I am from the books on my shelves
from the bed in my room and the food in my cupboards.
I am from the large spaces at home and the small ones, too.,
The smell of grass and smell of plants in the breeze
wafting through open windows in this house.
I am of the tulips and daffodils sprouting in spring here
and the iris whose lanky stalks I remember
as if they are my own.
I am from hardy stock and determination
from my mother and father
I'm from perseverence and integrity
and from stalwartness from grandparents and forbears.
I'm from imagination and daydreaming
and "When You Wish Upon A Star".
I'm from Saint John, and of English, French, and German ancestry,
and of meat and potatoes and sauerkraut.
I am from my mother's memories of life on a wheat farm
in Saskatchewan and from my father's sparse comments of life
in a German POW camp in WWII.
I am from old black and white photos now faded somewhat
of younger versions of parents and grandparents, uncle and coudins and relatives I never met
all that reside in the heart.
When I stumbled upon a poem called "where I'm from", I knew this is perfect for the introduction for a poetry blog! It was serendipity, found during a general search for poetry. Knew I didn't want a traditional resume style introduction.
http://www.georgeellalyon.com/where.html
Instructions on how to write a similar poem to Where I'm From included.
I don't have any formal education in literature. In fact, poetry was somrthing I neither understood or liked. In school poetry memorization was what teachers made students do! That was torture, inhumane;) That was it for poetry as far as I knew. Except it was not. More than two decades later I was I enrolled at university, in an Effective Writing course. A few weeks into the course, poetry showed up again! This time I had to write one. How was I supposed to write a poem? I struggled with the assignment but finally got something down. Wrote a poem called "The Anti-Poetry Poem", all about my hate for poetry. Once that assignment was finished, I was free and clear of that literary form. Again life threw me a curve ball!
Sixteen years later, I have an e-pal from the Czech republic. One day she issued a challenge to her e-pals: write something about a butterfly. I mulled that request over and decided to write a tiny poem! Still don't know why I chose to write a poem lol. Apparently this was my fate, writing poems. I've been writing ever since.
My intention is to explore various forms of poetry and also write about the lives of well known poets and some lesser known ones. Who wants to join in?
The Anti-Poetry Poem
Don't much like poetry
Just can't see what purpose
poems are supposed to serve.
Why all the hype about similes and metaphors
and iambic pentameter
or trying to rhyme
each and every cursed line?
To describe an object
in flowery descriptive words
doesn't seem very realistic,
just overly idealistic.
It is quite an ordeal,
can't begin to express
just how I feel
having to compose
a poem, that to me
just doesn't have a purpose!
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