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but not the night, a poem . . . and your Wednesday Writing Prompt

dusk has fallen
near bereft of light
much to sorrow for
but not the night

– Jamie Dedes

“I have loved the stars too fondly to be fearful of the night.” Sarah Williams, From The Old Astronomer (To His  Pupil)

WEDNESDAY WRITING PROMPT

How do YOU generally receive the night? With joy, reluctance or fear? Do you sleep well or not? Tell us in poem or prose. If you would feel comfortable doing so, please put a link to your  response in the comments section below – or, if the work is short enough – just include it there that we might all enjoy it.  Responses to Wednesday Writing Prompts are published here on the following Tuesday.

SHOP

This week’s recommened read.

THE WORDPLAY SHOP, recommened books, tools and supplies for poets, writers and readers, is a natural extension in support of this site and its mission to champion poets and writers and to broaden and to expand and continue to offer resources and inspiration, including information on opportunities for poets and writers.

 

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Dreaming of the Moon … poets respond to last Wednesday’s Writing Prompt

LAST WEDNESDAYS WRITING PROMPT: What would be your fantasy about the moon? Tells us in poem or prose and share the link to the piece in the comments section below if you are comfortable doing so that we all might read it. This is light one. Enjoy!

Renee Espiru (Renee Just Turtle Flight) said this prompt was timeley for her. She’s now a great-grandmother.  Congratulations, Renee and family. She writes about that experience with this poem.

I DREAMT OF THE MOON

I dreamt that I met you smiling
long before you were born

that I told you in sweet loving
to the moon and back we’ll go

that we held hands briefly soaring
seeking the beauteous moonscape

we traversed stars in the milky way
in meteorite showers of gold we played

we walked along dazzling moon beams
silken threads our carpets in space

too soon you left me in wonderment
life’s cord cut a spiraling empty place

& you sped quickly down to earth
faster even than Halley’s comet

that day I finally saw your birth
I remembered our dance among stars

marveled at so much of me in you
that your hands held stardust imbued

© Renee Espriu

And from Paul Brooks (The Wombwell Rainbow). Among other things, Paul says he does the things he does because ” I want to make sense of who I am, where I came from and where I live. An impossible but engrossing job.” Poetry can certainly be self-revealing.

The Moon

in the man
is transgender.

born of a collision
of bodies revolves
about its mam

tied by gravity’s apron strings
though mam does not wear aprons
as they’re not hip

pulls at her tides,
waxes on and off
wanes off and on

stepped on in pools,
admires our longing
sickles into plumpness

slight to fat as if pregnant,
gives a cheesy smile.

© Paul Brooks

From Sonja Benskin Mesher. Sonja tells us, “My studio is in a medieval longhouse in Llanelltyd, North Wales surrounded by mountains, lakes and rivers, and also very near to the sea. I moved here in 1993 to change the quality and direction of my life. This ancient place affects work profoundly, with its space, peace and sense of freedom.”

It was here that the work started, and I have worked full time as a visual artist since 1999, after an initial period of study of Art & Design.

dance under the moon

shall we place our heads together
and hum,
shall we twine our arms
and drift.
shall we lean together,
and hold each other up.

shall we slowly
dance under the moon
quivering in the frost
and starlight

shall we live the moment
forgetting time,
and opinions,
our choice, no reason.

or shall we slowly
bleed and die?

© Sonja Benskin Mesher

Kudos Sonja, Paul and Renee, intrepid poets.  Well done. Thanks for participating and sharing. ♥

The recommended read for this week is A Little Book on Form: An Exploration into Formal Imagination of Poetry by Robert Hass (b. 1941), an American poet who was our Poet Laureate of the United States from 1995 to 1997. He won the 2007 National Book Awardand shared the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for the collection Time and Materials: Poems 1997-2005. In 2014 he was awarded the Wallace Stevens Award from the Academy of American Poets.

In A Little Book on Form: An Exploration into Formal Imagination of Poetry Hass brings to bear the same senisbility that marks his poetry with force, clarity and eloquence. From Rome in the time of Caesar to the Renaissance and our own times, Hass breaks down poetry, examining its components from a postmodern perspective. The book is ranging and intense. It’s over four-hundred pages – informed, witty, erudite – something we can go back to again and again.  Never a boring moment. It’s all about love.

By shopping at Amazon through The Word Play Shop and using the book links embedded in posts, you help to support the maintenance of this site. Thank you! (Some book links will just lead to info about the book or poet/author and not to Amazon.)

The WordPlay Shop offers books and other tools especially selected for poets and writers.

THE WORDPLAY SHOP: books, tools and supplies for poets, writers and readers

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If the man in the moon had a voice, a poem … and your Wednesday Writing Prompt

Grape-Shotlet’s flee to the moon
to that so improbable moon
hanging in the sky, like a
bubble of blanc de noir, sweet ~
pouring into the dark and dusty
corners of life, honoring its vow
to keep our nights alive with light and
filled with the moon man’s wise old eye

oh, what stories could he tell, would he tell,
if the man in the moon had a voice
and we had the ears to hear

© 2013, poem, Jamie Dedes, All rights reserved; Illustration ~ from a 1915 magazine, a lady taking a ride on a champagne cork, public domain

WEDNESDAY WRITING PROMPT

What would be your fantasy about the moon?  Tells us in poem or prose and share the link to the piece in the comments section below if you are comfortable doing so that we all might read it. This is light one.  Enjoy!

In honor of Derek Walcott who died a few days ago, the recommended read for this week is The Poetry of Derek Walcott 1948-2013.  Walcott first poem was published when he was fourteen and this book was published in his 84th year. Never more than now has the world needed the grace, wisdom and universality of his poetry. This is a must add to your poetry book collection.  It doesn’t include the epic Omeros, also recommended, but it does include some of his earlier work that I have not seen included elsewhere.

By shopping at Amazon through The Word Play Shop and using the book links embedded in posts, you help to support the maintenance of this site. Thank you! (Some book links will just lead to info about the book or poet/author and not to Amazon.)

The WordPlay Shop offers books and other tools especially selected for poets and writers.

THE WORDPLAY SHOP: books, tools and supplies for poets, writers and readers

LITERATURE AND FICTION oo Editor’s Picks oo Award Winners oo NY Times Best Sellers

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Three Intrepid Poets in Response to Last Wednesday’s Writing Prompt

Last Wednesday’s Writing Prompt was Eve’s Apologetic.

Ocean Current of Life

Knowledge is like that of a strong ocean current
undulating through the movement of life
& can be accessed of books, of people
or held tight in a Pandora’s box

our need to know like the curiosity of a cat
hoping that understanding will follow
& fall into place like that of
a lost puzzle piece

completing the picture of endless possibilities
it is the chord binding us all together
& can be a solace in understanding
or pose queries in knowing

© March 2017 Renee Espriu

c796b9e96120fdf0ce6f8637fa73483cRENEE ESPRIU (Renee Just Turtle Flight) is a busy poet and artist. She’s the only other person I’ve ever met whose totem is Turtle (hence the title of her blog), an earthy symbol. Poetry is one of the more perfect vocations for a Turtle. Renee’s bio is HERE.

day 7 .

while all around is broken, shall we mend

and tidy this little bit.

shall we change the linen, white and clean.

lean toward a better place round us, start again?

shall i sleep , stay quiet and try to understand

some things, knowing i will never know it all.

shall i love thee not in any biblical sense,

for our minds have changed irrevocably.

click here and you will find some meaning

at least.

i have started a new pattern, using a plainer

stitch for strength and stability.

#bear.

© Sonjia Benskin Mesher

sonjabenskinmesher2011Sonja Benskin Mesher‘s (sonja-benskin-mesher.net) is a woman of many talents including Asemic Writing. You’ll find samples of her Asemic Writing by rummaging around HERE. Sonja’s bio is HERE.

Would It Were That Easy

to know what each breath brings
and what it takes away.

to guess what ground your feet
falls upon, and how safe it is.

to hear another’s hidden half
and hold it close to your own.

to taste a new fragrance, but still
have faith in your old senses.

to inhale new knowledge
and not be afraid to lose it
when you breathe it out.

to know easiness does not come
easy and needs to settle in.

© Paul Brookes

unnamedPAUL BROOKES (The Wombwell Rainbow).  A prodigious writer, Paul has held many day jobs, but still he poems on. Bravo, Paul! His bio is HERE.

The recommended read for this week is Elizabeth Bishop: A Miracle for Breakfast by Pulitzer Prize winning Megan Marshall who studied with Bishop at Harvard. This biography is richly spun,  energetic, engaging and even inspirational despite the breathtaking depth of Bishop’s losses, her sense of marginalization and her head-long push into alcoholism. Indeed, some of the inspiration comes because with all her loses, Bishop managed to hold poetry tight. Her poems were for her a charm “against the loneliness they often expressed.” The book covers Bishop’s relationships with other poets and her romantic interests, the last was for me the singular wearisome downside, much overrided though by the book’s pleasures and values. It is laced with Marshall’s own stories and together the lives of these two bare witness to the power of words to give shape, sense and meaning to life. We come away with a strong sense of Elizabeth Bishop, one of America’s most extraordinary poets. A page-turner. A must read or everyone who loves and writes poetry.

By shopping at Amazon through The Word Play Shop and using the book links embedded in posts, you help to support the maintenance of this site. Thank you! (Some book links will just lead to info about the book or poet/author and not to Amazon.)

The WordPlay Shop offers books and other tools especially selected for poets and writers.

THE WORDPLAY SHOP: books, tools and supplies for poets, writers and readers

LITERATURE AND FICTION oo Editor’s Picks oo Award Winners oo NY Times Best Sellers