Posts
Hello Poets,
Happy Friday! Thanks, Tricia at The Miss Rhumphius Effect for hosting our gathering today. As February slogs on, I have found myself ruminating on our tense (and now at war) world. When that happens, poetry to the rescue!
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| collage by Linda M. '22 |
Today I read the most recent post from Children's Poetry Summit. I so enjoy this U.K.-based blog. This post was about the sense of smell and how our language, doesn't give many words or works of poetry to it.
Author Natalia Kucirkova writes poetry for children that play with a sense of smell and includes literal scents in her books for kids.
This made me wonder. When is the last time I wrote a poem for children or otherwise that included this sense in a significant way?
Well, that question felt like a challenge...and it got me scribbling. This poem isn't exactly a happy children's poem. But, there's a bit of hope in it...and I may keep tinkering with it.
February 25
How about you? When's the last time you wrote about the sense of smell? Give it a try...maybe you can find more smell words!
This week's poem on the padlet is a bit of a stretch. I went searching for "February Star" and that led me to this adorable photo and a triolet. Find both on the padlet
https://padlet.com/mitchellhubeimom/4bzbfu2cg5k7awk5
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februarystarsanctuary.com |
Thanks for the introduction to the Children's Poetry Summit website - I look forward to checking it out. I love how you've focused on an (often overlooked) sense in your poem! Very evocative - I'm adding that to my list of things to experiment with!
ReplyDeleteLinda, thank you for introducing me to Children's Poetry Summit! Now I'm thinking about that sense of smell that I enjoy immensely and a sense that triggers emotions and memories that feel so mysterious. Your poem was so evocative, with the smell of roses, chocolate and the smells of winter. The deer sniffing the air was a lovely image to end with, looking for the scent that "promises green."
ReplyDeleteI love "soaking into rusty leaf quilts", Linda, happening right now as we come out of our snow & cold this past week! Smells definitely are going to improve outside!
ReplyDeleteWhat a great exercise! "Defrosted mud" is very evocative :)
ReplyDeleteI just saw a painting called 'A Smell of a Lime Tree" by a Ukrainian artist and thought you might appreciate anther unusual format for thinking about smell: https://www.wikiart.org/en/tetyana-yablonska/a-smell-of-a-lime-tree
What a great poem -- I love how you ended it with the deer "following a scent that promises green." Thanks for the heads up about the Children's Poetry Summit!
ReplyDeleteSmidgey and you are on the same wave length...or scent trail, Linda! A nose knows good poetry. Well done. :)
ReplyDeleteThe boots and dusty radiator and mud, all giving way toward green! THANK YOU for this bit of budding hope today. We all needed it...
ReplyDeleteI feel challenged! A poem for smells...!? Thanks for reminding us of the places we overlook in our poems.
ReplyDeleteI'm with Tanita -- I'll take the challenge! The scents definitely gave your images more depth and nuance!
ReplyDeleteThese images are so vivid! Drying the mittens--I can see and smell that!
ReplyDeleteI actually led a writing workshop at the library recently, and one of the activities involved getting kids to describe a setting using any sense except for sight - it was quite the creative challenge, and fun to let our other senses take the lead!
ReplyDeleteOh! I love how you stretched our senses by including so much smell "imagery". And how perfect that you ended with those deer step and sniffing, step and sniffing and a promise of green. This is a great challenge! Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteLinda, I read your post several times last night and finally the computer had to be put away since I fell asleep over it many times. This seems to be recurrent habit (LOL). Using sensory words your poem provided such a wealth of images. I was just sweeping away the piles of leaves that landed on my entrance porch yesterday so that image rusty leaf quilts is fresh on my mind.
ReplyDeleteYour ending brings the hope of a soon-to-be spring. Can you please send the link to the padlet? I am not able to reach it.
Linda, wow. I guess I have a new challenge to write a scent poem. Thanks for the challenge and the good example. Amazing all the smells around you that stirred my olfactory memory.
ReplyDeleteI loved your star poem. The repetition fits the illustration perfectly:
"when someone’s sad and needs a friend
Stop. Take time. Listen. Lean in"
Thanks!
I can just smell the aroma of inky excitement you've generated here, Linda, and I love this poem of olfactory delights. I'm curious why you think it "isn't exactly a happy children's poem," first because I don't find it in any way UNhappy, more purely evocative of the ebb and flow of our seasonal traditions. Second, you got me wondering--do all children's poems need to be happy, offer hope?
ReplyDeleteLinda, thank you for letting us know about the Children's Poetry Summit. Your wonderful poem fills the senses. I especially love the last three lines. : )
ReplyDelete"corn snow dripping/soaking into rusty leaf quilts" — oh, so perfect! I'm with Heidi in that I don't find it to be a Not-Happy poem. Spring's promise always makes me happy. :)
ReplyDeleteAnd I'm back to respond to your padlet poem — how much better off would we all be if we would always stop, take time, listen, and lean in. Such a sweet photo, too!
ReplyDelete