Poetry Is..........

 

As this is Poetry month, it seems fitting to contemplate the art of poetry itself. Why do we write? What drives us to pick up our pens, tap our keys, keep these lines of words moving across the page or screen?

Sometimes I like to write a poem that starts with "Poetry Is....." and then continues on, as it is an easy segue to any number of random observances.

I am remembering Hannah E. Bowles' (formerly Gosselin) wonderful Boomerang Metaphor form, that she created back in the days of Imaginary Gardens With Real Toads. It takes this premise farther in starting out with three lines, each stating a complete thought. The poet then expands each line into a separate stanza. The wrap-up final stanza repeats the first three lines. Like a boomerang!

That is more challenging, but it is a form I am very fond of and haven't tried for a while. If interested, you can find Hannah's more detailed explanation of the form at Real Toads, at this link. 

Hannah kindly allowed me to use her first Boomerang Metaphor poem as an example. 

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This Poem is a Hoe, the Wheel and a Sphere

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This poem is a three-year-old boy using a hoe.
This poem is a red tricycle.
This poem is an iridescent glass-globe.

~

This poem is small and strong,
it wishes to work and play all the day long.
This poem likes to get grubby and grounded,
this poem is a little guy with giant dreams.
This poem is a three-year-old boy using a hoe.

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This poem is metallic - related to the bicycle
it desires the wind of motion on its wheels;
this poem enjoys the journey forward into the unknown.
This poem is always happy to come back home,
this poem is a red tricycle.

~

This poem is fragile and forever beautiful,
it’s whole and in an instant shattered.
This poem celebrates and embraces slivers of light,
this poem is a prism – rays gathered flight;
this poem is an iridescent glass globe.

~

This poem is a small blue-eyed boy with a garden hoe.
This poem is a colorful streamer-adorned tricycle.
This poem is the rainbow in the iridescent glass-globe.

~

Copyright © Hannah Gosselin and Metaphors and Smiles, 2011-14

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Here is an example of the Poetry Is........form:

I BELIEVE

Poetry, I tell my students,
is idiosyncratic. Poetry

is where we are ourselves
(though Sterling Brown said

“Every ‘I’ is a dramatic ‘I’”),
digging in the clam flats

for the shell that snaps,
emptying the proverbial pocketbook.

Poetry is what you find
in the dirt in the corner,

overhear on the bus, God
in the details, the only way

to get from here to there.
Poetry (and now my voice is rising)

is not all love, love, love,
and I’m sorry the dog died.

Poetry (here I hear myself loudest)
is the human voice,

and are we not of interest to each other?

-by Elizabeth Alexander

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So, our possible prompts are:

*Poetry Is.......

*The Boomerang Metaphor form, for those who enjoy a challenge, or

*A poem about poetry, as we celebrate its meaning in our lives

I am so looking forward to reading the results. Poetry is......wonderful! Bravo to those who are writing a poem a day!