 Tabatha at The Opposite of Indifference has hosting duties today. Her offerings today have a tie-in to mine. Thanks to Tabatha, I have been mailing out Poetry Swaps. I have gotten a few this week and plan to share next week.  This week, I am pouring over the poems from 19 Varieties of Gazelle by Naomi Shihab Nye. In her introduction, I found this as she reflect on 9/11: "...what can we do? Writes, believers in words, could not give up words when the going gets tough. I found myself, as millions did, turning to poetry....Poetry slows us down, cherishes small details. A large disaster erases this details We need poetry for nourishment and for noticing, for the way language and imagery reach comfortably into the experience, hold and connecting it more successfully than any other news channel we could name." (p xvi) Whoa. As I was tying this and thinking back to 9/11 and fast forward to this month and last week with the awful flooding in Texas, this holds truer than ever. I had to share the "In Memory" so True. Save the Date: August 9, 2025I will be holding a Pop-up Poetry Salon from 11-12-12:30 ish EST on Saturday, August 9, 2025. We'll gather, write, share, and maybe write some more  Have you read this book?,
With the CYBILS on hiatus this year (I still have cranky pants on about it but respect what they are trying to accomplish), I am going to do my best to feature more kid lit poetry books for Poetry Friday. Wood and Words My friend, Mary Cronin suggested it . What a delight to read about the childhood and life of Mary Oliver with lovely illustrations. I love the ones where the poetic words were in a playful thread in the forest. Who knew the different job she took to keep her writing a float. I do wish that there had been a poem or two in the back matter. One can always find one of hers to go with the book.  Tanita at {fiction, instead of lies} is hosting Poetry Friday. She is sharing the poetry challenge for July which sounds very fun and doable. Its a Sedoka is an unrhymed poem made up of two three-line katautawith a 5/7/7, 5/7/7 syllable count. Since a Sedoka has only six lines, you can totally do this! BONUS: Mary Lee (A(nother) Year of Reading) is hosting next Friday and has the theme for protest Poetry on Independence Day. Try a Sedoka.  We are living in some uncertain times. This past weekend, after the news, I decided to do restart abandoning art. This time I'm making 2 x 2 in canvas hearts. #moreart #morelove. There are 2 that are heading to Paris with a friend to leave somewhere in the city. I'm going to make more this summer. The other thing I'm doing is to revisited the poems of Naomi Shihab Nye. This one comes from The Tiny Journalist. It's a book I bought at the 2020 AWP Conference. I found the poem on Poets.org Moon Over Gaza Naomi Shihab Nye 1952 – I am lonely for my friends. They liked me, trusted my coming. I think they looked up at me more than other people do. I who have been staring down so long see no reason for the sorrows humans make. I dislike the scuffle and dust of bombs blasting very much. It blocks my view. A landscape of sorrow and grieving feels different afterwards. Different sheen from a simple desert, children who say my name like a prayer. Sometimes I am bigger than a golden plate, a giant coin and everyone gasps. Maybe it is wrong that I am so calm. From The Tiny Journalist (BOA Editions, Ltd. 2019) by Naomi Shihab Nye. Copyright © 2019 by Naomi Shihab Nye. Used with the permission of the poet. This line is so powerful: see no reason for the sorrows humans make.  I received the first Summer Poetry Swap from Linda Mitchell. And squee she sent me a fabulous book to read by our very own Poetry Friday poet, Margaret Simon. I am going to begin it tonight. and will be using Linda's hand crafted book mark with the poem, A Book is a Place" by Clyde Watson on the back.
My goal this summer is to read more poetry and to share more titles. You may or may not know this but the CYBILS are pausing their year awards for this year. I get why they are yet I am very sad about this. Graphic; © Amber Fleek Welcome to Poetry Friday. I place to maybe find solace when the world is unsettled. Catherine at Reading to the Core has hosting duties. She's sharing Irene Latham's gorgeous new book, The Museum on the Moon. Friends, thank you for leaving comments. I always have the best intentions of commenting and sometimes (many times) I don't. It's my goal to be better. Being part of community is commenting. I am grateful to be a part of this community.  Wildwood Recreational Area, Mount Hood Village, OR SheLast night, I was preparing this post. It was going to be a different one. I kept hedging and feeling the weight of this week in the world. I kept reading Naomi Shihab Nye's work. She is my go to person when the world is unsettled. Her poems, books, and essays have given me a some understanding of the Middle East. Which one post to post? I couldn't decide and I went to bed without my post written. When I got out of bed this morning and got my tea, I knew what I'd write about today. I went back online and searched at Poets.org for Nye's work. Below is a cento for the Middle East, using lines from her poems. A Cento for the Middle East: Thank You Naomi Shihab Nye Sometimes there is a day you just want to get far away from. I thought pain had no tongue. overlooking my humanity. ‘ A landscape of sorrow and grieving “ But more war, battles, why not simpler things? burn of ancestors smoldering outside stolen homes, causes a uniformed man to approach barking, Is there something you don't understand? They are the bravest people on earth right now, kindness as the deepest thing inside, sorrow as the other deepest thing. wake up with sorrow. only kindness makes sense anymore, for an unfolding day. ©Jone Rush MacCulloch, (draft, 2023) Sources for the Cento: “Sometimes there’s a day” From The Tiny Journalist, BOA Editions, Ltd. 2019 “Arabic” from Red Suitcase. Copyright © 1994.. ‘Gratitude List” From The Tiny Journalist, BOA Editions, Ltd. 2019 “Moon Over Gaza” From The Tiny Journalist, BOA Editions, Ltd. 2019 “What she Said” Copyright © 2022 by Naomi Shihab Nye. This poem originally appeared in Tikkun, September 10, 2021. “The Burn” From Transfer BOA Editions, 2011 “The Burn” From Transfer BOA Editions, 2011 “Mediterranean Blue” From The Tiny Journalist. Copyright © 2019 “Kindness” from Words Under the Words: Selected Poems. Copyright © 1995 “Green Shirt” Copyright © 2022 by Naomi Shihab Nye. This poem originally appeared in Tikkun, September 10, 2021. Spooky Spectacular Found Poems: October 27, 2027 I'm hoping you will join me on October 27th for a fun poetry event.
Did you have fun with Spring's Classic Found Poem Palooza? You are invited to another found poem spectacular palooza, spooky version. Do you have a favorite horror or scary book, poem or story? Maybe a Poe, a HP Lovecraft, Dracula or Frankenstein? It doesn't need to be long. From The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allen Poe: uplifted my eyes to decayed trees shaking from my spirit  ©Graphic by Amber Fleek
Jan at BookSeedStudio has the hosting duties this week and she's curated a variety of sources of where to submit poetry as well as introducing to a wonderful collection.
I'm about to leave for four days at the coast, a yearly event. And yesterday morning I awoke to a post on FB by Naomi Shihab Nye thanking someone for the quote on their car: "There’s a way not to be brokenthat takes brokenness to find it." ~Naomi Shihab Nye I looked it up and found this poem: "Cinco de Mayo" Cinco de Mayo By Naomi Shihab Nye If this is your birthday and you are dead, do we stay silent as the sheet you died under? No. You always talked. Here’s a thick white candle whispering. Pour birdseed into feeders. Speak up, speak up. Tell me where they go, my friend said, in the same pain. I touched her shoulder. Here, right here. You’re closer than you ever were — takes a while to know that. Every scrap of DNA, he’s listening. There’s a way not to be broken that takes brokenness to find it. Those two last lines. And here's the kicker, today would have been the 75th birthday of my former husband who died five years ago, As some of you know, I left over thirty years ago, and have written about him. The universe guides us and yesterday, the poem was gifted to me. I was fortunate to take a weeklong class with Naomi in 1989. I will be visiting her books for the Sealey Challenge. Here is Naomi, reading her poem fro her book, Transfer(2011) : 
The Sealey Challenge is a month-long challenge to read poetry and be in community with others. I am going to do my best to immerse myself in the challenge.
Are you participating? I know that Marcie Flinchum Atkins is promoting and getting ready for it. |
AuthorAll photos and poems in these blog posts are copyrighted to Jone Rush MacCulloch 2006- Present. Please do not copy, reprint or reproduce without written permission from me. 
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