forward...inCH!

Welcome to a new week of the Forward...MarCH CHallenge!  I hope participants will forgive me; I had hoped to round up last week's poems and statistics on Sunday, but a number of obligations (not least a sunny and mild afternoon!) made that impossible.  So let's plunge in--not too deep, maybe just 2.54 centimeters or so--with today's word, "inCH."

I can't go an inCH farther without mentioning Leo Lionni's Inch by Inch, a really philosophical, challenging, beautiful book.  If you haven't read this one by one of my top five picture book authors, do check it out!

My aim has been to use these -CH words as verbs, so here goes...

How Deep Is Your Love?

Inch 
by
inch

and foot by foot,

strawberry licorice

down the hatch!

My  

favorite 

food—

it is so goot,

inching into

my stomatch!

 

HM 2015
all rights reserved

Oh, what foolishness.  I'm pretty sure you all are going to do better than that; Diane already has.  Hers is a foodie inCH too:

Pinch an Inch

The inch of flesh
at my waist
has expanded
to several more.
With age comes
wisdom and I'm
wise enough to
know the only
pinching I should
be doing now is
grandbaby cheeks.

--Diane Mayr

To add to that wisdom, Diane would like us to relive Special K commercials of the past.  I'm so amused!

Kindly add your inCH of wisdom in the comments or by email, and thanks for joining me on our little-by-little journey through MarCH!

**********************
Next we have a couple of sleepy inCHes, first from the very busy--HEY!  CHarles!  C-H-arles!  No wonder he's so into this...

MORNING DECISION

Galvanizing myself

To leap into this journey

Of math tests, science quizzes,

The enigma that is cafeteria food,

Evening laundry and backpack

Breaking homework.  I mentally

Say, get up, get up, but don’t

Even shift an inch out of my fetal

 Position, blankets shielding me from

Winters frosty open arms.

(c) Charles Waters 2015 all rights reserved.

Love that very familiar middle-school voice.  And if it's a frosty school morning tugging at Charles, it's a late night walk else tugging at Donna:

Inch

I gave them an inch
they took a mile
my eyes were closing all the while
I gave them a mile
they wanted three
my brain was dozing happily
I gave them three
they wanted more
and I began to softly snore
the more they got
the more they plead
Oh, dogs, I need to get to bed.
This walking in my sleep to do
the things for you you want me to
Has got to stop so I can rest
And tomorrow I can be my best
so go to sleep like I am, see?
and be the best that you can be.

Donna JT Smith, 2015

Mary Lee is just crackling with comments this morning (she must have slept better than I) and offers us this hopeful...

springtime inch

an inch of green
above the brown
where just last week
was snow

makes me believe
in hidden things
like nature's urge
to grow

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2015

That reminds me of another hopeful emergence of green, this poem by Barbara Baker.   It's happening in front of my house right this second--I can hardly contain my excitment! Kate joins in with an entomological inch:

Inch

Scatterdy skitter,
here comes a critter.

When you are a small bug
an inch is a mile.

When you are a spider
an inch is a smile.

When you are the spidered
an inch is a flinch.

Deep in the web
an inch is a pinch.

You suddenly find out
what you have to pay—

then you wish you had
skittered the opposite way.

—Kate Coombs, 2015

Love the shifting perspectives in that one!  Carol is here too, with a poem about a vintage treasure just big enough to occupy her heart:


You inch your way into my heart
with movable eyes and memories.
Inch by inch, I scan your petite frame,
reminisce about your history,
and recall when you were lovingly
given to me once upon a year.

Each winter, you grace my home.
With 20th century charm,
you find a way to bring back a time
when a mother passed on a treasure
to her child for her children's pleasure.

The hearts you wear emote feelings
of love once released upon a tender,
heart-filled moment on a winter's day.
Your tiny hearts fill the room with a
lifetime of thoughts as you inch
your way back into a drawer
to rest in memories.

2015 Carol Varsalona. All Rights Reserved

Joy comes along with an intriguing couplet:

All my inches
are goldfinches.

Cor blimey, Donna is on a roll this month!  In addition to the below addition to her first "inCH" poem, Donna sent me two other poems for Saturday and Sunday, too!  And in Round Two of the March Madness Tournament, she's waiting to learn the outcome of the voting.  May I suggest Donna's theme song for March?

No mere inches there--more like light years!

Spring Inches

Little by little

Spring inches in;

Snow has to lose

Sun has to win.

The clock hops forward,

Shadows inch back;

The spring sun warms,

Ice starts to crack.

Liquid and solids

Mingle and flow;

Puddles appear

With nowhere to go,

Until I carve

Inches of grooves

And water begins

To trickle and moves

Where I've created

Rivers with stick,

and they have no choice

which route to pick;

For I am the master

of rivers and moats

and all of the little

stick and leaf boats.


©Donna JT Smith, 2015

For Saturday, a grouCH poem:

Grouch

I'm really trying to be calm, but I can't find my sock.

I thought it was still early morn, but just look at the clock.

It's getting late, no poem done and now the storm begins -

I'm walking backwards all day long, on needles and on pins.

I need a break from nothing done, I need to stop and rest.

I've sat behind this glaring screen and tried to do my best;

But now the puppy has a shoe, and I must stop and scold -

I think the fire needs a log, the house is getting cold.

Don't mean to grouch!  What attitude!  Put on a big, ol' smile,

And maybe that will change my mood in just a little while.

This smile "becomes" my attitude, I'm happy it's in charge.

Where is that chocolate ice cream? This smile deserves a large!

©Donna JT Smith, 2015

 And for Sunday, a snowman watCH poem:

The Heart of Snow

heart of snowman watch

for spring's sun rays to arrive

when all cold hearts melt

Donna JT Smith, 2015

Go Poets Go!