Today is Poetry Friday. Early this morning my sister-in-law contacted me to make sure we were okay. She keeps tabs on us from afar, partially through reading my daily blog posts. I have not posted in two days! You have to go all the way back to July to see another block of time void of posts. In that case, it was three days – I think we were at our cabin – which happens to be WiFi and internet free. That was my excuse then. I have no excuse for the last two days except my schedule is changing and I’ll have to change my posts to better fit my schedule. In the meantime, enjoy some poems on place. The first was inspired by the trip my son and husband took today to a relatively nearby college campus. The rest are haiku. All are inspired by a sense of place.
An Urban Campus
Can you see yourself here?
Amidst the buildings, bustling students,
heavy traffic, and noise?
Will they have what you want?
Enough stimulate your mind to
wonder, wander, and create?
Or, will their direction stymie you?
I wonder what you will think and
they will think of you.
If only for a day, try it on for size.
Listen, look, observe.
Stand outside of yourself
and judge.
Ask yourself,
can I be happy here?
Prairie Pollinator Place
Open Flower Fields
Pollinator Paradise
Humans Eat Because of You
A Flower Garden
Blankets of White Snow
Covers the Ground and All Below
Bulbs Insulated
Waimea Canyon
Trails on Rusty Red Dirt
Kauai’s secret passages
Instill Fear No More
Secret Wisconsin
Driftless Wisconsin
Let us keep you a secret
Home for us only
Keuka Lake
Finger Lakes Region
Smooth Sparkling Blue Waters
Another Beauty
Today’s Poetry Friday is hosted by Laura Purdie Salas. Check out her blog for a great idea to help you get kids to write poetry! She gave us all an assignment today! Thanks for hosting!
Love all your place poems! The images are so striking as well. You’ve reminded me of how inspiring simple places can be to write about. Thanks for sharing!
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Thank you!
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I really love your place haiku that are nature-oriented, because that’s what draws me (though I just moved from the suburbs to the city, living just a few blocks from the state capitol!). But your college one, too, resonated–especially the ending.
Ask yourself,
can I be happy here?
I think our mobile world today offers many more of us the opportunity to ask ourselves that. And to act on the answer, if we really listen to it. Thanks for sharing. My husband and I moved from Florida to Minnesota decades ago, and though I miss family, I couldn’t be happy in Florida. I hate hot weather. I’ve rarely regretted our move, and when I have, it’s only been momentarily.
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Thanks so much! I think a sense of place is so important and we find there are some we fit and fit us, better than others. I agree that having the ability and self-knowledge to recognize that and do something about it, such as you have done, is very important. So, I gleaned that you live outside St. Paul MN somewhere? I am in Wisconsin!
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