Poetry Friday: Not Ponderous

 

photo via Unsplash

The World Itself is Not Ponderous

Feathers and giggles,

monarch's first flight,

petals unfurling,

equinox light.

Leaves in the fall,

bulbs in the spring,

in the yard after rain --

a fairy ring.

Fleetingly brief.

Here and then gone.

Like the flash of lightning,

or a chickadee's song.

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2020

I am joining the Poetry Seven's monthly challenge to explore "ponderous" or "hippo" or both. I went with "or neither" when I got weighed down (ponderously) by The Heavy Issues of Humankind. I did so want to include the factoid that the collective noun for hippos is a bloat. But that poem didn't happen. What I realized became the title of my poem, which was written in one of the "flipside" parts (if you remember my NPM project) of remote teaching -- two hours of silence while I proctored a test through my screen. 

Happy Autumn! Happy Almost October!

Jone has the Poetry Friday roundup this week at her new website.

Poetry Friday: Election Security

via Unsplash

"Who will stop the people who want to cheat?" 

-- Tabatha Yeatts

I joined Tabatha in writing Election Security poems this week. I managed a nonet, but I have two others still struggling to leave draft form. One features a squirrel burying acorns, and another that will double as a response to Buffy's DMC challenge, if I can just figure out the last stanza!


Your Vote Only Counts If It’s Counted (A Nonet)

Your
ballot:
analog,
not digital,
not ephemeral.
In your hand. Palpable.
A vote that will be counted.
An actual piece of paper
holding officials responsible.

© 2020 Mary Lee Hahn

Cheriee has the Poetry Friday roundup this week at Library Matters.

Wildfire

Unsplash photo by Benjamin Lizardo

WILDFIRE

It's hot.
It's dry.
A spark:
a fire.

A flame
a burn
a blaze:
a pyre.

It threatens,
spreads,
consumes,
gets hotter.

The only thing
it fears
is
water.


©Mary Lee Hahn, 2019


I'm in under the wire for Rebecca Herzog's challenge on Today's Little Ditty to write a poem about what a monster fears.

As the rain pours (and belts and BUCKETS) down here in Ohio, my heart has been heavy watching the news of Southern California going up in flames.

Tabatha has this week's Poetry Friday roundup at The Opposite of Indifference.

To the Daisy

To the Daisy That Has Survived Even Though the Grounds Crew Mowed Down the School Land Lab Two Years Ago

Bloom!
No matter how low they mow you,
Bloom!
Show the world you won't be stopped:
Bloom!
Keep the memory of your former glory alive--
Bloom!
Send roots deep and runners long--
Bloom!
Bring joy to those who see your smiling face:
Bloom!


©Mary Lee Hahn, 2019



I wrote this poem for the Ditty of the Month challenge that Liz Steinglass offered up at Today's Little Ditty. I couldn't believe my eyes this week when I saw that one of the daisies that had followed the daffodils and previewed the cone flowers in my school's (only barely tamed) wild space known as the Land Lab had survived...and BLOOMED! Like dandelions, it has adapted to the mower and was right down at ground level instead of waving around in the breezes, but there it was. Its spirit spoke right to my heart. This poem is for all the "daisies" who have to stay low, either below the mower or under the radar, but who refuse to stop blooming.

Margaret has the Poetry Friday roundup this week at Reflections on the Teche.

Walking

It's true. I'm a sucker for #(fill in the blank)-A-Day challenges.

#PoemADay,  #BookADay,  and now #MileADay.

When Paul Hankins mentioned #MileADay (Runners World is calling it #RWRUNSTREAK, but since I'm not a runner, I have taken the liberty of renaming it), I didn't even have to think about it. A mile a day every day from Memorial Day until Independence Day? I'm in!

I'm logging a short note about my walks on FB, and another (shorter still) on Twitter. Because I know that when I go public with these challenges, I am more likely to keep the commitment. Community also helps. Lots of people have said, "That's a great idea," but I only know for sure that two friends are joining me. One is local, the other sees paddlewheel riverboats in New Orleans on her miles! For right now, all I see is my neighborhood waking up.

The book I'm currently listening to fits this challenge nicely.

The Old Ways: A Journey on Foot
by Robert Macfarlane
Viking Adult, 2012
audiobook from Audible

The author tells about the walks he takes on "the ancient tracks, holloways, drove roads, and sea paths that crisscross both the British landscape and its waters and territories beyond."

I love his writing (and thinking) so much that I also bought the book on Kindle so that I can go back and highlight favorite passages.

Here's a bit to entice you (click to enlarge):