Being Poemed

Hi Folks:

Our good friend (and amazing poet) Wendy Morton can sometimes be found at the various branches of the Greater Victoria Public Libraries, ‘poeming’ people.  Basically, she engages the individual in conversation for a few minutes and then she writes a poem about him or her.  We caught up with Wendy at the main library downtown on April 28 and had the chance to be ‘poemed’ by her.  We thought we’d share what she wrote about us, with you…

Marcia

Now that I’m retired
I have more time to write,
more time to watch the golden finches
fly from the branches of the cherry trees.
And time to walk
time to be quiet.
I go to art galleries,
go to art walks.
What we love most,
is giving away Free Hugs –
we go down to the inner harbour,
give away hugs to people at random.
I’m learning slam poetry.
I’m learning everything!

Wendy Morton
April 28, 2012

Mike

We live in a world where people are
so afraid of touch.
How can we live without contact?
We went to the inner harbour.
Two guys on standup paddleboards
came up for free hugs, then
paddled off.  Once a guy got hugged,
went back and got his whole family.
We’ve hugged the whole world.
We’ll keep doing it.

Wendy Morton
April 28, 2012

Thank you, Wendy!

Hugs,
M&M

A Year in the Life … revealed …

Hello Dear Ones!

Two years ago today, on the Sunday of Canada’s Victoria Day long weekend of 2009, I stepped onto the retreat grounds of Queenswood and an incredible journey began … leading me to write my first book:

A Year in the Life of a Bus-Traveling Poet

It has been – and is still – a magical journey, one in which you, Dear Reader, took an active role … as one of my dearest inspirations! That’s why I thought to stop by today to share this exciting news with you … my book has been published and is now available for sale!  You can check it out here: http://bit.ly/buspoet (paperback) or here: http://amzn.to/buspoet-k (Kindle version)

And, as a tantalizing little bonus for you, a glimpse of one of my very favourite sections: Continue Reading →

Poetry Corner – Poetry as Play

Hello Dear Ones!

Been doing some research on poetry to add to the scope of this post from your perspective – as a reader. My goodness, the number of poets who come into this medium with a heavy heart is dis-heartening.

Thought to lighten things up for you a bit today! Here’s a cute poem by Wendy Morton:

Streaming Flamingoes

Poems are everywhere;
starry, ephemeral, delicious,
for the eating.
Take for instance,
the cyclist
with a pink flamingo aloft,
streaming with iridescent ribbons,
a sunlit metaphor.
Or the skateboard guy
with a suit and flowering tie,
all grace and light,
simply on his way to work.
Or the gift of a recipe for pumpkin soup:
take a pumpkin,
fill it with broth,
potatoes, carrots, thyme.
Bake it.
Eat this poem.

Poetry can be fun! Take any topic. Add humour. Rhyme or no rhyme, matters not. Put sentences together that match, or mix lines up a bit for added flavour.

One afternoon when my son was four and a half years old, he wandered out from doing his thing in the bathroom and his trousers were down around his ankles. Here’s the poem that surfaced in my mind and onto the page:

Oh little boy at half past four
with trousers dragging on the floor
the bathroom may now be a chore
yet every day I love you more.

Haiku poems are simple three line poems and can be fun ways of capturing emotions more expressive than a mere sentence. Cinquain poems are five-lines. Click here for a few examples of other easy styles to use.  Check out the List poem style. Here’s one of my own personal five line favourites (though it’s not a cinquain as the syllable and word count don’t match the formal style):

Sunset symphony
scents of cedar
and fresh mown grass
titillate the senses.
I’m smiling!

There was a day when I had a poetic inspiration to write a poem about writing poems and, yikes! a writer’s worst nightmare – no working pen in my purse to capture the thoughts before they dissipated like fog at sun’s rise. Anyone watching me would have wondered what possessed me – I was quite frantically attempting to find something in my purse that I could use as a writing tool. I was ready to use my lipstick tube when I recalled having been to an art store a few weeks before to purchase a turquoise pen.  No turquoise pens were there to be found. What they had were artist brush pens in different shades of blue than what I had in mind, yet I was moved to buy one and put it in a zippered compartment that I never normally use. With a huge feeling of relief at finally finding a creative tool, this was the resulting poem recorded that day:

Poem as Art

What is this?
A poet without a pen?
Glad tidings be
That fancy marker
Grace my person
And my purse
To allow the artistry
Of words
The creation of phrase
The lyric of tongue
To unfold in indian ink
Peacock blue
Upon lined page
As yet empty
Awaiting breathlessly
The touch
Of the artist’s stroke.

No topic is too simple or foolish or too often written about by others to be written about by you if you are inspried to do so from a creative and playful bent. If you find magic in the world around you, anything and everything can be your inspiration!

Clouds

White clouds growing
changing in the east
building
expanding
as though the Ghostbuster’s
Marshmallow Man
was very slowly
arising
stretching
up and out
from a long held
crouch.

Here’s an exercise for you if you’re so inspired to indulge:

Below I’m going to give you the description of someone I saw one day last summer. I would encourage you to write a poem – or several poems if inclined – about this individual. Be playful. Be inventive. Trust the words that come to your mind. Write them down no matter how foolish!

Don’t edit what words you hear in your head before you write them out, and don’t edit them once they’re on the page. Never use an eraser! Never use the delete key! Once words have been removed, you can’t get those thoughts and inspirations back. And trust me, some of my worst phrases or sentences may have been inappropriate for the piece I was working on at the time, yet – lo and behold – I found them to be modifiable and ideal for something else along the way!

Here’s the description:

*an 80 something woman with long ringletted hair, wearing a  sun-faded yellow, broad brimmed hat with wilted blue silk flowers. She sports an aged gingham print summer dress hiked to her knees, showing off her rolled-down support hose while riding a rust-red bicycle. She hums a tune that has her smiling. Though you do not recognize the tune,  imagine it to be … any tune you choose.  Possibly: K-K-K-Katie, Beautiful Katie, You’re the only G-G-G-Girl that I adore … Or maybe: Barney Google, with the goo-goo-googly eyes, Barney Google with a wife who’s twice his size … ( yes, those really were songs that were popular in her day!)

Now, make a poem from the above as it inspires you. Make it playful, fanciful, light, loving. Yes, you can make it sad if you are so moved … yet my hope for your expansion today would be to show you how easy it can be to become poetic – in every aspect of your life, from the frying pan’s sizzle to the awe of dew drops on the first crocuses of Spring – and to do it playfully as a child might.

Here are a few examples from my own inspiration:

The yellow hat brim flapped and flapped
Against her cheek it slapped and slapped
The bicycle chain it tapped and tapped
As the old woman hummed a tune.

Or how about?

The blue flower wilted, drooping sadly
Rolled support hose retracting badly
Little old lady peddling madly
Humming gladly.

Or this one?

Yellow hat and wilted flower
Hair in ringlets a winded mess
Support hose rolled beneath the knees
Above the knees a gingham dress.

I’ll leave you now with, hopefully, inspirations floating around in your own mind. Go find that pen and some paper or open up your word processor and have fun!

Once done, if you care to send your results on to me through our comments option below, I’d love to read them! Let me know if it would be okay for me to publish here what you send me – I will honour your request – even if it means publishing it anonymously or with your first name only!

Happy poeming!!!!!

In Light and Laughter,

Marcia

Poetry Corner

This past May I had the honour and privilege of attending a personal week of retreat at Queenswood here in Victoria, BC, Canada. What an amazing opportunity and experience! In the quiet and beauty of this secluded area, I spent the majority of time in meditation – walking, reading, writing – listening and feeling. Even meals were a time of silence if I chose the earliest sitting.

I found myself drawn to the library (open 24 hours) late one evening and discovered a new author, Wendy Morton. She is a local woman, from Sooke, BC here on Vancouver Island. Her book “Six Impossible Things Before Breakfast” practically fell into my hands from an upper shelf display as I walked by. Through this book and her shared story and writings, Wendy has inspired me to perform spontaneous, playful ‘Random Acts of Poetry’.

In Wendy’s book (definitely a worth read!!!!!), she describes a style of poetry I’d never heard of before – Pantoum. It is a French form of poetry with ‘an intricate pattern of line repetition’.

Since that day, I’ve found myself using the Pantoum style any time I want to delve deeper into a concept. I’ve used it to expand ideas, to open myself up when blocked about something, to more fully explore a fabulous emotional response to a person or situation. Basically, when I want to understand my own self better, I take a thought or idea and ‘pantoum’ it!
Continue Reading →