Memaparkan catatan dengan label Toni Morrison. Papar semua catatan
Memaparkan catatan dengan label Toni Morrison. Papar semua catatan

Rabu, 24 Jun 2015

Poets United Midweek Motif ~ Entering Summer or Winter



“I wonder if the snow loves the trees and fields, that it kisses them so gently? And then it covers them up snug, you know, with a white quilt; and perhaps it says "Go to sleep, darlings, till the summer comes again.” 
― Lewis CarrollAlice's Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass

“I have only to break into the tightness of a strawberry, 
and I see summer – its dust and lowering skies.” 
― Toni MorrisonThe Bluest Eye

File:PanoMaipo Winter Summer.jpg
source

 Midweek Motif ~ 
Entering Summer or Winter

 "The sun stands still" before reversing direction ~ that is the meaning of the word solstice.  We experience more or fewer hours of sunlight per day. Archetypal symbols of lightness and darkness, summer and winter, maturing and aging and highs and lows flood the mind along with new and remembered sights and sounds.  

Your Challenge:  Write a poem to share your insights on the events and changes you're  experiencing this time of  year.





On Winter's Margin by Mary Oliver
On winter’s margin, see the small birds now
With half-forged memories come flocking home
To gardens famous for their charity.
The green globe’s broken; vines like tangled veins
Hang at the entrance to the silent wood.

With half a loaf, I am the prince of crumbs;
By snow’s down, the birds amassed will sing
Like children for their sire to walk abroad!
But what I love, is the gray stubborn hawk
Who floats alone beyond the frozen vines;
And what I dream of are the patient deer
Who stand on legs like reeds and drink that wind; -

They are what saves the world
: who choose to grow
Thin to a starting point beyond this squalor.


Summer in the South by Paul Laurence Dunbar

The Oriole sings in the greening grove
As if he were half-way waiting,
The rosebuds peep from their hoods of green,
Timid, and hesitating.
The rain comes down in a torrent sweep
And the nights smell warm and pinety,
The garden thrives, but the tender shoots
Are yellow-green and tiny.
Then a flash of sun on a waiting hill,
Streams laugh that erst were quiet,
The sky smiles down with a dazzling blue
And the woods run mad with riot.



Bed in Summer by Robert Louis Stevenson

In winter I get up at night
And dress by yellow candle-light.
In summer quite the other way,
I have to go to bed by day.

I have to go to bed and see
The birds still hopping on the tree,
Or hear the grown-up people's feet
Still going past me in the street.

And does it not seem hard to you,
When all the sky is clear and blue,
And I should like so much to play,
To have to go to bed by day?





Please share your new poem using Mr. Linky below and visit others in the spirit of the community.

(Next week Susan's Midweek Motif will be Freedom.)

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Rabu, 28 Januari 2015

Poets United Midweek Motif ~ The Role of Humor in Our Lives

“If we couldn't laugh we would all go insane.” 

“And the little prince broke into a lovely peal of laughter, which irritated me very much.  I like my misfortunes to be taken seriously.” 

“. . .  laughter is serious. More complicated, more serious than tears.” 


Cyklisci dk ubt
"Cycliing in Denmark" by Tomasz Sienicki (tsca, mail: tomasz.sienicki at gmail.com)

~


Midweek Motif ~ 
The Role of Humor in Our Lives

Closer to prank or parody?  
Closer to joking or satire? 
Yours or someone else's?
Laughter or groans?


Your Challenge:  
Let your poem give us an experience of the role of humor in a life.  Be funny if you wish, but it is not required.

Jerry Seinfeld Julia Louis-Dreyfus2.jpg
Jerry Seinfeld and Julia Louis-Dreyfus at the 1997 Emmy Awards

from Charles Bukowski's 

. . . . 

don't feel sorry for me
because I am alone

for even 
at the most terrible
moments
humor
is my 
companion.

. . . . 
(Read the rest HERE at Hello Poetry dot Com.)        


The Laughter Of Women

                By  Lisel Mueller  
The laughter of women sets fire
to the Halls of Injustice
and the false evidence burns
to a beautiful white lightness

It rattles the Chambers of Congress
and forces the windows wide open
so the fatuous speeches can fly out

The laughter of women wipes the mist
from the spectacles of the old;
it infects them with a happy flu
and they laugh as if they were young again
. . . . 

(Read the rest HERE at Poem Hunter dot Com)

#

For those who are new to Poets United:  
  1. Post your new humor poem on your site, and then link it here.
  2. If you use a picture include its link.  
  3. Share only original and new work written for this challenge. 
  4. Leave a comment here.
  5. Visit and comment on our poems.
(Our next Midweek Motif is Cancer.)

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Rabu, 5 Mac 2014

Poets United Midweek Motif ~ Honoring Woman/Women's Achievements

Still-Life with Bouquet of Flowers and Plums
by 
Rachel Ruysch (1664–1750) wikidata:Q234385






“For most of history, Anonymous was a woman.” 
― Virginia Woolf

And if it means so little to you that you can just give it away, hand it to him, then why should it mean any more to him? He can't value you more than you value yourself.” 
― Toni MorrisonSong of Solomon







Midweek Motif ~ Honoring 
Woman/Women's Achievements


Saturday, March 8th is International Woman's Day.
Is gender equality an issue in your life?  
How have you been influenced by a woman or women?  
(This is an opportunity to write of a specific woman.) 


This week I am inspired by women in my life: Mom, Grandmother, aunts, cousins, friends, teachers, students, actors, directors, journalists, novelists, playwrights, and poets. Also Marie Curie, Harriet Tubman, Sonja Heni, Sojourner Truth, Marian Anderson, Amelia Earhart, Gloria Steinem, Rosa Parks, Maria in West Side Story, Mary Poppins, Queen Elizabeth I, Golda Meir, Indira Gandhi, Lily Tomlin, Katharine Hepburn, Ellen Stewart, Elizabeth Swados, Joni Mitchell, Meg Christian, Laurie Anderson, Oprah Winfrey, Helen Caldicott, Hilary Clinton, Nancy Pelosi, Eleanor Roosevelt, Simone de Beauvoir and many many others including poets among YOU.  

Here's one by the American Dorothy Parker who delighted to shock her world:

                    Indian Summer 
“In youth, it was a way I had,  
To do my best to please.
And change, with every passing lad
To suit his theories.

But now I know the things I know
And do the things I do,
And if you do not like me so,
To hell, my love, with you.”              
                               ― The Complete Poems of Dorothy Parker


International Women's Day
A global hub for sharing International Women's Day news, events and resources


(Our next Midweek Motif will be "The Ides of March" or Prescience)

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Rabu, 29 Mei 2013

Verse First ~ The Function of Freedom


Welcome to Verse First, where simple notions prompt amazing poems.

Today's notion?

The Function of Freedom

In "Bird by Bird,"  Annie Lamott's seminal instructions on writing and life, she quotes Toni Morrison when she says, "The function of freedom is to free someone else."

Lamott goes on to say, "... if you are no longer wracked or in bondage to a person or a way of life, tell your story. Risk freeing someone else. Not everyone will be glad you did. Members of your family and other critics may wish you had kept your secrets. Oh, well, what are you going to do?"
"Get it all down. Let it pour out of you onto the page. Write an incredibly shitty, self-indulgent, whiny, mewling first draft. Then take out as many of the excesses as you can." 

Write it all down, then carve away every excess. That, poet-friends, is your assignment this week. 

GO!

After you post your work on your website, use Mr. Linky to share it here. Leave a comment below if you like, and remember to support fellow poets by visiting and commenting on their work.

I look forward to reading your unflinchingly pared-down poems. ~ Kim




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