Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Spring Poem Collaboration -- My Kind of Thing!


Spring

Once-tidy ribbons on my door wreath,
Blown blowsy by blasts of unruly wind,
Unwind their curly tails, wildly celebrating
Their spiraling freedom. 

Geese in the sky call out their joyful return 
In their northern flight, flashing their
V for Victory in their passing.

Long swathes of grey woodlands are now 
Dabbled with white dogwood and splashed
By yellow daffodils on every greening hill.

In the lowlands and marshes, life noisily abounds
As bird songs and frog calls herald the return of 
Earth’s resplendent warm beauty. 

Once again, she's spun 'round the sun like a dancer,
Around this sun, her star, her heavenly light.
The wild wind carried his love for her and, 
now aglow, she births spring’s vibrancy
from deep darkness within.

The poem above was written this weekend by Facebook friends Joseph Hebda and Melanie Floro, and me, and edited by me.  Special thanks to Melanie for priming us with her first phrases (in addition to her later contribution).

This collaboration began after I posted on Facebook that my daughter wanted me to help her find a spring poem on the internet for school.  A spring poem, hmm?  I said.  Yeah.  A nice, spring, appropriate poem, she said seriously.  (She knows me.)  Sheesh....Is a poet concerned with writing appropriate poems? I mused to myself.  And so....

I asked my Facebook friends if they'd like to write one with me.  Some wonderful imagery spilled forth, was edited and, voila, a poem was born.  I hope to shoot a wonderful photo for this sometime soon.  And I'd love to do this again!  Feel free to add your own poems as a comment below.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great team effort! Such colorful imagery! That girl of yours knows how to "suggest" an assignment :)

Pat Washington said...

I guess she does, doesn't she? Too bad this one came too late. She brought in a poem by Charles Osgood.

Roxanne Steed said...

I LOVE this idea of a collaborative poem & forwarded it on to a group of 5 friends of mine. We've met once a month for the last 5 or 6 years (after taking a children's bookwriting/illustrating class together). Mostly we share what we are currently working on, it's a great place for encouragement & thought-provoking 'good stuff' - and a few times we've spent a couple hours on a collaborative project or two. I think this might be jump-start to the next 'brain-wave'!