Epitaph for Light
River RoadHello and Happy Poetry Friday! Be sure to visit brilliant Buffy Silverman for Roundup.So much on my mind today, what with it being November (!) Our fall color has peaked and now we're witnessing the great leaf-drop...we were practically wading through our backyard yesterday afternoon!
Today is also my day to post over at Smack Dab in the Middle, where you can read my (very short!) poem "Nine Ways of Looking at Revision."
Also, here's my 3 favorite reads in 2023! (Not just released in 2023...could be any year release so long as you read it in 2023 And you know I read A LOT!). Click to find out what I loved about these books. :) And, this is super-interesting...check out Shepherd's Best Books of 2023 page. (One of my faves popped up on other people's lists!)
Another exciting thing: I joined the inaugural Alabama Master Naturalist program, so I'm excited to join others in learning more about the amazing biodiversity in my home state. :)
And THEN, a few days ago I stumbled on this post about literary epitaphs, and I've returned to it several times.
So, trees, forests, and tombstones. For today's ArtSpeak: LIGHT poem, I've got a poem that combines all these things!
I've had this "tree" piece of art in my file all year, and I each time I think of "Pied Beauty" by Gerard Manly Hopkins. The word "dappled" in particular comes to mind. I got to thinking: where does Light go to die? Which sent me to listen to a favorite piece of poetry-song "Take This Waltz" by the great Leonard Cohen.
Perhaps that's the First-Week-of-November-Poetry-Cocktail that inspired me to finally write about The Bodmore Oak by Claude Monet. This painting is a rendering of an actual tree in the Forest of Fountainbleau outside Paris. At one time Fountainbleau was "the" place for landscape artists to visit and work. Let's take a field trip, shall we? We can all write poems!
Meanwhile, here's my poem. Thanks so much for reading! p.s. just 8 more Poetry Fridays in 2023!
Epitaph for Light
Here lies Light—
beloved friend of painters, photographers, and poets
truth-teller
hope-giver
the original transformer
O Light of a thousand faces
we cherish your flash, glimmer, glitter, beam!
Rest now, happy and dappled
forever in your forest home
- Irene Latham
