Sarah E. Morin's Blog, page 2
March 16, 2020
Empty – A Coronavirus Poem
It’s hard to write a coronavirus poem without turning political, so here it is without further commentary:
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March 15, 2020
Daylight Savings Collaborative Poems
To (celebrate? mourn? acknowledge?) the beginning of Daylight Savings Time this past week, I asked my friends on social media to drop a comment about how Springing Forward made them feel.
I was going to combine these into a single collaborative poem. However, the comments were too diverse to join into one cohesive poem. Instead we wound up with three poems, with comments from:
People who hate Springing Forward
People who enjoy Springing Forward (These people actually exist. I now have proof.)
People who muse on the philosophical meaning of time. (Hey, bound to happen when you ask a bunch of poets a question.)
Here are the results:
From the Haters of Daylight Saving Spring time change:
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THE TIME THIEF
An hour ahead I set my clock
hoping to wake at the earlier tick-tock.
Cats wake me up. That’s nothing new.
But Daylight Saving–oh, peepeepeeU!
I too hiss at my darned alarm,
grudgingly smack it with my arm,
push the pesky felines off me,
stumble to kitchen for BIG cup of coffee.
My morning comfort food cannot please
(jalapeno bagel with cream cheese).
While hoping the java will leave me wired
I yawn and mumble, “Why am I so tired?”
The sand-eyed children are all off-kilter.
My husband seems to have no filter.
Moods sour and tempers short,
we’re a family of sorts.
Pull out of the drive running ten minutes late
(or fifty ahead, the dashboard clock states).
I jab at the buttons as we round the block
and give up ‘cause no one can reset car clocks.
Pull up at school and join the drop-off line,
tap my toe ‘cause we can’t catch up with time.
Son pipes up he forgot the sack lunch I sent him.
We’re fettered to a hurry-up-and-wait momentum.
Then off to work with pedal to the floor,
hop out of the car and rush in the back door,
pounce on the timeclock, and though I’ve tried,
the boss sees I’m late. Time’s not on my side.
Daylight Savings Time, please don’t accost
my life so cruelly. An hour is lost.
I relished your gift, but that was in Fall.
In Spring you’re a thief, a curse to us all.
From the Pro-Time-Changers, enjoy this collaborative poem by: Nancy Simmonds, Alys Caviness-Gober, Shelly Gambino, Sandra Nantais, Paula Guernsey, and Sarah E. Morin
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And from our folks who like to contemplate the existential meaning of time, enjoy this collaborative poem by John Hinton, Deb Ritter Carrell, Jenny Anderson Kalahar, Rachel Mohlman, Alicia LaMagdeleine, Kathleen Meyer, and Sarah E. Morin.
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How did you feel about Springing Forward this week?
March 8, 2020
Landwreck
I get the nostalgic willies when I see a corpse of a barn when I drive through the country. These noble old wreckages deserve a poem. Photo credit ID 91213 © Jschaap26 | Dreamstime.com.
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March 1, 2020
Launching The Polk Street Review 2020
Last night, my good friend and partner-in-crime, Alys Caviness-Gober, together with over a dozen authors and artists, launched a new book. You can purchase it online on Lulu.
The Polk Street Review is an anthology of writing of all types (short stories, memoir, movie reviews, recipes, poetry) and images (painting, textile art, photographs, digital art). Either the contributors or the pieces must have a connection to Noblesville, Indiana. We get our name from 8th Street in downtown Noblesville, formerly known as Polk Street. Each year also has a theme. This year’s was “Sunrise.”
Together, Alys and I run the nonprofit, Community, Education, Arts (CEArts). This is our 4th year publishing The Polk Street Review. It was started by a couple local authors, Bill Kenley and Kurt Meyers, but when the project grew too time-consuming for them, we took it over.
I love the sense of community the project creates. Writing can be a solitary pastime. It’s so nice to have a gathering of creatives at our book launch. Contributors presented brief excerpts of their work. We had refreshments, sold books, and presented awards. There was just such a positive energy from the group. I was impressed this year with the caliber of writing/images. I want to give a big thanks to the wonderful contributors, as well as Indiana Arts Commission for helping fund this project.
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By the way, one of the things Indiana Arts Commission has helped us do this year is start our own podcast! You can listen to @theroundtable on our website. The first several episodes are a placemaking series – how can other communities launch an arts placemaking project like The Polk Street Review? In the future, we’ll expand to interviews with local writers and artists.
One of my absolute favorite parts of rejoining the artistic/writing community in my adult life has been the wonderful relationship I have formed with other creative people. I hope with efforts like these we can continue to encourage creators – art is for EVERYBODY.
February 29, 2020
I Hate February – Poem
It’s Leap Day, and the best part of Leap Day is knowing February is almost over!
February 1, 2020
Winter Collaborative Poems
On Winter Solstice, I challenged my social media friends to contribute winter words to a collaborative poem. (A collaborative poem is simply a poem with many authors.) Well – wow! I wound up with 161 donated words! I decided rather than to put them all into a single poem, to break them up into several poems. I enjoyed clustering the words into patterns, and finding images to match. Here are some of our best:
[image error]Words donated by Mary Couch, Chuck Kellum, Paula Guernsey, Deb Ritter Carrell, Nancy Simmonds, and David Allen.
[image error]Words donated by Chuck Kellum, Lorraine Rosio, David Allen, George Wylie, Tim Philippart, Gracie Estok, and Liladiller
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December 27, 2019
Callout for The Polk Street Review
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Community, Education, Arts is the nonprofit organization my friend, Alys Caviness-Gober and I run. Formerly known as Logan Street Sanctuary, Inc., we encourage the community to interact with literature and arts through podcasts, publications, and events. Right now we are seeking entries for our placemaking anthology, The Polk Street Review.
Deadline: Midnight, December 31
Note: You may submit previously-created works ~ we know our annual deadline is within the busy holiday season!
Publishing The Polk Street Review every year is one of the things we love to do, But We Can’t Do It Without YOU!
We need YOUR prose, poetry, artwork, recipes, and song lyric submissions. Yes, you read that correctly: we want recipes! Favorite family recipes (with photos, if possible!) are a great addition to The Polk Street Review, both good old American home-cooking favorites and traditional recipes from your family’s country/countries of origin, which are perfect for our International Connection in the book!
Guidelines for submissions are included in the Submission Form.
Our theme this year is SUNRISE.
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Previous contributors are welcome but not required to follow this theme. We welcome all kind of interpretations!
All entrants should either have a personal connection to Noblesville, Indiana, OR include a reference to Noblesville in their entry.
Hope to see your entry soon!
October 7, 2019
The Battle of Wateredlawn
Today’s poem is another palindrome. Read it forward or backward. A poem to celebrate the last few lawn-cuttings of the year.
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September 12, 2019
Mirror Image – A Palindrome Poem
The palindrome is my new favorite poetic form. Just like other types of palindromes, you can read it forward or backward. However, it’s not letter-for-letter, but word-for-word. It’s a satisfying mathematical and literary challenge. Marrying the poem with an image really helped accentuate the form.
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August 5, 2019
Stalactite/Stalagmite
Summer of 2019 has been hectic! I am delighted my brilliant husband had a successful summer with his Page & Stage theatre-for-literacy camp. We had a couple dozen energetic campers, great adult helpers, and a fun summer. One five-year-old went from not knowing all her letters to reading short sentences.
Between that and some family health struggles, it’s been a while since I worked on my own writing. Please enjoy this shape poem, recently published in the 2019 edition of Encore.
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I think the hardest part of visiting a cave is wanting to touch the stalactites and stalagmites, but knowing you shouldn’t. They labor so hard to build over hundreds of years, and a touch can ruin it all. Such fragile, mighty artists.
Encore is available now on Amazon.
