That's entertainment

I ran across this poem from six years ago; it showed up in a Facebook memory and I'd forgotten I'd written it. It was a response to a poetry prompt by Kelly Belmonte at All Nine.

That's entertainment

I’m looking at this fence,
and all the planks and posts,
and I’m looking at this bucket
of whitewash,
and I’m having myself a pondering
of trying to make it look easy,
make it look fun, like
chasing chickens or
pulling pigtails,
so I start whistling,
and I start singing,
and sure enough
if it looks like entertainment
they will come. They all
click “like” and add an emoji,
grab a brush and start slopping
that whitewash on, while I head
down to the quiet creek with Huck
to catch me some fish,
smoke some tobacco,
tell some stories,
and rest my eyes.

 

Photograph by Terence Raper via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Some Tuesday Readings

 

The life of Samuel Johnson’s servant – Henry Oliver at The Common Reader.

 

On a Train Through Murray Country at Sunset – poem by Lucas Smith at The Sprawl of Quality.

 

“The Mower to the Glow-Worms,” poem by Andrew Marvell – Sally Thomas at Poems Ancient and Modern.

Poets and Poems: Kelly Belmonte and "The Mother of All Words"

As I began reading The Mother of All Words, the new poetry collection by Kelly Belmonte, an image of my childhood began to emerge. The image was the neighborhood where I grew up in suburban New Orleans. It has originally been something akin to swamp; our corner house still had two swamp cypress trees. And across the street were the woods stretching several blocks. As kids, we called it the “Little Woods,” to differentiate it from the wooded area on the other side of the drainage canal. That was the “Big Woods,” four to five times larger, which had what seemed like acres of blackberry bushes scattered among the trees and brush. 

Living near woods as a child was sheer magic. My childhood wasn’t especially notable or exceptional, but we had the woods, with its trails, its hiding places, its space so deep you could lose sight of the nearby houses. You could imagine anything and imagine yourself to be anything. And adults were nowhere to be found.

To continue reading, please see my post today at Tweetspeak Poetry.

Some Tuesday Readings

 

Things Worth Remembering: ‘Be What You Are’ – Joseph Massey at The Free Press.

 

A new Wendell Berry novel in October.

 

Golden-Cheeked Warbler – poem by Megan Willome at Every Day Poems.

 

“Corinna’s Going A-Maying,” poem by Robert Herrick – Sally Thomas at Poems Ancient and Modern.

10 Ways to Help Your Favorite Introverted Author - T.S. Poetry.

Poems and Photos: Kelly Belmonte, Tom Darin Liskey, and “Transit”

You might say I was there at almost the creation of Transit by Kelly Belmonte and Tom Darin Liskey. 

Well more than a year ago, I was pulled into a Facebook conversation between Belmonte and Liskey. They had been talking for some time about a collaborative effort. Belmonte is a poet, a blogger, and a management consultant specializing in non-profit organizational development.  Liskey is a poet, author, and photographer and photojournalist. If you read Belmonte’s poems and study Liskey’s photographs, a collaborative effort is a no-brainer. 

 

At the time, they were talking the basics of collaboration: what to include and exclude, how large a work, what publishing venues should be explored, layout and design, and related questions. Fascinated, I listened and offered only a word or two. The collaborators had this project well in hand.

To continue reading, please see my post today at Tweetspeak Poetry.