Poetry

Poetry Friday – Volcanoes and Eggs

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 the end of my post below to see this week’s round up of wonderful poetry related posts, blogs and goodness. 

Hello and Happy Poetry Friday! I am excited to be hosting today. Life has gotten away from me again, so it is nice to have my attention gently pulled back to some poetry.

Congrats to all the Poetry Friday poets who made it into the Madness! Poetry tournament. I can’t wait to see all the crazy word prompts you get and what you come up with. I will be rooting for you all!

I had so much fun participating in Laura Shovan’s Daily Poem Project last month. While I didn’t quite complete a poem every day, I finished stronger than I did last year! And I do want to go back and finish the prompts that I missed.

The theme for the February poems was WATER. It was really cool to see all the different prompts that everyone came had and even cooler to see everyone’s poems. I’ve decided to share a few here today.

On day 5, Marilyn R. Garcia gave us this prompt: Day 5: “This is a photo I took in June 2019 at Volcano National Park on the island of Hawaii. The steam from the crater is known locally as the ‘breath of Pele’.” Below is her photo and my poem.

Photo © Marilyn R. Garcia, 2019

Pele

Earth-eating woman
Awakens
Stretches
Gives a yawn.
Morning breath
Rising in the air.

© Rebecca Herzog

On day 8, Linda Baie gave us this fun prompt: “I’m trying something different. Hope it’s okay & you enjoy the challenge, one I sometimes gave my students (middle grade 6,7, 8). We wrote a lot of poetry & this often had intriguing results. Some look at poems as “small fictions”, based on actual facts, but not necessarily true. Embellished through exaggeration & metaphor to make them seem true for readers.

“Write a poem that includes as many of the following as you choose:

  • Water or liquid of any kind
  • A piece of furniture or something ‘concrete’ like a car
  • Sound, smell or taste
  • Tell a secret or tell a lie (& don’t tell which is which)
  • Surprise yourself—write something you didn’t know you knew. These things can distract and/or change from what is really true, hence a ‘small fiction’.”

I had a memory immediately come to mind when I read Linda’s prompt and it was a lot of fun to tweak it here and there to fit.

Running to the bathroom
Is dangerous work
When you’re a mom
You hope all is well
When you hear
Your child’s
Sweet peals of laughter
That is until
You finish
And round the corner
And see him 
Standing on a chair
Empty carton open 
On the counter
And oozy eggs
Running down the cabinets

© Rebecca Herzog

Don’t forget to leave your links below. I can’t wait to read everyone’s posts!

40 thoughts on “Poetry Friday – Volcanoes and Eggs”

  1. Thanks for hosting Rebecca. I love the poems that Laura’s challenge have inspired. I especially loved the second one because I can so relate to those moments of ‘risking it’ for a quick trip to the bathroom – and the moments where it seems a bad idea after all.

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    1. I am sure that I’ll have many more “risking it” moments as my kids grow. 🙂 Thanks for stopping by.

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    2. Ah! Your first poem transported me in such a lovely way…and the second cracked me up! Amazing how few words can take one on new journeys in such a short time. Thank you for hosting today, I am glad that poetry “gently pulled you back” too. x

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      1. Thanks for stopping by, Amy. I love seeing how each prompt takes each poet in different directions.

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      1. I hadn’t even noticed that connection, but you are right! Thanks for stopping by, Laura.

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  3. Enjoyed both poems, Rebecca — happy to see a pic from my home state of Hawai’i, and I can just picture those oozy eggs running down the cabinet . . . Thanks so much for hosting this week!

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  4. Ha! That’s motherhood in a nut, er eggshell alright! Great post. It was fun writing along side you. I love getting the prompt every day and writing to it. Then, to see all the super different responses! So neat. You show such a sense of fun in your writing. I hope some of that can rub off on me! Thanks for hosting this week.

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  7. Thanks for hosting today, Rebecca! I agree, all the water prompts were a lot of fun. One of the things I love the most about Laura’s challenge is how varied the prompts and the responses are. Your Pele poem is inspired! And I’ll bet the story of those eggs all over the kitchen counter has been told a few times.

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  9. I loved our February romp through poetry, too, Rebecca & the prompts meant inspiration and learning, too. Like this first one learning about Pele, and then your poem is a beautiful image, “morning breath” & “earth-eating woman”. Thanks for the shout-out of my prompt. It was a favorite all the years writing poems with students. And see, great stories emanate from it! Oh, eggs slide down so easily. Thanks for hosting!

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    1. Thanks Linda. While I didn’t like cleaning it up, I can see how the texture of eggs-both shell and innards could be wonderful for a child to experiment with.

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  12. Thanks for hosting, Rebecca–wasn’t February demandingly watery?! I enjoyed writing with the group and wish I had made it till the end. You picked two goodies to share here–and I really love the title of your post, “volcanoes and eggs”!

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    1. Thanks, Heidi. I didn’t make it either. But I ended the month with 12 more poems that I started it with, so I count that as a win!

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  13. And I’m still doing the same dangerous work as a grandma! I wondered about the connection between volcanoes and eggs. Lovely that it all happened on the poetry playground. Thanks for hosting.

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    1. Yes! While I didn’t get to the end, I did write 12 more poems that I normally would have. I’ll count that as a win.

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  16. Hi Rebecca! Thanks for hosting today, and thanks for these poems. I love “morning breath!” And oozy eggs. Very evocative, and both make me smile. Cheers.

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  17. Thanks for hosting this week, Rebecca. I enjoyed both of your poems. I love the image of Pele as the earth-eating woman whose breath rises. And I laughed when I read your second poem. I never had that exact experience, but definitely remember the feeling of adventure when I went to the bathroom by myself when my girls were little.

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  18. Rebecca, I like where your imagination took you in your poetry. The egg poem made me laugh because kids do some interesting things in their spare time. Thanks for hosting PF today.

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