Kards by Kaylee

You and your readers will probably appreciate (my beloved) Dodge Poetry Festival: http://www.dodgepoetry.org/

Sadly, due to the state of the economy, the every-other-year festival is taking a break in ‘10, but they’re also re-grouping to re-imagine, so it’s not going away. And in the meantime, poetry-lovers can check in on their site to see videos of some poetry ’stars’ reading their works at past festivals … (just delish).

(ps – love the new look leah!)

As to poets, I love T.S. Eliot – esp. the Four Quartets. I hated him at first, but after I spent a semester on him in school, and finally got the hang of what he was talking about (even if only in a vague way), I really liked him. I esp. like what he does with time and space in the Four Quartets.

I used to write poetry a lot, almost all of the time, but I think college squelched that out of me. Now I very rarely write it. But maybe I should give it a try, again.

Convert

Once her prayers beat the sky
with the fear of a caged bird
cold beads slipping through fingers
like memories. she has forgotten
why the woman in blue
is forever stepping on the snake.

Instead she thinks of the red serpents
seen unexpectedly the year she thought
of drowning, how water enfolds and covers

but the serpents sang to her
of the secrets of dry grass
the diligence of trees
and the warmth of small feathered things
with racing hearts
so she learned to love the land.

Now
she places sweet milk
in the corners of her yellow kitchen
just in case
the serpents come ashore
makes nests of shredded paper
for broken birds with wounded wings
and skitters glass beads
one by one
across the worn and shiny floor
while she holds her prayers
in the palm of her hand.

(that’s mine, from my chapbook, “Shift” available thru Amazon.com)

I tend to shy away from poetry, the way many people shy away from modern art. I find most poetry inaccessible to me, and that makes me feel stupid, like I’m missing out on something everyone else gets because of some sort of deficiency I have. But then every once in a while a line will come along that makes my heart sing, and I’ll turn it around in my head over and over again, enjoying it from every angle. Perhaps I just have high standards.

Some poetry impacts my artwork…I haven’t actually created anything from a poem just yet, but poems have a way of helping me think in a creative direction.

BTW: I love this Seven Sisters piece…absolutely amazing! I also received your lovely calendar a week or so ago…love it!

Whether or not my destiny is to Be A Poet (I had planned to get a MFA in poetry upon graduation from college) I shall be forever and ever grateful for how poetry has enriched my life.