Poetry Friday, Week 45: A Poem Draft

11/11/2022

Graphic design by Amber Fleek

Today, Buffy at Buffy Silverman is hosting our poetry community. She's sharing a sneak peak at Laura Purdie Salas' new book, Finding Family.

Last week, Heidi shared that Nov 14-20, 2022 is Folk Tale Week. Read about it at my juicy little universe. There are some wonderful prompts.

Today, I'm sharing a little draft that I played with for Folk Tale Week (hope fairy tales count).

Addison W. Lee House, Monrovia, CA

On Halloween, I shared this house as an inspiration for a 2017 poem, "The Dare".
I have been taking a class with Georgia Heard and Rebecca Kai Dotlitch about swerving in poetry. I was playing with a prompt about giving directions to my house (which was up the street from this spooky house) that weren't really directions. I was also thinking about something I did as a child, pretend that all fairy tale characters lived in the hallway to the bathroom and that I had access to them at night.
Here's the poem:

Leave a Message

Ride a unicycle up the hill,
past the witch’s house, the one casting neighborhood spells

Find the girl with the fairy tale lane
in her bedroom, where she sleeps

Rapunzel, Hansel and Gretel, Briar Rose,
her co-conspirators of her dreams

Leave the girl a message
written in the spindrift from last night’s storm

under the branches of the protective oak
She will respond when the moon sleeps

© draft, Jone Rush MacCulloch, 2022

WINNER: Marcie Flinchum Atkins link of The Poem Forest. Please let me know your address via macrush53 at yahoo dot com.

Next week, please join me as I share an interview with Rebecca Brock, author of an adult collection of poetry, Each Bearing Out.
I know Rebecca from Laura Shovan's February Poetry Group on Facebook. She just published this wonderful collection about motherhood and the natural world.

This might be a good time to say that I am alway open to doing interviews with new poetry books, I love getting the word out about books and poets

Buffy Silverman link

11/11/2022 01:48:26 pm

I think spindrift is my new favorite word! Nice how you tied those coconspirators into your girl's dreams.

Sally Murphy link

11/11/2022 06:19:20 pm

Lovely, Jone. I love the imagery of riding a unicycle and weaving together the house and your childhood imaginings.

Mary Lee

11/12/2022 05:52:21 am

This poem definitely has a dreamy fairytale feel to it! I love the backstory!

Carol J. Labuzzetta link

11/12/2022 09:30:32 am

Jone, Thanks for sharing your work in progress poem about swerves in poetry. It sounds like an interesting concept! I especially like the following lines.

Rapunzel, Hansel and Gretel, Briar Rose,
her co-conspirators of her dreams

Thanks, again!

Heidi Mordhorst link

11/12/2022 01:32:23 pm

Jone, I just love knowing that you "pretended that all fairy tale characters lived in the hallway to the bathroom and that I had access to them at night" What shenanigans you must have gotten up to! Were you not sometimes scared, or were only the kinds ones allowed in your hallway? Your poem has a very dreamland/folktale slippery logic feel to it. I'm excited to see what you think of EACH BEARING OUT--I have it too!

Gail Aldous

11/15/2022 03:32:42 am

Jone, I love how you used a memory from your childhood to write this poem. It is wonderful when we can access our childhood. Your title grabbed me, and I like how you repeat "message" in your fifth line. Your last two stanzas speak to me. Love written in spindrift
under the branches of the protective oak
She will respond when the moon sleeps. I also love this line
her co-conspirators of her dreams. Thank you for sharing your inspiration.

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