Laura at Laura Purdie Salas is hosting Poetry Friday today and sharing more of the Poetry Princess Challenge.  It was to find a poem from the Poetry Friday Community and write a response using the Tanka form. Curious about tanka?  Read this post by Kelly.

I went to the blogs and landed at Mary Lee's Poetrepository. She wrote a sonnet (and for AJ no less) about Summer's End. It is a cornucopia of juicy and rich words.  
Meanwhile, I spied my last remaining Summer Poetry Swap. Guess who it was from?  Mary Lee and I knew that this was a serendipitous moment.  

I have been thinking today about the fact that I don't really have a favorite season.  There is great anticipation for the arrival of the new season and all it has to hold. Toward the end, the anticipation of the season builds.
​

.Using a couple of the cards Mary Lee sent me I responded to "Summer's End" with a 
Dodoitsu (7-7-7-5), part of the summer swap and a tanka.  I pulled some of her words from the sonnet.

scarlett maple leaves quiver
apples finish crisp on trees
roads that are unexpected
fall’s many textures
©jone rush macculloch. 2021 

wake before sunrise
cool air hushes summer heat
lingering too long.
harvest moon and Orion
set in the west. autumn arrives
©jone rush macculloch. 2021 

Elisabeth at Unexpected Intersections
​is hosting Poetry Friday today.  It's going to be a fun party as she and others celebrate Jane Yolen's 400th book, Bear Outside.  Poets in the community are writing after the style of Yolen's eight line, rhyming poem, “What the Bear Knows”.

 Join the party, the topic is What the ____ Knows. 

My second super Swap with Margaret Simon arrived and in it was a notebook with covers that Margaret painted in an abstract paint, print, and collage design.  I noted sponges, dots from perhaps wide pencils, circles from the bottom of lids or bowls and some feathery strokes in deep green. Atop the initial layers of this work were green crisscross pieces that reminded me of lovely grasses. Its bright yellow, white and greens cheered me and made me want to write in it immediately! The border had these words: “oh happy day “repeating along the edge.
 

so glad to be here for Poetry Friday.  This week  Christie at Wondering and Wandering is hosting and she has a community poem, Poetry Is...

After Tabatha set up the Summer Poetry Swap, she offered an opportunity for an extra exchange.  I was glad to add Rebecca Herzog to the swap.  Her poetry package arrived late last week. It included an erasure poem which was so fun. I love the painted bookmark and the bracelet/anklet made by her daughter.

For a response, I decided to use the words for a Golden Shovel poem and use the final line as a final line as well.  I have been working on ancestry puzzles of late so the words spoke to me in that way.

Let’s unravel the mysteries of generations
working feverishly and wordlessly
finding kernels of information to console
those who believed the stories of the past. Love
guided the ancestors’ choices. I am grateful
to carry on the name.
©jone rush macculloch, 2021
Thank you, Rebecca for a wonderful swap that sparked this response.

Today, Poetry Friday is hosted Downunder at Kat at Kathryn Apel.   And she's shares her interesting pets.

This week I received this gorgeous painting and poem from Mary Iphigene. 
Do you know her work? She's an incredible artist and poet. 
And from the sounds of it life has been particularly challenging in the Philippines.
I love how she used mourning/morning in her poem.
I also love 'crows feet/gathering'.
Thank you for this treasure, Mary.

This is my response to Mary's poem.  I used the phrase "Waking Up to Sunlight" for a sort of Golden Shovel (added an extra line).
Waking Up to Sunlight
Dream clouds fade with songbirds waking
me. The dog jumps up
tail wagging, nose nudging me to
rise and greet the morning sunlight.
This is joy.

©jone rush macculloch(2021, draft)

Welcome to Poetry Friday.  We are so close to half way through the year.  Does anyone know how to slow down time? This week Buffy at Buffy Silverman is sharing observations and thoughts about spring time.  I love her photos and what she has cerated with the word 'time'.

Summer means swapping poetry with others.  This past week, I had poetry mail from Tabatha. She has a teaser in her post for Mary Lee a couple weeks ago. Blessings. They are rather fun to write.  This blessing from Tabatha speaks to anyone cultivating words. Yesterday I started collecting the poems that have lived on my blogs since 2006 and it indeed felt like I was a standing in a poem garden,

A blessing for those who cultivate words
by Tabatha Yeatts 
for Jone
 
May the sun find your seeds 
and rain settle on your sprouts 
and may you pick the weeds
of distraction and fear 
from around your precious seedlings.
 
May you invite birds to sing 
on your branches, bees to 
circle your blossoms, and 
praying mantises to stoutly 
guard your growth.
 
May your fingers be nimble
as you stand before rows of bushes,
ripe with the fruit of your imagination.
 
May your feet tread 
gently but firmly as you walk 
the dirt paths between these overflowing bushes,
​holding your words in your hands, 
your pockets, and cradled 
in the bottom of your shirt.
 
May you find the few you need
on the sparse bush that holds words
for hard times, for times when silence
and togetherness
are most necessary.
 
May you stand before 
the one you never 
thought would bear fruit 
and feel the joyous
bewilderment 
of seeing more than you can hold.

My response:
seeds of sprouts
nimble with imagination-
your blossoms

walk dirty paths
hold words in silence
feel joyous

~jone rush macculloch, 2021 draft