Thursday, October 7, 2021

Ode to an Autumn Poetry Friday Roundup!

 Hello and Happy Poetry Friday! Roundup is HERE!


So, I have a secret I'm ready to share: I'm in the process of creating a digital course called Wild & Precious Writer. (Mary Oliver fans will know exactly where this title comes from!) 


My goal is to provide for others (you!) a path to higher joy and authenticity in your writing to create real change in your life and in the world. I'll be sharing things that have worked for me on my journey—ideas and practices that I've collected over the past twenty years from sources like The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron, The Anti-Racist Writing Workshop by Felicia Rose Chavez, and many others. 

With that in mind, I want to invite you along to help me create the course you would want. You can help me right away by answering the following question in comments:

If you could wave a magic wand to make your biggest writing challenge disappear, what would that be?

Thank you for your help! I'm VERY excited about sharing so many of the things that have been transformative in my life... stay tuned! You, too, can become an official Wild & Precious Writer when I open the course in early 2022. :)

And now, please join me in celebrating the season with some excerpts from "Ode to Autumn" by Pablo Neruda... and then please leave your link below!

Ode to Autumn

by Pablo Neruda, trs. by Ilan Stavans

Autumn is modest

like the woodcutters.

It's hard

to remove all the leaves

of all the trees

of all the countries.

Spring

sewed them together on the fly

and now

one must allow them

to fall as if they were

yellow birds.

It isn't easy.

There's not enough time.

One must run down all

the roads,

speak languages,

Swedish,

Portuguese,

speak in the red tongue,

the green tongue.

One must know

how to be quiet in all

the languages

and everywhere,

always

allowing

the leaves to fall,

fall

allowing them to fall,

fall.

***

And here is my latest ArtSpeak: Four Seasons poem! Thank you for reading.


Autumn Puzzle


I will not ask why

because life has taught me

about cycles and seasons.

Today I will fit myself

into the mystery—

how time eats daylight,

and I am always always

grasping for more;

squirrels hoard exactly

as much as they need;

and maples, god bless them,

give away every

      last

              jewel.

-Irene Latham


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63 comments:

  1. Oh, you wild and precious poet, you! Your writing course will be fantastic, I know. My biggest writing challenge? The usual - trying to do too many things at once! But "time eats daylight" for sure. Thank you for the Neruda poem - glorious - and your own. (Happy to provide a squirrel pic in my post for that one- ha!) And many thanks for hosting us all. Happy Fall! XO

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    1. Yes! Trying to do too many things at once. You are a wonder, Robyn! xo

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  2. Thank you for hosting, Irene! I can't wait to hear more about your class...and hopefully take part. Two of my biggest writing challenges are endings and revision.

    I love the idea in Neruda's poem, of running down all the roads, speaking to trees in all the languages (including red and green) to get them to let go of their leaves. Not enough time, indeed! And in your poem, the ending (!!!) and this life goal: "Today I will fit myself / into the mystery—"

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    1. Mary Lee, I love Neruda's red and green languages, too. And I hear you on endings and revision! Thank you for sharing. xo

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  3. Hello Poetry Friday. It's been a long week and I'm so glad to be on the edge of catching up with friends who read and write beautiful things. "Time eating daylight...and I'm always, always grasping for more" is exactly how I feel these days. How did you know?
    I am thrilled to see that you have a writing course!
    If I could wave a magic wand to make my biggest writing challenge disappear, what would that be? The feeling of impossibility between a pile of work and work submitted. I can come with very good reasons why I haven't submitted...and then no work gets submitted. I just got an ARC of Cameron's latest book. I'll be digging in asap!

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    1. More more more said the baby! (Wonderful picture book from a few years back. :) I hear you on the reluctance to submit. To push send is so vulnerable and puts you right in front of fears of rejection (and success!). I have this grant I have applied for a gazillion years in a row... every year I think, why am I wasting my time? And then I go ahead and submit, because the worst that can happen has already happened (a gazillion times) and I"m still standing! (Maybe that helps a little? I hope so!) xo

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  4. So many comments to leave! :)

    1. Your course! How exciting. My biggest writing challenge: Finding time and energy for the passion projects I want to pursue while also pursuing the projects that pay the bills.
    "It isn't easy./There's not enough time."

    2. Neruda. Always a treat. Always relevant. Always sooo good.

    3. Autumn puzzle: Time indeed eats daylight. It always comes back to time, no? These lines struck a chord:

    Today I will fit myself
    into the mystery—
    ...

    What a lovely poem. So simple on the surface, but it says so much about how we approach time, change, what we can learn from the world.

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    1. Oh the passion projects vs. paying the bills! Thank you for sharing. And yes so much to learn from the world. And each other. Thank you! xo

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  5. Your poem is excellent, Irene, and I like the Neruda, too! Who is the translator?

    Thanks for rounding up! In answer to your question about biggest challenges, mine is just plain ole fear, which usually comes in the form of overthinking & over-worrying.

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    1. Fear! YES. So hard to put ourselves out there and risk whatever happens next. And thank you for asking about the translator! Ilan Stavans. (I will add it to the post.) Happy Poetry friday!

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  6. Thanks for hosting this week and for the exquisite autumn poems. Love the ending to yours, "and maples, god bless them, give away every last jewel." The Neruda ode is new to me; now I will have to look for it in its entirety.

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    1. Forgot to mention my biggest writing challenge. Ditto to what Susan said + self doubt and the pesky internal editor. Exciting news about your new course!

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    2. Dear Jama, I don't love the entire Neruda ode, which is why I chose an excerpt! But please do seek it out. (I have a big fat bilingual edition of all the odes, and I love it.) Thank you also for sharing about self doubt and that pesky internal editor. I know her too well. xo

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    3. There's a bilingual edition of the odes? That is so cool! I'm going to look for it. Thanks for the info about the translator, too.

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  7. I'm excited to learn more about your new course, Irene. I know it will be wonderful! My biggest writing challenges (there are so many)include, self-doubt, submitting, and trying to find "my lane." It's easy for me to see what other writers are good at writing, but I'm still not sure where (and if) I fit. It's interesting to see so many of us have similar challenges. xo

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    1. Dear Linda, you fit you fit you fit! And I do think a big part of the writing journey is leaning into (and exploring more deeply) all the things that make you different. It just takes time and courage. Which you certainly have! I love reading your poems. xo

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  8. "It's hard/ to remove all the leaves/of all the trees" Love this line from your Neruda poem which led me to ponder fall in an interesting way. The first three lines in about cycles and seasons is also very thoughtful. My biggest writing challenge is quieting my brain so I can delve deeper into my creativity. Fall and winter will make this easier. I hope.

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    1. Janice, I love that line, too! And I"m glad the undressing of the trees takes a while... more fun for us! Quieting the brain! Don't I know that one! I started a meditation practice (Headspace) a few years ago, and I can really tell a difference. xo

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  9. You are a wonder, Irene, and I love hearing about your writing course. My compliment to you fits into my challenge, finding that elusive time when I really want to immerse myself into writing & it so often feels like hit & miss, yet nothing regular! It feels to me as if you and Neruda had a secret talk because of "Today I will fit myself/into the mystery—" in your wonderful poem connects to Neruda's call to "run down all the roads" & I am imagining that to fit, it will help to have a map! Thanks for hosting!

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    1. Dear Linda, I dream of immersive writing! I have this fantasy about having a writing cabin in the middle of nowhere with no internet etc... but the reality is I get snatches of time to write and sometimes, if my cards really line up, blocks of a few hours. I've learned to accept this as my reality and work with it. I think probably there are so many paths to writing success that ultimately we each have to draw our own maps, which is part of what's so daunting! Thank you for sharing and for being you! xo

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    2. Your words here will already help! I know we need to follow all those many roads & enjoy what's there on each one! Thx!

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  10. The combination of Autumn and the words of Pablo Neruda are a winner Irene. He championed the modern day ode and I remain ever grateful for the light he shone on this poetry form. The biggest challenge I am currently facing is the timidity of Australian publishers for poetry, particularly children's poetry. I envy my fellow poets in the U.S and the U.K. Yes, bigger markets, but much broader acceptance of poetry's important role in our lives. It is increasingly difficult to submit manuscripts without an agent and agents are few and far between. It is very much a catch twenty two situation and so frustrating. Thank for the question and thank you also for hosting.

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    1. Hi Alan, I hear your frustration! I hope Australia will come around to poetry... with so many wonderful poets like you and Kat and Sally, how can it not?? Thank you for sharing.

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  11. It is not Autumn here - far from it. Though I did admire some trees with bright red leaves on a bush-bashing drive mid-week. And for a moment was thrown back to visits in climes where autumn is a thing. These poems are both exquisite. What a pairing. I think I will have to revisit this page often just to bask in the autumn.

    As to your Q (What a wonder you are - squeezing MORE into your day!!!) Ditto to what Alan said. And I'd add, the frustration of knowing you've got something that is publishable, but the publishers who'd take it aren't open to unsolicited manuscripts from unagented authors. And meanwhile, it feels like that ship is passing you by...

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    1. All ships should stop for you, Kat! I have so many rejected manuscripts that me and my agent loved, but because of timing in the marketplace, they haven't found homes. Maybe they will someday, maybe not. It IS frustrating, as are the closed doors. Keep knocking, Kat, keep knocking! xo

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    2. Thanks for making me smile, Irene. And my encouragement to you would be; never give up if you believe in your story. 19 years from first draft to published book, on my latest PB. And no regrets for holding to hope. xx

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    3. That is SUCH an encouraging story! I love it. Thank you. xo

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  12. We all overlap in our writing challenges, I like Robyn both polymaths, balancing both art and writing, and with myself teaching too. And this also includes as Karen mentioned "pursuing the projects that pay the bills"–which continue to come—Ah to have more time… Thanks for this lovely fall post, for hosting, and treasure-filled journeys in your new writing class!

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    1. Thank you, Michelle! You are an inspiration! #PolymathsForever xo

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  13. Two perfect poems to accompany us as we move into autumn. We've been enjoying watching the squirrels on our daily walks, gathering their nuts. The mornings have turned grey and foggy - a sure sign of autumn and the coming winter where we live.

    Your course sounds wonderful! I'm on the threshold of querying with a project, which is a moment of great vulnerability. The challenge I'm working on at the moment is figuring out how to retain the sense of joy and purposeful creativity that I've had while creating the project, when I'm sending it out in the world. We hear "no" a lot in this business and I'm wanting to protect the internal space from which I create, from being bruised by rejection.

    Thank you for sharing these moments of autumn beauty with us today.

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    1. Yes! Cultivating joy in the midst of rejection! Remembering it's a journey, not a destination...I find the best thing for me is always to dive into the next thing. Somehow, by shifting my creative energy, it creates some sort of emotional armor?? Definitely distance, which is essential in this business. Keep going! xo

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  14. Irene, this is such a beautiful post filled with an abundant harvest of autumnal delights. I'm so excited to hear about your upcoming class. What a gift that is in and of itself! Then, the Neruda poem is fabulous. Every time I read one of his poems, I'm struck anew and vow to read more. Somehow I seldom do, but perhaps this time... Finally, your poem and these words
    "Today I will fit myself

    into the mystery"
    really spoke to me in my current space. Thanks so much for hosting this week!

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    1. Molly, I think of you so often and imagine Maine so beautiful this time of year. I have a doorstop bilingual edition of Neruda's odes, and it gives and gives and gives. Thank you for visiting! xo

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  15. Irene, thank you for all of this post! Your course sounds wonderful, and I'm looking forward to learning more about it. A young friend of mine recently sent me a picture of a grasshopper perched on her hand. It was the size of her finger, and as I saw it I mouthed the words, "Tell me...."

    Biggest challenge: Getting a spark to a flame. I can usually build the fire up once it's started, but it's hard for me to work with something that's only smoldering.

    One last thanks for "Autumn Puzzle." "Every last jewel," indeed!

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    1. Tim, thank you for sharing your grasshopper pic/ MO moment. I love that!! I hear you on the smoldering, too. Writing requires so much extended energy... I gotta really ADORE the idea/project, or I don't make the finish line. Thank you for sharing!

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  16. Even more wow than usual today. I've never seen that Neruda poem, and it is wonderful! And your Autumn Puzzle is perfect too. I'll have to give some more thought to my greatest writing challenge.

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    1. Thank you, Ruth! I imagine your relationship with Fall has changed from living in the tropics. Very interested to know your greatest writing challenge, so if it comes to you and you want to share, please please email me? Thank you. xo

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  17. Thanks for sharing Neruda's poem and for your wonderful words, Irene. It seems "time eats daylight" hit home for many, including me. Your course sounds fantastic. My biggest writing challenge is self-doubt, or as some call it, impostor syndrome. I've been writing for a long time, but still, I sometimes have trouble calling myself a writer.

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  18. Hi Rose, and thank you for sharing about self doubt/imposter syndrome. I actually never until this moment realized those are basically the same thing. And look, I feel that way about creating a course: what do I know? It's just another example of how we get in our own way. So, hear this: Rose, you are a writer and your words are important. Keep going! xo

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  19. Irene, I am excited that you are planning to invite others to indulge in their writing time with knowledge you have gathered throughout the years. Your talent is to be shared with all. These lines in Neruda's poem move me and perhaps, in your course, you can address this:
    Today I will fit myself/into the mystery—/how time eats/daylight,/and I am always always/grasping for more..."
    Writing is infectious and demanding but so is everyday life. How to achieve balance is a word I always question. I am in the process of writing my PF blog post-a 3rd section to Nurturing Our Summer Souls but life interrupts my writing time so I will unveil my post later. Thank you for hosting and for providing an autumn ArtSpeak. Please think of me and offer an autumn image poem (this one and/or others) for an autumn gallery.

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    1. Dear Carol - balance! Yes! Thank you for visiting and for your image gallery... you are welcome to any of my autumn offerings. Thanks for all you give! xo

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  20. Oh, first...I LOVE the book "MORE, MORE, MORE" SAID THE BABY! Now, to autumn. Thank you for these magical offerings. The leaves are just beginning to turn here, and our girl and her friend are visiting us from NYC for the weekend. May we be like squirrels and maples: knowing and sharing, when to stop, when to give. Always give...

    For me, the writing hurdle comes in the form of confidence. I get scared, so I just avoid writing with all kinds of cool handwork and baking. What a gift your class will be.

    Thank you for hosting. xx

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    1. Dear Amy, thank you for sharing about your fall and a weekend that included your girl and her NYC friends! That's so great. And yes, so much joy in handwork and baking...without all the potential rejection! We all get scared. Writing is not easy and requires so much courage...reminds me of a young mom I know who as part of the daily routine moves the children from the breakfast table to the piano every morning. That way it's just part of the day, not this big "you need to practice piano" thing. For me the writing courage is easier to muster when it's just something I do every morning soon as I wake up. Love you! xo

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  21. Irene, Thank you for hosting and thank you for offering these two inspiring seasonal poems. I love the season of autumn and what it offers us for inspiration - even if we do not write about it! My wish for waving a magic wand regarding my writing to to rid myself of the fear of not being good enough - it is constantly something that lurks in the back of my mind. I am confident in some other professional realms but not always with my writing. I think one has to be both vulnerable and brave at the same time! Thanks, again! ~ Carol from The Apples in My Orchard ~

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    1. Hi Carol - thank you for sharing your fear of not being good enough. I can so relate! Yes to vulnerability and bravery, too.It helps me to remind myself that as lonely as writing feels sometimes, I'm not alone. You're out there, and a million others are, too. All of us facing the same fears... together we can get through it! Thanks for visiting!

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  22. Irene,
    Your post today gave me such a lift. I have just 'discovered' ekphrastic poetry - and your Art Speaks poems are just so inspiring. Neruda! Wow - what a beautiful poem. And your course! YES! Also, reading all these comments from brilliant writers and hearing the self-doubt that lurks regardless of years in, talent, inspiration ...
    That was going to be my magic wand wish, too but maybe the wish would be to acknowledge it all, find a way to truly believe that all creatives, all artists have the same doubts and fears and how to do it anyway! How to believe that the first, fifth, tenth draft that still seems drenched in mediocrity is worth pursuing - and how do we know when it is worth pursuing if we, too, know that time is limited and we have aspirations of publication.
    And thus, how to stay with a project after the first hour, the first month when we think it must be the project that is not right - not our inability to stay and learn from that project.
    Thank you for asking the question.
    Be well.
    Beth

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    1. Beth, thank you for this beautiful thoughtful response that really resonates with me. It's that whole thing of allowing ourselves to write crappy first drafts and believing that over time the beauty will emerge. Reminds me of that great Maya Angelou quote: "We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty." THANK YOU!

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  24. Thank you for hosting today, and congratulations on your upcoming class!

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  25. Irene, thank you so much for hosting. I will look forward to learning more about the wild & precious writing class.

    I love the image of the maple giving away all the jewels. Beautiful poem by you and the ode by Neruda too. I'm gong back to re-read it now.

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    1. Thank you Denise for stopping by, and or your kind words! I'll be sharing more about the class in coming weeks. :)

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  26. Irene--fabulous news about your course! My biggest challenge--the public/social medial life of a writer balanced against the writing time needed to write. Thanks for both these poems--that maple giving every last leaf away--yes. Forevermore, when I hear coaches on shows say, "Leave it all on the stage" or the floor, I'll think of the maple doing just that. Thanks for hosting!

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    1. Oh Laura, as you now, the social media piece is a big challenge for introverted me as well! I've just returned to Twitter after an 8 month hiatus and I am filled with gratitude for the ease of connection with friends I've missed. I want to be more flexible with honoring my needs/limits in that arena... it doesn't have to be all or nothing. There are no rules. I can make it work for me. (Carol's "balance" comment comes to mind!) Thanks for visiting, and happy fall! xo

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  27. Irene--what a pair of glowing, polyglot poems! Neruda always surprises, and the giving away of every last jewel. I know your course will be inspirational, but I think it cannot address my biggest obstacle, which is my day job! But say that was not in the way...I think it might be distractibility. I have groups of poems and too many ideas and fragments of books and nearly-done collections and I have trouble maintaining focus (or regaining focus)to bring each project to a state of doneness. Thanks for asking!

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    1. Oh I can so relate to this! I describe it as having "a very active brain." One idea, another idea, another, another! I am still learning to let go of my cleverness, keep it simple, stay the course. I have to control the amount of input, like putting racehorse eye blinders on my brain! Thank you for sharing. xo

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  28. Hi, Irene, thank you for hosting and sharing. It's always lovely to "hear" your voice and see what you've been up to! Exciting new ventures, as always. I'll be staying tuned! Hugs to you!

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  29. Thank you for hosting this week, Irene, and sharing these two stunning poems! I love the echoes between Neruda's falling leaves and your maples, giving "away every last jewel." Gorgeous! Hooray for your new course! My biggest writing challenges are the same as others have already so eloquently described, but they all really boil down to confidence/imposter syndrome. It is comforting to know that I'm not alone in my insecurities!

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    1. YOU are a jewel, is what you are—a beautiful poet who gives the world so much. Thank you! xo

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  30. Sign me up. Wild and Precious one! I know I (and other lucky participants will learn and grow broadly). Your poem Autumn Puzzle and the giving away every last gem.....it is a metaphor for our writing and reading and sharing and helping. For me the revision thing is huge. I write and write and write and wonder if the poem is ever finally done. Your course I took in May and the "removing the front porch" idea in order to write a tighter, more impactful poem by finding its essence was/is very helpful. I would love exercises that kind of are targeted to specific ideas for revision. For instance taking the poem you have apart and reorganizing it in an entirely new way. Exercises about what to do when you read a poem to figure out how it works, maybe some examples of a poem you have looked at (written? or ask for examples from others to use?) and what you notice and think might make the poem stronger to you and why. I like to learn by seeing examples. I also find that some poems by some poets who write for adults are very confusing to me at first (maybe always) but in a way I wonder about that because these seem like they might be "more sophisticated". And I wonder how I can learn to do that sometimes. So I would love to figure out how to write an idea in its more abstract version, but then figure out how to make myself clear, too and the pros and cons of this. Not sure how to learn how to do this or even if it is possible (I fear sometimes that my poems may not rise to the level of "poetic enough".....ie to preachy maybe or too obvious or not unique enough.) So one thing I have heard is to write in a "fresh way" and I would love to be able to figure out how to practice, then implement that as I write OR is that something I could learn how to do better in the revision process. And then of course all of the above that other commenter friends have written....time, how to move forward and not worry. Another is I don't write a "ton" of poems since I am a "slow" writer and I don't put them on a blog because I want to be able to use them and some places will not publish a previously public poem. Yet I want to share. Thanks so much for this opportunity to ask you for help, Irene. Hooray for you and Neruda. I, like Ruth, have not read his take on Autumn before. I LOVE learning about new poems. And I file them away. I hope some day you will publish a book of your Ekphrastic poetry. So some thoughts for you to consider, not sure how helpful they will be.
    Janet Clare F.

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    1. Janet, you make me smile and smile! Thank you for your openness and vulnerability in this comment. You've validated some of my own thoughts and given me new ones! One thought on being a "slow" writer and how this prevents you from sharing on your blog: if you were to share on your blog, you would likely be so energized by the response that you would grow to be a faster writer! (Nothing to fire you up like having encouraging readers!) Also, here's a way around the "cannot be published on a blog" submission requirements: write a poem, share it with us on the blog. If, then, you decide you want to submit it, take the poem down! Voila! You can now submit your poem, as it no longer is available online. Another thought on the adult vs. children's poem: Adult poems are often held together by invisible threads. It can take a minute month years to unravel them. You're allowed to make these big imaginative leaps (drawn from a rich, longer life experience and books and movies and millions of other stimuli) and trust your reader to follow, which is quite different than poems for children, which need more concrete images and actions, because their experience in the world and associations they make are more rooted in daily living and wonder. (I still struggle with this sometimes!) You can totally do both, because you ARE both! Hope this helps in some way. Thank you for chiming in! xo

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  31. I finally made it through all this week's bounty! Thank you for hosting!

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