It’s Day 16 of our 2016 daily write-in. This year’s theme is FOUND OBJECTS. Thanks to all of the poets and writers who contributed objects for our daily prompts.
For those of you who are new to the project, please read my introductory post. You’ll find more information and all of the Week 3 FOUND OBJECTS at this post.
PLEASE NOTE: This year, a few friendly bloggers have volunteered to host a day or two. Tomorrow’s post, which is DAY 17, will be at Donna Smith’s blog, Mainely Write. Leave your Day 17 responses here, in the comments, as usual. Thank you, Donna!
FOUND: SCULPTURE
Thanks to Carol Varsalona for sending in today’s object. I’m already thinking about what it would be like to stand close to this sculpture. How would it change what we see in the reflections?
Today, I visited Professor Tara Hart’s creative writing class at Howard Community College. In my role as HoCoPoLitSo’s Writer-in-Residence, I’ve had a great time working with high school students, but this was my first group of post-secondary writers. After I explained our Found Object daily writing prompt, they did a brief response to today’s object. It was wonderful to hear what they came up with.
Let’s start off with one of the students! Please help me welcome Victoria Costa to our daily write-in.
Finis
By Victoria Costa
My quivering hands
thrust forward
sinking
into the frigid surface before me
As I watch
my hazel eyes
stare back at me
i’m too content
to mind the fingerprints
The pulse beats beneath
my palms
like the distant thump
of a bongo drum
My pale skin
begins to vibrate
folding together like
mountains on a map
The ringing in
my ears
drain out
my inner thoughts
My knees
kiss until
my legs
ultimately fail me
My skull
strikes the cement
and I hear a familiar
raspy voice
My body goes numb
it feels colder
than this
funeral
I let out a faint cry
but you can’t
hear me
***
Jessica Bigi’s poem is a playful mash-up of ideas, beginning with the title.
Cosmic Football
By Jessica Bigi
Field of falling stars
Garden arena
Godzilla throwing open passes
King Kong running in touchdowns
Gods of football chiseling
Galaxy diamond rings
For giants
***
The sculpture in Carol’s photo made me think of another metal sculpture at the Baltimore Museum of Art.
Modern Art
By Laura Shovan
After Olafur Eliasson’s “Flower observatory”, 2004
I could have spent hours
standing beneath
what seemed to be
a spaceship or pagoda
made of metal sheets.
I saw its petals levitating
in the contemporary gallery
on a set of silver stems,
so I pulled you under,
kept your hand. Together
we looked up, into the guts
of someone else’s vision.
We saw ourselves reflected
in the sculpture’s polished angles.
Do you think the artist
planned for this moment:
the two of us, examining
an exponential series of facades
on Valentine’s Day.
***
What intrigues me about Carol Varsalona’s poem for today is that it’s about the feeling our Found Object creates. If you’d like to know more about the object Carol contributed for today, I hope you will visit her blog post at Beyond Literacy Link.
The Force Within
By Carol Varsalona
The force is upon you-
each day within you
reaching out
to light the world
with your awesomeness.
Harness its energy!
***
Mary Lee Hahn is also blogging alongside us at Poet Repository.
STREET ART IN ST. LOUIS
Some curve, some soar,
some serve as a gate,
I glitter, I shine,
I triangulate.
©Mary Lee Hahn, 2016
***
Donna Smith included in her poem some of the natural elements we see reflected by the sculpture.
Balanced Precariously?
Are you believing
What you’re perceiving?
Building or tree,
Just see
If you can –
Nature or man?
What do you you feel?
Is it soil or steel?
Balance precarious?
Or scheme nefarious?
Reflections detected.
Relations reflected.
Smoke and mirrors –
Kaleidoscope jeerers.
What you’re receiving
Could be deceiving.
©2016, Donna JT Smith, all rights reserved
***
What a great connection Catherine Flynn makes in her poem to another traditional art form.
“The Art of Origami”
Square becomes
diamond;
diamond becomes
triangle;
triangles multiply,
become mirrors:
reflecting and refracting
all they see.
© Catherine Flynn
***
Diane Mayr left us a brief note about her process today. “I didn’t write this with the Grammy Awards in mind, it’s just a happy accident. I was attracted to the sparkle of the art and that got me started.”
Red Carpet
Some in Hollywood don’t get
that glamour is not
a matter of sequins, plunges,
and slits up to…
A truly alluring woman
stands tall. She is confident
that she has done her job well.
And we can’t help but know it.
© Diane Mayr
***
Where I saw a spaceship, Linda Baie imagined a winged creature — manmade? natural? — taking flight.
Did You Know?
A metal bird glints at the day
anticipating a getaway.
At night it folds its wings and flies
winging across the starry skies.
Linda Baie ©All Rights Reserved
***
Hooray! Robyn Hood Black is joining us today. The title of this poem makes me think of quilts, so it took me somewhere surprising.
The Points of Stars
In each broken place, each of us
reflects, refracts
new light
inside sharp edges, cold steel
look –
we’ve known wet earth and soft leaves
color in the fall
– a hole here or there makes us holy–
each of us
a little bit Luke
a little bit Darth Vader.
©Robyn Hood Black
***
Thanks to Buffy Silverman for telling us about her writing process for today’s poem. “I started writing about many different reflections, but then recalled the blackbird who I expect will soon be pecking at our windows.”
The Enemy Within
Each morning
the red-winged blackbird
patrols our house,
attacking rivals reflected
in bedroom windows.
He raises his epaulets,
a soldier in full dress
flaunting his might,
ready for combat,
until the sun climbs higher
and the enemy retreats.
The red-winged rests,
waiting for the battle ahead.
–© Buffy Silverman
***
Jone Rush MacCulloch is blogging alongside us at Deowriter, where you can read her full post for today: https://deowriter.wordpress.com/2016/02/16/sol16-found-objects-poetry-challenge-day-16/
darth vadar’s helmet
mirrors infinity gardens
solutions for hunger
© 2016 Jone Rush MacCulloch all rights reserved
***
And we have another silver bird of the sky from Charles Waters. I love the last line of this poem.
PILOT GLORY
by Charles Waters
Silvery shield,
festooned with gadgets, switches,
rainbows of lights that
flash from console.
People call you “hunk of junk”
when I know the truth.
You’re a vessel to the cosmos,
and I am your heartbeat.
DAY 17 FOUND OBJECT PROMPT (February 17 at Mainely Write)
Reminder: Tomorrow, we’ll be spending Day 17 at Donna Smith’s blog, Mainely Write.
Interested in what we’ve written so far? Here are links to this week’s poems:
Sunday, February 14
FOUND OBJECT: Hot Potato
Poems by: Violet Nesdoly, Jessica Bigi, Laura Shovan, Carol Varsalona, Heidi Mordhorst, Diane Mayr, Linda Baie, Jone Rush MacCulloch, Mary Lee Hahn, Donna Smith.
Note: You will find links to all of the Week 1 and Week 2 poems at this post.
Monday, February 15 at My Juicy Little Universe
FOUND OBJECT: Coffee Mug
Poems by: Jessica Bigi, Matt Forrest Esenwine, Catherine Flynn, Laura Shovan, Mary Lee Hahn, Heidi Mordhorst, Diane Mayr, Buffy Silverman, Carol Varsalona, Linda Baie, Donna Smith, Charles Waters.
Day 16
I wrote a found poem of the found object poems for today.
Cosmic Poetry
In our field
of falling stars
We see a galaxy
of silver stems
Sculptor of light
that glitters and shines
Our kaleidoscope
of words become
diamonds
We know sharp edges.
We can’t help but know it.
I started writing about many different reflections, but then recalled the blackbird who I expect will soon be pecking at our windows.
The Enemy Within
Each morning
the red-winged blackbird
patrols our house,
attacking rivals reflected
in bedroom windows.
He raises his epaulets,
a soldier in full dress
flaunting his might,
ready for combat,
until the sun climbs higher
and the enemy retreats.
The red-winged rests,
waiting for the battle ahead.
–© Buffy Silverman
Every day it seems like the poetry treasure box is getting fuller! Some great poems today. Buffy, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a red-winged blackbird anywhere near a house, so I find your poem especially intriguing. The red-winged blackbirds around here are always bouncing on a cattail in some wetland area where humans don’t go.
Here’s my poem for Day 17:
Love Is a Series of Flip-Flops
The day she discovered
Chuck had tied the knot
Zori’s sense of betrayal
(and melodrama) was so
strong she threw herself
into the nearest trash bin.
Her twin, on the other foot,
refused to become refuse.
Day 17
Poem by Jessica Bigi
Invisible Wings
Trace each
Beautiful Step
Pointed toes
Of ballerinas
Skater’s gliding
Across dreams
Dancing feet
Leaping on wings
Baby’s first steps
Our steps following
In our parents steps
Our parent’s steps
Giant under our feet
Snow sparkling steps
Rain puddle splashy steps
Sandy skipping whistling steps
Sticky show stepping
In bubblegum steps
Growing life learning steps
Trace each Beautiful steps
Each day the pool of poets sparkles brighter. I love the way each one of the participants today approached the Darth Vader type of street art that fascinated me. I saw a futuristic look at the world from all different angles and everyone saw their own perspective. We are individual voices of the collective whole.
The title, Modern Fairy Tale, popped up after a day of looking at Donna’s photo. You can read the poem and see my digitalized photo of Donna’s image at http://beyondliteracylink.blogspot.com/2016/02/modern-fairy-tale.html.
Shortcut to the poem: (but not the way I laid it out)
Cinderella of sandcastle dreams
left her pink jeweled sandal
perfectly pointed in the
direction of the ocean
for a young prince
to uncover her
whereabouts-
off beaching
for a bit of
R & R.
©Carol Varsalona, 2016
This was fun, but I struggled with the final lines. Thanks for the image, Donna, and for hosting today.
A Poem of Apology, to my Sole Mate…
Forgive me,
I did not mean to get left behind,
to leave you unprotected,
but the gum on the pavement held me fast.
You curled your pudgy toes around me,
hanging on for dear life.
But your mother, always in a hurry,
didn’t understand your pleas
to WAIT!
To s-l-o-w d-o-w-n
and rescue me!
And so we parted.
You, off to a party in your fancy dress
with just one shoe;
me, left to languish here on the sidewalk,
sparkling in the shadows.
© Catherine Flynn
Day 17
One Pink Shoe (after Three Blind Mice)
One pink shoe
One pink shoe
Left by the bins
Left by the bins
It had so much fun in the waves and the sand
Then danced to the tunes of the three-piece band
Was carried, then dropped from the girl’s left hand
One pink shoe
One pink shoe
©Mary Lee Hahn, 2016
http://www.maryleehahn.com/2016/02/found-object-poem-project-one-pink-shoe.html
Day 16 (Sorry this is late! I could not figure out how to comment!)
Finis
My quivering hands
thrust forward
sinking
into the frigid surface before me
As I watch
my hazel eyes
stare back at me
i’m too content
to mind the fingerprints
The pulse beats beneath
my palms
like the distant thump
of a bongo drum
My pale skin
begins to vibrate
folding together like
mountains on a map
The ringing in
my ears
drain out
my inner thoughts
My knees
kiss until
my legs
ultimately fail me
My skull
strikes the cement
and I hear a familiar
raspy voice
My body goes numb
it feels colder
than this
funeral
I let out a faint cry
but you can’t
hear me
Victoria — Thank you so much for adding your contribution. I’m glad you figured it out. I see so much sensory detail in your poem. I love all of the sounds — they are a great play on the way that the sculpture’s reflections create visual echoes.
Thank you for sharing your site with me! I love these daily prompts. Thank you so much. It truly means a lot!
Laura – Thank you so much for sharing your site with me in class! I truly enjoyed working with you, and I love the idea of daily prompts. I appreciate your kind words, it means a lot!
Heidi – It made my entire week knowing one of my lines was one of your “memorable lines”. Thank you!
I really enjoyed the variety of the Day 17 poems! Unfortunately I was unable to pull myself together after the leisure of Saturday through Tuesday to crank one out. Memorable lines:
“it feels colder
than this
funeral”
“so I pulled you under,
kept your hand. Together
we looked up, into the guts
of someone else’s vision.”
all of Mary Lee’s, all of Robyn’s!
Off to work on a pink flipflop, late thought may be…
[…] Tuesday, February 16 FOUND OBJECT: Sculpture Poems by: Victoria Costa, Jessica Bigi, Laura Shovan, Carol Varsalona, Mary Lee Hahn, Donna Smith, Catherine Flynn, Diane Mayr, Linda Baie, Robyn Hood Black, Buffy Silverman, Jone Rush MacCulloch. […]
[…] Tuesday, February 16 FOUND OBJECT: Sculpture Poems by: Victoria Costa, Jessica Bigi, Laura Shovan, Carol Varsalona, Mary Lee Hahn, Donna Smith, Catherine Flynn, Diane Mayr, Linda Baie, Robyn Hood Black, Buffy Silverman, Jone Rush MacCulloch. […]
[…] Tuesday, February 16 FOUND OBJECT: Sculpture Poems by: Victoria Costa, Jessica Bigi, Laura Shovan, Carol Varsalona, Mary Lee Hahn, Donna Smith, Catherine Flynn, Diane Mayr, Linda Baie, Robyn Hood Black, Buffy Silverman, Jone Rush MacCulloch, Charles Waters. […]
[…] Tuesday, February 16 FOUND OBJECT: Sculpture Poems by: Victoria Costa, Jessica Bigi, Laura Shovan, Carol Varsalona, Mary Lee Hahn, Donna Smith, Catherine Flynn, Diane Mayr, Linda Baie, Robyn Hood Black, Buffy Silverman, Jone Rush MacCulloch, Charles Waters. […]