Friday, February 5, 2021

ArtSpeak: FOUR SEASONS "Digging in Winter" poem

 Hello and Happy Poetry Friday! Be sure to visit Jone Rush Macculloch for Roundup.

It's been a wintry week, hasn't it? I feel like I've been digging myself out of piles of one kind or another... and so this poem! Thank you for reading.



Digging in Winter

sky bends
over backs
that have made
               friends
with winter

snow grips
              fingers
as hoe's resolve
crumbles

song stirs
potatoes
             awake

- Irene Latham

11 comments:

  1. This painting and your poem bring me beauty of the hard, cold work. I love the sky bending and the singing awake...a nice nod to Naomi Shihab Nye. She talks about she was sung awake as a child and how she would wake her children with poetry. Such an incredible way to wake up!
    That Vincent and his blues...what an artist!

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  2. You are such an inspiring poet, Irene. Yes, we have to keep going and doing even when times are tough......I have been too lazy of late for a variety of reasons and we have maybe 24 inches on the ground, but there is sun now. Also it is nice to read Linda Mitchell's comment and learn about Naomi Shihab Nye. How wonderful.
    Janet Clare F.

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  3. Your poem is beautiful--and the painting pairs perfectly with Jama's blue books

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  4. I admire those who make friends with winter!

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  5. “Song stirs potatoes awake” Swoon.

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  6. Oh, what a wonderful pairing of beautiful art with beautiful poem. Your poem is so spare is lovely...

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  7. It's quite a poem for this week considering the eastern snow totals, Irene. Your line "making friends with winter" reminds me of once we were up skiing & it snowed so much our car seemed to disappear when we woke up.Imagining hoeing through snow is a new image to me. The picture is wonderful like your poem.

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  8. Your poem reminds me of Seamus Heaney's work, his poems about digging and soil and shovels. I love "backs /that have made friends /with winter."

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  9. Irene: Your ekphrastic poem/picture is so interesting! Digging potatoes in winter must be a challenge, and yes, I think those backs have a brave relationship with winter. I hope the potatoes provide sustenance. Thanks for this...

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  10. "backs that have made friends with winter"--a necessity for some that I don't think my back will ever achieve. I haven't see this painting before--thank you, Irene.

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  11. We are all in love with backs making friends with winter. Unexpected and lovely.

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