Milkweed Wishes Letting Go
Photo by Amy LV
Students - My family's life has experienced many different kinds of goodbyes lately, and today I am thinking about those. I am thinking about how the same word - goodbye - can feel so many different ways: peaceful, surprising, heartbreaking, confusing, calm... A goodbye can be this way...and this way too.
We have two kittens (they're really cats now, but I still call them "the kittens"), and even though they are both kittens, each one of them is different. Same word (kittens), verrrrry different behaviors. A kitten can be this way...and this way too.
The same word can hold different meanings and emotions, different pictures in our heads and different songs in our hearts.
This week, pay attention to a word you find yourself using a lot. Does it make you feel different ways at different times? What word can you hold to the light and imagine this way...and this way too?
Here is another idea to try: make a list of some different goodbyes you have had in your life. Choose one of these to write about. What do you learn about yourself when you this?
Jama is hosting today's Poetry Friday roundup at Jama's Alphabet Soup with a gorgeous celebration of October and a poem by Jeffrey Bean. Please know that all are welcome each Friday as folks share poems, poem books, poetry ideas, and friendship.
xo,
Amy
Please share a comment below if you wish.
...and even the goodbyes we choose and want and need can be tough. Beautiful, Amy! Thank you! A word I'm thinking of is "space," which can be full or empty, tiny or infinite, and many things in between. xo
ReplyDeleteAmy, great prompts. I like the idea of considering different goodbyes we have had and choosing one to write about. Your poem reminds me of lots of sad goodbyes that never happened. I'll also try to pay attention to a word I use a lot. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing your poem about goodbyes and reminding us to think about words with their different meanings and connotations. :)
ReplyDeleteGoodbye IS such a loaded word, isn't it? I love the formatting in your poem, and I'm going to think about a word...."Moving" is what comes to mind immediately, but I'm not sure if that's the word I want to explore or not. THanks for the poem and prompt.
ReplyDeleteFor me good-byes are always hard, but I love the way you show both sides of the word in your poem (which is wonderful as always). xo
ReplyDeleteThanks for the great prompts, Amy. Hello is another word can be different in how we use it or maybe “wait.” I’ll be thinking and exploring today.
ReplyDeleteGoodbyes can be hard and we can be saddened by the ones we don't get to say. I am starting a liquid diet this weekend for a procedure on Monday, so the word that comes to mind is "hungry". How many ways can we be hungry!
ReplyDeleteThursday was a day to remember the goodbye to my dad. There are so many times goodbye can be so sad and so poignant and yet loving too. My poem in the new Pomelo anthology is WAVE and it is about a kid saying goodbye to his grandma. (Yes, autobiographical.....but more) but it just means I will be back and those goodbyes are sweet, but it makes us appreciate the now and how lucky we are. Good to ponder how we need to honor those we love, those we meet, those we enjoy so that when we say a final goodbye there is a special (and hopefully happy) set of memories. I hate the too soon goodbyes, though........
ReplyDeleteSo many goodbyes these days, such as goodbye to bygone ways of treating our planet, and goodbye certain kinds of convenience and careless pleasures. I love this little flipside view of a word, Amy. Hope you are well!
ReplyDeleteFollowing Heidi in the comments, I can't help but think of multiple meanings of BAKE. There's the yummy intentional kind (apple crisp just came out of the oven), but then there's the catastrophic can-we-reverse it kind that is melting glaciers.
ReplyDeleteAs for goodbyes, your poem covered all the territory -- the "see you soon" kind, and the "never again" kind.
Hugs.