MAY POET'S PEN SUMMARY
Poet's Pen is a dedicated time to share our own and other poets' works, to allow time for writing/workshopping, and for closing with reading of works in progress. Three people met on May 19 to listen, write, and read a variety of poems. Please join us on Monday, June 30th at 5pm for our next gathering. Check lopezlibrary.org or email Beth for current information.
Don't Miss Local Poet Readings!


 
Poems Shared
Sparrow envy : field guide to birds and lesser beasts
by J. Drew Lanham

"Renowned naturalist and writer J. Drew Lanham explores his obsession with birds and all things wild in a mixture of poetry and prose. He questions vital assumptions taken for granted by so many birdwatchers: can birding be an escape if the birder is notin a safe place? Who is watching him as he watches birds? With a refreshing balance of reverence and candor, Lanham paints a unique portrait of the natural world: listening to cicadas, tracking sandpipers, towhees, wrens, and cataloging fellow birdwatchers at a conference where he is one of two black birders. The resulting insights are as honest as they are illuminating"

"NOCTURNE"
"Forgiveness" by Maria Popova
(click on the link to read or hear the poem read aloud)
The sea in you : twenty poems of requited and unrequited love
by David Whyte

Presents a collection of the author's love poems.

"THE TRUELOVE"
Writing Time
Exquisite Corpse Writing Game

Exquisite Corpse is a collaborative poetry game that traces its roots to the Parisian Surrealist Movement. We played it in two ways: 
 
Blind: each person writes a line on a sheet of paper, folds the paper to conceal it, and passes it on to the next player for their contribution.
 
One-line Prompt: the first person writes a line & gives it to the next person. That person writes a line, then folds the paper so only their line is visible. So as it's passed, only the last line written is visible.
 
WE HAD FUN WITH THIS! Here are are collaborative poems:
 
Blind poems
 
Unseen, the badger raised their paw
They keenly sniffed the wind, one pointed at a wading bird
So languid and hot was the summer it stretched long and oily like strands of melted cheddar
Fisher frolicks far from Finland.
As are sunsets, gray dawn, and the incoming tide
 
You sir, do not deserve my attention.
Simple tidings tilling taters.
Over the somnolent roar of the sea one voice was lifted
Volume upon volume stacked into pillars holding up the roof - an architecture of books
Echoes fill the choir's song.
 
5 small black and white dogs stood sentinel on the frozen strand
and the octopus waived her articulate fronds like a sea tree bidding adieu
Do we know the robin's song?
Birds dogs and a gray sea, one voice. This is important.
And thus it was that all things came to rest in Grace. Always in Grace.
 
One-line Prompt poems
 
Come with me to the place no one has ever seen but we two.
There we will plant one rose. And one tomato. Then we will seed the stars.
Red as the woodpecker's crest, flaming in the forest.
Red as matchtip struck in the dark.
Momentary flame, quick held to the wick, then hot and black in the hand.
 
This exquisite corpse still breathes, a slightly gleaming mist on the silver mirror she holds.
Alas, the ripples on the lake doth tremble like leaves in the wind
And my dear, oh my dear, how my heart doth flutter like a Quaking Aspen before thy perilous beauty
Oh, the poet's have said this, How often they have said these arresting words. No more sweet words, she cries! Only the fiery peril of TRUTH.
Consequences be damned - we fight for peace.
 
When Mozart discovered his Star absurd enchantment ensued
but let us not eschew the shrew before ye mismatched shoes
The shrew is small and brown, not to be mistaken for the vole, nor, least of all, the blind mole.
Snake slithers sibilantly, awaiting a dinner fete
Oh come sensuous seductress of the sumptuous, come sup with your scintillating spouse.
 

Lopez Island Library
2225 Fisherman Bay Rd
Lopez Island, Washington 98261
360-468-2265
www.lopezlibrary.org