Free Verse Friday, March 2023

This month the theme of our Free Verse Friday is Green.
Here in my corner of southern Ontario it has been unusually green most of the winter. When the snow does come, it tends to come in very lion like, like it did a couple of weeks ago. Schools were closed on the next day, and when I ventured out later in the day, I could see why: I couldn’t even shovel the driveway or sidewalk, as it was pure ice! Buses were again cancelled on Tuesday this week. Today we are scheduled for yet another big snow dump.
This month I have decided to do a persona poem. I became intrigued with persona poems when I sat in on a webinar held by Vocamus Writers Community. Persona poems are poems written from the point of view of someone else or something else. I have been practicing them, always from the point of view from an object. A couple of good examples are “Katrina” by Patricia Smith, written from the point of view of a hurricane, and “The Hawthorn Tree” by Louise Glück, written from the point of view of the tree.
For my persona poem, I was inspired by these pictures to write from the point of view of grass.

Grasstalk

Winter marches in, swishing a white cape over us
Lulling us into a long sleep
We are warm and cozy under this snowy blanket
Though the cover is chilly, we are protected from gusts and gales
Until the day when Spring tiptoes in with a green cape
Releasing us from our slumber to see the sun again
The white withdraws, the green advances
Securing the soil for another season

If you know of any good persona poem books, please do let me know.
I hope that you will join Bev and me by writing a green themed poem. Also, please do stop by Bev’s blog to read her poem.
The next three months we will be having these themes:
April-Change
May-Flowers
June-Solstice
I hope to see at least one of your poems in the upcoming months.

Shoe’s Seeds and Stories
@Copyright 2023 Linda Schueler

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Free Verse Friday—February 2023

Has it already been a month since our first Free Verse Friday? Wow!
This month’s theme is “Winter”. Winter started late here in my corner of southern Ontario, but now that winter is here, it’s come with a blast! This morning I took a walk in -18 degree Celsius weather! At least we are seeing more sun.
For this challenge I used this picture for inspiration. The decoration hangs in my front yard, usually only for Christmas, but this year I have left it out longer.

I have done three variations of my poem.

Bearable

Winter, the time when
the whole world wears a toque
Trees, bushes, even
decorations take part
in this ritual, making
winter festive and thus more
bearable although…
Bears do hibernate…

This one I tried to use a syllable structure, loosely basing it on a tanka poem. I got the comment that it was choppy, so I tried the next structure to see if it improved anything.

Winter, the time when the whole world wears a toque
Trees, bushes, even decorations take part in this ritual,
Making winter festive and thus more bearable although…
Bears do hibernate…

Then it seemed that the funny twist at the end didn’t appeal to all, so I tried it without.

Winter, the time when the whole world wears a toque
Trees, bushes, even decorations take part in this ritual,
Making winter festive and thus more bearable

So what do you think? Which poem do you like best?

Don’t forget to head over to Bev’s blog to read her poem. And feel free to leave yours in the comment section.

Shoe’s Seeds and Stories
@Copyright 2023 Linda Schueler

Free Verse Friday—January 2023

It’s our first Free Verse Friday. Yay! This month’s theme is “Beginnings”.

I started writing my poem during Beth Kempton’s “Winter Writing Sanctuary”. This was a free 10 day writing “retreat”. I liked it so much, that I ordered a couple of Kempton’s books including “The Way of the Fearless Writer”, which has yet to arrive.

Here’s the picture to accompany my poem:

Several rewrites later, this is the poem I came up with:

Eye popping sunset
Cues the demise of a day
Darkness rises, night’s born
Is the sun glum that day ends?
Or does the sun celebrate
the beginning of the night?

In future rewrites I may add more description, but for now I am happy with the beginning of a new poem.

How about you? Did you write a poem? Feel free to post one in the comments or link to your blog with your poem in the comments.

Don’t forget to head to Bev’s blog to read her poem.

See you next month for a poem written on the theme of “Winter”.

Shoe’s Seeds and Stories
@Copyright 2023 Linda Schueler

Introducing “Free Verse Fridays” 2023

Introducing our new challenge this year…Free Verse Fridays.
You may remember that last year my writing partner Bev and I did “Our Own Backyard” as our 2022 challenge. This year we are changing focus, and we are going to be doing a poetry challenge once a month. Yay!
Did you want to play along? We’d love to have you. If so, these are the parameters. Pick a picture related to the theme for the month. Then write a free verse poem related to the picture and the theme. Then on the first Friday of the month, post your picture and poem on your blog.
The themes for the first three months are as follows:
January—Beginnings
February—Winter
March—Green
Leave a comment on one of our blogs, linking to your blog. If you don’t have a blog, then feel free to put the picture and the poem in the comments.
I’m going to give you a preview of two pictures I am considering using for the first poem, which I will post on Friday. Now I’ll need to actually write the poem on the theme of “Beginnings”. Stay tuned.

I’ll meet you here next week, and I hope to see a poem from you too!

Shoe’s Seeds and Stories
@Copyright 2022 Linda Schueler