Spreads the blanket beneath the tree and unpacks the picnic basket

[alee_grrl]

Sunday, every Sunday, let's have a community picnic. It's probably been a long week, and it's lovely to have a few minutes to sit back and relax and enjoy some good conversation in a less formal space. Feel free to bring something for the Picnic Basket - a poem you liked this week, a thought you had or something you experienced, or even something completely unrelated to poetry whatsoever that you just feel like sharing. Just take a moment to say hello, and maybe have a bite to eat; no one is going anywhere fast, and the shade promises some relief from the everyday heat. Let’s get to know each other a bit better, here under the branches of the poet’s tree.

Comments

[alee_grrl]

Today I present a cute picnic-themed haiku and cute animal photo.

I hope everyone is doing well and enjoying the weekend (which for those in the US is a holiday weekend). I am spending a quiet weekend with friends and enjoying the beautiful Vermont mountains and the lovely spring weather.

[jjhunter]

I am up in Maine with my family, spending the weekend hiking, biking, and playing go with my brother's girlfriend. I plan to end my poetry/poetree hiatus this upcoming week and am looking forward to catching up with you all once the weekend's over.

[untonuggan]

I was saddened this week to visit a poet who has been a great inspiration to me. He is 96 and was able to keep working until this year. His Parkinson's has finally caught up with him, and he's now too tired to be able to work. It is also beginning to affect his memory, so now after many, many years of writing he is not able to anymore.

I spent some time reading him some of his poetry, which he enjoyed immensely (even though I think his meds made him fall asleep once or twice). It was beautiful and heart-wrenching and made me think about the nature of the universe.

I'd love to be able to share a particular poem of his here, but it hasn't been officially published yet so I can't. Instead I'll share a rather humorous poem that might give you a sense of his, well, humor. It was published in the Beloit Poetry Journal in 1952.

Amoeba to Amoeba

Fission will unearth us,
Far and near agree.
Copulation's rampant
In air, on land, in sea.

Ah! for antique manners;
Oh! for piety.
Each Jeremiah praises
Past society

When amoeba to amoeba
Sang in jubilee
"Olden times were better times
Before this cell of me."

- Norman Nathan

If you can spare a good thought, a candle, or a prayer, I'd appreciate it if you sent some his way.

[lynnoconnacht]

I have caught up on my online TBR pile! Which means I can start building it up again. XD

I'm hoping it'll also mean that I can feel more comfortable participating in the community as it's gotten rather a bit lost in my attempts to get on top and stay there (I can dream!), so we'll see how that goes.

Life is slowly winding down a bit for the summer and I'm slowly poking at my book TBR pile. Even though I'm still adding the occasional thing (notably magazines), I'm feeling lighter and better with each number I can substract from my total.

[raze]

I've been away in California visiting family and had a great time. Back home, back to reality, back to wanting to escape it.

I'm actually going to share something of mine as a friend suggested it was decent (a claim I find flattering and dubious as my poetry is, as a general rule, awful and possibly not poetry). For background, I am writing a novel series that is basically a civil rights allegory via preternatural hominids. Anyhoo, I get silly sometimes and write poems from their perspectives, and this is the primary narrator, wereanimal and mass-murderer by necessity more than choice, on the day of his execution:

Rest in Peace
On the day of my execution
I asked my lawyer if I could have any say
in what color blindfold I would wear
I wanted the last thing I'd see
to be the white flag
I should have flown
for all these years.

Look - there aren't enough bullets
for a monster like me
but for once I will bare my chest
instead of my teeth
with the desperate hope that maybe
maybe
when my war drum heart stops
I will finally remember that
beating isn't the only way
to touch the world.

[lnhammer]

I spent the weekend at Phoenix ComiCon, where I was on exactly one programming event, a panel on Science Fiction Poetry. Which meant I got to tell comic-book people that I was at the event as a professional poet. This geeked me to no end.

Also, I sold out all but one copy of my collection, bought the cutest ninja t-shirt ever, and got to give Peter S. Beagle a silver origami unicorn. Because when Peter S. Beagle walks by your booth and you happen have a silver origami unicorn, YOU GIVE IT TO HIM.

---L.