I’m celebrating National Poetry Month by writing and reading poetry, every day. My poetry project is rooted in a list of things that make me happy. I made this list on the 30th of March.
Today is day fourteen. ironing cotton napkins. The acrostic is hidden within. Stacey Joy shared this form on Ethical ELA
A Meditation on Rebirth
clumps of fabric
spill out
fResh but
indiscErnible
amongSt the dIsh, hand and bath Towels
gathered tOgether
they’Re
a disheveled family of
long lost cousins and widowed Aunts
perhaps lovers
mixed then maTched
I smooth and sort the winkled loT
One at a time
press
steam
away the trouble lines
rekindle what was
their origiNal form
I love ironing the pillowcases I inherited for the same reasons! Establish order, restore beauty, connect with ancestors (?) who embroidered and tatted and stenciled all that my ironing enhances!
I love you imagined them “long lost cousins’, & the ironing. I have new wrinkle-free ones for today but iron for special holidays, remembering who touched them before. Lovely, Julieanne!
I just purchased a set of napkins at the thrift store. Never used but cotton I’m sure people don’t want to iron them and that’s why they gave them away!
I’m not much for the iron. I know many people love the routine of it. While I don’t love to iron, I do love its result. It is something to see a shirt, handkerchief, or pillow case return to an almost new form. It seems to me that the pandemic has brought us back to restoring a lot of things. That has to be a plus.
These lines really spoke to me:
press
steam
away the trouble lines
rekindle what was
I really should take up ironing. You make it sound so worthwhile and meditation, full of purpose. I always think why iron when they will just get wrinkled again.