EVERY YEAR, I think, “Oh, I have too much work to do to participate in this!” And yet, EVERY YEAR, here I am – clicking through blogs, reading, commenting, sighing deliciously. The excitement for National Poetry Month is contagious. Poetry Geeking is infectious. I can’t help but take part!
The Princesses are all participating in various ways – Liz and Andi did haiku last year, and both Liz and Andi will reprise that, as they are pretty much the Haiku Queens of our group. Kelly is combining yoga, tai chi and poetry in innovative ways, and Sara is poetry-ing away with Laura, who continues her consistent poetry exercises of “15 Words or Less” poems, based on a picture, and her newest venture, “Writing After Reading, which is a thought-provoking series of discussions and prompts. Instead of interviews this time around, Tricia is hitting the teaching angle, and highlighting a poem, a theme, a book, or a poet every day and suggesting ways to make poetry a regular part of life in the classroom.
Other poetry peeps involved are the great Gregory K., who is also fundraising for a poetry crusade called Poetry: Spread the Word!, which would make the poetry celebration last for much longer than a month! I’m excited to go over and contribute and cheer him on! Reprising the Alphabet Soup Poetry Potluck is the very dear Jama K. Rattigan. My cousin, Mary Lee Hahn, is going to write a poem a day in honor of National Poetry Month. She’s also playing a QR Code poetry game, which is utterly leaving my iPhone-less self in the dust. (Oh, well. It’s good to have cousins who are smarter than me.) David Elzey is doing Burma Shave poetry/twitku – you’ll have to read to find out exactly what that means!
What’s MY contribution going to be? Well, it will probably be limited to Fridays, but I have a few poems to share — poems which were written as part of a Language Arts project for Oakwood School in Hollywood, in response to MARE’S WAR. I’ll share a few lines from a few poems — and talk about how I feel they fit with what MARE’S WAR is all about.
Meanwhile, here’s my little Poetry Friday contribution for today. It matches my mood pretty well – I’m grateful for the twelve pages I wrote yesterday, the late afternoon sun that, after a morning of rain actually gave Tech Boy a mild sunburn on the way home (hah! You know we haven’t seen the sun in awhile for THAT to happen – he’s paper-white, poor boy), the earworm from the Rossini piece we just sang (Qui Tollis, if you want to know), the wind gusts that rattled the windows and provided an interesting sideways flight effect for the pigeons and gulls, the rain across the panes — just small things which keep me going. Te Deum.
Te Deum
Not because of victories
I sing,
having none,
but for the common sunshine,
the breeze,
the largess of the spring.Not for victory
but for the day’s work done
as well as I was able;
not for a seat upon the dais
but at the common table.
The Latin words, “Tē Deum” translate literally as “You, God,” and is generally the form for a praise poem. This one is less religious and more spiritual than some, if that makes sense, and I hope it prompts you into your own simple statements of gratitude.
For those following, the Poetry Friday round-up is today hosted by Amy @ The Poem Farm, where second-grade haiku (Petetry!) is on tap today, and where there will be poetry all month long.