This morning I went out to meet a past co-worker for coffee and I heard birds singing! Not just any birds…spring birds! I am pretty sure what I heard were robins! Immediately, I started thinking how the return of songbirds might be a better indicator of spring than trusting groundhogs!
From these sounds and thoughts, I made a reverse nonet, still nine lines but starting with one syllable instead of nine. I don’t know if it’s “legal” to call it a reverse nonet, but I did! Nonets are poems that start with a line of nine syllables and then each subsequent line has one less syllable until it ends with a line of one syllable. To read more about nonets, you can check Irene Latham’s website here. As you can see, I took some creative liberties going from 1-9 syllables instead of 9-1 as is the case in typical nonets.
February Spring
Writing about place is a way to connect to where you find yourself in the world. When I worked with young children as an environmental educator, I often used a sense of place to form connections for our lessons. The places we concentrated on were home, school, and neighborhoods, all settings that were familiar to the young school-aged child. It is a satisfying way to teach and connect to the world that surrounds us.
Place is a favorite topic for my writing, too. I wrote a poem about a visit to the University of Minnesota’s campus when I accompanied my youngest son on a visit there several years ago.
And, finally, I’ve been trying to gather mind’s eye images of our recent trip to Maui to convert into words and use in a poem on one of my photographs. Here’s what I came up with. It is another poem of place.
I’ve been working hard to try and get my Poetry Friday posts up sooner than I have in the past. So, this is my second blog post today – I wrote a Thursday post and this post for Poetry Friday. Our round-up host this week is the talented Laura Purdie Salas at Small Reads for Brighter Days. Thanks for hosting Laura! Please check out her blog for more inspiring poems. I’m looking forward to reading what others have to offer this week!
The Apples in My Orchard 
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