Greetings and Happy New School Year to those who observe! (All of us, I believe.) I'm dipping back in to participate in our critique group's monthly challenge, posed to us this month by Margaret Simon. Her challenge to us was "Choose a photo from This Photo Wants to Be a Poem and share your poem and your process."
Margaret loved Laura Purdie Salas's weekly "15 Words or Less" write-to-an-image exercise so much that when Laura decided to end it at her blog, Margaret took it on at Reflections on the Teche, her own blog, as "This Photo Wants to Be a Poem."
I'm sorry to say that I have not been a regular respondent in either place, although I do love writing to an image. But I did drop in in early August, where I found not only this gorgeous close-up of a seed-head of grass, but Margaret's own beautiful and rich commentary:
"We have had a string of rainy days here in South Louisiana. It
happens most summers and helps to regulate the rising temperatures. Some
days you feel as though you will never dry out. The air is wet. The
ground is wet. Your body is wet.
The grass loves all this moisture and it grows and grows. In a nearby
empty lot, the grass is almost as tall as I am. On a recent walk I
stopped to look at it. Even the weeds of nature that grow out of control
are beautiful. Nature is ongoing, reliably replenishing, and ever
growing. Maybe your area of the world is hot and dry. Wash yourself in
the lushness of the bayou side."
Lovely, yes? I can't explain what made me want to mess with it, but I did.
grass loves
a string of rainy days
happens helps the rising
some days
air is wet ground is wet body is wet
grass loves all this
grows and grows
as tall as walk
as tall as look
as tall as beautiful
ongoing reliably
replenishing lushness
And this is how I messed with it.
We have had a string of rainy days here in South Louisiana. It happens most summers and helps to regulate the rising temperatures. Some days you feel as though you will never dry out. The air is wet. The ground is wet. Your body is wet.
The grass loves all this moisture and it grows and grows. In a nearby empty lot, the grass is almost as tall as I am. On a recent walk I stopped to look at it. Even the weeds of nature that grow out of control are beautiful. Nature is ongoing, reliably replenishing, and ever growing. Maybe your area of the world is hot and dry. Wash yourself in the lushness of the bayou side.
Luckily, Margaret not only did not take offense but liked it very much--thanks for your generosity, Margaret, both in permitting me to erase your words and in offering this gentle little opportunity each week for so long!
Thanks to our host today, Linda at TeacherDance, where there's a cheering new header, and here's where you can find the responses of the other Inklings to this challenge. (And here's a bonus song while you read. I'm not done drowning, myself.)
Linda Mitchell
Molly Hogan
Catherine Flynn
Mary Lee Hahn
