Look for Messages & Make Meaning

One Feather

Photo by Amy LV

Students - A big question that people often ask out loud or wonder to themselves is, What is the meaning of life? I wonder this too, and lately I have decided to believe that the meaning of life is the meaning we give our lives. We can choose what matters to us and live our lives according to these beliefs. So, looking for small messages and giving them meaning is giving me joy.

It is summer here in Western New York, and a hot summer indeed. To get exercise and experience more of the elements, I am striving to walk in water for one hour each day. This might be at the YMCA pool or in a creek with a friend or on very special days, in Lake Erie. The feather I found last week was on one of those Lake Erie days. It called to me, and I find myself thinking about the seagull who left it behind.

Today's eight lines are written in a form called a triolet. I very much enjoy writing triolets, and you will find several of them here at The Poem Farm. You will notice that lines 1, 4, and 7 are exactly the same, as are lines 2 and 8.  If you look carefully, you will also notice that the rhyme scheme is: ABaAabAB. If you read it aloud and listen verrrry closely, you may notice that the poem is written in iambic pentameter, ten syllables per line with the accents reading daDUM, daDUM, daDUM, daDUM, daDUM. 

This week, consider looking for messages. Know that a message counts as a message if you believe it to be a message...anything counts! Make meaning of your life. Give meaning to feathers and sweet snowflakes and the smell of maple syrup and a song that plays on the radio at the very perfect time. Decide what the message means to you, and maybe write about it. (Yes, I still do need to decide what the feather-message is for me.)

If you wish to try a bit of a triolet, try repeating a line or two...or choose two rhyming words to thread through a poem, or write something with eight lines. One need not follow every form rule to try something new.

Jan is hosting this week's Poetry Friday roundup over at Bookseedstudio with a focus on resilience. Each Friday, all are invited to share poems, poem books, poetry ideas, and friendship in this open and welcoming poetry community.

Life can be tough sometimes. And so, this week, I wish you magical messages big and small, in every sense from sight to smell to taste to touch to hearing.

xo,

Amy

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