2016 Found Object Poem Project: Day 16
It’s Day 16 of our 2016 daily write-in. This year’s theme is FOUND OBJECTS. Thanks to all of the poets and writers who contributed objects for our daily prompts.
For those of you who are new to the project, please read my introductory post. You’ll find more information and all of the Week 3 FOUND OBJECTS at this post.
PLEASE NOTE: This year, a few friendly bloggers have volunteered to host a day or two. Tomorrow’s post, which is DAY 17, will be at Donna Smith’s blog, Mainely Write. Leave your Day 17 responses here, in the comments, as usual. Thank you, Donna!
FOUND: SCULPTURE
Thanks to Carol Varsalona for sending in today’s object. I’m already thinking about what it would be like to stand close to this sculpture. How would it change what we see in the reflections?
Today, I visited Professor Tara Hart’s creative writing class at Howard Community College. In my role as HoCoPoLitSo’s Writer-in-Residence, I’ve had a great time working with high school students, but this was my first group of post-secondary writers. After I explained our Found Object daily writing prompt, they did a brief response to today’s object. It was wonderful to hear what they came up with.
Jessica Bigi’s poem is a playful mash-up of ideas, beginning with the title.
Cosmic Football
By Jessica Bigi
Field of falling stars
Garden arena
Godzilla throwing open passes
King Kong running in touchdowns
Gods of football chiseling
Galaxy diamond rings
For giants
***
The sculpture in Carol’s photo made me think of another metal sculpture at the Baltimore Museum of Art.
Modern Art
By Laura Shovan
After Olafur Eliasson’s “Flower observatory”, 2004
I could have spent hours
standing beneath
what seemed to be
a spaceship or pagoda
made of metal sheets.
I saw its petals levitating
in the contemporary gallery
on a set of silver stems,
so I pulled you under,
kept your hand. Together
we looked up, into the guts
of someone else’s vision.
We saw ourselves reflected
in the sculpture’s polished angles.
Do you think the artist
planned for this moment:
the two of us, examining
an exponential series of facades
on Valentine’s Day.
***
What intrigues me about Carol Varsalona’s poem for today is that it’s about the feeling our Found Object creates. If you’d like to know more about the object Carol contributed for today, I hope you will visit her blog post at Beyond Literacy Link.
The Force Within
By Carol Varsalona
The force is upon you-
each day within you
reaching out
to light the world
with your awesomeness.
Harness its energy!
***
Mary Lee Hahn is also blogging alongside us at Poet Repository.
STREET ART IN ST. LOUIS
Some curve, some soar,
some serve as a gate,
I glitter, I shine,
I triangulate.
©Mary Lee Hahn, 2016
***
Donna Smith included in her poem some of the natural elements we see reflected by the sculpture.
Balanced Precariously?
Are you believing
What you’re perceiving?
Building or tree,
Just see
If you can –
Nature or man?
What do you you feel?
Is it soil or steel?
Balance precarious?
Or scheme nefarious?
Reflections detected.
Relations reflected.
Smoke and mirrors –
Kaleidoscope jeerers.
What you’re receiving
Could be deceiving.
©2016, Donna JT Smith, all rights reserved
***
What a great connection Catherine Flynn makes in her poem to another traditional art form.
“The Art of Origami”
Square becomes
diamond;
diamond becomes
triangle;
triangles multiply,
become mirrors:
reflecting and refracting
all they see.
© Catherine Flynn
***
Diane Mayr left us a brief note about her process today. “I didn’t write this with the Grammy Awards in mind, it’s just a happy accident. I was attracted to the sparkle of the art and that got me started.”
Red Carpet
Some in Hollywood don’t get
that glamour is not
a matter of sequins, plunges,
and slits up to…
A truly alluring woman
stands tall. She is confident
that she has done her job well.
And we can’t help but know it.
© Diane Mayr
***
Where I saw a spaceship, Linda Baie imagined a winged creature — manmade? natural? — taking flight.
Did You Know?
A metal bird glints at the day
anticipating a getaway.
At night it folds its wings and flies
winging across the starry skies.
Linda Baie ©All Rights Reserved
***
Hooray! Robyn Hood Black is joining us today. The title of this poem makes me think of quilts, so it took me somewhere surprising.
The Points of Stars
In each broken place, each of us
reflects, refracts
new light
inside sharp edges, cold steel
look –
we’ve known wet earth and soft leaves
color in the fall
– a hole here or there makes us holy–
each of us
a little bit Luke
a little bit Darth Vader.
©Robyn Hood Black
DAY 17 FOUND OBJECT PROMPT (February 17 at Mainely Write)
Reminder: Tomorrow, we’ll be spending Day 17 at Donna Smith’s blog, Mainely Write.
Interested in what we’ve written so far? Here are links to this week’s poems:
Sunday, February 14
FOUND OBJECT: Hot Potato
Poems by: Violet Nesdoly, Jessica Bigi, Laura Shovan, Carol Varsalona, Heidi Mordhorst, Diane Mayr, Linda Baie, Jone Rush MacCulloch, Mary Lee Hahn, Donna Smith.
Note: You will find links to all of the Week 1 and Week 2 poems at this post.
Monday, February 15 at My Juicy Little Universe
FOUND OBJECT: Coffee Mug
Poems by: Jessica Bigi, Matt Forrest Esenwine, Catherine Flynn, Laura Shovan, Mary Lee Hahn, Heidi Mordhorst, Diane Mayr, Buffy Silverman, Carol Varsalona, Linda Baie, Donna Smith, Charles Waters.
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