It’s #PoetryFriday!
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This week’s round up is hosted by Linda at A Word Edgewise.
Carol included five of her own beautiful photographs without poems, to inspire others to write to them. Here is my offering for page 57.
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community
nourish each other
interlacing limbs
sharing soil, roots
like poets and friends
we stand together
©draft, Patricia J. Franz
Where do you turn for poetry inspiration? Nature? Memories? Observations? Experiences? Someone else’s words?
Look what came in the mail this week! My author’s copy of PICTURE PERFECT POETRY: An Anthology of Ekphrastic Nature Poetry for Students, compiled and edited by Carol Labuzzetta. It’s a treasury of photos and the poems they inspired, written by many of our Poetry Friday friends. I dove in immediately, enamored by the variety of poetic form –haiku and kenning and nonets, concrete, reverso, and free verse. I spent all afternoon immersed in sunflowers and butterflies, bears and slugs, trees and leaves, blossoms and fungi –proving that poetry is a perfect escape for finding beauty and wonder, hilarity, and heartbreak.
photograph used by permission
Another source of poetic inspiration for me this week has been this beautiful gift from one of my sisters. Margaret Renkl is a contribution opinion writer for The New York Times. This volume is 270 pages of prose poetry! Having arrived back in the Sierras just as winter was finally giving way to spring, I opened it to her entry for “Spring – Week 2” entitled: Who Will Mourn Them When They Are Gone? The closing paragraphs are below, along with my poem inspired by her words.
“The world will always be beautiful to those who look for beauty. Throats will always catch when the fleeing clouds part fleetingly and the golden moon flashes into existence and then winks out again. Tears will always spring up at the wood thrush singing through the echoing trees, at the wild geese crying as they fly. A soul touched by the scent of turned soil or sun-warmed grass, a spirit moved by crickets singing in the grass, will spend a lifetime surrounded by wonder even as songbirds drop one by one from the poisoned sky and crickets fall silent in the poisoned grass.
Apocalyptic stories always get the apocalypse wrong. The tragedy is not the failed world’s barren ugliness. The tragedy is its clinging beauty even as it fails. Until the very last cricket falls silent, the beauty-besotted will find a reason to love the world.”
Margaret Renkl
The Comfort of Crows: A Backyard Year
Spiegel and Grau, 2023
what breaks my heart
morning’s first light
stars grow sleepy in stillness
cratered home to glaciers’ ghosts
swells evergreen and duff, welcome
the mule ear buds ablush in soft red
let the lone warbler serenade me
till my time to go
just hold my hand
©draft, Patricia J. Franz
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. 
Oof, a way to “be” in our world, Patricia, ‘Until the very last cricket falls silent”, you write “just hold my hand”. I had a dear former colleague die this past Monday, and after reading news from her family, I know they all held her hand, one more time. We do look upon the world today, hoping that changes will help, for our grandchildren, and then onward. I love Carol’s new anthology, too, working my way through, so enjoying the beautiful words from everyone!
I really like ‘community.’ What a way to look at trees–poets. And, ‘what breaks my heart’ is sad in such a beautiful way. Yes, this.
Your poem has me welling up! You struck a chord with me: let the lone warbler serenade me / till my time to go / just hold my hand. Between that stanza, and your quote, “Until the very last cricket falls silent, the beauty-besotted will find a reason to love the world,” I need to go find a tissue!
The enduring influence of images and words on our own writing is such a cause for celebration, Tracey. We must remain open to such glorious visitations and creative sparks. Your post identifies you as someone with a wonderful appreciation of such matters as these. The closer stanza is artistry in words.
This post is gorgeously poignant all around, Patricia. From Carol’s gorgeous anthology to your response poem – “nourishing each other” – Yes!
Then reading Renkl’s sorrowful words and your response poem – “just hold my hand” – oof. (excuse me while I grab a tissue)
Oh I have THE COMFORT OF CROWS in my stack right now too!!
Thank you for this post. I put The Comfort of Crows: A Backyard Year on hold at the library. You poem: “stars grow sleepy in stillness/ cratered home to glaciers’ ghosts” I’m swooning. and of course the new lovely anthology by dear Carol
Patricia, what a beautiful post. I especially love you “interlacing limbs” standing like “poets and friends” Lovely! I just got my anthology today, and I’m loving looking at all the beautifully colored pages. Your last poem is both comforting and sad. Just beautiful.
Your poem for the anthology is wonderful – trees as poets is perfect. I have A Comfort of Crows on my TBR list – it looks wonderful.
Oh, that last stanza, Patricia! So full of peace and acceptance! ❤️
A beautiful post, Patricia. I love “community” and the last lines of “what breaks my heart” made me tear up.