind of peace.
Write your love letters onto my skin,
Draw out the meanings
Let the words ramble their ways across my body
To take up residence where there is resonance.
Share the edges,
Expose the dangers of your unknowing,
Lead me into your murkiness.
I am safe and strong.

I hope that you try writing your own poetry sometime, if you don’t already. Grab an old notebook, or get yourself a fancy new one, (it doesn’t matter what it looks like, as long as you fill it with your writing) and start trying out ideas. Don’t through anything away; just keep stretching, adding, building. Have fun!

Poetry Month Day 24

Palindrome poems!

Not only can it be tricky to find the just right words for a poem, imagine also getting the lines in your poem to act as palindromes!! A palindrome is a number, word, phrase, or sentence that reads alike forward AND backward.

PURSEWEB SPIDER

“Net food? I do, often!”
Spider spots evil: alive! Stops. Redips
eye. Radar-eye
sees
raw and tangy gnat. DNA war!
Beware, Grub-burger . . . a web.

Spider season: who lives on a web like this? | Natural History Museum — image from: https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/spider-season-web-quiz.html

by Avis Harley

Poetry Month Day 23

When we write poetry, we need to find the just right words to say what we want to say. Poetry usually uses fewer words than prose (not-poetry) and so there are language tools we can use to get our words to work how we want them to. These tools are called literary devices. One of these devices is alliteration. Alliteration is the repetition of the same initial sound.

ANTS

Ants,
admiring an amber,
are amazed at an ancestor
appearing almost alive,
all anxious angles and
alert antennae.

An Aesop ant?
Advisiong an audience about
achieving aims and ambitions?

An ant as ancient as Allosaurus?
Actions arrested ages ago?

Albeit an adornment,
as ambered ant
arouses
awe:

“Ancestry” as Art.

by Avis Harley

Poetry Month Day 22

It’s Earth Day!

There is an IMMENSE tradition, all over the world, of writing poetry in celebration of the natural world. On Earth Day, we can share poetry that focuses on the relationship and interdependence between us and the earth.

Remember

Remember the sky that you were born under,
know each of the star’s stories.
Remember the moon, know who she is.
Remember the sun’s birth at dawn, that is the
strongest point of time. Remember sundown
and the giving away to night.
Remember your birth, how your mother struggled
to give you form and breath. You are evidence of
her life, and her mother’s, and hers.
Remember your father. He is your life, also.
Remember the earth whose skin you are:
red earth, black earth, yellow earth, white earth
brown earth, we are earth.
Remember the plants, trees, animal life who all have their
tribes, their families, their histories, too. Talk to them,
listen to them. They are alive poems.
Remember the wind. Remember her voice. She knows the
origin of this universe.
Remember you are all people and all people
are you.
Remember you are this universe and this universe
is you.
Remember all is in motion, is growing, is you.
Remember language comes from this.
Remember the dance language is, that life is.
Remember.

by Joy Harjo

Poetry Month Day 21

We’ve been sitting inside and maybe going outside for shot times only for many days now. Reading and writing helps us use our imaginations to move beyond the walls of our homes and to explore the world outside out windows.

To A Red Kite

Fling
yourself
upon the sky.

Take the string
you need.
Ride high,

high
above the park.
Tug and buck
and lark
with the wind.

Touch a cloud,
red kite.
Follow the wild geese
in their flight.

by Lilian Moore

Poetry Month Day 20

Some poetry tries to capture a single moment, the smallest moment, that feels somehow bigger than the time it takes to happen. Have you experienced a moment like that before.

Moment

I saw a young deer standing
Among the languid ferns.
Suddenly he ran–
And his going was absolute
Like the shattering of icicles
In the wind.

by Hildegarde Flanner

Poetry Month Day 19

I love that poetry can be written about ANYTHING. Choose something you like–maybe something you are passionate about–focus on the details of an aspect of it, and write your observations and feelings.

What activity is this poet thinking about?

Makin’ Jump Shots

He waltzes into the lane,
‘cross the free-throw line,
fakes a drive, pivots,
floats from the asphalt turf
in an arc of black light,
and sinks two into the chains.

One on one he fakes
down the main, passes
into the free lane
and hits the chains.

A sniff in the fallen air–
he stuffs it through the chains
riding high:
“traveling” someone calls–
and he laughs, stepping
to a silent beat, gliding
as he sinks two into the chains.

by Michael S. Harper

He never actually names the subject activity, but he uses very specific words that invoke a particular activity. You probably know immediately what he’s talking about… why is that? How does the poet make you think of this activity? Is it just the words he uses, or is there more to how he is describing the activity? Can you write something that has the same effect?