World Poetry Day and a Poem about Music

Today is World Poetry Day my friends! It is a day to pull out your favorite poetry book, pay tribute to your favorite poets, read a poem to your children, your family or your Love! It's a day to promote the writing and teaching of poetry and to appreciate the local poets in your own community. I've been writing poetry since I was an angst ridden teenager in the 1980's. I really felt so alone and really depressed and it was just a way for me to get the fear and helplessness out of my head and onto a page. I never really showed anyone those writings but I do visit them sometimes and realize how far I have come. Thank goodness for poetry! Today I'm going to share a light hearted piece I wrote about people that writes songs. I am very jealous of songwriters because I love music and writing! I got a guitar a few years back for my birthday and I've tried to learn how to play that thing but I just don't make the time for it really. I know so many talented songwriter/singers and so I wrote this as a tribute to them and I think it's fitting today because, hey....a song is really just a poem put to music, right?!

I sat with my guitar

and tried to connect

strings and things

sound and voice

passion with words
love and regret

i felt a song
reached for the notes
powered an idea
pushed it away
watched it return
and welcomed it home
on the scribbled page

I cleaned the wood
banged the strings
transformed the air
clenched my teeth
and swallowed the chord

I made music

I listened to my heart
stretched my hand
climbed a scale
descended from the high
left a note behind
and apologized
for the loss

I turned the keys
tuned myself out
memorized the sound
followed a rhythm
and ran away
with the beat

I strummed a C
looked around
found another verse
put the pencil down
and sat alone
playing with my guitar

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Harboring regret

Treading the Election and Life

Tuesday, November 8, 2016 I sat on the couch Election Night feeling more anxiety than I had ever known. I didn’t want to believe what was happening but there it was right before my eyes, the electoral map, on my local NBC channel looking like someone wrapped it in red Christmas paper. I tried to stay hopeful and kept repeating in my head "Hillary, Hillary, Hillary". I managed a quick nap around midnight, holding out hope that Lovey would wake me up and say “She did it, Hillary is President!” but it never happened. I woke up about 15 minutes later and it ended up that I was the one nudging her awake around 1am/1:30 saying “let’s go to bed, it’s not looking good” just after they called Florida to the other side. So we frumped our way upstairs to bed where I lay wide awake for a long time with my mind all a whir. The next day I was feeling very disappointed so I limited my social media browsing and did not watch the news except to see Hillary’s speech, which made me cry.

"Lifted" the video and poem dedicated to Sisterhood

I wrote this poem after spending an hour with a few of my female artistic friends. We discussed poetry, art, life, and when I got home I felt this overwhelming feeling of inspiration and joy! Yes! Joy! It's like we all shared our energy while we were together. I just had to write my feelings down. The words came out of me so easily thinking of my own Sisters and the friends I consider to be Sisters from other Misters. I wrote the poem in one sitting and a few weeks later I got the idea to record my voice reading it and create a video using photos. I put a call out on my facebook feed and asked female friends to send me photos of themselves with their Sisters or with their BFFs that they considered Sisters or with women they were inspired by. The ladies sent me some great images and I used a bunch of my own for fill ins to create this video. This is definitely one of those labor of love or labor of inspiration times. Please watch and share! Words are posted below.

Words and Pieces

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