Friday, April 14, 2023

A Writer's Journey (poem)

Hello and Happy Poetry Friday! Be sure to visit Jone Ruch MacCulloch for Roundup. I contributed several poems to her Classic Found Poem Palooza, from some of my favorite children's classics: Because of Winn Dixie, Charlotte's Web, Hatchet, The Wind in the Willows. As usual, I had a lot of fun creating titles to go with the found text!

Today I am packing my bag for tomorrow's trip to Highlights, where I'm excited to share and learn with poetry peeps! (It will be my first time on an airplane since 2020. I think I'm ready...)

I have loved reading everyone's National Poetry Month offerings! My notebook is simply bursting with prompts and quotes and inspirations...thank you!

Today's ArtSpeak: Light poem surprised me. I kept wanting to tinker with it, to fancy it up. But ultimately I decided to leave the language simple, because the message of the poem is really a basic one: we writers need to get out of our own way and JUST WRITE. (I did end up with a lot of "f" and "r" sounds, which I love!) Thanks so much for reading!


A Writer's Journey


I went in search of words
and found a field of flowers

I went in search of fame
and found no place for love

I went in search of forever
and got lost in silver shadows

Now I search for nothing
and sunbeams shoot from my fingers

- Irene Latham



12 comments:

  1. Irene, your poems are always filled with creativity and inspiration. Enjoy your Highlights presentations. I do wish I was there but I have too many balls to juggle on the homefront.

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  2. Someone told me, or maybe it's a quote, if you keep worrying about tomorrow, you'll miss all the good things about today. Your poem says that to me, stop searching so one can discover the "sunbeams shoot from fingers". Have a wonderful time at Highlights, Irene, such a special place!

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  3. Absolutely lovely..."I went in search of words" makes me feel like it was written just for me. xo

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  4. Irene, enjoy your trip to the Highlights writing retreat. It sounds lovely. I love the message of your poem, and I love the surprising, "sunbeams shoot from my fingers"

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  5. Ooo "sunbeams shoot from my fingers" that's a treasureful thought! Enjoy all at Highlights!

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  6. "Sunbeams shoot from my fingers" is perfection, Irene. I'm so sad I won't be at Highlights with you and Charles! Maybe next year.

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  7. Such good advice, Irene! Safe travels - can't wait to meet you!

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  8. Lovely poem, so inspiring! Have fun at Highlights this weekend. P.S. Thanks for the adorable NPM postcard. :)

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  9. Yep. Yes indeed, out of our own way. "I went in search of fame/and found no place for love." Enjoy your time in Honesdale!

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  10. Searching for nothing and finding everything. Brilliant...like you. Enjoy the Highlights peeps! And thanks for the my NPM postcard. Happiness in my postbox. :)

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  11. And there it is, life's gift of giving us exactly what we need. :)

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  12. I like to think those sunbeams are the words you went searching for originally coming in brighter than you imagined. Sometimes when we stop looking we find what we need has always been there.

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Your thoughts?