I woke up on Saturday to an email in my box with the ten words I needed to use in a poem for the 2 Day Poem Contest. (If you think you might want to participate, you can subscribe to get their email updates for next year’s contest.) I like to try this challenge because it’s like a puzzle. A two-day version of Wordle or Connections, perhaps.
I took this screenshot and sent it to our family group. My son-in-law and I looked up the words, and he started making jokes about how to use them. Then we continued on our day: out for coffee in glossy mugs, hiking, out to a deli for Reubens or matzo ball soup, on to a consignment shop fossicking for treasures, then home and out to ie Italian Eatery for the best meal in a long time! I think Minneapolis has some of the best food opportunities I’ve ever had the joy of eating.
Anyway, my poem got sent in without much thought except for the joyful time I’ve been having this long weekend with these dears: my daughter, her hubby, and mine. Today we fly home.
Someday, I hope to write a 2 Day Poem with something more than solving another word puzzle.
A Saturday in St. Paul (Ars Poetica)
Poetry, I’ve always said,
is full of the awestruck
Quietness of emotions
In a verklempt rag doll,
Moldable and mending.
Poetry is best served in
glossy, big-handled mugs,
along with a Reuben sandwich
and a pickle spear on the side.
Finding a good poem is
like fossicking at the
vintage store, most items
ignored for others to mine,
but some long for me,
treasures of life to embrace.
Poetry is a bowl of
matzo ball chicken soup
when one is feeling sick,
and reconciliation for the
one who remains sickly.
Poetry is a nature preserve
wrapped up in the big arms
of a lodestar of grace.
When all I feel I can do is
parrot other poets, it is their poetry
that intervenes and freshens
the brackish tears of my heart.
Poetry is the royal flush
of life and literature, a hand of
beauty and hope among
the high and low cards of my history.
Wow, I am so impressed- that was a tough list and you made the words sing!
Denise,
I agree w/ your assessment of the Minneapolis area. The culture is a well-kept secret. I really love your poem, especially the verse beginning “Finding a good poem…” You’ve been a gracious supporter of my poetry. I often (most days) feel like my forgotten poems, despite my traveling to the various “vintage stores” where I find the verses of others, so I’m reading that verse as a very personal one. Thank you.
Oh my goodness! Amazing you could get all those words in!
Denise, I adore your poem. I love how you so cleverly weaved your experiences into your poem. I have never heard about such a writing contest. I’d love to know more how to also get involved. Sounds like super fun. I agree about the Minneapolis food!
Thank you, Barb! I should have added information. I’m going to go back and add it, and I’ll also email it to you.
This is my favorite verse: When all I feel I can do is
parrot other poets, it is their poetry
that intervenes and freshens
the brackish tears of my heart.
I also love your line about the high and low cards of one’s personal history.
What a challenge! And it shakes out a poem you never would have written otherwise, right?!
What a fun challenge – and what a witty way to solve it, to ‘crowd-source’ with loved ones. You had such fun! The poem is wonderful. I especially like these lines:
like fossicking at the
vintage store, most items
ignored for others to mine
Denise, this game, this vocabulary challenge is amazing! I think I love this part best:
Poetry is a bowl of
matzo ball chicken soup
when one is feeling sick,
and reconciliation for the
one who remains sickly.
And also the word list and the way you send it out with the excitement of the anticipated list and the challenge of what to do with the words. Your royal flush stanza just thrills my soul to read – – yes, yes! Poetry is all that in your poem, and I am cheering and whistling the passion!
Denise, kudos to you for adding all those words into a wonderful poem. There are so many favorite parts of your poem but I think your into stanza sets the tone for a creative melding of words. Great job!
Wow Denise, that was a beautiful poem! I like the idea of that challenge; I’m thinking to do something similar with my students. I’m inspired by you, thank you so much for sharing!
Thanks for sharing the list, a challenge to use all ten words in anything…but to have it inspire a poem that captures the joy of your time in St. Paul so vividly? Remarkable. I love the fossick verse, those objects that long for your attention and offer an embrace. The final lines, the metaphor of poetry as a royal flush of life, of literature capture my feelings about having them in my hand perfectly!