Thursday, May 26, 2022

freefall


Tuesday was a hard day for everyone who works in a school, or is a parent, or abhors the shooting of human beings of any age. Like many of you, I reached for poetry, for something to hold onto in this freefall of tragedy.



 

 

I hope you found some cushion, too. Our roundup is hosted this week by your friend and mine, the brave Linda Mitchell, librarian extraordinaire, who has put herself on the line to protect students this year. Thank you, Linda, for putting a word in edgewise, again and again.

 

15 comments:

  1. I just saw a great video of HS graduates all around a parachute lifting it up and down...reliving favorite memories. Yes, poems are our parachutes and on Fridays we all lift them up and run underneath letting them billow around us while we giggle next to our friends. What a great poem. Thank you, Heidi. This poem is a keeper.

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  2. Thanks for 'hammocking' us with your words, Heidi.

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  3. "Hammocked" is so great here... and yes to wielding poems! Thank you. xo

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  4. Well said, Heidi. (The only thing I wonder about is "wield," which sounds a little like we are brandishing a poem instead of clinging to it?)

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    1. Sorry, that was me

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    2. Yes, I think there are poems that are appropriately brandish-worthy. What is the most fiery and furious poem you know? I like this one: https://jellyfishreview.wordpress.com/2017/10/13/collective-nouns-for-humans-in-the-wild-by-kathy-fish/

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  5. This poem and Linda's memory... Friends and poetry.

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  6. Thank you so much for this. It is balm.

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  7. Your words, your poem, so totally apt for the time and its horrendous events Heidi. As Sarah Grace noted, it is a balm for the soul.

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  8. we are grateful to be hammocked with you

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  9. So well said, Heidi. Thank you for reminding us of the power of words.

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  10. Thank you for your poem cushion, Heidi.

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  11. "a tool, an armor, a shelter
    a tonic, a blanket..."

    Yes. Poems can be all those things, and yes to the ones that are wielded, brandished, and unsheathed to cut a swath through insanity and lead us to change.

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  12. Heidi, thank you for your poem, for your words that remind us that "hammocked" together even in adversity, our words, our poems speak to help all of us. Great poem!

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Thanks for joining in the wild rumpus!