Writers try new things.
Writers embrace imperfection.
Use your writer’s eye and tell me what you see.
Sometimes you see ideas coming from the side.
What does it remind you of?
What surprises you?
These are quotes from an NCTE session with Cynthia Lord, Erin Dionne, Linda Urban and Melissa Guerrette. As they shared, I thought of my students.
Today, I think of Poetry Friday. I’ve tried before. Posted once or twice. But failed to continue. No inspiration. No time.
The truth. I think poetry digs to a place that’s personal and uncomfortable. Today, I’m taking the advice I plan to dish up to my students. Embrace imperfection and try. Use my writer’s eye and look out for something that might be coming from the side.
Thank you to Carol at Carol’s Corner, who hosts this week’s Poetry Friday roundup. Thank you to the brave teacher poets that share and wait patiently for me to try again.
A Brief Visit
Woken in darkness I hear drip, drip.
Water has come home?
We’d given up green and fruit for sunbleached rock and barren soil.
I walk into cool, dark, waterless air
and touch a tiny pool that clusters
at the base
of a gutter.
Nearby leaves cling to damp remains
as sun breaks
the grey sky.
©Julieanne Harmatz
To Read To Write To Be 