Monday, April 22, 2013

Common Inspiration--Uncommon Creations.22

Irises by V. VanGogh
Painting in the Public Domain, from Wikimedia Commons

IRIS

When I close my eyes,
I can smell their spice,
see the one white --
"Fire and Ice" --
my mother's pride.

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2013



From Kevin (Kevin's Meandering Mind):

VanGogh had an ear for color
I have an eye for sound
He heard flowers blooming
I see music all around

When rainbow shades collide,
minor chords fall like stars -
he dipped into his palette
I strum on my guitar

And so you sit, wondering,
whether his ear heard what you see
while I keep my eyes open wide
for every note, a melody ...


©Kevin Hodgson, 2013




From Carol (Carol's Corner):

"Iris"

I find them one day
in a brown paper bag
in the teacher's lounge
bumpy white bulbs
withered brown leaves
stringish roots
covered in dry dirt.
A sign on the bag says
IRIS- FREE TO A GOOD HOME.
I am told not to take too many
they will take over my yard
I select ten.

I am not a gardener.
do not know that iris
like to be planted
in mid to late summer
in groups of two or three
four inches down
with nitrogen fertilizer
in half sun.
I throw them in the ground
and forget about them. 

The next summer
my paltry efforts
are rewarded
with a rainbow of richness-
kingly purple,
a deep velvety night black, 
tawny lion's mane gold
and palest lemon yellow.
All that loveliness
pulled from a brown paper bag
in the teacher's lounge. 

(c) Carol Wilcox, 2013 


From Cathy (Merely Day by Day):


Irises

I wait patiently
for the irises: 
indigo,
canary yellow,
coral,
to bloom 
in the flowerbeds
surrounding my house,
a sign of warmer days,
and a reminder
of my great-grandmother
whose hands first 
cared for them. 

©Cathy Mere, 2013



I'm going to mix up the pattern of media this week: Monday: Famous Art, Tuesday: Audio, Wednesday: Video, Thursday: Picture of the Year, Friday: Featured Picture (new category), Saturday: Potluck, Sunday: Animation.


The theme of my 2013 National Poetry Month Project is 


"Common Inspiration--Uncommon Creations." 


Each day in April, I will feature media from the Wikimedia Commons ("a database of 16,565,065 freely usable media files to which anyone can contribute") along with bits and pieces of my brainstorming and both unfinished and finished poems.

I will be using the media to inspire my poetry, but I am going to invite my students to use my daily media picks to inspire any original creation: poems, stories, comics, music, videos, sculptures, drawings...anything!

You are invited to join the fun, too! Leave a link to your creation in the comments and I'll add it to that day's post. I'll add pictures of my students' work throughout the month as well.

9 comments:

  1. VanGogh had an ear for color
    I have an eye for sound
    He heard flowers blooming
    I see music all around

    When rainbow shades collide,
    minor chords fall like stars -
    he dipped into his palette
    I strum on my guitar

    And so you sit, wondering,
    whether his ear heard what you see
    while I keep my eyes open wide
    for every note, a melody ...


    -Kevin
    The podcast: http://vocaroo.com/i/s0C8BdY3TmpW

    (Could not resist an ear reference but then realized it might make for a nice dichotomy of senses.)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ha! Love the mixup of ears and eyes. He lopped one, don't you pluck one!

      A fine meditation on the various ways to be inspired.

      Delete
  2. I saw this and immediately thought of some iris I planted in the yard at the first house I owned.

    "Iris"

    I find them one day
    in a brown paper bag
    in the teacher's lounge
    bumpy white bulbs
    withered brown leaves
    stringish roots
    covered in dry dirt.
    A sign on the bag says
    IRIS- FREE TO A GOOD HOME.
    I am told not to take too many
    they will take over my yard
    I select ten.

    I am not a gardener.
    do not know that iris
    like to be planted
    in mid to late summer
    in groups of two or three
    four inches down
    with nitrogen fertilizer
    in half sun.
    I throw them in the ground
    and forget about them.

    The next summer
    my paltry efforts
    are rewarded
    with a rainbow of richness-
    kingly purple,
    a deep velvety night black,
    tawny lion's mane gold
    and palest lemon yellow.
    All that loveliness
    pulled from a brown paper bag
    in the teacher's lounge.

    (c) Carol Wilcox, 2013

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. This poem was one of my hardest. I have so many memories around iris, so much to say about them, that I was paralyzed for hours and hours and pages and pages of drafts. I'm glad yours came quickly today!

      Delete
    2. Such imagery there in the last stanza ... and I love the last lines.
      Kevin

      Delete
  3. One of my favorite blooms - and I can see why you struggled so, Mary Lee, because I have so many memories associated with these as well. I had to checkle at Kevin's "VanGogh had an ear for color" - ghoulish humor! And, Carol's stunning desription:
    a rainbow of richness-
    kingly purple,
    a deep velvety night black,
    tawny lion's mane gold
    and palest lemon yellow.

    Thank you all!!!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Wonderful iris poems!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Mary Lee, welcome back to Ohio. Hopefully we'll be seeing irises - or flags as my family calls them - soon.

    Irises
    I wait patiently
    for the irises:
    indigo,
    canary yellow,
    coral,
    to bloom
    in the flowerbeds
    surrounding my house,
    a sign of warmer days,
    and a reminder
    of my great-grandmother
    whose hands first
    cared for them.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That "waiting patiently" sounds like the long wait for spring. And I love that connection to your family history, too, through the planting and blooming of flowers. It's a powerful metaphor.

      Delete

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