This weekend was busy. First, we had the delight of seeing a niece and her family on Saturday and Sunday, but it was a quick trip for their family through our town. Saturday also happened to be the Poetry Marathon. Two wonderful events in one weekend!
I got behind and didn’t give the Marathon my all, but I did manage to write 24 poems in 24 hours. The best part, though, was seeing my niece. We had a chance to talk about family history and then some family dynamics that are painful to live with and hard to understand this side of heaven. It was a blessed time to connect.
This weekend also began this month’s OpenWrite. It’s still going Tuesday and Wednesday. Maybe you’d like to join us.
Wednesday, 19 June 2024, with Jessica Wiley
Quiet
Collected Poems
Illuminate
Louder than Hunger
Chaotic Thinking
Be a Maker
The Hurting Kind
The Carrying
The Fire Next Time
Big Magic
Tuesday, 18 June 2024, with Anna Small Roseboro
Let’s Be Better
Recalling the
Umbrage with which you
Make known your faith:
Is God so angry and
No longer willing to confer?
A just, loving God
Transferred all
Infallibility to
Only you? No, I think you do
Not really believe that either.
Recent ruminations have
Explored my
Capacity for holding the
Knowledge of the raggedness
Of our fear to take up trauma.
Nevertheless,
“I can do hard things.”
Now I choose to take the risk to
Grapple with those fears.
Monday, 17 June 2024, with Susan Ahlbrand
She
was not
the one I
would have thought would
go to dental school.
Sure, she worked hard as a
junior higher, stayed after
class, tried to retain toilsome
details. This month she graduated.
She’s Dr. S. (Of course, I should have known.)
Sunday, 16 June 2024, with Margaret Simon
Duplex for the Coyote Howling Nearby
What has hurt you so this evening
That you shout so raucously?
You shout so raucously
Is your baby safe?
Your coyote pup–is it okay?
You had been quiet lately
You had been so quiet lately,
But tonight your mournful bark
Tonight, your mournful bark
Makes me sad and lonely too.
Sad and lonely is passed on to me
As you scream your yip yapping elegy.
Is it an elegy you yipyap scream?
This evening that hurts with you.
Saturday, 15 June 2024, with Sarah Donovan
These poets
are the impetus of identity
the providers of peace
in knowing myself
loving myself
more honestly
the seekers of truth
in finding my way
in the world as it
really is and not just
as I always knew it
These poems
are the tingling fingers
of an adventurous
and risky
ascent
into
knowing
These interactions
are the honeyed
story
of
life
Such a full weekend – hosting and poetry, too!!
I just read Christmas Bells by Jennifer Chiaverini where the author provides the context of the poet’s world at the time when Longfellow wrote the Christmas Bells poem. As a poet, I bet you’d like it.
Thanks, Sally for the book recommendation! I’ll make a note of it.
How do you do it all? Writing consistently while entertaining family gatherings. Thanks for sharing the Open Write. It’s been a good week of poetry.
Denise,
24 poems in 24 hours! 😱 My eyes are popping out of my head thinking about that. I’m kind of glad I didn’t know about that challenge. I’m exhausted thinking about it. Anyway, great acrostic today. And I do love poetry celebrating female achievements such as the one you wrote yesterday. How often do we underestimate other women? It’s something to ponder.
Sure sounds like a fulfilling weekend. I’m so impressed-24 poems in 24 hours!!
I read the 24 brilliant poems and responded to my favorites. That you say you, “didn’t give the Marathon [your] all” certainly didn’t seem true to me. These words, “We had a chance to talk about family history and then some family dynamics that are painful to live with and hard to understand this side of heaven” really resonated with me, and I’ll bet with many who read your blog…”this side of heaven” I love that!
Denise, I love that you had a poetry marathon! What a great way to write around the clock and preserve so much of a day lived. Your photos always add so much to your blog – – I feel like I know your family! So much to celebrate here.
First, 24 poems in 24 hours? Dang! While I’m not much of a poet, the idea seems like such a great one (I have a coyote outside calling, so that poem has much more meaning!).
The connection made with family along with the writing seems like such a wonderful way to spend a weekend! Thanks for sharing with us! 🙂
Wow! Amazing – 24 poems in 24 hours! And with a busy weekend too. I love this. So full of connection.