Poetry Friday: Full Circle

Today marks the end of my husband's service in the Air Force---thirty-nine years to the day he was commissioned.  And, by luck, we're back in the place where our married life began, thirty-six years ago, at Langley Air Force Base.  Today's poetry challenge was to re-visit an old poem, and this one from March 2009 seems most fitting.  

I do, and always will. 

Annus Mirabilis*

how close is

the edge where we gasp 

at the wondrous view

to the place where 

addicted to gravity

we fall, and fall, and fall

the attraction is mutual

the disasters are many,

the wonders placed as knots

on a rope. Hand over hand,

the shape of each day

fitting to our palms,

rough and knobby,

we pull our hearts,

tough as burnt sugar

out of the blackened scrape

we’ve gotten ourselves in;

each year a spin

around the sun, nothing

but a dust trail, an annulus,

a common ring, a promise

for years to come

and years past

and this year,

to make full circles

from disasters and wonders,

to hold each miracle 

as we fall.

                ----Sara Lewis Holmes  (all rights reserved) 

* Annus Mirabilis:  a year of disasters or miracles. In other words, any year in which love exists. 

My poetry sisters posts can be found here:

Laura

Tanita

Tricia

Liz

Rebecca

Andi

Kelly

Poetry Friday is hosted today by Heidi Mordhorst at My Juicy Little Universe. 

Poetry Friday: A Susurrus of Heated Talk

For June, we were challenged to write a poem using "susurrus" or to an image of thick woods. I started off writing about how "thick" June's heat is, but thankfully, veered into garden's bounty instead.  I think my mind is on my neighbor's tomatoes...and will be until she delivers one, a perfect rosy gift, to my door. At least, I hope she does. Please, please.

Small talk

In June, we hum in heated talk

of glossy egg-bright

squash and lime green

earbobs of beans, we barter

blackohmyberries, foretell 

first cobcrack of corn, whisper 

endlessly of that soandsomuch

who promises soonwillbe tomatoes,

murmur peachescomingnext,

and on and on, a susurrus

of morethanenough; a promise

to be together into the long days.

                     ---Sara Lewis Holmes (all rights reserved)

My fellow poets are whispering and humming here:

Tanita
Liz
Laura

Tricia

Poetry Friday is hosted today by Karen's Got a Blog. 

Poetry Friday: If Digitopolis had a Chapel

May's "hindsight" challenge seemed simple:  pick one of your old poems to revise and/or write a new poem in conversation with it.

Turns out, that wasn't enough guidance for me.  I had glimmers of ideas, but nothing that developed a real shine. (I apparently also caught a case of the extended metaphor.)  In any case, I decided to go back and attempt a Poetry Sisters challenge I missed. There weren't many, but in our ekphrastic (image-inspired) posts, we were often given more than one piece of art or photo to respond to.  Could I write to one I'd passed over the first time?

I could. In January of last year, Tricia shared images from an art show in Richmond, and I wrote an alphabetically themed poem to some cool type fonts.  In the interest of fairness to the Math Kingdom, today I've chosen one of the other images, "Color Equation," and written a numerically themed poem for it. (Pretty sure this idea of two kingdoms has been with me since I read the Phantom Tollbooth as a kid. But the poem decided to go deeper, so I followed it.)  

Oh, and the "square" form of the dizain we tried in May last year seemed perfect to use here so I re-visited that challenge too (ten lines of ten syllables, rhymed ababbccdcd.)

Color Equation 2 
by Janine Wong (American, born 1956), 
2017 monoprint with etching, aquatint,
 chine collé and hand-sewing on paper

All things being equal 

If Digitopolis had a chapel,
math icons—color equations, in fact,
might glow from windows, and squarely dapple
parallel pews with the light they subtract
from stained glass, and add to the unsung acts
of the Apostles of Arithmetic—
who counter division with deeds that quick-
en the dead, and insist, true as the sun:
Peace requires deep math, most poetic:
one life must equal one life, all one.

                  ----Sara Lewis Holmes (all rights reserved) 


My poetry sisters "throwbacks" can be found here:

Laura
Rebecca
Tanita
Tricia
Liz

SPECIAL INVITATION:  Poetry Friends who have seen our Poetry Princesses/Poetry Sisters/Poetry 7 posts for many years -- After more than a decade of writing together and several years of monthly assignments, we wondered if any of you might like to play along?

Here's what we propose: Once we agree to our poetic prompts and calendar, we'll share them with you and invite you to write and share, too. We'll remind you once a month or so (via our various social media megaphones) and you're welcome to tag us (or not) when you post.

Now, to that end, here's what's cooking for June, posting on the last Friday of the month: theme is susurrus, or an image of thick woods, whatever form we wish! Join us?

Poetry Friday is hosted today by A Year of Reading.