Category: Amy Souza

Poetry Friday, Week 51: Collaborating with Fernanda Valentino and A Link to The Poeming Pigeon Reading

12/22/2022

Graphic design by Amber Fleek

Welcome to a cold and breezy Poetry Friday. I hope you have a warm fire or something warm to drink as you enter this special community. And thanks to Irene at Live Your Poem for hosting us all this Friday before Christmas Eve and Day.

May this weekend be filled with magic and mystery for all who celebrate.

Besides collaborating with Linda Mitchell for Spark 53, I reached out to some new poetry friends. Fernanda Valentino shares a poem in What is a Friend edited by Sylvia Vardell and Janet Wong. She volunteered to write a response to this photo I took in Glencoe, Scotland.

Fàilte
Heavy clouds cascading
Looming low, they skim
And brush these emerald valleys
With winter's thick, cold kiss.

Laden with burdens
The storm clouds linger, dense
Their damp and dewy fingers
Caress this desolate place.

Melancholy mornings
As sunlight struggles through
Each day another battle
For sunbeams, pale and new.

What is this lonely, far-flung place?
What does this small hut ponder?
What secrets does it hide?
What memories dwell inside?

Let the clouds become nostalgic
And the darkness dissipate
To reveal the face of Spring
Impart her warm embrace.

This isolation's fleeting
The time must surely come
When the soothing voice of Spring
Whispers “Welcome home”.

©Fernanda Valentino

Here is the link for the reading at The Poeming Pigeon.
Shawn and Robert, the editors, created a beautiful evening to celebrate art and poems.
I was so fortunate to be able to read (I am at about 25:00 minutes in ). I highly recommend to settle in and watch the whole event.

Are you thinking of a One Little Word for 2023? I have been. Last Saturday, I met Pamela Sue Johnson, a local mixed media artist at The Procrastinator's Market (on of my favorite event in December) It turns out she's offering an online class to create an art piece with your2023 word.

I've signed up. I also bought a journal with this art as it has my word, flourish, from 2021.

Poetry Friday, Week 31: Creating for Art Postcard Swap #seepoetryeverywhere

8/5/2021

Welcome to Poetry Friday. Mary Lee is hosting at her new space, A(nother)Year of Reading.
Her villanelle with a clunker from Linda Mitchell, surprised her as a retirement poem. I remember that feeling the first year after retirement, not preparing for school as soon as August 1st arrive. Happy new adventures, Mary Lee.

From a book of Lyric Poems by John Keats

Amy Souza, fabulous creator of the Spark collaborative art series, also offers art postcard swaps. For me, it's usually combined with poetry. Last month, I made copies of a two page spread and divided it into four puzzle pieces for my four recipients. Then I played with washi tape and ink (when I applied the final coat of sealer, the ink bled which is kind of cool.)