I received a beautiful Christmas gift from my daughter in law: Maria Popova’s 100 Divinations for Uncertain Days: An Almanac of Birds. You can read the story of its creation here.
Divination
the practice of seeking knowledge
of the future or the unknown
by supernatural means
Oxford Dictionary
My translation:
wisdom gleaned from the mystery of nature,
and from the heart of a hopeful philosopher
I’ve decided to create a poem from each of the cards.
Process:
- Reflect on the Audubon drawing of the bird
- Read the divination
- Note words that resonate
- Create a found poem
- Play with variations (free verse, haiku, other forms)
- Create at least one child-friendly version
FOUND WORDS:
other outer edge
mercy reservoir
mutual safety
every sunbeam
larger, pure, possible
After playing with free verse, I created what I hope is a more child-friendly poem:
Great Blue Heron
encounter each other
at the outer edge of desire
with almost hopeless mercy
and a reservoir
of mutual respect
risk every safety
and every constant
for a single sunbeam
of wonder
a golden reflection
of a larger life
in the pure stream
of the possible
image and poem ©Maria Popova
My haikus:
the great blue heron
scissors mercy’s reservoir
a single sunbeam
pause, poise, gaze– a reflection
pure stream of the possible
hello, beautiful one
hello, beautiful
do you high-step-step
on your matchstick legs
because you don’t like-like
the gook-suck muck
where the reeds bend-blow
near the lap-lap edge
of the pond?
do you pause-poised-pose
let your neck bend-flow
do you dip-peek-see
a scissored beak-peek
see a sunbeam-gleam
near the lap-lap edge
of the pond?
©draft, PJF
Patricia Franz writes picture books and poetry. She believes children, dogs, and sourdough have a lot to teach us about life, joy, and wonder. She has raised two boys, four dogs, and holds a master’s degree in Theology with a focus on children’s spirituality. Patricia, her husband, her Bernese Mountain dog, Bonny, and her sourdough starter split their time between the Arizona desert and the Sierra Nevada mountains. 
Well done all around, Patricia! I love your haikus, and then love the change in tone (while retaining all the beauty) for the children’s poem. Huzzah!
These are especially inspiring to me as I happened to meet, every day, a white egret, sometimes a single blue heron in a field along the path I walked in California. Only one in their paused-poised-pose changing their place in the field each day. Your poems capture it and the word play is definitely child appealing. Nice work and a wonderful gift you received.
One of my grandfathers, who I believe saw few great blue herons in his life, told me that every time I did see one, it would bring good fortune in some way. I look for those who come to a nearby lake each spring, remembering. I know about this beautiful gift you received, Patricia, because I follow the Marginalian. How special you received one, and now are increasing it many-fold with your poetry goals. I love the thread of “sunbeam” in both, the fun repetition and rhyming in your poem for a child.
I received that for Christmas, too! Thank you for the inspiration to use it poetically. I just love “scissors mercy’s reservoir.”
Thanks for sharing the poems today. I like the fun play with words in hello, beautiful. It was so fun to read. And what a thoughtful gift. Look forward to seeing what other poems your cards. inspire.
I love your word play in “Hello, Beautiful” – so kid friendly and full of wonder and curiosity. I didn’t know about this book but will have to check it out.
Patricia, your poems are filled with creativity, word weaving, and the beauty of nature. Transferring your words to a child-worthy poem is an extra plus. Words like gook-suck muck, reeds bend-blow, near the lap-lap edge would be fun for children to read aloud. Your imagination is brightly-lit and focused this weekend so dip into nature and let your poetic skill find its way to creating more poems.
Gosh, I love both of these. My favorite from poem 1: scissors mercy’s reservoir !! Love. And your kid-friendly poem is so full of fun things to say. I love “high step-step on your matchstick legs”. Brilliant.
WOW! I love the gift and the gifts that keep coming from it. The process you laid out seemed pretty ambitious. But, look at you–wonderful reflections and poems. I’m so impressed. Well done. I am in love with scissoring mercy reservoir.
I love the way you’re using the cards in this deck for inspiration! Clearly it’s working because all of your poems are ! I need to pay closer attention to my deck and see if any poems of mine are lurking there (or swimming there like the fish the heron sees)!
Hello Patricia & I am flying over the Great Blue Heron’s waters with your uplifting poems & post. I’m often late to the party & I didn’t know about Maria Popova’s bird treasure box, which your daughter-in-law was so prescient to understand, that your creativity & ewith your energy, new poems might feather your journal. Appreciations for sharing this journey & these lovely poems. The made-up words in the second poem are great for world-weary adults, needed a boost, too. I peeked into the link & another link & am soaring to know that MP said she donates half of her earnings from this huge divination project, to the Audubon Society. Enjoy your 100 cards of word play with this unique prompt box. Wow. your fan, jan
That is a very enviable gift, and you have an ambitious plan for using it, Patricia. I like both your haiku, but it’s the playfulness of Hello Beautiful that really catches my ear–what a wonder!
Oh!!!! Patricia!!!! This is all GORGEOUS-Maria’s divination cards (which I have been eyeing and coveting for SO LONG), your COOL writing project (as I reading teaching I am swooning over all of it, especially the “found words” box, and especially your haiku (especially LOVE that “paused-poise-pose) and that incredible “hello, beautiful” poem (LOVE the title) which I LOVE, especially because I spend lots of time on a RI pond looking at herons and every word of this poem was sensory magic. For example, I can hear the pond in your amazing “lap-lap.” Bravo!!!! Also am eyeing the bird anthology “Birds of Washington State”, collected by Susan Rich: https://susanrichpoet.substack.com/p/a-little-story-of-birds-and-birdbrains
(Update: I felt your post was a message from the universe to order both these books which I have been considering for so long so thank you!!!) So looking forward to your amazing project and all your future work!!!)
We both had birds on the brain this week! Every time I see a heron I have to stop and admire it, there’s something almost other-worldly about its stillness.