Saturday, April 9, 2011

Warm-Up Bonus #1: Poem in Your Pocket Day

Don't forget:  April 14 is Poem In Your Pocket Day!
(sponsored by the National Poetry Foundation)

We'll gather both here and at ActionReaders.com to share our poems.

Shoot me an email at actionreaders@gmail.com OR sign up on our ActionReaders.com website for a chance to win one of the two collections below.  In your email, let me know what poem you're considering, then come on back on Thursday, April 14, and post your poem both here (and in your own "pocket" blog, if you're a blogger).  We'll link our blogposts and/or offer our poems in the "comments" section here.

Let's make this a terrific celebration, in solidarity with the National Poetry Foundation, poets.org, students, teachers, writers, readers, and poetry lovers all over the world!

Here's a fine one that my mom sent me yesterday.  Consider it for Poem In Your Pocket Day on Thursday?

The nifty prizes (let me know which one you'd prefer when you email your intended poem to actionreaders@gmail.com):


Happy Poetry Month, everybody!

MFB,
L
Imperfection
I am falling in love
      with my imperfections
The way I never get the sink really clean,
forget to check my oil,
lose my car in parking lots,
miss appointments I have written down,
am just a little late.

I am learning to love
      the small bumps on my face
      the big bump of my nose,
      my hairless scalp,
chipped nail polish,
toes that overlap.
Learning to love
      the open-ended mystery
            of not knowing why

I am learning to fail
      to make lists,
      use my time wisely,
      read the books I should.

Instead I practice inconsistency,
      irrationality, forgetfulness.

Probably I should
hang my clothes neatly in the closet
all the shirts together, then the pants,
send Christmas cards, or better yet
a letter telling of
      my perfect family.

But I'd rather waste time
listening to the rain,
or lying underneath my cat
     learning to purr.

I used to fill every moment
     with something I could
          cross off later.

Perfect was
     the laundry done and folded
     all my papers graded
     the whole truth and nothing      but

Now the empty mind is what I seek
      the formless shape
      the strange      off center
      sometimes fictional
                                 me.

                            - Elizabeth Carlson, Source: Teaching With Fire

2 comments:

Jen said...

This is a cool poem! :) I had an idea for a post every Sunday, to have a different poem. Sunday's a nice day for reflection, so I'm planning on continuing my Sunday poem posts after April. Thanks for the inspiration!

Pomes said...

I like this poem.. Jo, you have a great idea as well, Keep up the good work and i hope to read more from this page. Thanks for the share

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