Poetry Friday, Week 49: A Cento for Solstice and a Call for the New Year Poetry Postcard Exchange

Cathy at Merely Day by Day is hosting us and thanking the Poetry Friday community.  So glad you are in the community, Cathy.

Molly Hogan of The Inklings, suggested for the December challenge, that we try the cento poem/patchwork poem. 

# PoetryPals the December challenge is to write a poem about bells.

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After reading MaryLee's cento last week and Carol Varsolana's cento this week, I am jumping in with one about winter's arrival.
Did you know that the CENTO is an historic poetic form, relying  entirely on other poets’ published words?  According to  Linda Black, Ausonius (c310 – c395) was the Roman originator of the form.

For mine, I researched poems about the winter solstice.

One Solstice

When the short day is brightest, with frost and fire  
which burns the spark of luminous goodness

​when I stare at paper or into silences 
the dark, too, blooms and sings,

The world appears very large, very round now
extending far as the moon

A quiet light, and then not even that. 
all the singing is in the tops of the trees

which shook in the wind of night  
to drive the dark away

One winter I lived north, alone 

©jone rush macculloch, 2021

Sources for One Solstice:
LITTLE GIDDING BY T.S. ELIOT        
​A WINTER SOLSTICE PRAYER BY EDWARD HAYS 
SNOW BY NAOMI SHIHAB NYE 
TO KNOW THE DARK BY WENDELL BERRY 
WINTER SOLSTICE BY HILDA MORLEY    
AN OLD MAN’S WINTER NIGHT BY ROBERT FROST  
WHITE-EYES BY MARY OLIVER     
THE COLD EARTH SLEPT BELOW BY PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY
THE SHORTEST DAY BY SUSAN COOPER   
THE WORLD BY JENNIFER CHANG      

2022 New Year Poetry Postcard Exchange

Won't you join us? We have about 10 at the party so far and there's room for more. Sign up for the 2022 New Year Postcard Exchange.  Send five, send ten or send to all.

Did you know there are 22 days until 2021 ends? Woohoo! Let's celebrate the New Year with a New Year Postcard? In Japan, it’s called Nengajo, a Japanese custom of ushering in the new year.

​How It Works:

• Choose to send five, ten postcards.
• Create a postcard:  you can buy a postcard and write a poem on the other side or you can create one postcard to send to everyone (I use Walgreens or Zazzle)
• Once you get the names, send by February 1, 2022 (beginning of Chinese New Years)
• If you choose, you can work in the Chinese animal for 2022: The year of the Tiger. It is not required.

SIGN UP HERE

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A shout out to this book, HOP TO IT  edited by Janet Wong and Sylvia Vardell has won the Kids' Book Choice Awards.
​I love this book.

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Next week, the Poetry Friday Party is here! I'm hosting. Bring your bells and centos and winter solstice greetings!