It’s Friday! And you know what that means: Poetry! Want to know more about Poetry Friday? Click this link right here. And be sure to check out Carol Varsalona’s blog, Beyond LiteracyLink, to see this week’s round up of wonderful poetry related posts, blogs and goodness.
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So I learned something valuable today. Always read your poetry out loud. I have just a short window in the afternoons to work while my son is napping. Add a sick 7yo home from school and that time shrinks even more. I had a goal to finish a particular poem and send it off for a contest today. I worked and reworked the poem until I had it where I thought I wanted it. The meter was decent, the rhyme scheme worked. So, after one final (silent) read through, I sent it off.
Feeling pretty good, I was excited to read it to my husband when he got home from work. Let’s just say that the rhythm that I thought I had created was all over the place, and that’s putting it nicely. Ah well live and learn. But you betcha I’ll be reading things out loud more often!
The February Poetry Project starts next week, but we all started with warm ups today. The project’s theme is “Ekphrastic at Home”. Members will take turns posting an art piece found in their own homes and everyone will write a poem based on how the piece inspires them. My goal is to not miss a single day in February. Below you can find my poem for today’s warm up.
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| Oil on Canvas by Joy Dickson |
Response to Portrait by Joy Dickson
My world grows dim
Like an oil slick
Suffocating life and light
Until no hope is left
But her soft touch
Skims cross the pain
Removing greasy darkness
Till rays of hope return
(c) Rebecca Herzog
Sloth Reads 
Oh, and I am so glad you found some hope in this painting! Beautiful! And yes, I must re-learn that read-aloud lesson over and again… our eyes miss things, don't they? But our ears… Thank you!!
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Love your take on the painting, kudos to Joy Dickson and you!
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Your poem gave me chills when I read it yesterday. The images you evoke are so haunting. I tend to not like to read my own words aloud, but I know my writing is so much better when I get over myself an do it!
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Oooh, I love what you pulled out of that painting, Rebecca! Beautiful.The lesson to always read aloud is one I learn again and again… and also the lesson to never submit a poem until it's “rested” at least 24 hours. Too many times I've come back to it and thought, “yegads, what was I thinking?!”
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Oh yes, I always read out my poetry! I think because I'm a children's librarian and read a lot of rhyming picture books out loud, I'm very picky when it comes to rhythm and flow, because a poem that doesn't roll off your tongue can be a real pain in a storytime when you end up getting tongue twisted. 😉
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I love the touch of optimism in the end. Great image prompt! 🙂
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I am totally guilty of not reading my poems out loud. AND….here's the thing I know it's what I should do. I think it has to do with the delight of poetry being in my head. I almost don't want it to be outside in sound. Perhaps this is a little to psycho-therapy here. But, it's all to say, “I get you!”. I'm really glad to be in the February project writing with you. I just know I'll grow as a poet.
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Wow! So many different responses to this one piece of art!
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Rebecca, your use of the word hope is interesting. I like how you moved it toward optimism. Lovely. Your lesson learned is one for all of us to remember.
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“But her soft touch Skims cross the pain” – powerful; I love reading so many different poems inspired by this painting. And another thought re. reading aloud – sometimes I find it helpful to hear someone ELSE read a poem I've written aloud, because words that seem to flow just fine to me could have little hidden tripper-uppers I didn't catch. I might subconsciously mow right over anything that could be read/inflected a different way!
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I remember seeing your poem on Laura's FB page…love your imagery, esp. “dim like an oil slick”.
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Well – funny you should say about reading poetry aloud. I was reading a new rhyming PB manuscript aloud this past week… and I think the blushes have settled now. I blogged about it for #PoetryFriday.
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