Friday, April 16, 2021

#NPM | Playing with Poetry This Month part 2



I didn't make it to last week's poetry Friday, but I assure you that I have been working on a number of poems the past few days.  Some of them never made it out of my notebook or past a bit of brainstorming (Do they really count as poems then?). The others wound up posted on any given day's ethicalELA challenge.  I've made an effort to start collecting them all in one Google Doc that I may share at the end of the month.  However, for now, I will post one of my favorites that I wrote this past Sunday.

The prompt, share with us courtesy of Scott McCloskey, was "Day Poem."  He invited us to consider the various holidays/celebrations throughout the year -- things like "National Pet Day" or "National Eight Track Tape Day" -- and then to compose a poem celebrating it, perhaps even composing an ode. 

I absolutely love observing obscure holidays and even making up my own.  I was more than happy and ready to play this game.  Almost immediately I knew what I wanted to write about: the days I have spent so far taking my notebook outside.  Thus "Take Your Notebook Outside Day" was born...though I haven't picked an official date to throw on the calendar yet.



"On Take Your Notebook Outside Day" by Erica Johnson

Oh! To be the ephemeral moment 
kissed with a hint of innocent whimsy
betrayal at its finest. 
This is to be the day
we pluck ourselves out 
of mundanity
and repetitive drudgery. 

Go forth with tools in hand: 
paper, stone, or canvas 
pens, chalks, or paints 
and plop down upon 
the dew-dampened field, 
the creek-caressed rock, 
the sun-feathered sand. 

Let nature channel through
your tools of man
capturing
but an impression 
with ideas and ink. 
Each time your eyes drift 
to the page that moment 
lost forever, 
betrayed with each blinking eye! 

But despair not in the futility of it!
Instead embrace and delight in
the ephemeral moment
of life lived between 
the lines on the page 
of this one, 
triumphant and transient day 

When we brave writers ventured out 
beyond the keystrokes and text chains 
to forge fearsome words 
in more temporary modes. 

Celebrating that which will live beyond us, 
but trying to capture its beauty on the page all the same.

11 comments:

  1. I think "Take Your Notebook Outside Day" should be celebrated every day! Thanks for sharing your "fearsome words". :)

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  2. How fun to create your own obscure holiday and then write about it. Thanks for sharing your poem today!

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  3. I am thinking I really need to check out the Ethical ELA site. I have seen various prompts here and there on the PF blogs. I think honoring notebooks with its own day is a terrific idea. I especially like Let nature channel through
    your tools of man
    capturing
    but an impression
    with ideas and ink.

    Write, write, write.
    Did you by any chance ever visit Amy Ludwig VanDerwater's Sharing Our Notebooks blog? She writes for children of all ages and is now back teaching so has not been blogging. Her other popular and extremely helpful blog is The Poem Farm. Last year she did her April NaPoMo project from Betsy her writing camper! She showed a lot of her notebook jottings and explained her process. I have learned so much from Amy over the years.
    Janet Clare F.

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  4. This definitely should be a holiday!

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  5. Hooray for your idea, your poem. I take a small notebook out always, but do more writing inside, I must admit. I love "the ephemeral moment
    of life lived between
    the lines on the page
    of this one,
    triumphant and transient day" - Quick, jot it down!

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  6. Count me in for "Take Your Notebook Outside Day"!

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  7. The need to keep eyes on nature, not the notebook struck me. Lovely poem celebrating creativity.

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  8. The need to keep eyes on nature, not the notebook struck me. Lovely poem celebrating creativity.

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  9. Take your notebook outside day is my new favorite holiday!

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  10. Oooh, what a wonderful holiday! I love

    the dew-dampened field,
    the creek-caressed rock,
    the sun-feathered sand.

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  11. I love the idea of nature channeling itself through man's tools. Huzzah for Take Your Notebook Outside Day!

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