Mittens and Friends and Metaphors

Woolen Mitten

Photo  (and Mitten) by Amy LV

(Sound Cloud is giving me troubles...audio to follow)

Students - I am not sure if this poem is finished yet, but I still wanted to share it with you. I often struggle to know when a poem is finished, and again this week I thought of this quote:

"A poem is never finished, only abandoned."  - Paul Valery

It is difficult to know when a poem is ready to share, and this one may still be at my workbench, but I do like the idea.  It came to me as I was driving somewhere earlier this week. I started to think about looking for mittens, how difficult it is  to find a match sometimes.  And then I thought about how good friends are like that too; soul mates a gift.

What I like most about this poem is how the whole text is about one thing - finding mittens - and then, at the end, it turns.  At the end, a reader might realize that the mitten-finding part is really a metaphor, or a comparison, to finding a friend.  There should be a bit of a feeling of surprise here, and surprise always makes me happy when I read a poem.  I like thinking about all of my mitten-friends too....

You may wish to consider this in a poem you are writing.  Are you surprising yourself or your reader?  Might you wish to?  How?

This poem is a free verse poem with no special meter or rhyme.  I read it many times to myself to see if it sounded right to my ear, and I made many many changes.

This week I am so happy to have artist and writer Kateri Ewing at my other blog, Sharing Our Notebooks.  Please swing by her post to be inspired by Kateri's art notebooks.  You may win two notebooks if I draw your commenting name!

Teachers and Parents - If you share my concerns about what is currently happening in education, you might be interested in a copy of Barry Lane's new CD - MORE THAN A NUMBER.  This CD is full of Barry's songs such as: "I Write the Tests", and "Superficialunrealisticrigorisatrocious" written by Paul Hankins and Barry.  I wrote the lyrics to "More Than a Number," and I'm selling the CD's for $10 to benefit the Opt Out movement.  If you are interested in a CD, please private message me through The Poem Farm Facebook page or send me an e-mail (see contact button above).

Renee LaTulippe is our fabulous hostess of this week's Poetry Friday party.  Visit her beautiful No Water River to take a dip into poetry-land today.

Please share a comment below if you wish.

To find a poem by topic, click here. To find a poem by technique, click here.

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My Friend - Susan Taylor Brown

 

Lily in Her Nest

Photo by Susan Taylor Brown

Lily at Water Rock

Photo by Susan Taylor Brown

Lily Feeding

Photo by Susan Taylor Brown

Lovely Lily

Photo by Susan Taylor Brown

 

Click the arrow to hear me read this poem to you.

Students - Today's poem is about my friend Susan Taylor Brown.  Since early April, Susan has posted exquisite photos of her new friend Lily on Facebook. These photos have made my visits to the computer much happier and richer than ever, and even though I have never seen Lily in person...I see her through Susan's love.  So while today's poem might seem like it's about a bird, it's really about a person who has learned to slow down enough to see and know and understand something very beautiful.  And so today, I am grateful to Susan and to her wee friend too.

This is a wonderful challenge to all of us who love writing.  Let's all fall in love with something small.  Let's be patient.

And now, I welcome Susan with a few words about Lily.

What can I tell you about a tiny bird who changed my life?

Lily helped me learn to be still, an important trait for poets. Any fast movements and she would zip away, often to the nearby plum tree to scold me.

In learning to be still she taught me to see. I would stand stone still in front of her nest, and watch her wiggle and twitch on top of her eggs. My eyes would focus on her long, slender beak, the way her feathers glittered when the sun hit them, the little bits of moss and grass and dandelions that she had wove into her tiny nest. 

In learning to see she taught me to hear. Waiting in front of her empty nest she would announce her homecoming and I held my camera up to try and catch her coming in to land. My arms would start to shake and I couldn't see much through the viewfinder so my ears would listen to the sound of the bees buzzing around me, the chickadees begging for their dinner, all sorts of garden sounds until at last, I heard her chirp that let me know she was coming, and the hum hum hum of her wings.

In learning to listen, I have learned more of what I want to say.

You can read Susan's beautiful poem about Lily here at GottaBook.  And you can see many more photos, videos and read more about Lily's story here at Poppiness.  You can read an essay about her broken nest and Susan's response here.  Please know that though Lily's nest was destroyed, she is back to visiting with Susan and her camera on a happy and regular basis.

On a funny note, Sharing Our Notebooks, The Poem Farm's sister blog, was just featured at Notebook Stories.  Addict of the week!

Please share a comment below if you wish.

To find a poem by topic, click here. To find a poem by technique, click here.

Like The Poem Farm on Facebook for more poems, articles, and poemquotes!