In Celebration of National Poetry Month…

(If you’re reading this in your email and you don’t see any images, click here to go to my blog. Otherwise, the poems and text won’t make much sense!)

Call it a convergence… synchronicity…

I chose unfold as my One Little Word for 2025. Then this little calendar project caught my eye in January: a 2025 Page-a-Day Calendar of origami. Each morning, I spend a few minutes (depending on how challenging the project is) folding –and unfolding. And then I write a small poem inspired by my creation.

I’m sharing a few here in celebration of National Poetry Month.

From left to right: 

a rectangular box
a crown
a soccer outfit with a pixie hat above it
a pelican
a volcano
a pink pencil
a small booklet
and a sleeping duck

Origami Poems

golden pup, begging

kiss me, hug me

tell me you love me

©2025 PJF

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(Wouldn’t this make an adorable board book??)

Some creations are more difficult than others. Some have required a lot of UNFOLDING, re-folding, and even googling to figure out where I’m going wrong. Hmm…Isn’t that a metaphor for life? 

But THIS ONE –the “kusudama ball” – has flummoxed me. Here’s my poem:

the easy button

I wonder if origami was a prerequisite

for becoming a grandmother

I imagine myself and my young grandson

seated on a tatami mat, he mesmerized

as I turn and fold, crease, unfold in silence

but my fingers are rusty, folds

don’t always line up; six sheets

this is complicated

I turn, turn, pinching sides, slipping

one inside the other, but I can’t

hold it all together; things fall apart

my kusudama ball in a pile

and I think of that young boy, so patient

waiting for a handmade ball

and his disappointment hearing my sigh

and I wonder if I could just buy a ball at Walgreens

©2025 PJF