Poetry Writing Class

   First day of poetry writing class last Tuesday.  I have a very good feeling about it.  Teacher appears to be very open minded and definitely has a love of poetry (has published a couple of books).  I hadn't written anything in about a month and was a little nervous about the whole thing.  We were asked to write a fifteen minute poem on "'I Am.....".  Here's what I wrote"


Who Am I?

I am the wish for dawn,
the pink and gold tones of each day's sunrise,
the whisper of fresh breeze
across a parched desert.

I am the stamina of wildflowers
in the midst of a dark forest,
the giggle of a child
who chooses to laugh.

I am a palette of evolving colors,
warm and cool,
indigo with patches of yellow.

I am a seed
buried deep under the ground
struggling to break through the soil
and face into the sun.

   We had a suggested assignment for today (not formal) to write a poem along the theme of one in
"Poet's Companion" called "What I do".  I will post mine here later as I'm a bit rushed this AM (oil painting, followed by watercolor, then poetry class).

    I am, for the most part, happy.

Poetry Update

   The poetry reading at Glenwood Inn went very well.  What a receptive audience.  I was asked to come back and to do a full reading of just my poetry!  The two poems I read were "Rainbows Must Be Chased" and instead of "Marathon", I read "Strange Gift" (see poem posted below.)

   To practice reading and because a friend from All Poetry suggested it, I made several videos and posted them to You Tube ("Rainbows Must Be Chased," "Strange Gift" and "Valley of the Moon."  Then as I was perusing videos on YouTube, I found one with a poem by Liesel Mueller "What The Dog Hears" and I thought it was So well done that I wanted to try to do something similar.  So, I created two more videos for "Surfing Maverick Waves" (music by U2) and "My Love For Mountain" (music by Kerrey Muzzey...for which I got specific permission to use!).  Both videos are posted below.

   Next week, I will start a poetry writing class and I'm looking forward to it (though know it will involve a lot of work!).

Recent Eventa and More Poems

Last Saturday, Stanford put on a conference called "Maintaining Hope With PD"  I was on a panel of patients.  Next to me was Davis Phinney, former bike star.  I enjoyed participating on the panel.  Afterwards, a woman came up to talk to me and to ask if I would read some of my poetry at a poetry reading group that meets once/month.  I've followed up.  It's a retirement housing community.  I'm going to read just 2 poems (which will be good practice for reading out loud --perhaps I'll get up the nerve to attend San Jose Poetry Society).

Here are the poems that I'm choosing from to read:

Rainbows Must Be Chased

Catch not my fall for I stand tall.
Call out with smiles of warmth and light.
Rope not large knots from judgment caught
to pull down scaffolds not quite right.

I will chase rainbows, colors bold.
Banish cold with dreams untold.
Seek highest peaks; avoid all beaks.
Fly, crash, it matters not I hold.

To wish is bliss; to try divine.
The right is mine to just persist.
Release the ladders, let me fall.
In mud or sky, I must insist.

I will endure, of that I'm sure
it is my journey and my cure.


Marathon

Decay's process cannot be stopped.
In dark shadows of age, watch illness burn
all signs of pink that we treasure.
We become a residue of memory.

Ravaged, by the weight of the thought
we seek a path of the heart
lit by fire that burns within,
the will to endure anything,
a power to persist.

A marathon holds a promise of pain,
a challenge built upon reason, a test
for mind and body; a sacrifice
a vow of suffering in the name of hope.

A marriage of preparation and outcome,
of cooperation of heart with mind,
it is emergence from a cave,
the acceptance of help.
Is is a war against defeat

the making of a miracle.

Others to follow in next post.

Some Poems I Have Written

Opaque
by Marlene McNew

Sunlight strives to color the page.

Opaque glow rows madly up and down,

all around, reaching for clear sky sigh,

leaving the whys behind to find their way.

Bounds have strayed into deep black holes

where soul struggles to breathe.

Seize gifts shaded in green hopes.

They are ropes to surface of unpolluted self.

Climb all the hues of give and take.  Embrace

each one with gratitude for its shade of wake.

A set of vignettes:

Finding Lost Flavor
by Marlene G. McNew

I.

Salt simmered in her own smelly sweat.

With no regrets or shame,  she swam circles

around herself while courting an invitation to drown.

II.

The lake’s wonders were magnificent

but bereft of buoyant salt water float.

Currents sliced through her sensitive crystals.

III.

Fragmented, she paused, tired of dilution,

confrontation, stagnation, self- assassination.

She had lost her flavor.

IV.

Longing to savor once again her natural taste,

she submitted to salt therapy.

Her essence had always been

the salt of the earth and so it would be again.

Finally Left All Poetry today

I feel relieved and bereaved to have left AP.  I felt like the life was being slowly sucked out of me and at least now I can start to mend.

I'm not sure whether I will write poetry or not going forward.  It seems most important to me to just live.
Small wonder my husband wanted me to leave.

And now, on to other things that move life forward....I am so dead tired.