POETRY CORNER
Passionflower vine (Photo – Kathabela Wilson).
– 11/15/17
Hosted by Kathabela Wilson
How can we find encouragement and consolation in these times of distressing challenges? Here, in poetry, it is possible to find the common threads of memory and new action that weave a fabric in our lives to encourage and console. The carousel of life pauses in the dark, waits, and begins again. The music and the community of poets and readers sustain us. We are the trees we hug and passionflowers that bloom.
~ Kathabela
Grace Galton
At Pasadena Museum of History exhibit (Photo – Kathabela Wilson).
Grace Galton’s two poems are cherita, a short form created by ai li in 1997, in honor of her grandparents who were great storytellers. The idea is to tell a little story, an incident or a long story in short form: one line, two lines, three lines. The great possibilities are evident.
it’s been ten years now
since granddad left
and at the bottom of the gardenthe old shed held together with Passiflora
bursts into bloom every summer without fail
in the month of his passingΟ Ο Ο
carousel midnight
after the heavy rain
reflected in puddlesa silent carousel
and all its empty horses
waiting patiently
Grace Galton lives in Somerset, UK. She remembers, fondly, her grandfather’s shed in Hoddesdon, Hertford. She says: “I’ve moved so many times since then and now live in Somerset, so there is no way I could get back and ask permission to photograph a shed that might not even exist anymore. Unfortunately, I had a photo of the shed covered in passiflora but this was many years ago.” But her poem is able to carry the power of this memory, honor her grandfather, to console and encourage herself, and all of us!
Ο Ο Ο
kris moon (kondo)
kris moon’s poems are in haiga form. This is an ancient form of combining artwork, initially painting, with haiku. It has developed in recent times to include creative combinations of of haiku, tanka, and photography.
Fragments of-my life. A Haiga by kris moon
Knit by grandmother. A Haiga by kris moon
Tree of life hugging. A Haiga by kris moon.
kris moon has lived in a mountain village, Kiyokawa in Kanagawa, west of Tokyo, for 45 years. Her childhood memories are in Wisconsin, Michigan, Canada and Boston. She names some things that give her encouragement and consolation: “Being heard, a smile, a hug, holding hands, the moon, a poem…”
Ο Ο Ο
> We welcome and encourage your response especially in the form of short poems. You may reply by leaving a comment below.
Kris’s poem:
“tree of life
hugging you
hugged by you”
would, I think, hug and encourage
Liz Goetz