📖 The Path to Kindness, The Wonder of Small Things, and How to Love the World are all collections of various poets, edited by James Crews. They are cute little books with a good variety of accessible and lovely poems
📖 How to Carry Water, selected poems of Lucille Clifton
📖 You are Here, poetry in the natural world, edited by Ada Limón
📖 Devotions, the selected poems of Mary Oliver, spans her life's work
📖 Ask Me by William Stafford, 100 essential poems
📖 Rilke's Book of Hours, Love Poems to God, translated by Anita Barrows and Joanna Macy
📖 Until it's true, by Katy Luxem-- poems on motherhood
Marnie this one is so tender! Loved reading it. The repetition of statements of knowing and not knowing had a really cool rhythm, and the framing of the whole thing as a back and forth between mother and daughter was both sweet and inspiring. 🪡
I still don’t know how to
complete a sentence
or a thought
or the deep clean of my basement
because
there is always a broken up, chewed on popsicle stick under the bed
or the missing piece of the puzzle to
take back upstairs to the box that has been taped back together three times
but it needs even more reinforcement
because
the boy who chews on his popsicle sticks has
a daughter
who steps on the puzzle boxes and
I still don’t know how to
let it go
but sometimes
I do.
Love this Hannah! ❤️❤️
Very rough venture for this draft. And that is enough, which is perfect!
What else is there?
A seed flees from its mother tree,
To find a place to rest.
A bed of soil to lay its head,
Thinking that must be best.
Over the winter long and dark
It stays trapped in its shell.
“There must be more!”, it screams inside.
“I’m in a living Hell!”
Spring begins and with it comes
Stirring, changes, growth.
Made to shift beyond its shell
And someday be an Oak.
It pushes down and reaches out-
Powerfully unbound.
With tender leaves I find myself
And break free from the ground.
Love this venture Alyssa! Thank you for sharing. And yes, it is enough! ❤️ The line “with tender leaves I find myself” was really lovely. 🌱
I’d love to immerse myself in good poetry, does anyone have recommendations of physical books/collections you’ve enjoyed?
Here's a few I've liked recently:
📖 The Path to Kindness, The Wonder of Small Things, and How to Love the World are all collections of various poets, edited by James Crews. They are cute little books with a good variety of accessible and lovely poems
📖 How to Carry Water, selected poems of Lucille Clifton
📖 You are Here, poetry in the natural world, edited by Ada Limón
📖 Devotions, the selected poems of Mary Oliver, spans her life's work
📖 Ask Me by William Stafford, 100 essential poems
📖 Rilke's Book of Hours, Love Poems to God, translated by Anita Barrows and Joanna Macy
📖 Until it's true, by Katy Luxem-- poems on motherhood
Thank you for this beautiful prompt and all of the inspiration! Here’s what I came up with.
What I didn’t know before
What I didn’t know before was
how many knots a single string
could be tangled into
by an ambitious seven year old
who wanted a sewing machine
for Christmas. Mama can you
teach me how to sew?
I don’t know much about sewing.
But I know a lot about untangling
messes that I didn’t make
and unraveling what was once
the fabric of my life.
I know a lot about finding
common threads disguised as
knots that could never
and should never be undone.
I don’t know much about sewing
but I made this patchwork life for us
from all the warmth and
softness I could gather.
So make all the beautiful messes
you can make, sweet girl.
And I’ll teach you how to weave love
through it all.
Oh I love this.
Marnie this one is so tender! Loved reading it. The repetition of statements of knowing and not knowing had a really cool rhythm, and the framing of the whole thing as a back and forth between mother and daughter was both sweet and inspiring. 🪡