Here

Forest Lawn Cemetery, Buffalo, NY

Photo by Amy LV

Students - Some of you know that my father passed away in 2020, and this poem is about my recent visit to plant daffodil bulbs at the cemetery. The poem is a sonnet (I explain a bit about sonnets HERE), a form I enjoy writing and thinking in sometimes.

My journey to write this poem at this time came because I opened a wonderful poetry titled KINDEST REGARDS: NEW AND SELECTED POEMS by Ted Kooser to a random page and found his poem "Daddy Longlegs." The first line reads:

Here, on fine long legs as springy as steel,

It struck me that beginning a poem with the word here was interesting, and so I made a list of a few lines which do just that:

Here, a moth clings to a screen.

Here, an apple waits in a bowl.

Here, a grave listens.

Here, if you walk through this graveyard in the fall.

And then I just kept writing. 

You might find a surprising or not-so-surprising writing topic by trying this yourself. Begin with here and see where you go from here. Or...read something else and begin with a different word or line that you discover in a book.

Buffy is hosting this week's Poetry Friday roundup with a sneak peek into Laura Purdie Salas's and Alexandria Neonakis's forthcoming book FINDING FAMILY. Please know that all are welcome each Friday as folks share poems, poem books, poetry ideas, and friendship.

May you catch a loving voice on a breeze.

xo,

Amy

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