Winter Garden poem

 Hello and Happy Poetry Friday! Be sure to visit Janice at Salt City Verse for Roundup.

It's been quite a busy season round these parts, so I especially loved getting in the mail my Winter Poem Swap gift from Michelle Kogan. I am a huge fan of Michelle's art and poetry, so I knew the package would be full of delights...and it was! 

Michelle gifted me some watercolor pencils, which I have already been experimenting with (while on hold during a phone call! :) along with forest-y bookmarks and the most marvelous Moon gift:

Y'all, it's an accordion notebook! With a gorgeous moon! And the poem is one Michelle wrote by finding words in my book THE MUSEUM ON THE MOON. Isn't that so so special? I just want to hug it...and I have! So many thanks to Tabatha, our Poetry Swap Mama, and of course to my moon sister Michelle. 

Here's the poem:

Moon's Dream

for Irene

Rekindle Moon's

olive branch of Peace...

A wee sparkling gift

from a wee blue planet

A Moon wish for humanity.

—Michelle Kogan

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This week's ArtSpeak: LIGHT poem features the garden! And a triolet—which, as it turns out, is kind of my go-to form whenever I'm stuck. Only 8 lines to start with, and really, once you've written just two lines, you've written most of the poem! 

Here are links to some other triolets I've written:

Triolet for Planting Day

Tiger Talk Triolet

"Humility" from DICTIONARY FOR A BETTER WORLD

"Welcome, Earthlings!" (triolet that opens THE MUSEUM ON THE MOON)

I do, often, take liberties with the form. So I'd call today's poem a "variation on a triolet."

Here's why: The triolet calls for a repeat of the second line as the final line of the poem. That doesn't always suit my poetic aesthetic, because I often want the poem to go somewhere, not just back around. So...here I took the second line (all about winter root growth) and wrote a "parallel" final line all about spring growth.

*Let this be your reminder that forms are great, but if your poetic sensibilities lead you AWAY from the form, that's okay! Just call it a variation, and you're good to go!

Winter Garden

There's a garden under that snow.
Deep in cozy soil, roots stretch, unfurl.
Plants need privacy, did you know?
Yes, there's a garden under that snow.
Plants carry the light required to grow
while winter sky is all storm and swirl.
There a garden under that snow!
Come spring, watch green shoots pop, uncurl.

- Irene Latham

Thanks so much for reading! If you are in the Birmingham area, Charles Waters and I would love to see you Tuesday night, Dec. 19, 6 pm at Hoover Library where we are closing out the "Stories of Exile" series with a presentation about AFRICAN TOWN. See you there!