The revision help I got has me thinking once again--especially with the news about the Lee Bennett Hopkins award for THE WONDER HOUSE going to the duo of Rebecca Kai Dotlich and Georgia Heard--about how we poets ought to be outright collab'ing like the pop musicians out there, riffing and mixing and remixing our poems. In fact there are some places that specialize in that:
https://www.s2fjournal.com/ and one other I saw that I can't find now.
Your thoughts on poems/collections by more than one person?
Thanks to Tricia for hosting us today at The Miss Rumphius Effect. Can't wait to enjoy the pantoumery!
I love this! Kudos to you for working in rhyme. I tried, but it just wasn't working for me.
ReplyDeleteI love the line "All winter I surprise your eye again." What truth there is in it!
Thanks for playing along with our prompt.
"we weather it, we stay" strong line/words and not always easy for feathered friend or human. Lots of movement in your poem for those determined stay put Cardinals… Gorgeous pic too, thanks Heidi!
ReplyDeleteI just absolutely adore the alliteration in the title - love how it rolls off my tongue. The heavy themes "when the planet's ills around you weigh" are woven with such a light and feathered spirit, it's lovely. Thank you so much for sharing!
ReplyDeleteLove that "red against the grey" - I have a cardinal couple who visit the feeder daily. Thanks, Heidi.
ReplyDeleteHeidi, there are so many lines that resonate with me, such as, "we weather it, we stay". I always loved seeing flashes of red wings against the snow when living on Long Island. I once had a cardinal perched on my white picket fence. He stayed for a photo much to my delight. Your title is so clever and I love the nod to the environment. May your weekend be filled iwth joy.
ReplyDeleteCardinals in the gray of winter always make me happy. I love poetry collections and poems that are collaborations! I love Charles and Irene's collaborations and Rebecca and Georgia's collaborations. I recently read BRAIDED CREEK by Ted Kooser and Jim Harrison. And I loved MARSHMALLOW CLOUDS with Ted Kooser and Connie Wanek. And LACE & PYRITE by Ross Gay and Aimee Nezhukumatathil. BRAIDED CREEK and LACE AND PYRITE were both epistolary (though not obviously) because they were poems they sent to each other.
ReplyDeleteThis is so lovely, Heidi, that "flashing cheer", just what they do! We don't have cardinals in Colorado & I miss their calls and "red against the gray" that I had growing up in Missouri.
ReplyDeleteI love your celebration of the cardinal and its color we enjoy all winter. One of my favorite birds. I need to find Georgia and Rebecca’s new book. Thanks for the reminder.
ReplyDeleteOh, I had to read this one aloud! Divine!! And how I LOVE cardinals....
ReplyDeleteThat last stanza is an ode to HOPE! Thank you, Heidi. - btw, am really enjoying DEAR HUMANS!
ReplyDeleteI thoroughly enjoyed this poem--starting with the concept of the red rebelling against the grey in the first line. And "again" in the first line of the second stanza sets it all up well for the sense of the cardinal flying in and out along with the repeated lines.
ReplyDeleteHooray for cardinals! I really enjoy poems that are collaborative linked verse-- renga parties are really fun! I haven't done one in a while... but I look forward to the Progressive Poem blog hop every year.
ReplyDeleteThe use of the form's firmly underscores themes of rebelling, outlasting , and weathering hard times and it just makes me feel the fierce gladness you enjoyed upon seeing that gorgeous feathering of scarlet ink across the winter landscape. Lovely!
ReplyDelete(ugh, typos, you can tell I'm doing this on the phone micro keyboard!)
ReplyDeleteOh, I love this one, Heidi. It flows so beautifully. "All winter I surprise your eye again"--such cardinal truth!
ReplyDeleteHeidi, it was worth the wait for your beautiful red rebel. I love the play on the words "Encyclical from the Cardinal." It makes the message even more powerful, divine even. Such an important message from the cardinals. And that last line--what a summary of the message, "I remain the red against the grey." Absolutely lovely.
ReplyDeleteYou nailed the title, and as I read this, I love switching reeBELLS to REHbulls in the last stanza. Proud to be a part of your hopeful, flashy tribe!
ReplyDeleteI love your poem so much because it is so universal for us to watch the cardinals all year long. I have a pair that come to my feeder every day. They are dependable. I love the idea of a collection. Can you be our next Lee Bennet Hopkins? We need to carry on his legacy. I got a copy of Bless Our Pets and it is so lovely. I want to make beautiful books for the rest of my life.
ReplyDeleteI really love this. You've captured exactly what it's like seeing a beautiful bird. Ruth, thereisnosuchthingasagodforsakentown.blogspot.com
ReplyDeleteWe swoop and wing our joy--yes!
ReplyDeleteNever enough cardinal appreciation - a wafting wing & chippy chirp, for yours. On collaborations in poetry, my shelf groove with ones holding great treasure, such as DICTIONARY for a BETTER WORLD, from Charles Waters & Irene Latham.
ReplyDeleteI also know of collections of Poems for Two Voices, one from one of the talented Fleicshmans, can't find it immediately. This is a wee bit off, but I feel so many collaborations between visual artist [illustrator] & poet, such as with Lisa Desimini & J. Patrick Lewis, are equal talents melding ideas, motion, action & meaning in a transcendent package of love.
Hmmm. This Anon. is Jan/Bookseedstudio. Apologies for not realizing it would pop up so!
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