1) Who ever decided to put National Poetry Month on the same month as the A to Z challenge
should have their poetic license revoked.
2) Who ever decided to put the A to Z challenge the same month as National Poetry Month needs to get more than just their alphabet in order.
I feel a little better.
Today is the antepenultimate day of the progressive poem. I learned antepenultimate 2 Summers ago when I was reading Benjamin Dreyer's amazing book, Dreyer's English. Antepenultimate means third from last.
Before I continue I want to advise that I made 2 changes to today's post. The first is that I started all lines with a Capital letter. Whoever comes behind me can certainly copy and paste from yesterdays post rather than mine. The second is that I have changed the links, so now when you click on the previous poets pages you go directly to their original post.
Cradled in stars, our planet sleeps,
¿Dónde está mi querido Tío? (Where is my Dear Uncle?)
April 1 Patricia Franz at Reverie
Clinging to tender dreams of peace
Sister moon watches from afar,
Singing lunar lullabies of hope.
Almost dawn, I walk with others,
Keeping close, my little brother.
Hand in hand, we carry courage
escaping closer to the border
My feet are lightning;
My heart is thunder.
Our pace draws us closer
To a new land of wonder.
I bristle against rough brush—
Poppies ahead brighten the browns.
Morning light won’t stay away—
Hearts jump at every sound.
I hum my own little song
Like ripples in a stream
Humming Mami’s lullaby
Reminds me I have her letter
My fingers linger on well-worn creases,
Shielding an address, a name, a promise–
Sister Moon will find always us
Surrounding us with beams of kindness
But last night as we rested in the dusty field,
Worries crept in about matters back home.
I huddled close to my brother. Tears revealed
The no-choice need to escape. I feel grown.
Leaving all I’ve ever known
The tender, heavy, harsh of home.
On to maybes, on to dreams,
On to whispers we hope could be.
But I don’t want to whisper! I squeeze Manu’s hand.
“¡Más cerca ahora!” Our feet pound the sand.
We race, we pant, we lean on each other
I open my canteen and drink gratefully
Thirst is slaked, but I know we’ll need
More than water to achieve our dreams.
Nights pass slowly, but days call for speed
Through the highs and the lows, we live with extremes
We enter a village the one from Mami’s letter,
We find the steeple; food, kindly people, and shelter.
“We made it, Manu! Mami would be so proud!”
I choke back a sob, then stand tall for the crowd.
A slapping of sandals… I wake to the sound
Of ¡GOL! Manu’s playing! The fútbol rebounds.
I pinch myself. Can this be true?
Are we safe at last? Is our journey through?
I savor this safety, we’re enveloped with care,
but Tío across the border, still seems far as stars.
He could not yet come to this new place
But Hermana moon, kiss his tear-stained face
¡Mi corazón está muy frío! (My heart is very cold)
I originally wrote this in Spanish. I then translated it into English by myself and used an online translator back to Spanish to correct any grammatical errors I may have made. I have the translation in parentheses but I did not intend that to be part of the poem. Perhaps an * can be used if we feel the young readers might not know what was said.
April 2 Jone MacCulloch
April 3 Janice Scully at Salt City Verse
April 4 Leigh Anne Eck at A Day in the Life
April 5 Irene at Live Your Poem
April 6 Margaret at Reflections on the Teche
April 7 Marcie Atkins
April 8 Ruth at There is No Such Thing as a God Forsaken Town
April 9 Karen Eastlund
April 10 Linda Baie at Teacher Dance
April 11 Buffy Silverman
April 12 Linda Mitchell at A Word Edgewise
April 13 Denise Krebs at Dare to Care
April 14 Carol Varsalona at Beyond Literacy Link
April 15 Rose Cappelli at Imagine the Possibilities
April 16 Sarah Grace Tuttle
April 17 Heidi Mordhorst at my juicy little universe
April 18 Tabatha at Opposite of Indifference
April 19 Catherine Flynn at Reading to the Core
April 20 Tricia Stohr-Hunt at The Miss Rumphius Effect
April 21 Janet, hosted here at Reflections on the Teche
April 22 Mary Lee Hahn at A(nother) Year of Reading
April 23 Tanita Davis at (fiction, instead of lies)
April 24 Molly Hogan at Nix the Comfort Zone
April 25 Rest
April 26 Karin Fisher-Golton at Still in Awe
April 27 Donna Smith at Mainely Write
April 28 Me at Leap of ME Dave
The Penultimate Verse will be presented tomorrow,
April 29, by Robyn Hood Black @ Life on the Deckle Edge
The big Finale, will be on Tuesday,
April 30 by Michelle Kogan @ More Art for All
This was a lot of fun. It's my 2nd time around in the progressive poem and again I am having a blast. Looking forward to seeing how Robyn and Michelle bring the journey to an end
8 comments:
Nice! I like when we get to access the emotions of our characters. I definitely think young readers (and non-Spanish-speakers) will need at least an * for your lines!
I am working with a young Spanish poet who wants to learn to write in English and just last week discovered the power of linking the two languages into one poem. I can't wait to share this poem with him that does just that. Thanks for playing along.
Thanks for the work of making the links go to the actual post. I ALMOST did that! We could have split the work! Nice work on Spanish. There were glimpses of it earlier that fit well, too.
It feels good to have the language change, Dave, and I like that you showed the mixed emotions that must be so true of those leaving their homes, but wanting to end the journey, too.
I enjoyed your lines and they might encourage readers who are new to Spanish to try to interpret. Nice work!
Well done, Dave. Looking forward to good news about the uncle.
Dave, I do not know Spanish so I appreciate that you translated the lines. I think children will appreciate that also.
I love the mixing of languages in a poem, and I like that you took it to another level. Very interesting how you used Google translate!
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