Day Nine on APRIL 9, 2024
Happy Tuesday, all, and happy ninth day of Na/GloPoWriMo.
Our featured participant for today is Rook Poetry, where a cowboy and samurai circle around each other in
response to Day 8’s unlikely connections prompt (reminding me of The Magnificent Seven / Seven Samurai).
Today’s daily resource is Poem Today, a twitter account where you’ll typically find at least one poem every
day, and usually more.
Our prompt for today (optional, as always) takes its inspiration from Pablo Neruda, the Chilean-born poet
and Nobel Prize Winner. While he is most famous in the English-speaking world for his collection Twenty
Love Poems and a Song of Despair, he also wrote more than two hundred odes, and had a penchant for
writing sometimes-long poems of appreciation for very common or mundane things. You can read English
translations of “Ode to the Dictionary” at the bottom of this page, “Ode to My Socks” here, and “Ode to a
Large Tuna in the Market” here.
Today, we’d like to challenge you to write your own ode celebrating an everyday object.
Happy writing!
THANK YOU, DEAR MAUREEN.
I love the Chilean-born poet and Nobel Prize Winner and will write you a semi-ode together with something
I’m dying to tell you—first, the poem; inspired by the image below.
Written for Sadje’s What Do You See # 233- April 8, 2024
Sadje says, “Does this picture inspire you to write something?”
“For the visually challenged reader, this image shows a brass key fallen among
the leaves in a jungle. You can see a pine cone and needles around it too.“
Sadje’s waiting for your response.
Every experience is unlived
before we live it
even as we pace in peculiar
prisons of our own
the orange silk scarf flung by the wind
now pinned to a wire,
the antique brass key dropped in the woods
now pining among pines
these belong to someone who ventured
these very sidewalks
these very forests living a life
far removed from ours.
There are many stories and many
experiences
occurring at once: the grocery
cart and the handle
on the gas pump have been touched once by
many others. In
the loop of life, we carry stories
and experiences
from lives never to be lived by us.
© selma
Extra, Extra… Here’s where the book party is for the next six days.
Won’t you read, please?
welcome-to-the-wordcrafter-poetry-treasures-4-in-touch-with-nature-book-blog-tour/
I’m so excited. My penpals heard about this first last night, and now I’ll
tell you: I’m one of the participants in this stellar feast. Isn’t it cool?
This was no easy fete; brought to life by two people, treasure epitomes! and
superlative poets who add their nature touches for such a beautiful theme.
I’m beyond happy to be included. Thanks from the bottom of my heart.
Oh, and there are giveaways!!
Please click on the link to interact with the wonderful trailer and stellar reading by eco-poet,
D.L. Finn. Wonderful first stop on the tour. I couldn’t wait to give you the heads-up
on what’s happening. Bless you all.
- Poetics: Left in the Lurch - May 16, 2024
- Wea’ve Written Weekly: There Is Another Sky—It’s Called Hope - May 16, 2024
- Challenge No. 34, 5/14/24, Part II: The Beginning of Summer, May 5-19–Rikka 立夏 - May 14, 2024
‘the loop of life’ – so well said
Yes, the loop. xoxo
I like how this hints at the interconnectedness of life.
Yes, strongly so. Thanks for pointing it out. We are all connected…
Congratulations Selma! Great news!!! All the best on the blog tour…I see from the agenda you are reading on April 10.
Great poem and choice of inspiration for Sadje’s prompt. Love the lines:
“dropped in the woods; now pining among pines” – Fabulous phrasing!
Aww. Thanks, Suzette. “pining among pines” Thanks for saying.
Yes, there will be a reading later today. Bless you, I hope you return to listen… xoxo
Thank you Selma. I will indeed. Have a good one!
The ending of your poem got me thinking, Selma — “we carry stories and experiences from lives never to be lived by us” — at how we also carry poems never to be written by us — that it’s enough that they exist and we got to read them. Anyway, thanks for getting me thinking with your lovely poem.
This is so… never to be written by us… Thanks for reading and getting something out of it. Blessings.
Profound poetry, Selma, and Congrats on the anthology! I was in the second, and it’s a wonderful experience. Hope you are well! 🩷
You were? That’s amazing, dear Lauren. I’m in new territory here… Wish I could purchase every single book my friends are in. Imagine how rich I’d need to be for that… Bless you, Thanks for reading and enjoying today’s poem.
An excellent response, SELMA.
Thanks dearly, dear Robbie. Stay sweet.
Congratulations Selma 🎉🎉
Congratulations, Selma! Amazing words use in poem. Beautiful written poem. Love all words. Inspired 💗!
Thanks so dearly, dear RAj. Bless you
xoxo Thanks so much, Maggie. Please return today to see the reading… Bless you.
My pleasure always Selma xo
Will do 🤗💕
xoxo Thanks so much, Maggie. Please return later today to see the poetry reading, by ME… Bless you.
A beautiful poem Selma. Loved the way you used the words and image so cleverly. Thank you for joining in my friend. All the best on blog tour.
Thanks dearly.
Always my pleasure
Every line of this poem is a gem, Selma. This interconnectivity that is invisible to us needs to be acknowledged and you do it so eloquently in this poem. Wonderful.
LuAnne, thanks so much for seeing that. Happy writing.
We are indeed part of an intricate network.
And congratulations for being included in the anthology! (K)
We are in this together.
Thanks so much for saying about the anthology.
No (wo)man is an island — Lovely poem, Selma.
No one is an island. Thanks Dora.
So well written, Selma🌹
Thanks, my friend. Bless you always. xoxo