Howdy, Campers and Happy Poetry Friday!
I am feeling particularly happy today. I've been dealing with a stupid health issue and have been in pain for quite a while. But guess what?
NO PAIN last night! No pain today!
And: it's SUNNY again in So Cal! Not rainy, not wildly windy.
So: No pain, a sun-shiny day, two poems in a new anthology, and Poetry Friday...what more could a girl ask for?
At the end of this post is the Poetry Friday link, info about my summer class, and my poems from Pomelo Books' newest anthology, What is a Family?
Our topic this round is "Offer our readers a writing exercise or prompt."
Like many friends in the Poetry Friday family, I write a poem a day. Surely I'm not alone when I say that sometimes my brain stands up, puts on its coat says, "Nope. No ideas. I'm outta here."
· 1) delicate balance
· 2) I wanted to stab my hand with a fork
an ...and began playing with them. I sliced the second sentence into pieces with which to start new lines:
========================
DELICATE BALANCE
I wanted to slice watermelon but you wanted
to stab a steak or maybe spear a pimento olive.
My hand hesitated. I offered you a fig, which you ate
with a fork.
DELICATE BALANCE
I wanted it to stop. I wanted
to stab the newspaper, rip it to shreds, or swipe right with
my hand. After, I went to the ocean and made circles in the
sand
with a fork.
DELICATE BALANCE
I wanted to find the pulse of a poem. I wanted
to stab this page with surprise.
My hand wants that, too. But it’s distracted by that guy
with a fork.
DELICATE BALANCE
I wanted stars, stars, and stars
to stab this night. I wanted to lift
my hand to them, conducting their murmurs
with a fork.
DELICATE BALANCE
I wanted you to speak,
to stab that diaphanous curtain.
My hand goes to my lips. You are, you are! I listen
with a fork halfway to my mouth.
DELICATE BALANCE
I wanted to call this exercise How
to Stab a Sentence to Death. But
My hand disagreed. Hands are very opinionated, especially
hands
with a fork.
poems © 2022 April Halprin Wayland
===============
It was a so much fun! I asked my husband what I should call this form. He was eating at the time. He said, "Serial Deconstruction. Or," he said, looking down at his granola, "you could call it Cereal Deconstruction."
Ha!
I like presenting these poems in groups. Try it. Let me know how it goes!
=============
Many of you know Pomelo Books ~ I call them the publisher with the 💗big heart💗. At its helm are Sylvia Vardell and Janet S. Wong, the proud parents of their newest book, WHAT IS A FAMILY? born on March 31st.
The 40 ekphrastic poems in this
book—inspired by a wide variety of diverse and inclusive black-and-white
photos—explore extended families, blended families, classmates and sports teams
as families, animal families, and family occasions such as birthdays, holidays,
weddings, funerals, and much more.
As with the companion book WHAT IS A FRIEND? and also their books in the "THINGS WE" series (THINGS WE DO; THINGS WE EAT; THINGS WE FEEL; THINGS WE WEAR), 100% of the profits will be donated by this truly big-hearted publisher to the IBBY Children in Crisis Fund (IBBY.org). (Worth joining; I'm a member.)
Here are my ekphrastic poems from WHAT IS A FAMILY?:
CLASSROOM
And once again I'll be teaching a one day, three-hour class called Intro to Writing Children's Poetry for the Big-Hearted, Brave,and Curious! (my title, not necessarily UCLA's). It's on Wednesday, July 12th from noon-3pm PST. The course won't be visible until April 10th; Summer enrollment opens April 24th.
Tah-dum! I started writing this happy, and I'm ending it happy that
Margaret is hosting Poetry Friday!
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