Almost Socks!
Photo by Amy LV
Photo by Amy LV
Students - Today's poem is about one of my favorite hobbies...knitting! I have been knitting for almost 40 years, as I learned when I was a Rotary exchange student in Denmark. While I am still nowhere the knitter I wish to be someday, I regularly take on small challenges (this week a bit of lace in a winter headband) and so get better inch by inch. For many years, I began many hobbies and abandoned them because it took too long to become good at them. I wish I had learned about the importance of mistakes sooner.
This week you may wish to write about something you have made or about the process of making something. Try listing me-made things in your notebook. Or maybe....make a list of mistakes you have made and write about one of those. Mistakes make much more interesting stories than perfection does. I love making things so much that I wrote a whole book about it - WITH MY HANDS: POEMS ABOUT MAKING THINGS.
Today I am grateful to welcome Kensley, a writer from Alden Intermediate School in Alden, NY. Kensley is a wise young person who understands the importance of writing not only to connect with others but the importance of writing to connect with ourselves and to heal our own hearts. Thank you, Kensley, for joining us here today.
Linda is hosting today's Poetry Friday roundup over at A Word Edgewise with a cool poetry mash-up. Each Friday, all are invited to share poems, poem books, poetry ideas, and friendship in this open and welcoming poetry community.
Here in Western New York this week, it is snowy and chilly. May words keep all of you warm, wherever you are.
xo,
Amy
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Kensley, your beautiful poem reminded me of how those we have loved are never lost. So much healing, wisdom, and beauty in your lines, including "You taught us grace in the hardest way." Thank you so muchfor sharing your Braxton poem with us. Thank you, Amy, for the prompt and for the reminder that failing is a part of growing, and for your inspiring, "Slow and Steady", including that last true line: "Flaws line the path to every goal."
ReplyDeleteGentle guidance for our hearts… Thank you Amy!
ReplyDeleteKensley, your poem touched my heart in so many ways. Thank you for sharing it with us. Amy, I crochet and sometimes get frustrated when I can't figure out a pattern. Your poem is a great reminder to keep moving forward. Beautiful post!
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing your poem and Kensley's. Amy. Both wonderful gifts filled with love and good advice.
ReplyDeleteAmy, your poem about knitting, and other crafts we'd like to improve, connects so well with the poem Karen Edmisten shared today, too, "Putting in a Window". Patience is its own reward! And, Kinsley, my family said goodbye to a new brother many years ago, so I connected deeply with your poem of so much love. We still talk of him, of how old he would be, what he might be doing, a life we imagine with love. Your poem touched me that you've written about this brother Braxton, still in your heart. Thank you!
ReplyDeleteWow. I'm so impressed with Ms. Kensley's wise poem and wise words. Thank you so much for sharing them here. I had a loss very much like the one described in her poem when I was young. It is important to tend to that grief.
ReplyDeleteAnd, yes! I will write a process poem...I love to make things and the process of making is so fun. The line about a daily yarn mistake makes me smile. Yes, mistakes! Argh. But, that's how we learn and get better. Well done.
Kensley, what an incredibly moving poem. I am so glad you had a way to be with your grief.
ReplyDeleteAmy, thank you for reminding me about writing a process poem.
Kensley, Thank you for sharing your personal and beautiful poem with us. Writing does help process grief. I find poetry especially helpful in healing what is hurting in my heart.
ReplyDeleteAmy, I crochet. I made a fingerless glove and made plenty of mistakes, so I haven’t started the second one. I appreciate the advice in your poem.
Thank you, Amy, for your celebration of mistakes and process. I tell my embroidery students that the front side is product, but the back is process. And if you can't see it from 50,000 feet above, it's not a mistake, it's a design element!
ReplyDeleteTo Kensley, thank you for the wisdom in both your poem and your letter to readers and writers. You are indeed wise to understand the healing that comes with writing. I know your family will treasure your poem as a part of their treasuring of the memory of Braxton.
"Flaws line the path to every goal" is on point, Amy. :)
ReplyDeleteKensley, your poem is sad and moving, hopeful and brave. And how beautiful that it opens with your loving words to your mom. What a gift you are to her! Grief that is shared is grief that we can bear. Thank you for sharing your wisdom and your sweet, gone-too-soon brother with us.